ONLINE SCHOOL

The following article by Wynton Hall offers a great 1st step, but why not go all the way? Education should be free, period. Teachers pay to go to school to learn to teach. If they are NOT good teachers, they never will be, no matter who they watch online. Free online school, elementary, secondary and college is the answer for all families (babysitting services aside). This is the only way out of the miry pit of bureaucracy and government control. It would deal a heavy blow to socialism and marxism, now pushed in our public institutions. If doing this cripples our economy, then we know the educational system is only about money and NOT about education. Well, we really already know that. As for a successful education system, we need to quit beating the dead horse. If cursive writing can go the way of the dinosaur so can teachers and the school prison as we know it. Here is Wynton Hall's Nov. 25, 2012 article. "It’s an idea so simple and so transformational it’s stunning it hasn’t already been implemented nationally. Here it is: film America’s greatest K-12 teachers delivering their lessons and put them online in a one-stop shop website for students, parents, and young teachers to watch and learn from for free. Imagine the possibilities and benefits. Every child, regardless of income, circumstance, or school district would now be able to watch and learn from American All-Star teachers—the “Michael Jordans of pedagogy”—delivering key lessons. Likewise, parents would be able to watch and learn so they can help reinforce concepts to their kids (if we’re honest, most of us could probably use a little brushing up on our cellular division and calculus to help our kids with their homework). Best of all, teachers in training would get to see best practices in motion, thereby shaving years off their learning curves. Think of it as the popular TED.com for teaching. Or the excellent (but expensive) Great Courses mail-order video program. At first, we could start with just the core concept lessons in each area of learning: fractions in math, osmosis in science, the Revolutionary War in history, the musical scale, etc. The format for video teaching sessions could vary; some would have live student audiences, others standalone lectures. Experiment! Switch things up! Let creativity rule to spark new and innovative ideas and ways of approaching lessons and students. Each year, there could be an All-Star educator competition to incentivize and reward excellence in teaching for those who develop new ways of making learning fun and effective. Eventually, one could envision having an entire year’s worth of the greatest American teachers on film teaching every lesson for every day of the school year. The purpose wouldn’t be to “do away with teachers”; rather, it would be to give parents, students, and educators a way to “cement” core concepts and lessons by having a one-stop online resource to go to for learning throughout the year. Think of it as a sort of digital tutor that parents and students can turn to when they are struggling with a particular area of learning—and all for free. Efforts like the brilliant and wonderful Khan Academy, which offers quick lessons online for free, are a quantum leap in the right direction. In their present form, however, Khan videos feature just black screens with writing and therefore don’t offer young teachers a way to see and model powerful classroom teaching practices. And young teachers may be the ones who would benefit most. Those of us who have taught know that the teacher we were the first day we entered the classroom was not the teacher we were when we retired. As with most things, you learn what works and what doesn’t with time. By exposing beginning teachers to the “Michael Jordans” of teaching early in their careers, beginning teachers would be empowered to borrow best practices sooner and integrate them into their own unique styles, thereby accelerating the learning curve in public education. How much would such a thing cost? That’s the best part. By harnessing the low-cost power of technology, we could create a virtual K-12 of American All-Star instruction for relative peanuts, especially when one considers that taxpayers spend a quarter million per classroom per year on public school education. And what would we get for such a tiny technological investment? Excellence in teaching preserved and digitally archived for time immemorial. Every child deserves access to excellent teaching. The solution is just a mouse click away."

GET OUT. STAY AT HOME!

We indoctrinate! We don't educate! The New American School Slogan! American schools no longer educate children. They have become indoctrination centers rather than educational centers. They hold the greatest secular influence over both you and your children. They (the school system all-inclusive) are shaping the mindset of your children. Legally mandated attendance guarantees that their insidious agenda is planted deep in your children. Do not wonder why your children are so antagonistic or over-opinionated - it is being ingrained in them. The safe choice? Home school or private school that does not use public school textbooks. If you can't afford it, you would be better served to keep them at home and teach them through online resources.

INSIDIOUS INVASION!

"The real purpose of education is to enhance the capacity for Americans to cope with global interdependence... it is to give up the dream of the little white house on its own quarter-acre of land in suburbia and the permanent loss of personal mobility at will, through enforced dependence on public transportation." Aspen Institute Educational Policy Paper - 1975 The above quotation from a 1975 educational policy paper from the Aspen Institute, an educational and policy organization based in Washington D.C., should not just give you pause, it should scare the mess out of you. Not only is this organization forming educational policy for our nation, it’s allowing for the brainwashing of our children through the public school system. This infiltration is not just from within our country through progressive thought however, it’s from without, from the United Nations, which has been involved in shaping educational standards, policy, and textbooks in this country since the 1970s. There are over 3 million teachers in America today, and over 1.2 million of them are conservative, limited government educators who are striving to work from within a system that is hostile not only to the ideals enshrined in the founding documents of our country, but hostile to our republic itself. They are trying to stem the tide of progressivism that is threatening to engulf our students, that is teaching them a history and world-view that denigrates and blasphemes who and what we are as Americans, and the ideals and belief system that we’ve carried with us through the last two and a half centuries. Our children need us more than ever, and our nation needs us to step up to the plate. If we can’t be bothered to stand up for our values as individuals and as a nation, then we shouldn’t be surprised when those values and beliefs are done away with. Our children and our country - aren’t they still worth fighting for? Off The Grid Newsletter 9/21/12

The Greatest HOAX

The greatest hoax ever played on the American people is not president number 44! It is the slow poison of modernity, dispensed to every American through TV and movies. It has shaped our lives and our attitudes so completely in the last 75 years that we can't even imagine living without it. Yet, it gives us small, incremental, steady, doses of all the "isms", such as relativism, hedonism, consumerism, etc. So if the Muslims are winning, buying up large portions of America, building Mosques and businesses and taking over American franchises, this is why. We are too busy drinking in our fun and filth to pay any attention. They are loyal to their faith enough not to listen or watch the perverted comedy and parade of sex that pours through our airwaves today. But we love it and we have been conditioned to accept just about anything. And now we are trapped in a slowly closing noose of our own making. We suck down show after show; movie after movie, and like little newborn birds, waiting for mama to fly in and feed us, we clamor and scream for more! Only the "more" we get is poison, artfully administered. Just one of hundreds of examples - when we will excitedly dress for football and proms, in all the paraphernalia for the games, and skimpy, revealing dresses for homecoming and proms, but we won't dress modestly everyday for Jesus - we, as a Christian society, are losing.

IT"S ALMOST OVER! TOO MUCH COMPETITION!

How can teachers help students whose minds are too jittery to concentrate? Slug them down with medication, you say? Nope. Counter-productive. Drugging kids down so that they can "focus"(ha) on only one thing, stiffles creativity and critical thinking skills. But all of that is irrelevant, really, because the days of teachers teaching lasting knowledge is almost a thing of the past. When young people from pre-school age through college consume a steady diet of comedy, cruelty, sadism, masochism, sexual perversion,fantasy, science fiction, propaganda and pure hype they will never settle down to the calm learning of the old classroom. You can watch them sitting in the classroom, twitching, stroking themselves, staring, making erratic movements, their minds on tunes, movies, games and parties. The learning environment is already gone! Soon you can read about it in the history books. Have you been in a public or parochial school classroom lately? Have you walked down the halls of the local school and heard the noise, seen kids sleeping, yelling at the teachers, acting out their favorite shows or music, texting in their pockets? There is no such thing as a learning environment anymore. Parents feed kids a steady diet of entertainment, or should I say perpetual immaturity, always seeking the next new thing to keep them from getting bored. They do this for twenty-plus years and then expect them to push a button and become responsible. Well guess what, it's not working. We now have several generations of self-indulgent,entertainment-seekers who are "perpetually imature"! Hedonistic parents are raising hedonistic kids and the "focus" is NOT on education or productivity or making the best use of what God has endowed them with. Who is He anyway? It's about where the next big thrill is coming from. So school is out, a thing only to be endured. Sad part is, neither the law or the government can do nothing about it. As a matter of fact, they have hastened the process by their extremely low standards and their new fix-alls each year. In all honesty this is where we are. Maybe a few more years to try and salvage a few kids with the inner drive to learn positive, charitable things. But there is very little evidence today of self-disciplined kids who really want to learn. For those who realize that they are really behind and want to do something about it - THEY STILL CAN - but they are so used to mommy and daddy making excuses for them that most won't.

Lazy and Illiterate Teachers

I still remember the bump on my finger caused by so much writing. Cursive writing! In fact, I still have the bump bacause I have never stopped writing. But now that we are in the 21st Century it has just become too much for teachers to take the time to grade students handwritten work. So in comes the 20th Century buzz word "technology". Forty-one states have adopted the standard English core curriculum which does not require cursive writing. The ACT test also does not require cursive writing. So today, in our modernity, we have grown men who print their signature, who can't read cursive, and think that being a big baby is no big deal! Well,it is a big deal and the lack of writing and reading skills creates a huge disconnect with the history of the English language,the history of literature, the art of letter writing, and the history of education; with history period! How are students to study copies of the Declaration of Independence, the writings and personal journals of our forefathers, even the journals of their grandmothers? This is pure laziness and sloppiness personified in our teachers. We are getting fooled on every side and bombarded with psycho-babble. The great American posture of today is head down, shoulders humped, looking down at a smart-phone, fingers flying! Why not put those flying fingers back into the true art of flowing hand-written reports and letters to lovers. Cindee Will, assistant principal at James Irwin Charter Elementary School of Colorado Springs, maintains that choosing to teach cursive is not about aesthetics or preference, but about giving children the mental tools needed to read English. She explained to the Denver Post that the threaded letter strokes help guide students' eyes left-to-right and definitively correlates reading with writing: "When kids get to third and fourth grade, when they're supposed to be composing, they can use more brain space for content than mechanics," Will says. That rationale is intensely applied at Camperdown Academy in Greenville, S.C., a private school that teaches dyslexic children how to cope with their learning disabilities. WYFF reports that Camperdown teachers use cursive handwriting extensively, as the built-in mechanics of the craft teach students how to group words in the proper order and make it more difficult to swap letters. One teacher told WYFF: "They do so much better if they can interact with what it is they're learning." An article in the NYT recently stated: Jimmy Bryant, director of Archives and Special Collections at the University of Central Arkansas, says that a connection to archival material is lost when students turn away from cursive. While teaching last year, Mr. Bryant, on a whim, asked students to raise their hands if they wrote in cursive as a way to communicate. None did. That cursive-challenged class included Alex Heck, 22, who said she barely remembered how to read or write cursive. Ms. Heck and a cousin leafed through their grandmother’s journal shortly after she died, but could barely read her cursive handwriting. “It was kind of cryptic,” Ms. Heck said. She and the cousin tried to decipher it like one might a code, reading passages back and forth. “I’m not used to reading cursive or writing it myself.” Also whatever happened to the wisdom that writing help to hone fine motor skills? How about filling out applications? Are you going to print your signature? Plus many employers require sample hand writing of a paragraph. They can tell alot about the type of person you are just by your writing ability, the preciseness and neatness of your work and the pride you take in your work. Lack of writing skills may also be one reason for plunging international rankings across all 'academic' categories. Well, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Scrolls and all)! As for me and my school, we will continue teach cursive and to require cursive in workbooks, reports, sentences, etc. etc!

Public - Parochial (Part 2)

On the Highway to Heaven headed the wrong way! Did we miss the sign that said "repent and turn"? If Jesus thought the people of His day were spiritual babies, fit only for bottle feeding and not yet ready for real meat; what must He think of us in today's culture? The people of His time were educated, smart, tough, stalwart, hard workers, strong and courageous! The kids and parents of today have taken on the "Great American Posture" of looking down - screen-watching, all kinds of them! It should be termed the wussification of America; pumped up and functioning on chemicals (excuse me, I meant 'meds', legal, of course)so that they are walking hormones! Instead of ink pens we have inked skin; we're tanned by light bulbs rather than good ole sunshine and outdoor work. We even have the audacity, knowing all the screen hopping that we, ourselves, and our children are exposed to, to wonder why kids don't listen in school anymore much less listen to their parents. If they don't listen at home they are not going to listen at school. To the parents of children with deficient learning accomplishments and interests please consider first their home life. If there are no major flaws there, then try removing them from our notoriously, fundamentally flawed school system. We have seen change over the last few years, but it is not positive change. It is not a healing change. We now live in a fundamentally flawed and perverse environment perpetrated by all kinds of media. The next step in improving your child's educational possibilities is to smash (or sell) your television set. How much do you love them? More than yourself? Then get rid of the elephant in the room - the mouth of perversity that is trashing our paradise. Then you can begin to repair the damage, teaching children self-respect, self-discipline, self-reliance and responsibility. It will be much easier because you have smashed the mouth of idiocy and the psycho-babble of self-esteem! I would ask the perpetrators and participants fretting over children's self-esteem; how's that working out for you? Telling children how cutsie wootsie they are, never allowing them to fail and reducing even the chance for consequences for bad behavior is not going to help children become successful students or adults. This mentality only contributes to the teenage wasteland (literally) that traditional schools have become. If you haven't noticed, America has already become "fundamentally changed" forever!

Public or Parochial? Part I

It really doesn't matter which one you choose any more. We now live in a world of chaotic counter-productivity. Public and Parochial schools, or any school that receives money from federal, state or local funds, are the major bases of academic learning among Americans. So the obvious conclusion, given these set of facts, is that schools facilitate the move toward nationwide chaotic counter-productivity. At the very least, you would have to concede that this is a possibility.

The huge bureaucracy of our school systems can be likened to a huge glacier. You cannot change the direction of a glacier. It sinks, drowns and smothers things in its path. How sad that it is our children that are being sunk, drowned and smothered by this failing paradigm.

Not much academic learning takes place within the cells of education anymore. Young people falling into various vats of street-smart learning is commonplace though. It is about the only 'English' that is really taught anymore. School is more an experience in sociology and class warfare.

Within the walls, halls and locker rooms, children are exploited, threatened, bribed, bullied, cursed, harassed and teased. They face physical punches, pencil stabbings, cutting, drug intimidation and the bathrooms are like teenage wastelands. Children are immersed in pools of filthy language and porn-speak, not only from peers but teachers as well.

Parents bring me their academically damaged children all the time and one of their first concerns is: "Can you get my child caught up enough to go to high school and graduate on time? I don't want him/her to miss out on the social aspects and playing sports if he/she wants to."

The answer is, sadly; they probably already are at the level of academic understanding in today's high-schools (Public and Catholic). As for graduating on time, you cannot repair in one year what took many years of undisciplined non-learning to accumulate. I sometimes respond also, on my more cynical days, "Why don't you just find a gang for him/her to join? That is another thing that they will have to confront face-to-face in public high schools. OR, Why would you want to put your child back in an incompetent school system that is the source of his/her academic deficiencies?" If athletics and proms are your highest goals for your child, no disrespect intended, then, by all means, throw them back to the wolves in sheeps clothing.

Parents must, at some point, face the reality that education in America is broken beyond repair in its present form. It is antiquated, old-fashioned and ready for permanent retirement. Parents have become enslaved by the insidious and repetitious, false messages of school administrations and the secular world. They really believe that if 'Bobby' is making 'A's' and 'B's', he is smart. Parents suck this stuff up at truth from a system that can no longer be trusted. An 'A' is an 'A' measured against what? And how many answers were they given on their tests so that the teacher's record will be higher or so that the school can get more funding? It is time to wake up and stand up for our children.

ROLL REVERSALS

Today, school events are more important than family events. Coaches have more authority than parents. Family conversations are tuned out for computer/phone conversations. Sports events take precedence over church events. Trash talk is preferred over cleanspeak. Pastors think sacrilege is funny. Any wonder why the world is falling apart?

Has anybody even wondered why these roll reversals have occurred? Could it be the sunami of pure sewer and sarcastic sitcom that comes through the media-movies-music lifestyle that has taken over our country?

Do you ever think of trying to plug the holes that American teens are bleeding from?
Who is the shooter, the assassin that is riddling our society with filth and fantasy?
What color glasses do you have on that you see things as getting better?

If we don't wake up,do a 180 and go back to core family loyalty, become tighter-knit families with Godly values, TODAYS, not the NEXT generation, teen lives are in grave jeopardy!