Posted on 12/24/2010 5:44:58 AM PST by Kaslin
The metaphor "the War on Christmas" can be mocked -- as if Santa and his reindeer are dodging anti-aircraft fire. But many of our public schools have church-and-state sensitivity police with an alarming degree of Santaphobia. Anyone who's attended a school's "winter concert" in December with no traditional Christmas music -- not even "Frosty the Snowman" -- knows the drill. The vast Christian majority (that funds the public schools) is told that school is no place to celebrate one's religion, even in its most watered-down and secularized forms.
There are real-life stories of Scrooge-like school administrators, like the one at the appropriately named Battlefield High School in Haymarket, Va. A group of 10 boys calling themselves the Christmas Sweater Club were given detention and at least two hours of cleaning for tossing free 2-inch candy canes at students as they entered before classes started. They were "creating a disturbance." One of their mothers, Kathleen Flannery, told WUSA-TV that an administrator called her and explained, "(N)ot everyone wants Christmas cheer, that suicide rates are up over Christmas, and that they should keep their cheer to themselves, perhaps."
Of course, that level of sensitivity is not applied when it comes to slamming Christianity during the Christmas season. On Dec. 16, The Washington Post paid tribute to another suburban school in northern Virginia, McLean High School, for warming hearts during the season with "The Laramie Project." This play is a political assault, using transcripts of real-life interviews by gay activists out to blame America's religious people for the beating death of homosexual college student Matthew Shepard in 1998.
The Post championed how in the play, "there is a Baptist minister who says he hopes Shepard was thinking of his lifestyle as he was tied to the fence ... There is a young woman who grew up in the Muslim faith in Laramie and thinks the town and nation need to accept what the case has laid bare. 'We are like this,' she says."
This account actually underplayed what the character "lays bare" -- a guilt trip. In the script, she says "there are people trying to distance themselves from this crime. And we need to own this crime. Everyone needs to own it. We are like this. We ARE like this. WE are LIKE this." (Emphasis by the playwright, Moises Kaufman.)
That attack keeps coming. A Catholic priest insists the killers "must be our teachers. What did we as a society do to teach you that?" A character also reads an e-mail from a college student: "You and the straight people of Laramie and Wyoming are guilty of the beating of Matthew Shepard just as the Germans who looked the other way are guilty of the deaths of the Jews, the gypsies, and the homosexuals. You have taught your straight children to hate their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters -- until and unless you acknowledge that Matt Shepard's beating is not just a random occurrence, not just the work of a couple of random crazies, you have Matthew's blood on your hands."
This is vicious anti-Christian propaganda, plain and simple. Any teaching that homosexuality is a sin is an invitation to murder? These mudslinging culture warriors are celebrated as compassionate by administrators, while just down the road, the Christmas Sweater Club is given detention for spreading Christmas cheer.
The McLean High students putting on this play are candid. They are trying to walk people away from the Bible. "I hope that this changes some people's perspectives on gay rights and maybe opens their minds a little bit," proclaimed Lauren Stewart, 17, the student-director. "I think the way to progress on issues is to talk about them."
Another student added, "If one person comes into the theater and is on the fence about ... any discrimination and leaves questioning their beliefs, I think we've done this play justice."
Making people "have conversations" is presented as glorious. But it wouldn't be a constructive conversation if students were trying to convert people to Christianity -- only when you try to convert people away from it.
A little research shows plenty of "socially conscious" public high schools have staged this propaganda bombing, aiming to crush biblical "discrimination." But it takes a really special school administrator to let it be scheduled in the last two weeks before Christmas. It's amazing that at Battlefield High School, the accusation was that Christmas cheer invited suicides, but plays about murderous "hate crimes" that America has collectively committed by our "fear and ignorance of the Other" somehow should make our spirits bright.
Please, use the terminology! There is no copyright on it!
:)
The more people hear the tax-funded, union-run, compulsory Maoist indoctrination day camps characterized as the Bus Ministry of the Church of Secular Humanism, and the “school district” more accurately characterized as the “school collective”, the better.
You may wish to feed your children into the belly of the multi-culti, socialist, queer recruitment Beast, but count me out.
And I wish you wouldn’t extract moneys from me by threat of lethal force to support it.
“All collectivist government indoctrination camps ( mis-named “schools”) are godless!”
I couldn’t agree with you more; until an alternative arrangement (or lottery jackpot, or better work) comes my way it is the only game in town.
Yes, the elementary school that I attended. The demographics of the town changed and two of the seven elementary schools in town were closed. There are now a handful of single family homes where the school used to be.
“And I wish you wouldn’t extract moneys from me by threat of lethal force to support it.”
I assume your talking about your government there, not me; I have no interest in taking your money for anything. I simply don’t have a viable alternative to the public schools, and feel completely ashamed and inadequate admitting it. What I “may wish” isn’t necessarily what I “get”; the alternative was what many are doing: refusing to breed. At least when I b!tch about my country looking like somewhere along the equator, nobody’s going to tell me they are the offspring I refused to have...
I find that incredible; in my area they were talking twenty years ago about closing schools. It never happened, and now they’ve built additions to the existing ones. The whole time, English became more & more rare on the street, on business signs, etc. That was our government’s solution; much of our way of life was built like a pyramid scheme, and when Americans didn’t provide the little students/consumers/taxpayers/workers, Social Security (and whole regions) ran into problems, and this is now the solution (and also why there is a de facto amnesty already in place).
What general area are you in?
BTW, where do the children from the new homes go to school? Did the new homes replace large apartment buildings? In our area when they talked about developing part of the meadowlands with housing, the builders were going to be required to build a school with the new houses (thankfully it fell through; people got wind of the fact that the “new housing” was actually “low-income housing”).
> I assume your talking about your government there, not me;
Well, yes, the generic “you”.
> I simply don’t have a viable alternative to the public schools,
You do, my FRiend, and we can help. See www.hslda.org
> the alternative was what many are doing: refusing to breed.
Check my tag-line. We have eleven children, two married, nine still at home, all homeschooled. My oldest son and his dear wife have seven so far, all homeschooled.
I can be done. You just need the will to do it. You may need to lower your standard of living, if you’ve become accustomed to two incomes, or find some way to work from home.
We don’t have 2 incomes, and our standard of living is not exactly enviable: I have a 13 year-old car (soon to be 14) that is the newest car I’ve ever owned. My children are much younger than yours; all in school, but none in high school yet. My home was built 80 years ago; no central air or “green” windows, siding, etc.
I’m all ears...
Northern New Jersey suburbs
In one of the remaining elementary schools.
Did the new homes replace large apartment buildings?
Hmm, I mentioned above that they replaced one of the (two) former elementary schools. I don't know what happened at the other location.
What a wonderful thing for you to do. :)
Merry Christmas!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
So there, grinches! :)
Do you think Muslims would put up with this?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Good point!
It would be better for a child to get **NO** schooling whatsoever than to be taught to think godlessly. I seriously mean it.
However...Even working parents and single parents can successfully homeschool. It is done all the time. Even the most puny efforts in the home are better ( and most often yield better academic results) than sending a child off to the godless collective ( misnamed "public" schools).
The funny part is that the kids actually did sort of a “silent” refusal. They simply ATE their candy canes. Unity in numbers type thing. I believe the teacher was painted in a corner: should I send all these kids to the principal for eating a candy cane or just now ignore it? I think she knew how STUPID she would have looked if eight kids showed up at the main office.. all eating candy canes. Imagine the phone call to the parents? Uh, we have your son in the office. For what? Eating a candy cane. LOL
LOL
You think kids are learning anything in government schools that it takes a Ph.D. to teach?
I'd say the average parent is probably as capable, if not more capable, of teaching than the average education major.
Here’s something kind of weird and cool. The Dearborn (Mich.) Public Schools arranged for “Santa” to visit its schools, including one that’s about 70% Arab-Muslim!
http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2010/12/21/news/doc4d10f8fc7b856589540788.txt
> We don’t have 2 incomes
That means one of you is home, virtually full time. You are ready to home school.
Please read this.
http://www.wiebefamily.org/school.txt
And visit this web site, too.
http://www.hslda.org
> I have a 13 year-old car (soon to be 14) that is the
> newest car I’ve ever owned.
This is what we call a “kingdom kar”. :) If you’re a Christian, you’ll probably understand that.
> My children are much younger than yours
PRAISE THE LORD! The younger you start home education the better!
> all in school
Nobody will love your children more than you do.
Nobody.
Nobody knows them as well as you do.
Nobody.
Nobody will reach them better than you can.
Nobody.
And if anybody can reach them and teach them better than you, they are taking your rightful place in your children’s lives.
We use Christian curricula, A Bekah Books, Rod & Staff, Pathways, Christian Light, et al, and a *LOT* of source material, especially for History and Literature. If you’re not a Christian, there’s a lot of secular material.
The tax-funded, union-run school collective spends $18,000 per year per student.
We spend about $400 per year for all of our kids, except the one in Christian college. We buy books at book fairs, homeschool hand-me-downs, yard sales, roadside bookstores, and library clearances. You wouldn’t believe the gems we’ve gotten for a pittance; Treasures written 100 or more years ago; original works that have been out of print for generations!
> My home was built 80 years ago; no central air or “green”
> windows, siding, etc.
Our house is only 35 years old, but we don’t have central air or “green” windows, siding, etc, either. We are slowly remodelling, but just maintaining the old place and car repair often takes too much money for us to make progress remodelling. We recently did our kitchen, mostly by ourselves, and it took us six months.
We heat mostly with wood, including our water. We have a small hobby farm with chickens, goats and sheep. We have a family garden for veggies, and we do some canning at harvest time.
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