Walnuts on My Windshield #38
3/31/06

So much for a weekly column. It has been about six weeks since I have written, and now so much has happened that I have to narrow it down to figure out what to say.

Hmmm… I think the biggest recent news was Katie's adventure at the southwest Missouri regional History Day competition. You may remember that Katie loves history, research, and writing. I wonder where she gets that. After her paper on the Navajo Code Talkers finished sixth at state last year, she was determined to do better this time.

The theme of this year's History Day is "Taking a Stand," and Katie chose to research a man I had never heard of, Elijah Parish Lovejoy. He was an abolitionist newspaper editor who was murdered for disseminating his anti-slavery views in print. He died in Alton Illinois (just across the river from St. Louis) in 1837.

Katie had forgotten to start work on this project until just five weeks before the regional contest. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that we can flex. Other subjects were put on the shelf and she lived and breathed Lovejoy for up to eight hours a day. You would not believe the piles of ancient tomes she hauled home from the library over and over and over again. She read until she was cross-eyed, typed till her fingers were sore, and then asked ME to try to help her slash some 300 words from the final version.

Some families have designated drivers, but in our family I am the designated proofer. I proof things that Scott writes (and resist the strong urge to re-write them, because then they would sound like I had written them), and the things that Katie writes, and the things that Jessica writes. It is my job to use my trusty red pen to make paper bleed, and in Katie's case - Katie being the one who rarely strings together more than six words in conversation, but who is always way over the word limit on essay and paper contests - to help her figure out which absolutely essential words or phrases can be altered or dropped.

The limit was 2500 words, not counting footnotes. If the truth were told, Katie's footnotes contain nearly enough text for a second research paper. In any case, we whittled it down to something like 2498 words and she sent that puppy in. There are nine regions in the state. In each region, the writers of the three best papers were to be summoned for interviews (to make sure they really knew what they were writing about), ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for that region, and invited to submit their papers to the state contest. The regional people are very nice, but a little slow. We got a call on Wednesday that she was to be at MSU in Springfield for an interview at 10:50 AM on Saturday. No problem! We were all thrilled that that meant she would move on to state.

So, Saturday March 11 arrived, and Katie and I went to Springfield. She had her interview with the judge who had read her paper. Last year, the regional judge just gushed about how great her paper was, so she sent it on to state and only placed sixth. This year's judge was much more critical, and Katie, just like her dad, liked that better than last year's situation. When I asked her why, she said, "Well, it doesn't do me any good to have someone say how great it is. This guy told me the paper's shortcomings and formatting errors and made suggestions on how to improve it. So now I can re-write it for state!" Lovely. And a lot more trips to the library.

In addition, Katie had learned that there is an Elijah Lovejoy society based in St. Louis. She had contacted the head of that organization, a Dr. Robert Tabscott, who had graciously sent her a plethora of information on Lovejoy and answered a lot of her specific questions about the man and his influence.

Back to the regional. . . in the afternoon awards ceremony, Katie's paper received the first place trophy!!! Yay, Katie! Like last year, she was the only homeschooled student in the region, and I had the audacity to ask the director how many papers had been submitted in the senior division: 32. Wow! We all had Andy's frozen custard to celebrate, and true to her word, Katie came home and re-immersed herself in Lovejoy and the MLA citation format (a specific way to write footnotes and bibliographies). And guess what? I got to do more proofing and slashing! Yee hah! On March 18 she mailed the new-and-improved version to state.

If all three of the people from each of the nine regions chose to submit their papers to state, there would be 27 papers competing. Only the top six papers of those potential 27 actually travel to Coumbia (to be interviewed and ranked). The winner of the Missouri state competition goes on to the nationals.

One day, while Katie was away with AIM, I received a phone call from Dr. Tabscott. Katie had sent him payment for some of the materials he provided, a thank you note, and a copy of her paper for him to enjoy. = ) He called me the morning he received all those items in the mail. He went on and on and on about how great and splendid this paper is! He likes her footnotes. She has a nice collection of primary and secondary sources. She has a fine writing style. She has done some excellent research, and by the way, how old is Katie?

"She's 15."
"No! You're kidding me!"
"No, I was there when she was born. I'm quite sure she's 15."
"I can't believe that. This is college level work! College work, I'm telling you, and it's splendid. Absolutely splendid! And I'd love for you and Katie come to St. Louis for a weekend to see Alton and all the Lovejoy artifacts." Etc., etc., etc.

That was a really nice atta-boy for this mom, and hopefully we will hear SOON whether or not she will be going to state.

In other news, Scott is in China, Jessica spent a day helping make, dig, haul, and distribute dirt for "Gift of Green," Andrew has been whiny and disobedient, and Josiah is leaving in a few minutes for a Boy Scout camp out. It snowed last time and looks like it may rain this time, so he will soon be an all-weather camper.

Until next time,
Patty

From my book pile:

The First World War by John Keegan, rank 8. I listened to this, which was both good and bad. Good, because it was very wordy and would have taken me a long time to read. Bad, because, as I have learned over and over and over again, it is hard to follow along in war or exploration stories when I can't flip to a map. I am so visual that it's almost sad. I have never really known much of anything about World War I, other than the fact that it was fought 1914-1918 in Europe and gave Charles Shultz the idea for Snoopy to be the Red Baron. I was hoping to get something like a general overview of the players, reasons, and locations, but this book was much more detailed than that. I think I have the general idea, but I still need to work on it.

This House of Sky by Ivan Doig, rank 9. I love books about living in the wilds of the west, and this was an adventurous autobiography well-told. The author grew up in various parts of Montana and endured some amazing challenges, including the death of his mother when he was quite young. I enjoyed this book on audio.

Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg by James M. McPherson, rank 7. Having been to Gettysburg, this one really caught my eye. Mr. McPherson is a professor who also does guiding at Gettysburg. He is a walking wealth of information (as in, "now we travel three tenths of a mile west to the marker for the 10th Missouri cavalry, overlooking the such and so field. . ."), explaining not only every conceivable detail of what happened when and where, but also why, how, and with what results. This guy knows Gettysburg like you wouldn't believe. Again, my inability to look at maps and diagrams while driving was a significant hindrance, but the book was still very interesting.

Quote of the Week:

"The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives." ~ Robert Maynard Hutchins

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