PicoBlog

Hi Rigel. My daughter doesn't use social media since, geez, probably four or five years ago? She reads blogs about photography and various physical challenges she deals with, does NYT games and downloads sci fi kindle books. She became disgusted with "people on the internet" quite a while ago.

She's not traditional in her group thought, actually, but overwhelmed in life by how much is going on at all times. The internet intensified that, so she cut it out and takes it in specific bites (bytes).

She's fast approaching 50. Just so you understand her context. Her grammar schools and high school were also different, as well as her college, so I cannot say that she was surrounded in the ways people usually are. lol Her early schools were Montessori and her high school was a private school in the mountains in California, very strict requirements for grade averages to stay, and her college was St John, a four year college that automatically has two majors and two minors (she even learned by requirement to speak and write Olde English as well as Attic Greek.) Extreme critical thinking was the result by dint of how they teach what they teach.

So, long story short, while she has always had friends in and out of school, they've been from families who wanted a more rounded education for their kids (I am not nor have ever been a "hippie" although I preceeded that by a bit, but I never much liked packs of anything....dogs....kids...."patriots"....)

The early years had a high emphasis on imagination mixed with discovering physical truths within that....example....look at the pictures of the ocean...now you draw them.....while you are drawing can you find the "C" shape in the pictures and put it somewhere in your drawing? (kindergarten and first grade).

I must also credit Sesame Street for her extreme early use of language and INCESSANT TALKING OMG IT'S A WONDER I SURVIVED (smiling and laughing).

I have to encase these descriptions with the fact that she was, is and always has been an absolutely average student with undiagnosed (until adulthood) adhd, so, not a whiz bang by any means. I could only afford her college and high school because #1 she won scholarships and at her high school she was a "legacy" so her dad having been there got her in, while she and I paid and worked for it. Her efforts, again, working for scholarships, paid for most of what I could not. She and I made a deal early on, I'd work my ass off in the world, she'd work her ass of in school. We both kept our promise. This is what *I* think of as the American Way. I didn't go to more than one semester of college due to social unrest and soldiers in the cafeteria of SF State before my first semester was credited. Family strife blew up any normal expectation of schooling so I went to work and did everything I could. Rarely had fewer than three jobs. This is where my views and experiences come from, just so you know who I am, a bit. I UTTERLY AGREE that the loss of history and civics in schools is a disaster. We need to correct that for everyone, ourselves included if we are also lacking! Thanks for listening. I sort of couldn't stop typing.

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