Concerto for faces in D major

Thanks to Desert Mom of A Quotidian Life for this connection. Her reason for posting this video is worth perusing, so click on the link and read about her daughter the violinist.

Daylight saving WHOSE time?

June wrote on her blog Spatter: "Twice a year we adjust our clocks to suit our needs and desires. And why not...after all, time is relative."

Why not? Because it's a sneaky plot by folks with October birthdays, that's why not! Back when (that's a time a few decades ago), time changed near the end of April every year. Can you guess whose birthday is near the end of April? Yes! You guessed correctly. And then it happened. The dreaded day of "spring forward" came and devoured an hour of MY day ... MINE. "Spring forward" is a sneaky way of saying "lose an hour of sleep" on that single day of the year. People would be late for church. They'd be cranky from losing an hour of sleep. And it happened on what was supposed to be my joyful day ... MINE.

So I wrote a short article about it. (I'm a wordsmith, so what else would you expect me to do?)

I entitled it "Daylight saving WHOSE time?" I had done my research well and had discovered the guilty party (parties?) who had stolen that hour from me: somebody whose birthday came in October, that's who! It was a revelation I wanted the world to know. It was unfair. Unfair, I tell you! Those folks in October got an extra hour every year ... by stealing it from April. And they already HAD a 31-day month.

Everyone knows that February is the shortest month of the year, but few realized that taking an hour from April (currently it's March who's being victimized) meant that April had become the second shortest month of the year. Short-changed by an hour, we had only 29 days and 23 hours. October, shiny and bright with its orange and red leaves, had become the longest month of the year with its 31 days plus one hour.

Now I ask you, is that fair? No! A resounding "NO"! And I've been campaigning for years to get back that hour of my birthday. Why, I even stayed up until two o'clock on that October Sunday to enjoy MY hour! It was a bit dark, and all that, but by golly I enjoyed every minute of it.
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Thanks to June (Spatter) for today's blogging topic. In the United States, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed the days of DST to add four more weeks, so DST now starts on the second Sunday in March and lasts until the first Sunday in November. When I wrote my article, DST started on the last Sunday in April and lasted until the last Sunday in October.
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"...last ... lasted ... last..." Did I really say that? Edited version: DST started at 2:00 a.m. on the final Sunday in April and continued until 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday in October.

Books I've read and need to review ~ soon!

Books stacked beside the computer that I've finished reading, but haven't yet reviewed. I'm hoping this post will shame me into getting these reviews written!









Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog ~ by Ted Kerasote ~ nonfiction (coming out in paperback in April)










I Never Saw Paris ~ by Harry I. Freund ~ fiction











Angels of a Lower Flight ~ by S. S. Krabacher










Eleanor vs. Ike ~ by Robin Gerber ~ historical fiction











Forgive Me ~ by Amanda Eyre Ward ~ fiction



Other Goose: Recycled Rhymes for Our Fragile Times ~ by Barbara Wyn Klunder ~ category? (School Library Journal says it's for grade 6 and up; Barnes & Noble thinks the age range is 6 to 9; I say it's for adults who appreciate its humor with a zing!)









Kersplatypus ~ by Susan K. Mitchell ~ children's picture book

Only seven? Goodness, I'm doing better than I thought! I guess I've been mentally including books such as those I've read for online discussions or recommended by friends ... and I can either review those or not. Making this list for myself has helped me see that finishing seven reviews is doable. Hurray!
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These are the books I've read for Book Buddies (still reading the most recent one)... which will be reviewed, eventually:

Mar 2008 ~ People of the Book ~ by Geraldine Brooks
Feb 2008 ~ In Lucia's Eyes ~ by Arthur Japin
Jan 2008 ~ Pictures of Hollis Woods ~ by Patricia Reilly Giff
Dec 2007 ~ Cold Comfort Farm ~ by Stella Gibbons
Nov 2007 ~ The Boy in the Striped Pajamas ~ by John Boyne
Oct 2007 ~ The Other Side of the Bridge ~ by Mary Lawson

We discuss one book each month, over there, in case you'd like to join us.

Unschooling

One of the most exciting parts of blogging is the discovery of something you had never heard before. This morning I read Colleen's Thursday Thirteen which included a link to Blogtations -- a site dedicated to notable blog quotes -- where Colleen herself was quoted. As I browsed those quotes, I ventured off into bloggerly by-ways until I stumbled on a new word: unschooling. Correction ... unschooling is a word new to me, but (lo and behold) it is beautifully defined in Wikipedia and illustrated by this photo of an unschooler teaching herself gymnastics. Kinda grabs your attention, doesn't it?

John Holt is credited with coining the word unschooling. Since he died in 1985, I guess I'm a bit behind the learning curve here. But I found the Wikipedia article to be quite interesting.

Unschooling is a form of education in which learning is based on the student's interests, needs, and goals. It may be alternatively referred to as natural learning, child-led learning, discovery learning, delight-led learning, or child-directed learning. ... Students choose how, when, why, and what they pursue. ... Unschooling expands from children's natural curiosity as an extension of their interests, concerns, needs, goals, and plans. ... Unschoolers commonly believe that curiosity is innate and that children want to learn what is necessary for them to become competent adults. Some argue that institutionalizing children in what they term a "one size fits all" or "factory model" school is an inefficient use of their time because it requires every child to learn specific subject matter in a particular manner, at a particular pace, and at a particular time regardless of that individual's present or future needs, interests, goals, or any pre-existing knowledge he or she might have about the topic.

Okay, I've heard this argument against regular schooling and for homeschooling. But that word unschooling still fascinates me.

Unschoolers often contest that learning any specific subject is less important than learning how to learn. They assert, in the words of Alec Bourne, "It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated", and in the words of Holt:

Since we can’t know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.

This ability to learn on their own makes it more likely that later, when these children are adults, they can continue to learn what they need to know to meet newly emerging needs, interests, and goals. They can return to any subject that they feel was not sufficiently covered or learn a completely new subject.

One who begs to differ is Bonnie Erbe, who wrote about Unspooling Unschooling way back on November 27, 2006 on her "To the Contrary" blog on the US News and World Report website.

What do you think about this issue of schooling vs. unschooling? Personally, I'm into unlearning, a totally different thing in which I am actively having to unlearn some of what I was taught so that I can actually think new things in new ways. Wanna know more?

Let's censor the censors

I promised an article about Laurie Halse Anderson after hearing her at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga last night. She recounted wonderful stories about her books and her writing life. The two she discussed in most detail were Speak, which I have already reviewed, and Fever 1793, which I bought and got signed after her presentation (review to come).

She mentioned that her YA novel Speak had been challenged, so I went looking for information and found this in her February 4th post:

What a way to start the month. First, John Green's Looking for Alaska is under fire for being "pornographic."

And now, some parents are going after Speak. The teacher involved has asked me not to name the school because she wants the process and policies of the district to unfold away from the glare of any spotlights. I respect that. I am allowed to say that it's a middle school in suburban Detroit. For the record, this has also happened in New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Washington, New York, Maine, and California. (As a result of the challenges, the book was embraced, not banned. Which does make an author feel good and a teacher feel even better.)

I sent her a note with teen sexual assault statistics and shared the feedback I've had from readers and their parents, who are grateful for a story that allows them to broach a difficult subject.

This teacher could use some professional support. If you teach Speak, can you please leave a note in the comments section for her? Tell her why you use the book. Tell her about your classroom experiences and your professional opinion about the place of the book in the curriculum. Or just give her a pat on the back. If you are a teen, tell her what the book meant to you.

Thank you very much and spread the word.

Note to Laurie Halse Anderson: I'm spreading the word just as far as I can shout it, not only here, but also on my Banned Books project blog.

What she said ... is chilling

We had joy, we had fun…
You see a gate, standing in a field. I see history and memories and hear voices all around me, floating through time. What was still is, what is, always was. Then is now, now is then. The unending cycle of incomprehension and arrogance continues. Nothing really changes.

This is Vanilla's most recent post. It's poetry, but it isn't ... it's powerful, it's chilling, but most of all, it is evocative. The words "we had joy, we had fun" brought back the song, which hasn't crossed my mind in years, in decades. Listen to the song; then go feel the words Vanilla wrote today.



If this video quits working, listen to Seasons in the Sun on YouTube.

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