Daniel Pink on Homeschooling

Manisha and I are reading "Free Agent Nation" by Dan Pink. He has many interesting observations about free agents (the Self-employed, Freelancers, Independent Professionals, Consultants, Nanocorps, Solopreneurs, Small Business, Home-based Business). Homeschooling figures prominently in his analysis of where the American (& increasingly global) economy is going:

The main crisis in schools today is irrelevance. And the main problem with most education solutions is that they incrementally improve Taylorist [assembly-line] solutions for a Tailorist [individuated] workforce. Of all the institutions in America, schools have least adapted themselves to the free agent economy. Watch for more middle-class families opting to home-school their children on their own terms and consistent with their own values. And expect more Americans to being questioning whether formal schooling should be compulsory and whether a college degree is necessary.

In Chapter 15, "School's Out: Free agency and the future of education", he writes:

[...] home schooling is almost perfectly consonant with the four values of the free agent work ethic [...]: having freedom, being authentic, putting yourself on the line, and defining your own success.

Needless to say, I agree with his overall analysis and recommend the book highly. Now I want to go read his newer book "A Whole New Mind".

Warren Buffett on Success and Happiness

Paul Farrell has this brillliant article on wealth and happiness on Marketwatch. From Tip #2:

"Success is getting what you want," says Uncle Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha. "Happiness is wanting what you get." And to University of Nebraska students: "If there is any difference between you and me it may simply be that I get up every day and have a chance to do what I love to do, every day. If you learn anything from me, this is the best advice I can give you."

Who am I to argue with the world's second richest man?!

Math Abbott-and-Costello-style

Supriya has been asking me to get Abbott and Costello movies again from Netflix. She and Aseem really enjoy their slapstick stuff. So I decided to look up Abbott and Costello on Youtube.com and of course it's a treasure-trove of all their routines - including a variety of their awesome "Who's on first?" skit. I thought this math routine is particularly appropriate on this blog (which includes the famous lines: "Did you ever go to school stupid?" "Yeah, and I came out the same way!")

Frosty the Snowman

We have a warm front moving in from the West and the snow is beginning to melt. The temperature is just right to make big snowballs and of course a snowman!

Surfrider Supriya

Supriya just got done with another session of Pool School. She is enjoying herself and wants to keep going back.

Best Buddies

Aseem and Supriya really look after each other. I went to the copying place with Aseem. He picked up 2 lollipops, one for himself and one for her. She does the same for him. Today was the last day of Pool School and they were having a party. Supriya knew beforehand that she was going to get something for Aseem. She picked up a little soccerball medallion necklace and brought it home for Aseem! It warms my heart to see this generosity of spirit and the caring for each other. They truly are a team!

Another New Word Coined

Supriya: Get up Daddy!
I: Why?
S: You have been sleeping for four hours!
I: So?
S: You will get Sleepothozia!

Sledding in a Winter Wonderland

New England has been hit with a couple of snowstorms in the last couple weeks. We have had a couple of feet of snow and the scenery is just breathtakingly beautiful. The kids and I finally got the chance to go sledding yesterday and today. We went to the nearby Tyler Park and sledded to our hearts' content. It's a short slope, but we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Supriya mastered her snowboard & the snow-scooter, and the daredevil in the usually-mild-mannered Aseem came out to play! He would set down his round blue sled at the top of the slope, go back about five feet, run and jump into the sled with a cry of "Cannonball!" and down he would go like a rocket.

Supriya's Debut

Monday was the last day of the Fall semester at Voyagers. Supriya made her debut as Monk Hok in "Stone Soup", a brand-new musical comedy written jointly by the students and the talented director Lauren Sprague. The play was about 20 minutes long and it went quite well. (I learned something new about Supriya. The playbill says, "she would like to be a playwright when she grows up." Who knew?!) Here's Supriya with Emily (Ching), her best friend at Voyagers.

We are really enjoying Voyagers. All 3 of us felt right at home when we walked into Voyagers in September. Of course it helped that we already knew half thefamilies there! It has been a great session and we are looking forward to another great session when we getback from India.

"Top Ten Global Trends That Force Us To Rethink Education"

Here they are at Education Futures. Nothing really new except for this quantitative bit in Trend #9, "Change is accelerating":

The doubling time of information is now under one year. In 20 years or less doubling time may drop to a few weeks.

I don't know where they came up with these numbers. It does not really matter I guess, but estimates of this ilk always intrigue me.

In any case, I think it is incumbent upon parents in this 21st century to think about these issues. If the doubling time of information is under one year (assuming that it is a good enough estimate), the very nature of life is changing faster than our categories of thought can evolve. For example, the very concept of "education" may become outmoded. Our kids do live in a very different (global, accelerating, automated, knowledge-intensive) world and they are going to have to create concepts to describe that world on their own!

TaeKwonDo Promotions

We had our testing on Friday and got our new belts today. Supriya got a double-promotion and is now a dark-blue belt. Aseem and I got green belts. I started TaeKwonDo exactly a year ago and it's the best thing I did in 2007. I have lost a fair amount of fat, gained a fair bit of muscle and flexibility - and had a great time doing it with the kids!

"The Dyslexia Advantage?"

A very interesting post on Dan Pink's blog:

In AWNM [A Whole New Mind] I wrote about studies showing that self-made millionaires are much more likely to be dyslexic than the rest of the population. Now comes a fresh round of research, reported in the New York Times and pointed out to me by my pal Chris Nippert-Eng, revealing that a whopping 35% of American small business owners identify themselves as dyslexic.

"Planet Earth"

We - Supriya, my mother and I for the most part - have been watching BBC's latest extravaganza "Planet Earth", an award-winning series of 5 DVDs. We have watched the first two DVDs and really enjoyed them. Highly recommended.

Supriya Singing Harmony

Supriya is singing harmony by herself! She auditioned for a kid duo part within a longish song yesterday. She and I have been working on it for a couple three days and she nails it most of the time. She was a little flustered at the auditions and kept getting sucked into the melody. For now she has earned a spot as a backup for the performance in February.

Is "Screwdrive" a Verb?

Like his sister, Aseem is making up words that need to be made up to suit his purpose. He said, "Mom, I need to screwdrive this out." Hey, if fundraise is acceptable as a verb, why not screwdrive?!

Supriya Starts Drumming Lessons

Supriya had her first drumming lesson on Thursday. The half-hour went by too fast, but I got good vibes about the instructor. He is a practicing drummer which made a big impression on Supriya. He started her off by showing her the correct way of holding the drumsticks. Then he got her a book which has drumming exercises written in standard music notation and had her play from it. I liked his approach. We shall see how Supriya takes to him and the lessons.

John Holt Quote

Manisha sent me this John Holt quote today:

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.

She comments, "This seems obvious now because we've seen technology change. It was one of the factoids in that video [in the previous post]. But it's amazing that he could see it then - probably 30 years ago."

Shift Happens

I was sent this link to the YouTube video called "Shift Happens". Among a litany of meaningful statistics is this nugget (Didn't you know that anything that fits my biases is a nugget, the rest is trash!):

According to former Secretary of Education Ruchard Riley, the top 10 jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn't exist in 2004.

We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist... using technologies that haven't yet been invented... in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet.

Aseem and Numbers

I wrote today that I worry about Aseem not getting math basics. That is not really true. It all depends on the context. If you ask him "How much is 7 minus 5?", he may not be able to answer you. But here's what happened today. He likes to keep the TV volume at 5 when he plays the GameCube. Manisha brought down the volume to 7 from 21 and asked him if that was OK. He said, without hesitation, "Two more." Evidently he has a good enough working knowledge of numbers and basic math!

A Couple of Milestones for Supriya

Couple of progress points this week for Supriya:

1. Christina asked Supriya to sing alto on one song in our family chorus. This will be Supriya's first time singing harmony - at the tender age of 8 1/2. I am envious! "I thought she might enjoy a new challenge, and I thought she'd be able to rise to it," Christina wrote to me.
2. She did a couple of good dives at her swimming class, Manisha tells me. That's something new for Supriya.

Aseem and LEGO Star Wars II

I sat next to Aseem as he played "LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy" videogame on the GameCube. He and Supriya have been at it for the last 3 or 4 weeks, cracking the game bit by bit. The challenge is that the game is targeted at 10 years and up and Aseem is only 6. But by dint of hard work and with help from each other, they have basically managed to conquer the game.

As I watched him play, it struck me how much he knows. He has essentially built up a map of the whole game inside his head and he is able to navigate it without getting lost. I said to Manisha, "I occasionally worry about him not reading or not getting math basics. But then I see him play a game like this and I stop worrying! He is doing fine." She replied, "Any time you think that he is not progressing on reading or math, remind yourself that nobody went to school in the old days before they were 8! He is doing fine. Stop worrying!"