Black Jade
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2008
- Messages
- 1,242
I don''t really have more time to spend here. we all clearly have our own opinions on this issue and it seems profitless to go around in circles as we have been doing.
I can use google, obviously but it has, you know, a few limitations. Doing ''research'' that way in a matter of seconds. As a historian, I was trained to use original sources and to use multiple sources when looking for information. I didn''t have a single professor who would have accepted one chart as proof of anything, even if it were in a book, and not on the internet which is notoriously not subject to being edited and not subject to peer review. I may be wrong in what I remembered about mortality, but I am not convinced by that chart. Evidently my memory served me well though concerning childbirth and sanitation--thank you for clarifying that subject.
I could go on and on--I in fact know quite a bit about third world children dying of dehydration because my brother died that way--I''m from a third world country as I''ve stated several times. Far from my parents feeling that they wanted to have lots of children because this might happen again, they didn''t want to have any more children because it was so hurtful. My mother always tells me how she conceived me accidentally after that awful experience--and what a gift it was that I lived, which gave her the courage to have more. I know of no one who has expressed the kinds of feelings that you say people ''evolved'' to have (you really think that people have ''evolved'' in the past 100 years? This doesn''t seem like a very correct use of the theory of evolution) where they sort of decide to have many children and hope to keep one or two. This is the kind of thing that first world people like to extrapolate about us--because we are so different, you know, than they are. And people in the past were so different, too. How fortunate it is that we know exactly the right things nowadays that everyone should do to cure all the problems caused by the ignorance of previous generations. Too bad that there are so many stubborn and backward people who won''t listen--and not just in those third world countries, either.
Not accusing you of thinking like this, but this is often what I hear from so-called ''intellectuals'' who are ''progressive'' and it does get on my nerves, sorry.
Just spent a lovely evening at the home of my friend with the nine children. My son played with her kids that are his age, who were shooting basketball by the garage and then running around the backyard; the little ones were doing some ''dress-up'' and also trying to help prepare fresh string beans for cooking from her garden, we looked at her homeschool lessons for the next few months and then made a spaghetti dinner for all--the 13 year old daughter made a whole lot of banana bread and wrapped up a loaf for me to take home with my name on it. The oldest two daughters had evening college classes today. One is actually in college and the other just takes college classes to supplement what she does at home at the moment. She is still in high school, but lots of the homeschool kids start taking some college classes at around 16 or so. She just got back from a trip to Ireland--it''s sort of family tradition to go to Ireland for the summer during their teenage years and stay for some time with their aunt. It''s the geography classes that I said I''d help out with as I have some knowledge of China from living there and because my specialty was Chinese history--she''s really anxious for her children to know about different parts of the world. I''ve taught them some Chinese language before. She also is getting an East Indian lady from our church (who also homeschools to come and talk about India) and the lady from the Cherokee nation (she doesn''t homeschool, her kids were in the local high school with mine, she''s a research scientist at a corporation nearby) to come and talk about native American culture firsthand, all of us supplementing what the textbook that she is using has to say. We had a nice dinner, I looked at some pillows and curtains she is making (she''s redecorating) and I stayed chatting late way too long. She lent me a devotional book that I''m anxious to look at. It was very relaxing and so much nicer than being on the internet, where I have been too much this past month. It was dark as I drove home and the moon was out--very pleasant.
Goodnight to all.
I can use google, obviously but it has, you know, a few limitations. Doing ''research'' that way in a matter of seconds. As a historian, I was trained to use original sources and to use multiple sources when looking for information. I didn''t have a single professor who would have accepted one chart as proof of anything, even if it were in a book, and not on the internet which is notoriously not subject to being edited and not subject to peer review. I may be wrong in what I remembered about mortality, but I am not convinced by that chart. Evidently my memory served me well though concerning childbirth and sanitation--thank you for clarifying that subject.
I could go on and on--I in fact know quite a bit about third world children dying of dehydration because my brother died that way--I''m from a third world country as I''ve stated several times. Far from my parents feeling that they wanted to have lots of children because this might happen again, they didn''t want to have any more children because it was so hurtful. My mother always tells me how she conceived me accidentally after that awful experience--and what a gift it was that I lived, which gave her the courage to have more. I know of no one who has expressed the kinds of feelings that you say people ''evolved'' to have (you really think that people have ''evolved'' in the past 100 years? This doesn''t seem like a very correct use of the theory of evolution) where they sort of decide to have many children and hope to keep one or two. This is the kind of thing that first world people like to extrapolate about us--because we are so different, you know, than they are. And people in the past were so different, too. How fortunate it is that we know exactly the right things nowadays that everyone should do to cure all the problems caused by the ignorance of previous generations. Too bad that there are so many stubborn and backward people who won''t listen--and not just in those third world countries, either.
Not accusing you of thinking like this, but this is often what I hear from so-called ''intellectuals'' who are ''progressive'' and it does get on my nerves, sorry.
Just spent a lovely evening at the home of my friend with the nine children. My son played with her kids that are his age, who were shooting basketball by the garage and then running around the backyard; the little ones were doing some ''dress-up'' and also trying to help prepare fresh string beans for cooking from her garden, we looked at her homeschool lessons for the next few months and then made a spaghetti dinner for all--the 13 year old daughter made a whole lot of banana bread and wrapped up a loaf for me to take home with my name on it. The oldest two daughters had evening college classes today. One is actually in college and the other just takes college classes to supplement what she does at home at the moment. She is still in high school, but lots of the homeschool kids start taking some college classes at around 16 or so. She just got back from a trip to Ireland--it''s sort of family tradition to go to Ireland for the summer during their teenage years and stay for some time with their aunt. It''s the geography classes that I said I''d help out with as I have some knowledge of China from living there and because my specialty was Chinese history--she''s really anxious for her children to know about different parts of the world. I''ve taught them some Chinese language before. She also is getting an East Indian lady from our church (who also homeschools to come and talk about India) and the lady from the Cherokee nation (she doesn''t homeschool, her kids were in the local high school with mine, she''s a research scientist at a corporation nearby) to come and talk about native American culture firsthand, all of us supplementing what the textbook that she is using has to say. We had a nice dinner, I looked at some pillows and curtains she is making (she''s redecorating) and I stayed chatting late way too long. She lent me a devotional book that I''m anxious to look at. It was very relaxing and so much nicer than being on the internet, where I have been too much this past month. It was dark as I drove home and the moon was out--very pleasant.
Goodnight to all.