1)
Yesterday morning Ellie hit two important milestones: she figured out how to climb stairs (though not how to come down) and how to walk, i.e. with more than two steps at a time (now she toddles sideways like a baby crab).
Yay?
2)
From The Atlantic: "The Culture of Shut Up."
From The Economist: "The Homeschool Conundrum." This centers on the Romeikes, the German homeschooling family currently taking refuge in Lexington, Kentucky. It's not as much of a conundrum as talking heads like to think. Anyway, an interesting article contrasting Germany's fear of "different" with America's tendency (thus far) to err on the side of individual choice.
The quickest way to peel apples. I don't think my husband would be okay with this . . .
5)
This also made me laugh: Kid Snippets does a weight loss infomercial. "Is it gwuten fwee? Ohhhh yes it is!" Honestly, I find everything that Kid Snippets does completely hilarious, from the cooking show ("Today we're going to add some crazy stuff") to the math class ("Do you get it NOW?!") to the sick baby ("So you fed her the flower cookies?") to the presidential debate ("I'm the smartest because I can make my ears talk all by themselves").
Aaaand I just spent way too long on their channel.
6)
Daily dose of squee: baby elephants learning to use their trunks.
Yesterday morning Ellie hit two important milestones: she figured out how to climb stairs (though not how to come down) and how to walk, i.e. with more than two steps at a time (now she toddles sideways like a baby crab).
2)
From The Atlantic: "The Culture of Shut Up."
These cycles of pearl-clutching followed by either abject sorrow or banishment are of course driven by news outlets looking to score a few hits or viewers by drumming up controversy.3)
But they’re also driven by us, as viewers and readers, all of us part of the culture of shut up. It plays out in the defining down of “hate speech” on liberal college campuses and in the defining down of “anti-American” at conservative conferences . . .
Yes, it’s in some ways a natural response to being more connected to one another; we’re just in each other’s faces. But it’s also dangerous. It narrows the visible spectrum of ideas. It encourages people to be safe and cautious and circumspect when we don’t want people to be safe. We don’t want people to be afraid of saying something interesting on the off chance it’s taken the wrong way.
From The Economist: "The Homeschool Conundrum." This centers on the Romeikes, the German homeschooling family currently taking refuge in Lexington, Kentucky. It's not as much of a conundrum as talking heads like to think. Anyway, an interesting article contrasting Germany's fear of "different" with America's tendency (thus far) to err on the side of individual choice.
Americans assume that most parents try to do what is best for their children. That can be an uncomfortable principle (there are some daft parents, among them Lexington on a bad day). But the alternative—the presumption that the state knows best—is worse.4)
The quickest way to peel apples. I don't think my husband would be okay with this . . .
5)
This also made me laugh: Kid Snippets does a weight loss infomercial. "Is it gwuten fwee? Ohhhh yes it is!" Honestly, I find everything that Kid Snippets does completely hilarious, from the cooking show ("Today we're going to add some crazy stuff") to the math class ("Do you get it NOW?!") to the sick baby ("So you fed her the flower cookies?") to the presidential debate ("I'm the smartest because I can make my ears talk all by themselves").
Aaaand I just spent way too long on their channel.
6)
Daily dose of squee: baby elephants learning to use their trunks.
This line from the "Culture of Shut-up" article you mentioned....
ReplyDeleteOne of the funniest and best written things that have read in a ling time......
I laughed out loud!
"Did you know that every single day, the Internet produces more speech than was created between the dawn of civilization and the year 2006? You didn’t know that, because I just made it up. But it feels true. We are all bombarded. We are drowning in information. It’s no longer thrown on our doorstep each sunrise, or even just broadcast into our living rooms; it’s in our hands every waking hour; the endless stream of talking, as we spend all day moving our eyes from screen to screen to screen; it’s the first thing we see each morning and the last thing we see before we go to bed. The shower is the last safe space, which is why it’s the only place where we have decent ideas anymore."
The Culture of Shut-Up article in The Atlantic by Jon Lovett Apr 7 2014
daddus
I didn't realize that the family was in Lexington -- my home!!!!
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