Archive for March, 2008

In Defense of “Heroification,” Part 2 (Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware)

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

What does a historical hero look like? Emmanuel Leutze shows us in his “George Washington Crossing the Delaware,” which hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. There is no greater concrete example of true and justified hero worship than this image. Amazingly, this is a painting historians love to hate. It is [...]

Posted in American History, Art, Education, History, Homeschooling, Pedagogy | No Comments »

HistoryAtOurHouse proudly presents…Kid Komics!

Friday, March 28th, 2008

Two of my entrepreneurial young students, Dane and Hayden Van Slooten, have formed their first business venture: Kid Komics. Since they are excellent history students, I invited them to combine these two interests, and suggested that they could gain exposure by providing content for the HistoryAtOurHouse blog. They agreed, and here is their first effort. [...]

Posted in American History, Comics, Homeschooling, Humor | No Comments »

Support ACR 115 for California Homeschooling!

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

Here’s the text of State Assembly Member Joel Anderson’s Resolution.  Read it, and act!   Assembly Concurrent Resolution ACR 115 WHEREAS, Some thirty years of experience with the modern homeschooling movement in California demonstrates that home school graduates take up responsible positions as parents, as students in and graduates of Colleges and Universities, in the workplace, [...]

Posted in Education, Homeschooling, Parenting, Secular homeschooling | No Comments »

Secular Homeschooling

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

The second issue of Deborah Markus’s Secular Homeschooling magazine is now available.  Check out the table of contents here. Deborah also has a great post on her philosophy, at her editor’s blog, entitled “Does it Have to be Secular?“  In that piece she talks about the idea that “secular” homeschooling is not anti-religious; it’s simply [...]

Posted in Homeschooling, Secular homeschooling | 1 Comment »

In Defense of “Heroification” (Part 1)

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

In his book, “Lies My Teacher Told Me,” James Loewen claims that history is subject to a degenerative process known as “heroification.” According to Loewen, by this process “our educational media turn flesh-and-blood individuals into pious, perfect creatures without conflicts, pain, credibility, or human interest.” Loewen dedicates the first chapter of his book, entitled “Handicapped [...]

Posted in American History, Art | 3 Comments »

California Homeschooling Update

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Gideon Reich, one of my homeschooling parents in California, has this update about the homeschooling situation there, courtesy of his blog, “Armchair Intellectual”: California Resolution on Homeschooling

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

California Court Declares War on Homeschoolers and the Declaration of Independence!

Friday, March 7th, 2008

In 1767, the British government declared that it had “full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America…in all cases whatsoever.” This ominous phraseology was an important symbol of the broader meaning of less wide-ranging attacks on freedom, like the Stamp Act. [...]

Posted in Homeschooling | No Comments »

Here’s How You Pay Kids to Get Good Grades!

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

A professor was giving a big test one day to his students. He handed out all of the tests and went back to his desk to wait. Once the test was over the students all handed the tests back in. The professor noticed that one of the students had attached a $100 bill to his [...]

Posted in Education, Humor | No Comments »

What Did You Learn in School Today, Luann?

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

(Click on the image to find out the hilarious answer! ) If only it were true that what the Luanns of the world are taught and what they remember were indeed different. I’d love to see what the average “mental map” of the world of a government-educated “social studies” student looks like. I’m betting it [...]

Posted in Education, Humor | No Comments »