Rolfe Schmidt

I’ve been memed again, this time by Greg Laden (thank you for the compliment Greg).

I like this one. It made me read some of my old posts and think a bout them a bit. Here are the rules in Greg’s words:

The idea is that I list five old posts that I think are reflective of the evolution of this blog … In addition, I am to “tag” (”meme?”) five other blogs and they must do the same thing else suffer the usual dire consequences.

Here are my posts:

1. 4-year-old Math. This was my third post. It is not my favorite but it is my most popular post, thanks to Google. Here you will see some of my first doubts about using drills to teach Math.
2. Is Arithmetic Really So Important? This is my first foray into trying to influence other people. Surprisingly enough, I try to make you question the value of teaching Arithmetic to young kids.
3. Primes in Pre-K. Here my conversion to unschooling is in full swing and I’m learning a lot about what kids can learn. I’m particularly stuck by the way kids can ask “deep questions” and find interesting patterns even though they don’t know Math basics and have no way of carefully answering their questions. I’m still ruminating on this.
4. Keep your Radicals Free. In the spring I started getting political, and this post was the culmination of my little foray. I didn’t intend it, and didn’t think the post was so special at the time. But it seemed to make a splash, and the little comment war wore me out and reduced me to a bit of a lunatic. I think I’ve recovered since then.
5. Be Brave. Over the summer I started thinking more about Philosophy, and this post catches some of that while continuing my thoughts about Family Values.

Looking at all of the posts I didn’t list, I realize that I’ve lost my way a little bit. I like to undermine common sense, but I used to do it with positive examples. Lately I’ve been more of an irritating skeptic and bandwagon rider. If I wanted to give a more honest picture of how my blog is evolving, I should have picked something like this for my post #5.

This exercise makes me think I should focus my writing a little more. I may do that, but I don’t want to commit to thinking about everything I write. I’m already saddled down trying to think about everything I read.

Now who to tag? Here’s are a few blogs that have influenced me, and I’d like to see their highlights: Bore Me To Tears, Cocking a Snook, Open Path Learners.

I know that’s not 5. So there, I broke the rules. Now everyone I tagged gets a dispensation.