Courage.

In the course of work today, I did a demo for a start up college/graduate school.  One of the participants was a developer from South Carolina.  We emailed briefly after our meeting about sundry business items and I happened to notice the company he is associatee with has a blog.  It was there that I found this excellent post on courage.  Beowulf indeed.

I'm thankful that Abby and I had dads who engaged us. Thank you Roger and Ron.

Abby and I both had dads that engaged us.  My dad's engagement with me was more typified in a "wooden" sort of way. (frat paddles are an inch-thick and they can put a hurt on the gluteus maximus!)  Love was at the bottom of it (there I go again with the bad pun... unintended of course.) and they did not avoid the going when the going got tough (and Abby and I were tough going or so we thought).  Here's an article about being an engaging dad.  Read all of it or you'll miss some gems in the latter ("bottom") half.  And again, thanks dad.

Signe's first day in Kindergarten... some quotes...

"I got a lollipop!"  (She's got a sweet tooth.)

"I didn't turn around and talk to Gus or Judah ... not even once!"  (She get's along great with the boys.)

"I played Ice Cream truck with Helen and Nez." (How in the world do you do that? Sounds like a game I want to play.)

And this was the quote that she gave me as she walked in the door for lunch.... "This was the best day in kindergarten this year!"  (Her sense of time is a bit truncated.)

More on education...

An answer to the college professor...

Portraits of the King

Vigen Guroian cites John Chrysostom on parenting:


"Let us bring them [our children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Great will be the reward in store for us, for if artists who make statues and paint portraits of kings are held in high esteem, will not God bless ten thousand times more those who reveal and beautify His royal image (for man is the image of God)? When we teach our children to be good, to be gentle, to be forgiving (all these are attributes of God), to be generous, to love their fellow men, to regard this present age as nothing, we instill virtue in their souls, and reveal the image of God within them."

Education and critical thinking...

Since we are on the topic of education, (i.e. Signe's first day of kindergarten), I thought I would post something that was posted on a local blog.  I've heard this before but I thought i would point it out.

One of Abby's former students is now attending University of Oregon.  During frosh orientation, he was told to "forget everything your parent's taught you."  That doesn't sound like encouraging critical thinking to me.

Writing in a Seattle newspaper, a teacher of English and college adviser at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois reveals this ideological agenda in even more shocking terms. Bill Savage reacts to the fact that the so-called conservative “red” states are “outbreeding” the “blue” states, which are more liberal in voting patterns.

Identifying himself as a political liberal with no children of his own, Savage acknowledges that he and his fellow liberals have a lower fertility rate than conservatives. Nevertheless, he insists that educated urban liberals need not despair. He expresses confidence “that blue America’s Urban Archipelago can grow larger, more contiguous, and more politically powerful even without my offspring.” How?

 

“The children of red states will seek a higher education,” he explains, “and that education will very often happen in blue states or blue islands in red states. For the foreseeable future, loyal dittoheads will continue to drop off their children at the dorms. After a teary-eyed hug, Mom and Dad will drive their SUV off toward the nearest gas station, leaving their beloved progeny behind.”

 

Then what? He proudly claims: “And then they are all mine.”

Two things. First, would the University of Idaho be considered one of those “blue islands in red states”? No doubt.

 

Second, I think that Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has a great perspective:

That’s right, a significant number of professors are happy to have parents spend 18 years raising children, only to drop them off on the campus and head back home. These professors are confident that the four or so years of the college experience will be ample time to separate students from the beliefs, convictions, moral commitments, and faith of their parents.

 

Even after expressing these truly breathtaking agendas, these professors go on to claim that they do not seek to indoctrinate their students into their own beliefs and worldviews, but no one can believe them now.

 

The college experience is, of necessity, a time for the development of critical thinking. It is a season of tremendous intellectual formation that produces lasting effects. Students should learn the disciplines of critical thinking and analysis, and in this transitional period of life, they will determine whether they will hold to the beliefs and commitments of their parents.

 

But they should not be subjected to the ideological indoctrination and intellectual condescension that is found in far too many classrooms and on far too many campuses. If nothing else, these remarkable statements of professorial intention should awaken both students and parents to what passes for education within much of higher education. The open hostility and contempt toward Christianity and Christian convictions is truly horrifying.

 

And then they are mine. It is hard to imagine words more alarming than those.

First day of kindergarten!

10 reasons we rarely eat out for meals. Funny.

http://blog.clariity.com/children-in-grade-school/10-reasons-we-rarely-eat-out-as-a-family

Signe's 5th birthday

The dress Signe is wearing was Abby's when she was 5. Signe INSISTED on wearing it...

At the park.

http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2010/08/the-orphans-of-success/

A slightly rough article about the American tendency to move around as a result of following "career" success and how that has effected the interactions with extended family and made children "orphans" from extended families as parent's pursue success.  The comments at the bottom are interesting as well.

Gunnar Skateboarding.

My brother-in-law, Rob Sentz, took this pick of Gunnar skateboarding last Saturday evening (8/7/10).

Our motives...

A good article by Peter J. Leithart about what or who motivates humans.  Click here for the article. 

Dedicated to my dad and anyone else who has worked in the airline industry.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/08/09/jetblue-attendant-goes-ballistic-on-flight-to-jfk/

This is hilarious.  Dad, I know you will understand.

Blanket apology to an entire national forest. (Oh, Ochoco! I have wronged thee!)

Apparently, I have unintentionally insulted an entire region of central Oregon with my blatant misspellings in my previous blog entries.  As a native Oregonian (99.9% native), this is an egregious error and I stand ready to be banished to northern Idaho as a result of my foibles and ignorance.  Please forgive me Ochoco National Forest.  I will never make your Oh into I again.

(Many thanks to my wife the spelling and grammar drill sergeant.  Why she is not working for a national publisher or major newspaper as a technical editor, I'll never know.  My poetry stands corrected, though still in earnest.)

Deep Creek Campground, Ochico NF

This is the creek next to where we camped. I found several snakes submerged in it, trying to beat the heat.

Twin Pillars, Ochico NF

Dirk contemplates jerky while Matt oranges out.

Matt and the John Day River.

Matt has brought the proper equipment to the John Day River.

Painted Hills National Monument, John Day, Oregon

Twin Pillars, Ochico NF, central Oregon

The guys in the Ochicos

Me, Matt, Andrew, n Dirk

Happy looking bunch, aren't we?

Hiking Pics from Butte Falls, outside Scott's Mill, Oregon

There was no one at the falls.  It was quite a bit out of the way and fun to find!

7th Anniversary...

Pics of Abby and I as we head out to dinner on our 7th anniversary. July 19th, 2010.