I have a 4-H meeting tonight with no formed agenda except in my head.  Following that scary thought, I need to focus, while first trying to clear out some links that have been waiting to be noticed on Corn and Oil.

The Carnival of Principled Government is up at Principled Discovery: Carnival of Principled Government, A few questions.

EdWeek lamented that the Governors were ignoring education in light of the bad economy that our President says he’s on top of….yeah, our 401K shows what the feds are doing.  Looking at the guvs’ site, it appears they’re terribly busy in education and I’m finding most of it unfortunate.   Kinda creepy headings below.  I’d be ok if they ignored a little more:

Key Committee Issues:

It does go right along with this Partnership for America’s Economic Success.  Big bucks there including  a good piece of the Berkshire Hathaway founder ’s fortune, who says this:
Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing. - Warren Buffett

He knows how to make lots of money.  With his Buffett Early Childhood Fund lining up little ones for America’s economic success, he might want to check in on some educational success logic and see where that’s been heading.

I’m wondering why my opened pages of interest are expanding instead of decreasing. 

Following further distractions, I ran into this *spoof*, but can’t remember how:

California parents arrested — Caught Home-schooling their children without a teaching credential

While there, I ran into this one:

Water contains Free Psychotropic Drugs as part of pilot project proving Universal Health Care Fiscally Feasible — Shutdown over Fear it can only be opposed on Moral Grounds

Los Angeles, California - A pilot project leaked to the media that local water districts were working with pharmaceutical companies on a new, faster and more efficient drug delivery system to handle the anticipated increased needs of retiring Baby Boomers at a fraction of the expense that is currently provided to the elderly and working poor was…wait. What was I talking about?

I liked this article from Huntville about a homeschooling family:

Home school? It’s a lifestyle-By SHALYNN FORD for the Huntville Times

Most of all, home schooling means going against everything society says matters. For example, I recently accompanied my daughter to a nearby university where I noticed a former colleague across the room. A freshly minted Ph.D. when we last saw one another, he was being introduced to the visiting high school students as chairman of the school’s Psychology Department.

Seeing a junior colleague who once suggested I try for a tenured position at his school was a bit jarring, especially since he is both much younger than me and now running said department while I am basically unemployed.

For the first time since beginning this odyssey, I wondered whether I’d committed career suicide. My job skills are so last century - unless you count my uncanny ability to win, hypothetically, large sums of game show money (yes, I am smarter than a fifth grader because I have repeated all thirteen grades as an adult, thank you).

The Cate family’s daughter is on AOL’s news page.  Very cute.  When I saw it was a USA Today article, I couldn’t help but think of the founder’s bias towards homeschooling with his Plain but Ignorant Talk

The AOL/USA Today article had this quote from the Children’s Law Center spokesperson :

"Our concern was the kids’ safety," says Leslie Heimov of the Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles. "There’s a big difference between a social worker visiting once a month and (what) a teacher might be able to see on a daily basis."

Right, if the social worker is able to keep up from an outrageous workload or is capable of good judgment.  The same goes for the teacher.  It’s always scary when a very important job such as overseeing a child’s well being is turned over to strangers or an agency/bureaucrat.  The community tends to think it’s someone else’s job and none of their business. 

Ran into this local incident and blogged it on the IR as my documentation of those children who are seen on a daily basis by mandated reporters.

Passing the Trash