Sunday Wrapup 2/5/2012

Excellence in Writing (EIW) is to non-instinctive writers as Flylady is to non-instinctive homemakers: The Solution.

I told Joel and Hilda last night that whatever writing skills I have are due to an instinctive word sense, good feedback from many different teachers, and lots of proofreading--not from having learned through a stellar curriculum and method. So far, that's mostly how I've taught writing as well--by providing feedback and emphasizing proofreading. If the instinctive word sense is missing, the process can still be very daunting for students. The EIW way is so much better--far less stressful and more predictably satisfying and interesting. It would have saved me a lot of writing time and made my organization of ideas better if I had learned by this method.

The writing process becomes quantifiable with the EIW methods and tools, so that everyone who knows how to talk will learn how to write well. Grading shortcuts for teachers make it manageable from that angle as well.

The process originated with Dr. Webster, in Canada, and the organization promoting it is now directed in the United States by Andrew Pudewa in Oklahoma. The presenter at the workshop I attended was Linda Mikotis, from Chicago. The Pudewa and Mikotis families are homeschoolers. Dr. Webster was a college professor in an obscure subject area like African History, and soon had students flocking to his class because the word was out that he was the teacher who could teach you how to write, and all your other classes would be easier because of it.

The core materials of the system are contained in three volumes, with a fourth soon to be added (K, 1, 2). Each one has lesson plans for multi-grade levels: (3, 4, 5) (6, 7, 8), and (9-12). They cost around $80.00.

Linda Mikotis is an outstanding presenter. Not a minute of your time is wasted, almost everything she says is demonstrated, and she speaks clearly and well, while maintaining excellent rapport with the audience. She has several education degrees, one in special education. She herself struggled mightily with writing all her life as a student, but her enablers saved her from disaster in college--first her roommate and then her husband. The change in her writing skills happened for her when her husband informed her that their children would not grow up to be like her when it came to writing. They were going to learn to write well and she was going to learn first so she could teach them. He enrolled both of them in an Excellence in Writing workshop, and within the first 30 minutes, she knew her life was going to change.

More information here.

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Willard M., who moved to this community with his family--three years ago maybe--commented this morning in church on the number of old people among us, and said he told someone recently he thinks they're still here because it's a safe place to grow old. We have our differences, but we figure things out and go on, and people like it that way.

David, our bishop, added later that he thinks it's a safe place because our older people made it a safe place.

I like sentiments of goodwill like that, expressed publicly and held privately.

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Nathan Y. also expressed thanks to the church this morning for providing a job for his father as director (not sure of his exact title) of Hands of Christ ministries. He says he witnesses the emotion and satisfaction Paul feels in fulfilling his calling and having found a niche in which to serve. Paul has been honest about the adjustment it was to have to leave the mission in Belgium to return to the States. Part of that adjustment was having to "start over" in his 60s, working at jobs that were a world away from the people ministries he had been involved with most of his life.

Over the past year, many needy people in Hutchinson have come to regard him as friend, counselor, and minister.

Part of the proposal our church is voting on this week is whether to arrange for ordination for Paul as Pastor/Minister of Community Evangelism and Discipleship. In the same ballot, people are being asked whether to approve Lowell's special ordination as Pastor and Minister of International Church Development. Neither of these ordinations would involve preaching regularly at home or being involved in church administration here.

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Planned for this week is a joint youth/senior banquet, arranged by the young people. I'm neither old enough nor young enough to go, but that's alright.

Hiromi will be 67 this year. He wonders how you know when you can go to the senior events--when you're 70 or after both you and your wife turn 70--seven years later, in our case. I'm not worried about getting it figured out. He isn't really either.

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My sister Carol's family has a cat named Paris. In keeping with the French theme, I think maybe he should have been named Napoleon instead, given his "Invincible General" bearing. He really caused us no inconvenience, but he obviously wished for unlimited access to the bedroom Wes slept in downstairs and the one I slept in upstairs. The soft rug on the bathroom floor also seemed incredibly appealing to him. Simple solution: closed doors to those rooms.

Paris was born in Columbus, to a cat owned by my sister Clara's family. Carol's girls fell in love with the cute black and white kitten on a visit to Columbus, and he came home with them, on the condition that Papa Roberto would have the final say about whether or not he stayed. As such things often go in loving families, Papa's preferences were laid aside for the sake of the children, and Paris stayed. Carol keeps talking about bringing him here to the farm to live, but so far it hasn't happened.

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We had a blessed amount of rain at the end of last week--two inches perhaps. Our gauge has a crack in it, so we're not sure how much we had. Water is puddled in the fields and roadside ditches. SOOOOOO welcome. Some of it came with drama--lightening, thunder, and wind. We're back to having temperatures in the 20s at night and 40s during the day instead of daytime temperatures in the 60s.

North of us, in Nebraska, the same storm system apparently dumped copious amounts of snow--so wet that it downed many power lines. I find it hard to imagine how this works, maybe because we almost always have way too much wind with our snow for any of it to rest on power lines.

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My Home Environment students and I are hoping to make some changes in the typing room at school--almost entirely on the walls and at the windows, to provide a more welcoming, energizing atmosphere, to make the natural lighting work to our advantage, and to put to use some of what we're learning about how to accomplish those things. This project is not an easy sell to the church trustees, it turns out, so it may or may not happen. Whether the redecorating happens or not, I'm sure we'll have the benefit of learning some life lessons and experiencing some positive character development. I suppose it's not wrong to wish that for all concerned.

We will provide cost estimates as requested. I have already provided reassurances regarding the quality of the students' workmanship.

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I'm immersed in ideas and information about "Protest," the topic of this month's upcoming current events study. Christian people have a variety of opinions about the validity of protest as a vehicle for change. What do you think?