The Cramer Family

So Tammy and I have been having a discussion about homework lately. I’m coming down on the side that kids in elementary don’t need to have any homework at all, while Tammy thinks that it is an important piece in their educational experience.  I don’t really remember doing that much homework in elementary school (my parents assure me that I did), so of course I’m adding that to my list of reasons why they shouldn’t do so much homework.

I’m basing a lot of what I’m thinking about this on two articles by Orson Scott Card about homework. Basically he is in the camp of ‘kids need to be kids’ and that homework puts too much stress on the kids and the parents. Now Card can be very polarizing in his writing, but these are two well written articles that make me think about the issue. For me this is ‘Strong Opinion, Weakly Held’ and the next more convincing article I read about the merits of homework could remove the whole argument. But until that happens I will resist the teachers tyrannical rule! (Only after the boys are asleep of course).

I’ve started the core class in Medical Informatics at the U of U. The class starts at 7:30 am in the morning (I’m not stupid, I just love when people say that). Initially I planned on taking the bus up there every day. Unfortunately that would have involved getting up at 4:30 so I could get to the bus stop by 5:20. Then it was 2 hours to make it up to the hospital. That was 2 hours on the express bus. On the way home there is no express bus so I would have to go through 3 or 4 different transfers to make it to the MTC. If I left the U at 9, when class ends, I wouldn’t get to the MTC until 12. 3 fun hours of transport madness.

As luck would have it, my neighbor recently took a job in Salt Lake doing financial planning. So he tries to be in to work at 7 am in the morning and then he works until 11. I now hitch a ride with him up to Salt Lake, drop him off at his work on West Temple, and then drive the car up to the U. So far it is working out great! I don’t have to wake up unti 5:15 and then I’m only in the car for an hour and a half. I can spend the time after class studying or reading and still I get to the MTC at the same time that I would have on the bus.

I can’t believe that people regularly commute more than an hour to get to work each day. It just seems like such a waste of time to me. I’ve noticed that Tammy’s family is much more likely to drive for a couple hours to get somewhere cool to visit. And it never seems to be that big of a deal to just get up and travel. On the other hand, my family never drives more than an hour unless it is a big planned out production.

Personally I hate the commute. I hope that wherever I end up getting a job that I’m able to get to in under a half hour, preferably even be able to ride my bike. We shall see.

I‘ve got a test in each one of my classes next week. For those of you keeping track that’s 4 tests in 5 days! Yep, it’s not going to be a fun week.

• CS 252 - Turing Machines and Reducibility
• CS 312 - Backtracking and SCC
• CS 324 - Y86 Architecture and Pipelines
• CS 465 - Protocols

What can I say. YIPEEE!!! The most difficult of all of those is definately going to be the 252 class. It’s the kind of class that I attend lecture and can sort of keep up with what is going on, but when it comes time to do it on my own I’m lost. I need to get ownership of the concept before I’m expected to think about anything on it.

So I’ve taken my CS312 test and I think that I rocked it! Now I just have 3 more to go, with my 324 test being the hardest of those.

I miss my family when I have all these crazy assignments going on. I look forward to the day that I can just come home, and be home with them. Tammy is so wonderful to put up with my crazy hours and to be such a supportive and caring wife. I’m so lucky to have her.

We bought a computer airmoire(sp?) that I set up last night. The plan is to move the computer back downstairs so that I can actually work on things at home without bothering Tammy if she wants to go to sleep. I have dreams of converting it into a media system of death. But with what time right?

I’ve got four tests this week (well one goes till next week, but still).. So as you can imagine I’m a little stressed. Oh well.