Politics

[flatwater bill]

@Hunt anything Ya, I've always wondered about home schooling and activities. The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (ya, they exist) says on their website that only 20 states allow Home schooled kids access to interscholastic activities. So the choice to Home School may come with limitations......wish I had known more about home schooling years ago.....even then, pressures at school overwhelmed some kids.........FWB

 

[Red Leg]

I think the issue is parenting. My kids attended public schools all over this country. Their mother held the line at home while I did Army. Multiple schools were ethnically very different than our children. At seventeen, my daughter had completed her fourteenth move, and was entering her third high school. She is a hard science graduate from A&M, the proud mother of our granddaughter, and thoroughly accomplished. Our son is a medical engineer and lives far more comfortably than his mother and I until I left the army. Their roots are not deep, but they have yet to meet a situation with which they can not cope.

 

[sgt_zim]

I think the issue is parenting. My kids attended public schools all over this country. Their mother held the line at home while I did Army. Multiple schools were ethnically very different than our children. At seventeen, my daughter had completed her fourteenth move, and was entering her third high school. She is a hard science graduate from A&M, the proud mother of our granddaughter, and thoroughly accomplished. Our son is a medical engineer and lives far more comfortably than his mother and I until I left the army. Their roots are not deep, but they have yet to meet a situation with which they can not cope.

I've griped for years at people complaining about the schools. Yes, there is much about which to complain, but it isn't the schools failing a lot of kids so much as their parents are.

Both my stepsons attended Clements High School in Sugar Land (well, the youngest graduates in May). It is at or near the top of all public schools in the US, every single year. Perhaps their teachers are a cut above most, but I rather suspect it's more related to the fact that ~90% of the student body is Asian. Those Tiger Moms don't mess around. A couple years ago, there were 5 kids out of the same class admitted to Stanford. And their sports ball teams are universally atrocious most years. You can't drive a 5 minutes in Sugar Land without seeing after-school programs for programming, math, and science.

The youngest has a GPA of about 4.3 or so, has I-don't-know-how-many AP credits, made a 1480 on his SAT, and isn't in the top 10% of his class. He'd do fine at UT Austin or TAMU, but he can't get into either one because of his class standing. So he'll likely end up going to U of H, probably the 3rd best engineering school in the state behind UT and TAMU.

It's certainly more difficult for a bright kid at a "bad school" to find his wings and fly, but that's more to do with undisciplined kids causing distractions all over the place than poor teaching or "substandard" facilities.

 

[randallhebert]

Just finished butchering up the doe I shot this past weekend. Taking a break before reorganizing my truck. Live NOW News is on.

And the public wants to know why these mass shootings happen. For the last 20 minutes or so Live NOW News has focused on and treating Mangione like some sort of super star with all this attention. How asinine can the msm be that they (msm) are one of the main problems and causes for high ptofile murders and mass shootings.

All this media attention just makes other people to contemplate killing a prominent citizen(s) or committing mass homicide(s) to get the kind of attention these people with feelings of low self esteem lack from family, peers, teachers, coworkers, etc.

In the immortal words of Hank Williams Jr. If they are found guilty they should swing quickly, with no tv coverage until they swing and that should be televised.

 

[Brent in Az]

I'm not certain about this day and age, but years ago, some home schooled kids just didn't seem......normal.?
Maybe it was a lack of interaction with other children, and being exposed to the real world in a learning environment? I don't know?
My sister has a house next to a family with a small tribe of home schooled kids. She calls them " The Children of the Corn".......lol

 

[Lumaberpat]

I went to government school, and it was fine, I turned out all right. It really give a lot of authority and control into people’s hands whom you do not know. Unless you really know the district and the school it’s a bit of a crap shoot. If you’re a conservative behind enemy lines you will definitely be undermined by woke or relative authority figures. The kids are DEFINITIVELY being told to use preferred pronouns for their peers.

 

[sgt_zim]

I'm not certain about this day and age, but years ago, some home schooled kids just didn't seem......normal.?
Maybe it was a lack of interaction with other children, and being exposed to the real world in a learning environment? I don't know?

School isn't the real world, either. I've never held a job where everybody I work with is from the same age cohort, and where everybody more or less has the same life experiences.

 

[Brent in Az]

School isn't the real world, either. I've never held a job where everybody I work with is from the same age cohort, and where everybody more or less has the same life experiences.

Maybe not, but one of the draw backs of home schooling, is a learning how to interact in society. Dealing with societal learning experiences, standing up to bullies, etc.
Public schooling is certainly a double edge sword. Especially in today's indoctrinating system of mind control.

 

[wesheltonj]

I've griped for years at people complaining about the schools. Yes, there is much about which to complain, but it isn't the schools failing a lot of kids so much as their parents are.

Both my stepsons attended Clements High School in Sugar Land (well, the youngest graduates in May). It is at or near the top of all public schools in the US, every single year. Perhaps their teachers are a cut above most, but I rather suspect it's more related to the fact that ~90% of the student body is Asian. Those Tiger Moms don't mess around. A couple years ago, there were 5 kids out of the same class admitted to Stanford. And their sports ball teams are universally atrocious most years. You can't drive a 5 minutes in Sugar Land without seeing after-school programs for programming, math, and science.

The youngest has a GPA of about 4.3 or so, has I-don't-know-how-many AP credits, made a 1480 on his SAT, and isn't in the top 10% of his class. He'd do fine at UT Austin or TAMU, but he can't get into either one because of his class standing. So he'll likely end up going to U of H, probably the 3rd best engineering school in the state behind UT and TAMU.

It's certainly more difficult for a bright kid at a "bad school" to find his wings and fly, but that's more to do with undisciplined kids causing distractions all over the place than poor teaching or "substandard" facilities.

There’s a couple of way around that at UT top 6 rule. First is ACC/UT route. The second is declare a major with no demand, then change after you complete the GER courses.

And I would suggest the Tech as a better engineering then UH.

 

[Lumaberpat]

Public school worships D.E.I. Homeschool worships the Agnus Dei. I’m ok with any amount of weird that’s a side effect of this.

 

[spike.t]

Warning signs for Trump as Republican rebels defiant

Trump has shown he can kill legislation, but can he rally the support to get his proposals over the finish line?

www.bbc.com

 

[deewayne2003]

I'm not certain about this day and age, but years ago, some home schooled kids just didn't seem......normal.?
Maybe it was a lack of interaction with other children, and being exposed to the real world in a learning environment? I don't know?
My sister has a house next to a family with a small tribe of home schooled kids. She calls them " The Children of the Corn".......lol

I'm highly involved with my counties 4-H program and I can say that the home schooled children in my programs are some of the best behaved, politest and intelligent children I've ever been around.

I attribute this to their parents being involved, motivated and genuinely caring about their children.

On the other hand, there are kids attending public schools with parents that are "Pillars of the community" that seem obsessed with maintaining the deceptive facade of being good parents and are rarely involved until there is some perceived transgression(real or imagined) against their child.

Then you have the toxic parents - These are the people starting fights at little league games because they are convinced their child will get a scholar ship so they don't have to pay for college.

 

[Schmidty]

I would like to share my perspective as a public school teacher for 16 years and now in year 8 as a Principal. For context, I am in west-central MN where it's pretty conservative as am I. The community my school is in and the local school board is conservative. We are a school that has about 850 students K-12 all in one building (an average of about 65 kids per grade).
I agree with Red Lag it is mostly a parenting issue.
I get tired of the across-the-board bad-mouthing of public schools in general. I am proud of our school and what we offer/ At our school we do not use pronouns, ask for pronouns, or discuss pronouns. We do not teach CRT, we do not teach or discuss or implement DEI, we don't have tampoons in the boys' bathrooms, we still use boys' and girls' bathrooms and lockerroom, we don't have litterboxes in the bathrooms, we don't let kids dress up as furries.
We love all kids that come to our building each day and our number one priority is to keep them safe and build meaningful connections with them. After that is when the learning begins. If kids don't feel safe or connected it's hard for them to learn.
We allow homeschool students who live within our district to participate in all of our extracurricular activities including band and choir. We don't worry about money in that we have to have all of our students come to our school because of the money they generate. It helps we are financially stable. We also recognize that the kids who reside in our district regardless if they go to our school or not are members of our community and we want them to be contributing members so why would we limit their opportunities? We might be different than most public schools by these standards but I am confident to say that most of the schools outside of the major metro areas in Minnesota operate the way we do. We are not perfect, we are not for everyone, which is why there is open enrollment and parents can choose any school in the state they want regardless of where they live. Or they can choose an online school, homeschooling, or parochial school.
Sorry for the run on but I am pretty passionate about what I get to do each day at the school I get to lead. I made a promise to myself that if I am ever forced to mandate things I do not believe are what is best for kids I will get out of public education. Speaking only for MN and the outstate schools public education is not as bad as some make it out to be. As I said I am conservative myself and I think public education is being unfairly labeled as Liberal or pushing liberal-type agendas. But we are lucky here because our parents know exactly what we do and what their kids are doing we don't hide anything from our parents because we have nothing to hide. Thus we have a good parent-to-school connection.
Sorry for all the run-ons!

 

[flatwater bill]

@Schmidty Great post. They are fortunate to have you at the school. Public education near my home in Idaho is excellent as well......good teachers and great kids. .....FWB

 

[Lumaberpat]

I would like to share my perspective as a public school teacher for 16 years and now in year 8 as a Principal. For context, I am in west-central MN where it's pretty conservative as am I. The community my school is in and the local school board is conservative. We are a school that has about 850 students K-12 all in one building (an average of about 65 kids per grade).
I agree with Red Lag it is mostly a parenting issue.
I get tired of the across-the-board bad-mouthing of public schools in general. I am proud of our school and what we offer/ At our school we do not use pronouns, ask for pronouns, or discuss pronouns. We do not teach CRT, we do not teach or discuss or implement DEI, we don't have tampoons in the boys' bathrooms, we still use boys' and girls' bathrooms and lockerroom, we don't have litterboxes in the bathrooms, we don't let kids dress up as furries.
We love all kids that come to our building each day and our number one priority is to keep them safe and build meaningful connections with them. After that is when the learning begins. If kids don't feel safe or connected it's hard for them to learn.
We allow homeschool students who live within our district to participate in all of our extracurricular activities including band and choir. We don't worry about money in that we have to have all of our students come to our school because of the money they generate. It helps we are financially stable. We also recognize that the kids who reside in our district regardless if they go to our school or not are members of our community and we want them to be contributing members so why would we limit their opportunities? We might be different than most public schools by these standards but I am confident to say that most of the schools outside of the major metro areas in Minnesota operate the way we do. We are not perfect, we are not for everyone, which is why there is open enrollment and parents can choose any school in the state they want regardless of where they live. Or they can choose an online school, homeschooling, or parochial school.
Sorry for the run on but I am pretty passionate about what I get to do each day at the school I get to lead. I made a promise to myself that if I am ever forced to mandate things I do not believe are what is best for kids I will get out of public education. Speaking only for MN and the outstate schools public education is not as bad as some make it out to be. As I said I am conservative myself and I think public education is being unfairly labeled as Liberal or pushing liberal-type agendas. But we are lucky here because our parents know exactly what we do and what their kids are doing we don't hide anything from our parents because we have nothing to hide. Thus we have a good parent-to-school connection.
Sorry for all the run-ons!

I honestly did not think schools as you describe still existed in the US! This school even as a “private school” would be breaking laws! The closest you could get would be a “homeschooling co-op” we tried one and didn’t really like it, but it works for a lot of people.

Should I leave NY? Yes!
Does a broken family situation keep me here? Also yes!

 

[1dirthawker]

My dad had one that looked like this. One evening he hit me hard enough it split down the middle, and I remember feeling joy as I cried myself to sleep that the paddle had met its end.

The next day, it was hanging in its spot, a bead of hot melt glue having made it whole again.

People tell me "Oh, that's awful he abused you like that!" I was not abused; I was disciplined. My dad had his faults; his use of corporal punishment was not one of them.


View attachment 653748

my mom had that exact paddle!! dad usually used a belt, but thankfully, i did not earn it very very often.

 

[Schmidty]

I honestly did not think schools as you describe still existed in the US! This school even as a “private school” would be breaking laws! The closest you could get would be a “homeschooling co-op” we tried one and didn’t really like it, but it works for a lot of people.

Should I leave NY? Yes!
Does a broken family situation keep me here? Also yes!

This is exactly why I wanted to post what I did. It shocks me that people think schools like ours don't exist but I don't know a lot about public education outside of MN.

 

[CJW]

Saudi drives a car through Christmas market in Germany.

2 dead, many injured after man drives into German Christmas market in suspected terror attack: report

A festive Christmas market in Madgeburg, Germany erupted into chaos after a car was driven into a group of people.

www.foxnews.com

 

[1dirthawker]

I'm not certain about this day and age, but years ago, some home schooled kids just didn't seem......normal.?
Maybe it was a lack of interaction with other children, and being exposed to the real world in a learning environment? I don't know?
My sister has a house next to a family with a small tribe of home schooled kids. She calls them " The Children of the Corn".......lol

my 6 grandkids are home schooled. they do, once a week meet with other kids at a facility (a church in this case) and have all of their classes with other kids.

i have seen home schooled kids 20 years ago that seemed...a little different. the kids at my grandkids school are intelligent, disciplined and courteous. my eldest granddaughter is 17 and recently spoke at a conference attended by ONLY adults and received a standing ovation from said adults.

i was truly worried about my daughter schooling the kids initially and said so to her. she was worried about the decline of the public schools here (anchorage ak) and said so. well, she was right and i was wrong on that. i am a believer in the program my grandkids attend and would say they are completely normal except probably a bit more courteous than the average school kiddo.

my kiddos did not lose any education during the covid lock downs, i feel bad for the parents and kids that had to endure lockdowns, closures, masks and vaccines. none of that affected my grandkids. i am a fan of how they homeschool here.

as an aside, quite a few parents are pulling their kids, the local school district is talking about closing 3 schools because of student loss. I'm disappointed that homeschooling is needed, but am glad my daughter decided to do it.

 

[steve white]

Saudi drives a car through Christmas market in Germany.

2 dead, many injured after man drives into German Christmas market in suspected terror attack: report

A festive Christmas market in Madgeburg, Germany erupted into chaos after a car was driven into a group of people.

www.foxnews.com

This is nowhere near the first time this has happened--it is an act of Islamic terrorism. The driver should be charged with such!
The fact that it has be perpetrated by an educated person--a doctor, is a challenge to the usual characterization of a terrorist, as well.