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columbus
2003-01-31 - 10:00 a.m. Hey! I've forgotten what else I had to say, but I do know that it was going to begin with "Hey!" A day off was a good idea. I didn't even really make myself do anything, but still the kitchen is clean, and the living room is tolerable, and while the dining room table is not exactly clear, it doesn't have impacted piles of crap. More like unconsolidated bits of crap. Maddy survived the test at middle school b, but only just. Partly its my fault. I got her there late, because I forgot that the car had no gas in it. She looked traumatized when I dropped her off, but okay when I picked her up. I think I have to call the admissions woman and find out just how badly it went. We're in a bad situation anyway, since I'm not sure I want her to go to middle school next year or not. Actually, I think I do -- but I think she wants to stay where she is. So -- Everyone knows, though -- I've been very upfront about the whole deal. OKay, then. Hey -- that Caitlin Kiernan book. It is extremely creepy, but it's also really good. Very very good. Campbell, you'd like it, I think. Kevin's dad forwarded an interesting bit about education in 1896 to K's immediate family. It's sort of interesting, because it's an 8th grade test, and it's supposed to show that people in 8th grade then know a lot more than 8th graders now. Which of course is not true -- kids don't know about bushels and rods and the three epochs of American history, but that's because bushels and rods are no longer relevant, and American history is taught differently. But -- what has emerged is how many of us had grandmothers, or great grandmothers, who went to teachers colleges. That's an interesting thing. And then the whole Columbus thing comes up -- Apparently it's not that Columbus per se was so bad, but that what he stands for was. Which I guess is the idea that the Europeans could come over here and claim land that people were actually already living on. True, that isn't fair. But was it unusual? Were other peoples not doing the same thing? What about the Romans, or Genghis Khan in China? And also -- isn't it a bit hypocritical for landowners of european descent to be decrying Columbus? If our ancestors should have stayed in Europe in 1492, then surely we shouldn't be here, either. But we are. I don't know -- I got to go --
find me! - 2008-02-12 |
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