I’ve been quiet on my blog for a bit.  Christmas break and all that, you know?

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

And, now this post will take an updatey turn.  Updatey is a real word, by the way.  I just made it up, used it twice, and published it on the internet.

Normal classes will resume January 7.  And, hopefully, classes will just plug along until we end them in May.  I am not currently planning a spring break.

The early morning classes are already back.  Well, some of them are.

At 5 A.M. central time zone, Second Year Latin by Robert Henle.  We are working our way through the exercises.  This morning, we pushed on through more of exercise 81.  Still not done.  Four sentences to go.

At 5:30 A.M. central time zone, First Year Latin by Robert Henle.  We are working our way through the exercises.  This morning, we finished exercise 287.

At 6 A.M. central time zone, Exercitia Latina by Hans Ørberg.  We are working our way through the exercises.  This morning, we finished the last exercises in chapter 2.

I was trying to finish all of the exercises in First Year Latin by Robert Henle before January 1.  I failed.  Still have about 180 exercises to go.  I was hoping to finish the book so that I could move on to Italian and Greek again.  But, Henle Latin wins.  I will push Italian and Greek off until next year.  Some of you will be annoyed by this.  I am with you.  I am as annoyed as you are.  Probably more.

I had been spending about 6 hours a day working my way through the Henle Latin exercises.  No more.  Just can’t do it any more.  I will simply stick with the scheduled morning classes and the scheduled Tuesday classes from this point forward.

I am going to use the time I was plowing into Henle Latin to write more tests for my site.

You don’t have to take the tests, of course.

I saw a quote not long ago that hit me pretty hard.

“They’ve taken your childhood from you and replaced it with homework and tests.”

I don’t know who said that, but they nailed it.

I write tests for you guys so that you can keep the academics around you happy.  But, if you can skip them, skip them.

Resist, my friends.  Resist.

School and education are two completely different things.  Never forget that.

I have learned seven languages.  On my own.  I taught myself.  You can, too.  Education is not school.  Education is not tests.

The only education that matters is self-education.

Keep that in mind as you set New Year’s resolutions.   And, have a happy New Year, my friends!