Have you got this vibe going in your family? We do!

Evolved home education and most all forms of "alternative education" just go hand-in-hand with this vibe. (Anti-intellectual church-driven school-at-home excepted, of course.)

I'll bet your kids exude it too -- Colleen's long-haired Jerry, Not June Cleaver's skateboarders, Nance's two quintessential unschoolers, Doc's quirky country fair quartet, Daryl's dancers, COD's fencer and equestrian. Heck, I was a brainy counterculture fencer myself, once upon a time. (The True Vibe can't be contained, even in regular public school!)

Always unschooled Favorite Daughter and her mostly-schooled boyfriend were part of The World Yo-Yo Contest in Orlando. For five thrilling days, they were organizer Greg Cohen's trusted roadies and grips and security behind the scenes, technical crew supporting and marveling at these brainy counterculture young boys and what they could do.

The contest from July 31 to Aug. 2 drew 196 competitors from 20 countries, mostly teenage boys, who exuded an unthreatening and brainy counterculture vibe. They looked like skateboarders stuck inside on a rainy day.

Many admitted to not quite fitting in back home, where no one seems to take the yo-yo as seriously as they do. Most dressed in black T-shirts and wore their hair long. They had callused middle fingers and forearms scarred by string marks, and often carried backpacks or hard cases filled with yo-yos, some costing hundreds of dollars.

The younger competitors were chaperoned by proud parents or grandparents, willing to keep their distance . . .

Passing guests invariably watched in wonder.

When she got home that Sunday night, FavD didn't stop talking for hours. She planned to blog it all, when she could process it into power of story she could corral and tame. So far that hasn't happened, but maybe it will. If it doesn't, that won't mean it's any less real. Maybe it means it's MORE real than the same old standard stories.

Today Barack Obama is in Orlando (although not literally with yo-yos, AFAIK.) Right now he is saying to the veterans' group that "I believe the American people are better than that", that our performance now must include "acting tough AND smart" to clean up the "calamity left behind" from the past eight years of George Bush and John McCain.

What I love about Obama is that he has the brainy counterculture yo-yo vibe going on. It's like he's speaking a whole new language as he explains the great new moves he's working up to show us. We're all invited to join in and be part of something magical.

But just copying old tricks like churches and schools do, is not merely inadequate. It's a loser move and everybody knows it, which means it's downright embarrassing! Makes the audience uncomfortable even as they try to be polite and respectful. Yes, John McCain, I'm talking to YOU.  more this way»

(Crossposted at Cocking a Snook!)

Pick a frame, any frame. What is a public university all about, really? Higher Education? Bwahahahahah.
And which is really the right frame for news like this to be understood and perhaps acted upon?

Status of the case

UCF announced Wednesday that it had dismissed the complaint Cook filed against the Catholic Campus Ministry, which sponsors a weekly service in the Student Union. Cook had alleged personal abuse, hazing and alcohol-policy violations, claiming he was grabbed and that the sacramental wine offered during the service should not have been allowed. School officials didn't find enough evidence to pursue his complaint.

Furbush said the Senate will have a special hearing to consider Cook's impeachment.

Apparently this story is now so major that Tom Foley wants the Republican National Convention all the way up in Minnesota to pay for extra security muscle to protect any Catholic delegates from -- um, not sure what -- but if you're not a public university or cable news watcher and you don't read the PZ Myers' science blog Pharyngula, maybe you haven't been following this news?

Haven't heard the battle cry, "It's a Frackin' Cracker!" yet?

Okay then, here's the basic plot so far, but check out some links too; this story's got literally onion-like layers, and you may find most of them test your powers of belief:  more this way»

(cross-posted at Liza's suggestion, from Cocking a Snook!)

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

—Voltaire

Whether or not you ever watched his game show, if you're a Thinking Parent you probably know that the anti-science, anti-human sophistry of Ben Stein is now a movie called "Expelled", on its tightly controlled private propaganda tour prior to its actual "public" opening in the US April 18. [THAT'S DAY AFTER TOMORROW, folks!] My Sunshine State's whole [bible-thumpin'] legislature was invited [to the sneaky preview] but not reporters.  more this way»

Once upon a time there was a high school. It was a beautiful high school, and rich in history, being more than 200 years old, and everybody in town wanted to attend it.

With its fine roots in liberal education and the almost unprecedented power over their own destinies that it bestowed upon its students, it was unlike any other high school in the district, or indeed, the state. At the turn of the last century, whole families, many of them Irish and Eastern European, moved across town so that they'd be zoned for it. The high school welcomed them with open arms, but the students weren’t so kind.

It is my sad duty to report that many of these new students were beaten up, or had their lockers vandalized. Thankfully, things settled down, and the high school was once again a harmonious whole.

In the 40s, there was a shameless and dangerous power grab by a school superintendent a few districts over. He was intent upon eventually absorbing every school in the state into his district, under his control, and decreeing with a wave of his hand who could stay and who could not.

Fortunately, the president of the student body, a well-liked disabled guy named Frank, worked tirelessly with the other schools until the superintendent was voted safely out of office.

But our story begins about fifteen years ago with the election of a Jock to Student Body President.

The Jock was a nice guy, everybody liked him, and there was no denying that he had charm. He was a great guy to grab a burger with, and, whoever you were, you felt like the Jock knew where you were coming from. At this time - actually, to this day - the Jock was going steady with someone who defied high school logic.  more this way»

Calling Rob Reich, calling Rob Reich . . .
Self-driving cars?? Right there at Stanford University, whence emanate your advanced theories of controlling kids to set them free?

Homeschooling should not be banned, but regulated much more vigilantly.

Not to mention the intellectual cradle of your Stanford-educated colleague Kimberly Yuracko, who quotes your theories so um, liberally -- or illiberally, both, neither? -- as spitshine for her own Stanford-servile theory that home education is a public function from which government is required to protect all children. (Did you two go pub-crawling while she was a student, to swap collegial notes on these elaborate fantasy worlds you both had under construction, like CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien?)

It says right there in the news, “The idea of a self-driving car is a really big idea that will have a big impact on society.”

Only if society is asleep at the switch, and that's where you come in, quick! There's still time to cook up some kind of ethical servility theory to stop it. Maybe use your homeschool regulation screed as a template, here, we'll help --  more this way»

The families of homeschooled children are clearly different from those of traditional schoolchildren.Some 97 percent of homeschooled children live in married couple households; the comparable number for public school students is 72 percent. Nearly 88 percent of homeschooled parents continued their own education beyond high school; less than 50 percent of the general population has attended college. The home environment of these students is supportive, nurturing and encourages diligence. . .

Yes, good! Let's actually focus on the kids and their learning, not just exploit them in the name of helping their exploited moms or any other political agenda. Let's leave prayer and religion out of it, too, since most folks in schools and government (and politics) also self-identify as god-fearing believers; religion is a confounding variable in education analysis that may quack like a duck, but really is more of a duck-billed platypus.

In other words, religion is not education and religious freedom is not academic freedom, wherever it happens. So let's stick to the constitutionally sound raison d'être of Compulsory School -- secular academics and independence sufficient to preserve and protect our liberties and provide for the common good -- for at least this one conversation.  more this way»