Smrt Lernins

SecularHomeschool.com has a great poll this week (they have a new one every week). This week’s question: If homeschooling became illegal in your state, what would you do?

They offer quite a few options for how to handle it: Enroll your kids in public school, ignore the law and homeschool “off grid,” fight the system, move. Of course, Patchfire and I had to discuss this right away and in some semblance of depth. What would we do?

It would be a tricky predicament for me — with Officer Daddyman being a police officer, I usually make a point of not doing anything downright illegal. However, I’m also not at all willing to enroll my kids in the public school system around here. Not now; possibly not ever. Captain Science is too far ahead in some areas (language arts, math) and at weird points in others (like history — we haven’t done GA history, we haven’t gotten past Elizabethan era yet). I also don’t have the money to put the kids in private school, or at least not a quality private school (even then, I’m not sure I’d want to).

My first thought would be to find some online school to “enroll” the kids in. Anything that will pass the basic requirements of “school” but let me continue to homeschool as we see fit. Patchfire said that getting accreditation through GAC isn’t even all that hard, so we’d likely pursue that. Honestly, such a law wouldn’t last long in Georgia, so in reality, we’d panic for all of two weeks and then it would be a non-issue when (as Patchfire say) the first suit gets brought against the state.

Would I be willing to buck the law to homeschool my kids, though? At this point, yes. We’re off the grid in other areas and I’m willing to defy convention and even the law for the benefit of my children.

How about you?

Why is the world filled with things that suck?

I give you, for example, some things that suck [with some non-sucking things to cancel out a little of the badness]:

• The Tennessee Senate: Sucks. [This church in Kentucky does not suck]

[Note: Delaware also does not suck]

• Texas and Oklahoma: Both Suck. [Planned Parenthood does not suck, however, so consider donating to them or to your local non-CPC women's clinic -- I'm a big fan of the Feminist Women's Health Center, so you oughta donate to them, too]
• Crazy wives/mothers of cop-killing “sovereign citizens”: Suck. [No, there's nothing to cancel out this amount of suck.]
• The “Ladies Against Feminism”: Suck. [However, No Longer Quivering doesn't suck.]
• LZ Granderson: Sucks. [And if you need to know why, read this and this -- Shakespeare's Sister and Pigtail Pals don't suck.]

I’ll now go back to my regularly scheduled reading of BBC articles about the Assize of Nuisance and conditions of privies in medieval London, ’cause that shit stinks a little less than a lot of the above.

To all the bigots,
To all the bashers of any[one/thing] non Xtian,
To all the misogynists and the homophobes,
To all the ones who equate being gay with being a sexual predator,
To all the ones who subtly or not-so-subtly blame women for their assault because of how they are dressed,
Or because of how they act,
Or how they don’t act,
Or because they had already had sex once anyway so what does it matter,
Or because they had the misfortune to be born with dirty-dirty vaginas and uteri instead of Paul-approved penises,
To the ones who throw around the word “heretic” as though it were the 16th century,
To the ones who throw around the word “heretic” without realizing how incredibly damn ironic it is for a Calvinist Protestant to call someone a heretic,
To the ones who call anyone who believes in a different flavor of Christianity a sinner,
To the ones who shame their daughters for being anything other than their primitive and controlling version of “feminine,”
To the ones who shame their sons for being anything other than their primitive and controlling version of “masculine,”
To the ones who claim to “love the sinner, but hate the sin,” when you obviously hate both,
To all of you who would rather keep your children ignorant than risk them learning something that’s outside your teensy little bubble…

We will win.

We “heathens” and “heretics” and “sinners” will win.
We will win because we have less shame about our bodies.
We will win because we aren’t afraid to accept new ideas.
We will win because we can distinguish between evidence-based science and something written by men, translated by men, voted on for inclusion by men, preached by men, and enforced by men.
We will win because we don’t think someone or something made us inherently wrong or bad.
We will win because we will not teach our children to hate who they are.
We will win because we will not let our children tell other children to hate who they are.
We will win because we will accept your children into our families with love and tolerance when you have driven them away with shame and hellfire.
We will win because we won’t accept victims being blamed for the crimes against them,
Because we don’t equate “purity” with character,
Because we don’t equate individuality with sin,
Because we don’t equate intelligence with heresy,
Because we don’t equate pettiness with godliness.
Because we don’t equate shaming with modesty.

One day those hateful seeds you sow
In your churches,
In your communities,
In your children,
Will grow into ugly plants,
And when that is all you will have to reap,
You’re going to have a lean, lean winter.

Enjoy your harvest. You’ve earned it.

Love,

The Heretic The Heathen The Sinner Smrt Mama

Saturday seems like a good day for linking, so here are a few good ones that have come across my desk* this morning:

• Hold your babies close. You aren’t spoiling them (really, you can’t spoil a baby), but you may be giving them a better ability to recover from fights with future partners.
• While the Egyptian revolution wasn’t really a “Facebook/Twitter revolution,” social media did play an important role in revolutionaries’ ability to communicate with each other and the world. In return, the Egyptian revolution taught Al Jazeera how to embrace digital media and social networking to better report the news as it happened.
• NP-in-training and abortion provider Dolores P. provides an honest look into what it’s like to be an abortion provider, sharing her personal experiences on both ends of the table. While her humor is a little morbid, especially where her own life and health are concerned, she is completely respectful of the women coming into her office. [Just a note here, Smrt Lernins is a pro-choice blog; while I am happy to engage in a wide array of discussions, one thing I won't tolerate is anti-choice comments.]
• The next time your kids are climbing the walls, just remember, they could always be literally climbing the walls.
• The eastern cougar has been declared extinct. Sadness.
• See? I’m not the only one calling the “mommy wars” a bunch of BS. The Bloggess says so, too. Of course, she also probably offends everyone in the process, but that’s her MO, so if you’ve got punkin’ feelins, apply elsewhere.
• Ok, women. Are you pissed off yet? (and please, don’t give me the “that’s why I’m glad I don’t live in GA/the South” response — similar bills have been introduced in South Dakota, Utah, Nevada, and probably some other states, too — this isn’t a Southern problem; it’s a religious right wingnut problem)
• Also, lets stop portraying women as disposable while we’re at it.
• Patchfire has been posting videos every day. Some educate, some entertain, some delight, some just make you say “oh HAIL YEAH.” Please go enjoy and comment, letting her know how much you enjoy her little project for March.

There you go, folks. Some links to make you think, to make you glad or mad, to make you read something or watch something a little different. Enjoy (or not. Whatever. Do what you want. I’m not the boss of you.)

*Yes, I have an actual desk. It’s an IKEA Expedit and I luff it. It is currently piled high with crap that was on our old bookshelves, but which hasn’t yet been situated in our new bookshelves (also Expedit).

I’ll be the first to say that if you’re getting most of your parenting advice/information from Parenting magazine, you probably need to trot on down to the library for a while and find some actual books on topics of child development, breastfeeding, and maintaining a healthy marriage. Parenting is not interested in you knowing about those things. I think they hit a new low with their article 20 things moms should never feel guilty about, however.

First, they lure you in with #1-4, which all seem pretty reasonable. Then suddenly you’re being given horrible breastfeeding advice (the kind of advice that will tank your supply and/or screw with your baby’s ability to nurse correctly; if you want to formula feed, do it, but if you want to breastfeeding, don’t screw it up by supplementing and giving early bottles) and being encouraged to lie to your friends to make yourself look good, lie to your husband to spend money behind his back, take joy in the [perceived] inferiority of others’ children, and make yourself sexually appealing for random men (but not wanting to have sex with your partner, to whom you’re also lying about money, is totally ok). Oh, and leave your kid to sit in a diaper full of poop, because there’s nothing wrong with that, right?

Parenting magazine doesn’t want you to feel guilty, but I do (well, sorta — see below). I think a healthy dose of guilt is far superior to an unhealthy dose of lies, damn lies, and leaving your kid sitting in poop. If you’re wondering why this is a Secular Thursday post, it’s because I’d like to point out that guilt isn’t solely the purview of religion, just like morality and ethics are not solely the purview of religion. Being non-religious (or even atheist) doesn’t mean you exist without moral guideposts or aren’t still eaten up with the things you do wrong (or “wrong”). Guilt IS what helps guide our moral compass. Feel guilty, but feel guilty about stuff that will actually help you, not stuff that will hinder you.

A list of 20 is kind of overkill, though, so we’ll just go with 6, because this is a blog and nobody wants to have to turn the page. With that in mind, I present to you:

1. Undermining yourself before you ever give yourself a chance to succeed. Whether it’s breastfeeding, homeschooling, going back to school, or learning a new craft, skill, or hobby, don’t set yourself up to fail. Don’t give yourself that “just in case it’s not going perfectly, I can quit” out; make yourself stick to it long enough to get past the rocky parts and see if it really is the right thing for your (and/or your kids). Look for one or two of the best resources on whatever it is you’re doing (don’t clutter yourself up with too much advice from too many disparate sources) and line up one or two support people who you know will be your cheerleader. This isn’t advice to feel guilty about not getting it right or not being 100% successful or changing your mind about what’s right for you; things don’t always work out as planned. The real failure is in not having the faith in yourself to give yourself the kind of fair chance you’d give anyone else.

2. Short-changing your accomplishments and only talking about your chid(ren)’s. One of the worst things women do to themselves isn’t to play up their kids’ milestones and accomplishments, but to downplay their own. That your kid sleeps for an hour longer that someone else’s kid is only an accomplishment in the short term, and it’s the kid’s accomplishment, not yours. Don’t make your child’s mini-milestones the only things you ever brag about. You are awesome; talk about it. If your friends don’t ever want to hear that kind of stuff, they’re not really your friends…or maybe they’re too afraid to talk about their own accomplishments and need a little support to find what’s great about themselves! Encourage them to embrace their own awesomeness, too — it’s so much more pleasant and less petty than playdate one-ups-man-ship.

3. Lying to your spouse/partner about your needs. Not all partners are equal when it comes to supporting their partners’ needs, but if you don’t even tell them your needs, how do you expect them to rise to support them? I know we want our partners to be psychic; they aren’t. You shouldn’t be sneaking off to get a manicure or a massage — not because you shouldn’t get those things, but because sneaking is beneath you and it’s beneath your partner. You’re an adult, for Pete’s sake! Tell your partner what you need, or you two really aren’t “partners;” you’re just two people who hang out together. If, after talking to your partner, s/he isn’t supportive of your needs, that’s a completely different issue, but when you lie to him/her about it, you aren’t even giving him/her the chance to step up.

4. Hiding how much money you spend or where you spend it. See above. Grown-ups don’t have to sneak around. Not only are you potentially wrecking your relationship with your partner by being dishonest (which sows a whole lot of doubt-seeds), you’re also potentially wrecking your family budget by hiding how money is spent. Not every family works off a budget, but having a carefully planned budget makes it a whole lot easier to plan for the hair cut, massage, pedicure, drink w/ the girls, etc. Don’t sneak; clearly express your needs and wants. Again, if at that point, your partner is unsupportive, it’s a different issue, but there’s nothing to be gained by sneaking around.

5. Treating your kid like a purse or a watch. Your child isn’t an accessory that you put on when s/he matches your outfit. Your child is a person. We don’t make other people sit in a pile of their own poop, ok? That’s just not cool. Parenting is often inconvenient, but try not to treat your children as though they were an inconvenience. They aren’t. They’re people, your people, your delightful wonderful tiny people who adore you and to whom you are the Master/Mistress of the Universe. Give yourself permission to show up a little late for appointments, just go ahead and accept you might have to watch your favorite show on Tivo or Hulu later, don’t leave the oven on, and stop to attend to your child’s needs when they arise, rather than when it’s most convenient for you.

6. Not giving yourself permission to be human. Humans are inherently flawed creatures. We screw up royally at almost every turn. Out best laid plans gang aft agley all over the damn place. We also waste so much time beating ourselves up over mistakes we’ve made that are over and done with. We wallow in our failures. Next time you screw up big time, instead of drowning in guilt over how you didn’t do it right, try to assess what can be learned from the screw-up and then say, “I’m human and humans screw up sometimes. What’s next?” When you hold yourself to impossible standards, you make yourself miserable and you aren’t a treat for those around you. I don’t mean to not set high standards. I’m not saying to excuse yourself for slack-assing through life. I’m not saying break wind at a state dinner (you know how I feel about manners). Just acknowledge you aren’t always going to get it perfectly right every single time. Accept it. Release that need to always be perceived as perfect. This is an area where I constantly struggle; I still feel guilty about a host of mistakes (ranging from insignificantly tiny to immeasurably huge) I’ve made over my life. I’m working hard to ditch the guilt over messing things up. Join me!

*And by “feel guilty about,” I mean, “give some consideration to,” because who the hell am I to dictate your guilt or lack thereof? I’m just a blogger, y’all, and Parenting is just a magazine. We aren’t the guideposts for your life. Listen to your instincts, make an effort to educate yourself from reputable sources, and if what I say helps you in any way, more power to both of us. <3 Peace out!

Do you ever feel completely, insufferably boring?

After the high from my smashing new haircut wore off, I found myself wandering around the house aimlessly, feeling sort of dejected and down and bored. Seriously, like “let’s dig our own graves” kind of bored. Wallowing around on the couch feeling pitiful kind of bored.

Suddenly, it hit me. I wasn’t actually bored. I was just incredibly, exceptionally boring.

The family joke is that I cut off all my hair when I’m about to break up with someone. My hairdresser knew I was getting divorced before my first husband did (thought he’s Charlie Sheen crazy, so it probably would have taken him by surprise no matter what). I think my hair gets the whack when I want to change something in my life. I don’t actually want to break up with Officer Daddyman, I’m sure you’ll be relieved to know, but the haircut is definitely related to my feeling of being boring. Deeply, broadly boring.

I realized that my hip, exciting, very-different-from-my-regular new haircut was the most interesting thing about me, at least from my perspective (I’m sure there’s a certain voyeuristic charm to watching my life from the outside, but y’all don’t have to live it).

Look at my day. My breakfast is almost always one of two things (oatmeal or yogurt), my lunch is variations on a theme (something on a salad), my dinner is something from my repertoire of about a dozen dishes. Coffee with breakfast, coffee again at 3. Homeschooling is challenging and even exciting in the big picture, but the day to day can get tedious, especially come this time of year. All day, every day, is filled with children and the million little things they require of me. Then it’s bedtime for the kids. Then I take a bath, have a glass of wine, and read a book. This could be any given day of the week. You can’t even tell if it’s a Monday or a Wednesday when you look at it. I love my family. I love my children. I love homeschooling and being a SAHM. I just feel like I, as an individual, am sort of boring myself to death with myself.

The sad thing is, it isn’t that the day is boring. It’s that I am boring. This is the routine that I have created. This is my handiwork, my boring, boring handiwork. Left to their own devices, my children would probably each come up with a completely different routine, all of which would likely conflict with each other, but which would at least be more colorful. Maybe those “let your kids do whatever they want” people have it right. Maybe I should give consensual living a chance simply because kids with fuzzy green teeth who stayed up until 4am might be different.

I worry that this comes across as a plea for validation. It isn’t. I get that I come across as at least minimally amusing on my blog. I’m a writer and if I cannot entertain you, then I obviously wasted my three years of graduate school (during which, I might add, I did not maintain a 4.0 GPA whilst pregnant and working like some other mom bloggers; I only managed a 3.8 while doing all those things) , since my blog is currently the only place I do any consistent writing (again, because I am boring, and cannot muster up enough creativity to really tackle my own creative projects). I’m not worried that I am perceived as boring; I’m worried that I am boring, in ways that y’all will never see, because I mask the truth of my boringness with my ability to tell a good story and poke fun at my own failings as a mother, homeschooler, and person.

Maybe it’s like body dysmorphia. Maybe I have a skewed perception of my personality, just like I’m sure I have a somewhat skewed perception of what my butt looks like. Maybe my really great and interesting personality and life are hiding underneath one of the cheeks of my ginormous backside. I guess I’m not the only one who feels this way. Do any of you sometimes feel hopelessly, helplessly boring, too? on’t try to validate me. You can commiserate with me, however, and let me know if I am like the cheese and stand alone (in my boring boringness) or if this is just part and parcel of being a homeschooler or a mom or just a person.

Are you boring, too?

If there is one thing I am tired of hearing about, it’s the damn “mommy wars.”

No, I’m not linking to any articles about the “mommy wars,” because honestly. Honestly. I am over it.

When I say I don’t like a particular parenting style or choice, a particular blogger, a particular philosophy, here are some things you should know: It’s not a vast conspiracy. It’s not a huge cultural movement. It’s not a battle with sides, pitting Mom Type A against Mom Types B. Sometimes it just means I think you’re a bitch.

I don’t believe I have to support every choice other mothers make in order to uplift motherhood.
I don’t believe I have to only say positive things or I’m perpetuating some fictional war of or on motherhood.
I don’t believe I have to like someone just because we have made similar choices on certain issues.
I don’t believe I have to agree with you just because you are a mother who blogs.
I don’t believe I have to agree with you just because you are a mother.
I don’t believe that “playing nice” or “maintaining peace” are goals I need to strive towards as a woman, a mother, or a blogger.

Sometimes I don’t like another mother/blogger’s attitude. Sometimes I don’t like her politics. Sometimes I don’t like her wishy-washy inability to take a real stance or state a real opinion. Sometimes I don’t like her attitudes about women, femininity, or feminism. Sometimes I think to myself, “I’m sure glad she’s raising her kids in Chicago/the Pacific Northwest/Los Whateversmos/Bratsghanistan so my kids won’t ever, ever, ever accidentally encounter hers.” Sometimes I want to shake things up. Sometimes, other moms do stupid things and then blog about it, or say stupid things, or have uninformed or offensive opinions, or just plain say something I don’t like or that doesn’t make me think highly of them. I know I do all of that stuff, and I don’t expect smoke blown up my ass when I do it, just because doing otherwise might oh-dear-god-in-heaven perpetuate the “mommy wars.” If you disagree with me, I don’t perceive it as part of a conspiracy, plot, or opposing side. I consider it a disagreement FROM you, WITH me. Just us two. No armies. No war.

I don’t know who started this “mommy war” concept, but I bet the bank that their goal wasn’t to uplift women. You want to know what is really doing a disservice to mothers? Simplifying everything they say and do down to sides in a “mommy war.” When you do that, you’re saying that they don’t have their own opinions and experiences, that they haven’t done any research or seen any data, that they can’t make rational decisions and then talk about them. You are saying they can’t be anything other than a representative of some mass groupthink. You’re saying women must all play nice and never speak up, and that any attempt to do otherwise is just part of some petty little playground battle between 2-dimensional mom archetypes. You’re saying, “Be a good girl, sit down and shut up, because you don’t want to continue the mommy wars, do you? Don’t say, ‘Maybe that’s a bad choice!’ Don’t say, ‘What the hell are you thinking?’ Don’t say, ‘Have you done any research on that?’ Don’t say, ‘What you are saying/doing is offensive or harmful or just downright dumb!’ The only way to support women is to always be pleasant and positive! You are obligated to agree with all women in all things and always tell them what they are doing is right for their family!” [I'm pretty sure that whole thing there should be said in Effie Trinket's voice, which in my head sounds just like Kristen Chenoweth's]

Let me tell you what: I am not Homeschool Mom, formally representing the viewpoints of all Homeschool Moms in opposition to Not Homeschool Moms. I am not Attachment Parenting Mom, formally representing the viewpoints of all Attachment Parenting Moms in opposition to Not AP Moms. I’m not Activism Mom (of whatever flavor), formally representing the viewpoints of all Activist Moms in opposition to Moms Who Don’t Do It That Way. I am Smrt Mama. My opinions comes from a lifetime of experiences, research, and human interaction. I sometimes disagree with the opinions and methodology of people supposedly on “my side” of various issues.

I am not a side in a war. Neither are you. Here’s my deal to you: I’ll call you a bitch on your own merits and you call me a bitch on mine, and we leave the term “mommy wars” out of it forever and always.

Good news for those of you who might ever have to deal with a pharmacist who thinks his/her personal beliefs outweigh your right to have your prescriptions issued as written. The Obama administration has rescinded the Bush administration regulations that allow the refusal of treatment or refusal to fill prescriptions on moral or religious grounds.

If you can’t do the job, get a new job. A pharmacist’s job is to fill the prescription as written and counsel the patient on possible drug interactions or side effect (evidence-based only, no speculation). Plain and simple.

I’m calling this one a triumph of individual rights and secular sense over the religious dogma that has been running rampant in this country.

The Cobb County School Board (our local school system) has voted to end the balanced school year model it followed last year and go back to the longer summer, no fall/winter break model.

Why did they vote to make the change?
,
Was it because students were performing poorly? Nope. A balanced school year improves learning retention and decreases the need for extensive review periods.

Was it because students were feeling burned due to the shorter summer break? Nope. The balanced calendar provided much more frequent breaks, approximately every 6-8 weeks and broke up the educational time into two relatively equal semesters.

Was it because parents didn’t like the balanced calendar? Nope. A poll sent to all Cobb parents found that over 70% voted in favor of the earlier “balanced calendar” start date.

Was it because teachers didn’t like the balanced calendar? Nope. 84% of Cobb teachers preferred the balanced calendar.

Was it because of overwhelming public outcry against the balanced calendar? Nope. School board members reported a flood of emails about the issue, with 2-2.5 times as many emails in favor of keeping the balanced calendar.

No, one of the main deciding factors of going back to the traditional long summer school year is apparently that a local water park lost business.

Priorities, folks. It’s all about priorities.

Michael Smith, author of several books geared towards public school teachers, principals, and administrators, and a school superintendent himself, thinks we should stop teaching kids how to write, type correctly, or spell. He also suggests we don’t need to teach the periodic table of elements, how to use a dictionary, the memorization of “useless” facts like the state capitals, or poetry.

Before I address his specific complaints, I’d like to make it clear that I have very little respect for anyone (let alone an educator) who brags that he made 12 typos in the writing of his blog post and was able to fix them with spell-check. Was I supposed to applaud? Is “Bad Educator” going to be the new “Bad Mom” trend? Considering how insufferable I find those Bad Moms who play up how disengaged they are with their children, how badly/frequently/proudly they’ve screwed up, and how much time their kids are likely to spend in therapy, I’m not on the short list of people who are going to line up to praise Bad Educator.

Consider yourself informed that I didn’t read Smith’s blog with a particularly open mind. Much of what he writes just reinforces my sense of relief that my child isn’t in public school. I think he’s an anti-intellectual and isn’t nearly as funny as he believes himself to be. On the whole, he pisses me off, so here are a few of his bones, from which I am picking the meat. Smith writes:

Penmanship is rarely used by most adults. Unless they are signing their name, so spending hundreds of hours teaching children how to make the perfect “Q” in cursive could be a waste of time.

Rarely used by some adults. Other adults use it quite often. I personally do a lot of my first drafts in longhand. My husband has to take legible notes when he’s out on call (good thing they’re legible, too, because sometimes he calls home for information and I have to retrieve it from his notebooks). It’s also pretty hard to take thorough notes on a laptop while trying to read from a large textbook. Take notes during a lecture, sure, but I can barely fit my laptop and, say, Bevington’s Complete Works of Shakespeare on my desk at the same time, let alone use the laptop to take good notes from the Bevington. Legible handwriting is also very important during the moony teen years, because only cursive can truly impart the angst and passion of teenage poetry. Typing simply will not cut it.

There are benefits to teaching proper handwriting that extend beyond writing letters or poetry or notes, however. It’s a way to develop fine motor skills (a different set from those used in typing). A 2006 study found an increase in letter confusion (specifically mixing letters up with their mirrors, d and b, for example) among those who first learned the letter through typing, and that the “stability of the characters’ representation in memory depends on the nature of the motor activity produced during learning.” In other words, writing letters by hand, not typing, more firmly and accurately implanted the letters into the memory. Handwriting, particularly cursive, stimulates the frontal cortex in a profound, lasting, and measurable (via PET scan) way, not only helping the student retain that skill, but greasing the pathways for later learning.

Keyboarding? Haven’t we progressed past the point of controlling our students by making them sit straight up and down with both feet on the floor while they type? I don’t know of any former students who have computer skills and weren’t hired for a job because they didn’t type fast enough or use the proper technique. Last time I checked, most elementary students know their way around a keyboard.

A) “Controlling our students?” Really, Michael Smith? Really?

B) We haven’t progressed past the point of back problems, carpal tunnel, or a host of other posture-related health problems that are in large part the result of incorrect body and arm positioning at the keyboard. Why not help our kids develop the muscle memory to hold their bodies in a more optimal position while typing and help decrease their risk of these conditions? When I’m having back/hip pain or my wrists are starting to hurt, I’m always amazed (though no longer surprised) by how much better I feel when I put my feet flat on the floor, sit up with a straight back, and position my hands properly on the keys.

C) He’s never met anyone who wasn’t hired for a job because they lacked adequate typing speed? I suppose none of his students have ever been an administrative/personal assistant, then, as typing speed is still pretty important. When being hired for data entry jobs, as well, the ability to quickly and accurately enter the data actually plays a role in getting the job. In my line of work (writing/editing), speed and accuracy in typing may not be a determining factor in getting a contract, but definitely can mean the difference between meeting deadlines (and getting paid) or not, between turning in usable work or not. The faster and more accurately I could type, the more contracts I could take, the more work I could do, and the more money I could make.

D) Captain Science has been using a keyboard since he was 2 or 3. He still has to hunt and peck when asked to type an essay. Playing games online requires the mouse and a few keys, while writing papers takes the full keyboard and very little mouse usage. Please don’t confuse computer gaming proficiency with typing proficiency. Or, as the Nana so eloquently put it, “There is a vast difference in the keyboarding skills needed to hack NASA and the skills needed to write an eloquent term paper.”

Lastly, what’s with all the time on spelling? Do we really need to know how to spell in this day and age? Can’t we just come close when we are typing and then let the computer correct us? During the typing of this blog, I misspelled 12 words. Maybe it’s my keyboarding skills, maybe I’m just stupid.

Oh yes! Let’s just let the machines do all the thinking for us. What could possibly go wrong?

I’m dumbfounded by Michael Smith’s hoisting of the banners of “Meh. Close enough.” Here you have an educator who is not only not particularly concerned that we are, as a nation, becoming dumber (or maybe, to be more fair, lowering our expectations and then falling to meet them), but is actually encouraging it! While I don’t think spelling is a barometer of intelligence (I know of one incredibly gifted girl who struggles with spelling, but excels in practically everything else), I do think that spelling has an important place in a well-rounded education. Far from being a mere “exercise in confusion” that we should get rid of, as Smith extols in another post, or foist off on a computer game (really? do we need less human interaction in education?), spelling teaches patterns, reveals roots of words, and allows for a tremendous degree of playfulness with language. A spell-check program can’t tell which of a set of homophones is appropriate in a given context. Did you really mean that kind of meat, Mr. Smith?

Stop with the memorizing state capitals. [...] If you find yourself desperately needing to know the capital of Delaware… look it up. [..]]I haven’t even gotten to the Periodic Table, poetry [...]

How trendy! Someone in education knocking the value of memorization!

Of course, many professions require an extensive amount of memorization. Think of what doctors have to memorize to graduate medical school, of the laws and cases lawyers must remember to pass their bar exams, of the codes and pathways that programmers must remember. If college is the first time in your life you’re called upon to memorize a large amount of information, you’re going to be in for a real treat.

Smith mentions poetry as one of the things to ditch from education. Memorizing poetry isn’t just a tedious task for filling classroom hours. Poetry teaches us about language patterns, stimulates parts of our brain we don’t normally use, imparts important lessons about rhythm into our cores. I won’t belabor this point too much, because Michael Knox Beran did a far superior job in his In Defense of Memorization. Suffice it to say, it’s not about the importance of knowing the state capitals (though it’s amazing how many times in my life that knowledge has come in hand), but about the importance of the art of learning by rote (or as Michael Clay Thompson prefers to call it, by heart).

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think I understand the point Smith is trying, but ultimately failing, to make. Technology must, absolutely must, play a more central role in our children’s educations. Technical literacy is becoming increasingly important in colleges and careers. Not only should children know how to use a computer for things like typing, graphic design, and programming, but they need to learn how to become fully participating online citizens. They need to be conversant in social media, because it has an undeniable power. Blogging reaches people in ways that other media can’t. Failure to respect the permanence and reach of anything that happens online has cost more than one job, friendship, or marriage. While my digital literacy soapbox can wait for another day, I wholeheartedly agree that digital literacy must be taught in public schools, private schools, home schools.

That doesn’t mean it needs to be taught to the exclusion of everything else. There are benefits to most aspects of a classical education that extend beyond memorizing a poem in that moment, studying Latin or Latinate vocabulary in that moment. Education isn’t just (or even primarily) about what happens in that moment, but about the big picture of lifelong learning, and Michael Smith’s inability to see that big picture is troubling. It’s particularly troubling that he is giving advice to teachers and (worse) administrators, urging them to sacrifice skills that have much greater benefit than what is seen in that moment.

Incidentally, Mr. Smith, spell-check may have corrected your 12 spelling mistakes, but not your attitude. Do you think they make a computer game that can address that one?