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Were Sam Blumenfeld (AlphaPhonics) & Alex Newman (Crimes of the Educators) wrong that miseducation was deliberate, just because they were John Birchers (New American)? I know a duplicitous guy who writes for the New American (John Birch Society). I looked up his articles; they were transparently manipulative, clumsily so. But not Blumenfeld or Newman. (My John Birch acquaintance is a real stinker, he divorced and remarried, on the pretext that his Catholic marriage to his wife was performed by a priest of "schismatic" Catholic group SSPX. But SSPX has been rehabilitated and now has full sacramental faculties. So where does...

The other day I ran into an old coworker from my career days, and when it came up that I’ve permanently ditched cubicle life to stay home and raise my gazillion kids, he asked bluntly, “Don’t you feel like you’re wasting your education?” I think we were both surprised when my answer was: “Actually ... yes.” I had been prepared to launch into a lecture about how my roles as homeschooler and household manager challenge me intellectually, but when I considered whether I ever use the knowledge I gained in my four (okay, four and a half) years in college,...

The swine flu has been greatly exaggerated May 5, 2009 By Larson Caldwell Hall Monitor, Skyline High School Recently, the halls of Skyline High School have been filled with hand sanitizers, “Stay Healthy” flyers and the fear of the completely overrated disease of the swine flu...

A 16-year-old homeschooled boy from North Carolina was taken away from his home in handcuffs two months ago and has been held by the FBI in Indiana ever since, a victim, his mother claims, of the Patriot Act spun out of control.

Sixteen-year-old Ashton Lundeby's bedroom in his mother's Granville County home is nothing,if not patriotic. Images of American flags are everywhere–on the bed, on the floor,on the wall. But according to the United States government,the tenth-grade home-schooler is being held on a criminal complaint that he made a bomb threat from his home on the night of Feb. 15. The family was at a church function that night, his mother, Annette Lundeby, said. "Undoubtedly, they were given false information, or they would not have had 12 agents in my house with a widow and two children and three cats," Lundeby said....

Chapter 9: The Quality and Usefulness of Information Shannon’s information theory can be regarded as an extension of probability theory. He takes the bit as the unit of measurement of information, and a book with 200 pages then contains twice as much information as one with 100 pages if the pages contain the same number of letters. Meaning is completely ignored. Wolfgang Feitscher gave a striking description of this situation: “When considering semantic information, we are like a chemist who can weigh substances, but cannot analyze them.” In this sense, Shannon solved the problem of weighing information, but the analysis...

For if we ever begin to suppress our search to understand nature, to quench our own intellectual excitement in a misguided effort to present a united front where it does not and should not exist, then we are truly lost. –Stephen Jay Gould [Y]ou’ve heard me complain about scientific organizations that sell evolution by insisting that it’s perfectly consistent with religion. Evolution, they say, threatens many peoples’ religious views — not just the literalism of Genesis, but also the morality that supposedly emanates from scripture. Professional societies like the National Academy of Sciences — the most elite organization of American...

Raleigh, N.C. — A judge in Wake County said three Raleigh children need switch from home school to public school. Judge Ned Mangum is presiding over divorce proceeding of the children's parents, Thomas and Venessa Mills. Venessa Mills was in the fourth year of home schooling her children who are 10, 11 and 12 years old. They have tested two years above their grade levels, she said. Her lessons also have a religious slant, which the judge said was the root of the problem.

For years, colleges have targeted specific groups for admission, from black and Hispanic students to National Merit scholars, to name a few. Now they're reaching out to another growing population: home-schooled students. "We are doing more," said Paul Jones, vice president for institutional research and enrollment management at Georgia College & State University. "We haven't done enough, but I think that's something that we want to change and do better." One of the efforts the university has undertaken is purchasing names of home-schooled students and sending them information about the college, Jones said. "We're going to be much more assertive...

A spot for homeschool families to share advice and offer support as we prepare for the 2005-2006 Homeschool Year Many home-educated children continue their lessons throughout the summer, but we parents often look to purchase new materials and begin new projects in September. In the past, FR homeschoolers started a thread every year to post links and recommend books and materials to each other. I haven't seen that done recently, so I'm creating one here. (My apologies if I missed anything). If there is anything you'd like to recommend to other home educators, please do so: Are there books, CDs,...

WASHINGTON - Seventh-grader Tyler Curtis says he's never had to worry much about doing well at his studies, and he's not about to start now. That's saying something. Tyler is facing 272 of the country's best young spellers — and the biggest prize ever — at the 78th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee running Wednesday and Thursday. "It would be nice to win," the 13-year-old from Camden, Tenn., said Tuesday. "But I'm not going to get all stressed out over it." His competitors include 145 boys and 127 girls aged 9 to 14, mostly from around the country and U.S....

YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK District sorry for homeschooler-terrorist link Security drill concocted scenario with 'Wackos Against Education' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: September 23, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com A school district that participated in a terrorist-attack response drill apologized for using a scenario in which children were threated by a fictitious radical group that believes everyone should be homeschooled. The made-up group, called Wackos Against Schools and Education, was invented by the local government emergency services director. The Muskegon Area Intermediate School District, or MAISD, in Michigan said it "shared the disappointment of others" when it learned Tuesday's preparedness drill...

After I mentioned how much I would enjoy a weekly thread for moms, I heard back from many of you expressing interest in the idea. Well, let's give it a go! Here is the initial problem:If such a thread were left entirely to my care, it would be posted three or four times a year, not weekly. I am woefully undisciplined when it comes to this kind of management.Possible solution #1: We have a round-table style of posting with different mothers volunteering to post the upcoming week's thread.Possible solution #2: Supermom steps up to the plate and offers to take...

Randall Martin of Conway Baptist Church in Conway won first place this summer in the Southern Baptist Convention's first national youth Bible drill in Atlanta, Ga. Students in grades seven through nine from 13 states competed in the drill by looking up passages in the Bible in eight seconds or less. Martin competed against 14 other teenagers. He had a perfect score. "He has a phenomenal knowledge of the Bible," Martin's mother, Tammy, said. Martin had to make it through three competitions before reaching the national level - church, regional and state. Martin's mother said he has been practicing two...

Parents, not mandatory government tests, are the best way to ensure that home-schooled children get a good education. That's what Montana LP State Chair Mike Fellows told the State Senate's Education and Cultural Resources Committee in testimony in Helena on February 10. The bill Fellows spoke against -- SB 276 -- was filed by State Senator Don Ryan (District 22/Great Falls). It would have required standardized tests for all home-schooled children. Ryan said the bill was inspired by President George W. Bush's "Leave No Child Behind" legislation, which will require standardized tests for most public school students. Currently, Montana parents...

Do not be bullied!Date Saturday, January 25 @ 11:54:33A "Heads Up" Warning!  HomeSchoolers have traditionally been independent people who do not want to have their kids in the "system" any longer for whatever reason. Neither you nor any other Homeschooling Family are required to accept "visits" by the School District. "Yeah? Well, they don't know that!" I have a msg that needs to get out to homeschoolers in Hot Springs, but don't know anybody on a loop here... My husband Russell is going back to carrying his route in a week or so and stopped at the new School...

VERMONT HOMESCHOOLER NEEDS HELP!!! Tonight (September 13, 2002) at approximately 6:00 p.m. the home of Patricia O'Dell's ailing mother was surrounded by state police, SRS agents and local police the same way the Gonzales house was surrounded in Florida a few years ago. Patricia informed them they could not enter the home without a warrant. While the house remained surrounded these stormtroopers went and got their warrant and then kicked in the back door. Patricia was visiting her ailing mother who was just recently released from the hospital. Patricia's mother was summarily threatened with pepper spray and Patricia was dragged...