"A Pledge of Convictional Civility"

 I don't know who Millard Erikson is (nor did I bother to Google him), but this list is sooo good.

I will not point out the presuppositions of another’s position without acknowledging that I have presuppositions myself.
I will not contend that another’s view is historically conditioned without conceding that mine is also.
I will be more concerned not to misunderstand or misrepresent others’ views than to claim that mine has been misunderstood or misrepresented.
I will be more concerned that my language by fair and objective than I am that others’ language about me may not be.
I will not caricature my opponent’s view to make my own appear more moderate.
I will not employ ad hominem arguments.
I will abstain from the use of pejorative language.
I will not impute motives or emotions to others.
I will think of intellectual arguments in terms of differences over ideas, not as personal disputes.

[http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevinwax/2015/04/18/a-pledge-of-convictional-civility/]

Graduate Degrees

It's a mark of my general contentedness (and complete distraction) that I haven't been thinking about this topic lately. But! I will probably always struggle with it and as such I need to remind myself of truth.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s ok for a mom to have aspirations and ambitions. It’s ok for her to follow her career dreams and professional desires. But it’s also ok for her to put those things aside for a season too. From what I hear, it’s one of the shortest seasons we get as mommies of babies, and toddlers and preschoolers. I’m going to embrace it while it’s here and then move on.

[http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2015/03/what-i-want-you-to-know-i-have-phd-and.html]

Show Off Schools

Hmm...

Schools are for showing off, not for learning. When we enroll our children in school, we enroll them into a never ending series of contests—to see who is best, who can get the highest grades, the highest scores on standardized tests, win the most honors, make it into the most advanced placement classes, get into the best colleges.

If schools were for learning rather than showing off, we would design them entirely differently. They would be places where people could follow their own interests, learn what they wanted to learn, try out various career paths, prepare themselves for the futures that they wanted. Everyone would be doing different things, at different times, so there would be no basis for comparison. People would learn to read when they wanted to learn to read, and we would help them do it if they wanted help. The focus would be on cooperation, not on competition.

[http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201309/schools-are-good-showing-not-learning]

English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

I found a new website and I'm in love: English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Colors and Toddlers

This article, "Why Johnny Can't Name His Colors," is particularly fascinating to me because of the fact that Ezra knows his colors pretty well. (And he's only 19 months old, as opposed to the 2 and 3 year olds in this study.) He can usually identify pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white and gray. He has the most trouble with red, or has, though it seems as if that's a thing of the past now too. And of course when he sees "maroon" he often calls it purple, etc. But we didn't actively try to teach him colors. He just started saying them (consistently) about a month ago and hasn't stopped. So we do point to colors now and ask him what color this or that is. Or we'll ask him to bring us the blue car, etc.

I guess it's because "teaching him to name his colors" was so easy it's interesting to me to read about the process of doing so. I just never thought about it until it happened.

Teaching Logic

Six short videos to teach high schoolers logic.

"My son is fearfully and wonderfully made, but this week I learned that he has a learning disability."

I love the way this blogger, Trish, writes about life as a widow and mother of two small boys. She's been an encouragement to me to trust in the Lord's sovereignty even when I'm hurting.

This post, about her son's recent learning disabiliy was especially sweet and poignant.

If the world were 100 people...

...this is how it would break down. Wow. (And these stats are from 2006, so they're pretty recent. And, if you look at the scholarship it's pretty reliable.)

If the World were 100 PEOPLE:
50 would be female
50 would be male
26 would be children
There would be 74 adults,
8 of whom would be 65 and older
There would be:
60 Asians
15 Africans
14 people from the Americas
11 Europeans
33 Christians
22 Muslims
14 Hindus
7 Buddhists
12 people who practice other religions
12 people who would not be aligned with a religion
12 would speak Chinese
5 would speak Spanish
5 would speak English
3 would speak Arabic
3 would speak Hindi
3 would speak Bengali
3 would speak Portuguese
2 would speak Russian
2 would speak Japanese
62 would speak other languages
83 would be able to read and write; 17 would not
7 would have a college degree
22 would own or share a computer
77 people would have a place to shelter them
from the wind and the rain, but 23 would not
1 would be dying of starvation
15 would be undernourished
21 would be overweight
87 would have access to safe drinking water
13 would have have no clean, safe water to drink