We had a big old thread on this a while back: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/469013-having-kids-start-college-at-12/

This can be intimidating, especially the first time in an airport after a long flight, but the good news is that European airports have much better signage than American ones. If both flights are on Air France, you probably won't need to leave terminal 2 in Paris, which is big, but pretty easy to get around in. I find that research makes it better. I might even put dd "in charge" of finding the right gate and where to go, and turn it into a bit of a learning opportunity. You can print out a map of the airport terminal, and figure out online, if you were flying today, what gates you would arrive at and leave from. I believe the Parisian airports have a "transfer desk", which is manned with people to help you find which gates you need to go to. Often the flight attendants can't help you, but there is often a person at the airport as soon as you get off the jetway to help point you in the right direction. Good luck, and have fun!

The most interesting thing to me about this is how fast public opinion changed and by how much. I can't think of any other public issue where this has happened so quickly. I'm curious, then, if you'd be willing to share what caused you to change your mind about this? What is so different about this issue than the zillions of others where none of us ever change our minds. Hopefully, before the thread is shutdown...

I dare say you did more than just look smart. I'm not sure what you mean by "only granted 4" -- do you mean that he only tested out of 4 college classes? I would say that if the student got accepted into the school of his choice, and it is a top engineering school, and is doing well there, I wouldn't worry at all about not being granted credits for AP. If this were my kid, I'd be pretty darn pleased with myself.

Dunno if this is me you are talking about, but that's not what I was trying to say, and certainly not trying to set anyone off, and if I was misinterpreted, I apologize. In fact, I believe the opposite -- the closer to the original Greek/Hebrew, the better (but I do love the KJV) Let's try again -- there was no modern English until 1500 or thereabouts, so that's the earliest we can go back to find a translation we native modern English speakers can read. I believe that many of these translations were written by folks who didn't read Greek, and were working from German or other translations, which may explain textual problems like he vs. it. Any earlier than that, and we might as well work from the original texts. However, to do so, is a bit of work, because the ancient languages can be tricky.

Wow. Just wow. I wonder if the same text ever survives to live the second time through the six year cycle.

??? And where would we find a native speaker of biblical greek nowadays?

I think that anything much before 1500 isn't going to look like modern English, so we're back to translating for ourselves, and then arguing about our own translations.

Please forgive a naive question, but why are publishers constantly writing new math textbooks, especially for K-8? There must of have been thousands published by now, surely one of those must be better than most new publications. How many new math curricula do we need every year? I've been very pleased with Singapore Math, it doesn't need fancy color picture or slick pages, it's just straightfoward math.

The New York times had an interesting article today on college admissions essays, their value, and approaches that students use: http://www.nytimes.c...-the-crowd.html Interesting stuff, including four actual submitted essays.

duci is dative. ("to the leader") I would just call this a simple dative due to indirect object. This particular sentence has no direct object. Three types verbs which frequently take a dative of indirect object are verbs of giving, showing and telling, and respondebit is like telling.

This depends on the meet and the pool setup. If it is a small informal meet, he can probably stay with you in the stands between races. You will probably not be allowed to be on deck or behind the blocks. The tricky thing about backstroke is that you need to be on your back the whole way, including the finish. Lots of little kids flip over to their tummies when looking for the wall at the end. Good luck!

Bring one dry towel per race. See if you can get a copy of the heat sheet online, or buy one at the meet, and use the sharpie to write on his arm each event, heat and lane. Make sure he knows how to legally finish the backstroke, but it's OK if he DQs. If they are clerking the littles, show him where it is, and how they bring the kids from the clerk to the blocks. If he is freaked out about diving off the blocks, it is fine to start from the deck. Make some friends with the other moms, you'll be spending the rest of your life with them. Write down his times for each event, and prepare to be impressed at how much improvement he'll see in them. Is he not swimming in any relays? That's a great way for swimmers to make friends.

I know that you are joking, but wasn't there a scare a while back about mercury levels in sushi, and how it might be a problem if you ate certain kinds of sushi every day of the week?

Oooh, I've got a million. One of my least favorites: "At this time..." Pretty much any sentence that begins "At this time" means exactly the same thing without those three words.

Yet another reason to read the classics!

I highly recommend Connie Willis' book "To say nothing of the dog", which is sweet time-traveling science fiction in the spirit of P.G. Wodehouse. Because it is kind of historical fiction, you can pretend that it isn't the brain candy that it is.

I think the availability of online education is going to be ultimately very good for universities, as it is going to shake them up and re-evaluate what they do and why they do it. Certainly, the mythical engaged scholarly professor engaging undergraduates in Socratic discussion is ideal, but how often does that happen? I went to Big State U, and feel like I got a pretty good education, but most of my introductory classes were in lecture halls with 300 other students. No student was ever called on by the professor, who certainly didn't know anyone by name. This was supposed to be offset by recitation sections which met once a week in groups of 20 or so, but they were taught by a TA, who was often in his/her first year of teaching, and frankly, way more focused on their own education than teaching. Are online lectures impersonal and one-way? I'm sure they can be, but no more so than my huge lectures. If universities are going to get on their high horse and complain about online pedagogy, a little self-reflection may be in order. If the role of the university is educating the whole person, not just vocational, who is to say that the whole person education has to come in one big chunk at the beginning of adulthood? Personally, I love the promise of picking and choosing one or two classes here or there, without signing up for a full four year degree, and to be able to schedule it into my crazy life. I adore many Teaching Company series, and would gladly pay (some) money for somewhat more formal courses. If I would be a better person for having read Dante, wouldn't it be nice to have a way to study Dante at the college level as an adult, but without having to go to campus in the middle of the day, or commit to a 120 credit four year program?

A number of teams have said that they'd trade for him, but only if he was willing to play a different position. He has declined these offers, saying QB or nothing. While that's fine and his decision, I wouldn't call that "humble".

There's never any danger of running out of Latin to study. There are four volumes of Henle Latin which cover four years at a rapid pace, and could legitimately be stretched to five years of credit, after which there are many option for AP Latin.

Henle is a perfectly fine program, which has no (Latin) prerequisites. I don't understand the need to have years upon years of prep work for a class with no prerequisites. I love Latin, but I say, if you are going to do Latin, just do Latin. Jump in with both feet. Go slow if you need to, but go rigorously. Start Henle in 7th, and go slow. Or, wait until high school and do it there, and use the saved time to focus on English grammar and usage.

If I were, for some reason, only allowed to skip one season of PS, it would be middle school. I think a lot of good kids get lost during middle school, dragged away by peer pressure because they don't really know who they are yet.

Also, our library has a display table of books right out in front, pulled from the shelves and all on a particular theme, that changes every week, often tied in to some current event. I think this is one way the librarians encourage people to not just checkout what's popular, but to get some of the older books moving too. I don't know who does it, but I always thought this would be a fun volunteer job to have when I "retire".

How much does it cost to keep a book? A lot of these articles talk about "shelf space", but at our library system, a lot of the classic books I search for, and put on hold, are "in storage". I have no idea where "storage" is, or what it is, but the library is happy to dig them out of storage and put them on hold for me, just as if they were on the shelves of another branch library. Seems like, unless you are dealing with Manhattan style real estate prices, any library system should be able to store all of the less-checked out book off of the shelves, but still have them searchable and checkout-able.

Do you have any idea where the $1500 went? $1500, especially for a boy, seems outrageous. $100 to rent a tux, maybe $200 for dinner, $200 for limo, $100 for corsage, $100 for tickets, and we aren't halfway to the total. And, even though we all agree that $1500 is a lot, this is just the _average_ (according to the survey) for single parents, meaning that significant numbers of people are spending significantly more.