Posted on 02/11/2010 7:11:23 AM PST by Britt0n
A state board of only 15 people will vote on whether to revise U.S. textbooks to omit references to Daniel Boone, Gen. George Patton, Nathan Hale, Columbus Day and Christmas.
The Texas State Board of Education will also vote on a proposal to substitute the term "American" with "global citizen."
Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, is warning Americans to speak up before only eight people, with a majority vote, have a chance to literally rewrite American history.
He appeared on the "Huckabee Show" to explain why the board's vote matters to the rest of America. Staver said Texas and California are the two largest textbook purchasers in the nation.
"Whatever textbooks they select affect the rest of the country because publishers publish those kinds of books, and the rest of the country follows," he said.
But because of California's budget crisis, the state hasn't been able to purchase as many new textbooks, he explained. So the default is Texas.
"So when this 15-member board – eight people of that will make a majority – make a decision, it will affect the entire nation," Staver said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
History/Culture read
So in your opinion would it be fine for a homeschooling family to get WIC and foodstamps? We qualify for both.
and I understand all that you wrote.
All I was attempting to point out — as gently as I could without proclaiming myself a total nutjob — was that the system THEN was marginally BETTER than the in-your-face Utopian socialism being force fed to kids today.
I had NO idea about the progressive agenda as a 15 year-old in — ready — Horace Mann Junior High School. HORACE MANN for crying out loud!! The guy who, with John Dewey, blazed the path to the corrupt mess we have now. Looking back, the very term for these cretins tells us all we need to know: PROGRESSIVE, as in making gradual PROGESS toward their agenda.
Frankly, while my conservative values can be traced to my early family, life and religious life experiences, I didn't really grasp the depth — or cause — of the rot then pervading Americam culture and government until I became a member of the — shudder — horrors — Birch Society, in which I became a chapter leader.
Parenthetically, Ronald Reagan's move away from the progressive/leftist beliefs he held early in his career were, so I understand, largely the result of his association with Dr. Royal Davis, Nancy's father, who was also either a member of or at least a strong believer in the JBS message and their warnings about the dangers of socialism/communism.
But those teachers I mentioned in the piece were better AMERICANS by a factor of 10 than most of the government school teachers with whom I am familiar today. By the time I was a senior in high school, I'd received more beneficial instruction in traditional American/Christian values and history than kids today get in 4 years in a state university. And, while there must be exceptions, today's gaggle of “teachers” are, themselves, products of that system and so the circle tightens.
I agree that, if America is to be saved, the ONLY ACCEPTABLE “REFORM” OF THE GOVERNMENT SCHOOL SYSTEM IS TO ABOLISH THE CURRENT SYSTEM AND TURN EDUCATION BACK TO THE PARENTS AND THE LOCAL VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS THAT INVARIABLY FORM FOR THE PURPOSE OF GUIDING A SOCIETY'S YOUTH. The homogenization of education via the DOE is a progressives dream come true, which is why the DOE must also go gently into that good night as soon as possible. Reagan campaigned on a platform of abolishing DOE. He failed to do so.
How ironic and hypocritical that the DIVERSITY the leftists/progressives claim to adore is conspicuously missing from the educational system they now largely control.
I hope this puts your mind at ease.
I know that after this, I feel better after what might be called an intellectual enema. :-))
Lol I stand in line at the grocery store and cover up the more questionable magazines with others. I don’t want to be bombarded by it and I don’t want my kids bombarded by it. As my children get older, we can discuss why this isn’t appropriate and then turn our eyes away. I have had the pornography discussion with my children. We have talked about how evil and addicting it is. If they ever see it anywhere they are to run immediately to an adult. Hiding the fact that it is out there only leads to curiousity upon it’s discovery.
Across the country it is between $8000 to $24,000 a year per student. The median across the country is $12,000. In my homeschool, without overhead, we can educate our kids for about $500 a year for curriculum and maybe another $400 for field trips. That includes co-op costs and piano for the older two. Of course we offset the cost of field trips with fundraiser etc.
One of the reasons your costs are so low is that you are not including a percentage of your mortgage/rent, heating/AC, transportation, food, insurance, computers, the cost of your teaching, (including your retirement plan, social security, and medicare), required classes for your staff, and the opportunity cost of your lost wages
Plus I would imagine you do not have children who need special care such as speech, OT, PT, Communication devices, and/or specialized teaching due to autism, learning disability, and/or intellectual disability.
I would imagine your costs are still lower than those of the public school, but when you look at what the honest costs are, it will much greater than $500
I am very politically active on anything that has to do with education in our area. I realize we can’t abandon the children that are left in the public schools.
I don’t remember studying Christmas in US history and I went to Catholic schools for 12 years. Not in college either. Maybe mentioned in Washington crossing the Deleware or was that New Years?
I’ve been following your posts and I am on your side.
I can’t believe that there are actually home-school fanatics that would criticise you for your decision.These critics seem to be less tolerant than the people in the public schools that they are trying to escape.
Good luck to you.
Not my kids’ NC High School. (We homeschool.)
I said without the overhead in my original statement. I would not work outside the home so I have no lost wages. The only increase in costs with having them home is electric. We would have all those other expenses anyway (computer, food, mortgage etc). My youngest two need speech therapy which I provide at home. I also save on things like new wardrobes for school, school lunches, gas too and from (mine would not ride the bus), school supplies that have to be purchased for the school etc. I have calculated the costs well.
But the point is this, it costs alot to educate one child in a government school. Is it money being well spent?
Did you read Lucky9teen’s first post. She came out guns blazing. We responded in kind.
Depends on the school system really. If we are talking about DC public schools I can state untold amount of money is being wasted on lawyers as the special education department there is, IMO, criminally incompetent. If you ever want to see how your tax dollars are being spent there, look for a line item budget from DC. It’s not hard to find. Note how much money is set aside every year just to cover lawyer’s costs from special education lawsuits. The last budget I checked was in 2007 and there was 265,000,000 set aside just for that. Then there is the special transportation and special schools for myriads of children.
After DC I only have experience with 4 other districts, so I certainly can’t comment on how things are done in California.
My real point in my post was to not sell yourself and your abilities short. What you are giving to your children costs exponentially more than $500 when one factors in what you are providing.
Also the one - on - one that they are experiencing really does allow them to excel in ways a classroom teacher cannot do. I was contracted by my school district to teach a home-based special education student after school. This is 9th grader with a documented 79 IQ who is a behavior problem, a 2nd grade reading level, an inability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide w/out a calculator. In 4 months, I was able to bring her up to a 5th grade reading level, teach her to handle 4 digit multiplication, and most importantly, I taught her algebra. So, yes, I know the power of one-on-one and what it can do.
Enjoy
Even if education just paid for those things you listed, it wouldn’t be so expense. The lions share of any school budget is administrative costs.
Like the Superintendent of schools and his wife the school nurse who both retired on a combined retirement package of $100,000 per year. Way more than mr.mm made per year that we were trying to support a family on.
And that was almost 20 years ago....
It was obscene then and it’s obscene now.
"WND" is a self-refuting proposition. They have proved time and again that they cannot be taken seriously. You perhaps remember their incisive reporting on Y2K? That's when I lost interest in their crap.
Actually, you didn't respond in kind at all. If you read her post carefully, as I have, she is probably fairly jealous of the time you and others get to spend with her children. It might have been polite, and yes, Christian for you to encourage her to look at other ways that she could use the few hours she has with her children rather than deal a sharp retort from someone who has what she would like to have.
A soft answer turneth away wrath......She asked for help in an oblique fashion, what she got was anger, accusations, and more guilt piled on the back of someone struggling already.
I hope you are pleased with yourself for 'responding in kind' and adding to the burden of an overworked, overwrought mother.
Am I to understand that the COMBINED yearly retirement package is $100,000? For two people? I don't know about your area, but in mine that would be just enough to live on and would require second jobs to afford the niceties of life, l ike eating out on occasion, medical bills (I'm assuming they won't have insurance but Medicaid) Seriously, 100k for two people is not that much - especially for 30+ years of service. Maybe you live in an area where the cost of living is dramatically lower than mine, which would skew my perspective.
You don’t seem to realize that many homeschoolers have been there. They WERE public school parents until push came to shove enough to push them over the edge.
Homeschooling was just getting off the ground when we started and when there was a big issue about the health curriculum being introduced and the school board ignored all the wishes of the outraged and outspoken parents in the community who descended en masse on the school board meeting, that sealed the deal with them NOT going to public school.
Private school was out simply because of the money and distance involved. We certainly didn’t plan on becoming homeschool parents to start with but didn’t see any other option.
Speaking of intolerant, just how many public school parents do you know have had social services called on them simply because of their choosing to send their kids to public school? The criticism and accusations homeschoolers still face today show a decided lack of tolerance on the part of PS parents, with educators in general being the worst.
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