Reading

Good morning! What a lovely day it is outside thus far. Cold, but beautiful with the sun shining and the water talking in the creek as it rushes on its way. It is only supposed to get up to 29 degrees today which is somewhat less than yesterday and the day before (we were in the 40s and 50s) but not as bad as last week through the weekend when we were in the teens for highs. Not even just teens but low teens. We went from a high of 12 on Sunday to being in the 50s on Tuesday. What strange weather. Beginning tomorrow and lasting through the rest of this week and next we are supposed to be in the 30s and 40s. We'll see what really happens.

I've been reading. Surprise, that, I know. I read Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry in two days and I'm still reading the one about cultural life in the colonies and the other about menopause. This morning while reading The Cultural Life, I ran across this gem:

“Twentieth-century Americans [I imagine he means citizens of the United States although perhaps this is a problem shared by all of us Americans] have become so accustomed to thinking of secondary education as universally free, a responsibility of the state, that it is difficult for them to realize that three centuries ago free schooling was the exception and not the rule in the British colonies.”

Interesting. Especially when you stop to consider that education is never free. Even if it is provided as a service, it is not free. The teachers must be paid and the administrators, of which there are entirely too many in my opinion, must be paid. Facilities must be provided and people to take care of and maintain these facilities must be paid. Where does all this money come from? Trees? Right.

Then this: “Concerned as the colonials were about vocational training, they did not delude themselves into substituting it for education. It remained for the twentieth century to achieve that confusion.”

That is almost comical. I get the impression that the author doesn't think much of the way we were thinking in the twentieth century. Doesn't it make you glad we are living in the twenty-first century now and have done away with all the incorrect thinking patterns of the past?

The sarcasm is coming through, right?

Lastly, at least for now, a quote from William Penn: “We are in pain to make them [the youth of his day] scholars but not men, to talk rather than to know, which is true canting . . . We press their memories too soon, and puzzle, strain, and load them with words and rules to know . . .”

Granted, he was lamenting the state of learning Latin and was expressing his desire that there be some kind of curriculum devised in order to make the teaching and learning of it easier but his thoughts are quite applicable to education today.

In other news, you know that Amena got her permit. Yesterday we left early so she could drive around in the parking lot at church before anyone got there. That was interesting. Cedric was at Joanna's so we just had Seth and Joseph. They went inside most of the time because someone was there parked in front of the church and the doors were open. Mostly I just had her drive around in circles but she practiced three point turns and parking as well. I think she did pretty well other than one time when she went to change the radio—you just can't do that when you are driving. At least, not the way she does it. She got in a solid forty-five minutes before more cars began arriving.

While we were at church, Dominic called because Cedric had the list for shopping for the camp out this weekend. I did not know he did or I would have made sure he made arrangements for it. He knew he was going to be going to Joanna's so I'm not sure why he ended up with a shopping list. I know that he has a bit of a memory problem and that if he doesn't work on it, it will get worse. He's doing pretty well with school but we've got little things going to help jog the memory and his teachers all know that they can contact me at any time if he needs more help. I guess we just need to implement something for scouts as well.

Yesterday Paul got up on the wrong side of the bed and today it was Seth's turn. The funny thing is that yesterday morning Paul woke up okay but by the time he got downstairs, the grumpiness was evident. Seth work up okay today but then he went back upstairs and when he came back down the grumpiness was evident. I submit that I am the only one allowed to be grumpy so these guys had better get their acts together.

It is rather late and I've already milked Zoey. She's been acting up lately not wanting to get up on the milking stand. Silly goat. Maybe it's the weather. Or hormones. Milk production has gone up and I'm not sure what to attribute that to. It can't be the weather because it went up while we were having the really cold temperatures. It might be that she's getting ready to kid but until I put some effort into figuring out how likely that is, I'm just not sure.

There are lots of things that need to be done and so I suppose I should get to work and do them.

Have a terrifical day!