Tricotomania and more

There has been some discussion around the homeschooling blogs about Melissa’s Rule of 6. I have been thinking about the last one, meaningful work, because Tigger has been doing quite a bit of it. Including baking bread.

The bread idea was prompted by Wisteria (and her recipe). Not that I hadn’t thought about it before, but I think her post came at a good time. We decided to try it. We have taken her recipe and modified it for our own purposes. Our bread tin is smaller so we use about 2/3 of a recipe (which conveniently comes out to one packet of yeast). A friend said that babies under a year aren’t supposed to have honey (even if cooked) so we substituted molasses so her daughter can eat it. Molasses also gives a really nice flavour to the bread. We use oil instead of butter (saves on the melting). It is really tasty. (Thanks, Wisteria.)

And Tigger does it all herself. She is justifiably proud of her bread. And has as a goal to make bread as good as Granddad’s. She strongly associates my dad (her Granddad) with home baked bread. Granddad, of course, only took up baking (and cooking in general) in retirement so I have no childhood memories of home-baked bread. She is also a big fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder and all things pioneer, which I think motivates activities like baking bread that are seen as old-fashioned.

Tigger has also taken on responsibility for feeding the cats first thing in the morning. She is the first one up, usually, so this makes sense. She had also lobbied strongly to get the cats and offered to take this on in recognition of the fact that cats involve work and she should do some of that work.

Yesterday she proudly announced that she had unloaded the dishwasher all by herself. No one asked (this was before we got out of bed) and this has not been an expectation. It requires a stool to reach some of the cupboards. She just did it. It has been her job for a while to clear the table and load the dishwasher but this is a new development.

I’ve been thinking about this, because in general I detest “chores”. The thought of a list of tasks that have to be done and that can be allocated to various members of the household, or various time slots, makes me irritable. I think it has something to do with meaningful work. Doing “chores” is not always meaningful. It can easily turn into a standard list of things that must be done to a certain schedule and become divorced from the needs of life as you are living it.

For example, I find that if “cleaning” is a “chore”, then folks resent doing cleaning at any other time or when they think of themselves as doing something else (like “cooking”). Things actually get dirtier. Spills on the stove get ignored because “cleaning” is a separate task. When more than one person is doing the cooking, this can be frustrating for the person who finds it unpleasant to cook in that sort of environment. Similarly, one can end up doing a particular chore just because it is on the list to be done at this frequency even when the need is not as great. We get focused on the “chores” rather than the life that they are supposed to facilitate.

If this is my attitude, you can see that it would be inappropriate to make a list of chores for Tigger. I do think that as a member of the household she needs to contribute to the running of the household. And I think that she needs to learn how to do a range of tasks that need to be done more or less regularly. I also fundamentally and completely disagree with any notion that the house should just appear as a clean and lovely space to any of the people who live in it. The work involved ought to be understood and appreciated by all members of the household.

By observing how she has been participating in household work over the past little while, I have come to see that when there is no list of “chores”, the work itself can become meaningful. It produces something that the worker desires — tasty bread, a tidy environment, etc. It also produces a feeling of fully belonging to the household. That pride that she can empty the dishwasher is at least partly about recognizing an additional way that she is able to contribute, even if she doesn’t empty the dishwasher every time. And household tasks do not just produce goods (bread, dinner, clean laundry) and services (dinner served to the table, maid service), they also produce relationships. Doing these things for others as a member of a household is a way of tangibly caring for people.

As many of us know, the joy in cooking is not just the satisfaction of the biological need for food, but the joy that good food brings to those that we love. Home-baked bread is overflowing with meaning, at the same time as being a staple of our daily meals.

I have finished the shawl. For some reason I didn’t touch it for a couple of weeks and when I picked it up again there were only 2 or 3 repeats of the edging to do. The grafting went swimmingly. Ted’s tips on starting shawl edgings for successful grafting later were spot on (as expected). And the sun has come out today so I’ve been outside to take a few photos.

I was not in my most patient mood the day I blocked this but I’m quite happy with it. As I’ve said from an early stage this feels like a casual shawl. I tried photographing it over a white sheet and it just washed out the detail so I think it would look best over something dark. Perhaps a navy shirt and jeans. Or for those who wear a lot of black with bright accessories.

I also learned a bit more about iPhoto to make those photos a bit truer. Fun.

Ray is getting set up in his new home and getting the business off the ground. So if you want some of this multi-coloured lace weight, go check out what he has. It was lovely to knit with and feels really soft knitted up. The kitten tested it earlier and approved. And everyone at knit night last night commented on how soft it was. Thanks Ray for sending it.

I forgot to say that in addition to the kittens, we have taken in an older cat temporarily (until August). He has been getting used to both the new surroundings and the kittens. But I think he’s adjusted remarkably quickly. Don’t you?

A workbook came in the mail yesterday that I had ordered so long ago I’d forgotten about it. It was a set of grade 3-6 activities with the patternblocks I’d ordered in the summer. It motivated us to get the pattern blocks out and play a bit. I had looked through the book last night but we weren’t really working with it. Here are some of the fun things we made while eating our lunch.

We also did a bunch of exercises making ever larger similar figures with multiples of one figure. That third picture is done on top of a 7 x 7 rhombus using other shapes. Tigger is now making people, dogs, flowers and trees. Lots of fun.

I recently had a conversation with Kim, which started in the comments of my last knitting post, continued by e-mail, moved into a post of hers and so on. It got me thinking. I thought I’d share those thoughts.

At various points in knitting discussions, folks get on to the relative merits of process and product. For example, I knit lace largely because I enjoy the process. I think Ted does, too. But since I have started knitting lace, I have found a use for the product. I now wear shawls. And have given shawls to people as gifts. (Ted is clearly all about the process. He stores his shawls. In the freezer.) So while I knit lace primarily for the process, there is still some part of me that needs to see a use for the product. I suspect many of the knitters who claim to knit certain things because they enjoy the process also find some use for the product. Certainly the reactions to the shawls in Ted’s freezer suggest this is the case.

But if you go and read Kim’s post (I’ve put the link in again to encourage you. I’ll wait.), you will find someone who knits purely for the benefits of the process. She has yet to produce anything wearable. She claims not to be able to produce a decent washcloth. And yet she eloquently explains why the process is enjoyable and she keeps knitting. I encouraged her.

How many times have you been brought up short by someone who is horrified at the cost of the yarn for a sweater (or whatever) that you are knitting? Their comparison of the price of the yarn (and perhaps the monetary value of your time knitting in it) with the price of even good sweaters from the shops seems somehow to miss the point. And yet would you recommend that Kim buy nice, even expensive, yarn to knit with? I’m going to guess that there are limits to the value we place on the process.

We live in a society which values that which can be bought and sold. Commodities. If it does not produce a commodity, it seems that our work is worthless. Crazy, even. Thus the incomprehensibility of handknitting a sweater when a perfectly good one could be purchased for less. And the difficulty for even knitters to comprehend why one would knit something beautiful and then pack it up and store it safely where no one can even admire it much less get any use out of it. But to spend money on yarn and spend time knitting to produce something that even the producer doesn’t think is beautiful or useful? Completely at odds with the culture of commodification (otherwise known as capitalism).

Kim and I have not found each other because we are both knitters. Kim’s is not on the regular round of knitting blogs. No, Kim and I both homeschool. And these issues of process and product are also germane to the homeschooling discussions in which we both participate. Homeschoolers just don’t call it that.

Tests. Grades. Certificates. Credentials. These are indicators of the commodification of education. Listen to our politicians talk about education and you will hear a lot of talk about job skills, employability, and so on. And education policy (in most western industrialized countries) is being driven by this conceptualization of the value of education in terms of its value in the job market. And what matters in the (job) market is what can be measured and traded. Knowledge gets reduced to those aspects that can be given a dollar value.

How many young people have you met who expect that their university degree will earn them a higher salary? Is it the knowledge they gained in the process of earning that degree that they think will do this? Or is it the certificate (a product)? Having taught in a well respected university, I can tell you that there are many young people out there who think that the knowledge they might gain in the process is largely irrelevant. And many older people, having worked with younger degree bearing colleagues, who will agree with them (albeit resentfully).

This commodification of education has led to ever increasing “accountability measures” to ensure that the money the taxpayer (or parent in the case of private education) is paying is delivering a product worthy of the investment. A product that can be traded on the (employment) market. A commodity.

At the same time, the scope of what is taught is shrinking. Art, music, physical education, and the like have all become “luxuries”. When children are having difficulty reading, social studies time is shortened to make more time for the teaching of reading through drills and exercises. The fact that social studies might require reading and that the material might be a more interesting (and thus more motivating) way to practice reading becomes nonsensical.

As homeschoolers, we are often asked how we know that our children are learning. Or even how we know that our children are learning “the right things”. People are amazed that my province does not require me to follow the provincial curriculum guidelines or have my child tested when others are tested. Of course, we often wonder if our children are learning anything, too. But things happen in our lives that reassure us usually in sort of random ways. We converse with our children and the depth and breadth of their knowledge bcomes apparent.

But our children do not have grades or certificates. Products that can be traded on the (employment) market. It is tempting (and perfectly normal) for homeschoolers to look for means of comparing the product of their process to the product of other forms of schooling. Sometimes we try to redefine the terms of that comparison to value education differently. And there is some value in this comparison.

Some of us make arrangements to make sure that our children get the appropriate certificates so that they are not disadvantaged in a society which requires us to turn our knowledge into commodities. And some of us (depending on geography) are required to have our children tested or to submit portfolios of their accomplishments. Often, the process makes us realize how little of what they know is validated by tests, grades and certificates.

But homeschooling is about much more than the product. It is about the process. There are non-educational benefits to homeschooling that just cannot be compared to other forms of education. And there are things in this process that we value that cannot be commodified. Heck, I have difficulty articulating them sometimes. But the intrinsic value of the process makes the whole thing worthwhile, even if most of the people we meet think we are crazy.

We are also asked how we know that we can teach our children. The teaching certificate is the only recognized currency in the commodified education market. Without it, how can anyone be sure we know what we are doing? This despite the fact that many people are willing to admit to knowing several properly certified teachers who are incompetent. Some of us are lucky enough to have met uncertified teachers who are brilliant. But how do you measure that? And how do you put a dollar value on it? You can’t.

I recommended that Kim buy whatever yarn she most enjoys knitting with so that the process is as enjoyable as possible. If she feels she is being extravagent, she should not think of the value of the product but the value of those benefits that the process brings to her — calmness, the ability to enjoy sitting with others waiting for her children’s swimming lessons (or whatever activities) to finish, concentration. Unfortunately, those qualities do not normally have a dollar value. They cannot be commodified. People will still think she is crazy to knit. And she’ll never be able to explain it to them.

Edited to add: Today’s post at Paradise Found makes a nice companion to these thoughts. You might want to check it out.

Since some of the folks I read and who read here are interested in the problems of democracy in the US today, I thought I might point you in the direction of a radio programme that might be of interest. Laurie Taylor is a British broadcaster and sociologist who has a very interesting weekly program on the BBC, Thinking Allowed. I receive e-mail updates about what will be on and this week’s program is an interview with Ronald Dworking about his book Is Democracy Possible Here?. I haven’t listened to the program yet nor read the book but on past performance, I would say that there are many worse ways you could spend an hour.

You have to be quick, though, and listen before next Wednesday because the new show goes up then. There is a link to the broadcast on the page linked above. You will need RealPlayer (but you can download a free version if you don’t have it).

Those little mittens were coming along really well. The colours are ideal for the kid I have in mind to give them to, and the first mitten seemed to take about half the yarn. I knit merrily along on the second mitten hoping that I was right. It was only as I reached the tip of the mitten, that I realized hope would not triumph. I had about a foot left. Not enough to knit a thumb.

I left them on my desk, on the needles, needing only the end running through the remaining stitches at the top, wondering if I would need to rip both mittens and knit a hat or something instead, or knit smaller mittens (the intended recipient has a younger sister), or what.

And then I remembered that this yarn was the white Shelridge Farms worsted weight that I had used for the Toronto Maple Leaf socks. And that the inspiration, and pattern (such as it was, more a description of a stripe pattern), came from Brainy Lady. I left a brief comment on her blog asking if she had any left. And she did. She was prepared to send either all she had or just 10 yards (enough for a thumb) but realized she wasn’t going to knit with it any time soon and sent the lot.

This is what I did with it. (orange, cherry and grape KoolAid)

And because a thumb doesn’t take much and there is a little sister…

I started a hat. I like this style for kids. Start with a bit of i-cord (on 3 stitches this time but I think I’ve done it with 4)), then increase in every stitch, knit a couple of rounds, increase in every stitch again, knit a couple of rounds, increase at 6 points every 3rd round for a while (this makes the top a bit pointier, I think), then every second round until it is big enough around, then continue straight until it is long enough. I keep going in stockingnette and let the edge roll so that should be taken into account when deciding what is long enough.

Some of the blogs I read, and who read here, have been talking a bit about the Foley scandal. I haven’t read much about it, mostly on the grounds that the coverage is more likely to be influenced by homophobia than the facts in the case. (No, I’m not saying he didn’t do anything wrong. But it seems that people get their knickers in much more of a twist if men are bothering boys than if they are bothering girls, which is far more common.) But it also highlights the incomprehensibility of American politics.

So today I am reading Gary Younge’s Guardian column and he starts out with this:

‘All the domestic controversies of the Americans at first appear to a stranger to be incomprehensible or puerile,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in his classic 19th-century treatise, Democracy in America. “And he is at a loss whether to pity a people who take such arrant trifles in good earnest or to envy that happiness which enables a community to discuss them.”

Spot on. It is worth reading the rest of the article. Especially if you are a Democrat who is a bit disappointed with the Democrats these days.

By the way, all the Americans who read this should make an effort to go vote. I know some of you do but too many folks in the US don’t. And, as far as I can tell, people are taking advantage of that. If you are wondering how folks like George Bush get elected it is because the kinds of folks who like his type are more likely to vote than the kind of folks who dislike his type. I know the choices are crappy but the fastest way to lose democracy is to stop using it.

J. found them the other day and phoned us (or tried to but that is another story, not interesting enough to blog, believe me). They are called Donner and Blitzen and seem to have settled in all right (except for some issues about where to poop that we are forgiving them for on the grounds of immaturity).

I bought some supplies at the pet store including the most amazing cat toy.
Obviously, the blurring is inherent to the activity. There is little yellow ball rolls around in a circular track on the under-side. Sometimes they sit on either side of it and bat it back and forth.

They will not be declawed but will be sterilized when old enough. We’re still discussing what else they need (as opposed to what the vet might try to sell us; we would prefer the minimum).

Here’s the conclusion to Ron’s post today.

“What I set out to do as a parent and while I was an instructor was cultivate the ability to think and apply the knowledge that they have at their disposal. Knowledge has never been easier to attain. The ability to use the knowledge available has never seemed to be in such short supply.”

I couldn’t agree more.