the domestic zoo

Top 10 Reasons to Criminalize Homeschooling

1. Most parents were educated in the public school system, and so are not smart enough to homeschool their own children.

2. Children who receive one-on-one homeschooling will learn more than others, giving them an unfair advantage in the marketplace. This is undemocratic.

3. How can children learn to defend themselves unless they have to fight off bullies on a daily basis?

4. Ridicule from other children is important to the socialization process.

5. Children in public schools can get more practice “Just Saying No” to drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.

6. Fluorescent lighting may have significant health benefits.

7. Publicly asking permission to go to the bathroom teaches young people their place in society.

8. The fashion industry depends upon the peer pressure that only public schools can generate.

9. Public schools foster cultural literacy, passing on important traditions like the singing of “Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin
laid an egg…”

10. Homeschooled children may not learn important office career skills, like how to sit still for six hours straight.

from The New York Times:

Dr. Robinson and his colleagues tried to identify what activities happy people engage in. The study relied primarily on the responses of 45,000 Americans collected over 35 years by the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey, and on published “time diary” studies recording the daily activities of participants.

“We looked at 8 to 10 activities that happy people engage in, and for each one, the people who did the activities more — visiting others, going to church, all those things — were more happy,” Dr. Robinson said. “TV was the one activity that showed a negative relationship. Unhappy people did it more, and happy people did it less.”

But the researchers could not tell whether unhappy people watch more television or whether being glued to the set is what makes people unhappy. “I don’t know that turning off the TV will make you more happy,” Dr. Robinson said.

Still, he said, the data show that people who spend the most time watching television are least happy in the long run.

(or, how my bloggy friends expand my horizons)

I’ve taken the Myers-Briggs personality test, or variations thereupon, several times over for either classes or workshops or group activities involving deep self-revelation. I’ve remained fairly consistent over the past decade, wavering only in areas where I don’t strongly lean one way or another. But I always am, and will always be, firmly on the side of the introverts*.

In one college class, after taking the test we broke off into two groups, introverts and extroverts. We were to make two lists: one list of things we associated with the other group, and one list of things we wanted the other group to know about us. The introverts went first. “We’re not really snobs, we just need time to think. We like our space, but we’re not antisocial.” The extroverts’ list? “Introverts can be snobby. Introverts are often antisocial.”

And, to some extent, the extroverts were equally as misunderstood by the introverts, who mistook their sociability for flakiness and found their need for human interaction to be just…needy. But still, it often seems that the quirks of an extrovert are somewhat more socially acceptable. In that light comes today’s post from Liz, highlighting an article written by Jonathan Rauch at The Atlantic: ‘Caring for Your Introvert‘, a tongue-in-cheek guide to help extroverts understand how the other half lives.

Are you an extrovert? Read it. Are you an introvert? Then, says Rauch, “We can only dream that someday, when our condition is more widely understood, when perhaps an Introverts’ Rights movement has blossomed and borne fruit, it will not be impolite to say ‘I’m an introvert. You are a wonderful person and I like you. But now please shush.’”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Also from Cali comes ‘Dwelling in Possibilities‘. She says,

In the absence of any cogent analysis, I can only nod heartily in agreement.

*I’ll give a cookie to anyone who can accurately guess my four letter Myers-Briggs’ designation.

Every once in awhile you run across something: a fact, a photo, a snippet. Something that just socks you in the gut with a healthy dose of reality. This week, on [EV +/-] Exposure Compensation, it was Aaron Huey’s series of photographs of the Lakota Sioux living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There can be no doubt that the continued mistreatment of Native Americans is one of our nation’s biggest blind spots, and these photos are a much needed reminder of the forgotten societies within our own borders.

From Aaron Huey:

IN THE SHADOW OF WOUNDED KNEE

Fighting for Survival on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

On the Great Plains, hidden away on little traveled back roads, is American Prisoner of War Camp Number 334. This is also known as Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home of the Lakota Sioux. They are the tribe that suffered the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre, in December of 1890, in which an estimated 350 Lakota were killed. Among the dead were over one hundred unarmed women and children. Since that day Wounded Knee, and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, have been a symbol of the wrongs inflicted on Native Americans by the descendants of Europeans. Pine Ridge is the quintessential example of the failures of the reservation system, with staggering statistics on everything from violent crime to education.

Sadly, Pine Ridge continues to be the setting for an ongoing massacre within the tribe. Gangs on the reservation are out of control, and the violence they live by grips even the smallest villages. Unemployment on the reservation fluctuates between 85-90%, the housing office is unable to afford to build new structures, and existing structures are falling apart. Many are homeless, and those with homes are packed into rotting buildings with up to five families. Thirty-nine percent of the homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation have no electricity. It is reported that at least 60% of the homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation are infested with black mold, which causes an often-fatal condition with infants, children, and the elderly. According to 2006 resources, about 97% of the population lives below federal poverty levels.

The tuberculosis rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation is approximately eight times higher than the U.S. national average. The infant mortality rate is the highest on this continent and is about 3 times higher than the U.S. national average. Cervical cancer is five times higher than the U.S. national average. The school drop out rate is over 70%. Teacher turnover is eight times that of the U.S. national average. Frequently, grandparents are raising their grandchildren because their own children have succumbed to alcoholism, domestic violence, and general apathy. Making life even more grim, fifty percent of the population over 40 suffers from diabetes and the life expectancy for men is a mere 48 years of age.

I have spent years following stories of war, poverty, and neglect in foreign conflicts around the world. I found, however, that I had a group in my own backyard that had been conveniently forgotten. This emotional photographic exploration has transcended the normal boundaries of a documentary for me. I have developed a deep friendship and love for the people of Pine Ridge, and for the families I have visited on several journeys over the past three years. My hope is that this photographic exploration will bring to light a people who have long been demonized, victimized, and romanticized, but ultimately abandoned.

I hope that these photos of the Lakota will, if nothing else, make it impossible to forget them.

– Aaron Huey