More volunteerism

Back out again today to teach a class for one of the participants in the Teachers' Initiative. This one is not at a school, but is one sponsored by the city, mostly for retired people. I guess the theme this time is American culture. I look forward to that, mostly to dispell some strongly held beliefs about the US and Japan as well.

I will report Saturday on the outcome.

Entrance exams

This week we didn't have classes on Tuesday or today because of entrance exams. The school is conducting some exams for students who want to enter in the 2005-06 school year.

I am in doing a little studying and preparation for next week. We also have a teachers' seminar on the weekend. Looking forward to that.

Homeschoolers' success

A colleague lent me a book, Brining up Boys, by Dr. James Dobson.(2001, Tyndale House Publishers) I have been reading it off and on for a while. I can't really recommend it, though if you are Christian and would like to have like minded advice for raising children it isn't awful.

There was one interesting statistic in it about homeschooling. It was a quote from Bill Bennett, the former Secretary of Education under Reagan and drug czar under the first Bush.

The kids in public schools score, appropriately enough, at the fiftieth percentile on tests of academic competence. In other words, their combined score is "average." Homeschoolers, however, are at the eighty-seventh percentile--for about one-sixth the cost. The homeschool kids are getting into the colleges that their parents want them to attend and the program produces a high degree of parental and child satisfaction. (p. 192)

I did some homeschooling with my children here in Japan through American schools, and I will continue to balance the best of both formal and homeschooling. In discussions with my eldest son, he claims that he would have preferred to have done more home schooling. The more I read, the more I like the idea.

Who did the "smart people" vote for?

Election 2004 in the US saw lots of people at the polls and a win for the new president bush. Since he didn't actually win the last election, my conclusion is that he is new. But Who voted for Whom? Lets let the facts speak for themselves.

A report on Netscape this morning caught my eye. "States Ranked from Smartest to Dumbest." I gave it a look. There is a ranking of states, which is,"... the findings of the Education State Rankings, a survey by Morgan Quitno Press of hundreds of public school systems in all 50 states." The rankings looked familiar somehow. Something like election results. So, I checked in with CNN on the election results. I compared the smartest 10 states and their election results with the dumbest 10 states and their election results. Here are the results.

Smartest 10
1. Massachusetts, Kerry, 62%
2. Connecticut, Kerry, 54%
3. Vermont, Kerry, 59%
4. New Jersey, Kerry, 53%
5. Wisconsin, Kerry, 50% (bush 49%)
6. New York, Kerry, 58%
7. Minnesota, Kerry, 51%
8. Iowa, Bush, 50% (Kerry 49%)
9. Pennsylvania, Kerry, 51%
10. Montana, Bush, 59%

Dumbest 10
41. Tennessee, bush, 57%
42. Hawaii, Kerry, 54%
43. California, Kerry, 55%
44. Alabama, bush, 63%
45. Alaska, bush, 62%
46. Louisiana, bush, 57%
47. Mississippi, bush, 60%
48. Arizona, bush, 55%
49. Nevada, bush, 51%
50. New Mexico, bush, 50% (Kerry 49%)

Don't know. Looks like a trend to me.