They actually

But Sarah’s posts contain almost as much sheer blind speculation as anything else. Consider this: at no point does she present any relevant research, sticking instead to comments like “this is a nice theory, not a confirmed research result” when a simple google search reveals that there is a HUGE literature existing. Blind speculation works if you get things right, or if you’re a really original analytical thinker like Robin Hanson, but not when you get basic facts wrong.

Here’s a good criticism of the post: Sarah makes blind assumptions about how Parents as Teachers has used scientific research to form their curricula. She does this on the basis of her misreading of 1) a non-authoritative blog post that was roundly criticized in her last post and 2) an LA times blog post about a DVD instructional video for post-natal infants (the original argument was about parental interaction with pre-natal children, not passive television watching in post-natal infants.). It’s absolutely unfair to Parents as Teachers to level such charges against them without actually finding out what they do and advocate. To this point, Sarah hasn’t presented anything but hearsay and poorly made arguments that miss vital distinctions. This is poor work if the answers can literally be found through google.

As for your comment: on my latest posts:
1. My post on solar power was expository (I posted an excerpt). I made no argument, so there’s no comparison.
2. My argument on the fair tax is analytically based, not data based, but insofar as there is an argument there, I’m not presenting blind speculation. Insofar as I’m making an argument, I’m not straying far from the literature or theory in the field. I get my facts right.
3. The republican delegates post was my derivative work based on someone else’s data. I found data, did work on it, and put it through a visualizer (Tableau Public fyi). So I’m presenting my work that is 100% expository graph of a dataset.
4. I will defend I’m an expert on local food. I have been researching the subject for 10 years, I managed a high end restaurant and worked with a chef who used almost a lot of local produce, and I have a certification relevant to the topic.

I performed some due-dilligence on my own and looked over PATs official site and found nothing stating that a parent “needed” to do anything remotely close to what that one blogger was saying. (I do not claim to have reviewed the entire PAT site.) I also Googled around on the Internet to no avail.

I would be very suprised if PAT ever made a statement that all parents are required to perform a specific act for all children. Their mission is to provide information and encouragement to families. It is up to the parents to decide what they will or will not do for their child.

I don’t understand the repeated attacks of PAT on this site…