I've been talking about getting back to "real life" lately.
And we homeschoolers are amazingly good at having a real life.
And now The Tutor over at Apollos Academy has posted this week's Carnival of Homeschooling--The Real Life edition. She shows us that neither rain, storms, viral bugs, or web hosting problems can keep homeschoolers from their appointed rounds! (With apologies to my letter carrier).
So in between those car problems, melt-downs, and impossible fractions, I am looking forward to some down-time over at Apollos Academy, where we can have a cuppa, and laugh in the face of REAL LIFE!
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
Back to Normal-- Sort Of: Floors, Chores, Math, and SET!
Yesterday, after a full lunar month of fitting life in around the holidays, we felt we had finally got back to normal.
Since Bruce is working on the living room floor now--or is that again?--anyway, my living room is partially in our bedroom sitting room. So I set up in there, sitting in the recliner, working on my presentation for NAGC, reading a paper for Psychology, and another for Neurophysiology.
Aren't the roses pretty?
Bruce splurged on them for Shabbat.
But of course, the whole day I had planned of normality--that is enjoying getting some needed work done was not to be. The phone rang. Seems that Bruce had promised to pick up beds for the Interfaith Hospitality Network--Congregation Albert is hosting this week--and then we had completely forgotten it.
So it was grab the keys, run the brush through my hair, and we were off to the synagogue, in Henry, of course. It was not us they wanted--it was Henry, the Big Red Truck. We were just along to drive.
Two trips from Montgomery Church of Christ to Congregation Albert, and we had delivered all the beds but one. Seems a new family was starting the IHN program that day, and we needed one more bed. So another trip was in order--this time to the network office, to get the extra bed. It was pleasant--a cool but sunny fall day, nice conversation with the volunteers at Montgomery Church and at CA and at IHN office down at the First Congregational Church. N. came along, too, and he was a big help loading and unloading with Bruce. All I had to do was drive.
After a stop at the store, where Bruce ran into an old colleague, it was home again, home again, jiggety jig!
On the way into the house, we saw this amazing Orb Web Spider on the porch. She moved as I snapped this picture. I'll post another shot later. N. moved her off into the bushes so that no one would step on her.
Three hours had passed from the time we left, so I went to the kitchen to start dinner. Bruce finished closing up the cooler for our side of the house, and then did a little floor work in the living room.
He's got a bit laid out--almost half--but he did not get to gluing this weekend. It may be next weekend before that gets done!
Here he is, deciding on how to lay out the boards. He has a spread sheet to make sure that he doesn't end up with too many boards of one size at the end of the room. The Geek!
While I made a salad, N. relaxed on the couch--that part of the living room is currently in the dining room. He is reading Peterson's Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. He has become quite a reader in the past year--it is no longer a scheduled chore, but something to do at every opportunity. I consider it part of our homeschooling time--even on Sunday.
This morning, I got up just before sunrise, and was out with the dogs as the first light turned south mountain a wonderful pink. We had our first freeze last night--it was 31.7 F when I left the house. I enjoyed my breakfast with the newspaper and got some housework done before it was time to wake and feed N.
N. has arranged with me to work on Math on Monday and Wednesday mornings--and now that the holidays are passed, we finally got back to our regular schedule. I am afraid math has taken a back seat to other learning during most of the past month!
N. is up to Introductory Fractions with his Teaching Company Course--Basic Math. The DVD segment goes over several concepts for fractions very quickly, and N. felt he wasn't getting it. He was frustrated with himself. When asked, I suggested that we go over each concept separately, watching only that part of the video, and then work on the problems for that concept in the workbook. So today, we worked on finding the unknown in equivalent proportions. (That's where you have something like 7/8 = X/24 and you have to figure out that X=21). I showed him the quick and dirty way to cross-multiply--the DVD does not teach that, but it is so much easier! He liked that. Then, at his request, we went on to work on resolving improper fractions to mixed numbers.
After the math, we had agreed that we would work on some reasoning together, which we did by hauling out my old SET! game. I last used it two years ago when I taught an elementary school gifted program. In SET! there are cards that are combinations of three different shapes, three different numbers of the shape on a card, three different shading patterns and three different colors. The object is to pick out a set of three cards in which three of the four parameters are either the same or different. N. beat me hands down, of course! But the cool thing about this game is that he has to hold all of the parameters in his working memory while he decides whether a particular combination is a set or not.
Here he is with a set: same shape, same color, same number, different shading.
Warning: This game is addictive! We kept saying to each other; "Just a few more rounds and then we'll stop!" We played for over an hour. N. has a much greater tolerance for this kind of learning than he does for slogging through math problems.
However, I was proud of him. He chose the math course because he set a goal for himself. When he got frustrated, he sought out help. And today he worked on two different math concepts before he was ready to call it a day and play SET!
Back to normal. Yeah!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Writing for Visual Thinkers
I have been thinking about writing lately.
The issue of clear, organized and thoughtful writing is an issue for me in two areas of my life, my doctoral studies and my role as a homeschooling mother of a child with Aspergers Syndrome.
At the university, the effect of poor writing has become apparent to me as I struggle to understand a series of weekly papers that are required as part of my Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology course. Each week, we read one or two papers that document current research in areas related to the physiology that is covered in lecture. For example, just recently we have been discussing reflex feedback that affects propioception. Differences in how the nervous system deals with reflexes become important when an animal has to couple voluntary motor responses with reflex responses to stimuli. Writing neatly when the pen is jarred would be one example. And our nervous systems deal with these problems in amazing ways, using the neurocircuitry and neurotransmitters to increase and decrease reflexive responses based on the perception of where body parts are within a cycle of movement.
But speaking of writing, what I am noticing is how uniformly poorly written many of the published papers are. And these are papers by respected scientists in good journals. The last paper we read was so dense with jargon, and so poorly structured that it was particularly easy to miss the point, although once I got it (after three readings), it was interesting and important.
As I was contemplating the relatively uniformly low standards for clarity of prose in scientific writing, I was also thinking about where we are with N.'s writing skills. He is getting better at sequencing, especially after practicing by re-enacting the sinking of the Titanic. But when detail becomes dense, sequencing is still a problem. N. tends to become overwhelmed by the details and has difficulty figuring out how to elaborate with them in a sensible and understandable order.
In considering these two different examples of problems with writing, I had a niggling sense that they were somehow related, however, I was unable to put it all together for several days. Finally on Thursday, two conversations I had created the "Aha!" moment I was looking for, and I was able to develop my hypothesis about what was happening. In the first conversation with my professor of Neurophysiology and another student, we noted that the diagrams in the paper were explanatory, but the captions were quite dense and almost unreadable. And we noted that they were misplaced with the text so that the reader had to page back and forth to find the paragraphs where they were discussed. I noted at the time that neuroscientists really like cartoon depictions of processes and maybe this would better help readers access the material. Later that evening, my daughter came home with a stack of posterboard and colored pencils. When I asked if she had presentation, she said that she didn't, but that she needed to draw out the biochemical pathways as they worked in cells in order to really understand them.
MLC then said something curious: "You know, Mom," she said, "My professor is a little weird. When he is explaining a process, he leans his head back so that his nose is in the air and closes his eyes. Strange. It seems like he is kind of stuck up."
"Hmmm," I replied. "It sounds like he has to close his eyes and visualize the process in order to explain it well. He's not stuck up. He's just a little autistic. And look how you have to make a cartoon of the processes as they occur in the cell to really get at what is going on."
"You're right," she said. "Scientists love powerpoints where they can make cartoons. The more animation, the better."
Eureka! There's the connection. Many scientists are visual thinkers. We love pictures, diagrams and graphs. Not only is a picture worth a thousand words, we think of them as replacing words, and we make them do that whenever possible. The same is true for people with ASD. Temple Grandin's book, Thinking in Pictures, rings true for a reason. Many people on the spectrum, and their relatives with the broader autistic phenotype, think primarily in images. According to respected experts in the field of remedial reading, the same is true for those dyslexia.
For the majority of the population in literate countries, sequencing writing comes naturally because they are thinking in words. But for those who think primarily in pictures, sequencing is a problem for translation into verbal and written expression. Think about it: When you call up a picture in your mind, all the detail is apparent at once. The memory used for the storage and recall in visual thinking, the opticoder (a.k.a. the visual sketchpad) can hold a great deal of information--it appears to be almost infinite--and it can be connected and manipulated with lightning speed. Thus, those who think in pictures do not think sequentially, they think by making connections across categories. This is associative thinking--complete, detail-rich, and very fast. It is also considered to be a learning disability in our auditory-sequential dominated educational system.
Now consider what it would take to put ideas gained from visual thinking into words using either verbal or written language. The information must be sequenced and chunked in order to use auditory working memory, which is very limited in scope--holding about 7 bits of information at once. This seems very tedious and extremely limiting to the visual thinker, who is used to manipulating many more bits of information at once. And then there is the problem of where to start. For example, if I close my eyes, I can see the entire room in which I am sitting, with every detail down to the dust motes dancing in the sunlight from the window. There is a tremendous amount of detailed information in the three dimensional picture in my mind's eye. But if I am asked to describe it, I must immediately begin to make decisions. What is important to say? What is safe to leave out? Where should I begin? At the door? Where I am sitting? The middle of the room? In what order should I describe it? Big stuff first, then the small things? Or should it be according to the space the stuff is in? Colors first? How can I choose? Oh, forget it! The choices become overwhelming.
You get the picture. This is why scientific writing tends to be so dense and jargon-laden. To a visual thinker every detail is important, because one never knows how associations will be made. It is hard, very hard, for the visual thinker to eliminate trees in order to discuss the forest. In the auditory-sequential world, generalizations are understood as shorthand, but in the visual world they are seen as incomplete at best, and at worst, they are lies.
And to add insult to injury, the auditory-sequential world cannot understand what the problem is and tends to diagnose the visual-associative thinkers as stupid and lazy. They can't help it--many of them cannot think in pictures at all. They cannot even imagine what the problem is. In fact, for many philosophers of language, human thought must happen in words and language or it is not considered to be thought at all. The visual thinkers would say that such people have limited perspective. If they can find the words.
To make matters even worse, visual-associative thinking is so fast that on the extremes, such thinkers do not develop the alternative pathway. In order to successfully communicate in society, we must choose which pathway to use to process incoming and outgoing information. Sometimes, we use the visual pathways and sometimes we resort verbal pathways. So, in order to help extreme visual thinkers learn to write clearly, we must first help them develop the alternative pathway and then teach them to use it efficiently.
With N., it really helped to start with his strengths in visual-associative thinking and use those to scaffold to auditory-sequential. We started with sequencing pictures, and since he has all of the stereotypies and special interests of a child with AS, we started with the Titanic, since he was watching the movie over and over again. He made some gains, and then moved on to other interests. But where to go from here?
I think the answer for N. and for the scientists with the dense, jargon-laden papers is the same. It is to tranlate ideas from the pictures in the mind to auditory sequential chunks without sequencing every picture. In other words, I think the next step is to give each picture in the sequence a label, and then fade the use of the pictures. Now auditory-sequential thinkers would probably suggest doing this in one fell swoop, by introducing outlines. To them, outlines with all the fancy lettering, numbering and indentations make perfect sense. But to the visual-associative thinker, this may be too big of a leap. For example, N. tends to start to obsess on the exact spacing, on an exact pattern of lettering and numbering, and loses the point in a swamp of detail.
Fortunately, we do not have to re-invent the wheel here. For N., anything is worth doing if he can do it on the computer. And there are some great programs, such as Inspiration, that allow the use of graphic organizers that can then be turned into an outline with the touch of an icon. You can put pictures into your graphic organizer, or you can use text. Or both. And didn't MLC mention PowerPoint as the first love of geeky scientists? You can do the same thing with that program, in a different context.
Here, then, is a plan for what we want to accomplish in writing this year. In the past, N. would dictate and then I would help him organize his thinking. Now it is time for a little more independence. So this year, we can make some goals about learning the use of Inspiration or PowerPoint, or both, if N. chooses. Then I can help him move from his present level of using pictures to sequence a story with limited detail, to using pictures and text to sequence a story of similar detail, and then fade the pictures entirely, using only text to go from graphic organizers to outlines. Once that goal is successfully accomplished, we might want to move to stories with more complexity and do the same thing. Eventually, the goal is to be able to do this with extemely complex stories and processes.
Now I need to set up a time to talk about writing goals for this year, to see what N. wants to do, and how he wants to fit it in with his current focus--Kamana Wilderness Awareness. And this is going to have to be done with some delicacy. Writing is a sore subject for N. He has been called stupid and lazy too many times and will not be pushed too far beyond his comfort zones. The success rate at each step is going to have to be about 80% or he will lose interest.
The way many teachers unthinkingly label kids who think differently creates a real problem. When teachers call their students stupid, lazy, brain-damaged, and trouble-makers simply because the teacher lacks the imagination to see that there are many variations in how people think, they create the resistance to learning that they then so actively punish. People don't like to fail over and over and be blamed for "not trying" to boot!
Variation is a given in human populations. It is not a crime. Uniformity in a population is a weakness that can lead to trouble. We know this now more than ever, as we unfold the mysteries of the human genome. What I don't understand is why our educational systems are becoming more and more fixated on uniformity even as our science discovers the usefulness of variation. Actually, come to think of it, I think I have a hypothesis for this question, too.
But that's another post!
The issue of clear, organized and thoughtful writing is an issue for me in two areas of my life, my doctoral studies and my role as a homeschooling mother of a child with Aspergers Syndrome.
At the university, the effect of poor writing has become apparent to me as I struggle to understand a series of weekly papers that are required as part of my Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology course. Each week, we read one or two papers that document current research in areas related to the physiology that is covered in lecture. For example, just recently we have been discussing reflex feedback that affects propioception. Differences in how the nervous system deals with reflexes become important when an animal has to couple voluntary motor responses with reflex responses to stimuli. Writing neatly when the pen is jarred would be one example. And our nervous systems deal with these problems in amazing ways, using the neurocircuitry and neurotransmitters to increase and decrease reflexive responses based on the perception of where body parts are within a cycle of movement.
But speaking of writing, what I am noticing is how uniformly poorly written many of the published papers are. And these are papers by respected scientists in good journals. The last paper we read was so dense with jargon, and so poorly structured that it was particularly easy to miss the point, although once I got it (after three readings), it was interesting and important.
As I was contemplating the relatively uniformly low standards for clarity of prose in scientific writing, I was also thinking about where we are with N.'s writing skills. He is getting better at sequencing, especially after practicing by re-enacting the sinking of the Titanic. But when detail becomes dense, sequencing is still a problem. N. tends to become overwhelmed by the details and has difficulty figuring out how to elaborate with them in a sensible and understandable order.
In considering these two different examples of problems with writing, I had a niggling sense that they were somehow related, however, I was unable to put it all together for several days. Finally on Thursday, two conversations I had created the "Aha!" moment I was looking for, and I was able to develop my hypothesis about what was happening. In the first conversation with my professor of Neurophysiology and another student, we noted that the diagrams in the paper were explanatory, but the captions were quite dense and almost unreadable. And we noted that they were misplaced with the text so that the reader had to page back and forth to find the paragraphs where they were discussed. I noted at the time that neuroscientists really like cartoon depictions of processes and maybe this would better help readers access the material. Later that evening, my daughter came home with a stack of posterboard and colored pencils. When I asked if she had presentation, she said that she didn't, but that she needed to draw out the biochemical pathways as they worked in cells in order to really understand them.
MLC then said something curious: "You know, Mom," she said, "My professor is a little weird. When he is explaining a process, he leans his head back so that his nose is in the air and closes his eyes. Strange. It seems like he is kind of stuck up."
"Hmmm," I replied. "It sounds like he has to close his eyes and visualize the process in order to explain it well. He's not stuck up. He's just a little autistic. And look how you have to make a cartoon of the processes as they occur in the cell to really get at what is going on."
"You're right," she said. "Scientists love powerpoints where they can make cartoons. The more animation, the better."
Eureka! There's the connection. Many scientists are visual thinkers. We love pictures, diagrams and graphs. Not only is a picture worth a thousand words, we think of them as replacing words, and we make them do that whenever possible. The same is true for people with ASD. Temple Grandin's book, Thinking in Pictures, rings true for a reason. Many people on the spectrum, and their relatives with the broader autistic phenotype, think primarily in images. According to respected experts in the field of remedial reading, the same is true for those dyslexia.
For the majority of the population in literate countries, sequencing writing comes naturally because they are thinking in words. But for those who think primarily in pictures, sequencing is a problem for translation into verbal and written expression. Think about it: When you call up a picture in your mind, all the detail is apparent at once. The memory used for the storage and recall in visual thinking, the opticoder (a.k.a. the visual sketchpad) can hold a great deal of information--it appears to be almost infinite--and it can be connected and manipulated with lightning speed. Thus, those who think in pictures do not think sequentially, they think by making connections across categories. This is associative thinking--complete, detail-rich, and very fast. It is also considered to be a learning disability in our auditory-sequential dominated educational system.
Now consider what it would take to put ideas gained from visual thinking into words using either verbal or written language. The information must be sequenced and chunked in order to use auditory working memory, which is very limited in scope--holding about 7 bits of information at once. This seems very tedious and extremely limiting to the visual thinker, who is used to manipulating many more bits of information at once. And then there is the problem of where to start. For example, if I close my eyes, I can see the entire room in which I am sitting, with every detail down to the dust motes dancing in the sunlight from the window. There is a tremendous amount of detailed information in the three dimensional picture in my mind's eye. But if I am asked to describe it, I must immediately begin to make decisions. What is important to say? What is safe to leave out? Where should I begin? At the door? Where I am sitting? The middle of the room? In what order should I describe it? Big stuff first, then the small things? Or should it be according to the space the stuff is in? Colors first? How can I choose? Oh, forget it! The choices become overwhelming.
You get the picture. This is why scientific writing tends to be so dense and jargon-laden. To a visual thinker every detail is important, because one never knows how associations will be made. It is hard, very hard, for the visual thinker to eliminate trees in order to discuss the forest. In the auditory-sequential world, generalizations are understood as shorthand, but in the visual world they are seen as incomplete at best, and at worst, they are lies.
And to add insult to injury, the auditory-sequential world cannot understand what the problem is and tends to diagnose the visual-associative thinkers as stupid and lazy. They can't help it--many of them cannot think in pictures at all. They cannot even imagine what the problem is. In fact, for many philosophers of language, human thought must happen in words and language or it is not considered to be thought at all. The visual thinkers would say that such people have limited perspective. If they can find the words.
To make matters even worse, visual-associative thinking is so fast that on the extremes, such thinkers do not develop the alternative pathway. In order to successfully communicate in society, we must choose which pathway to use to process incoming and outgoing information. Sometimes, we use the visual pathways and sometimes we resort verbal pathways. So, in order to help extreme visual thinkers learn to write clearly, we must first help them develop the alternative pathway and then teach them to use it efficiently.
With N., it really helped to start with his strengths in visual-associative thinking and use those to scaffold to auditory-sequential. We started with sequencing pictures, and since he has all of the stereotypies and special interests of a child with AS, we started with the Titanic, since he was watching the movie over and over again. He made some gains, and then moved on to other interests. But where to go from here?
I think the answer for N. and for the scientists with the dense, jargon-laden papers is the same. It is to tranlate ideas from the pictures in the mind to auditory sequential chunks without sequencing every picture. In other words, I think the next step is to give each picture in the sequence a label, and then fade the use of the pictures. Now auditory-sequential thinkers would probably suggest doing this in one fell swoop, by introducing outlines. To them, outlines with all the fancy lettering, numbering and indentations make perfect sense. But to the visual-associative thinker, this may be too big of a leap. For example, N. tends to start to obsess on the exact spacing, on an exact pattern of lettering and numbering, and loses the point in a swamp of detail.
Fortunately, we do not have to re-invent the wheel here. For N., anything is worth doing if he can do it on the computer. And there are some great programs, such as Inspiration, that allow the use of graphic organizers that can then be turned into an outline with the touch of an icon. You can put pictures into your graphic organizer, or you can use text. Or both. And didn't MLC mention PowerPoint as the first love of geeky scientists? You can do the same thing with that program, in a different context.
Here, then, is a plan for what we want to accomplish in writing this year. In the past, N. would dictate and then I would help him organize his thinking. Now it is time for a little more independence. So this year, we can make some goals about learning the use of Inspiration or PowerPoint, or both, if N. chooses. Then I can help him move from his present level of using pictures to sequence a story with limited detail, to using pictures and text to sequence a story of similar detail, and then fade the pictures entirely, using only text to go from graphic organizers to outlines. Once that goal is successfully accomplished, we might want to move to stories with more complexity and do the same thing. Eventually, the goal is to be able to do this with extemely complex stories and processes.
Now I need to set up a time to talk about writing goals for this year, to see what N. wants to do, and how he wants to fit it in with his current focus--Kamana Wilderness Awareness. And this is going to have to be done with some delicacy. Writing is a sore subject for N. He has been called stupid and lazy too many times and will not be pushed too far beyond his comfort zones. The success rate at each step is going to have to be about 80% or he will lose interest.
The way many teachers unthinkingly label kids who think differently creates a real problem. When teachers call their students stupid, lazy, brain-damaged, and trouble-makers simply because the teacher lacks the imagination to see that there are many variations in how people think, they create the resistance to learning that they then so actively punish. People don't like to fail over and over and be blamed for "not trying" to boot!
Variation is a given in human populations. It is not a crime. Uniformity in a population is a weakness that can lead to trouble. We know this now more than ever, as we unfold the mysteries of the human genome. What I don't understand is why our educational systems are becoming more and more fixated on uniformity even as our science discovers the usefulness of variation. Actually, come to think of it, I think I have a hypothesis for this question, too.
But that's another post!
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah: Lingering Joy, Return of the Ordinary
Thursday we celebrated the end of the High Holy Day-Festival month as we marked Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah. Shemini Atzeret is the "eighth day of lingering," an additional festival day that is added to the already packed month of Holy Day observances that is Tishrei. According to Yitz Greenberg, this added day of rejoicing is added to Sukkot because G-d grows "pensive and nostalgic" since the next time all of Israel will gather is six months into the future at Pesach. I can imagine that in the days of Old Jerusalem, the people themselves grew pensive, knowing that winter was soon upon them, and after the high joy of Sukkot and the Hoshanah Rabba on the 7th day, during which the people took the lulavim and etrogim and marched seven times in circles, pleading, "Adoneinu Hoshia-ha!"--Our G-d, save us, please!--and after experiencing the high solemnity of the water pouring ceremony, wanted a last day to linger in the rare autumn sunshine, before the winter rains set in. Once those rains started, the mud would make it impossible to travel anywhere far. 
In these times, Shemini Atzeret is also the Festival of Simchat Torah--Rejoicing in the Torah, that occurs when we finish reading the Torah with the last portion in the book of Devarim--Deuteronomy--and immediately begin again with "Breshit bara Elohim..."--"Once when G-d was creating the world..."At the Simchat Torah evening service, we remove all of the Toratot (pl. for Torah Scrolls) from the Ark and have seven circuits of dancing with the Torah. Each circuit--called a ha-kafah--begins with the cantor and congregation chanting responsively:
Adoneinu, hoshia-nah!
G-d, save us, please!
Adoneinu, hatzlicha-na!
G-d, redeem us, please!
Aneinu, Aneinu b'yom koreinu!
Answer us, answer us on the day that we call to You!
Then the Toratot are passed from person to person, as we dance with them and rejoice in the gift of Torah. Every year, I tell myself that I will comport myself with the dignity of someone my age, and not cavort like a person ten years younger and thirty pounds lighter. And every year, when I am handed the Torah as the Klezmer band plays, I dance my heart out. There is something most beautiful in the sight of Jews still here, dancing with the Torah scrolls after all that has befallen us. This year was even more joyous for me because N., having become Bar Mitzvah, was called to a ha-kafah, and could hold the Torah scroll as he danced with it. In the past, he has often left the room because the noise and chaos became too much for him. This year, he participated fully because he had a part in the dancing. When the recent B'nei Mitzvah were called, we sang:
Od Avinu, od Avinu, od Avinu chai!
Our Father yet lives!
Am Yisrael chai!
The people Israel lives!
Needless to say I danced exuberantly with a forty pound Torah and felt muscles I never knew I had the next day. Oy. But it is always worth it. As Yitz Greenberg says:
"The rejoicing makes a statement. Whatever the law denies to Jews, whatever suffering the people have undergone for upholding the covenant cannot obscure the basic truth: The Torah affirms and enriches life."
Even though the next morning dawns as a full festival day, dancing with the Torah during the evening service always makes me feel that we have ended the fall Holy Day cycle, and come back to ordinary time. We spend the next day lingering peacefully with the autumn weather, enjoying a sense of fulfillment and transition to ordinary time that is quite welcome after the intensity of the High Holy Days and the wild joy of Sukkot, which is called "THE Festival."
We spent Thursday enjoying the mild autumn weather and went on a long walk in the national forest adjacent to our development, exploring pathways that we had not tried before. We noticed that the Scrub Oak and Aspen are turning, making patches of bright color among the evergreen Pinyon Pine, Juniper and, higher up, the Ponderosa. As our ancestors lingered in the weakening sun of mid-autumn, so do we, knowing that soon, soon winter will be upon us.
The past few days, we have spent time outdoors and time inside, catching our breaths and catching up with our lives in ordinary time. Today I spent the afternoon catching up on reading for my psychology class. Bruce winterized the coolers and is piecing out a section of the floor, glad to work on the floor after a "holy day hiatus."
On Friday, we will celebrate Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan--the new moon of Cheshvan. Some people call the coming month 'Mar-Cheshvan' --bitter Cheshvan--because it is the only month on the Hebrew calendar that has no other holidays except Shabbat. I think of it more as 'Cheshvan Menucha'--restful Cheshvan--because it is nice to look forward to some ordinary time before we need to celebrate another holiday.
Friday, October 5, 2007
A Civics Lesson: 'Innocent Until Proven Guilty' is a Bedrock Principle of Justice
I got an interesting comment on my post about the flag brouhaha at the University of New Mexico. Although I had to delete and repost it because I do not want certain words on my blog, the commentor had also an interesting take on our justice system. I originally started to discuss this in my reply to his comment, but soon realized that my take on it really deserves a full post.
On October 3, 2007, the anonymous commentor said in part:
"In a legal system where "guilty" means "what they can prove you did", Peter Lynch might get off with just a slap on the wrist."
This statement indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of the origins of the 'innocent until proven guilty' concept that underlies our system of trying cases in court.
The idea that a person is innocent until proven guilty is a bedrock concept that insures justice in our courts. The justice we are talking about is justice in trial for the accused in criminal cases where the state brings the accusations to court on behalf of the citizens. Our founders based this on the English common law that is based on the Magna Carta. That document is based on local practices in England that predate the reign of King John.
Why is this considered justice? Because the state, with all its powers, is bringing a case against an individual. The state has numerous advantages in such a situation. In order to ensure a fair trial, as is constitutionally guarranteed to the accused, it is necessary to force the state to prove the accusations before a candid citizenry. Therefore the state must follow these rules: the accused must be informed of the exact charges against him/her. The accused must be formally charged and tried in timely manner, and the accused must be provided a fair trial with legal representation. There are also rules of evidence that must be used or the case can be dismissed. The accused also has the right to appeal a verdict all the way up to the United States Supreme Court if necessary. Under current law, those appeals are automatic in cases in which a guilty verdict could mean that the accused is deprived of life.
There are many countries in which these legal protections do not apply. Under Napoleanic law for example, the onus is on the accused to prove innocence. I am glad that I do not live in such a nation. It would be too easy for public opinion or state prejudices to railroad the innocent, depriving a person of life, liberty and property unjustly.
It is true that under our system, the state is not always able to prove a case against someone who is, in truth, guilty. That is the price we pay for the protection of our liberties.
It is also true that there are times when overzealous prosecutors manage to railroad an innocent person using public perception and the power of the state against them, despite their sworn duty to uphold the constitution. The answer to this is not to jettison our constitutional protections. Rather, we should bring hold such people accountable and work to bring our local systems closer to the ideals we espouse.
The farmers who "fired the shot heard 'round the world' in Lexington and Concord had a fundamental mistrust of the powers of government. They had seen those powers abused by the British Crown and they had been hurt by the Intolerable Acts and other abuses perpetrated on them. Their interest at first was to protect their "rights as Englishmen." When the United States Constitution was ratified by the states, the framers were in a quandary. The Articles of Confederation were weak and were creating chaos. At the same time, most citizens were very wary of giving powers to a national government; powers that could be turned against the citizens. So when the constitution was ratified, the first ten ammendments were immediately ratified also. The whole package guaranteed certain rights to the citizens and limited the power of the state. Part of that package is the protection enjoyed by the accused in criminal cases.
Another statement by the anonymous commentor that deserves a response:
"Forget his actions, judge his motivations (since everyone seems to be throwing judgment left and right).. But only he knows what really motivated him to do what he did - and the way he chose to do it."
Yes, you are right. The controversy as it plays out in the press is about Lynch's motivations. Some people argue that his motivation was frustrated patriotism and they believe that this should be taken into account by the legal system. Others argue that he was motivated by hatred and that this should be taken into account by the legal system. The whole controversy about the alleged My Space comments is about motivations and not about action. The My Space comments are mean, nasty and socially unacceptable. People have various opinions about them. And that is their right.
But we ought to remember that people have the right to express their opinions freely--even unpopular ones. Even mean, nasty and socially unacceptable ones. Even politically incorrect ones. Even opinions that La Raza does not approve.
In the legal system, however, motivations should play only a small role in the matter. That is because we cannot prove them. What should matter is actions. This is why Peter Lynch has been charged with the crime of destruction of property. The level of punishment for this crime is also written in the law, and has many factors that must be analyzed. Is it a felony or not? Is it a first offense? How serious is the action? Who was hurt? Whose rights were violated and to what extent? These are the matters which should concern the courts. The job of the criminal court system is not to mirror the vagaries of public approbation. It is to provide a place in which reason and proof are used to uphold the laws of the state and nation.
Every citizen has the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. In the United States, the burden of proof is upon the state.
On October 3, 2007, the anonymous commentor said in part:
"In a legal system where "guilty" means "what they can prove you did", Peter Lynch might get off with just a slap on the wrist."
This statement indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of the origins of the 'innocent until proven guilty' concept that underlies our system of trying cases in court.
The idea that a person is innocent until proven guilty is a bedrock concept that insures justice in our courts. The justice we are talking about is justice in trial for the accused in criminal cases where the state brings the accusations to court on behalf of the citizens. Our founders based this on the English common law that is based on the Magna Carta. That document is based on local practices in England that predate the reign of King John.
Why is this considered justice? Because the state, with all its powers, is bringing a case against an individual. The state has numerous advantages in such a situation. In order to ensure a fair trial, as is constitutionally guarranteed to the accused, it is necessary to force the state to prove the accusations before a candid citizenry. Therefore the state must follow these rules: the accused must be informed of the exact charges against him/her. The accused must be formally charged and tried in timely manner, and the accused must be provided a fair trial with legal representation. There are also rules of evidence that must be used or the case can be dismissed. The accused also has the right to appeal a verdict all the way up to the United States Supreme Court if necessary. Under current law, those appeals are automatic in cases in which a guilty verdict could mean that the accused is deprived of life.
There are many countries in which these legal protections do not apply. Under Napoleanic law for example, the onus is on the accused to prove innocence. I am glad that I do not live in such a nation. It would be too easy for public opinion or state prejudices to railroad the innocent, depriving a person of life, liberty and property unjustly.
It is true that under our system, the state is not always able to prove a case against someone who is, in truth, guilty. That is the price we pay for the protection of our liberties.
It is also true that there are times when overzealous prosecutors manage to railroad an innocent person using public perception and the power of the state against them, despite their sworn duty to uphold the constitution. The answer to this is not to jettison our constitutional protections. Rather, we should bring hold such people accountable and work to bring our local systems closer to the ideals we espouse.
The farmers who "fired the shot heard 'round the world' in Lexington and Concord had a fundamental mistrust of the powers of government. They had seen those powers abused by the British Crown and they had been hurt by the Intolerable Acts and other abuses perpetrated on them. Their interest at first was to protect their "rights as Englishmen." When the United States Constitution was ratified by the states, the framers were in a quandary. The Articles of Confederation were weak and were creating chaos. At the same time, most citizens were very wary of giving powers to a national government; powers that could be turned against the citizens. So when the constitution was ratified, the first ten ammendments were immediately ratified also. The whole package guaranteed certain rights to the citizens and limited the power of the state. Part of that package is the protection enjoyed by the accused in criminal cases.
Another statement by the anonymous commentor that deserves a response:
"Forget his actions, judge his motivations (since everyone seems to be throwing judgment left and right).. But only he knows what really motivated him to do what he did - and the way he chose to do it."
Yes, you are right. The controversy as it plays out in the press is about Lynch's motivations. Some people argue that his motivation was frustrated patriotism and they believe that this should be taken into account by the legal system. Others argue that he was motivated by hatred and that this should be taken into account by the legal system. The whole controversy about the alleged My Space comments is about motivations and not about action. The My Space comments are mean, nasty and socially unacceptable. People have various opinions about them. And that is their right.
But we ought to remember that people have the right to express their opinions freely--even unpopular ones. Even mean, nasty and socially unacceptable ones. Even politically incorrect ones. Even opinions that La Raza does not approve.
In the legal system, however, motivations should play only a small role in the matter. That is because we cannot prove them. What should matter is actions. This is why Peter Lynch has been charged with the crime of destruction of property. The level of punishment for this crime is also written in the law, and has many factors that must be analyzed. Is it a felony or not? Is it a first offense? How serious is the action? Who was hurt? Whose rights were violated and to what extent? These are the matters which should concern the courts. The job of the criminal court system is not to mirror the vagaries of public approbation. It is to provide a place in which reason and proof are used to uphold the laws of the state and nation.
Every citizen has the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. In the United States, the burden of proof is upon the state.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
New Mexico's "Flag"-Ship University?
I have not posted anything political in a very long time. However, this is something that happened here at home. I have strong opinions about it and I cannot let this one pass in silence.
The University of New Mexico bills itself as "New Mexico's Flagship University."
It is my guess that the powers that be that reside in Scholes Hall--which is the administration building--consider that to mean that it is the first among equals in the state university system. Because if New Mexicans thought it meant something to actually do with the actual flag--you know, the one we lovingly call 'Old Glory'--we'd all ROTFL.
Here are the facts: On September 17, 2007--the 220th anniversary of the adoption of the United States Constitution--students arrived on campus to find the Mexican national flag flying alone in front of Scholes Hall. Evidently, the Mexican Student's Union had put the flag up next to Old Glory on Friday to mark Mexican independence day but did not take it down. The ROTC squad that took the American flag down left the Mexican flag flying alone because they thought that the Mexican Student's Union would take it down later. (The ROTC squad should be doing extra push-ups for this lack of knowledge of flag ettiquette. You don't ever lower the US flag on American territory before another national flag. It makes it look like you've surrendered to a foreign power). Some students might have thought that maybe the powers that be in Scholes Hall had surrendered UNM to Mexico--after all, when it comes to the university administration's actions, students tend to think nothing is too far fetched to be true. But most students probably didn't notice anything at all except that the shuttles were running late and crowded, and hurried off to class. That is, except Peter Ryan Lynch, a decorated US war veteran and a student. And he called up the powers that be at Scholes Hall to inform them of the surrender...er, I mean mistake.
This is what transpired in his own words:
"Throughout history, flying a nation's banner is a claim of ownership. To do this on U.S. Constitution Day is an insult to all Americans. I am outraged that the UNM administration allowed this to happen. I thought the administration would address the issue before my class was over. I left class, and the foreign banner was still unaccompanied. I went to the dean's office pleading for action. I also notified the Army ROTC, which has the honor of raising and lowering the U.S. flag on campus this month. I waited one to 1 1/2 hours after these notifications to take action myself. I made a profound statement and tore down this foreign banner. My actions, although overzealous, were warranted."
(From the Daily Lobo, Opinion, 9/25/07).
Mr. Lynch delivered the torn Mexican flag to the ROTC commander. And then the hullaballoo started. He was charged with destruction of property. El Centro de La Raza cried "racism" and charged that this was a "hate crime." The President of the UNM Schmidley decried the tearing down of the Mexican flag, but said nothing about his responsibility as the 'admiral' of New Mexico's "flagship' for the violation of US law and the insult to American citizens caused by the Mexican flag flying three days alone over sovereign US territory.
It is interesting that the president of the university does not get it that the buck for whatever happens on UNM campus should stop on his desk. We have too many public officials who do not take the responsibility that goes with the powers of an office. Schmidley may not be personally responsible for insulting American sensibilities in this case, but he leads the institution that is responsible. A leader ought to take corporate responsibility instead of spouting nonsense about how New Mexico was once part of Mexico. That history has not bearing on the breach of patriotic duty we witnessed on September 17.
It is interesting that the Army ROTC did not know how to handle the ceremonial responsibilities that go with the honor of posting and striking the colors. It would have been better to have taken the Mexican flag down first and returned it to La Raza or left 'Old Glory' flying, than to do what they did. The ROTC leadership needs to apologize to the UNM community and the citizens of US for the insult tendered by this lack of knowledge. And maybe they ought to impose extra laps or pushups on the color guard members who "forgot" their responsibility to post the US flag on Constitution day.
El Centro de la Raza had better take the advice handed to everyone who dwells in glass palaces. An organization with a name that means 'the Center for the Race' should not be the first to cry racism. And they should further note that hate crimes are, by definition, crimes against people, not flags. It is neither racism nor hatred that motived Mr. Lynch's actions. It was a passionate commitment to the honor of his country. A commitment for which Mr. Lynch has demonstrated his willingness to shed blood and die, if necessary.
As for Mr. Lynch, I think he was overzealous. As a mother nearing fifty years of age, I would probably have taken down the Mexican flag and turned it over, intact, to La Raza. Age and experience has cooled my zealousness a little bit. But Mr. Lynch is a young man. And young men and women tend to be zealous for their causes, and passionate about their beliefs. Would that those who would like to lead this country would demonstrate as much passion for American sensibilities as does Mr. Lynch. It is not racist to defend the honor of the United States and the Constitution. It is not hatred to be passionate about the ideals that this nation espouses. As Mr. Lynch puts it:
"Americans have one of the most diverse cultures on the planet. We embrace our differences, and unless you are a foreign visitor or illegal immigrant, your nationality is American. We are all equals under the Constitution and the Stars and Stripes that protect us. Americans should fly their nation's banner with pride." (Daily Lobo, Opinions, 9/25/07)
We need more young men and women like this.
The University of New Mexico bills itself as "New Mexico's Flagship University."
It is my guess that the powers that be that reside in Scholes Hall--which is the administration building--consider that to mean that it is the first among equals in the state university system. Because if New Mexicans thought it meant something to actually do with the actual flag--you know, the one we lovingly call 'Old Glory'--we'd all ROTFL.
Here are the facts: On September 17, 2007--the 220th anniversary of the adoption of the United States Constitution--students arrived on campus to find the Mexican national flag flying alone in front of Scholes Hall. Evidently, the Mexican Student's Union had put the flag up next to Old Glory on Friday to mark Mexican independence day but did not take it down. The ROTC squad that took the American flag down left the Mexican flag flying alone because they thought that the Mexican Student's Union would take it down later. (The ROTC squad should be doing extra push-ups for this lack of knowledge of flag ettiquette. You don't ever lower the US flag on American territory before another national flag. It makes it look like you've surrendered to a foreign power). Some students might have thought that maybe the powers that be in Scholes Hall had surrendered UNM to Mexico--after all, when it comes to the university administration's actions, students tend to think nothing is too far fetched to be true. But most students probably didn't notice anything at all except that the shuttles were running late and crowded, and hurried off to class. That is, except Peter Ryan Lynch, a decorated US war veteran and a student. And he called up the powers that be at Scholes Hall to inform them of the surrender...er, I mean mistake.
This is what transpired in his own words:
"Throughout history, flying a nation's banner is a claim of ownership. To do this on U.S. Constitution Day is an insult to all Americans. I am outraged that the UNM administration allowed this to happen. I thought the administration would address the issue before my class was over. I left class, and the foreign banner was still unaccompanied. I went to the dean's office pleading for action. I also notified the Army ROTC, which has the honor of raising and lowering the U.S. flag on campus this month. I waited one to 1 1/2 hours after these notifications to take action myself. I made a profound statement and tore down this foreign banner. My actions, although overzealous, were warranted."
(From the Daily Lobo, Opinion, 9/25/07).
Mr. Lynch delivered the torn Mexican flag to the ROTC commander. And then the hullaballoo started. He was charged with destruction of property. El Centro de La Raza cried "racism" and charged that this was a "hate crime." The President of the UNM Schmidley decried the tearing down of the Mexican flag, but said nothing about his responsibility as the 'admiral' of New Mexico's "flagship' for the violation of US law and the insult to American citizens caused by the Mexican flag flying three days alone over sovereign US territory.
It is interesting that the president of the university does not get it that the buck for whatever happens on UNM campus should stop on his desk. We have too many public officials who do not take the responsibility that goes with the powers of an office. Schmidley may not be personally responsible for insulting American sensibilities in this case, but he leads the institution that is responsible. A leader ought to take corporate responsibility instead of spouting nonsense about how New Mexico was once part of Mexico. That history has not bearing on the breach of patriotic duty we witnessed on September 17.
It is interesting that the Army ROTC did not know how to handle the ceremonial responsibilities that go with the honor of posting and striking the colors. It would have been better to have taken the Mexican flag down first and returned it to La Raza or left 'Old Glory' flying, than to do what they did. The ROTC leadership needs to apologize to the UNM community and the citizens of US for the insult tendered by this lack of knowledge. And maybe they ought to impose extra laps or pushups on the color guard members who "forgot" their responsibility to post the US flag on Constitution day.
El Centro de la Raza had better take the advice handed to everyone who dwells in glass palaces. An organization with a name that means 'the Center for the Race' should not be the first to cry racism. And they should further note that hate crimes are, by definition, crimes against people, not flags. It is neither racism nor hatred that motived Mr. Lynch's actions. It was a passionate commitment to the honor of his country. A commitment for which Mr. Lynch has demonstrated his willingness to shed blood and die, if necessary.
As for Mr. Lynch, I think he was overzealous. As a mother nearing fifty years of age, I would probably have taken down the Mexican flag and turned it over, intact, to La Raza. Age and experience has cooled my zealousness a little bit. But Mr. Lynch is a young man. And young men and women tend to be zealous for their causes, and passionate about their beliefs. Would that those who would like to lead this country would demonstrate as much passion for American sensibilities as does Mr. Lynch. It is not racist to defend the honor of the United States and the Constitution. It is not hatred to be passionate about the ideals that this nation espouses. As Mr. Lynch puts it:
"Americans have one of the most diverse cultures on the planet. We embrace our differences, and unless you are a foreign visitor or illegal immigrant, your nationality is American. We are all equals under the Constitution and the Stars and Stripes that protect us. Americans should fly their nation's banner with pride." (Daily Lobo, Opinions, 9/25/07)
We need more young men and women like this.
Fall is Here...;And So is COH 92!
The 92nd Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling is up over at Tami's Blog.
FYI this is on the Homeschoolblogger for those to whom this is important.
There are quite a few articles from numerous perspectives up this week.
It's fortunate that I use blog reading as a form of procrastination from studying. I have plenty of material there to keep me busy!
Last week I submitted an article but it did not get transfered. I was on time in my time zone. However, I may have been...ah, late on the east coast. So I did not get an e-mail to remind me to check out the carnival. So I didn't get to it. See what I mean about procrastination? Anyway, this means I have two carnivals to catch up with.
I think I'd better study first and read one or two articles during every study break.
Sounds like a plan.
FYI this is on the Homeschoolblogger for those to whom this is important.
There are quite a few articles from numerous perspectives up this week.
It's fortunate that I use blog reading as a form of procrastination from studying. I have plenty of material there to keep me busy!
Last week I submitted an article but it did not get transfered. I was on time in my time zone. However, I may have been...ah, late on the east coast. So I did not get an e-mail to remind me to check out the carnival. So I didn't get to it. See what I mean about procrastination? Anyway, this means I have two carnivals to catch up with.
I think I'd better study first and read one or two articles during every study break.
Sounds like a plan.
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