A Whole New Mind

I have just finished reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. It is basically about how we are moving from the information age to the conceptual age, and how our previous and current focus on only left-brained skills is no longer useful to us.

The reviews of the book on Amazon are pretty dead-on, I think: "upbeat, but overly simplistic view of globalization." My thoughts were a little briefer and perhaps less eloquent: "Well, duh." It used to be that being a doctor, engineer, or having an MBA was the way to get ahead in life. Now that information-age jobs are being outsourced to Asia, and the knowledge stored in doctors' heads can be found almost everywhere, this isn't the case anymore. But isn't that all obvious?

What amazes me though, is how even though this seems so obvious, we're either unwilling or unable to look at our educational system and realize it's a dinosaur. We still compliment our kids on mostly left-brain things: how much can you memorize, do you know your times tables in third grade just like I did, how much do you know? Yes, it's important to have basic skills. But it's harder to quantify and "prove" (and therefore praise and encourage) right-brained skills. We weren't taught to value them, and we're lucky if we still have any left. If we adults are generally ignorant about the nature and capabilities of the mind, how on earth can we presume to prepare them for the future?(getting out of the way is one good option).

Zombies Ain’t So Bad

It’s my personal opinion that games are a great way to teach, and if a game has zombies in it, well hey—that’s a bonus in my book. There’s nothing like a little undead to liven things up.

Zombie Fluxx is a riff on the original Fluxx, a card game put out by Looney Labs (www.LooneyLabs.com). The game starts out with only one rule—draw one, play one. There are four different kinds of cards: Keepers, Goals, Actions, and New Rules. Keepers are cards you place in front of you to help you win, such as “bread” and “the toaster.” Goal cards specify what keepers or conditions you need to have to win; for example, if you have the previously mentioned keepers in front of you and you can put down the “Toast (must have bread and toaster)” goal card, you win. Action cards let you do things like steal a keeper, or switch hands.

The real fun of the game comes with the New Rule cards. Each New rule either adds on to or supersedes the previous ones—so at any one time there are likely to be multiple rules (i.e. “Draw Three,” “Play Two,” “Hand Limit One,” “Dual Goals”) that you need to keep track of. The rules, and goals, change all the time. It’s great for encouraging reasoning, logical thought, and rule-processing skills.

Needless to say, this type of game appeals largely to boys and left-brained people. I’ve tried to play this game with a bunch of women on a girls’ cabin weekend, and nearly got chucked out on my head in the snow.

Zombie Fluxx is all this and more. In addition to Keepers, you have “Creepers,” or zombies—individuals, pairs, trios, and the occasional undead quartet. Part of the challenge is figuring out what to do with your zombies (isn’t that always the case?); do you keep them, try to kill them, or better yet, force some to flee to your neighbors? With some of the goals, you can only win if you have no zombies (for example: “Getaway Driver…You win if you have the Car and at least one Friend Keeper on the table in front of you…and no Zombies!”) For some, you must have Zombies (i.e. “Brain Baseball…You win if you have Brains and the Baseball Bat and at least one Zombie on the table” or my personal favorite, “Zombie Baseball Team…You win if you have at least 9 Zombies in front of you along with the Baseball Bat.”)

My nine-year old son and two of his friends (including one girl who, granted, is a rather left-brained fan of Norm from “This Old House”) had a great time with this game. At one point, they successfully juggled ten rules, full hands and multiple Zombies. “I’ve got Zombies and I’ve got Wood!” one of them cried excitedly.

In addition to Fluxx and Zombie Fluxx, one can get Eco Flux, Spanish Fluxx, and Jewish and Christian Booster packs. I’ve even seen a teacher-made version of “Music Fluxx.” If you’re up for a challenge, you can mix your games together. Can you just imagine—“Rosh Hashanah…You win if you have Friends and Challah…and no Zombies!”

My favorite part of Zombie Fluxx, however, is the New Rule “Zombies Ain’t So Bad.” With this card on the table, you can win with Zombies even if the current Goal says you can’t win if you have any Zombies. Sometimes, things just aren’t as bad as they seem—now isn’t that a great message to send our kids?

RIP Piggies

It's never going to be a good morning when your child wakes you up with "Mommy, there's something wrong with...."

Wiley's guinea pig Mystery died on Thursday. We made a heroic effort to bring her into the vet, and arrived just in time for her to die in his arms while he was taking a minute to say goodbye before we were going to put her to sleep.

We discussed that while he was very sad, and he was doing a hard thing, it was good that she died knowing he loved her, and that he got to spend her last moments with her, as well as so much time in general. The kids spent most every morning cuddling with their piggies, and it struck me many times that one of the great things about home schooling is that the kids got to spend time bonding with and loving their pets.

Teddy died on Saturday.

It's not clear why, though I have recently learned that green beans are poisonous to guinea pigs. Who knew? Rhubarb, yes--of course. But green beans? They did have green beans about a week ago, and I suspect this may be the cause of their demise. This was not in any of the books I'd read, nor have I ever heard it. I just found out from a "Guinea Pig Secrets" ebook.

You Learn Something New Every Day

Apparently if you try and roast an eggplant intact (without poking any holes in it), this is what happens. I'll add this to the list of completely random things that can interrupt home schooling.

Brain Day

Today was my third class in teaching anatomy to the younger group of children. I picked up a brain at Blood Farm on the way to the library, so we could poke at it. Here is a picture of me parked right next to the library dumpster for easy brain disposal. Maybe I should be wondering about people who park next to dumpsters.

Unfortunately my car has that nice, freshly-butchered smell to it now. You won't see Johnson & Johnson promoting a "Fresh Brains" air freshener anytime soon.

Resistance

Today someone said to me, in reference to home schooling (after the usual "I couldn't do that") "How do you deal with the resistance?" To being taught, specifically.

Of course, at the end of the day, I didn't have much of a brain to answer. But now that I have swept up some brains, I have what might be a few cogent thoughts. Really, I dont' think we have much "resistance" per se. I think a lot of kids resistance to learning is because they're either overscheduled and zonked, aren't interested in learning what someone thinks they should be taught, or aren't meeting the material in a meaningful or developmentally well-timed way.

I've seen the magic myself--I try to teach or explain something in the "basic skills" department. Big wall of resistance. I stop. A few months later, the kid does it on his/her own almost instantly. Or suddenly is interested after a snack. Or a half an hour later. I feel really lucky that we have the freedom to learn....I was going to finish that with something, but that's really it. The freedom to learn.

If The Universe Is So Abundant, Why Don't We Have Any Underwear?

These days one of the books I'm reading is the "Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao" by Wayne Dyer.

The idea as introduced by Lao Tzu, I believe, is that the universe is by nature endless and abundant, and much of our shortcomings and feelings of failure are due to ourselves getting in our own way. Thank you, Mr. fix-it fancy-ass old chinese guy.

I suppose a wise old chinese man is more likely to be right about anything than I am. But screw him. I'm having a moment.

I find myself questioning the "abundance" part, and I suspect many home schoolers (admit it, or I'll yell at you in pretend chinese) feel the same way. Everyone wants something from me, there's not enough time for anything, I've done six loads of laundry today and there's still more, and I've just stepped on something and it feels like meat. The house is a mess, and the moment I sit down to write in the morning, before all the air has even squished out of the chair, someone comes in and says "can you find me some underwear?" It all seems like a zero-sum game.

Then a moment of enlightenment. I've got good friends, kids who I don't mind claiming as mine, and some amount of inspiration. Lots of people would kill for that. All my son's asking for is underwear.

I'm guessing it's a lot easier to ask the universe for underwear than it is to ask for friends, family, and inspiration.