How does the 2016 GOP campaign shape our children? Trees misshapen by constant wind or cold are known as krummholz in German. A reminder of the old saw that, as a twig is bent, so the tree grows. This is a Banner tree, in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, bent by prevailing winds from the west. Photo by John Spooner – flickr.com, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5007578
What examples do our children take from our quadrennial elections? What lessons have they learned in 2016?
Do our kids adopt these attitudes into their daily lives?
What do your kids’ teachers say they see? What do you see?
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Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
In 1961 a little girl named Michelle wrote to President John F. Kennedy, expressing her fears that in a nuclear exchange, the Russians might bomb the North Pole, and Santa Claus might be lost.
President Kennedy’s response was human, and fatherly.
We should work to spread that spirit this season, and all seasons.
From Twitter: “Another e.g. pic to show that school transport in Asia needs attention on health & safety aspects pic.twitter.com/Mn2FbSSELX”
Do you think the students have wi-fi to finish their homework on the way to school?
(This is not necessarily representative of all Indian school buses.)
One wonders at the stories behind such “buses” and their use. It might make an interesting geography assignment, to find out how students get to school in other nations. What is the most exotic, bizarre, dangerous or luxurious ride?
Maurice Sendak, to his death, held on to some of his childhood concerns; and he worried about how we teach our children to deal with the world, and those scary things.
John Fitzgerald Francis Kennedy, President of the United States, was a Scout in Troop 2 in the Bronxville, NY, from 1929 to 1931. This letter was written when he was 12 years old in 1929.
Transcript: A Plea for a raise
By Jack Kennedy
Dedicated to my
Mr. J. P. Kennedy
Chapter I
My recent allowance is 40¢. This I used for areoplanes and other playthings of child- hood but now I am a scout and I put away my childish things. Before I would spend 20¢ of my ¢.40 allowance and In five minutes I would have empty pockets and nothing to gain and 20¢ to lose. When I a a scout I have to buy canteens, haversacks, blankets, searchlidgs [searchlights] poncho things that will last for years and I can always use it while I cant use a cholcalote marshmellow sunday with vanilla ice cream and so I put in my plea for a raise of thirty cents for me to buy scout things and pay my own way more around.
Picture from the end zone (a favorite place for true Green Bay fans) during a football game at Lambeau Field, with weather much like tonight’s game. (photo via Tumblr for FullMetalStarterJacket). This is a color picture.
Dad texts the kids:
“You guys got what you need to stay warm [at Lambeau Field in Green Bay]?”
Kids answer:
“We have plenty of green body paint.”
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Why would people fail to inoculate their kids against measles, and thereby contribute to deadly epidemics?
There was this guy in Britain, Andrew Wakefield, who published a study suggesting a link between measles vaccines and autism. But it turned out his research didn’t support that claim. Then it turned out he was under contract to produce a paper that made that claim regardless the science, for a lawsuit.
A page from Darryl Cunningham's graphic account of measles vaccine hysteria, "The Facts in the Case of Dr. Andrew Wakefield." TallGuyWrites (Darryl Cunningham)
Another page from Darryl Cunningham's graphic story, "The Facts in the Case of Dr. Andrew Wakefield" about the motivations behind the hysteria.
Then send a copy to Jenny McCarthy, or anyone else who carries the torch of ignorance-based hysteria against vaccines and in favor of disease.
Dr. Wakefield’s original paper was retracted by the publisher — it’s no longer considered valid science. It’s a hoax. No subsequent research confirmed any links to autism. Serious, large-scale follow-up studies revealed no connection whatsoever between measles vaccine and autism.
Andrew Wakefield created a hoax. Those who rely on his study rely on bogus science, voodoo science. History tells us that, if we stop the fight against measles, people will die.
Would you contribute to publishing this comic for distribution in pediatrician’s waiting rooms?
Is it true that kids can’t get insured in Texas if their parents have two vehicles? I mean, this is Texas, the anti-mass transit state — how can you get a kid to the emergency room for the high-cost health care if you don’t have two cars, one for work, one for the family?
Kathryn sings with the Arlington Master Chorale. Last week they performed for the Texas Choir Directors Association Convention in San Antonio. Randy Jordan leads and directs the group.
Before the San Antonio performance, they sang the program at St. Marks Episcopal Church in Arlington, a beautifully spare performance space suited well to a hundred good, mature voices.
Joan Szymko‘s “It Takes A Village” made a stunning and rousing finale for the concert. The piece opens with the choir tapping their chests for a heartbeat rhythm, which by itself stirs an audience when performed by so many. It features a simple melody and lyric, though inspiring when done en masse or with a good solo.
And it packs an integral political message. The text is that same phrase that became a watershed between conservatives and liberals in the 1990s.
It takes a whole village to raise the children.
It takes the whole village to raise one child.
We all — everyone — must share the burden.
We all — everyone — will share the joy.
Some music is best experienced live, and this may be one. There are several recordings of this piece available on YouTube, not one done so well as the Arlington Master Chorale last week in my opinion (the choir directors loved it, too, I hear).
Here are two performances of the piece, each done very differently from the other. Until some enterprising group makes a more polished and better recorded video of the Arlington group, these will have to do (there are other versions on YouTube).
It is particularly spine-tingling to hear and see it performed by our children. When sung with gusto, the thought transcends and soars over politics. Song tells truths of the heart that politics needs to hear, and feel, and experience.
The Oklahoma All-State Choir
Oklahoma All-State Choir
Performed by the 2009 All-OMEA Mixed Chorus (Oklahoma All-State Choir).
Clinician: Johnathan Reed
Accompanist: Ron Wallace
Mt. Eden, Tennyson High and Hayward High Honor Choir at Chabot College (California)
Are there good, commercially-available recordings of this song? Please note them in comments. If you are a commercial music producer, I recommend the Arlington Master Chorale’s performance for recording.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Our house had two or three of the things around from my three older brothers — you know, the old Gilbert or Chemcraft chemistry sets, complete with potentially dangerous chemicals, test tubes, an alcohol lamp, a couple of beakers and stands, and instructions for how to make cool reactions with warnings about not making things explode.
We all made things explode, of course. That’s the fun stuff. Making jellied alcohol was fun, too — older brother Wes did that at Halloween, as I recall, the better to make a flaming hand (once was enough, thanks). We didn’t worry so much about the poisonous qualities of hydrogen sulfide, as we did worry about how to claim somebody else was suffering from flatulence when we made it. The kits and their metal boxes were in poor repair by the time I got around to them, but other kids in the neighborhood had new ones, and we always had the labs at the junior high and high school, which were stocked with enough dangerous stuff to keep us on the edge of blowing up the school, we thought (probably incorrectly).
One sign of laboratory experience: The acid holes in the Levi jeans. Older son Kenny recently discovered these things still happen in a lab at college. It had never occurred to him to worry about it before — one of his favorite t-shirts, too. (Holes in clothes appear not to be the fashion statement they were for his parents . . .)
Or, until that account is unsuspended by the forces supporting Donald Trump: Follow @FillmoreWhite, the account of the Millard Fillmore White House Library
Error: Please make sure the Twitter account is public.
Dead Link?
We've been soaking in the Bathtub for several months, long enough that some of the links we've used have gone to the Great Internet in the Sky.
If you find a dead link, please leave a comment to that post, and tell us what link has expired.
Thanks!
Retired teacher of law, economics, history, AP government, psychology and science. Former speechwriter, press guy and legislative aide in U.S. Senate. Former Department of Education. Former airline real estate, telecom towers, Big 6 (that old!) consultant. Lab and field research in air pollution control.
My blog, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, is a continuing experiment to test how to use blogs to improve and speed up learning processes for students, perhaps by making some of the courses actually interesting. It is a blog for teachers, to see if we can use blogs. It is for people interested in social studies and social studies education, to see if we can learn to get it right. It's a blog for science fans, to promote good science and good science policy. It's a blog for people interested in good government and how to achieve it.
BS in Mass Communication, University of Utah
Graduate study in Rhetoric and Speech Communication, University of Arizona
JD from the National Law Center, George Washington University
Posted by Ed Darrell 
