The carpet installation went off without a hitch Thursday. I can’t get over how much quieter the house is now. The new carpet alone is thicker than the old carpet and pad combined. We splurged on the thicker padding though, and it’s just stunning how much better the sound absorption is.


Go Blue
Michigan defeated Iowa 26-0 Saturday night for the B1G Championship. What a game. We beat them two years ago 42-3.

I’m still questioning the two fumbles Michigan recovered. It seemed pretty clear to me on the first one that Hill’s arm was moving forward when the ball got tipped. Calling that a fumble recovery by Josh Wallace was pretty lame. I felt the same way about the second fumble/incomplete pass, that Hill’s arm was moving forward.
Our defense looked pretty good, but it’s easy to look good against the third-worst offense in Division I football. And it was nice to get our second shutout of the season. I wanted better offensive production though, and better protection for McCarthy. I think that was the most sacks our line has allowed all season.
Will we be at the Rose Bowl or the Sugar Bowl? We find out Sunday.
Reading
When shooting attacks happen, I often wonder about the families left behind. The victims’ relatives often get the most attention, because they’re so obvious in their grief and pain.
But the family of the attacker is usually overlooked in their shame and guilt. People ask why that family didn’t see what was coming, or wonder what they did to the attacker to make them turn out the way they did.
In May of 1998, Kip Kinkel killed his parents, then drove to Thurston High School in Oregon and attacked students in the cafeteria. He killed two students and wounded 25 others.
His sister Kristin was in college in Hawaii at the time.
25 years later, she finally gave an in-depth interview to Jennifer Gonnerman at The New Yorker. Read What Happens to a School Shooter’s Sister? And be sure to check out her other work.
Homeschooling
The Washington Post has a horrifying story about yet another dead child. Roman Lopez was starved and beaten and poisoned by his stepmother. No one saw it because she claimed she was homeschooling her kids. The Homeschool Legal Defense Association fights hard to strongly limit government supervision of homeschool families, and cases like this are the result. Roman died alone because Michigan doesn’t have any government regulation of homeschooling. I’ve in the past called the HSLDA the NRA of homeschooling, and that’s not intended as a compliment. Read What home schooling hides: A boy tortured and starved by his stepmom.
I’m not, of course, suggesting that all HS families are abusive. But that lack of interaction with “outsiders” like school faculty and administrators makes it so much easier for kids like Roman to fall through the cracks. Had Michigan required even the minimum of annual evaluations by a certified teacher, someone would have noticed how underweight the 11-year-old was. They might have seen the atrocities in the home.
He might still be alive.
Diana and I homeschooled all of our kids all the way through secondary school. Several of the boys attended the local vo-tech school for a couple of years, but as a rule, we mainly homeschooled them.
Knowing what I know now, would I go along with homeschooling as easily if we had it to do over again? Perhaps. I know I’d change some things about the way we worked.
If you’re considering homeschooling, please look into the Coalition for Responsible Home Education. I think they have a much more realistic focus on the rights of children to an education, as opposed to the rights of parents to teach their kids anything they want. Parents have a responsibility to educate their children well.
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