There have been plenty of stories just in the past few months about outrageous consequences of the "zero tolerance" policies in our nation's government schools. Everything from toy soldiers being removed from birthday party cupcakes, to suspension for a high school hero for disarming another student who had a gun. Now the latest story involves a 5 year old boy who was suspended for 10 days after showing a friend his orange tipped cap gun on the school bus. Not only suspended, but he was questioned for 2 hours before his mom was called. The principal said if the gun had have contained caps, it would have been considered an explosive device and the cops called in.
The kid is 5 years old. If the suspension stands, he will miss out on the end of his kindergarten year and his records will forever have this suspension in them. This is such a disgrace. This is pathetic.
Do any of these people remember what it was like to be 5?
I don't care if times have changed. Kids need to be allowed to be kids. Since when does it require kids to have to give up important play, interaction and imagination because a group of grown ups believe that by playing cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers or GI Joe will lead them to grow up to be another Adam Lanza?
Kids have been playing these kinds of school yard games using everything from their fingers and sticks to cap guns for longer than I've been alive. It takes more than school yard play to grow up to be a murderer.
I'm not going to get into a debate about what causes someone to murder, this article isn't about that. This is about how federal government take over of the public education system, along with the big unions such as the NEA and the fact that progressives have been taking away every chance for kids to be kids. Through taking away play time to implementing sex ed at younger and younger grades, through federal curriculum which dares not teach individualism, to so called anti bullying campaigns which forces young teen girls to kiss each other as a lesson on homosexuality and gender identity, they have about stripped our nation's children of every quality of being a kid.
How any parent can keep their children in public school is beyond me, but I'm biased because my child has never been in a public school. I've had every argument given to me since the time I informed my family I was going to home school my child. The biggest argument was and still is, that home schooled kids don't get the socialization skills if they're not exposed to other kids. This is a laughable argument to me. It all depends on what one's view of socialization is. If one means that my child will not be involved in activities according to his age/grade, where he is associating with kids his own age day in and day out, they're right. Because my child has always associated with other home schooled kids of every age group from kindergartners to high school ages. And guess what? They all play! Together! The older kids always helped with the youngest ones. As far as fights or bullying goes, the occasional argument or spat is about all this home school mom has witnessed between these kids. It's not only other kids either, as my son and most home schooled kids I know, know how to get along with adults as well. My son has no problems going up to a Veteran in the grocery store, holding out his hand and saying "Thank you" and then asking where he served. He could carry on a whole conversation for 20 minutes with a complete stranger, and most times, that Veteran has gone away with a smile.
One of the main differences I have seen between my home schooled child and my granddaughter who is the same age, but attends public school is that my son still plays. He and his friends who range from a year younger, to 2 years older, still play. And not just video games. They go out and play. My granddaughter, who used to be a talkative, inquisitive, active and fun little girl, has grown into a beauty, but she no longer plays. She doesn't ask questions, she sits sullenly and text messages her friends.
As I said, I'm biased, and I believe that as long as the federal government has control over what passes for education, kids will be forced to grow up before they're ready and these kinds of incidents are going to become more commonplace.
The Constitutional Freedom Party believes that kids ought to be allowed to be kids for as long as they can be. There will always be time for work, but play is so important in developing a well rounded imagination and bringing out individual ideas which would add greatly to society. But progressivism is not about individualism. It's all about the collective and how and where to use skills they deem important to society, and creating an environment of common thought where individual thought is not beneficial. We believe in education the way the founders envisioned it. Available to all yes, but for each parent and local community to have the choice on how best to educate their children. We must abolish the Department of Education, which by the way, was begun when President Andrew Jackson signed legislation for the establishment of the Department of Education. It was meant as a mission to improve American education at local and state levels only. The first commissioner had a staff of three and two rooms in Washington D.C to run the agency.
We now have a massive bureaucracy which squanders billions of dollars a year and we're graduating young adults who have no basic math or writing skills. No, our government run schools are not interested in the "three R's". It would take many more articles to describe what they are forcing on our children. Suffice to say, it's time for local communities and parents to work together to bring true education back from the feds. As our Mission Statement says, We believe in the parents’ choice of education, allowed by the States to decide what forms children take in their learning. We believe in the right to home educate their children without federal restraints. We believe in school choice by vouchers and believe in privatizing education. We will work towards abolishing the Department of Education and returning power to the parents, States, and local governments.
It is time. You may be asking, what can you do? You can run for your local school board, and get others you know who believe in the Constitution and the wisdom of the Founders to do the same in their communities. We have to start somewhere, and the stronger we can be locally, the more our voices can be heard at the State levels. Let's move folks, and let our kids have a chance to be kids again.
C.A.E. 2013
The kid is 5 years old. If the suspension stands, he will miss out on the end of his kindergarten year and his records will forever have this suspension in them. This is such a disgrace. This is pathetic.
Do any of these people remember what it was like to be 5?
I don't care if times have changed. Kids need to be allowed to be kids. Since when does it require kids to have to give up important play, interaction and imagination because a group of grown ups believe that by playing cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers or GI Joe will lead them to grow up to be another Adam Lanza?
Kids have been playing these kinds of school yard games using everything from their fingers and sticks to cap guns for longer than I've been alive. It takes more than school yard play to grow up to be a murderer.
I'm not going to get into a debate about what causes someone to murder, this article isn't about that. This is about how federal government take over of the public education system, along with the big unions such as the NEA and the fact that progressives have been taking away every chance for kids to be kids. Through taking away play time to implementing sex ed at younger and younger grades, through federal curriculum which dares not teach individualism, to so called anti bullying campaigns which forces young teen girls to kiss each other as a lesson on homosexuality and gender identity, they have about stripped our nation's children of every quality of being a kid.
How any parent can keep their children in public school is beyond me, but I'm biased because my child has never been in a public school. I've had every argument given to me since the time I informed my family I was going to home school my child. The biggest argument was and still is, that home schooled kids don't get the socialization skills if they're not exposed to other kids. This is a laughable argument to me. It all depends on what one's view of socialization is. If one means that my child will not be involved in activities according to his age/grade, where he is associating with kids his own age day in and day out, they're right. Because my child has always associated with other home schooled kids of every age group from kindergartners to high school ages. And guess what? They all play! Together! The older kids always helped with the youngest ones. As far as fights or bullying goes, the occasional argument or spat is about all this home school mom has witnessed between these kids. It's not only other kids either, as my son and most home schooled kids I know, know how to get along with adults as well. My son has no problems going up to a Veteran in the grocery store, holding out his hand and saying "Thank you" and then asking where he served. He could carry on a whole conversation for 20 minutes with a complete stranger, and most times, that Veteran has gone away with a smile.
One of the main differences I have seen between my home schooled child and my granddaughter who is the same age, but attends public school is that my son still plays. He and his friends who range from a year younger, to 2 years older, still play. And not just video games. They go out and play. My granddaughter, who used to be a talkative, inquisitive, active and fun little girl, has grown into a beauty, but she no longer plays. She doesn't ask questions, she sits sullenly and text messages her friends.
As I said, I'm biased, and I believe that as long as the federal government has control over what passes for education, kids will be forced to grow up before they're ready and these kinds of incidents are going to become more commonplace.
The Constitutional Freedom Party believes that kids ought to be allowed to be kids for as long as they can be. There will always be time for work, but play is so important in developing a well rounded imagination and bringing out individual ideas which would add greatly to society. But progressivism is not about individualism. It's all about the collective and how and where to use skills they deem important to society, and creating an environment of common thought where individual thought is not beneficial. We believe in education the way the founders envisioned it. Available to all yes, but for each parent and local community to have the choice on how best to educate their children. We must abolish the Department of Education, which by the way, was begun when President Andrew Jackson signed legislation for the establishment of the Department of Education. It was meant as a mission to improve American education at local and state levels only. The first commissioner had a staff of three and two rooms in Washington D.C to run the agency.
We now have a massive bureaucracy which squanders billions of dollars a year and we're graduating young adults who have no basic math or writing skills. No, our government run schools are not interested in the "three R's". It would take many more articles to describe what they are forcing on our children. Suffice to say, it's time for local communities and parents to work together to bring true education back from the feds. As our Mission Statement says, We believe in the parents’ choice of education, allowed by the States to decide what forms children take in their learning. We believe in the right to home educate their children without federal restraints. We believe in school choice by vouchers and believe in privatizing education. We will work towards abolishing the Department of Education and returning power to the parents, States, and local governments.
It is time. You may be asking, what can you do? You can run for your local school board, and get others you know who believe in the Constitution and the wisdom of the Founders to do the same in their communities. We have to start somewhere, and the stronger we can be locally, the more our voices can be heard at the State levels. Let's move folks, and let our kids have a chance to be kids again.
C.A.E. 2013
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post on what is happening in our school system. It is my belief that neither the Federal government nor our State governments should have the amount of control over our schools that they do. Teachers' Unions have no place either. Local control by concerned citizens and parents should be the order of the day.
DeleteLike everything else government gets their hands on, our educational system in this country is out of control.
Not only are schools not teaching our children anymore, as evidenced by national test scores, they have turned our schools into indoctrination centers into order to brainwash young minds into following the dictates of an ever expanding Federal government that is becoming more socialistic by the day.
Just for fun, I did a search on StartPage and typed in the following search criteria:
"The decline in education in the U.S."
The search results were astounding. No fewer than thirteen sites discussing the issue of the American educational system in a free-fall decline, in spite of the trillions of taxpayer dollars the government has pumped into it.
Here is a typical example:
http://blogs.ajc.com/bob-barr-blog/2011/02/11/u-s-education-continues-decline/
If something isn't done soon to reverse the trend, the United States will have trouble supplying a work force sufficiently educated to keep our national industries in production.
Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteIt is quite a coincidence that you published this post on the decline and misuse of our Educational System. A friend of mine on another site recently published a long dissertation on much the same thing. Take a peek at his site and see what you think. The article is in two parts. Here is the link to Part I:
http://ncncs.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/public-school-system-or-government-indoctrination-center-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-88
Note the list of sites of interest on the right side of the page. :)
Hi Whitefriend! That was a lot of reading, but well worth it.Thank you so much my friend! I left a comment there as well, even though I'm about a month late. I'm sorry too for getting back to you so late on here as well. I've not noticed that there were comments until yesterday (the 5th) and didn't have time to read, so figured I'd wait and reply after.
DeleteHis article is excellent. I appreciate all the work he did with the research! And I appreciate you linking it for me. We're in quite a mess. I hope though (and I like your idea of writing new Federalist papers!) that we can turn this 'ship' around before we're sunk completely. It's encouraging always to see others fighting in their ways. We're all on the same side and it's good to know we're not alone.
God Bless you my friend!! Thank you!!