The First Sixth of March

Parenting
The kids are disappointed with their tooth fairy for forgetting to show up sometimes (okay - lots of times). I suggested they fire her. They contemplated that and then decided that a slack tooth fairy is better than no tooth fairy.  Jesting aside, though, isn't that how it is too often? We are much more slack with those we love most because we know they will never reject us, while we give our best to our employers who could hand us a pink slip without a moment's notice.

Parenting my mini-me often feels like an out-of-body experience. I know how she feels (because I was just like her at her age) verses what is actually true, and I want so much to show her right now what took me over 30 years of walking with the Lord to learn & apply. Yet, while I have that "higher" perspective that comes with age & experience and can see her so clearly, she doesn't seem to see or hear me, for she is not an extension of myself but her own unique person. While I can do my best to teach her what I have learned, her unique journey is ultimately between God and herself.

It's already time to start registering our kids for summer camp.  When registering my little boy for a camp for 1st & 2nd graders, I noticed that this year, the form had been altered to include an extra check box under gender labeled "other". Why were resources spent to make that change? Is that 3rd option now legally required? I have heard one isolated sensational news story about parents wanting to change their kids' gender, but really, are that many parents in our local area seriously confused about their child's gender?  Must we trouble our children with questions that were clearly decided at birth (hello...you are either male or female...God created us male and female from the beginning) by making them question their gender.  This world has gone mad.   We know and work with someone who changed his/her gender, claiming to be a woman, trapped in a man's body, while still married to his wife.  How does an adult comprehend such a thing...much less an 8-year-old child.  Oh the things we parents get to face that now that our parents never even imagined, much less faced themselves.

Recent Weather
The weather recently has been a roller coaster of highs and lows as illustrated below.  The temperature is expected to drop 50 degrees within a 12 hour time frame today. 

I saw this meme recently and decided it wasn't funny or precise enough anymore.  So, I corrected it.  I hope somee cards does not mind.

A Riddle
Help us solve this riddle: It is sassy and pompous, destroys costly things with its razor like weapons, likes to climb up high for a better view, and will recline on top of a person's lap, belly, chest, head, feet, etc. for hours like a cat. It chews on shoes or sticks, wears shirts and a collar, enjoys walking with a leash, and follows people everywhere like a dog. It can move almost faster horizontally or vertically than the human eye can see. It seems to eat most anything in its path (from grass and house plants to rubber mats, dumbbells, and even it's own poo) like a goat. What is it?

Muffin's method for managing Monday malaise

If you guessed "a bunny", that's what our pet's breeder said she was, but we're still not sure. She is the most bizarre and annoying creature ever, but we love her, and I especially enjoy spending my morning prayer time with her nestled in my lap.  It's become our tradition.

Teaching
I have really enjoyed watching my students rise to the occasion for their quarterly projects.  My husband thought this quarter's project on Data Ethics would be too challenging for them, but they have been addressing some key current issues with professionalism and sound reasoning.  The guys dressed up in their dress uniforms with coat & tie for their presentations and a student remarked that they looked like a singing quartet.  These students absolutely loved hearing the story of how I met my husband (I shared it to illustrate key stats concepts (seriously), to illustrate spiritual truths, because they asked, and to show them that I am real person they can relate to and come to and not just a talking head up at the board every day), so I reminded them that the dress uniform and singing quartet worked for my husband when I first met him (did it ever, I was smitten from the moment I saw and heard him!).  They imitate my husband in a lot of ways I find amusing.  Anyway, I do believe information ethics (collection, protection, communication, utilization, privacy rights, etc.) will be a critical topic their generation will have to address as data runs the world, influences decisions, and steers people to believe all kinds of things whether true or false.  Some of the most interesting topics students selected include:

• InBloom and the Common Core Standards
• Unemployment rates reporting - U3 vs. U6 and how the reported rates are half the actual rates to present a healthier picture of the economy
• Cell & tissue research from diagnostic tests vs. clinical trials and full disclosure research panels
• Information security & the 2013 Target data breach
• TV advertising using Simmon's consumer surveys, particularly with regard to OTC weight loss products
• Social media being used for data collection, behavioral studies, etc.

The presentations have been very interesting indeed, and provide far better usable education and skill development than written tests in my opinion.  Students who do not test well often deliver outstanding projects, which helps both their confidence and mine!  (Gift #970)

Our next project has been received with great rejoicing in our class, particularly by the basketball players (who have played together since 6th grade and have been undefeated conference and tournament champions for the past two years in a row).  I am sad to admit that I never cared too much for NCAA basketball (except when it meant I could spend time with my daddy watching all the games as a kid). But after realizing that I could reinforce many of the key concepts we have covered this year in my class while building analytical, critical thinking, decision making, research & reporting, oral & written communication skills through an NCAA championship bracket project, I am all about some NCAA basketball. Watch out, sports fans, because our class pool knows how to pick em'.

Interesting Reading

"Why Our Children Don't Think There are Moral Facts"
This troubling and very false idea that moral truth is relative is not new to common core, but it does seem to be more pervasive now.  One of my professor friends read this article upon my recommendation, and had this to say:

Summary: Children are taught that facts are the same as truths and that facts are provable and/or testable, that opinions are everything else, and thus that the two are mutually exclusive so there can be no moral facts/truths.
Gödel's second incompleteness theorem, however, showed us that even in relatively simple mathematical systems, there are true things about a system that can be stated but cannot be proven within the system. Also, there are many facts we cannot test given human/physical limits. This is not limited to the metaphysical. I'm surprised that one would think that our ability or lack of ability to test a physical theory at different points in history should have any bearing on the underlying truth or falsity of that theory.

There is a lack of basic humility reflected in an anthropocentric definition of truth that fails to allow that things can exist which we cannot prove, test, understand, control, measure, sense, etc. We will never be able to see the whole truth of things, and our inability doesn't change those things a bit.

"The Great Achievers are the Great Believers"
This article was a great reminder of a key theme I've been imbedding into my statistics lessons.  True greatness is in the believing, not the achieving. Leave a legacy of faith! This piece is a must read!