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What would mummify the skin of a dinosaur?

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The AP reports today on what amounts to the holy grail of paleontology: “a nearly complete dinosaur, skin and all.”

The fossil of a duck-billed dinosaur, found in 2004 in North Dakota, is being painstakingly extracted from the surrounding sandstone at the state museum in Bismarck. They’re working carefully and slowly because the fossil is not just of bone, it is of the entire carcass of the dinosaur.

Here’s the intriguing paragraph:

“Animal tissue typically decomposes quickly after death. Researchers say Dakota [the dinosaur] must have been buried rapidly and in just the right environment for the texture of the skin to be preserved.

‘The process of decay was overtaken by that of fossilization, preserving many of the soft-tissue structures,’ Manning said.”

What kind of an event would have caused a thirty-foot long dinosaur to be buried rapidly?

Class? class? anyone…?

Hint: It might have something to do with Ben Stein’s new movie, Expelled.

– Rob Shearer
Director, Schaeffer Study Center
Publisher, Greenleaf Press

Bible, book reviews, children's books

Caedmon’s Song

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caedmonAn unusual topic for a children’s book, but the result is delightful! Caedmon’s Song by Ruth Ashby tells the story of a 7th century cowherd who became a songwriter. We have only one hymn that he wrote (Caedmon’s Hymn), but it is the earliest known writing in Old English, or Anglo-Saxon. The story of Caedmon is told in Bede‘s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written in 731 AD.

With a simple, straightforward text, the book tells the story of Caedmon, who works for the abbey taking care of the cows. “He slept with the cows, and he ate with the cows. Cows were his life.” And he hated poetry.

He hated poetry, because he had none. The custom among the villagers on a feast day, was to sit around the hearth at night, “telling stories of heroes and monsters, great battles fought and fortunes made and lost.” They passed the harp around the tables and each took his turn singing a song and telling a story. Caedmon could never think of anything to tell or of any song to sing. No wonder he hated poetry.

When once again on St. Stephen’s feast one year, Caedmon cannot think of a thing to say or sing, he storms out of the hall, furious and embarrassed.

As he slept later that night in the cowshed, a young man came to him in a dream and commanded him to sing him a song. Caedmon opens his mouth and sings a song celebrating God’s creation of the world. That nine-line song is the only one of his writings to survive.

When he sang his song to the others in the village the next day, they were astounded. Here was Caedmon, who hated poetry, singing a new song, which he had composed himself! How was this possible?!

Then it was seen by all even as it was, that to him from God himself a heavenly gift had been given. Then they spoke to him and told some holy story and divine words of knowledge; they bade him then, if he could, that he turn it into poetical rhythm. Then, when he had undertaken it in this manner, then he went home to his house, and came again in the morning, and with the best adorned song he sang and rendered what he was bid (to recite.

Bede‘s biography of Caedmon tells us that he wrote many hymns:

. . . he wrought many songs. And so also many others he made about divine mercy and judgment. In all of them he eagerly sought to pull men away from love of sin and criminal deeds, and to love and to zealously awake to (the doing) of good deeds. For he was a very devout man . . .

The abbess persuaded him to become a monk and she saw to it that he was taught all of the stories from the Bible. And Caedmon spent the rest of his days writing songs to the glory of God.

This is a wonderful story to share with children. It celebrates the gift of creativity that God gives to some of us – and highlights the important role that music and hymns have always played in the worship of the church. It is also a warm and affectionate picture of what life was like in the early centuries of the middle ages – after Rome fell, after the conquest of the Angles and the Saxons, and before the rise of the kingdom of England.

Caedmon’s Song is a $16.00 hardback, 32 pages oversize, color illustrations – available from Greenleaf Press. The publisher’s write-up designates the reading audience as ages 5 and up.

– Rob Shearer
Publisher, Greenleaf Press
Director, Schaeffer Study Center

book reviews, children's books

I, Vivaldi by Janice Shefelman

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Prelude:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DWAdJKUlxo]

vivaldiAntonio Vivaldi was born in 1678 in Venice, where he lived for all but the last two years of his life. As he turned 60, his music fell out of favor in the city of his birth and he left for Vienna, where he died a year later in 1741, poor and forgotten.

His life makes a remarkable story, and a new children’s book, I, Vivaldi by Janice and Tom Shefelman tells the story and vividly shows us what life in Venice was like in the 18th century.

Vivaldi was taught to play the violin by his father, who was a musician at St. Mark’s Cathedral. Vivaldi’s father began taking him along to his rehearsals while he was still a young boy. Vivaldi was recognized as a prodigy on the violin.

Vivaldi had been weak and sick at his birth and his mother had vowed that he would become a priest if he survived. He dutifully studied theology and was ordained, but clearly, his heart and passion were for music. While he remained a priest, the Bishop of Venice eventually released him from obligations at the Cathedral and assigned him to teach music at a girl’s orphanage in Venice.

Under his direction, the young girls became some of the most accomplished chamber musicians in all of Europe and attracted visitors from abroad who came to hear them play the original scores Vivaldi had composed for them.

The story is clearly told and the pictures capture both the beauty of Venice and her canals and squares as well as the interior spaces of St. Mark’s and the ornate music halls where Vivaldi played. This would be a great introduction to Vivaldi’s music for students in the elementary grades. The books authors recommend the book especially for ages 7-11.

The hardback book, I, Vivaldi 38 pages, is $18.00 from Greenleaf Press.

– Rob Shearer
Publisher, Greenleaf Press
Director, Schaeffer Study Center

Bible, book reviews, Homeschooling

A Biblical Home Education by Ruth Beechick

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Dr Ruth Beechick is a wise woman. Her quiet, calm, commonsense approach toThree Rs homeschooling has been refreshing and relaxing homeschool moms for twenty years now. I would strongly contend that the only book you need to teach your children in grades one to three is her Three R’s: A Home Start in Reading; A Strong Start in Language; An Easy Start in Arithmetic ($12.00).

Dr. Beechick has an uncanny ability to examine a subject and think clearly about how it should be taught and how it can best be taught easily. She has a firm grasp of the history of education that makes her almost immune to educational fads and hype.

Beechick Biblical Home EdLast year, she published a foundational book that I cannot recommend too highly: A Biblical Home Education ($14.99).

Her central thesis is that Christian homeschoolers ought to make the Bible the foundational book of their children’s education. Amen!

Her first four chapter discuss practically how to do this:

Bible for Homeschoolers
World History to Match the Bible
Science to Match the Bible
Worldviews to Match the Bible

The next five chapters of her book focus on skills rather than content: Thinking, Reading, Studying, Writing, and Grammar after Writing. Cyndy (the beautiful Mrs. Greenleaf) strongly endorses Ruth’s ideas about “grammar last,” AFTER your students have mastered speaking clearly and have acquired basic writing skills.
Finally, she gives us a wonderful chapter on “Informal Beginnings,” that takes much of the sensible observations of the “unschoolers” and sets them in context as she talks about how young children first begin to acquire skills by conversation, manipulation, and play. The best line from this chapter, “. . . moms need to know that what their children need most is their natural, loving, peaceful home environment.”

The last chapter is titled Curriculum Materials. The opening line offers some of the best advice I’ve heard, “Curriculum materials are less important than we tend to think.” Dr. Beechick gives a concise summary of the many types of curriculum and offers her concise advice on the strengths and weaknesses of each. Of course, I like her advice on how to teach history, “use real books not textbooks.” Though I would quibble a bit with her dismissal of doing thing in chronological sequence. I agree its not absolutely necessary, but I think, overall, that it makes things easier.

This is a great book to recommend to new homeschooling moms. It will give them a valuable perspective and help to reassure them that homeschooling does not have to be hard.

A Biblical Home Education is $14.99 and can be ordered from Greenleaf Press.

The Three R’s is $12.00 and is also available from Greenleaf Press.

– Rob Shearer
Director, Schaeffer Study Center
Publisher, Greenleaf Press

book reviews, children's books, Middle Ages

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! – The 2008 Newbery Medal Winner

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good mastersI’m delighted to review the 2008 Newbery Medal Winner, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village. Its a wonderful book and I’m very pleased that the Newbery folks have once again chosen a work of historical fiction (by far the most frequent category of the Newbery winners, going all the way back to 1922.

For those who don’t know, the Newbery Medal is the Oscar of children’s books. It’s been awarded annually since 1922 and all but one or two of the winners are still in print. They almost always meet the definition of a “living book,” i.e. a book that children will read, even if they’re not forced to!

This is a book written for children to perform! Schlitz has crafted nineteen monologues and two duologues which allow 21 children from the middle ages to tell their own stories. She uses a variety of literary styles, from couplets to complex rhyme schemes to blank verse and straight prose. Each is very compelling – all the more so when read out loud or better yet performed. The characters include Hugo, the lord’s Nephew; Taggot, the Blacksmith’s daughter; Will, the plowboy; Otho the miller’s son; Pask, the runaway; Piers, the glassblower’s apprentice; and Drogo, the tanner’s apprentice. Interspersed among the dramatic presentations are six background essays on:

The Three-Field System
Medieval Pilgrimage
The Crusades
Falconry
Jews in Medieval Society
and Towns and Freedom

This method of presenting information works very well to capture children’s attention, and the biographical pieces will make the middle ages (and the details of what life was like) real in a way that no textbook or reference book can.

Laura Amy Schlitz is the librarian at the Park School in Baltimore. She wrote these pieces for the students at the school who were studying the Middle Ages. The children whose stories she has presented are imagined to be between 10 and 15 years old. The book should appeal to students in that age range – and older students as well. Highly recommended. Good Masters! is a hardback, priced at $19.99, and available directly from Greenleaf Press.

– Rob Shearer
Director, Schaeffer Study Center
Publisher, Greenleaf Press

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Pope Gregory vs. Julius Caesar or Why can’t reporters do simple fact-checking?

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Today’s Lebanon Democrat carries a story claiming that Tennesseans should “thank a sixteenth century pope” for an extra day’s grace on property taxes this year.

Last-minute Tennessee taxpayers will get a little bit of help this year from an unlikely source – a 16th-century pope.

Property taxes usually come due on Feb. 28, but with 2008 being a leap year, that deadline is pushed back a day to Feb. 29, the day added to the calendar every four years, as the result of a 1582 decree by Pope Gregory XIII, when he instituted the calendar that bears his name.

While its nice to see a daily newspaper acknowledging that everything isn’t MTV, Youtube, and current events, it would be even nicer if they’d spend 10 minutes using the internet to do some elementary fact-checking. Pope Gregory XIII is not responsible for giving us the practice of adding a leap day in leap years. The author of that innovation was Julius Caesar.

The Julian calendar was a significant reform instituted by the Julius Caesar in 46 BC. Julius had spent a year in Egypt and hadn’t wasted ALL his time with Cleopatra. The Egyptian astronomers demonstrated to him, convincingly, that the calendar year was actually 365.25 days long. It was Julius’ idea to regularize this observation into a calendar that was 365 days long and added one day every four years.

Julius got it almost right. The calendar year is almost 365.25 days long. Its actually 365.2425 days long. That slight difference accumulated over time under the Julian calendar, and by 1582, the dates of the equinoxes and solstices had shifted by 10 days. This was especially troubling to the church when it came time each year to calculate the date for Easter. So Pope Gregory instituted a calendar reform in 1582 that dropped 3 leap days every 400 years. Under the Gregorian Calendar, century years are NOT leap years unless they are divisible by 400. And to correct the drift of the calendar in the 1600 years from Julius Caesar to Pope Gregory XIII, the Church decreed that in 1582, October 4th would be followed by October 15th.

Protestant countries thought this was a popish plot and refused to go along – for about 170 years. Britain and the British Empire finally adopted calendar reform by an act of Parliament in 1750. Parliament gave everyone two years to prepare for the adjustment. By the New Style Act of 1750, Wednesday September 2, 1752 was followed by Thursday, September 14, 1752. George Washington (and many others) adjusted the date on which they celebrated their birthdays, in order to accurately reflect when they really were celebrating the anniversary of their birth. Washington was born on February 11th, 1732. When the calendar was adjusted in 1752, he adjusted his birthday 11 days as well and ever after celebrated it on February 22.

Russia, being neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant, wanted nothing to do with such shenanigans. The Czars were never persuaded. It took the Russian Revolution and a communist dictatorship to reform the calendar in Russia. Wednesday January 31, 1918 was followed by Thursday, February 14, 1918.

Historians of the 17th century & 18th centuries, when trying to synchronize dates and correspondence between various catholic and protestant countries have been known to go mad.

Irresistible footnote: The “October Revolution” in Russia occurred on October 25, 1917 – in Russia. It was actually November 5, 1917 everywhere else in Europe.

But don’t thank the Pope for an extra day before your taxes are due this year. Thank Julius Caesar.

– Rob Shearer
Publisher, Greenleaf Press
Director, Schaeffer Study Center

book reviews, children's books

The Dangerous Book for Boys

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dangerous bookThe Dangerous Book for Boys represents a healthy swing of the pendulum away from 20th century post-Christian sensitive new-age-guy feminist parenting. Me? opinionated?

Seriously, this is a book that works on many levels. If you have a pre-teen boy in the house, I can almost guarantee he’ll like this book. And even if he doesn’t like it at first, you should still have one lying around for him to pick up. Sooner or later he will.

knotsThe book is a sort of almanac of “boy’s lore.” The typography, the illustrations, and the article selections are laid out in a sort of cross between the Boy Scout Manual and the old World Book Encyclopedia. The entries are an eclectic mix of lists & lore on topics that boys naturally gravitate to, like “Famous Battles” and “Extraordinary Stories.” There are also some practical academic tips like “Latin Phrases Every Boy Should Know” and three articles on “Understanding Grammar.” But these are not what boys will look at first.

waterloo Boys will most likely gravitate at first to “First Aid,” “Five Pen-and-Paper Games,” “Secret Inks,” “Spies – Codes and Ciphers,” “Making Crystals,” and “Making a Go-Cart.” Also included are the rules for “Stickball,” “Table Football,” and a table of the winning hands at Poker. Near and dear to my heart is the list of “Books Every Boy Should Read” at the end, which includes both Lewis and Tolkien as well as Kipling, Mark Twain, Douglas Adams, and Ian Fleming. I’m less happy with the inclusion of J.K.Rowling, but willing to overlook it and politely disagree.

I do recommend this book for homeschooling families who want to delight in the boyhood of boys. The book is just plain fun to read, with quite a few humorous passages. An example: Point one in the Advice About Girls:

1. It is important to listen. Human beings are often very self-centered and like to talk about themselves. In addition, it’s an easy subject if someone is nervous. it is good advice to listen closely — unless she has also been given this advice, in which case an uneasy silence could develop, like two owls sitting together.

2. Be careful with humor. It is very common for boys to try to impress girls with a string of jokes, each one more desperate than the last. One joke, perhaps, and then a long silence while she talks about herself . . .

The authors are two English brothers (who obviously had great fun together as boys), Conn and Hal Iggulden. Conn Iggulden is also the author of the four-volume historical fiction series on Julius Caesar that I recommended earlier this month.

The Dangerous Book for Boys is a well-bound hardback that sells for $24.95. It came out in May of 2007, and in less than a year has already become a classic and a great gift book. You can order it direct from Greenleaf Press.

daring bookSensing a “Good Thing,” the publisher has, of course, brought out a companion book for pre-teen girls in the same style titled The Daring Book for Girls. Printed prominently on the back, in large type, is the invitation (warning?): “For every girl with an Independent spirit and a nose for trouble, here is the no-boys-allowed guide to adventure.”

It is refreshing to read a book that acknowledges that girls’ interests are different from boys’ and celebrates that fact. There are some commonalities (States, Capitals, Greek & Latin vocabulary) but almost everything here is similar in style, but different in content. The games described are Double Dutch Jump Rope and Softball and Slumber Party Games (quite wholesome). The story selections are on Queens of the Ancient World and Women Spies. The projects are Friendship Bracelets, Watercolor Painting, and Roller Skating. I can’t speak personally, of course, but my younger six daughters looked it over and pronounced it “interesting.” I plan to leave it lying around for them to discover and enjoy on their own.

Like The Dangerous Book for Boys, The Daring Book for Girls is a sturdy hardback, and sells for $24.95. And it can be ordered from Greenleaf Press.

Both books put a smile on my face and made me think that childhood can still be fun and wholesome, and doesn’t require electronic devices to be enjoyed. Recommended for these and many other reasons.

– Rob Shearer
Publisher, Greenleaf Press
Director, Schaeffer Study Center

Homeschooling

Homeschool Politics in Tennessee – HB2975 and the Gateway Tests

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hardawayA freshman member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from the Memphis area, Mr. George Hardaway, is sponsoring a bill this year which would require both homeschoolers and private school students to take the same “Gateway” end-of-course exams that the state requires public school students to take.

“Why?” is the question that immediately springs to mind.

Bear with me, for the reasoning is somewhat convoluted. The background is bizarre and parochial but it perfectly illustrates Tip O’Neill’s observation that “all politics is local.”

Background: The Memphis delegation has wielded disproportionate influence in the Tenneesee Legislature for over a century. This was partly due to demographics (until quite recently, Memphis was the largest city in the state), partly due to party discipline (Memphis is overwhelmingly Democrat and the Democrats control the state legislature), and partly due to the legacy of Boss Crump. Don’t get me started on Boss Crump. But if you’re going to play politics in Tennessee, you’d be well served to do some research on him.

Where were we… Oh yes, Gateway tests. What are the Gateway tests?

In the High School End of Course Tests Policy, renamed the High School Examinations Policy in August, 2002, the State Board stipulated that beginning with students entering the 9th grade in 2001-2002, students must successfully pass examinations in three subject areas – Mathematics, Science, and Language Arts – in order to earn a high school diploma. These examinations, called Gateway Tests, were intended to raise the academic bar for all high school students and add accountability for students’ academic performance.

– From the Tennessee Department of Education website.

Now, here’s the problem: A disproportionate number of Memphis public school students have been failing the three Gateway Tests required for a high school diploma. Momma and Daddy (and student) aren’t happy when there’s no high school diploma.

Here’s where the politics comes in. Homeschoolers and private school students don’t have to take the Gateway Tests to earn a high school diploma. The cry of “IT’S NOT FAIR!” goes up. Never mind that homeschoolers and private school students have been taking the SAT and ACT tests as a part of their college applications (and doing quite well, thank you very much).

One solution of course would be to try to figure out what the Memphis public schools need to do in order to improve their pass rate on the Gateways. But that would be hard. Simpler solution: Torpedo the Gateway Test requirement! And in order to bring attention and pressure to bear to solve this crisis, require everybody to take them!

Actually, the whole issue is probably moot at this point. Two weeks ago, the Tennessee Board of Education eliminated the requirement that students must pass the Gateway Tests in order to get a high school diploma. They replaced the three Gateway Tests with TEN Gateway Tests (I can’t find a list of the subjects). But passing these tests is no longer required for high school graduation. Instead, the scores on these ten tests will (by mandate of the Tennessee Board of Education) count as 25% of the student’s final grade in each of the ten subjects. You can now fail the test, but unless the test score drags your course average below passing, you don’t have to take the test again. Pretty good summary in this article from the Memphis Flyer on Feb 14, 2008.

So why is Representative Hardaway picking a fight with homeschoolers? Apparently, its a deliberate strategy on his part to get the legislature to focus on changing the Gateway Test rules so more of his constituents can graduate from high school.

A modest suggestion: Somebody ought to try devoting some effort to changing things so students actually learn more.

Oh, and leave the homeschoolers out of it. Of all the groups of students in the state, the homeschoolers are the ones doing the best academically. There are the occasional failures, and stories of kids who fall through the cracks. But I can guarantee you that the success rate of homeschoolers as a group far exceeds the public schools. And the failure rate is far lower.

Just a thought…

– Rob Shearer

PS: For an excellent account of how the first committee hearing on Rep. Hardaway’s bill went, see this account by Kay Brooks: Hardaway Punts.