Go over to Kicking Over My Trace and check out all the great recipes, including my Snickerdoodle Recipe.

Scarsdale High School is considering eliminating Advanced Placement Tests. Why? Because to many kids take them (so they are no longer considered advanced) and they are to much work. I say phooey! That is right phooey! I admit it, I took AP courses and absolutely loved them. I also view them as an even handed leveler for all high school students. When an entering college freshman has take AP calculus AB, you know what material was covered and that they are ready to progress to what would be the next class. If they hadn’t taken the test (or a class without a test) how would you know what was taught? But that is one of the complaints.

“The test unfortunately drives what you teach and how you teach,” said Kelley Hamm, Scarsdale’s assistant principal.

Duh. Colleges are not going to look at each school’s syllabus and evaluate how it measures up to the college’s class. Much less taking into account the high school’s grading criteria. The AP test gives impartialial evaluation of a student’s knowledge and abilities.

But a big part of this is snooty claseparationion.

But like a few private schools, Scarsdale is concluding that the A.P. pile-on is helping turn the teenage years into a rat race where learning becomes a calculated means to an end rather than a chance for in-depth investigation, imagination, even some fun to go along with all that amassing of knowledge.

So if you go to a “good” school you will not need to prove yourself the way that the lowly students from mediocre schools do. Come on, that is unreasonable.

Then the question arises, are AP classes good for students? I say yes. Are they harder than standard high school course? Of course, but that is what gets them ready for college. I feel it is a perfect introduction. The premise is that you take a semester college course and take almost a full year to go through the course work and prepare for the test. I finally got a glimpse of what would be expected of me once I graduated high school. AP classes often take kids who are gliding and teaches them how to analyze and communicate great ideas. I admit, I learn how to write much better in my AP US History class than I had in 10 years of English classes.

College Board officials say their tests do not force teachers to ram down information. Trevor Packer, executive director of the College Board’s A.P. program, said students need only answer only a quarter of questions right in the multiple-choice section to earn a 5 score, leaving lots of room for inventiveness elsewhere. Much of the test has questions based on documents and demands analysis rather than memorization.

What is the test’s value? College credit. Will all classes be accepted by all colleges as an exemption? No, but a little investigation can tell you that before you take the class. An example, the UC’s wouldn’t count AP Government as a replacement for any class. The CSU system would only give it as credit for a very easy Poli Sci class. So many students didn’t waste their time taking that AP class.

It boils down to this theory that children should just be children. Aren’t we trying to train them to be adults? AP Classes are a great way to do just that.

(HT: JoanneJacobs)

I am going to host the Carnival of Homeschooling this week and I need submissions. As usually they are due by Monday night at 6pm (pacific). You can go to Why Homeschool for all the submission details (icluding where to send it)!

Here is an easy snickerdoodle. You can freeze the dough once in balls and cook later. It is a great recipe do make with kids. I have the 5 yr old roll the balls and the 3 yr old rolls them in cinnamon and sugar. So on with the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 3/4 cup flour
2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

cinnamon
sugar

Procedure
1. Mix shortening, sugar and eggs
2. Add dry ingredients
3. Roll into balls the size of walnuts
4. Roll in mixture of cinnamon(1) and sugar(2)
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes

Sorry for the delay in this week’s Carnival of Pregnancy. Once the little cuties come out they can cause a little chaos so it can take a little longer to get things done. All you expecting mother’s have been warned;). So on with the Carnival! We got some great entries so let’s jump right in!

First things first…You have to get pregnant. Jeanine and Nina are taking the plunge and doing In Vitro Fertilization… a different perspective from Queercents. So it all works and your pregnant! What is next? Let’s Talk Babies helps you with Telling Your Boss That You’re Pregnant.

One of thebenefitss of being around pregnant women is sharing their joy. Principle Discovery’s Dana share their first pictures of their 10 week blessing-to-come in A glimpse at baby. We also get to share in Loni at Finding JOY in the Morning with Baby Update – 14 weeks.

We have some posts that deal with the end of the pregnancy. First up is Hug the Monkey presenting Home-made Oxytocin Therapy for Pregnant Moms (warning: it deals with specifics with labor) and how to avoid needing Pitocin. SenseList has a great post, 20 Most Popular U.S. Baby Names in 2005 and 1885, that compares the common popular names. Suite101, Family Travel, has a very interesting article, Baby Born on a Plane,
that deals with the citizenship issues that arise in this situation.

Something else that comes with babies are products and gadgets. PocketChange tells us about Power Bars for Preggies. They seem to come in many yummy flavors. American Inventor Spot has a review of the iCrib system with Make Your Baby the Coolest on the Block. An yes, it is an iPod accessory;). Then is the not so fun expenses. Canadian Financial Stuff takes a look at Baby formula, the price of convenience?

That brings a close to our carnival. Please read and respond to our various authors. If you have an article to contribute please go to BlogCarnival. Then come back in 2 weeks for our next edition!

Thank you all for joining me for this week’s Christian Carnival. We have many wonderful entries so let us jump right in!

Kicking it all off are a couple of movie and book posts. Nehring over at Nehring the Edge offers a review of Namesake Entertainment’s production of Frank Peretti’s novel The Visitation. Mick over at Romans 15:4 Project encourages everyone to go see Facing the Giants. Adam’s Blog has an interesting article on Life, Man, and God on the Silver Screen. Then John asks if you could give only one book to a new Christian (besides the Bible) to show him how to walk with Christ and lead a life pleasing to Him, what would it be? This week at Light Along the Journey John discusses his new choice with his review of the new Piper book What Jesus Demands from the World.

Now we look at our faith and the world issues. A Penitent Blogger has a poignant reflection on evil and mercy, current events and the book of Job with Murder and Suicide. Surly Dave over at Surly’s Soapbox has a piece on School Shootings and Forgiveness. Tim at Life In Student Ministry says he used to give and help homeless people without assuming responsibility for enabling possible addictions, but then an actual homeless man says to stop. The Homeless Guy encourages donating food to homeless people since it’s harder to obtain meals now, but not to donate money. So now, what should be the extent of our on-the-spot giving? So to what extent should I help the homeless? Jon Swift talks about the debate over torture illustrates how Christians can get back to traditional values by changing with the times in Traditional Torture Values. Boring Made Dull presents At LEAST We A’re Safe From posted at The Boring Made Dull about the scrubbing of God from the VeggieTales that are being aired on NBC. They even reference a comment from Instapundit on Kanye West and how he should oppose Islam.

Going from just culture to church groups we have a couple of good posts. Matt at Random Acts of Verbiage sees the effectiveness of the XXXChurch with XXXchurch and a Pornographer’’s Conversion. Diane at Crossroads continues in her series on helping those over 50 to understand the postmodern generation and the implications for their churches, the postmodern worldview is the subject of this post in Postmodernism for Old Folks: Bridging the Generation Gap. Parableman has a Roman Catholic friend gives an interpretation of Catholic theology on works and merit that sounds surprisingly consistent with Protestant views on the subject in Roman Catholic Merit. Sometimes all is not hearts and flowers in the church. Rev-ed at Attention Span looks at what can happen when bitterness fills the heart of a church member in Bitterness.

We have quite a few enlightening posts on christian living. Kim Anderson of Mother-Lode thinks It’s About Time to consider the harvest of our year’s inner work as we enjoy autumn. She invites us to think of time differently than our clock-punching culture. Then there are 2 different posts on controlling our mouths and showing Christ through us, so I guess that means I am not the only one that struggles with this;). First is Annette at Random Thoughts with Heart and Mouth. She says that people often say that they are Christians, but their lives don’t show this. She talks about what is really needed to be a Christian. Then Leslie at Lux Venit makes herself vulnerable by talking about God dealing with her sin of gossip and slander in The Diagnosis. Then Andre at Every Square Inch submits Stewarding Our Ambition. Dreams and ambitions are gifts from God. The topic of stewarding our ambitions is important to every Christian and something many struggle with. Some pursue their unbridled ambitions while others eschew any hint of ambition in their lives, viewing it as unspiritual. This first post in a series of three explores what godly ambition looks like and how to steward our ambition with responsibility. Karen at From the Anchor Hold presents Transitus: how to go to the Father, which is a historical example of how to die right. With all these great posts on developing our own Christian walk, Spritibee reminds us Even Kids Need Purpose!

When looking at the doctrine posts, I know we will all have plenty to contemplate. Does anything ever happen by chance? Nancey Murphy 2 on Sun and Shield is a great place to start. Martin has been occasionally musing on the suggestion, by some, that quantum uncertainty is the physical basis of human free will. Murphy has written on this subject, and doesn’t believe that can be the whole story. Tom over at Thinking Christian wonders if Questions Allowed? He wonders is it safe to ask questions about the faith in most churches? Should it be? Well we respond immediately with a question;). How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Intellectuelle begins an exploration of the question includes commentary on the nature and identity of angels. Beyond The Rim… has a beautiful piece on how to view God with Our Father Who? I think it is a great start to prayer. Henry at Participatory Bible Study Blog asks, God: Nice or Not? He says the incarnation shows God at his most merciful, compassionate and “nice” while at the same time giving us a challenge that is very hard. God’s niceness has a sting to it, but that makes it real! Weekend Fisher at Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength presents us with Two Views of Predestination. Is there more than one way to understand predestination? Weekend Fisher reviews both a sovereignty-centered model and a Christ-centered model of predestination. Veracity over at The Way offers us Ten Days of Awe, without Teshuvah-meaning literally to turn away, from our sin, God will not hear our prayers.. Then Vons Takes presents The (Missing) Message where he asks, “Is ‘The Message’ translation missing part of The Word when it mistranslates I Peter 3:1-4 and related passages?”

Finally, we wrap with a beautiful poem from Poetic Pilgrimage called Dawn of Deliverance.

That brings an end to all of our wonderful entries. Thanks to Dory at Wittenberg Gate for keeping all of this going. Please submit an article and join us for the next Christian Carnival. With that I bid adieu. May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ shine upon you all. Amen.

King Abdullah II of Jordan is building a King’s Academy in Amman and I think it will be a blessing to the whole area. This academy is based on the Deerfield Academy in New England that King Abdullah attended himeself. He is even going to bring over the recently retired headmaster of Deerfield to run it. It will be a full boarding school just like its American counterpart and will be about $28,000 a year with scholarships available. The King says that he wants this to eventually be a school with kids from all over the world. If they hold true to the plans I think this will be a great institute. Especially if…

But instead of a mosque on campus, there is a spiritual centre and in a resolution to the difficult question over whether girls should wear a scarf to cover their hair, the school uniform will include a mandatory scarf that girls can either wear on the head or around the neck.

Being a co-educational school in a Muslim country means the school policy is far stricter than its American counterpart on mixing between the sexes, especially out of school hours.

I think it is going to be a opportunity for both the children who attend and the nation of Jordan on the whole. The effects of this level of learning and of the “westernization” of these students will definately effect the next generation in the MidEast. Education is the way to cause long lasting changes in the mind set of the population and to cause a self directed peace. (Now we needed to have a war in Iraq to get them in school and away from the brainwashing, but I digress.) I truly believe that King Abdullah II’s father would be quite proud!

(HT: JoanneJacobs.com)

This is actually called a Suspicious Looking Device. It has a timer and buzzes when it is touched. Then it will roll away. I believe it looks like the Ghostbusters device, except that was yellow;). If you go to the site there is video of how it works.

(HT: BoingBoing)

This week is the Carnival of Pregnancy and I am calling for submissions! Please go over to BlogCarnival and submit your post on Pregnancy. It can be funny or factual. It needs to be both family friendly and on a family friendly site. You don’t need to be pregnant to play so go submit! Then come back Friday to read the carnival!

I am so excited! We had our “pre-drywall” meeting yesterday for our new house. That is a meeting where they take you through the whole house after all the wiring and plumbing is done but before they put up the drywall. It is so hard to believe how fast this house is going. Now if we could only sell this one….