Homeschooling as "normal"

When our oldest daughter turned 6 and we finally had to make a decision about school, we decided we’d try our hand at homeschooling. She was already ahead of the game in many academic areas, our local elementary school is, sadly, near the bottom of the heap for Iowa elementary schools, and, frankly, I didn’t see a lot of value that could come from sending her off to school for seven hours a day every day, so it was a fairly easy decision. (I should say it seemed easy for me - my wife may have wrestled with it more, though to my perspective it was more trepidation on her part than resistance.)

I have a bit of a history with homeschooling; I attended a public kindergarten (well, two of them, actually, since we moved mid-year), but after that I was homeschooled from first grade through twelfth. Homeschooling was not exactly legal in Nebraska when we started back in the early 80’s; there was much legislative wrangling and several parents were in jail. Even after the laws were changed, there was a strong defensive mindset that was pervasive in the homeschool community, and probably rightfully so. My memory of it now, 25 years later, is that we were afraid. Afraid of the school truant officer who might show up at our door. Afraid that having a kid running around in the backyard during the school day would prompt an anonymous tip from a neighbor to social services. Afraid that something, somewhere, would go wrong, and that we’d be in legal limbo, with parents in trouble and kids in protective custody.

That feeling of fear was encouraged to an extent by those well-meaning organizations who were out there to help protect us. Organizations like the Home School Legal Defense Association did good, useful legal work; their newsletters, though, were full of horror stories of parents who’d run into legal trouble with homeschooling, and it seemed that only the families that were HSLDA members had happy endings to their stories. There were pages of helpful tips on protecting your family (“don’t open the door if they knock! Only talk through the locked screen door or step out onto the porch!”), and while they may have been useful to certain people in certain cases, to me they only seemed to add to the fear and to, of course, prompt us to renew our yearly membership in the protection plan.

Homeschoolers in those days, even through the late 80’s - early 90’s when I was a teenager, remained largely a fringe element. For every “normal” family who homeschooled, there were a half-dozen “weird” homeschoolers. Some parents were motivated to homeschool because they believed it was their God-given responsibility, and that they could do a better job than the public schools; some others, I’m sure, just used the freedom to homeschool as an excuse to keep their kids under their thumb in whatever twisted home life they had. (I remember one homeschool family who kept their kitchen cabinets locked… to keep their teenaged children out of them. Yikes.) My family teetered on the edge of “weird-homeschooler-ness” from time to time; in retrospect I believe that dalliance was driven not by an attraction to the weirdness but simply by the desire to have fellowship with people who shared some key beliefs about family.

Since starting homeschooling this year we have been very pleasantly surprised at the amount of support we get from all directions. Neighbors and people we meet around town don’t even blink when we say we’re homeschooling. The homeschooling oversight (required by law in Iowa) is provided by a homeschool assistance program that is funded by state tax dollars and run out of the basement of a local elementary school. (That sentence right there is probably enough to make any 1980’s homeschooling parent’s head explode.) The teachers who provide the oversight are full-time dedicated to helping homeschooling parents succeed in educating their children. Our daughter “goes to school” for 5 hours, one day a week, to do science and art and music and be with friends. It’s a really excellent arrangement all the way around.

The other pleasant homeschooling surprise has come as we’ve been at our church for two years now. Come in on a Sunday and you likely won’t see any families that stick out as obvious homeschoolers. But start visiting with folks and getting to know people and it seems like every time I turn around I find out that some other family is homeschooling. Sure, I knew about the one family, because their daughter goes to school on Mondays with our daughter. But that elder’s family, with the high-school-aged kid who’s always helping out somewhere? Yep, homeschoolers. The pastor with a couple of young kids? Homeschoolers. The family who keeps the kids’ club organized on Wednesday nights? Yep, homeschoolers again.

And they all seem so normal. I don’t want to go overboard on the value of “seeming normal”, because if it’s the right thing to do, it doesn’t matter whether we seem normal or not - we need to do it. But in this case it’s such a blessing to have progressed over the past twenty-five years to the point where homeschooling your children is an accepted, normal, even encouraged thing to do. I can only pray that it remains so.

What we all, as homeschooling parents in 2010, should recognize, though, is the debt that we owe to my parents and the thousands like them from the previous generation who blazed the trails for us. It was their civil disobedience, their prayers, their legislative lobbying, and their steadfastness in homeschooling when it was definitely not normal that has enabled us to come to our current state of normalcy. Thank you, Dad and Mom.

Now, friends of my generation: let’s take advantage of the opportunities we’ve been given, and not mess this up.

Imagining a different narrator for a favorite song

A couple of nights ago I had the classic Veggie Tales’ Silly Song Dance of the Cucumber pop into my head. (Don’t even bother asking why.)

And after reciting a few lines, I had a wild idea pop into my head. Imagine if Dance of the Cucumber, instead of being interpreted by Bob the Tomato, were interpreted by…

… William Shatner.

Imagine his trademark delivery of the classic lines:

“Watch the cucumber… oh, how smooth his motion… like butter… on a bald… …monkey.”

“Listen to the cucumber… hear his strong voice… like a lion.. …about to eat.”

And the closing line of the verses: “dancing cucumber… dancing cucumber… dancing cucumber… dance, dance… YEAH.”

Personally, I think it’d be awesome. The more I think about it, I wonder if Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki didn’t have Shatner in mind when they did the song… but I may just be humoring myself with that thought.

What do you think?

Another take on 'Hipster Christianity'

Back in August I linked to a piece by Brett McCracken wherein he decried what he sees as the evangelical temptation to “be cool” at the expense of real, genuine faith. My initial read resonated with the column, and I was a bit surprised when some folks I quite respect took issue with McCracken’s book.

I’ll admit that I haven’t read the book, and absent a copy finding its way into my hands for free, I probably won’t. However, I came upon an insightful review today that puts McCracken’s book in a different (and much less favorable) light.

James K. A. Smith, posting on TheOtherJournal.com, says that McCracken needs to add the word “poser” to his lexicon.

McCracken’s analysis ends up being reductionistic: he thinks anyone who looks like a “hipster” is really just trying to be “cool.” This, I think, tells us more about Mr. McCracken than it does about so-called hipster Christianity…

McCracken sets his sights on his own generation: hip millennials who are taken with incense, hemp clothing, Wendell Berry, and Amnesty International. McCracken is worried that this is just the next generation of cultural assimilation in the name of relevance.

But his analysis only works if, in fact, all hipsters are really just posers. That is, McCracken effectively reduces all hipsters to posers precisely because he can only imagine someone adopting such a lifestyle in order to be cool. Let me say it again: this tells us more about McCracken than it does about those young Christians who are spurning conservative, bourgeois values. [Emphasis in the original.]

Smith acknowledges that there are, indeed, Christians who are trying to be “cool” or “hipster” simply for the sake of being cool, but he asserts that they are the “posers” and are not representative of the “Christian hipsters” he knows:

In short, the lives of the Christian hipsters I know are a gazillion miles away from being worried about image or trendiness; they live the way they do because they are pursuing the good life characterized by well-ordered culture-making that is just and conducive to flourishing—and this requires resisting the mass-produced, mass-marketed, and mass-consumed banalities of the corporate ladder, the suburban veneer of so-called success, as well as the irresponsibility of perpetual adolescence that characterizes so many twentysomethings who imagine life as one big frat house.

I very much appreciate Smith’s review and analysis and recommend it as worthwhile reading.

15 Records

I’m sure I got tagged on this meme somewhere along the way, and then my buddy Dan did it last week, so I figured it’d be an interesting exploration into my music library. 15 records that were influential in my listening history. More or less in chronological order as to when I found them.

1. Harry Connick, Jr , When Harry Met Sally (soundtrack)

This was my introduction to big band. At the time I was a teenager who loved playing the piano, and here was a twenty-something artist who was ripping up the jazz piano and putting together some awesome big band arrangements. I fell in love with it, and I can sing all of the arrangements to this day.

2. Rich Mullins, A Liturgy, A Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band

I had been a Rich Mullins fan before this record came out, but this is a classic, a nearly perfect record from beginning to end. Rich taught me that Christian music doesn’t have to be low-quality, uninspired drivel, and my piano-playing style has been more influenced by his than by anyone else.

3. Jennifer Knapp, Kansas

Jen continued the “Christian music doesn’t have to suck” campaign with her signature record. This one pushed me to pick up a guitar and sing. I’ll never forget the morning that three of us from my worship team in college did “Martyrs & Thieves” as a special… it was perfect.

4. USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir, Rachmaninoff: Vespers

I remember first hearing bits of Vespers on NPR as a pre-teen. As I recall, the program was comparing two recordings of this a capella choral work, one by the Robert Shaw Chorale and one by a Russian choir. The Robert Shaw group was technically perfect, but the Russian choir was so much more alive. When I finally bought a recording, I made sure to get a Russian choir. I own three recordings of Vespers, but this one is the best of the three.

5. Sergei Rachmaninoff, The Ampico Piano Recordings

I first heard this in high school, and I was amazed both from the technical and musical perspectives. Rachmaninoff himself made these piano roll-type recordings back in the 1920’s. Then in 1990 some engineers resurrected the rolls and the piano mechanism and made a modern recording on a good piano. The result is a clean, crisp recording of a master playing his own works. The highlight for me is the final track: Rachmaninoff’s own arrangement of Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesfreud.

6. Caedmon’s Call, Long Line of Leavers

My brother Ryan had been into Caedmon’s for a long time but they never made sense to me. Then I popped this CD in at a Christian bookstore and was hooked within the first 10 seconds. Yeah, it’s those horns on the first track that all true Caedmon’s fans hate with a passion. But I loved them. From there on out I filled out my Caedmon’s catalog. More significantly, I joined an online community of Caedmon’s fans, which has over the past 6 years joined me up with some people who have become dear friends.

7. Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head

Ryan tried again with this one. It took a couple of years before it finally made sense, but once it clicked, it was amazing. I’m not sure I’d count it as my favorite Coldplay record, and not sure that it contains my favorite Coldplay song, but it’s a classic from beginning to end, and was my first Coldplay record.

8. Andrew Osenga, The Morning

I found Andy’s stuff after he joined up with Caedmon’s. When he recorded The Morning I found a record with which I resonated in a way I never had before. Here was the heart of a man my own age, wrestling with the same life situations I was, pouring his heart out in a way I never could. Also: fantastic production, and a great concept from beginning to end.

9. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

I’d been into big band since high school, but had never made the progression further on into jazz until I found this record at the library. From the opening of “So What” I was hooked. Bebop is pretty much my sweet spot for jazz. Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane… they are where it’s at.

10. Jamie Cullum, twentysomething

Along with the jazz kick, here is a young guy who could rip up the jazz piano, swing over to piano-based pop for a song or two, and then come back to the jazz trio without missing a beat. And he does a jazz cover of Radiohead’s “High and Dry” that kicks some serious butt.

11. Andrew Peterson, Behold the Lamb of God

If there is another perfect record to go alongside Rich Mullins’ Liturgy, Legacy, this is it. Andrew Peterson’s ’true tall tale of the coming of Christ’ is an amazing concept, filled with beautiful music and tight lyrics, brought into being by an amazing community of musicians. This is the ‘Christmas album’ that I could listen to year round.

12. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, Once: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack

It took me a while to get to this little Irish indie movie, but once I did, I bought the soundtrack that same day. Intense, emotional, personal stuff, and the only song I’ve heard that actually works in a 5/4 tempo.

13. Iron & Wine, The Shepherd’s Dog

This low-fi, folky thing is a beautiful piece of work. I don’t have a lot to say about it, but it keeps coming back into my listening rotation. That consistency means something.

14. The Khrusty Brothers, Jonas Is Back

This one is the oddball. This brainchild of Don Chaffer (who usually headlines Waterdeep) is essentially a collection of songs that he probably couldn’t have gotten away with recording under his own name. Good lyrics, sticky melodies, and a killer track called “Sympathy for Jesus”. Not linked because I don’t know where you can get it anymore. Here’s their Facebook page, though.

15. Radiohead, In Rainbows

For the longest time Radiohead didn’t make sense to me. I downloaded In Rainbows when it first came out (for free!), listened to it once, shook my head in confusion, and turned it off. But then a year or two later I turned it back on, heard it with fresh ears, and was transfixed. Then I proceeded to work back through the Radiohead catalog and find records like Kid A, The Bends, and OK Computer. While “Fake Plastic Trees” from The Bends has to be my favorite Radiohead song of all time, In Rainbows tops my list as a beginning-to-end record.

Found this little gem last night...

…while cleaning off one of our bookshelves. Completely forgot I had it.

Robert’s Rules of Order, published in 1907. The signature on the inside cover is that of my great-grandmother. Pretty darn cool.

Also Bring Cold Water

Responses from right-wingers and evangelical Christians to the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” have been spread broadly throughout the cable news media and online news and opinion sites over the past few weeks. Initial responses were typical God-and-country red meat, proclaiming Ground Zero to be “hallowed ground”, and declaring that allowing Muslims to build a mosque on that site would be, (to borrow a tired phrase,) to let the terrorists win.

This response, despite the patriotic fervor with which it was proclaimed, has now finally widely been debunked (including a great bit by Frank Rich today in the New York Times). First off, the proposed building isn’t a mosque, but a cultural center. And it isn’t planned for the “Ground Zero” World Trade Center site; it’s actually two blocks away. And similar “hallowed ground” within a two-block radius of Ground Zero houses an off-track betting establishment, a strip club, multiple fast-food restaurants, and several souvenir shops (just to name a few), so it’s not like the whole area has been somehow ‘set apart’. And finally, what does it say about our belief in religious freedom if, after due process has been followed, we then want then government to prohibit the building of a religious center based strictly on the particular religion in question?

Those points may not yet have gained full acceptance, especially among Republicans looking for an election-year issue, but in general I’ve seen them make inroads in he past few weeks.

But yesterday on the Christian group blog Evangel, a post by Tom Gilson (a strategist with Campus Crusade for Christ) brings up what I believe will be the next round of argument against the project: saying that if we look at this strictly as a religious liberty issue, we are making the mistake of believing that Islam is simply another religion.

[A friend] views Islam as a religion that deserves the same rights and privileges as any other. That’s questionable, to say the least….

If you think the Ground Zero mosque comes down to a simple matter of symbolism, or of religious freedom, then you don’t understand the issues deeply enough.

Instead, the author proclaims, Islam is a way of belief whose ultimate goal is domination, and that if we don’t watch out, America will simply be Islam’s next conquest.

On this topic I have heard and seen much from both sides. I have read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s chilling account of growing up in Somalia and her passionate assertion that Islam, as a religion, denigrates women. I have also heard first-hand from a Zimbabwean Christian pastor who warned that the Islam he encountered in Africa was intent on conquest. But by the same token I have worked for many years alongside Muslims who are gentle, family men, who had no aspirations but to provide for their families and to live here peaceably as neighbors and friends. (And, let’s face it, I can no more fairly hold all Muslims responsible for 9/11 than they can fairly hold all Christians responsible for Timothy McVeigh, Aryan separatists, and, oh, the Crusades.)

The more I think on this subject, the more I am convinced that once again right-wing Christians like Mr. Gilson have mixed up their politics with their religion and gotten it wrong. Nowhere does the Bible instruct us to protect our turf, to repel the unbelieving alien, and to presciently foil those who might intend to persecute us. But it does instruct us, often, to love our neighbors. To turn the other cheek when wronged. It reminds us over and over that our battles are spiritual battles, not physical ones. That Jesus already is Lord, and that we need not fear what mortal men can do to us.

We should stop fighting new mosques at every opportunity, and stop making enemies of dear people for whom Christ died. Instead, we should follow Christ’s command and love them.

It’s time to apply Jesus’ teaching about giving both coat and cloak. If someone comes and says ‘give us land to build a mosque’, don’t just give the land; also bring cold water (in the name of Jesus) to those who are laboring to build it.

The Perils of Hipster Christianity

Brett McCracken’s column that appeared on the Wall Street Journal website yesterday really hit home for me. McCracken, 27, outlines the increasing efforts that the evangelical church has made to try to attract and keep 20-somethings. Whether it’s the obsession with being culturally savvy, or with being technologically cutting-edge, or with using shock tactics (‘you’ve never heard your pastor talk about *this* before’), McCracken argues that they are simply gimmicks that may bring people in the door; “But”, he asks “what sort of Christianity are they being converted to?”

Quoting David Wells, he further adds:

And the further irony is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them.

McCracken concludes that “cool Christianity” is not a “sustainable path forward”, and that, “when it comes to church, [twentysomethings] don’t want cool as much as we want real”.

It’s worth reading the whole post. I, for one, give him a hearty Amen.

A day with family

Today we had the chance to enjoy what is an increasingly rare occurrence: all four of my siblings and my parents were here in Hiawatha to visit, giving us the whole family in one place at one time. (Well, almost the whole family: Andrew’s wife Heather had to stay back in Washington and work. We missed her.)

I have such a great bunch of siblings. Three brothers who are godly men, working hard and making their way on both ends of the country and in the middle. (Andrew & Heather are in Washington; Ryan is in Brooklyn, NY; Aaron and Emily are in Wisconsin.) One little sister who is just a shade (OK, maybe a little more than a shade) spoiled by her big brothers but who can keep up with all of us, anytime, anywhere. Mom and Dad came down from Wisconsin for the day, too, so we had lots of fun and frivolity and food. Much Mario Kart was played, many hot dogs were consumed, and much shrieking was heard from the girls as they ran between parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunt.

Clever and cheesy wordplay seems to be a hallmark of our family gatherings. We have a predisposition for puns and a love of mangling phrases. One such highlight from the visit is worth repeating, if only as an illustration.

Andrew, talking to Ryan, mentioned something about a “love cube”. I have no idea what that meant. However, it immediately made me think of the song “Love Shack”, so I started singing a twisted version:

“The love cube is a polygon where… we can get together…”

OK, yeah, cheesy. They indulged me with a chuckle. But then Ryan, per usual, came up with a retort.

“So, if you were involved in that love cube polygon thing, would you be… a… ‘polygonist’?”

Groan.

Anyhow, it was a great blessing to have everybody under one roof, if only for a day. God is good.

Top row, L-R: Andrew, Rebecca, Ryan Middle row, L-R: Dad, Mom, Chris, Katie (being held), Becky, Aaron, Emily Bottom row: Addison, Laura (click to see a bigger image)

12 years

June 26, 1998, on a sweltering night in Charlotte, NC, Becky and I made vows, exchanged rings, and began our life together. Twelve years, three kids and one cross-country move later I am still so thankful that I can wake up every morning next to my best friend. She is a faithful companion, loving mother to the girls, tireless gardener and homemaker, and I am blessed to have her as my wife.

I love you Becky! Here’s to the next three dozen years!

Learning to spell a new word, or, how do you spell 'blerg'?

It’s fascinating to see how a new word evolves, especially in the case where a word is introduced not via written text, but rather via audible means. Twenty-one years ago Homer Simpson’s “D’oh!” appeared on the cultural scene, and quickly became a part of the American lexicon. Its addition to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2000 officially marked its transition from a cartoon interjection to an accepted part of the ever-evolving English language.

With “D’oh!”, a standard written form of the word was quickly propagated by means of episode titles of The Simpsons. The past few years, though, have introduced a new interjection with much less apparent standardization. I’m talking, of course, about Tina Fey’s portrayal of the character Liz Lemon on the popular NBC sitcom 30 Rock, and her exclamation of disgust that Wikipedia appears to have settled on spelling “blerg”.

Anyone surfing the web in the past couple of years will have encountered any number of variant spellings, all apparently based around the various authors’ ideas of how it should be spelled. Google is of great help in honing in on the popular options.

‘Blergh’ - about 94,700 results.

Adding an ‘h’ to the end is a popular way to go - Blergh is quickly found on this budgeting website and as the name of the self-proclaimed “official boy band of the 21st century”, an Aussie group whose Facebook page, as of today, boasts 17 fans.

‘Blerg’ - about 47,500 results.

This comes as a bit of a surprise, given that this is the spelling that Wikipedia has settled on. The Liz Lemon page on Wikipedia provides some insight into usage: “Liz also has a tendency to say the words “blerg” and “nerds” as a replacement for swear words.”

‘Blurg’ - about 170,000 results

It is apparent that the English-speaking world thinks that the /ur/ spelling is more intuitive than the /er/. Additional popularity for this spelling is evidenced by blogs named with this spelling, for instance blurg.tumblr.com and blurg.wordpress.com, and the fact that my wife uses it in all of her instant message sessions. (No major blog links showed up for the first two spellings. Grab ’em while you can!)

‘Blurgh’ - about 214,000 results

What is it with the added ‘h’? This hefty spelling appears to be the most popular, and has the added weight of being the spelling used by Tina Fey when she wrote about it on the 30 Rock blog.

A hint as to the fictional origin of the word can be seen in a shot from the Pilot episode of 30 Rock where this pile of unassembled Ikea-esque furniture is shown in Liz Lemon’s apartment:

blerg

Come to think of it, I might use the name of pesky assemble-it-yourself furniture as a swear word, too, if I were coining words. Using the ë, though, makes it a little bit tough to type. As for me, I’ll stick with ‘blerg’.