If your kids have been following this story (my 10-year-old definitely is), they might be interested in the novel Zero Tolerance, by Claudia Mills. Alex and I are reading it together and it's prompting good discussions. It's about a seventh-grade honors student who accidentally brings her mom's lunch bag, which has a paring knife in it, and then gets suspended and threatened with expulsion for violating the school's weapons policy.

Sigh. I don't believe there's ever been a social issue that went better because Dawkins got involved.

Your best bet for an accurate and reliable measure of IQ is an individually administered, face to face test like the Stanford-Binet or the WISC. Tests like the OLSAT and NNAT are used for entry into school gifted programs because (1) they are much less expensive to administer, and (2) the school isn't overly concerned about missing kids who don't test well, have other issues going on, or are creative-divergent thinkers. I'm a clinical psychologist who does a lot of testing. I use the WISC-IV and WISC-V.

Earlier in this thread you were proclaiming your lack of knowledge about electronics. Now you're 100% sure that you know exactly what Ahmed did and how much effort it took. I understand that you read commentary claiming that he just moved clock parts wholesale into another case, but what is your basis for putting all of your faith behind that claim? What is your basis for deciding that this internet guy is the only one out there judging Ahmed's project accurately, and not - for example - the people at MIT, various tech companies, etc.? I don't think this kid is an unparalleled genius who did stuff that hardly any other kid could do, and I don't think most of his supporters do either. I do think he's a kid with a passion for electronics. I think he compiled and assembled various existing components to make a working clock, and I think that sounds like a cool and appropriate project for a fourteen-year-old. I've seen maker page instructions for similar projects. It's not OH MY GOSH GENIUS, no, but it is a valid expression of curiosity, scientific/engineering interest, and dedication to learning and constructing. Honestly, you sound like someone who made up your mind about this kid and then went looking for evidence to support your claim. It sounds like you believe this article you found because it supports your pre-existing conclusions.

Number the Stars was on my daughter's fourth grade reading list.

I love how much scarier it sounds when you say that his invention "involves wires and timing devices." I guaran-damn-tee you that every single classroom in the state of Texas has a "timing device" hanging on the wall. How many things in the school have wires, would you suppose?

...Should we break it to them that having a strong opinion about the different shades of meaning between these terms is nerdy AND geeky?

I might need to buy shirts in bulk, for everyone on my shopping list. ...Although Alex has been known to voice strong opinions about the difference between "nerdy" and "geeky." I'd wear either shirt, but I think she'd prefer Geeky Homeschoolers Liberation Front.

The thing about Survivor suing is from a fake news site. nbc.com.co is not affiliated with NBC.

I think you should live in easy commuting distance from the Baltimore Homeschool Community Center, http://www.baltimorehomeschool.org . Catonsville would fit the bill. Parts of it are beautiful and have a very "small town" community-oriented feel, and parts of it less so. In the Baltimore area, you really have to check out the SPECIFIC block you're considering, not just the reputation of an entire neighborhood.

I care deeply. I wrote this essay back in 2007, when I was working in an inner-city HIV clinic. This is something that happened there. https://www.facebook.com/notes/rebecca-wald/why-marriage-matters-from-2007/10153389586883048?pnref=lhc

It's been resoundingly unanswered, though. Maybe Tranquil has me on ignore?

TranquilMind, this doesn't seem to be the appropriate thread for re-hashing the case against gay marriage, unless you're trying to do merry gardens a favor and get the thread shut down. The Supreme Court ruled. There's no provision for individual government employees to vacate a Supreme Court decision if they disagree with it. The question before us here is not, "Should the concept of rights in America have followed a different course over time, a course that Kim Davis and TranquilMind would have approved of more?" You've got one answer to that question, and the majority of Americans have a different one, and I understand that that's got to sting. I do. But the question before us now is, "Do government employees act on their own behalf, or on behalf of the government?" And the answer to that questions has always been "on behalf of the government." If that's not how it works, we have chaos.

The American Visionary Arts Museum, which is on the south side of the harbor. It's all "outsider" art by people who weren't formally trained as artists, and a lot of the exhibits are really cool. Before or after, climb Federal Hill (next door to AVAM) for sweeping views of the harbor and downtown. Plus, if you have kids with you, there's a playground there. Also, wave northward at me. :seeya:

Oh yes. There were psychologists advising the military and the CIA about how to torture prisoners most effectively. I would be fired or jailed first. Or I would quit and be a whistleblower.

Yes. One of the fundamental concepts of government is the difference between individual actors and state actors. When people are acting as agents of the state, they are understood not to be exercising their own personal wills. We don't expect every soldier to have personal animus towards the enemy. We understand that police can't fail to arrest someone committing a crime because they like the guy. We allow homeschoolers to serve on school boards and teetotallers to serve on liquor control commissions.

She could step down at any time. The judge can't remove her from her job, though, because she was elected. So it wasn't one of his options, but it's always been one of hers. She just doesn't choose to do it.

If you say that she can opt out for religious reasons, as long as someone else in the office is willing to issue a license, that creates a different - and bigger - problem. I would guess that right now there are thousands of government workers all over America who personally disapprove of same-sex marriage but are complying with the law because it's the law. Once you make the "Kim Davis option" legal, there will be pressure on those people to also refuse. Right now, nobody except perhaps Kim Davis thinks that a clerk who signs a marriage certificate for a gay couple is necessarily pro-gay-marriage. We understand that they have to obey the law. But if there's a religious opt-out, then people who opt in will be labeled "pro." It makes the act of issuing the certificate a political/moral stance instead of a neutral job duty. What kind of pressure would be put on someone who is the only signer in a small, conservative community? Or the only non-signer in a large, liberal community? Would we want to see county clerk elections become referendums on gay marriage every time one candidate pledges to opt out? Would we want to have big sections of Red States where the only way to win a clerk election, or be appointed clerk, is if you promise to opt out? Let government employees' private opinions be their private opinions. Let compliance with the law just mean compliance with the law - not a declaration of the employee's personal religious beliefs.

There are circumstances in which I would totally refer to myself as a shrink - say, when talking to a teenager who is there to see me against his will because his parents are insisting. There are other circumstances in which I would NEVER refer to myself as a shrink - say, when I'm positioning myself as a qualified expert in front of parents who might hire me. It's all about audience. Public libraries try to serve an incredibly diverse audience. The main downtown branch of our public library has a bunch of beautifully written and illustrated picture books with stories on topics like "the day my dad went to prison" and "being a refugee." I didn't get them for my preschoolers because we weren't the target audience for those books, but I was 100% in favor of having them on the open shelves for familes who *did* need those books to discover.

I think this book is aimed at the large population of people who have mental health issues but would never in a million years want to go to a sweet, soft-voiced female therapist who wants them to talk about their feelings. Therapists need to speak the language that's appropriate to the client. Ask me sometime about the hyper macho Bear Gryllis-themed OCD treatment plan I did once for a teenage boy. Was it my own personal idiom? Nope. Would I use it on one of y'all? Nope. Did it speak to him? Yep.

From US News and World Report:

Oh my: "Each student will serve as a volunteer in some fashion from 8-10 hours per day, and partial days on Saturdays. All work is considered donated services. Please understand that if you do not work as unto the Lord, you will not remain in the home. Proverbs 14:23 says, “in all labor there is profit†at Reformers Unanimous we believe work is God’s divine design for every man, and woman. Hard work develops character which is vital to making right decisions once you have finished with the program."

Staff are mostly former drug addicts, with no mention of addictions or mental health training. The website says they treat addictions with prayer, Bible study, and "mentoring." http://ruhomes.org/about-us/staff

Hee! Michael and I had a similar conversation. He seemed a bit concerned that I knew so many details of the AM site, like the terms of the affair guarantee. And when I made him promise that, if he ever wants to sleep with someone else, he won't do it through a website that costs our family $1000 we can ill afford, he looked at me very strangely indeed.