Day 35: Cali-fornication...

Happy Monday to one and all. 35 days down... a zillion more to go. LOL Not much has changed around here, since Friday. The weekend was pretty average. The kids went out to play with their friends, and I puttered around the house, surfed the internet, read a whole book, and played some video games. Sunday was kind of interesting though. I went to a new church. Nice place, and nice people. I'll probably go there again.

Also on Sunday, the kids and I had a discussion as to WHY their daddy was in Iraq. And why some daddy's are in Afghanistan. Being too young to see the WTC collapse in 2001, they didn't understand what we commonly understand as adults, terrorists. I'm thankful really that their little minds can't fathom why anyone would come to this country with the sole purpose of destroying us. I explained about the planes and the buildings and about how many people lost their lives. I explained about the Pentagon and those brave souls who fought back on the plane going to the White House. Then they wanted to see photos. They wanted to know more. I had to battle with myself as to what to show them, and what would be too much. So, we found the news footage of the planes hitting the buildings. And the fire. And the plane hitting the Pentagon. And you know, my 6th grade daughter had never heard of the WTC. Nor the attacks on September 11. I wouldn't expect the education system to show all the footage. People jumping from buildings, or severed limbs, but I would expect them to show something. Or at least bring it up. And I guessed that's when I realized again, how important it is for us, as parents, not to forget who their first teachers are, us.

I have heard that there's a law in California for parents not to be able to homeschool their children. Well they can, if they have an education degree. That would leave many parents being forced to put their kids in public schools at least for the 4 years it takes to acquire the degree.

Many lawmakers – and home-schooling advocates – would prefer to keep home schooling out of the education code.

"If this goes to the [state] supreme court and it upholds it, this opens up this big Pandora's box. The state is going to have to define family rights, and to define to what extent [lawmakers] have to regulate," says Luis Huerta, a professor at the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Columbia University in New York.

The prospect of the state sorting out family rights won't warm many homeschoolers' hearts.

"Many of those people believe – usually based on a philosophical worldview, and often Christian – that the state has no authority over their children's education and upbringing," says Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, a nonprofit group in Oregon.
Already, California home-schoolers are suggesting resistance would be widespread to any sort of enforcement by local school districts.

"We'd have to open Alcatraz [state prision] to hold all of us," says Loren Mavromati, a homeschooler and spokesperson for the California Homeschool Network. "Even if we all rolled over and complied and enrolled in public schools – how? They are laying off teachers during this budget crisis left and right." The reason many of these people homeschool is because of the state's failing public education. To make these parents then put there kids in the public schools they seek to escape, is asinine.

'In 1997, a study of 5,402 homeschool students from 1,657 families was released. It was entitled, "Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America." The study demonstrated that homeschoolers, on the average, out-performed their counterparts in the public schools by 30 to 37 percentile points in all subjects'. There are other studies done and other reasearch to read about how homeschooled kids outscore public schools kids , you can find it at the Home School Legal Defense Association website: http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200410250.asp

However for every study shown showing the merits of homeschool is another study showing the merits of public schools. But the point should be that is our freedom as Americans to be allowed to homeschool our children. I currently do not homeschool, but I feel that if you are called to do so, you should be allowed, without all the strings attached.

But this is not the only issue brewing in California. Now comes the plan, SB 1322, from state Sen. Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat elected from the state's 27th District, including the towns of Artesia, Avalon, Bellflower, Cerritos, Downey, Lakewood, Long Beach, Lynwood, Paramount, Signal Hill, South Gate and others."This bill would actually allow the promotion of communism in public schools. Just when we thought the indoctrination in California's public schools couldn't get any worse, state lawmakers introduce bills that will further brainwash innocent children," said a statement from Capitol Resource Institute Spokeswoman, Karen England, CRI is a traditional values and family advocacy organization based in California. We're in California. Of course it has a chance of succeeding; these people get bolder and bolder every year, she continued."

The state's Civic Center Act already requires a school district to grant the use of school property, when an alternative isn't available, to nonprofit groups, clubs or associations set up for youth and school activities. "But the law also states that the property may not be used by anyone intent on overthrowing the government," CRI said. Now, the group said, "SB 1322 would delete the requirement that an individual or organization wanting to use the school property is not a Communist action organization or Communist front organization." This bill would also strike the law that a public school or community college employee may be fired if he or she is a member of the Communist Party," the group said. Worse yet, the group said, "the bill would also strike the law that prohibits a teacher giving instruction in a school or on public school property from teaching communism with the intent to indoctrinate or to inculcate in the mind of any pupil a preference for communism," CRI said.

"SB 1322 is simply shocking," said Meredith Turney, legislative liaison for the affiliated Capitol Resource Family Impact. "The socialist members of the legislature are now advocating that communism, one of the most brutal forms of government in history, be taught favorably to government school students. Anyone espousing communism, which does advocate for the violent overthrow of existing government, will be permitted to not only use government property, but work in schools and colleges, and teach their freedom-hating propaganda to impressionable young people." "Less than 20 years after the fall of the communist Soviet Union, California lawmakers are eager to once again begin advancing a political ideology responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people," England said. "Instead of promoting communism in our schools, lawmakers should be focused on actually teaching students to read, write and think for themselves."On a blog on the Red County website, Mike Spence concluded: "I know there is plenty of indoctrination goin' on already but I gues (sic) they won't be staisfied (sic) until all school children are gay loving (SB777) and Communist. If only they could all read at grade level."

The bill itself explains that it would delete provisions "regarding a person who intends to use school property on behalf of an organization to deliver a statement, signed under penalty of perjury, that the organization is not a Communist action organization or Communist front organization required to be registered with the Attorney General of the United States or does not, to the best of that person's knowledge, advocate the overthrow of the government of the United States or of the State of California by force, violence, or other unlawful means."

The plan also outlines it would drop provisions that school and college employees could be dismissed for being a part of the Communist Party and drop a ban on "teaching communism with the intent to indoctrinate or to inculcate in the mind of any pupil a preference for communism."

The proposal itself noted that the teaching about the facts of communism was allowed, and the previous requirement banned teaching "for the purpose of undermining patriotism for, and the belief in, the government of the United States and of this state." However, the new plan drops that.

Also deleted was: "For the purposes of this section, communism is the political theory that the presently existing form of government of the United States or of this state should be changed, by force, violence, or other unconstitutional means, to a totalitarian dictatorship which is based on the principles of communism as expounded by Marx, Lenin, and Stalin."

Also deleted was the conclusion from the California Legislature that other nations already had fallen into totalitarian dictatorships through the establishment of communism as well as the recognition that "the successful establishment of totalitarian dictatorships has consistently been aided, accompanied, or accomplished by repeated acts of treachery, deceit, teaching of false doctrines, teaching untruth, together with organized confusion, insubordination, and disloyalty, fostered, directed, instigated, or employed by communist organizations and their members"

Also tossed out of California law was the recognition that communism even presents "a clear and present danger."

Does anyone else think this is scary? Ohh and this idea of teaching communism is not centered on only California. It's in Seattle too. Check out his article: http://www.therant.us/staff/huston/08102007.htmhttp://www.therant.us/staff/huston/08102007.htm

According to the article, the students had been building an elaborate "Legotown," but it was accidentally demolished. The teachers decided its destruction was an opportunity to explore "the inequities of private ownership." According to the teachers, "Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation."
The children were allegedly incorporating into Legotown "their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys." These assumptions "mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society -- a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive."
They claimed as their role shaping the children's "social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity ... from a perspective of social justice."
So they first explored with the children the issue of ownership. Not all of the students shared the teachers' anathema to private property ownership. "If I buy it, I own it," one child is quoted saying. The teachers then explored with the students concepts of fairness, equity, power, and other issues over a period of several months.
At the end of that time, Legos returned to the classroom after the children agreed to several guiding principles framed by the teachers, including that "All structures are public structures" and "All structures will be standard sizes." The teachers quote the children:
"A house is good because it is a community house."
"We should have equal houses. They should be standard sizes."
"It's important to have the same amount of power as other people over your building."

Yikes! This should bother you. First, these children are not little adults and at a grammer school! Second, I understand the need to have children respect property. But I don't agree with this method. And I agree with that kid, If I buy it. I own it.

I guarantee that due to California's radical approach, other states will be looking closely at their homeschool laws, and students. Are you ready to get California-ized America?