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The JOHO-dude nails public education. David Weinberger got an ear full at the local curriculum night. I'm not going to buy into his theory that all the bad stuff comes from above, but the "gub'mint", both federal and state, can take a lot of the blame. I don't know where he lives, but in GA the public schools are a disaster -- just abysmal.

Edumacation. It's a bad thing when you come back from the feel-good Meet the Teachers night at the local, progressive public school and need a drink. After hearing what's in store for our 11 year old in sixth grade, Ann and I were shaken, angry and depressed.
[...] The culprits here are easy to identify since the staff of our local school is dedicated, loving, smart and thoughtful: It's raining stupidity from above. "Test and blame" is the message coming from the feds, the commonwealth and even the town.
Home schooling anyone? [ Source: JOHO the Blog]

So we did home school. And there are more and more people doing just that, because of the quality of education the public schools provide. One problem in home schooling is the deep-rooted streak of Christian fundamentalism -- all the curriculum and materials are geared toward educating the child more about Christianity than anything else. If you hold other beliefs, are home schooling for non-religious reasons, or if you just want a broader view, it can be difficult to find suitable materials.

Assembling your own curriculum can be frustrating, and added to the stress of running a home school you get some highly stressed home school parents. So most choose to go with a prepared curriculum. But I found a fantastic book for this problem some years ago.

The Well-Trained Mind, by Jessie Wise and her daughter Susan, provides instruction on how to build a curriculum. But more importantly, it helps you understand how and why a curriculum should be structured in a certain way, and provides a framework around which a solid, classical education can be built.

When I first read this book I was a little sad that I was never taught this way and only now, in my 40s, am learning much of what I should have known years ago. But I got over that and soon was reveling in just how good a K-12 education could be. In the time since we stopped home schooling our kids I've loaned this book to several friends considering home schooling. All have found it an enlightening guide to using home schooling to teach their children how to "love more of the world," -- not less.

I'm insured -- the old fashioned way

3:53:09 PM

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I've got health insurance. Back in August I picked up a thread on the health care dilemma for individuals and the self-employed. Being newly self-employed I was looking for good services and options.

I tried eHealthinsurance.com but, like Scott Walker's experience, I found them less than helpful. Their forms are a Mobius loop, their customer service isn't, and when you finally get through all the hoops you find their relationship with the insurers isn't all that great.

Instead, I called my local independent insurance agent -- the people who carry my house and car insurance. They pointed me to a local representative from GE Financial services. This guy specializes in individual health care policies.

He talked me through it over the phone, sent me a couple of different options to review, and told me how to fill out the forms. He made it pretty easy. Where the eHealthinsurance.com approach took Scott 10 weeks, my application to BlueCross BlueShield of Georgia was approved in 10 days! What a deal. And I didn't pay any more than the price posted on eHealthinsurance.com.

The upshot of this is that, as Doc Searls points out, sometimes the online service brokers just aren't what we think they are, and working with real humans in the traditional way is all you need.