RedStateEclectic

The Educational Expert

To augment Georg’s post containing the Feynman quote, I present (what I believe to be) the key point made within an excerpt entitled ‘School Is Bad For Children’, from John Holt’s book, ‘The Underachieving School’.

In the same way, kids learning to do all the other things they learn without adult teachers – to walk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bike, skate, play games, jump rope – compare their own performance with what more skilled people do, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to detect his mistakes, let alone correct them. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Soon he becomes dependent on the expert. We should let him do it himself. Let him figure out what this word says, what is the answer to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or that.

There isn’t a question that goes un-asked around here. There isn’t a fixed spot wherein the kids must sit (although they prefer the dinette area where the sun shines warm in the morning). There isn’t peer pressure confining their personal actions to some expected norm, outside the realm of universal manners. There isn’t one way to pursue knowledge, and there isn’t much help from Mom & Dad.

They do the work. They do the learning – sometimes fast, sometimes slow. They use whatever references they choose. Learning is autodidactic and the sooner a child gets a feel for it, the better. They’re at the upper ninetieth percentiles of their classes. In my eyes, they’re just average kids.

Me? I hover. I print things. I buy their school books and take them to the library. I solve disputes. I attend to wounds. I resist the urge to help them by believing in them, but never stop searching for answers with them. I discuss things and ask their opinions on science, history, reading books, music, etc. I watch them grow and wish I could slow them down a bit. They’re their own experts developing their expertise with the help of their Mom & Dad, and their neighbors, and their community.

As a parent, it’s nice to be needed. It’s even nicer when I am not… something I learned in homeschool.

Pinball Will Rot Their Minds

A fascinating article on the history of the arcade. This was my favorite, although I was never very good at it:

Like everything that lacks popularity, its majority critics were inclined to allow a modicum of government force to prevent it:

LaGuardia ordered the city’s police to make Prohibition-style pinball raids and seizures its "top priority," and was photographed with a sledgehammer, triumphantly smashing the seized machines.

I wonder if he'd go house to house these days smashing Xboxes? If it was still considered vote-worthy, he would. For proof, just look at Mayor Bloomberg's latest crusades. Pols are never without a popular meme to exploit.

We've moved on to other, more noble causes with which to ignobly express our violent tendency toward others, with the simple notion of a divine majority right as adequate justification (a mere plurality being good enough in a pinch).

Give Up Your Guns. You Don’t Need Them.

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any body of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States." – Noah Webster

If you love your pentagonal standing army - if you truly believe they're protecting your freedoms in foreign countries - then give up your guns here in this, the very epicenter of freedom. The most self-sacrificing among us would never enforce unjust laws, right?

So, hand them over. You’re free! Might as well, since – even if this standing army wasn’t above reproach in every way – they constitute a force superior than the citizen gun owners. Or is some glaring pretense being overlooked?

Take It Slow

There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
there is rapture in the lonely shore,
there is society where none intrudes,
by the deep sea, and music in its roar;
I love not Man the less, but Nature more.
- Lord Byron

Personality Types Revisited

Gary Gibson further explores the Myers-Briggs Personality types, solidifying the theories discussed here in the past:

Rationals are by nature individualistic and unconventional thinkers who are more comfortable in the world of ideas…. This group contains: Architects (INTP), Inventors (ENTP), Field Marshals (ENTJ), and Masterminds (INTJ). Interestingly, most libertarian types seem to come specifically from the last group, the Masterminds; the Intuitive Thinker whose other traits are Introversion and Judgment.

Mr. Gibson explains how the Guardian type makes up the bulk of the population (39 to 53% of people), followed by the Artisans (17-29%), Idealists (13-21%), and Rationals (9-19%). He believes that the Artisans team up with the Idealists in opposition to the Guardians, who he describes succinctly (and with more than a hint of a frustration to which I can relate):

The Guardians meanwhile are happy with "good enough to have kept us alive so far" and are more likely to defend the status quo no matter how immoral or unworkable that quo is in the long run.

It’s an interesting read for those of us who’ve explored this concept in the past. (N.B. Mr. Gibson’s voluntaryist beliefs may offend the classical liberal mindset).

I’ve taken the test many times and have alternated between INTJ and INTP. I’m unsure which questions are interpreted differently as to cause my vacillation. Regardless, I prefer architect over mastermind if I had my druthers. Not one who’s mastered his mind, I’m attracted to the analytical exercise of building things – whether they be buildings or systems.

Reading Gibson’s article reminded me of a quote from Bastiat: “The plans differ; the planners are all alike.”

Maybe the planners are different after all. Looking back through history unseen by Bastiat (the totalitarian regimes of the 20 century), I think he would’ve concluded that differences in plans and planners mattered little to the resultant carnage that ensued.

It’s only rational. 

Sorry Yet?

Conservatives and their representing party, the GOP, must be reeling in disbelief as less than a decade out from the pinnacle of conservative political dominance we find ourselves on the cusp of a socialist utopia: healthcare rationing and gun confiscation are on our doorstep.

Don’t you wish you had it to do all over again? Would you applaud compassionate conservatism? Would you wage full-scale war on Persia? Would you support Bush’s ownership society? Would you cheer the loss of habeas corpus and posse comitatus? Or would you dismantle the welfare/warfare state as best you could? Would you do it today? Would you primary your fav warmonger politician? Would you give up your social security check? Would you even support the golden rule? Nah.

As the curtain draws, start the music and role the credits. This disaster brought to you by the duopoly - two sides of the same coin. Take it away, Dean:

Who's sorry now, who's sorry now
Whose heart is achin' for breakin' each vow
Who's sad and blue, who's cryin' too…

“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…

Who’s the most entitled of them all?”

This should come as no surprise:

Young people's unprecedented level of self-infatuation was revealed in a new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has been asking students to rate themselves compared to their peers since 1966.

Roughly 9 million young people have taken the survey over the last 47 years. Pyschologist Jean Twenge and her colleagues compiled the data and found that over the last four decades there's been a dramatic rise in the number of students who describe themselves as being 'above average' in the areas of academic ability, drive to achieve, mathematical ability, and self-confidence.

Researchers also found a disconnect between the student's opinions of themselves and actual ability.

Full article.

“When science discovers the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to find they are not it.” ~ Bernard Baily

Christians Ferreting Their Fair Share

The Greens have made civil disobedience a hobby:

Today Hobby Lobby announced that they will not comply with this mandate to become complicit in abortion, which the Greens believe ends an innocent human life. Given Hobby Lobby’s size (it has 572 stores employing more than 13,000 people), by violating the HHS Mandate, it will be subject to over $1.3 million in fines per day.

Full Story.

This reminds me of a dialogue from the movie “You Can’t Take It With You”. Grandpa Martin is haggling with Mr. Henderson, the “friendly” IRS agent, over the right price of government:

Henderson: According to our records, Mr. Vanderhof, you have never paid an income tax.
Grandpa: That's right.
Henderson: Why not?
Grandpa: I don't believe in it.
Grandpa: Look, Mr. Henderson, let me ask you something.
Henderson: Well?
Grandpa: Suppose I pay you this money--mind you, I don't say I'm going to pay it--but just for the sake of argument--what's the Government going to do with it?
Henderson: How do you mean?
Grandpa: Well, what do I get for my money? If I go into Macy's and buy something, there it is--I see it. What's the Government going to give me?
Henderson: Why, the Government gives you everything. It protects you.
Grandpa: What from?
Henderson: Well--invasion. Foreigners that might come over here and take everything you've got.
Grandpa: Oh, I don't think they're going to do that.
Henderson: If you didn't pay an income tax, they would. How do you think the Government keeps up the Army and Navy? All those battleships...
Grandpa: Last time we used battleships was in the Spanish-American War, and what did we get out of it? Cuba--and we gave that back! I wouldn't mind paying if it were something sensible.
Henderson: Sensible? Well, what about Congress, and the Supreme Court, and the President? We've got to pay them, don't we?
Grandpa: Not with my money--no sir.
Henderson: Now wait a minute! I'm not here to argue with you. All I know is that you haven't paid an income tax and you've got to pay it!
Grandpa: They've got to show me.
Henderson: We don't have to show you! I just told you! All those buildings down in Washington and Interstate Commerce and the Constitution!
Grandpa: The Constitution was paid for long ago. And Interstate Commerce--what is Interstate Commerce anyhow?
Henderson: There are forty-eight states--see? And if there weren't Interstate Commerce, nothing could go from one state to another. See?
Grandpa: Why not? They got fences?
Henderson: No, they haven't got fences. They've got laws! My God, I never came across anything like this before!
Grandpa: Well, I might pay about seventy-five dollars, but that's all it's worth.

I wish the Greens well, but it’s not how the government does things. One can not safely apply his or her own subjective value to government. Democracy goes along with the biggest mob. If your mob doesn’t like being out-mobbed, then you have to grow in numbers.

The GOP grew, at one point and in part, because of the abortion issue then reneged when empowered. They started wars, stripped rights, and spent tons of other-people’s-money domestically. When the power shifted, the other socialists passed Obummercare. Now we’re hearing it from Christians who waved the flag all through the aught years of Bush 43.

Like abortion, these wars are anathema to me. They end innocent human lives. Yet, I can’t call up the IRS and refuse to pay for them without an end to MY way of life. During the Bush years, my Christian brethren would quickly dismiss my concerns by referring me to the Old Testament whenever the subject was brought up. Certainly, the New Testament wouldn’t do much for their side of the argument.

I now offer them some Old Testament, too. Lamentations 1:9

Behold, O Jehovah, my affliction; for the enemy hath magnified himself.

Shared Sacrifice

sac·ri·fice

noun

1. the offering of animal, plant, or human life or of some material possession to a deity, as in propitiation or homage.

Happy New Year

A very Happy New Year to everyone! May you have safe travels tonight if you’re going out.

Sleep my child and peace attend thee,
All through the night...