Homeschool Your Teenager

Believe it or not, Grand Unified Field Theory and homeschooling are very much related. What I’m about to present next may seem extremely far out there to many people, so please bare with me and give me the benefit of the doubt.

I’m a chemist by training and I’ve studied and teach classical physics, I’ve practiced chemistry and I now teach it, and I continue to study quantum physics and more fundamental theories such as the Grand Unified Field Theory based on the Superstring.

This is all very heady stuff, but when you get down to the bottom of it all, everything is simple. Everything is one, or as we express the number one in quantum physics, unity. If you’re not mentally prepared for such out-there information, I encourage you to stop right here and not watch the video at the link below.

If you feel you are ready, then the following presentation is immensely life-changing stuff, and extremely relevant to homeschoolers.

This link is to a video by Dr. John Hagelin, Ph.D. on the unified field and its equivalence with pure consciousness.

But, before we go on, who is John Hagelin?

John Hagelin, Ph.D., is a world-renowned quantum physicist, educator, public policy expert, and leading proponent of peace.

Dr. Hagelin received his A.B. summa cum laude from Dartmouth College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, and conducted pioneering research at CERN (the European Center for Particle Physics) and SLAC (the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center). His scientific contributions in the fields of electroweak unification, grand unification, super-symmetry and cosmology include some of the most cited references in the physical sciences. He is also responsible for the development of a highly successful Grand Unified Field Theory based on the Superstring. Dr. Hagelin is at the pinnacle of achievement among the elite cadre of physicists who have fulfilled Einstein’s dream of a “theory of everything” through their mathematical formulation of the Unified Field—the most advanced scientific knowledge of our time.

Dr. Hagelin is unique among scientists in being the first to apply this most advanced knowledge for the practical benefit of humankind. He has pioneered the use of Unified Field-based technologies proven to reduce crime, violence, terrorism, and war and to promote peace throughout society—technologies derived from the ancient Vedic science of consciousness. He has published groundbreaking research establishing the existence of long-range “field effects” of consciousness generated through collective meditation, and has shown that large meditating groups can effectively defuse acute societal stress—thereby preventing violence and social conflict, and providing a practical foundation for permanent world peace.

For the last 25 years, Dr. Hagelin has led an international investigation into the nature and origin of consciousness, including higher states of human consciousness. In his seminal book, Manual for a Perfect Government, Dr. Hagelin shows how, through educational programs that develop human consciousness, and through policies and programs that effectively harness the laws of nature, it is possible to solve and to prevent acute social problems, and to profoundly enhance governmental achievements.

In recognition of his outstanding achievements, Dr. Hagelin was named winner of the prestigious Kilby Award, which recognizes scientists who have made “major contributions to society through their applied research in the fields of science and technology.” The award recognized Dr. Hagelin as “a scientist in the tradition of Einstein, Jeans, Bohr and Eddington.”

Dr. Hagelin is currently Director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, a leading science and technology think tank, and International Director of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace, an organization of leading scientists throughout the world dedicated to ending nuclear proliferation and establishing lasting world peace. Dr. Hagelin also serves as President of the United States Peace Government, a knowledge-based, complementary government composed of hundreds of America’s top scientists, which advocates proven, prevention-oriented solutions to critical social problems; and Minister of Science and Technology of the Global Country of World Peace, an international organization dedicated to prevention-oriented government, world peace, and global administration through natural law.

Reference: Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy

The video presentation is entitled Invincible Defense Technology, (1 hour, 13 minutes in length). When you get to this page, scroll down and click on the 3rd video in the index. There is a section in the presentation where Dr. Hagelin talks about the fragmented methods of teaching provided in our modern education system, the stress it causes our children and the brain dysfunctions that are a result of this stress.

Here is a 6 minute CBS News report on how TM is helping kids in a school in Fairfield, Iowa.

Numerous studies show lack of ability to learn, lowered IQ and EQ, impulsiveness, and criminal behavior all the way up to terrorism and global war are all related to brain disfunction in the prefrontal cortex. Transcendental meditation (TM) can be used to treat ADHD and other mental illnesses, raise IQ and EQ, eliminate impulsive behavior, reduce physical disease, eliminate criminal behavior from society and produce lasting peace throughout the world.

By homeschooling, and especially unschooling, we remove our children from this stress even if we don’t teach them transcendental meditation. If we do teach them TM, we homeschoolers may be able to achieve an even higher level of education than our children are already receiving by being away from traditional classrooms.

If you were able to make it through all this, please leave your thougths in the comments. I would love to discuss this topic at length.

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written by joubess \\ tags: Dr. John Hagelin, Grand Unified Field Theory, homeschooling, quantum physics, quantum physics and consciousness

Sometimes I find it to be a real challenge to get my son to read on outings away from home instead of play games on his Nintendo DS. He doesn’t carry a book, even a small paperback, because he says it weighs too much with all his other stuff. My solution is to leave all the other stuff at home and just carry the book, but that goes over like a lead cloud. When I insist, I’m bombarded eventually with the whole I’m bored routine, so I quit insisting he leave the Nintendo DS at home. In fact, the less of an issue I make it, the less he will actually play it in the car or while waiting somewhere.

I have a partial solution to the reading problem, but I am less happy with it as time goes on. I have a couple of ebooks on my old Palm Tungsten E PDA. I’ve read all of them and I need to download some new books. I’ll have to take the old ones off because my old Palm doesn’t have much memory. It’s also hard to read on the small screen and the Palm Reader is really clunky. It’s definitely old technology whose day has come and gone.

I keep a small variety of books on my son’s reading list in the car so he has no excuse for not being able to read. I keep a fair number of my own books in the car, too. The back seat of the car is becoming a junk pile of books! It’s in total disarray and I have to clean up the back seat before anyone else can ride with us.

I also keep all the textbooks I use when tutoring in the car so they’re accessible when I get to any library and I don’t have to remember to put them in the car. Forgetting a textbook for a tutoring session can mean the difference between being productive or wasting the student’s time and my own. At $45/hr that is NOT cool. With gas prices so high, I’ve removed some of the reference books I used to carry because more weight means worse gas mileage.

But what if there was a way to have all your own books, all your homeschooled student’s books and even audiobooks, textbooks, references, newspapers, blogs and Wikipedia available in a single, compact, light-weight, electronic gadget that has a long battery life and can wirelessly download anything formatted for the device without having to use a computer? What if it also came with a USB cable to allow you to download certain other formats of written material, like MS Word documents, pdf files, and some other eBook formats available through your public library? That would be really cool. I’m not sure how good the sound quality is or whether you can download MP3 files to listen to music, podcasts, etc. That would be a great benefit.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But it’s not. It’s real and it’s getting more affordable. It’s the Amazon Kindle, and the price just went down $40 to $359. I expect the price will drop again in time for the 2008 Christmas buying season. The price is comparable to an iPod. It’s kind of like an iPod for reading.

Please watch the following introductory video:

That video was published by Amazon.com, so it doesn’t point out any negative features, but there are plenty of YouTube reviews of the Kindle and other eReaders, so hop over there and play several of them. In my own experience and that of several people who made review videos, we all had similar likes and complaints.

There are several eReaders going on the market by several manufacturers including Bookeen Cybook Gen3 ($379 for 512 Mg), iRex iLiad ($599-$649), ECTACO jetBook ($299), Hanlin V3 ($299), and Sony eReader ($269). This list is probably not exhaustive.

Apple is definitely missing from the list. All these eReaders may have sound quality that’s good enough to play music, too, so it could end up replacing the audio iPod. Apple came out with the iPod Touch, which looks a lot like the iPhone, but plays audio, video, podcasts, runs applications and has some games with fantastic graphics. The iPod Touch costs $299 for 8 Gb and $499 for 32 Gb. Apple hasn’t come out with a comparable device for reading yet, and I would like to see what they eventually put on the market. I’m not sure they will want to compete here because what makes for great multimedia generally isn’t great for reading text.

There are a couple of things I don’t like about other eReader devices that the Kindle handles very well. Other readers are much more like reading an ebook on your Palm Pilot. Paging is slow, bookmarking has to be learned, not all models allow you to clip pages and annotate, they don’t have the full resources of the world’s largest bookstore at your fingertips anywhere you can use a cell phone, and you can’t forget you’re reading on a screen rather than a paper book. After a few pages on the Kindle you forget you’re reading on a device.

What I don’t like about the Kindle:

• It’s white and it shows dirt if you carry it around and use it without the cover. I’d like to see a version in black. I’m sure as time goes on and the Kindle’s popularity increases other colors will become available. They chose white because we read books on white paper and they wanted the device to disappear from your reading experience and it truly does that.
• The corners of the device are sharp, and after holding it for a couple of hours they dig into your hands. It’s uncomfortable. I’d like to see new models with rounded, smooth corners.
• You can’t hold the device by the sides easily without accidentally turning pages. There should be some way to hold the reader by its sides and not turn the pages when you don’t intend to.

I have this complaint about all ebooks that aren’t free in the public domain. When you’re done reading it, you can’t pass it on to a friend. But that’s the case with all electronic books. Even when you check ebooks out from the library, you have to download the license to view it and when the license expires (if you haven’t gone online and renewed) you can no longer view the ebook. Same goes for audiobooks. You can’t share them off the device when you’re done with them. If they’re on CD or tape you can pass the CDs or tapes on to someone else.

In my short time of researching and trying eReaders, I find the Kindle to be the best eReader device for the price at present. I expect the price will come down over the next 6-12 months, making it even more attractive.

Computer technology makes homeschooling much easier than it would be without it. We are usually the education pioneers when it comes to innovation, especially to help our kids learn faster and better with superior research and multimedia skills to present their work to us, family members, homeschool groups and even on YouTube or other video/multimedia sharing sites. I predict we will be some of the first parents to introduce a portable technology solution for our children to read more often with greater flexibility.

What do you think? Please speak your mind about technology and homeschooling in general or the Kindle in particular in the comments.

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Aside from the often superior education homeschool students receive, here are some more reasons to homeschool your teenager:

Because homeschooling can be done at any time of the day and takes a lot less time than traditional school, many homeschooled teens can work part-time or full-time to earn money for college, their own spending money or car, or just to gain work experience. They can volunteer their time and skills during regular work hours when many agencies are open and need help. They can also spend more time learning life skills around the house and doing chores many teens just don’t have time to do.

Homeschooled students are less influenced by other teenagers and their sophomoric, cruel or even criminal behavior. Homeschooled teens are influenced much more by responsible adults and are held accountable to them. In school, a student can skate by on C’s and D’s and still go on to the next grade while goofing off. In a homeschool environment, parents can demand excellence in students’ studies and not allow them to pass if they don’t have an A or B level of understanding in a subject. My son soon learned he was better off doing something right the first time if he didn’t want to spend a bunch of time doing it over until I was satisfied with his work.

You can tailor a student’s curriculum to fit his or her specific needs and interests. If your child wants to pursue fashion design you can avoid teaching him or her three hard sciences and math beyond Algebra I and Geometry. Measurements relevant to the fashion industry can be taught instead. For example, sales and marketing could be taught instead of a third or fourth history course. To fill in any gaps in knowledge from not taking a class, the student can read a few books on a subject to get the main ideas. This is what we do as adults. When we need or want to learn something we get a book and read about it. An overview appreciation course could also be substituted for individual classes in subjects a student won’t use again. Someone going into the arts or business needs to know enough about science to be an informed citizen, but that knowledge could be covered in a physical science course about all the hard sciences (physics, chemistry, and astronomy) and one life sciences course covering biology, botany, earth and environmental science.

One of the biggest advantages of homeschooling is you can focus your teen on the three most important skills her or she will need:

• to read something and discuss it or write about it knowledgeably and well
• to find information quickly and independently
• basic and everyday math skills

If you can read and comprehend it, you can learn anything. If you have a great deal of skill and practice in basic math, you are equipped to learn more advanced math subjects.

I’m sure there are many more reasons to homeschool. Please speak your mind in the comments and share your ideas with us.

Sherri

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