Twink, I've been very, very nice here. I've been more than polite. I'm not interested in being polite anymore. Your post #161 to me and the fact that Verga cheered you on tells me everything I need to know about the two of you. And the fact that no other teacher called you on it tells me even more. You are one of the many reasons why we don't send our children to public school.
Because you obviously suffer from reading comprehension problems, allow me to explain it all to you:
In #155, Verga tried to justify public school education with the line, "Almost 70% of African Americans come from single parent homes, who is going to teach them?"
Verga didn't refer more broadly to single-parent households. Verga pointed directly to one particular racial group. Now, I'm not arguing that a higher percentage of African Americans aren't living in single-parent households. (And, yes, Twink, I see nothing wrong with that term, just like there is nothing wrong with the terms Irish American, Italian American, etc.). But, there are single parents of other persuasions, yet Verga had to bring in the ol' "black people need us" justification.
I responded by saying, "One of the reasons we homeschool is the condescending attitude toward African Americans in the school system.... statements like the one above reflect the general attitude. Outside the school system, my children have not been taught to see themselves as victims."
You then launch into:
If you’re homeschooling because of the condescending attitude toward “AFrican Americans” then you don’t live in the NE. Or in NJ. Come live here. Not only won’t you get a condescending attitude, you’ll get special treatment and all that.
Do you not understand the definition of the word "condescending"? Did you not read my whole post? Special victim treatment DOES fall under the definition of condescending. As President Bush used to call it, "the soft bigotry of low expectations." You should be addressing your post to Verga, not me. And, btw, I've always lived in the NE. I grew up outside Philadelphia and lived in Philly for several years. My husband grew up in Philly. We do live in NJ now.
And as for your other comments:
I’m way past that white guilt crap. I’m sure there are areas and people that still discriminate for whatever reason. Whatever. My grandparents came to America from Italy and Ireland. I have no interest or background in what *African-Americans* deal with nor do I care. My ancestors had their own crap to deal with yet they survived and thrived and didn’t whine about it.
Wow. For the record, all of my ancestors came from Italy, so you don't need to tell me about the hardships immigrants endured. Yes, that means, like you, my children can trace half of their ancestry to Italian immigrants. But, let's be real: The experiences of immigrants cannot be equated with the experience of being black in this country. That's not an excuse for bad behavior, and children should not be taught to think the world is against them. But, in all seriousness, let's not pretend the two experiences (immigrant and black) are equivalent. You know they're not.
The black community is suffering but not because of racism or discrimination by whitey. They’re suffering because LBJ’s Great Society allowed for the laziness and entitlement mindset that is prevalent today. And the community sucked it up and is playing it for everything’s it’s worth. It’s so much easier than actually working and succeeding.
You need to direct that comment to yourself. Who really benefits from the entitlement of public school? The black community that you so despise? Or YOU? YOU are the one making money off the system. We homeschoolers want school funding decreased drastically and education sold on the free market. YOU, on the other hand, complain about entitlements at the same time you claim people need the entitlements, and you make a living off the entitlement of "free education". What a hypocrite you are!
What other community gets what the black community gets?
Public school education is just another entitlement, dear. Here in NJ, we homeowners pay a fortune in school taxes, sometimes more than we pay for our mortgages. Most of the kids who attend the schools in our township happen to be white. We raise our kids not to judge people by color, but since you and Verga brought race into the discussion, allow me to point out that the vast majority of students receiving their free education courtesy of the taxpayers are white. In our town, whenever there's a call for more money for the school, those white kids and their parents are out there, whining, holding signs, "We need music," and on and on. So, my husband (who is black) pays a fortune for mostly white kids to attend public school while his own children receive nothing. He doesn't care what color they are. He doesn't want to have so much taken from his own family to pay for others. So, I don't want to hear from you about entitlements.
Suck it up and get the hell over it like the rest of us have to.
LOL. You are a piece of work. And you're teaching other people's children. Unbelievable. And you have the nerve to whine that Wintertime is being obnoxious?! Why don't other parents "suck it up and get the hell over it" and pay for their own kids' education, eh?
Call me a racist, I don’t give a f.
OK, you're a racist. Wow.
To any and all black Americans out there, take a good look at what's teaching your kids in public school.
I’m tired of all the whining by so called minorities, be them black or hispanic or women.
WHINE? You and certain other schoolteachers do nothing but whine all over this forum! LOL.
Let me also point out that the soft bigotry comes into play with my Learning Disabled students. They are not expected to do well academically by anyone, parents, teachers, themselves. And I fight that 180 days a year with them. True story: Two of my 6th graders scored an ADVANCE on the state SOL reading test. When one of them told her friends, she was told that she couldn't have taken the same test. She told them she did. They told her that she was in special ed, and she said, it was the same test - ask Mrs * Not only did they NOT believe her, they did NOT believe me when they came to me and asked if special ed students take the same test (I wasn't aware of the conversation until after) One looked at me and said "You've got to be lying because I know someone in your class that got a higher score than me." At this point I figured out what must have happened, and I told them that I wasn't going to discuss anyone's scores and they needed to worry about their own skills.
I share this because I probably felt just an inkling of what you must feel when people don't expect young black men to succeed or to only succeed when assisted. I was annoyed that these girls denigrated the incredibly hard work my students did and then I was amused that a dose of reality had hit them - hard work can beat natural talent.
I don't whine about my situation - I happen to love my job and my students and am quite satisfied with my pay, benefits, and perks. I also feel a deep obligation to remediate the reading problems presented to me at the beginning of the year. It is my Christian duty to give an honest days work for my wages.
I don't know what I would have done with my children had I fallen in love with a man of another race? But I like to think I would have made the best decision possible, no matter what the personal cost, as you have.
As far as comments made by other posters - I learned about a year ago to simply not engage certain posters no matter what the provocation. If I find myself becoming emotional over an Internet posting, then I need to stand up and walk away from the computer. There's a whole world of dumb out there, and some of them call themselves conservatives. But I would rather be on their side than on the liberals.
Your experiences may vary - good day to you and yours
This is an outright lie it seems you are the one with a reading comphrehsion prolbem.
I am the one that has posted both these thinks several times.
http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=1446
Childbearing out-of-wedlock and absence of fathers varies greatly between racial/ethnic groups.The highest rate was non-Hispanic Blacks, among whom 69.4 percent of births were out-of-wedlock. American Indians have the second highest rate at 58.7 percent, followed by Hispanics at 40.92 percent. Among non-Hispanic whites, 21.54 percent of births are out of wedlock, and Asians/Pacific islanders have the 1owest rate with 15.64 percent of births being out-of-wedlock.
http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/indicators/75UnmarriedBirths.cfm
Large racial/ethnic differences exist in the percentage of births to unmarried women, with non-Hispanic white women and Asian or Pacific Islander women being much less likely to have a nonmarital birth. In 2005, 69.5 percent of all births to non-Hispanic black women, 63.3 percent of births of American Indian or Alaskan native woman, and 47.9 percent of births to Hispanic women occurred outside of marriage, compared with 25.4 percent for non-Hispanic white women and 16.2 percent for Asian or Pacific Islander women (preliminary estimates).
If you don't like these facts then take it up with the peole that did both studies, and get the chip off your shoulder.
I agree it is condescending and wrong to single out African Americans as means to further the government school power trip. This is terrible lesson to teach, not only to black children but also to **all** children. All children are hurt by this manipulative and **self-serving** emotional ploy.
Dysfunction is the same regardless of color.
I don’t hate anyone/any community. I do hate the victim mentality that has overtaken our country. I do hate whole sections of our country whining about this or that, rather than overcoming the obstacles, as most have had to do, and working to succeed.
Unlike you, I see tons wrong with *hyphenated Americans*.
We obviously have a different opinion on the black experience. I see no racism or discrimination towards blacks today (and yes, slavery was wrong, jim crow laws were wrong - the former has been over for 145 years and tons of blood was shed to make it so. The latter has been over for decades. Time to get over it, imo.). The Immigrants suffered and their suffering wasn’t all that different than the blacks. Of course, it’s not the SAME, as nothing is the SAME. It’s similar. Difference is, those who were discriminated against, the immigrants, rose above it and succeeded. They didn’t whine about it all.
I’m making money off the public school system? That’s news to me. Let me know when I get the actual dollars. Gosh, you really are clueless.
Heh, I live in NJ (the DEAR was cute, sorta like the other passive-aggressive crap in your post). Talking to me about property taxes is preaching to the choir.
Oh, so your husband is black, so this means what exactly? Shall I post what my husband’s race is? Will that make a difference? You seem to think that because your husband is black that it should make a difference to me or somehow aid in your reasoning. All it says to me is you’re husband is black, big freakin’ deal. If you’re husband was a Muslim who practiced Islam, should that make me view Islam and Muslims differently or give any more credibility to your words?
To any and all black Americans out there, take a good look at what’s teaching your kids in public school.
Yeah, all conservatives would be appalled that a conservative is a teacher. Hmm. Yeah, a pro life, pro military, small gov’t., secure the borders, most importantly, pro 2nd Amendment teacher is appalling. They should take notice and demand my ass on a silver platter. I mean, come on, how dare I not allow excuses to interfere with their education and their responsibility and accountability when it comes to their education and their life? I should just be like all the other liberals and fake conservatives out there. RME.