I've tidied this up a little bit -- but parts of it remain references to the rest of the conversation. I may re-post the alternative education stuff with another title, so if you're interested in commenting on it, please look for it here soon.

-- Ecca --
To Teresa Jansen:

:-) I'm glad you liked my joke.
I was reading about early childhood education recently. Bottom line -- you continue to amaze me as a doting, yet sensible, parent and educator.
[Detail below if you're still interested -- I want to talk about Me First. ;-)]
...
Things are good -- for the first time in a while, I feel comfortable answering that question. Not because things have been bad, but because they have been so busy and scattered that I didn't know whether I was OK or not.

All my "chicks", as mom calls them, are flying around on their own this week.
Ernie is due back today from a week in Port Orford, during which he and several other adults helped a class of 30 eigth graders build a boat and oars big enough for all 30 to ride in it together. Talk about class bonding experiences!
Grandma is off in Wisconsin for a trip with Dad. So all I have to do is keep an eye on Dad's work phone for him (for which he is paying me), and I can do that by keeping it in my pocket while I garden, saw up firewood, cook my own meals, etc. It feels like freedom for the first time in ages.

I'm discovering among other things, that I really like being able to do one thing all day -- computer work one day, yard work the next so far -- and stop when I'm tired or hungry. Of course, there are many parts to "computer work," like learning parts of Dad's job, keeping up with correspondence, and researching alternative education on the Internet... and likewise, yardwork includes planting, digging, watering, repotting, harvesting wood, washing the car... but it's all in one place, and the transitions flow naturally from what needs to be done, and what needs to soak/rest while other things are going on.
I haven't been able to do that, since taking care of Grandma is a few-hour-at-a-time, 3+ days a week kind of thing, and we've been scrambling around getting Ernie to appointments and trying to hold down part-time gigs in the background.

I've also given up sugar for the past week -- avoiding anything with any refined sugars. It makes an amazing difference in my energy level. I'm going to keep it up when Ernie and Grandma are back, and see if it makes the busy times seem more comfortable too.
(I do occasionally allow myself to eat a sweet bedtime snack. But I need to lose about 30 lbs, and eating ice cream with Grandma and then placating her while she she sugar-crashes was feeling counterproductive. Sugar makes both of us feel tired and vaguely ill, about half an hour to 45 minutes later and for basically the rest of the day.)

So there you go.

How are you?

Love,
Erica

[Detail:
These spurts of interest, endless repetition and then a sudden shift to an equally enthusiastic spurt of something else, are an important part of how kids learn -- as of course you know. But the amount of philosophy dedicated to understanding this is ... vast. Simply vast. Apparently, recognizing and facilitating this process is an unusual ability, and we seem to have trained ourselves that we are supposed to be something else.
I used to call this kind of gleeful repetition "Gathering Baseline Data" at OMSI. (This was for benefit of the science-minded folks who seemed vaguely worried that their kid was being "dumb" and should be moving on to the next thing. "Gathering baseline data" got them to think about it: If the kid leapt to conclusions that quickly, they'd learn nothing reliable. How should _they_ know who to trust, which glossy signboard is a science display and which one is an advertisement, and whether your nickel spinning and falling is "normal" or a "magic trick?" Plus, repetition develops motor skills, etc, etc...)

Mainstream and alternative educators alike are working on bringing more varied learning activities into the classroom, even as business leaders demand more paperwork and "rigorous" tests. Fostering self-directed, when-you're-ready-to-learn activities is a commendable educational approach, but there are a lot of schools of thought out there on how to do this. Some more wacky and ill-considered than others.
There's a basic problem of balancing self-direction with guidance: everyone seems to agree that while our children most readily learn whatever they want to learn, they also need to learn certain specific things in order to be considered "educated;" that is, to be prepared to function within their world; to develop themselves in line with what's needed and desired for their society and culture.

The more complicated problem is coming to a social and cultural agreement on what those basic things are, that everybody needs to know, and what those higher goals are, that we hope to gain for our society by investing in educating our children. As one philosopher put it, our society changes so fast now that it's impossible to precisely predict what skills and mindsets will be needed, or culturally acceptable, in 20 years. So we focus on adaptability, of both teachers and students -- where a more stable culture could have a very well-developed system that raised and trained kids to be exactly what they needed to become, with minimal fuss.
We had that, kinda, in the days of medieval guilds and monastic scholars -- and even in the one-room schoolhouse where girls could bring their baby siblings and boys could quit school to farm. But I think with global climate change, and lingering modern values of "change is good -- and more is better," we're in for several generations where adaptability will be _the_ primary survival advantage. More complex systems of learning may fall by the wayside, as people move around and different rules apply in different places. Even rural indigenous cultures will be tested, though their learning patterns may allow for adaptation intrinsically -- because the weather patterns, flood levels, and incursions by hungry settlers will be changing all over the world. There may be too much other noise in the system for this to be a significant trend, but I think it will be occurring.

I was researching different education methods, trying to work out the differences between montessori, waldorf, experiential ed, hands-on learning, inquiry learning, holistic learning, cultural mentoring.

They're all good for something; the only one I had a hard time with was "holistic learning," which sounds like it should be good, but the first few websites I found had way too many sweeping historical generalizations -- and condemnations -- that made me think the holistic folks are kind of cultish. Too extreme in their advocacy of a "fix" or "alternative;" too apt to use the words "all," "never," instead of "many" or "rarely" .. too insistent on breaking away from traditional society rather cooperating in a respectful, culturally healthy dialogue. Could be that I'm too science-minded, though, and it might be that some kids need exactly that kind of emotional / sentimental system rather than logical reasoning.
I wouldn't mind if it was just the Australians' maybe their school system really is that messed up. But one of the most annoying sites was right here in Portland, OR. I can only hope they are refugees from somewhere more strict -- many people raised unsucessfully in conservative areas (those who are traumatized rather than sucessfully assimilated) come to Portland for its liberal culture. We have to gently re-train them to develop a working set of cultural values, and not just a knee-jerk "anti" reaction to ther previous ones. Often, they go back home when they mature, when their parents or siblings need them. Or they raise kids here, who are differently adjusted than they were. But if we are breeding this kind of rigourless sentiment, then I am ashamed.
...
Then again, I was getting tired by the time I read that website, and more irritable as a result.
I know I make similar generalizations myself, especially in conversation -- I think it was the contrast with all the other well-researched websites that made it seem irresponsible.

Love,
Erica

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On 6/8/07, T R wrote:
You crack me up the most. I love you. How are things?

T




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Erica Ritter"
To: "T R" < tfritter@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: slides..who knew
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 22:58:58 -0800


Just because Newton already discovered gravity, doesn't mean nobody else gets to discover it ;-)

Just wait until she gets into planetary orbits...

Love,
Erica
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On 6/7/07, T R wrote:
I'm sending news of [my daughter Mira's] latest obsession: slides. Everything that could be...is. The slide at the park. A book on a stair. A blanket strewn loosley over the doorway...yes. We discover that things are "slides" by the trade-mark countdown (holding up fingers, "wuah...t'oooo..." then the thrill "wheeeeeee.") She even found a bity-slide under our keyboard--the 10" section of that "X" that holds it up. Wow.
This picture is of our leather Automon[Ottoman?] with the top off. So. Enjoy. Send us a hello, missing you.

Teresa
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