SCHOLA: TAM 9!

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

TAM 9!

The Amazing Meeting, the James Randi Educational Foundation's celebration of science and skepticism was such a blast I can hardly wait until next year. It is hard to imagine how they will top the line-up. This year the get together, themed TAM 9 From Outer Space, featured such big names as Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye (who, I am not too proud to say, I stalked until I got a photo), Phil Plaitt, and of course The Amazing Randi. I got to meet some of my blog heroes: PZ Myers and Hemant Mehta among others. Penn Jillette hosted and performed at his private Rock-n-Roll, Bacon, and Doughnut Party, and then offered discount tickets to Penn & Teller's magic show as a fundraiser for the JREF. Paul Provenza presented his Satiristas! comedy show where I was introduced to the adorable Jamie Kilstein. Aside from all the fantastic talks, especially a workshop on "Defending Evolution in the Classroom and Beyond" by Dr. Eugenie Scott from the National Center for Science Education, the best part had to be meeting fellow skeptics, some from Jacksonville, Gainesville, and Melbourne, Florida, and Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne Australia, and even a homeschooling mom who works for NPR in Washington DC.

For a look at the full schedule go here and for a list of all workshops click here. Then consider attending TAM X.

Me with Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! and Dr. Eugenie Scott in the lobby of the Rio Theater after Penn & Teller.

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SCHOLA 101

schol' a: 1) An intermission of work, leisure for learning, learned conversation, debate, disputation, lecture, dissertation. 2) A meeting place for teachers and pupils, place for instruction, place of learning, school. 3) The disciples of a teacher, body of followers, school, sect. 4) An acronym for my tortuous blog title "Secular Classical Homeschoolers' Odyssean Learning Adventure." 5) How my Boston cousins pronounce "scholar." 6) Someone who studies at 10 o'clock for a dilla or a dolla.

These are the blatherings of an introverted, autodidactic, champion of The Enlightenment raising three daughters. At one time or another we have homeschooled, public-schooled, Catholic-schooled, cyber-schooled, unschooled, and even threatened boarding school. We have been inspired variously by The Well-Trained Mind, A Thomas Jefferson Education, and Climbing Parnassus, tempered by the writings and wisdom of Charlotte Mason, John Holt, Benjamin Franklin and Michel de Montaigne.

I try not to get wrapped up in labels, but we are secular and we are classical-ish.

We travel. A lot. Sometimes to the other side of the state and sometimes to the other side of the planet. Join us on our journey as we search for our home, navigate the waters of self-education, lounge with the lotus-eaters, and bash a Cyclops or two.