Thursday, July 31, 2008

Exchange Student

Our household just got assessed for an exchange student, and although I displayed some jerkiness, I think we're still on the books as potentials. She'd be going to Cleveland, like Tara, but a senior, from China. We shall see.

Anna Roys has been showing a lot of determination in the face of adversity, in trying to perform her duties within the TECC service area, TECC being her proposed school, mentioned in my Chicago talk briefly.

As a homeschooling mom, she has the right stuff to make it happen, but it takes more than one principal to make a play. Gotta have thespians, co-stars, including in those nebulous realms.

I've been sniping amidst Quakers regarding this "overpopulation" meme some still bandy about somewhat unthinkingly, betraying their schooling in Neo-Malthusianism, popular in 1960s text books, in parallel with Marxism in Eastern Bloc countries.

Given our reputation for scholarship, these reflexes are subject to extinction over time, per Darwinian genetic algorithms, i.e. we're not built to stay stupid, have practices against that. It's not that overpopulation can't be a problem, with any species, it's the level of malign neglect people use it to justify, as if wasting lives were a solution to anything.

As a Wanderer, I'm into protecting the good name of both of these gents (Darwin's too) which means not letting their necessarily time-bound snapshot views get blamed for the cruft of the ages, much as Nietzsche gets blamed for Nazi propaganda (he had nothing to do with that).

That pleasant naturalist and journal keeper who visited the Galapagos had nothing to do with any War Against the Weak either.

But I digress.

This isn't a plan to implement immediately, as Tara's room is undergoing remodeling and Carol's office is in business 24/7, like mine down the hall. No spare digs at the moment, plus we might need to travel more before school starts again.