Posted on 11/20/2012 9:52:39 AM PST by MichCapCon
Every year, newspapers across the state print the report card that the state of Michigan gives its public schools for parents to see how well their children’s schools are doing.
But what the articles don’t tell readers is that many districts with failing marks in student achievement are allowed to give themselves a score of 100 percent for completing a report on how it plans to improve itself. In many cases, that self-reported “A” inflates would-be grades of “F” to a passing grade.
Schools across the state get an automatic “A” for filling out a report on “indicators of school performance.” The report focuses on the school’s plans for self-improvement. The automatic “A” accounts for one-third of the school’s Education YES! state report card grade.
In August, the Lansing State Journal published all the EducationYes grades for the schools in Lansing Public Schools.
The newspaper article cites Sheridan Road School with a grade of “C.” However, Sheridan Road School had an “F” in Reading and an “F” in Mathematics in its only grades on student achievement. But with the help of the automatic “A,” the school ended up with a “C.”
Newspapers across the state publish the report cards with the inflated grades. MLive listed the grades of hundreds of schools.
In the Grand Rapids School District, Congress Elementary was given a “C.” It got that passing grade despite getting “F”s in Reading and Mathematics — the only two areas of student achievement that were measured.
"Who is helped by this?” said Michael Van Beek, director of education policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Van Beek said the system only helps districts that are failing in student achievement hide their grades.
"Parents aren’t helped by this because they don’t get an accurate assessment of how their school is performing,” Van Beek said.
Although plans for self-improvement are important, they should not carry nearly the same weight as student achievement when it comes to determining a report card grade, Van Beek said.
Two years ago, Michigan Capitol Confidential reported on a similar problem. At the time, a Michigan Department of Education spokesman said the automatic 100 percent grade was only for one year and that a new system would change it.
The MDE spokespeople didn’t return requests for comment on why a new system hasn't been implemented. The superintendents in the Lansing and Grand Rapids schools didn’t return emails seeking comment.
I think it is an abomination for children to be forced to attend godless schools where they will be forced to think and reason godlessly just to cooperate in the godless classroom. Please remember that children whose parents can not pay the jizya needed for home or private schooling are in these godless government by threat of police and court action. These are government prisoners.
It is an abomination for citizens to be under the threat of police and court action to pay for it.
I think it is an abomination for Christian teachers to support, establish, run, open the doors on, or cooperate in any manner with it.
It is an abomination for Christian to sneak in their Christian worldview and FORCE it onto the non-Christian and government captive children in their classrooms. Gee!....When reading the Bible I don't see Christ using the force of law to herd citizens into any government run facility so that they can be **forced** to hear His word.
The question is this: Is God capable of using Christian teachers to reach the lost in public schools? Yes, or no?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Let’s phrase this differently?
Is God capable of using Christians who work in abortion centers, who hand the instruments to the abortionist, and who clean up the mess afterward, to reach the lost workers and clients in an abortion center?
You said,
“Personally....I have made a decision. I will not have a government school worker for a friend. They are too evil, too stupid, or too much of a Useful Idiot to be my friend. I feel the same about abortion workers as well. This is a **personal** decision. Each much make that decision, or not,for themselves.”
You know, if you are a Christian (and there is little in the above comment that suggests you are), you would want to be extra careful about how you judge other Christians. To call them evil and stupid, useful idiots...does nothing to advance the cause of Christ. It only advances the cause of wintertime, who forever after such accusations will be viewed by others (Christian and non-Christian alike) as lacking the love and grace of the Savior. And now, your harangue has been posted on the internet where, for all time, the “Christian testimony” of one, wintertime, will include that s/he berates fellow Christians whom s/he has never met solely for the purpose of massaging his/her own opinions. I would think that anyone who belongs to Him would be more concerned about his/her testimony as it reflects on the Lord s/he claims to serve.
I have tried to converse with you about a subject that we both apparently have differing views. I have tried to be gracious in circumventing some of your more passionate, though, indelicate comments in an effort to offer some insight into what, I believe, is a too-narrow viewpoint of a larger spiritual matter (the sad state of our nation’s worldly schools and the spiritual warfare that takes place there—one view is temporal, the other is eternal). You have not shown an willingness to consider this, but persist in railing...something the Christian is called to avoid.
Hey, not to worry. I’m sure there are some reading this thread today and are deciding to follow Christ as we speak.
I pray for Barack Obama every day but does not mean that I would have him for a friend. I feel nothing but good will for Charles Manson but I won't want him near me our my family. Like is not the same as love. We are commanded to love in spite of whether we like a person or what they do.
Fact: Government schools teach children to think and reason godlessly. The child must simply to cooperate in the school.
Fact: Government schools are run by principals, superintendents, teachers, and support personnel. If these people chose not to cooperate, the godless schools would close tomorrow. Therefore....Christians who willingly choose to seek work with the godless government schools are cooperating, supporting, and establishing the godless philosophy the child must learn to get along in the school.
For a Christian teacher to do this, is my opinion, evil, stupid, or clueless. While I may feel Christlike love for this person in the same way that I might for an abortionist, I don't want them for a friend. I don't think it is wise to bring them into my innermost circles of relationships.
Indelicate comments
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What? I should be “delicate” about the government forcing children to think and reason godlessly and making the taxpayer for this abomination?
I should be “delicate” about the people who make this possible and**willingly** seek work in the godless government schools that do this?
How can one be “delicate” about evil?
Well? Yes, I guess I am passionate.
The government shouldn't be teaching children to think and reason godlesslly. I think that is evil. Yes, I do.
I think the people who knowingly ( evil people) or stupidly or cluelessly ( useful idiots) do this are aiding and abetting evil. I passionately believe that they should not do this children who captive in these indoctrination centers and under the threat of police and court action if they do not attend.
Yeah! I guess I am passionately against evil and the emotional and spiritual abuse of children.
Mea culpa!
Gee!
Is it possible that Christian teachers claiming, “I feel **called** to teach captive children to think and reason godlessly in godless government schools” is not about being “called”? Do you think it is possible that they might be**lying**? ( gasp!)
Could it possibly (... just possibly...) be the “calling” of a pay check, generous vacations, great benefits, and an outstanding pension?
I guess if Christian teachers are going to support and establish evil they might as well get paid 30 pieces of silver for doing it.
I have been discussing “the issue” from a spiritual perspective. You have been discussing “the issue” from a carnal/worldly perspective. In matters spiritual, the way we conduct ourselves in Christ also becomes the issue. The “attack” on you is really little more than this: your arguments are carnal, not spiritual. You feel fully justified in labeling those who disagree with you as stupid, useful idiots, evil. This shows that you have in mind the things of men, not the things of God. He does not call you to invoke name-calling of professing believers before a lost world. Is Christ divided? Have I missed the scripture where He gave this command? Show me so that I may be instructed.
Your “arguments” all revolve around an earth-bound, man-centered, carnally-based view of the issue of spiritual wickedness. Destroy public schools and you’ve won. Do you not suppose that sinners were lost in their sin well before America’s public schools began their departure from Godly instruction? Do you not think that with the abolition of today’s public schools you will not still be contending with rampant sin in American society? The Bible tells us that in these last days, men will wax worse and worse...and you believe, “If we can just destroy those schools, we’ll have won some great victory!” This is to have a flawed view of scripture. There is no victory to be won here other than the conversion of souls that Christ accomplishes through the ministry of His Word, His Testimony in the face of a dying planet-full of people. That is the only victory. To see it any other way, is to pull Christ down. I’m afraid that your name-calling of Christians that you do not even know pulls Christ down—or do you think it somehow pleases Him to hear you do so?
Your zealous approach to the question of our public schools has blinded you to the bigger picture: we have public schools as a direct response to a nation adrift in sin (just the same way we have an Obama for president). The problem of the schools isn’t that they are public schools. The problem is that they are filled with sinners. The answer isn’t that we draw away from them. The answer is that we present these sinners with the gospel to the degree that we can.
Aren’t you glad Christ, upon coming to earth, didn’t look around and say, ‘Wow, nothing but sinners here. Better go ‘cause these folks are evil and bringing the world down with them.’? No, He said, “Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say, Father save me from this hour? But for this cause came I into the world.”
I am concerned that government schools and government teachers teach children to think and reason godlessly, and fret over their eternal salvation...and you attack me by calling **me** (personally) “carnal”.
Wow!
With God all things are possible (to them that believe)...including the calling of God on a life to teach in the public schools, right? Right?
When you verbally attack professing Christians (Christians you do not know) with childish name-calling, assume that you know anything about the call of God on their lives, stridently oppose any effort to consider that maybe, just maybe there could be some good that God can produce using Christians in public schools (because you happen to be so adamantly opposed to them and have developed a viewpoint that says ‘All who work there must be fools to want to perpetuate such lunacy,’ and see these Christians as little more than a threat/an enemy to American culture (thus placing American culture over and above the purposes of God in Christ), all without one bit of scriptural evidence to support such notions then, yes, you are being carnally minded.
Only those things that are done in Christ will endure.
Truth:
It is evil to teach children to think and reason godlessly. This is especially true if they are in the school by government compulsion.
Truth: It is evil to force citizens to pay for this abomination.
Truth: Those who establish, support, uphold, and open the door on these institutions are supporting and cooperating with evil. In many ways comparisons can be made to abortion workers. People who would do this are either evil, stupid, or clueless ( Useful Idiots). This is truth. What other rational terms can be applied here?
I state truth and you call me an attacker of Christians! Wow!
Of course those defending working in, supporting, and establishing these evil government schools never, no never, have any financial interest in these institutions. Nope! /s
Well?....Then what about Christians who work in abortuaries, take the money, had the institutionments to the abortionist, and clean up the mess.
I suppose you would say all things are possible through God.
Sometimes God places people in our path who speak plain and clear English.
Truth: Children in government schools must learn to think and reason godlessly just to cooperate in the classroom.
Truth: That is evil.
Question: Should Christians in any way be supporting, establishing, and opening the doors on this evil every school day? If they want to keep their godless job, they must. If they have been working for any time at all, they already have.
“I state truth and you call me an attacker of Christians! Wow!”
Truth: Jesus Christ
Truth: The Gospel of Jesus Christ
Truth: The Great Commission given by Jesus Christ
Truth: God desire that none perish but that all should come to repentance (even those in public schools)
The truth you state is the truth according to wintertime and, just like his/her name it is truth with a lower case ‘t’
Let me address your silly example of the abortuary. I say silly because you are attempting to liken what goes on in an abortuary with what goes on in public schools. This is an absurd analogy (as I’ve remarked earlier) because students walk out of public schools daily and still have opportunity to be saved (although apparently not by your god—yours seems to be so incapable of doing anything with those rotten public school children—not to mention their evil, useless idiot parents). Anyway, in the abortion clinic no good is done, a life is ended. Another life is rendered scarred by the residual guilt that will inevitably ensue as a result of such a horrible decision. The same is not the case in the public school. There, while it is true that by and large today’s schools lack any moral guidance, avoid with extreme prejudice (in most cases) any mention of the Living God, and lay a foundation for humanistic thinking that will inevitably lead to godless living, some good may yet be done in the lives of those students. As long as their is some chance to do some good, attempting to do so is not only worthwhile, but necessary - especially in light of the eternal reality of the soul.
“As long as their is some chance to do some good, attempting to do so is not only worthwhile, but necessary - especially in light of the eternal reality of the soul.”
Aw...should read “As long as there is some chance...”
Godless government schools abort souls. 85% of children from highly **active** evangelical homes will not be active in their faith 2 years after graduation from their godless government high school. ( In contrast, homeschoolers will be 95% active.)
So?....With results like these, the rational action should be **rescue** for our nation's children. We shouldn't have have Christians working in these places handing out the instruments ( stainless steel surgical spoons or godless curriculum) that causes either physical or spiritual death.
Of the two deaths ( physical and spiritual), to lose a soul is far worse.
Using this reasoning Christians should be working in abortuaries. Hey! There is **some** chance to save a soul. Why not houses of prostitution? Why not meth labs? Why not in the government schools that abort souls?
“Using this reasoning Christians should be working in abortuaries. Hey! There is **some** chance to save a soul. Why not houses of prostitution? Why not meth labs? Why not in the government schools that abort souls?”
I believe there have been efforts made to make mandatory counselling before abortion procedures. This would be a good way for Christians to get involved the way you suggest. Street preaching could be done outside houses of prostitution—wouldn’t be surprised if this doesn’t already happen. Meth labs are a little tricky. The folks that set these up usually opt for a hotel room or some place fairly discreet. You’d need some pretty good intel to locate their bases of operation. But, say you locate one in a hotel somewhere on the outskirts of town. You could knock on the door and just sort of remind them that there’s a Gideon’s Bible in the top drawer of the nightstand...
Now schools...schools are different. You see, in schools there is the giving out of information...usually pretty bad these days, to be sure, but information. What you could do is during the giving out of this information, during question and answer sessions you could ask them about it...see if they can detect any flawed logic, any ideas that just don’t seem to add up...As the teacher you could suggest these areas if the students aren’t quite able to locate them...Locating troublesome texts is a nice way for students to be forced into thinking about what they are reading. When students actually think about what they read, well, you’d be amazed at what happens. The lights begin to go on (as if somebody is actually home!) There is a bit of interest—not a lot, don’t forget they’ve been allowed to slumber all those years. You’ve gotten them when they are high schoolers, you can’t expect them to just “get it” all in one day.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. You could ask them, “How many of you have heard the phrase, “the separation of church and state.”
Hands will go up; it’s a popular phrase, don’t you know. You tell them to put their hands down. Then you could ask, “Where do we find that phrase?”
Invariably, someone will offer, “It’s in the Constitution.” You smile, always smile. Students like it when you smile. It gives them encouragement, builds confidence.
You say, “Okay. I have here a copy of the Constitution. Let’s take a look at it and see if we can find where it says that.
Now, you are really on a roll as a classroom teacher. You are weaving history, civics, and reading all into one lesson. You think to yourself, “I’m the man!”
The class then reads the Constitution and someone notices, “But where’s the phrase ‘separation of church and state’?
You ask them, “Where have you heard that phrase mentioned? Students may say, “On TV,” or “My History teacher told us,” or “I don’t know...it’s a popular phrase.”
You say, “Hmmmm,” (you don’t want to spoil their fun too much.)
But you ask, “Well, if it’s not in there, is there anything that suggests the idea? Is there any reference to keeping religion out of government or government out of religion?” Suddenly, Johnny Lightbulb speaks up, “Naw, there’s nothing in here about that. All that it says is something about ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...’”
You ask them, “Who can tell us what that means?” Followed by, “Who knows something about the lives of the Founding Fathers?” Followed by, “Why would they place this freedom first in the Bill of Rights?” Followed by, “Given what we know about the Founders, and how much they cherished the freedom to practice their faith without any interference from the government, what can we say about the way the phrase ‘separation of church and state is used today?” “How SHOULD it be used in a way that’s keeping with the intent of the Founding Fathers?” Yada, Yada, Yada...
I hope you can see the difference now between a school and, say an abortion clinic (I do find it curious that in this day and age, someone would have difficulty distinguishing the two...but, to each his own...no two snowflakes are alike...the world goes round...) I hope you can see that in schools human communication occurs. Communication involving the ears...the eyes...the mouth (voice)...the mind...the heart...All these play a role in learning. As these also play a role in the giving out of the Gospel and, therefore, salvation (of the soul), schools provide a means whereby the Christian teacher can sow a seed here and there (you remember the parable, don’t you?)
And now, class, what do we know about seeds? Anyone?
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