It's a problem when the curriculum has a narrow consumer base, such as classical Christian homeschoolers. The solution is not to clamp down on legal sales, but to expand the consumer base. For example, market as well to tutoring services and private schools. Or go secular and market to charter home based programs and public schools. A classic example of this is Art of Problem Solving. The curriculum is well designed for homeschool use because the books and videos are targeted directly to the student (instead of direct towards a teacher who then in turn teaches a class). Homeschoolers are a chunk of their base but certainly not all. The original market was gifted math kids in public schools without specialized teachers and classes. At the end of the day, they have created a niche product with a diverse customer base. They don't give a rip about used sales.of their books because they have ongoing demand.

I see no problem with this. Consumable items are used until consumed. If you can figure out how to stretch the shelf life, more power to you. It is similar on my mind to reusing plastic water bottles.

My reading has been focused on work and homeschooling. Not a bad thing, but not meeting my goal of more fluff and escapism in my life. I reread Conrad's Heart of Darkness as well as Achebe's famed critique, An Image of Africa. I also started Achebe's Things Fall Apart. With another teen I am working on the Yoga Sutra. And Kareni-- I have not read a romance novel in years. But tomorrow I have a six hour drive. Alone. In a car wired for bluetooth. So....I downloaded a Pamela Clare romance. I'll let you know how it goes.

I know less about colonialism than I do institutions that hold people against their will: state mental hospitals, jails, prisons, locked memory units. At some point there are abuses within every institution, and I agree that the paradigm of "evil people doing evil things" falls woefully flat in terms of explaining and preventing such behavior. There are mountains of social psych research from the days immediately after World War II through the present which illustrate that most people will behave poorly given the right circumstances. In institutional settings, it is safer when administrators understand this and build in safe guards for transparency and accountability. Relying on goodwill is never enough. To put is another way: I would refuse to work in an institution or organization (hospital, school, church) where it was assumed that only "evil people do evil things." The book about the therapeutic common Therafields which I finished recently is a classic example of this. The people honestly believed, with the best of intentions, that their ongoing therapy and thorough discussions amongst themselves of every little conflict would mean all problematic interactions would be resolved in very healthy ways. Wrong. What they discounted were power differentials. Not every person in that commune had the means to speak up and be heard. In the end it was the leadership and the inner circle which enacted the worse abuses because there was no one to hold them in check. In fact, much of the commune didn't even realize what was happening. All this to say, the article rang true to me. It's complicated.

My oldest has worked construction/finish carpentry and as a bike mechanic. He hasn't lacked for well paid work. Also, it made him stand out on college applications and scholarships. There was a.video floating around recently of an admissions officer of a selective East coast school talking about letters of recommendation, and she mentions that any kind of paid employment for high school students stands out because it is unusual. So, you parents who can't afford the expensive robotics camps, take heart. There are other ways to build the skills and work ethic.

How fun! Looking forward to your review.

I finished a quirky Powell's find called Therafields: The Rise and Fall of Lea Hindley-Smith's Pschoanalytic Commune by Grant Goodbrand. It is the strange and twisting tale of an English lay-trained psychoanalyst who established an intentional living community in Toronto in the late 1960's. The community grew to the largest full time residential commune in Canada, if not North America, before completely unraveling and derailing in the early 1980's. A number of varied and interesting characters had affiliations with the commune including poet bpNichol, theologian Gregory Baum, and an army of therapists who later fanned out across North America. (Writer Michael Ondaatje had some sort of loose affiliation or contact given his collaboration with bpNichol.) I had never heard of Therafields before, and it made for strange reading. Many of the therapeutic techniques developed by these therapists are fairly standard in treatment clinics which value experiential techniques. The technical part of what they were doing was reasonably solid, at least in the beginning. The spiraling down into strange, coercive tactics began when Hindley-Smith, the charismatic woman at the center of the movement, began advocating living together in therapeutic communities. The original communities were sprawling houses in suburban Toronto which she owned. She attracted a wide cross section of tenants: psychodynamic inclined therapists, nuns and priests from local religious orders invigorated by Vatican II, university of students, and young people drawn to the counter-cultural. Clients and therapists and coworkers all lived together with few rules, few boundaries, and a general encouragement to pursue new ways of living. Eventually the commune also included a farm with an artists’ community and beach front property in Florida. Hindley-Smith, as the central charismatic figure, of course benefitted financially and socially from the arrangement. Her immediate family did not fare so well. Eventually the economic climate of the 1970’s coupled with poor financial decision, disillusionment on the part of the rank and file with their leader, and general dissent and infighting led to the demise of the community/corporation. Post commune Hindley-Smith was largely ignored by her followers and died in near obscurity. Well, it’s a little more dramatic and disturbing than that. But I will leave out the details. Two caveats about the book. First, Goodbrand is a dull writer prone to excessive use of psychojargon such that sections of the book read like an ill-conceptualized, poorly written psychological report. Here’s an example: He feels that Lea projected her unconscious fear into his mind, that it was Lea rather than he who was paranoid. This consistent with a convoluted but well received theory in psychanalysis called projective identification, whereby if the therapist has strange feelings in a session and doesn’t think they are his, he assumes the client has placed their feelings inside him. In this situation, the client feels the process was reversed… Stop it. Just stop it. My second and greater concerned is that Goodreads may not be a particularly reliable historian given he was a central figure in the commune. Despite frequently being a voice of calm dissent during his tenure as one of the lead therapists, he now seems oddly apologetic to the Therafield legacy. He reports on darker details of the story, but with remote calmness that feels chilling. As a counter balance, I would strongly encourage the reading of this blog, also written by a former Therafields therapist, which provides an alternative take on events. There is no way to vet which account is the more accurate. Yet, the blog makes greater effort to include the stories of those most harmed by the community: children, women with young children, individuals with psychosis, and gay/lesbians. On a final note, I am including a link to by bpNichol and other Therafield poets known collectively as The Four Horsemen. This ain’t no haiku, people.

Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen, for starters. ;-)

His paranoia is not over incarceration -- he has already subjected himself to that. It is over being silenced, whether by death or some other means. Given the level of controversy he invokes, I tend to think his paranoia is justified. As far as your last sentence: red herring. Whether other countries do that or not is irrelevant if you are arguing the US has moral authority.

If someone is in a good position to bargain, he or she can can call an awful lot of shots.

???? The US constitution and the laws of most democratic countries grant a number of rights to people being investigated. It is common in complex cases for terms to be negotiated--for example, a witness may offer information only after amnesty or a plea has been put in place.

Few words, much love.

Our oldest starts in the fall and will either be at a state school with moderate merit aid or a private school with substantial merit aid. Remaining expenses will be paid via a college savings account, his personal savings (he has worked very part time since age 12), outside scholarships, and a small monthly stipend from us. I have worked very part time most years, and that is where much of our savings and extras originate. Except for the college accounts. Those are not substantial but originates almost entirely with grandpa. It is a kindness much appreciated, given he was able to seed it during some very lean years for us.

Okay, I think she would have the context for it, or at least close enough to fill in the gaps. It's on hold.

If accurate that identical raw scores are producing different percentile ranks, that is troubling. I think the CB data should be subjected to multiple independent peer reviews given what is at stake. Transparency, people.

By everyone, do you have an age in mind? Asking because my teen daughter expressed an interest in it. She has heard me talk over the years about many of these issues because of my job and is not squeamish, yet I still wonder....

:-D

If haiku-ized is A word then please explain how To be limerick-ed.

My job is done here, people.

Ds just went through a round of scholarship/merit aid interviews at his top choice school. What is the etiquette on thank cards? Should he send one to the professors who interviewed him individually? Thanks

Lol. Pretty sure one of my teens reviewed Augustine's Confessions in haiku form with the phrase, "He's a whiny mamma's boy."

Love it! Another one: I am McGyver I don't cry in nuthin' tea Except when head hurts.

I found the Bonhoeffer book both fascinating and disturbing. Not long after I finished reading it, one of my children was hospitalized for a week. On one of my wanderings through the hallways, I found the "meditation room" deep in the basement. It was cramped, no windows, with decor best described ad retro-institutional. Holy books objects from the many faiths in our local community were lined up haphazardly: Sikh scriptures, candles, a cross, Jewish prayer book, Muslim prayer beads, lamps. Then there was a folder filled with photocopied prayers. I found one by Bonhoeffer and took it back to my son's room and taped it to a wall. It's a rather ordinary prayer, but knowing his life, I found it moving. Since then, I have collected several prayer books and like to learn about the people who wrote them. Simple prayers and extraordinary life, or simple life and extraordinary prayer: Either way would satisfy.

Last week I finished The Martian and it was a fine reminder of how far I have gotten away from escapist reads and how badly I need to get back to them. Such fun! I think I could overlook every single flaw simply because it was a rip-roaring adventure story and the protagonist was so dang likeable. My family entertained ourselves on a long car ride writing Mark Watney philosophy of life haikus. Really bad ones. As in: Dangerous mishap. Swear, swear, swear. Oh wait. Duct tape. Life is beautiful. With the younger kids I wrapped up 2 Revolutionary war fiction books: Johnny Tremaine and My Brother Sam is Dead. We also started a third, Mr.Revere and I. Three very different presentations of the war back to back: patriotic and inspirational, gritty and sober, more light hearted and funny. Personally I am ready to move on to a different topic but one child is stuck play acting as a Minute Man and wants more, more, more. Also, on a very quick trip to Portland, OR, I got to spend several hours in the legendary bookstore, Powell's. I picked up several offbeat books I figured I would never read otherwise. Because escapism. It is a wonderful thing.

Harvard acceptance rate is 6%. A relatively large chunk of the admissions pool will have very high test scores and GPA's impossible to distinguish between with statistical significance. Same with extracurricular talents. The accomplishments of much of the applicant pool are impressive. A superstar student is almost guaranteed admissions to a good school somewhere. But Harvard specifically? No. It's either a crap shoot or connections. I say that not to disparage the girls' accomplishments. They are highly talented and hard workers in their own right. But so are many if the kids rejected from Harvard. Hence the cynicism that it was parenting style that "worked."