That is funny. Not in a "ha ha" kind of way. Lucifer is just a fallen angel of God. How can someone choose not to believe in God but believe in Lucifer? It isn't logical. asta

nm

Normally, if a person wants to teach at a Catholic institution, they have to agree to abide by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Abide by. They aren't necessarily teaching anything from the Magisterium, they just have to abide by what is in it. So, for example, a math teacher is going to be teaching math. There isn't anything in the Magisterium about math. Unless that teacher wants to go on a political or religious crusade in their classroom (which no teacher is supposed to be doing anyway), there is no conflict of interest no matter what their religious (or lack there of) background is. Obviously, you're not going to find a Southern Baptist teaching Catholic Theology, but you would probably be surprised by what students actually learn in theology courses in Catholic schools. It is rarely limited to Catholicism. Of course, when kids are really young, that is all they will get (sorry - but let's face it - every religion goes with basic indoctrination at the grammar level), but as they grow up, comparative religion comes into play. If a person were to have gone to a reputable, well established Catholic college, their theology & philosophy coursework would have taught them a great deal about Judaism, Islam, Protestantism, Eastern Philosophies, LDS and a smattering of other faiths. One of the things I have always found amusing is that Catholics and LDS often end up chatting about theology, having it drummed into them, whether or not they went to a Catholic College or Brigham Young. Additionally, both Catholic Priests and LDS preachers tend to be completely, utterly over-educated. LOL a

Why yes, many people do appear to feel that way. Odd, isn't it? But just try and cross their path: they organize quickly to destroy "outsiders". I've watched it happen to friends of mine, and I've had it happen to myself; it was NOT pretty. a ETA: among other things, there was even a whisper campaign in my community about me being a witch. I just laughed. I kept envisioning Audrey and thinking "and the problem is....?"

Oh, goodness, that's what I get for posting late at night! MUS! I tried to get him to do LoF and he hated the set-up. Personally, I loved it. Sheesh, I'm so sorry I spammed your thread with a post that had nothing to do with your question.... a

Kid did it and the honors supplement. 100% all the way. And then totally bombed the final exam. I mean, completely. And he's normally not a sucky test taker. I became convinced that the "retention-ability" from MUS geo was poor (because kid can retain pretty much anything). And then... fast forward a year or so to this week. We're watching a Teaching Company DVD series called "Great Thinkers" or something - it is essentially math theory. The prof discusses theorems of Euclid, Archimedes, etc. going forward in time. We're moving through the first disc, and the prof is explaining how the Greeks didn't have algebra, so they had to use these long drawn out explanations instead of formuli, and kid keeps pausing it to tell me what the formulas would be! I was stunned. I actually said "I thought you didn't learn anything from MUS"! He said "no, I remember all of it, I just had a bad test day." :001_huh: a

Ok, this is going to sound really stupid... I have literally never considered that idea. And I have turned this issue around in my head about as many ways as I thought was possible. Huh. a

Hey, the Pope is on Twitter... a

sigh - I hate that about iWeb. It just throws the tabs up there in the order of the pages. I'm going to try to rework it while I work on the "grown up" website. Thanks for the tip. a

Yep. The group I mentioned actually specifically did this. Truly sad. And I don't buy the whole "like minded" thing, either. To me, it smacks of "isms". I mean seriously, you meet some pleasant person at a party, find out you both like gardening, the food network, have 3 kids of similar ages, come from the same part of the country, enjoy each other's sense of humor and then... OH NO! SHE HAS MUSLIM COOTIES! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! Get a grip. It's supposed to be HOMESCHOOLING support, not a flipping revival meeting. asta

I'm starting to think a memo was put out in the last couple of years: The website I just wrote was for a homeschool group who specifically created themselves as an alternative to "the only other group around" - who, coincidentally required a SOF. Apparently, previously, said group had a rather "general" SOF that pretty much accepted any Christian (but still no Muslims, Jews, Pagans, et al). Then it was changed to one that more or less "dumped" a significant portion of "non like-minded people" [but yes, specifically Catholics and LDS]. The "new" group took off after that. I've never really understood that either. And yet, people will sign those SOFs "for the children" - insisting that little Johnny or Susie needs the interaction of THAT group and of COURSE s/he won't pick up on any proselytizing/nastiness or, and here's the biggie - the fact that their own parent is being a HYPOCRITE! How's that for a rant? (but I'm still accepting suggestions on how to improve the website... hint, hint) asta

If your child is looking into one of the other 84% of fields in academia, they might want to check out: University of Oklahoma Texas A&M University of Kansas Indiana University University of Arizona Pretty much any major university now has an "outreach" or "distance" or "online" program. Some of them allow for the entire program except one or two summer "seminars" to be done either by extension (do the work, email it in), or online (utilizing Blackboard for interactive chat with other students & the professor). They've all (more or less) figured out that it is a massive money maker that requires fewer resources (once it is set up, anyway) and has a great return monetarily. asta

Ignore the politics (and the source, if you can't stand them) -- This little article is a great, concise explanation, with real world examples, of the Laffer curve - a fundamental concept in basic economics courses that many students have difficulty comprehending. Bonus - it is actually written by Laffer, himself. asta

But Islam is an Abrahamic religion, so I'm not sure where to go with that one. I guess I was thinking of religions outside of Abrahamic religions. And by debate, I don't mean people standing at opposite podiums, I mean firmly held premises and conclusions (eg: convictions) that are in opposition to other premises and conclusions (eg: convictions). We're not talking about the formal rules of debate here. asta

Well, since he knows Python... The Django Book ("the Python–based equivalent to the Ruby on Rails web development framework") Free (first 20 chapters). or, buy the final book at Amazon: The Definitive Guide to Django: Web Development Done Right HTH a

... and on that note - hasn't anyone else ever wondered why you (general you - dang I get tired of writing that, I'm just going to start writing "vous") - vous never hear bubkus about a young earth vs old earth debate anywhere BESIDES Christianity? I thought it was weird enough coming in late to the homeschooling game (5th grade) and discovering all of the... interesting differences and dynamics running about, but seriously -- has ANYONE ever heard a YE/OE (oe oe o, break it down now...) debate outside of Christianity? a

Yeah. That happened with all of my sisters. (dad) The only reason I escaped it was because I was emancipated since I had been in the military. I still have to put all of the data for him (and his dead ex-wife!) on certain government forms. It's just... blech. a

I didn't say anything was wrong with it EM, just that most people not coming from that mindset wouldn't feel comfortable with it. The "American College Experience" is, and pretty much always has been a core of liberal arts surrounded by an intense study of one particular topic. That is what has set it apart from the universities of England et al. It was *not* an "extension of high school" - that is a VERY recent occurrence. The American high school system never has been anything like the lycee or gymnasium system, nor did it portend to be. It was set up under different circumstances, and had different results. There never was a guild system in America - the closest being the labor unions (with their apprenticeships), but even they only represented a small part of the economy as a whole, and did not rise to prominence until relatively "late in the game" so to speak in the economic formation of the nation. Until the 1960s, after the GI bill sent returning WWII vets to college, most of America simply never went to college. The country operated off of high school educations. And they were considered very good, general educations. When uni became more common, it was viewed as an opportunity to look at some of the expanse of what had been crammed into high school in greater depth, as well as to specialize in one particular area. The hard reality being that some subjects simply don't make much sense at 15, but do at 20. It's wasn't a "rehash", and, in schools where everything hasn't gone to h3ll in a handbasket, it STILL isn't a rehash - it is diving deeper. One can't compare US and EU or UK uni or high school systems as "better than" or "worse than" - they were set up along different lines, have progressed within different political and social situations, and serve different purposes and populations. I would argue that a large part of why people are moving to classical homeschooling methods is to "get back to" the original high school methods of the US; a level of education that could be a terminal degree as far as "knowledge one needs to know to go forth into the world" is concerned. For those people, yes, a uni that is entirely specialized on a subject to the exclusion of all others could fit just fine. For others, it would probably feel right stifling. a

Oh, it is WAY less expensive for our kid to go to school abroad than it is for him to go back in America! And this is with both parents being American citizens to boot. The difficulty isn't the finances, or the entry or anything (they accept SATs instead of A-levels for US students) - the difficulty is in what you WANT out of uni. If, say, you want physics? Fine. But that's all you're getting, babe. Four years of physics, chemistry, and maths. Now, for some people, that is just the cat's meow. But for others, people who want a broader array of coursework during uni (a history class here, a lit class there) - it wouldn't be a good fit. And it isn't like there is time to be studying extra stuff on one's own when in one of these programs. So... there is good and bad. :001_smile: a

This is what I love the most about the WTM board! The honest, true, walk-in-Jesus' shoes Christian love for others. asta

I always find it funny that humans think they know what God did or when it did it.

The first study is from 2008 and the second if from 2009. a

Why, thank you! That is what a Social and Behavioral Sciences degree in Economics (BS) will do for ya! (and they told me I'd never use it...)

This is a generalization that discusses the issue but mentions that it does not include the recent recession/depression. This, unfortunately, is hard data that can be extrapolated to the above article. Yes, very sad. a

JMO I think one of the biggest problems with all of the articles I've read and all of the posts on this board (barring, say, medschool student and a couple of others who are actually currently in college) is... The people discussing the issue all start the discussion with "well, when I was in college" (15, 20, 30 years ago)... Guess what? That is no longer relevant information! Just as one example, the internet wasn't ANYWHERE 30 years ago! (ok, it was running between a couple of unis, but that doesn't count...) We can't BEGIN to place OUR experiences of what collegiate life/co op & intern opportunities/availability of monies SHOULD be on today's students - it simply isn't the same. Of course there have always been the "wild" dorms, the idiots who spent their student loans on ski vacations and the trust fund babies -- but they have NEVER been the norm - [wait - post industrial revolution, it pretty much was only trust fund babies going to uni in the US, but that isn't what we're talking about...]. The difference "today", and this is why the sh!t is hitting the fan and we're suddenly seeing all of these news articles (IMO), is that, with the "everyone must go to college" movement, everything has been MAGNIFIED and MULTIPLIED. There is no longer "the wild dorm". There is the "co-ed within a room" wild dorm. There is not the "idiot who went to Vail once". There is the guy who has $150,000 in loans who seems to ski all of the time (what was his major again?). There is still the trust fund baby. But now there is a HUGE swath of America who has been completely, utterly wiped out financially because they thought things (home values, stocks, salaries) would always go "up" and suddenly they didn't. And that huge swath, who may or may not have had had designs on climbing up a peg or two on the social ladder... is p!ssed. Or dead. Check the stats on middle/upper age white male suicides that came out last week. They're pretty dismal. The news aggregators are "making" this about higher ed, but that isn't what it is really about. It's really about dreams. And the loss of them. And a whole bunch of people who probably should have critically read the Great Gatsby instead of blowing through it as a "oh yeah, I have to read this for high school English class" book. I'm rambling. I should stop. asta