Random Thoughts 5/23/12

• QuikTrip drinks for 69¢.  This is what makes it summer.
• I think tomorrow will be the final Greek class that I'm teaching.  I've been teaching my willing student for almost two years, and he's been great, but most of that time was review.  The chief problem was that we were only meeting once per week; the textbook is designed for a class that's meeting four times per week.  I was also shocked at how much English I had to teach.  I was teaching a smart kid who gets good grades in school but I had to reteach a lot of basic grammar.  Actually, that will be his biggest benefit of having taken first-year Greek: a more comprehensive command of English.
• Headline:  "Man divorces over wife's 550 house cats."  Yeah, okay, I can see your point.
• What church management software does your church use?  I've been looking at (and praying about) a few different options, usually web-based and non-subscription, but the expensive ones have a lot of cool options.  Let me know.  iOS compatibility would be huge, by the way.
• In 1995, 56% of Americans said they were pro-choice and only 33% said they were pro-life.  Now, in 2012, the numbers have swung dramatically the other way, with only 41% pro-choice and 50% pro-life.  And holding steady for the last ten years, at least half of Americans asked believed abortion was morally wrong.  Trends are heading in the right direction here; how often can you say that?
• Mitt Romney has announced that he backs school vouchers and expanded school choice.  The problem with vouchers is that they work pretty much every time they're tried… oh, wait… that's the upside.  Of course the teacher's unions will fight this to protect bad teachers their union members.  But with vouchers, good teachers will have better employment options and bad teachers will be left behind in a competitive environment. 
• Usually vouchers offer $8-12,000 for tuition at charter schools and private schools.  But could you imagine what homeschool parents could do with just a fraction of that money?  Let me make you a deal: give the typical homeschool family just $2,000 per student per year to buy books, computers, science, art, and music supplies and then stand back and be amazed.  We currently spend between $500 and $1,000 for all of our kids, out of our own pocket, after paying taxes that go to the public school, and we still do pretty well.  Vouchers would be like winning the lottery.