Swickard: Do homeschoolers have summer vacations?

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  At the coffee shop someone asked an interesting question: Do home schoolers take summer vacations like students in public schools? My reaction was that home-schooled children do not take three months off from learning and camp out on the couch with their smart phones.

            Over several days I thought about the question. I know several home schooler parents. All indicated there was no summer vacation for their kids, but some learning tasks are focused on summer opportunities.

            Obviously, going to Yellowstone National Park is a learning activity. And Yellowstone is closed during the winter so you must go in the summer. Importantly, none of the home schooler parents said that when summer comes they just turn the kids loose to vegetate.

            Home schooling is one of the most contentious issues in our country. The public receives conflicting messages. On the one hand, they hear that parents are the most influential force in children learning.

            But, on the other hand, many education leaders say that learning at home is different and inferior to “real” education. Especially that education done by professional educators who have teaching degrees from college.

            Also, education is different in a school setting. That I agree with but I do not agree that public school education in and of itself is superior.

            Home school parents forego the benefits of a tax-supported education for diverse reasons including religious, social and achievement concerns. Additionally, there are people in rural areas where the trip to the nearest school is too far a journey for young children.

            For most people, outside of those with strictly religious concerns, the primary reason to home school is a concern about the culture of public education. Currently it is almost entirely focused on taking tests to check on teachers. What a waste for students.

            Others say the pace of instruction in schools is focused on the entire class rather than on any one individual. Home school parents pace their instruction specifically to their children.

            One objection to home schooling is that parents are usually not professional educators. How then do we ensure that their children are learning? What should be done if a home-schooled child reaches majority without sufficient academic skills? Discipline the parents?

            Is it the parent’s right not to educate their children? Sticky questions. We already face the same questions with public school graduates. Shall we dock the teacher’s pension if the students do not learn?

            Some parents are not suited for teaching just as some students are not good candidates for home learning. Sometimes, the combination of parents not willing to work hard at teaching, and students not driven to learn can lead to bad situations. Overall, this is not the case.

            Home schoolers do not turn off their minds when they leave school. Learning occurs at all hours of the day and night. I like home schooling when it is done correctly. Public schools can learn more from the methods used by home schoolers than home schoolers can learn from public schools.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: Do homeschoolers have summer vacations?

Swickard: Racing ducks, how about Llamas?

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  “A peasant has to stand on a hillside for a very long time before a roast duck flies into his mouth.” Chinese proverb quoted by Paul Theroux in Riding the Iron Rooster

            New Mexico has the challenge of a falling economy. Many New Mexicans are standing around waiting for something good to happen. It might or might not. Other people have looked at tourists as a way to perk up the New Mexico economy.

            It’s a place to get new money. Especially if New Mexico appeals to tourists with lots of money to spend. Problem: some New Mexicans don’t want more people in our state.

            There is a conflict between bringing people into the state and people who don’t want New Mexico to grow at all. These people like the lonesome feeling and don’t want any more people coming here.

            My grandfather wanted to live far enough away from his neighbors so as to not hear their dogs bark. And he did.

            First there was Lincoln, the little town that developed a great Billy-the-Kid festival. Then Albuquerque adopted the balloons. Roswell got the aliens celebration going. I asked someone from Roswell about the aliens. He smirked, “The tourists come bringing hundred dollar bills.”

            Years ago, some people in Deming were looking for something to increase the money in their town. Using alliteration, it turned into the Deming Duck Races. If they were in Lordsburg, I wonder if it would have been the Lordsburg Llama Races?

            Perhaps next the Raton Rat Races, the Taos Tuttle Races, the Alamogordo Alpaca Races, the Carlsbad Camel Races, the Artesia Ant Races… well, I could go.

            Again, part of the problem involves the people already in New Mexico who don’t want the state to grow in size. Many people in New Mexico like what Oregon Governor Tom McCall said back in the 1970s. Eric Cain in OPB.org wrote about this in 2013:

            His (Governor Tom McCall) focus was quality of life and so in a 1971 speech said to the people who come to Oregon, “Come visit, don’t stay.” He added, “I urge them to come and come many, many times to enjoy the beauty of Oregon. But I also ask them, for heaven’s sake, don’t move here to live.”

            While some people might think that rude, I understood. Tourism is a nice relatively clean industry. But come, look, take pictures, eat Green Chile, go home. How pleasant.

            And truth be known, I really don’t mind more people coming here. I would just like them to take a pledge:

            “I (state your name) promise never to tell anyone in New Mexico how we did things back home and that it was so much better back home.” Amen.

            Maybe we can think of some more festivals: Dust Days in March comes to mind. A celebration of people baking on their car dash would be interesting. There are plenty of possible celebrations. Consider a Snake Racing in Springer celebration. Then we have lunch. Tastes like Chicken, eh?

Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: Racing ducks, how about Llamas?

Swickard: We are addicted to our addictions

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  “We aren’t addicted to oil, but our cars are.” James Woolsey  

            While that sounds good, it’s wrong. Our cars are inanimate so they can’t be addicted to anything. It is we, ourselves, who are addicted to transportation. This is not a bad addiction like to drugs, speeding or ignoring railroad warning lights which can get you killed.

            The transportation industry is addicted to energy. Electric transportation is more addicted to coal than oil but all transportation other than sailboats are done with energy. They only work for us when the energy is abundant, dependable and cheap.

            Most people are unaware of how important energy is in our lives. But know this: without energy, there would be little available food or water and most people on Earth would die.

            We are so accustomed to having energy at our fingertips that we do not normally think about it. Flip the switch and the light comes on. Maybe some few people living out off the grid could survive for a while. The rest of us will perish without energy.

            There are more addictions in our society that we do not think of often. Driving much of our society is the entertainment industry. It is so pervasive that we, as a society, are ignoring great threats to our society because we are enmeshed in our entertainment society.

            Many people are more concerned about the fortunes of the Dallas Cowboys than the threat of a huge asteroid killing off life on our planet. Or global thermonuclear war. Or some disease with no cure extinguishing the human race.

            The social networks all run on devices that are operated using electricity. Many people are so addicted to these social connections that they will risk death while driving rather than put off looking at the device for a few minutes.

            Imagine the day that the electricity quits. Millions of people will stare at their dead cellphones in confusion. There’s no way to lodge a complaint without electricity. They will have to speak to real people around them instead of being in their own world online. How awful.

            My Great Grandfather came from Sweden to New York and then New Mexico at a snail’s pace. However, I could get on an airplane and be home in New Mexico in one day. Amazing.

            People are very concerned about whom is dancing with whom but not how redundant are the systems protecting our electrical grid. Or with the environmental push against coal and oil what we would do instead of coal and oil?

            The first thing we must do is admit our addictions and if they are good addictions make sure every effort is made to protect those energy resources. The point is that we should not look down our noses at those people who work in the oil patch.

            Especially just because they are covered in black gold and are a bit wiffy after working all week. We should thank our lucky stars that someone is making our addictions work.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: We are addicted to our addictions

Swickard: The surprise of that surprised look

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   It seems odd to me that some of the most learned people in our society should look surprised when in New Mexico over the last six years college enrollment has dropped fourteen percent. What bothers me is the look of surprise on their faces.

            Instead, they should have a knowing looking, “Yeah, that makes sense that fewer students are enrolling.” After all, they are a big part of why college enrollment dropped.

            It isn’t just one thing that is changing the enrollment. Let us count the reasons enrollment is dropping: first, tuition in New Mexico’s colleges and universities has risen steadily for twenty years. We are talking dramatically.

            Twenty years ago, when I was at New Mexico State University, it was about $600 a semester for tuition and fees. Now it is more than $3,500 a semester for tuition and fees. In the old days, you could pay the tuition and fees out of a part-time job during the semester. No longer.

            Yet the wages for college graduates have not risen. So, it costs more to get a professional job that pays the same. And, colleges don’t discourage students taking coursing in majors where there are few if any jobs.

            Graduates are ending up with tens of thousands of dollars of debt in a slowing economy. There are less jobs. Recent college graduates are finding themselves living back at home because no one has a professional job for them.

            Some graduates have taken minimum wage jobs but with the minimum wage rising businesses are cutting back which further makes get a job harder, especially that first professional job. It is somewhat a spiral of problems: it costs more to graduate and pays the same or less today or even worse, there are no jobs.

            Now it might surprise you or me that the rising tuition prices and a falling job market could influence college enrollment but the wise people in our society at those institutions of higher learning had to know that pushing the tuition up would cause a drop in enrollment.

            Which is why I wonder about that surprised look. The retailer J. C. Penny recently had a great commercial, Dog House. It showed men who thought that a vacuum cleaner was a great birthday gift for their wife. They found themselves in a Dog House with other clueless men, all of them having a surprised look on their faces.

            Not that I will give love advise often, but if I was to buy a vacuum cleaner for a woman it would only be if I had a note from said woman indicating the brand and model with instruction to bring one home. Otherwise it is flowers, chocolate and jewelry.

            You can do as you like. Just don’t look surprised if you end up in the Dog House like the commercial shows. Especially don’t stand there with a surprised look on your face.

            But here we are with our colleges acting surprised right after they raised tuition - again.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: The surprise of that surprised look

Swickard: They will insure you lose on insurance

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “Most of the great problems we face are caused by politicians creating solutions to problems they created in the first place.” Walter E. Williams

             Healthcare is the battleground today because one set of politicians today are creating solutions to problems Congress caused in 2009. Shall we fix those problems or create even more problems?

            Caught in the middle are the American public who pays more and get less service. Why? Because the political healthcare plans are financial redistribution plans, not actual healthcare plans intending to provide better service for less money.

            The current healthcare plan in our country known as Obamacare came into being promising to lower costs. But the first action was to hire millions of lawyers, consultants, account managers, technical directors and bureaucrats to run the healthcare system. It suddenly costs more for healthcare.

            Who can possible looked surprised when healthcare cost much more because of it being the feeding bucket for millions of political people who are creating solutions to problems they created in the first place. They will insure you lose on insurance.

            One fact about healthcare not being discussed is that the political pushers of these new plans have and are making out well. When we have dysfunction in our country we should note who is making out well in the chaos. Namely: the politicians of both political parties.

            So, let me ask: why would either political party come to the aid of the country when both sides are doing well themselves with the chaos they are creating? They will not.

            My older brother Bill was born at home. The home in question was twenty miles south of Carrizozo on my Grandfather’s ranch. He was born in the front bedroom with Dr. Klump attending. The bill in 1947 for Bill was forty dollars. It paid for the doctor to attend.

            There was nothing in the bill for any account managers, tax consultants, primary attorney, secondary attorney, the lead consultant on births, the yada yada yada. Just what it cost the doctor to attend the birth.

            What I have is Dental Unsurance. It looks like insurance but doesn’t work. But there is millions of people in the company making money while not doing anything of value for the customers. Why? Because the politicians have set this system up.

            How to make healthcare better? First, stop making it worse for political gain. If you are in a hole and don’t like it first stop digging. That is what America must do. Rather than come up with a more involved system of bookkeeping and rules and regulations, we must step back.

            The media will make every step toward less government sound like the Black Death of 1346. It will not be but the scaremongers will point out that any reduction of government intrusion will kill at least 700 Billion people this week.

            There’s only 7.5 Billion people alive now, should I react to politicians saying 700 Billion people will die if we pull back on government intrusion? Nope.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: They will insure you lose on insurance

Swickard: Funny is all around us

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  “Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.” Peter Ustinov

             No matter where I am I find funny things all around me. While I have a serious side, it’s connected to my comedy side. I should have a sign on the back of my head, “Clown on board.”

            At the hospital for a blood test I was asked, “When and where were you born?” I answered, “I was born August 24, 1950 at 11:35 a.m. in Delivery Room B, Holloman Air Force Base Hospital with Capitan Wilbur Anderson attending.” Yep, they looked up.

            I find so much funny day to day. Example: one day when I was doing talk radio I found a newspaper story that workers at the Federal Mint were striking. I read the headline, “Union workers at the Federal Mint strike demanding to make less money.”

            My motto is: blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused. At a Sonic, there was a gap of time between when I pushed the button and the order taker answered. She said, “Sorry for the wait…” I immediately said, “I’m not sorry, I got this extra weight here and enjoyed every bite of it.”

            The order takers said, “What?” I replied, “Never mind.”

            I love two story buildings with an elevator. When someone walks in I ask, “Which floor?” They look confused and say, “Two.” I punch the button and reply, “Good choice.”

            I have always admired cartoonists so much so that many years ago I started a cartoon strip and actually got one newspaper to carry it. The name was: In The Dark. All that was shown was the talking bubbles on a dark background. The dialog was funny such as: Why are the classroom lights off… budget cuts… what are we studying? The Dark Ages.

            Several months into the run the newspaper editor asked me, “What do your characters look like?” I replied, “They look like they are standing in the dark.

            He got a puzzled look on his face and asked, “You don’t know how to draw, do you?” I smiled, “Not even a stick figure so that’s why they are in the dark.” Go figure, he cancelled the strip and called it the stupidest thing he had ever seen. Perhaps it was, but I can put cartoonist on my writing credits.

            A couple of sayings: Doing it the hard way is always easier. And, easy money is always the hardest. Lead me not into temptation… I can find it myself. If you keep your feet firmly on the ground, you’ll have trouble putting on your pants.

            There was a question sent to some electrical workers in a neighborhood after a resident called management to report that they were cursing. The reply was, “Me and Amos was climbing up a pole when Amos dropped all his tools on my head so I said to him ‘Please be more careful’ or words to that effect.” I find that funny. 

Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

The NMSU Aggie Football team was on a 17 game losing streak

Swickard: Funny is all around us

Swickard: The smoking hot days of summer

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   For some of our fellow residents here in New Mexico there has been surprise that the daytime temperatures have suddenly been in the triple digits. And it is real dry here, too.

            The answer is simple: New Mexico has been in a drought for 280 million years, come next August so it should not come as a surprise, but it does for many of our residents.

            Newcomers can be excused because they have not lived somewhere that the seatbelt buckle in their car can be used as a branding iron if it was in the sun. And coins left on the seat of the car will leave an impression if they are in the sun. People bump their heads on the inside car roof when the pain travels from posterior to head.

            But these last few days people have been talking incessantly about the triple digit heat in New Mexico and other states. Entertainer George Burns was asked, “George, how is your wife?” He answered, “Compared to what?” That’s the answer for the heat wave.

            Some say wryly, “It’s a dry heat.” New Mexico is less noteworthy than Phoenix where 120 degrees is their fate. And that temperature in Phoenix doesn’t warrant more than a passing notice by their news media. “We see here where a highway has melted, details at six.”

            What to do here in New Mexico when it is broiling hot? We can prepare a couple pans of cookies to bake on the dash of the car which has two values: you get cookies and it functions as a car air freshener.

            Obviously, we should stay in a cool place and not be out mowing the lawn. Well, I say obviously because some New Mexicans are out mowing the lawn in the heat and with the sweat pouring off of them they ask, “Hot enough for ya?”

            Mostly what I have noticed these last few days is the look of surprise that somehow it got this hot. It does pretty much every year but the last time was about one year ago. We need to do something about that short-term memory loss, eh?

            It is similar to when the New Mexico winds start in March which they do start every March around these parts. People look surprised that parts of Arizona are moving to Texas by air over around and through us. It does so every year.

            What to do? Enjoy the scenic New Mexico vistas, even if they are hot. And enjoy the taste of hot green chile. Not the garbage from New York City, but real New Mexico Green Chile that announced its presence with authority.

            Remember, we are a friendly people so don’t be troubled that we wave hello in our car. We’re just being friendly.

            Likewise, we are averse to anyone telling us how they did things back where they came from. Just suggest whatever without mentioning back home. Especially, don’t tell us how hot it is back home, you are here now.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: The smoking hot days of summer

Swickard: Use lottery to fund math education

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  Surveys on American saving and investing indicates many Americans have no investments. Their plan for old age is to win the lottery. While I agree: “No dreamer too small, no dream too big,” there are limits to what society should encourage.

            People who understand math do not believe in the lottery. It’s like someone jumping out of an airplane without a parachute with the intention of landing on something soft. An action slightly possible but not probable.

            The New Mexico Lottery, under the guise of raising money for education, preys upon math challenged people. The ads suggest riches will shower down if you buy a lottery ticket.

            The proceeds from this tax on people who don’t understand math does go to education. However, it goes to general education, in fact, anything students wants to study. The tobacco settlement has the tobacco companies funding anti-smoking campaigns.

            Likewise, the New Mexico Lottery should go directly and entirely to math education. Every dollar should be channeled to making New Mexico students the envy of the nation when it comes to math.

            The first time I voiced this position I admit I was just trying to get a rise out of people, which I did. Upon reflection, I believe I stumbled onto something. If people can buy lottery tickets with the expectation of winning, they are showing their lack of math education.

             We should take their lack of numerate ability and use it constructively so that future generations don’t end up in the same condition. That’s the tobacco settlement method and it applies to people who lack numerate ability to the point that they think buying two lottery tickets significantly improves their chances of winning.

            The operational concept most lacking in people who are not numerate appears to be the ability to think in scale, to judge two things as they relate to each other in mathematical terms. People can buy a lottery ticket occasionally if the mood strikes. But at those odds, don’t expect anything but dreams.

            Once I was flying out of Chicago on a commercial airliner. We were on the ground in a long line of jets waiting to take off. The man next to me confessed that he was petrified of flying but had to make this trip.

            I pointed out the window. “There are over a hundred jets ready to take off just right here. Thousands of airplanes are in the air.”

            “Gosh,” he said, “I hope we don’t run into any of them.”

            I continued, “The scale of airline dysfunction (I didn’t want to use the word ‘crash’) is about one plane in two million flights. Not bad odds.”

            The guy next to me brightened slightly. “But what if this airplane is the one in two million?” he questioned.

            “Then whoever has a window seat gets a good look at it coming.” That sent him back into gloom. I forgot to ask if he had a lottery ticket, but I bet he did. He needed some math education.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: Use lottery to fund math education

Swickard: Harming students with summer vacation

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   If we know allowing academic skills to go unused causes those skills to atrophy, why have three-month summer vacations in public schools? And, why is there the notion that after high school graduation people don’t need to use their academic skills to retain them?

            The reason some high school graduates cannot read, write coherently or do math to an adequate level is not because they haven’t been taught these skills. Rather, it is that the students have allowed their academic skills to degenerate by not using those skills.

            The students are victims of the gap between being able to use a skill and the subsequent loss of the skill. If a skill such as writing or math is not used in a certain amount of time it will be lost. Some lose their skills slowly, but everyone will lose their skills if enough time passes without the skills being used.

            Summer vacations are harmful to students since most do not continue to use their academic skills, in fact, most do not open a book the entire vacation. When the students come back to school, the first two months are getting back to where the students were before the summer vacation. What a waste of academic time.

            The benefits of three months off are: janitors can leisurely wax floors, teachers get summer jobs or return to college and parents can send the kids to relatives. Students work on their tans, play video games late at night and sleep until noon.

            The three months off looks like everyone gets what they want. In the short term that is true, but the tragedy is that in the long term, students are short changed their proper education by these summer vacations.

            At high school graduation, students are told in glowing terms that they have achieved a great wisdom. They are finished developing their skills and no longer have to use these skills regularly. Many high school graduates believe those graduation speeches.

            The truth is they will achieve wisdom when their kids graduate from high school and not before. Their high school skills have a shelf life, like bread has a shelf life. They must use the skills regularly to retain those skills. If, at age twenty-five, the former students lack skills, most often these skills were lost from lack of use rather than never having been developed.

            Students must use their academic skills during their days in school and during the rest of their life. Summer vacations are one of the biggest threats to their ability to progress in school. It isn’t the vacation per se that harms the student, it is any time that months pass without the person using their academic skills.

            When that happens some people ask, “Why didn’t those darn schools teach them anything?” The answer doesn’t matter. Whether they had those academic skills and then lost them for lack of use or never had those skills, it’s all the same in the end.

            They do not have those skills.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: Harming students with summer vacation

Swickard: A funny thing happened in line

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  Many years ago, I was standing in a line at the university. It was the usual kind of line that college students stand and have stood in since the beginning of time.

            No one was speaking, each barricaded in their own world, secretly wishing the other people would have heart attacks so they could step over the fallen bodies to the head of the line. No matter what happens to our world, we will still have lines to stand in.

            Someone walked up, looked carefully at a piece of paper and then looked worriedly at the sign in front of the line. He started to leave, wavered, almost spoke aloud. He was fearful of being in the wrong line.

            At last, with an air of resignation, he stuck the paper in his pocket, sighed heavily and stepped into line; having decided it was the wrong line but he was going to have to go to the front of this line to find out which line he should have been standing in.

            I turned to him and said, “I wouldn’t mind lines so much if it wasn’t for all the waiting.”

            The effect on the people in line was immediate. Most smiled. I also smiled. Like the air rushing out of a balloon, the tension in the line vanished and people started talking to each other.

            You cannot stand in line with people who are on edge, ill-tempered and full of anger without it affecting you. Likewise, if person after person steps to the front of the line full of bile, it rubs off on the people behind the window until they are surly.

            Sooner than later, they hand that mouthful of bile right back to someone in the line forming a very destructive cycle.

            The way out is to talk to the people around you. Try a little humor if you like. Something like:

            I hear Governor Martinez just flew in from Santa Fe, I’ll bet her arms are tired. Or, how many psychology students does it take to change a light bulb? One, but the bulb has to want to change.

            You can just speak to the people in a friendly manner. You will be surprised how much better you both feel. While it is true that all workers should be nice to us regardless of how they are treated, the way it works is simply: the nicer you are, the better your chance to succeed in getting what you want.

            Seriously, when standing in any line to pay bills, get loans, buy stamps, ask simple questions, ask hard questions, ask unanswerable questions; whatever you are doing in lines, take your humor with you. Be gentle, I may be in the same line.

            Also, if you can’t bring yourself to laugh, at least smile, when you hear: I understand the Aggie football team is so tough that when they play horseshoes, they don’t even bother taking the shoes off of the horses.

            That will move the line right along.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s new novel, HideawayHills, is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: A funny thing happened in line