h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I would have sent my child to a Steiner kindergarten if I could have afforded it, but it was only for half a day and I would have had the problem of trying to get a childminder for the second half of the day, who would have had to have picked him up from the kindergarten.

Steiner starts formal education at aged six and is a much more holistic way of education, with the child having the

..... interruption whilst I mop up an egg dropped by the said son ....

same teacher for eight years. Now, I the child gets a poor teacher, it's a bum deal, if the teacher is inspirational, it can be wonderful.

I think that in parts of Europe, eg Germany and France, Steiner schools are free as they are included in the state system as they are in the US (correct me if I'm wrong). Perhaps, when I have time, I'll do a guide entry.

Certainly the behaviour of children at school has changed over the years and indeed over the time I was at school. My school was well disciplined when I was a first year, but things had become much more lax by the time I left.

As far as the computer is concerned, well, I'm much the same as you, although in truth, you may know more about them than me. I had to consciously choose the Fat32, which was a way of dividing and compressing the files. I can set the controls of mine to 'play sounds', but it doesn't work as I'm fairly certain it doesn't have a sound card. I don't know what one looks like or what kind of slot you need. There might be something on the back of the computer. I'll have a look and maybe ask the person who gave it to me.

I would have sent my child to a Steiner kindergarten if I could have afforded it, but it was only for half a day and I would have had the problem of trying to get a childminder for the second half of the day, who would have had to have picked him up from the kindergarten.

Steiner starts formal education at aged six and is a much more holistic way of education, with the child having the

..... interruption whilst I mop up an egg dropped by the said son ....

same teacher for eight years. Now, I the child gets a poor teacher, it's a bum deal, if the teacher is inspirational, it can be wonderful.

I think that in parts of Europe, eg Germany and France, Steiner schools are free as they are included in the state system as they are in the US (correct me if I'm wrong). Perhaps, when I have time, I'll do a guide entry.

Certainly the behaviour of children at school has changed over the years and indeed over the time I was at school. My school was well disciplined when I was a first year, but things had become much more lax by the time I left.

As far as the computer is concerned, well, I'm much the same as you, although in truth, you may know more about them than me. I had to consciously choose the Fat32, which was a way of dividing and compressing the files. I can set the controls of mine to 'play sounds', but it doesn't work as I'm fairly certain it doesn't have a sound card. I don't know what one looks like or what kind of slot you need. There might be something on the back of the computer. I'll have a look and maybe ask the person who gave it to me.

Okay. That is wise. Not know about Steiner.
Got a lot of folks around here who are into home-schooling.
Their kids seem a lot more well-adjusted to the planet...
On the other hand, their parents seem a bit weird...
I would not normally be up now, but I tripped over the latest round of ban/not ban and found myself crawling through a mile of threads, being just generally uneasy.

I have seen grown people turn off their monitors when told to reboot.

I'm going to bed, now. TTFN.

I must admit, I was surprised to get a reply so quickly. You'll have to tell me about ban/not ban later and I'll tell you more of my experience of people who homeschool later. Night night.

I've been having difficulty with my postings today, as you will notive, having got the same long message twice.

I've just realised that I told you earlier of the people I know who homeschool their children. There is an organisation here called Education Otherwise (or EO) for short, which supports this. Certainly the children I know are quite rounded individuals who are quite cool about talking to adults and happy to be around them, unlike the majority of adolescents.

I now know a little about the ban/not ban having seen the conversation threads, but not looked at them. I've no idea who leKZ (is that it?) was and I'm not particularly interested in getting involved, although I'd be interested in your take on it.

There is no way to talk about it without offending someone.
It just appears to me that someone with too much time on their hands is taking up a lot of other people's time. What began as a discussion on 'intelligence' became a site-wide proof that intelligence is not a shield against stupidity. There were and are people leaving the site over this ongoing exercise in limitless debate and italic detectiving.
I will attempt to stay out of it again.

It is best ignored until it influences us.

I searched and found the site for the Steiners in UK. I will look at it later.

I'm still trying to find out the origin of the phrase 'box clever'.

I am not aware of a repeated post from you, but maybe I'm not looking.

Looks like I did the right (intelligent?) thing to ignore it then! Was it Xyroth's 'intelligence' project? I suppose intelligence or stupidity depends on your frame of reference

Origin of box clever - first instincts are that it refers to boxing (as in the so-called sport).

I've not seen a website for Steiner. I've loads of hard copy stuff, though, books, brochures, that sort of thing. It it interesting?

I don't know yet. It is on my to-read list.
We have a plethora of Montessori schools in this country.

Yes, that 'Intelligence' project. But Xyroth attempted to deal with it after the original donnybrooke...because it was said that the concept was too big for one entry or person, that's why a multiple was running rampant in the thread, claiming that 'onlies' couldn't really grasp what was entailed.

As for 'box clever', I have a stinking suspicion it dates back to the WWI era and was originally 'Boche Clever' and borrowed from the French with the usual Tommy transliteration ability...

NOTE: to the moderators, if the word 'boche' is offensive to anyone, please let me know and I will stop using it. I am admitting my ignorance in this matter, but am using the word in it's historical context. Thank you.

I'm having a really early night as I feel as though I haven't slept for a week.

I used to have a book on historical slang. I could ask my ex-brother-in-law, who I know to have a copy. Box clever may be in it. But not tonight!

Know the feeling slept four hours last night.

Night!

Part work stress, part infection. I've started taking some herbal remedies for the infection and it seems to be getting a bit better, although I still couldn't get to sleep last night when I wanted to.

I've not made enquiries about 'box clever' yet and probably won't do tonight. I've a letter of complaint to write to AOL, who I'm very cross with at the moment.

Why are you not sleeping?

I've got a toothache that seems to encompass my ol 'ead. I take ibuprofen for it, it dulls it, but whenever I lay down, everything above the neck throbs.

What has A**holes On Line done to you that isn't suprising?

Charging me for a service I no longer have and refusing to refund any money. However, I think I stand a good chance of harrassing them into it. I got the brush-off from one of their call centre people yesterday in no uncertain fashion (bordering on the rude) and I've whacked off a first class letter with a deadline for a reply. If they don't sort me out, I'll cost them more in administration than they owe me! They say every satisfied customer tells perhaps three people they are satisfied. A dissatisfied customer tells at least 15.

Do you have a thing about dentists? I know several people who do.

Yep. The whole family needs dental work but the vehicle payment comes first, then lights, gas, water, food....and on and on and on....
I'm due to have the remainder popped out on top.
The bottom is starting to go, too. I had a couple rotten wisdom teeth that came in crammed and I never did anything about it.

I was warned away from AOL from the beginning. I was silly enough to take that advice.

I've heard repair people say that some folk have had their hard drive de-configured or choked with AOL.

We were right about FAT 32. It is a compression utility. But you have to use your maintenance fairly often to keep it running well.

And yes, dentists hate me. I growl in the chair.
And take my own music.
I don't go under
the anesthesia
well. I feel
almost
everything.

The person who advised me said that lots of people had problems with AOL. I wish I'd never touched them.

I don't envy you about the teeth. Sounds expensive and uncomfortable. Little 'un is due for a dental visit and I struggle to get him to clean his teeth.

h2g2 meet tomorroe and I'm hoping to be there! I'll tell you about it later (unless you're not interested). I gather that quite a few (perhaps most) of the scouts are under 21. Not me!

The person who advised me said that lots of people had problems with AOL. I wish I'd never touched them.

I don't envy you about the teeth. Sounds expensive and uncomfortable. Little 'un is due for a dental visit and I struggle to get him to clean his teeth.

h2g2 meet tomorrow and I'm hoping to be there! I'll tell you about it later (unless you're not interested). I gather that quite a few (perhaps most) of the scouts are under 21. Not me!

Another almost double posting - at least the second spells tomorrow correctly.

Ah. Um, age matters?

This whole geographical thing is messing me up.

Jwf and me thought Strasbourg was in yermany...

Not really. Someone did a survey of scouts and thought it would be interesting to find out how many were over 21. There weren't many.

It will be interesting to meet the other scouts (oh, I know not all of them will be here, but Bossel and Dancer will and it will be interesting to see what they look like) and other researchers.

I'm just off to catch my train. Its pouring it down, and promises to do so all day, so no doubt we'll all end up looking like drowned rats.

It was raining in stair rods when I arrived at Charing Cross Station. Although there was not a long way to go to the pub, I was soaked by the time I got there. I thought the photo scavenge was likely to be called off, but no, although it was delayed a little.

We were put into teams and I was put with Bossel, Deackie, Vogon Poet and Two Legs. We had fun solving puzzles and taking photos of the answers. One of the things we had to do was to take a photo from somewhere high over London. Difficult, as the London Eye was closed. So Deackie climbed onto VP's shoulders and VP held a map of London lower down. We didn't complete all the tasks, eg being photographed on a West End stage, although I found out later that there was a museum of theatre, which had a stage, on which people got photographed.

We ended up in another pub, got something to eat and then there was a quiz (we came 4th=) and got people's autographs. I had a thoroughly good time.

I found where the tube bas with difficulty, got the train to London Bridge and then got on the wrong train at the right time going to the right final destination, unfortunately via a different route. I met someone I knew from work on the train with her husband, and she gave me a lift home at the end. Wasn't I fortunate!

Time for !

o/?

We finished up by