Awesome Family Photos

Visiting Grandmother Pool; December 1994

Mom has a lot of photos like this in our family albums. You know you have them too. The ones where you have already sat for the same picture six times, and each time your uncle has to spend seven minutes trying to figure out how to use all of the different cameras. This one cracks me up, because Granny is telling someone off camera what's up, Em is ready for the picture, Mom has her eyes closed, I need a nap, Ashley doesn't know what is going on and Grandmother Pool is ready to go back to her room. There's four generations for you!

Bernoulli Shaped Shadow

Bernoulli and I are best friends forever. Even though he has stolen a mini muffin right out of my hand.

Good times.

Guess who I get to see today!

I don't know which he likes more- disc golf or me?

Merry Christmas!

Confession #47

At Em's Bridal Shower- not sure where Amber was; July 2011

Thank goodness my sister is a social butterfly, because for the life of me I am not very good at making friends. I'm kind of shy and quite often don't even think to talk to other students in my classes! Working on it. She found the best group of ladies at our church in Austin. As with most of Em's friends, I become friends with them and end up getting multiple older sisters- imagine having 5 older sisters! The wisdom and experience! Be still, my heart! Our Austin friends came at just the right time. I have learned so much from them. Now with the wedding planning and such, they get to dish all of their wedding knowledge on me. With their help, I'll have a disaster-proof wedding. It will probably have a few hiccups, but maybe won't be a complete disaster?

Precious!

Laura & Mark | Trailer from Contrast Films Weddings on Vimeo.


One of my church friends from Louisiana started his own wedding and things video company.
He's good.
Real good.
I teared up at "You paid my tuition." 
Education is important, you guys!

The Fairest Sweaters in all the Land

My family has moved several times, but the biggest culture shock was the move from South Louisiana to East Texas. Emily and I had our formative years in the deep south, surrounded by bald cypress trees, plantation houses, red beans and rice, spanish moss, and plenty of Mardi Gras school holidays. I enjoyed it. Andy, you missed out!

I always liked East Texas when we visited Granny and Grandad over the summer and for holidays, but when we moved here, I may have been more excited about my imagined wardrobe change. I was going to become a cowgirl and wear boots to school. And button up shirts. During my Louisiana school years, we wore uniforms and my new Texas high school did not require uniforms. It was going to be awesome and I was going to ride horses all the time. That's what you do in Texas?

Maybe not. I showed up for my first day of high school and everyone was wearing the boots, the shirts, the cowboy/girl outfit. I have long been a fan of being myself, because that's what I'm comfortable with, so I continued on with my usual wardrobe. That paid off in the end, because I was featured in my senior year yearbook in the fashion section.

When Em and I moved to Austin, I was really excited to really be fashionable, since we were in a big city and people wear fashionable clothes in big cities. What I didn't know what how flippin' hot Austin is from about April until October. The same for San Marcos.

Now, I'm excited about my New Mexico wardrobe. IT SNOWS THERE. Did you know that? Also, did you know I've never seen snow before? I have started the gathering of the clothes and it is fun, because I forecast needing a lot of sweaters. My imagined NM outfit consists of long sweaters with skinny sleeves, skinny jeans, boots, and long sleeved shirts.

But what I really wanted to tell you is that the Old Navy has a lot of sweaters this winter that are thick and nice. And I like them. And cannot wear them in Texas.

THAT GUY.

Julie's Best

If I see Martha Stewart or the Mormon girls doing something, you better believe I'm going to check it out. Every once in a blue moon, I come upon things without their help and I would like to take this post to recognize things that I have come across and enjoy.

via Google

Bounce Bars- BlogHer sent me one of these guys to try out and I like it a lot! I was a little hesitant to use it, because I don't like dryer sheets, my clothes to smell like things, or sticking something on a major appliance. But the bar smelled so delicious, I had to try it! Much to my relief, once the bar is installed into your dryer, it doesn't rub its smell off onto your clothes as liberally as I imagined it would. Also, if you do the math, these bars are more cost efficient. A pack of 160-count dryer sheets cost around $7. The bar costs $7 and lasts for 4 months. It is also less waste than multiple dryer sheets. Yay!

Lined Curtains- People. Line. Your. Curtains. I lined my bedroom curtains last year and that has been such a good decision. Blackout lining blocks tons of light, drafts and is relatively inexpensive. Especially if you have a 40% off coupon from Joann's or Hancock's. I have a hunch that it is saving me the monies on air conditioning, because I noticed that the air is warm by my bedroom window, unlike my other windows with unlined curtains, where it gets a bit drafty.

Snapfish Matte prints- Now that I know things about photographs, I have become quite paper snob. I really like Snapfish's matte photo paper. When I need small prints, such as 4x6 prints for photo albums, I get them from the ol' Snappie. You do have to be careful if you are making prints from a dslr camera, because sometimes the pictures aren't exactly 4x6" and heads get cut off.

vans prison issue #23

Velcro Vans- These shoes are the best. Josh has a pair and enjoys them. I bought myself a pair this past summer, because I was missing Josh and needed some comfortable shoes for my 4-hour standing drawing class. I love these shoes! I ended up wearing them every day during summer school, and now wear them when I'm being a photographer. So comfortable. And you can wear whatever thickness of sock and not have to re-lace your shoes!

Efficient?

November 2011

The first day after classes are over is a "dead day" at school, so there are no classes and no finals on such days. I loooove these days. I have enough time to put off studying for those last few finals, but not enough time to go anywhere (home, Em and Russ'). This past semester, I was basically at school from 8am to 5pm. Being a really big homebody, this was hard on my loner-ness and resulted in dirty floors. On the dead days I enjoy reveling in my home time. I do everything I missed during the semester. ALL OF THE THINGS!!!

Get 12 hours of sleep.
Eat large amounts of cereal.
Make list of house cleaning items that need to be done.
Look at Pinterest for a little bit.
Examine wedding invitation options.
Load and start dishwasher.
Bag up recycling.
Clean out backpack and notebooks.
Wash dirty velcro shoes.
Go to Target for bathroom cleaner.
the kind that starts out blue, so you feeling like you're graffiti-ing
Call sister.
Clean out fridge.
Take trash and recycling out.
Make an idea board for wedding.
Tame eyebrows.
Weigh the pros and cons of shaving.
Deep clean kitchen.
Load dishwasher again.
Deep clean bathroom.
Evacuate that end of the apartment because of fumes.
Check for grades that could have been posted.
Email Josh.
Watch Ghost Whisperer.
Download "My Moon Man" by Fiest on iTunes.
Read from the archives of Nat the Fat Rat.
Put pictures for people in the mail.

You know, THINGS.

Confession #46

Benben; November 2011

My little baby cousin is all grown up and going to college. It was really weird taking his senior portraits, because as I was looking through the lens I could see little BenBen. From that period of time when he was really annoying, too. I'm glad he isn't annoying anymore and turned out to be a cool guy.

I Solemnly Swear I Am Up To No Good

I finally saw the last Harry Potter movie.

Even after reading all of the books and knowing what was going to happen in the last movie, I cried. Why does Hedwig have to die?!! I love those books, and I'm very thankful to have grown up with Harry, Hermoine, and Ron. The first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, came out when I was eight. I think Harry is eleven in the first book, so the characters' lives always seemed to match up with my age group.

My parents would not allow me to read the books when I was little, but I really wished they had let me. I decided to read them my senior year of high school because a) I was eighteen and could do whatever I wanted and b) had a lot of time on my hands, because I had already finished my "real" classes. Even as a senior in high school, I learned so many things from that series.

Harry, Hermoine and Ron have a really great friendship going on throughout the series. As with any characters, they have their problems and they overcome them. They are fiercely loyal to each other, and I think that is an important message. Kids are ruthless to each other, especially girls in my experience, and the books illustrate how to properly tend to a friendship.

As I have mentioned before, I appreciate good, strong women characters. There are not many of them out and about in children's literature. Th HP series has tons of good role models. Set aside their magic skills and they are nice ladies. Hermoine, for goodness sake, could do anything she set her mind to. I know they are characters in a book, but all of the leading ladies (Hermoine, Ginny, Luna, etc.) had very individual personalities and none of the other characters chastised them for it.

Most of the characters have a great work ethic, too. All of the characters who come together to overcome He Who Shall Not Be Named have to work pretty hard to succeed. Ron for instance, is a terrible wizard at the beginning, but by the end is fighting along side Harry and destroying horcruxes. Way to go, Ron! The same for Neville Longbottom.

Thank you, J.K. Rowling.

Field Trip: The Old Third and Fourth Grade, Hallsville

Emails From Classmates

Hill's Cafe; March 2011

As far as I know, these kids are going to the same school that I am. There is this terrible button on TRACS, Texas State's Blackboard system that allows students to email ALL of the students in a particular class. Some of them confuse me with the lack of grammar knowledge and some of them sound like they only went to class on the first day of school. And some of them seem impervious to the fact that if you missed a class, you missed a class. You weren't there, so you should go to the next class meeting and ask your neighbor what you missed. You should not send out a mass email asking for notes the day before an exam. That is annoying, and I am not going to respond to that. I will post your message in a public forum, such as my personal blog. I am the school email Grinch. Honest to blog these are all student emails:

Hey everyone,
Me and another classmate are getting together tonight at 8 in the library to study for the final exam. If anyone wants to join we would really like it. We will probably be on the 4th floor! Please join so we can do some group studying and be well prepared  for the exam Thursday!
Thanks and Hope to see yall this evening,
Kasey

Do we have class today?  I thought it was it was a dead day but the syllabus shows blog awards today.

Hey everyone,
I missed class the day we lectured over Abstract Expressionism and I'm hoping someone would be kind enough to send me their notes. I know everyone is busy studying for finals, but this would really help me out, and of course I will be happy to send out any notes in return. Good luck with your tests and enjoy the rest of the year!
Thank You So Much!
Andrew Smith


hey guys I know that it is late but I am still pretty confused about how we are supposed to put together our 10 sketches to make it into the final.. if anyone can explain it better please let me know! I missed class on tuesday because I had a doc appmt :[ anything will help!!
Roxy


Do we have class tomorrow???


I know its really late to be asking students for notes, but I missed a few classes due to being sick. I'm sooo behind and I have 3 other finals tomorrow besides this one!!! Can someone please email me the notes for (The Social Landscape), (Color Photography), and (Photography, Intimacy and the fashion world)??? Or if anyone has notes on 1 or the 3 I would greatly appreciate??? I'm gonna be at the Library all night if I need to meet up with anyone, I'm even willing to pay cash if I must??? PLEASE! HELP!!! Thanks!


I know its late but I was wondering if anyone had their ch.16 and ch.17 notes on the computer that is easy to send? im reviewing my note cards and I was sick during this day and want to make sure I didnt miss anything to major. If anyone could send me those notes I would be greatly apreciated. I have all the other notes in depth if you need any other chapters. 


Howdy classmates,
I'll be eternally grateful to anyone who can send me the notes from 10/18 (Photojournalism and the Decisive Moment)! I'll even bake you cookies or cupcakes if you're into that kind of thing :D
Thanks!


Can someone tell me how we determine the difference between early and high classical art?


Anyone that has finished the review for the final exam, I am willing to buy it from you for $20.

A Curation of New Impressionists

This is part of a project for my Issues in Contemporary Art course. We had to come up with an exhibition topic, then use contemporary artists to populate the show, and write about the purpose of the pretend exhibition. This was kind of hard, because since they're contemporary artists, there isn't a lot of information about them out.
Time often repeats itself. The new and the old are always present. In the early nineteenth century, the French began painting in a style that would forever be called Impressionism. Instead of focusing on the small, minute details, they chose to enhance the emotional matter of the work by using looser techniques than classic, academic painting. Well-known painters such as Renoir and Monet, among others, employed both bold and tiny strokes to capture this emotion. They also used optical color mixing, rather than physically mixing paint to a specific color. Unlike the academic painters, who strictly worked from inside their studios, the Impressionists took their paints, easels and brushes outside to paint landscapes and people in everyday life.

Today, the Impressionistic painters from the nineteenth century are widely known and respected. Their work hangs on countless museum and gallery walls, can be found in many art history books, and is always included in art history courses. However, in their own day, they were not as well received as they are today. Critics were just as critical to Renoir and Monet as they are to present-day artists. Many critics did not see the artistic value of the impressionist artists’ work. One critic in particular, Louis Leroy, was not completely sold on this new fangled style of painting. In an article he once wrote of a painting by Monet, “Impression I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it — and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! A preliminary drawing for a wallpaper pattern is more finished than this seascape.” (Leroy) The art critics and general population eventually came around to the Impressionists and began to value the emotion in the paintings.  In a 1912 journal, Duncan C. Phillips, Jr. wrote on his views of impressionism:

It is my firm belief that Impressionism is not a transient technique, but an ancient and abiding faith, not merely the sensational production of some revolutionary modern painters, but one of the basic principles- I might say the one true philosophy, of all painting. (Phillips)

Phillips understood exactly what the Impressionists were doing. They were painting a philosophy, or a way of thinking about a subject. Impressionists chose to paint emotion, light, colors they saw. They chose to focus on these details, instead of the usual fine detail of, say, a coat or face.

Impressionism has resurfaced in a big way in the past few years. For centuries, artists have been exploring how to express things they see. Writing, photographing faces, music are all great ways to capture emotion, but Impressionistic painting is one of the best ways to capture a visual interpretation of emotion and the human experience. The New Impressionists of today are continuing on the work of Renoir and Monet. They are painting the emotions they see in their everyday lives. These artists are painting their experiences with other people, places they come upon and even dreams they have.

The New Impressionists have more contrast in their images, because of the fact that the impressionistic style is now considered a classic technique. They are painting modern cities and technology through a technique that has been around for over 150 years. Even though these painters are capturing modern scenes, they are holding on tight to the main purpose of the origins of impressionism- capturing emotion.

Maurius Bercea; Rumors Town; 2010

            Keeping in line with the old guys, several artists have found themselves painting everyday life scenes. Mauris Bercea’s painting, Rumors Town, illustrates people milling about an area with a geometrically interesting staircase. The earthy tones of the staircase and the bright pop of green trees are reminiscent of an afternoon spent watching people pass by. None of the faces have detail- they all start to look the same after a few hours. One of Bercea’s contemporaries, Samantha French, paints with quite a different palate. Using quite vivid hues of orange, blue and stark white, French captures her time spent at a city pool in northern Minnesota:

Using vague yet consuming memories from my childhood summers spent immersed in the tepid lakes of northern Minnesota, I attempt to recreate the quiet tranquility of water and nature; of days spent sinking and floating, still and peaceful. These paintings are a link to my home and continual search for the feeling of the sun on my face and warm summer days at the lake. At the same time, I am drawn to an idealistic time before my own, where swim caps and wool swimsuits were commonplace. This combination of memory, observation and photography (old and new) has allowed me to preserve the transitory qualities of water and remembrance. (French)

French is seeking to capture a fleeting memory of feelings she garnered from her childhood summer days. In keeping with fleeting moments, Alex Kanevsky’s painting, Hotel, captures a small moment between two people standing in a bed. While a person’s first reaction to this description of the painting could be, “why are they standing on the bed?” when viewed, the combination of soft colors and vague body language painted grossly overshadows such questions. The impressionistic qualities allow us to experience the tender moment these two people are having, while the modernity to the work, the hotel bed and two people in bed, gives some added contrast to the classic technique. On a different level of tender moments, Theresa Handy’s charming painting of children piddling on a beach, Shadows, offers a classic approach to impressionistic subject matter. Handy includes some texture to the piece, via contrasting colors, to better explore the palatability of memories.

Julie Snyder; Blue Sash; 2010

            People will always be interested in people, and the abundance of portraiture in works of art illustrates this fascination. Julie Snyder’s Blue Sash is a beautiful nod to classic portraiture in impressionism. Her subject sits demurely on a seat holding some papers. Snyder’s description of her body tension through brush strokes is caring, yet bold. Painting portraits in a more modern air, Alexander Tinei paints his subjects in dark settings, often with perceived injuries. His brush strokes are long, vertical and heavy, weighing down on his subject for a depressing approach to portraiture. Much in the same tone, Ghorghe Filk paints other worldly portraits of animals, often in classic Victorian home settings. Untitled is a portrait of a herd of sheep in a large, rundown meeting room of a home. The sheep look, as they often do, out of the painting in a completely befuddled manner, but the color and free brush stroke used makes them seem regal and knowledgeable. Tiina Heiska is also interesting in a new type of impressionistic portraiture. Along with her painterly peers, she uses a dark tone, but she focuses on a section of her subject’s person, instead of the whole body or just the face. Her young brush strokes used in the series Twin Room gives the body of work a youthful feeling, but the colors contrast with the strokes to loan some tangibility to the uncomfortable air of the portrait. These combinations of Impressionistic qualities with new subject matter and color palettes offer an interesting new spin on Impressionism.

Elizabeth Meyersohn; Yanqzi River; 2007

           Impressionism did to landscapes what words did to music. It allowed for verbalization or visualization to the emotions of a place. Yangzi River by Elizabeth Meyersohn is a contemporary approach to a landscape, knowing of her methods of painting landscapes. She says, “Say it’s four o’ clock, and I really like the light—I’ll go out and do drawings and take photographs. Back in the studio I scan and manipulate and collage the photos, editing elements because I want to paint a certain kind of configuration.” (Ippolita) Using modern technology to capture a specific time of day may be considering cheating by the original Impressionists, but she is still seeking to capture the essence of a place in time. Sara MacCulloch also works from photos, which the original Impressionists would frown upon, but still manages to capture the landscape. Fields (dawn) captures the still of what appears to be a hay field in the morning. Her murky color choices and choppy stroke really puts the still quality into the painting.

            With a mix of new and old, The New Impressionists spin a new web of Impressionistic paintings. They strive to capture the emotion in their subject, and succeed with much thanks to the classic loose brush stroke of the Impressionists.

Works Cited

Leroy, Louis. "The Exhibition of the Impressionists." Le Charivari 25 Apr. 1874: Print.

Phillips, Jr., Duncan C. "What Is Impressionism?" Art and Progress. 3.11 (1912): 702-707. Print.

French, Samantha. "About." Samantha French. 2008. Web. Accessed 20 November 2011. .

Ippolita. "Elizabeth Meyersohn." Blog. Ippolita. 28 Sept. 2011. Web. 1 Jan. .

Confession #45

Texas State Uni bus; November 2011

I love riding the bus. It's calming and peaceful.

Life Lately

Littles Art

The nieces are avid colorers. Roxy is getting pretty good. I hope they keep it up!

2011 Tall Oaks Trap Shoot

 

That Proposal Story

During the Thanksgiving holiday, I went home as usual and was planning on just spending it with Mom, Dad and my brother's family. Josh said he would be driving home to Arizona Tuesday night after work. LIE #1 He totally had me going. On Wednesday, I texted him to see what he was up to, and he said, "outside playing with the animals." LIE #2 KIND OF I thought this meant Ruger, Wyatt and the birds who live at his parents' house. In reality, he was playing with Lewis, his sister and brother-in-law's pup. They live in Dallas, so Josh flew there on Tuesday night and spent Wednesday with them.

On Thanksgiving Day, I got up earlier than I usually do to help Dad in the pasture for the annual family trap shoot the day after Thanksgiving. Mom insisted that he really needed my help testing where the clay pigeon shooter was shooting. LIE #3 Dad knows very well where those shooters shoot. So, I got up, took my time getting ready, ate breakfast, read my blogs. You know, morning things. While I was eating my yogurt, Mom was being really weird now that I think about it. At one point, Dad came up to the house to see where I was and Mom totally did her panicky Mom thing. "ARE YOU ALMOST DONE WITH YOUR YOGURT?!!!"

After I finished my precious yogurt, I mosied out to the pasture to help Dad. He started rambling about needing markers to mark off where the kids shouldn't go. I was throwing out ideas for marking left and right, but Dad said, "Hey! Let's use some wooden stakes that the land surveyors left out here. I think there are some around the corner there, can you go get them?" LIE #4 I was hustling over to get those wooden stakes and I hear, "Hey!" coming from this patch of grass/trees in the middle of the pasture.

It was Josh! After a minute of saying "Hey! You can come to Thanksgiving Lunch!" I noticed the camera. So, right there in my favorite pasture, I got proposed to and said yes. TRUTH #1 I was completely surprised and would not have wanted it any other way.

Also, it reminded me of one of the last scenes in Pride and Prejudice (the Keira version; a favorite) where she goes for a walk early in the morning in her favorite pasture and Mr. Darcy comes out of the morning fog and it is very romantic, but his hand are cold. Only, I was not in a sweet long coat and it was cloudy and foggy, not foggy with the sun rising for that sweeping moment Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy have.

The end.
Psyche! Now I get to plan a wedding...

A Stupid Argumentative Essay

The girl with no opinions on this topic! November 2011

For my stupid philosophy class we have to write a stupid argumentative essay on a moral problem. Have I ever mentioned that I hate philosophy? Both times I've taken it? (Here) I'm on the fence about a lot of moral problems in our world today, and this is one of them. BUT I wanted to show my parents that I'm doing good work, so here is my anti-home school essay. Promise I don't hate home schooling as much as it sounds like I do. I had to dish an opinion for a grade, you guys!

Go to School, Kids

            Learning establishments have been around since the days of the Ancient Greeks in various forms and sizes. An education of a skill or subject has always been sought after by people looking to improve themselves. Today, going to school is a part of almost every American’s life. Thanks to a mostly functional public school system, citizens can enjoy an education from kindergarten on through the twelfth grade, courtesy of the United States of America’s Government. Some parents choose to keep their children home and teach them by themselves. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, when public schools first became mandatory for young children, home schooling has been a legal option for parents. Thus began the debate on whether parents should teach their children themselves, or send them to a public school to be taught by an educator. I will be defending the view that parents should not try to educate their children by themselves. First, I will describe the pro-home schooling argument, which I do not see eye to eye with. Then, I will present the parent aptitude argument. Followed by this argument, I will provide insight to the opposing argument with the self-taught student argument. This will then be followed by the under socialized argument. A counterargument to the under socialized argument, I will then present the shelter argument.

            Parents have every legal right to home school their children in the United States of America. It is a very important decision, as with any decisions dealing with a person’s education. The vast majority of homeschoolers believe that they can provide their child with a better education that the public school system can. Other reasons for home schooling include religious views, inaccessibility to public schools, and convenience.

            Some parents may be qualified to teach their own children, but I do not think that is the case for everyone. Typically, one parent teaches the children in a household. This means one person, with one person’s experiences, is teaching. Think about all of the things children learn in school: math, science, english, history. Most schools also offer electives such as art, music and agriculture studies. There is no way one person can become an expert on all of these things, so that they may then teach others. Teachers in public schools have gone to college and are well educated in their field of study. That is why most teachers only teach one subject. They teach what they know. Most parents are not equipped well enough to teach their children from kindergarten, all the way through the twelfth grade.

            Occasionally, children are able to pick up something and figure it out themselves. Some home schooling parents might argue that even if they are not familiar with a subject in the curriculum, their child will be able to teach it to himself or herself. They may even go as far as to say that this improves their child’s self-starting abilities on projects. There are also home schooling co-ops, wherein a community of home schooling parents come together to teach the subject that they are the most educated on. This allows for more in-depth study of a subject.

            While children are naturally curious, they are often not focused enough to be able to teach themselves a subject. Not all children learn the same way, either. A teacher is equipped with the skills to teach multiple types of learners in one classroom. A parent might not be familiar with the different learning types of his or her different children. A parent teacher might not be educated on how to teach a dyslexic child how to read. Even if there is a parent in the teaching co-op who knows techniques of how to teach a dyslexic child how to read, they are not experts. There are educators at public schools whose specific job is to help children with reading difficulties. The home school co-op is defeating the purpose of home schooling, because the parent is taking their children out of their household and allowing them to be taught by someone else. This is very much like the public school system.

            In addition to not having a wholly educated teacher, home-schooled children often miss out on a lot of other public school opportunities. There are no varsity athletics, fine art programs or every day experiences such as cafeterias. This limits the child in their social abilities. One of the best ways to learn is through experience. Home-schooled children are limited to only interacting with their siblings, if they have any. Hearing only one person’s opinions on subjects, their parent’s, also handicaps them. This could lead to radical views on topics such as religion and politics. Home schooling is not the best idea for socializing a young child, because of the limited experiences it provides.

            Even if the home-schooled children miss out on a lot of great things public schools can provide, they do miss out on some tough parts of going to school with other kids. If a public school student has not been picked on, they probably know someone who has. Bullying is an emotionally scarring event and should be tended to. Often, a student is too scared to tell a teacher or administrator what is happening to them, until the situation escalates. Home-schooled children also do not have to experience low-quality school food. School lunches are notoriously unbalanced and made from poor ingredients. Home schooling allows children to avoid bullying and bad cafeteria food.

            Although bullying is a terrible thing, it happens to everyone at some point. Some experience it at a more intense level than others. Children who experience it early in life will be more experienced to handle it when they are older. A basic social skill is problem resolution. Elementary school teachers in particular put great emphasis on teaching children how to verbalize their problems with each other. This helps children learn how to interact with their peers in an emotionally healthy manner. Bad cafeteria food can be quickly resolved with a bag lunch, which can be as nutritious as a parent wants to make it. The home-schooled child completely misses out on basic problem solving skills that should be learned in childhood, and no lunch should stop a child from interacting with other children.

            Home schooling children is not the best educational choice a parent can make for their child. They are limiting their child’s educational opportunities with their own limited education. Home school parents are also disallowing their children to develop basic social skills, which they will need later in life when they are out of the house. Public school children graduate high school with a well-rounded education and varied social experiences. Their home-schooled peers will have to catch up in social matters and subjects they are not familiar with, because of their primary education.