Wii U: Final Post

This blog has been fun. I may even post on it again someday. But for the time being, I will not be visiting this blog. But it is fitting for me to make my final (for now) post the final yearly review of the Wii U. I've been doing this since 2013. But just as Nintendo has announced the end of Wii U production, so I announce the end of this series. You might be thinking, "but today is the 19th, not the 18th!" I could say that it was intentional, considering that today is the 10 year anniversary of the release of the Nintendo Wii. But in reality I just didn't have time. So let's look at how Nintendo did the past year, in relation to my previous suggestions.

Lower the Price

No dice. Another year, another $300 price tag. No reason to think it will change. Even Nintendo's next generation system, the Nintendo Switch, is rumored to cost less than that!

Actually release Zelda for Wii U

Again, no dice. But now we know considerably more about the game. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be released for the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch sometime in 2017. Originally rumored to be March, it appears it will slip due to localization issues.  As long as I've waited for this game, I can wait a little longer.

Cross-Platform Innovations

Unfortunately, while Nintendo is certainly getting into the mobile space, what with Miitomo and Super Mario Run, there is little for cross-platform. My fear is that with the mobile nature of the Switch, Nintendo will overlook the great cross-platform possibilities afforded.

2017: Wii U Out, Switch In


I have no intention on writing a blog post for next year regarding this topic. But it would still do well to give some brief thoughts on what Nintendo can do.

Hype up the Switch

So far, Nintendo has done a great job building momentum for this system. Now keep it going. Marketing, contracts, pull out all the stops.

Competitive Pricing

If Nintendo releases the Switch for $250 (with a rumored $300 Splatoon bundle), then things would be great for them. Sony has already released the PS4 Pro for $400, and many people are wondering what the purpose of the system is. Microsoft's Project Scorpio looks to be released next year for the same, and people are also confused. In fact, Microsoft just this year announced and released the Xbox One S, offering 4K gaming and viewing. These systems have an identity crisis. The Switch does not have this. If they can offer gamers a different experience for that price, Nintendo will rake in money.

Pump Out Wii U ports

The Switch announcement video was filled with what appears to be enhanced ports of Wii U games, such as Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon. The fact is, the Wii U was a great system. Don't let these games die on that console. Many of the most important games on Wii U never made use of the now defunct Gamepad. Bring them to the Switch, and let the Xbox/Playstation players in on the fun I've been having for years now.

Well, I could say more, but I'm done. For anyone who for some reason has enjoyed reading my opinions on this, I truly thank you for giving me your time. I hope I didn't waste it. Now, on to better things, and on to better systems.

Wii U: Year Three

So I hope, one year from now, on November 18, 2015, to possess a system with more realized potential than I can dream.  Until then, there is hope.

Today kind of snuck up on me.  It wasn’t until about 11 am that I realized that three years ago today I bought my launch-day Wii U.  I suppose I’ve been listening to a bunch of Christmas (and Chanukah) music.

In any event, the italicized passage above is the end of my now-yearly review update of Nintendo’s system, the Wii U. I know when I wrote those words that it was quite likely that I would not return a year from then with a happy report.  Unfortunately, that was true.  That said, there is still quite a bit of hope for Nintendo.  So, as last year, let’s go through my recommendations for what Nintendo should do for their third year, and see what they did.

Lower the price

This is interesting.  While the console still sells for $299 as before, the available bundles do make it rather appealing.  It should also be noted that I suggested “a bundle with two or three games for $249” would look really appetizing.  Interestingly enough, most places have a Black Friday deal of a Wii U, Smash Bros., and Splatoon for, you guessed it, $249.99.

Cater to third parties

Well, this didn’t happen.  The closest thing to third-party support for Nintendo was Donkey Kong and Bowser in the newest Skylanders game.  No Assassin’s Creed, No EA games, no Star Wars: Battlefront.  Pretty much everything not made by Nintendo is EBWU (Everything But Wii U).

Embrace modern technology

While there are still no Nintendo games on the App Store, that doesn’t mean Nintendo is without mobile presence.  One of the most exciting things about Nintendo revealed this year (we’ll get to the other soon) was a mobile app partnership with DeNA.  The first fruits of this is Miitomo, a weird little conversation game that honestly looks awful.  However, I get the feeling that great things are in store for a Nintendo-DeNA partnership.

Effectively utilize amiibo

So this I would say they did pretty well on.  When I suggested this, there were a few Super Smash Bros. Amiibo on the horizon.  Now there are a number of Amiibo from games ranging from Smash Bros. to Splatoon, to Yoshi’s Wooly World to Animal Crossing.  Not only that, but this craze doesn’t seem to be stopping.  Nintendo hit it big with Amiibo, and while they haven’t capitalized 100%, you have to give them credit for how they have used these little toys.

Metroid

E3 2015 was, for Nintendo diehards, a travesty, and it can be perhaps most symbolized by Metroid.  Not by its absence, but rather its presence.  As I said last year, “Of all of Nintendo’s IPs, none are more suited to the HD world the Metroid.” So as we wait with bated breath for Metroid Prime 4, or something beautiful on Wii U, Nintendo announces a new Metroid game.  For 3DS. Where you can’t even play as the main protagonist, Samus Aran. The response was so negative that Nintendo actually apologized for what they had shown off, and a large petition arose demanding Nintendo cease production on the 3DS game and create a proper Wii U installment. 

Actually release Zelda (or not)

This clearly didn’t surprise me.  I have become accustomed to Zelda delays, and my established view is that when a new Zelda game is announced, push the date one year back and you’re good to go.  It was announced with a 2015 release date, and that has been moved to 2016.  Shocker.  Still, I am quite excited for it, and I hope it moves systems.

Announce a new system?

I suggested that they “announce a successor next year, and release it the following year in 2016”.  By far, the biggest news of the year for Nintendo fans, the same day they announced the Nintendo-DeNA partnership, they announced that they are making a new system, codenamed the Nintendo NX. What’s more, current rumor is that they are looking for a 2016 release.  Where’s my check?

Wii U: Fourth and final year?

Well, if the above rumors pan out, I may next year write my last yearly review of this wonder machine. So what can Nintendo do with this Wii U in this fourth, and possibly final year?

Lower the price

I said this last year, and I say it again.  $199 is the sweet spot for the Wii U.  Right now you have both PS4 and Xbox One at a mere $50 higher than the Wii U, and both of those come with games as well.  Why is it that such higher-powered systems are only marginally more expensive than the lower-powered Wii U, a system that has been out for a year longer?  There is no excuse.  A simple, core 32Gb Wii U for $199 would be exceptional.

Actually release Zelda for Wii U

They have reconfirmed a 2016 Wii U release for Zelda.  Both of these claims have been treated with suspicion.  There are many who see a 2017 release date for a game first shown off in 2014.  Beyond that, many think that Zelda will be either a standalone NX launch title, or that it will receive the Twilight Princess treatment.  By this I mean that just as Zelda: Twilight Princess had a dual release at the same time for the Nintendo GameCube and as a launch title for the Nintendo Wii, so many think that this new Zelda will be released both for Wii U and NX.

Cross-platform innovations

With DeNA as a launching pad for Nintendo into the mobile space, the time is right for some creative interplay between console, handheld, and phone.  How cool would it be for a DeNA game to work with Wii U games?  As an example, let’s say that Nintendo creates a universal currency that works between its games.  I would love to earn "N-Coins” while playing a Nintendo game on my iPhone during my break at work, only to come home, and use those N-Coins to buy Rupees or bombs in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD on my Wii U. Or, if I plan on getting an NX, I can start playing my Wii U, 3DS, and Mobile games to stockpile N-Coins for use on my NX games!  Essentially this is an expansion of the 3DS “Play Coins” aspect to be used universally between systems.

Well, this review must come to an end.  I am interested to see how Nintendo fares this upcoming year.  If all goes well, I’ll stop playing the New Zelda (maybe on my NX) to write next year’s review.  I don’t have much hope for the Wii U, but I have quite a bit of hope for Nintendo as a whole to regain enough credibility to make the NX a smashing success.

Once for All

Things weren't always this way.  There was a time when today would be marked with solemnity, not unbridled joy.  Fasting, not feasting. Blood, not remembrance. Symbolism, not reality.

Three thousand years ago, on this day, the High Priest entered into the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies, the Kadosh haKadoshim. He entered in, dressed in the clothes his ancestor Aaron wore, and he sacrificed in order to atone for the sins of his people. Surely he was not astute enough to realize that this didn't actually atone for anything.  How could the blood of bulls and goats and lambs cover for transgression against the infinitely righteous God? It could not.  But it could function as a symbol to point them towards a better sacrifice.

As he entered the Temple, thousands stood attentive, their hope resting on his ability to sacrifice. Hopefully he would not have a thought so sinful that God would smite him on the spot for his irreverence, as He had done earlier with Uzziah.  They sacrificed animals daily.  But today was different.  It was not just any day.  Today is Yom Kippur.  Today is the Day of Atonement. He walks out of the Temple, not to return to that room for another year. There is a collective sigh of relief, knowing that they are still God's Covenant people.

Almost two thousand years ago now, the High Priest of High Priests entered the Temple.  Within days He was beaten. He was spit on.  He walked to a hill, and there was put on a cross.  On that cross, all the sins of the elect, whether they be those watching the events unfold in front of Him, or those who waited outside the Temple year after year as the High Priest gave his symbolic sacrifice, or those today who trust in His work, we're finally and completely atoned for.  

Many today did not sleep last night. They were up all night studying the Torah.  They didn't brush their teeth.  They haven't eaten in well over half a day.  They stand in hope that their sins will be atoned for.  Today is Yom Kippur. Today is the Day of Atonement.

I woke up this morning, and ate breakfast.  I will not fast, but will feast.  I will feast because my sins past, present, and future have already been atoned for.  I rejoice because in the sacrifice of the Son of God I have rest, because son has been paid for once for all. Today is Yom Kippur.  Today is the Day of Atonement.

Changes and Announcements

I've wanted to write a blog for quite some time. During Purim this year, I took some time out of the day to write about it, and announced my intention to eventually write about two series, one on video games, and another on homeschooling and public schooling. I have now completed both of these, and I have a number of other topics I'd like to explore, such as Family Worship and the Sabbath.  

     Unfortunately, those will have to wait.  I am continuing my education this year, and these blog posts have taken all summer. Now I am back in school, and something like this simply isn't feasible to continue.  Moreover, if my plans succeed (and they will succeed or fail according to God's good providence), I will be in school the vast majority of the next two years, until I graduate with my Masters of Theological Studies, and so blog posting will be extremely scarce during this time.  So while I may post here and there, and maybe even a small series during my free time, the weekly pace I have established is over for the foreseeable future.

That said, I do have one more blog-related project in store.  While I appreciate the blog as a medium to explore my thoughts, and to make entire series' of posts, for some topics it is not ideal.  I believe my most recent series is one of those.  Therefore I have decided to collect all the posts in my series, "7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate your Child", and combine them into a booklet, renamed "Defying Caesar: Why the Government Shouldn't Teach your Kids".  I've edited the chapters to reflect the style of a booklet, and I've added an Epilogue dealing with homeschooling when both parents work.  It will be available both on Apple iBooks and Amazon Kindle for 99 cents.  I’d put it up for free, but Amazon requires at least that much, so I figure I’ll only charge a dollar.  I figure most who buy it will be buying it more to help me than to actually get their hands on the booklet, most of which is already available at this website for free.  I intended to release it next Friday, in keeping with my typical pattern, but in honor of September 11th falling on that day, I will delay its release to Saturday, September 12th.   I also intend on releasing it in print, but that will take longer.  The print edition will cost $5.99.

The link to the iBooks edition is currently inactive, but will activate automatically come September 12:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/defying-caesar/id1037082714?ls=1&mt=11

The Amazon page, by contrast, is already up here with the ability to pre-order the book.

While I know that this blog has extremely small readership, I truly do thank everyone who has taken time out of their week to read my thoughts, and I hope to continue this blog at some point in the future.

7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate your Child - Conclusion

For the past couple months, we have looked at a number of different arguments, both negatively against public schooling (and to a large extent, Christian schools) and positively for homeschooling.  Am I saying that homeschooling does not have problems?  Absolutely not!  In fact, most of these reasons can be applied to a poorly structured homeschool.  But to a biblically based, dynamic homeschool, these reasons provide major benefit against the public schools.  

I must stress what I did not talk about.  I spent extremely little time on content.  What I did talk about regarding content was the Christian base.  People can debate over whether or not Common Core is good for schools.  People can debate over whether or not the teaching of evolution and an old earth is good.  People fight to get intelligent design taught in schools as though that is justification for putting our children into schools.  It is not.  What is absolutely not debatable is whether or not Christ is exalted in the standard public school program.  He is not.  Thanks to Madelyn Murray O’Hair and the United States Supreme Court (Engel v. Vitale and Abington School District v. Schempp), school prayer and Bible reading has been outlawed since 1963.  Some will try to dodge the issue and say that students can pray (quietly) and read the Bible during class.  That is not the issue.  If the educators cannot educate children in religious matters, like modeling prayer and reading the Bible as inerrant, then the educators cannot properly educate.  The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline (Proverbs 1:7).

So how will you respond?  What compels you to send your children to the public schools?

     It is not because your children are to be a light in the schools, for it is not their job, and they are almost certainly ill-prepared for the task (Aside)

     It is not the education, for their education is corrupt (Reason #1)

     It is not because schools are time-efficient, because they are extremely inefficient (Reason #2)

     It is not because they are bigger, because they fall harder (Reason #3)

     It is not because it is free, because it isn’t (Reason #4)

     It is not because they are flexible, because they aren’t (Reason #5)

     It is not for the one-on-one interaction, because it simply isn’t present (Reason #6)

     It is not to get away from remedial education, because it is present every year (Reason #7)

So why?  Why do Christians pour their children into these places?  Why are these parents surprised when, after giving them 10 times as much secular education as they do religious education, they find out their children are secular?  

In almost every instance, these people put their children into the public schools because they simply haven’t thought about the issue.  They grew up in the public schools, and most, if not all, of their friends grew up in the public schools.  Their friends with older children put them in the public schools, and so when it comes time to decide how their children will be educated, the answer is clear.  For many of them, private Christian schooling is simply too expensive for consideration.  The idea of teaching them at home, or with a trusted homeschooling friend, simply doesn’t come up.

In the beginning I said that my target audience was not those whose kids are in high school.  If anything, my audience is the high schoolers themselves.  People who don’t yet have children, be they single or married.  People who have young children.  People who have only recently put their children in public schools.  There is still time!  When your child is 15, it is most likely too late.  To those whose children are older, I’m sorry.  I don’t mean that in a judging way.  I truly feel sorrow because even for those students who do stay in the church, they are absolutely affected.  I speak as one of them.  After my mother became informed on the reasons we decided to homeschool, she actually apologized to me for putting me in the public schools.  She can’t unmake that mistake, but she can (and has) supported us fully in homeschooling our children.  Perhaps that is a book for her to write.

As I conclude this series, I must make one other thing clear:  There is no absolute dichotomy here when it comes to salvation.  It is certainly possible for a child to go through 12-13 years of public schooling and exit a Christian, perhaps even a fairly strong Christian.  It is also possible for a child to be homeschooled through the most God-honoring, efficient, customized school program in existence, and exit without any love for God.  There are Daniels in the public school, and Judases in the homeschools.  But we can’t decide that public schooling is acceptable on the hope that our child will be a Daniel.  We can’t write off homeschooling because of the chance that our child will be a Judas.  Far and away the majority case is that you act as you have learned.  Will you learn the Fear of the Lord?  Or simply fear of man?

The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline. - Proverbs 1:7

7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate your Child - Reason #7

The final reason in this list against government education is perhaps most visible right now.  Kids are right now coming off of summer vacation and going back to school.  When it comes to the high school age and below, it is not often that you start new fields.  They do exist (and these new fields are exempt from this reason), but you only take maybe two per year at most, if at all.  What I mean by "new fields" are classes that you didn't take a previous iteration of them the semester before.  For example, shop class is a new field (at first).  So is Spanish I (but not Spanish II).  Most of the classes you take in high school are just more advanced versions of what you took in middle school, and even elementary school.  I took English all throughout my schooling, as I did Social Studies, Science, and Math.

For these core classes that you take year after year, schools typically waste about 2 weeks per year because of two words:

Summer.  Vacation.

Anyone who does any sort of independent learning knows extremely well how awful it is to spend 3 entire months without studying a subject.  You get rusty.  When I spend extended time away from Hebrew, I start to forget some of the morphology.  What that means is that when I go back to studying it, I have to delay learning new material, because I need remedial education just to get me back to where I was at before!

It is the same thing for math, or history, or science.  Teachers spend the first part of the school year going back over what they taught right before summer vacation.

What has homeschooling to do with this?  When we looked previously at how inflexible government schooling is time-wise (Reason #5), I mentioned that there was another facet to schools' inflexibility.  We now come to this facet, which is that schools have standardized summer vacation as a break.  It does not matter what your parents do for a living.  It does not matter if you are really interested in a subject.  We won't teach you.  Not now.  You'll have to wait until August, or study by yourself.

Some may defend Summer Vacation.  Some students will spend their time at a summer job.  Some students will spend their time reading ahead for next year's classes.  These are both valid points.  However, the problem is that most students will do absolutely nothing during their vacation.  Video games, TV, and gobs of Internet usage headlined my summer vacation, and I have reason to suspect that most kids do not veer far away from my itinerary.

Homeschooling allows us to break that awful chain.  Does that mean that our children never get any break, ever?  Not at all! We, as a homeschool, can (just as an example, this concept is entirely fluid) spend the summer months one week on, one week off.  We can take the last few weeks of August off, and then "start" school back up in at the beginning of September.  Birthdays?  Holidays?  Automatically off.  It allows us to enjoy the benefits of summer, while pushing forward in education, and removing that remedial section found in the public schools.

When I was a child, I thought like a child.  I reasoned like a child.  I thought that summer vacation was great. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.  I realized that summer vacation simply does more harm than good.

7 Reasons Not to Let the Government Educate Your Child - Reason #6

This reason, outside of the first one, may have the single greatest practical effect on the child.  In importance, I would rank this as #2 of these 7 reasons.

Simply put, in the public schools your child is one of many.  I don’t mean to insult any public school teachers, and I don’t mean to give the implication that they don’t care about their students.  Some homeschooling advocates seem to give off that impression, but I want to be clear that for the most part, teachers genuinely care about their students.  However, they get so many.  Your average third grade teacher almost certainly cares for the kids entrusted into their care.  But they only really get one good school year with each of those students.  How many elementary school teachers can remember the names of half of the class they taught 5 years ago?  3?  Last year?  As much as they can care for students, the simple fact is that most of those students they care for now, their care will fade into nothingness a decade from now.  Sure they will love to hear of what happened to them afterwards, but how many of them are praying for students they had 5 years ago?  The problem here isn’t with the teachers, it is with the system.  

Not only does the child move from teacher to teacher, but when they are in class, they are usually in a group of maybe 20 other children.  That means that one-on-one interaction is extremely limited.  Given the inefficiency explained in a previous post, the teacher simply does not have the time to give each and every child the opportunity to ask questions and effectively teach the lesson.  Also, every child in that classroom is different.  Some of the children are tracking very well with what the teacher is saying.  Some are bored because they already understand the material and are waiting for the teacher to tell them something they haven’t already heard.  And some are having great difficulty even keeping up with what the teacher said five minutes ago.  So why are these kids in the same class?  Because they are the same age, and are grouped into completely arbitrary units called ‘grades’.  If you are 11-12 years old, then you are in 6th grade (they used to hold children who were struggling back from advancing to the next grade, but now it is far more common to placate parents by advancing them anyway and giving them a title like “learning disabled”, and this is coming from one who spent years under such a title).  This also means that if you are in 6th grade, you are in 6th grade everything.  This creates the possibility that one could be at a 7th grade level in math, but a 5th grade level in science, leaving one bored in one class and outclassed in another.

Under such a system only the most gifted students are typically noticed.  The only other ways to be noticed in school is by a) being attractive, b) excelling at extracurricular activities, or c) acting out in defiance (this is negative attention, but most kids would rather have negative attention than no attention at all).  This leaves a good chunk of students falling through the cracks, and that is such a shame.  Teachers are aware of this, and try to push these “sheep children” up, but there is only so much that can be done under this system.

So what is the solution here?  The best solution is to homeschool them.  Under this system the child is being taught by someone who not only cares for them, but loves them deeply, and is more concerned about them than a schoolteacher will be.  The teacher will know the child’s gifts, and after a few years will know the best way to teach them.  Class sizes shrink from 20 to siblings (or perhaps a few more if the homeschooling parents are taking on extra children.  Obviously in that scenario some of these benefits are mitigated). That means that there is much more time to take more questions, and explain things in more depth and detail.

Is one child behind another?  Allow the excelling child to read ahead, while you slow down to the level of the struggling child, and help them understand what is being taught.  In public school, curriculum is decided by people who have never met the children in the room.  Homeschooling allows the curriculum to be shaped by each individual child’s needs and gifts.  Read those two sentences again.  That is seriously some potent stuff there.

Under this system grades can be scrapped altogether.  Or they can take on a much more fluid form, allowing one student to be in multiple grades simultaneously as each subject is taught to different levels.  Is one child gifted in chemistry, but another is gifted in geography?  The way classes are done can actually be changed to help those students foster a love for those subjects.  

Under such a system nobody falls through the cracks.   The teacher will not forget the student, but will care about them deeply, and will know the best way to teach them. And every student gets education tailor-made for their particular gifts and needs.

Which system do you like better?