We have always homeschooled with history as our basis and incorporate
other studies around that. It just seems logical and has worked best
for us to incorporate all of our studies (math and science excepted)
around a history spine. It has made choosing literature easy and has
given my sons a framework for the "whys" of the way things happen and
the philosophies that have made the world what it is today.
So,
the benefit of this is that we recognize that history is all around us
and becomes fascinating rather than lifeless and dull which happens when children read a dumbed down textbook and memorize sterilized facts, dates and names. We
don't memorize dates and events as isolated facts but learn them as they
become an important to our current interest.
This brings me to the Jim Crow Laws as we were recently studying in Government.
Who is Jim Crow? What are they? Are dates important? How did
Brown vs. Board of Education and Plessy vs. Ferguson fit into this? Why is teaching this unsavory part of American history even important? Because this very thing is being rewritten and unless someone keeps the truth alive, our citizens
will believe a lie. Well, many already believe the rewritten history lie, so much so that telling the truth raises the ire of the willfully ignorant.
Truth:
Republicans (think Abraham Lincoln) were frequently the authors of Civil Rights legislation and equal rights for black citizens, native Americans and women.
Truth:
The Ku Klux Klan was founded by Democrat terrorists who initially not only targeted black citizens but Republicans who pushed for equality. Democrats also actively opposed the 14th amendment, the right to vote for blacks and women, civil rights legislation,and anything else that smacked of equality for blacks and women.
The rewrite of history? It is happening as we speak. And the result of it sits in the oval office.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Liberals Disciple the Masses
There is a relatively simple reason why the left gets away with the lies and so many of the masses believe them at the expense of our country and at the expense of the campaigns of the good, truthful men like those that lost these recent elections.
Step one: It begins with early public education. Children from elementary up are no longer taught HOW to think but WHAT to think. They are trained to listen and parrot what their textbooks and teachers tell them, regardless of its accuracy. They are not taught to discern and distill information, but to regurgitate information, the basis for textbooks and fill-in-the-blank workbooks. The information that they will regurgitate is that which is handed to the educators from the powers that be, whether it be lobbyists, political organizations or politically correct and malleable administrators.
Step two: It continues with higher education indoctrination. Again, students are not true "free-thinkers" but simply regurgitate the spoon-fed ideologies of their professors for the right grade. Ask any student what happens if they answer something based on truthfulness when they are supposed to give a canned, politically correct answer. They are not allowed to take an opposing view if it is not in agreement with the party line. Truth and reality do not matter. Historical accuracy doesn't matter. (Ask my college age son who clarified his humanity professor's incorrect history of Muslims that she spouted during a recent lecture. In correcting her, using actual information from the Koran, she sarcastically asked him if he wanted to teach the class since he was clearly more knowledgeable than she. He agreed and she silenced him as he stood in front of his class.)
Step three: It ends with these students growing to become a technology and entertainment-addicted culture, the majority of which get their "news" and information from the Pravda media and Hollywood. If the same lies are said over and over, they, out of habit, do what they were taught to do in school. They parrot it. If anything is said long and loud enough, they must repeat it, whether or not it is true. This is catechism-like indoctrination.
Our society, for the most part, (the polly-parrot voting constituency) no longer reads to learn after they graduate, they no longer discern the truth from what they read, nor do they form their own opinion based on primary source material, They form their "opinion" based on what they are told to think and simply parrot the information. They are supposed to use the same language also, just like they learned in grade school when they were introduced to political correctness.
The conservative movement humbly asks these polly-parrot masses to actually think and form educated opinions. They ask that they actually read and get informed. Difficult topics are commonly broached, studied, discussed and disseminated among conservatives who still enjoy learning and tackling tedious subjects like fiscal responsibility, foreign policy, and economic issues. This is far more difficult than watching Letterman or Saturday Night Live, which is where many commonly get their information on current events. We can throw in an occasional segment on CNN and this discipling Pravda news becomes their reality.
Step one: It begins with early public education. Children from elementary up are no longer taught HOW to think but WHAT to think. They are trained to listen and parrot what their textbooks and teachers tell them, regardless of its accuracy. They are not taught to discern and distill information, but to regurgitate information, the basis for textbooks and fill-in-the-blank workbooks. The information that they will regurgitate is that which is handed to the educators from the powers that be, whether it be lobbyists, political organizations or politically correct and malleable administrators.
Step two: It continues with higher education indoctrination. Again, students are not true "free-thinkers" but simply regurgitate the spoon-fed ideologies of their professors for the right grade. Ask any student what happens if they answer something based on truthfulness when they are supposed to give a canned, politically correct answer. They are not allowed to take an opposing view if it is not in agreement with the party line. Truth and reality do not matter. Historical accuracy doesn't matter. (Ask my college age son who clarified his humanity professor's incorrect history of Muslims that she spouted during a recent lecture. In correcting her, using actual information from the Koran, she sarcastically asked him if he wanted to teach the class since he was clearly more knowledgeable than she. He agreed and she silenced him as he stood in front of his class.)
Step three: It ends with these students growing to become a technology and entertainment-addicted culture, the majority of which get their "news" and information from the Pravda media and Hollywood. If the same lies are said over and over, they, out of habit, do what they were taught to do in school. They parrot it. If anything is said long and loud enough, they must repeat it, whether or not it is true. This is catechism-like indoctrination.
Our society, for the most part, (the polly-parrot voting constituency) no longer reads to learn after they graduate, they no longer discern the truth from what they read, nor do they form their own opinion based on primary source material, They form their "opinion" based on what they are told to think and simply parrot the information. They are supposed to use the same language also, just like they learned in grade school when they were introduced to political correctness.
The conservative movement humbly asks these polly-parrot masses to actually think and form educated opinions. They ask that they actually read and get informed. Difficult topics are commonly broached, studied, discussed and disseminated among conservatives who still enjoy learning and tackling tedious subjects like fiscal responsibility, foreign policy, and economic issues. This is far more difficult than watching Letterman or Saturday Night Live, which is where many commonly get their information on current events. We can throw in an occasional segment on CNN and this discipling Pravda news becomes their reality.
Friday, October 26, 2012
On the Burning of Books
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is an intriguing apocalyptic story about censorship, and while it has some liberal thoughts, I found a portion of Bradbury's coda at the end of the book very interesting. He mentions:
"Two weeks ago my mountain of mail delivered forth a pipsqueak mouse of a letter from a well-known publishing house that wanted to reprint my story "The Fog Horn" in a high school reader. In my story, I had described a lighthouse as having, late at night, an illumination coming from it that was a 'God-light.' Looking up at it from the viewpoint of any sea-creature one would have felt that one was in 'the Presence.' The editors had deleted 'God-light' and 'in the Presence.'"
Wow, to censor Ray Bradbury, the author who foretold of censorship. And it's not that he comes across from a Christian point of view either. Fascinating.
He then writes more about the editing of yet another "literature anthology" for school readers. He asserts:
"How do you cram 400 (count 'em) short stories.....by Twain, Irving, Poe, Maupassant and Bierce into one book? Simplicity itself. Skin, debone, demarrow, scarify, melt, render down and destroy. Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito--out! Every simile that would have made a sub-moron's mouth twitch--gone! Any aside that explained the two-bit philosophy of a first-rate writer--lost! Every story, slenderized, starved, bluepenciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read like Shakespeare read like Dostoevsky read like--Edgar Guest. Every word of more than three syllables had been razored. Every image that demanded so much as one instant's attention--shot dead.....the point is obvious. There is more than one way to burn a book."
So what does this mean for homeschoolers? Of course, I could ask, what does this mean for anyone, but the ones who really seem to care would be those who choose to home educate their children. Do your best to avoid those watered down literature anthologies or pre-filtered abridged versions of, some of the best literature that is chosen by you for your children to read. Allow them to be challenged by lengthy sentences, high-minded thoughts, tedious or challenging words. Encourage them to read broadly and express their opinions freely about what they read. I do not mean trashy stuff, I mean a wide variety with an eye to challenge and provoke them to grow into their own perspective on society, culture, worldview and ultimately to challenge them in their Christ-like walk in this age, above all not neglecting to absorb the Word of God with voracious appetite, knowing that possibly, someday, it could be abridged, filtered or burned as well.
"Two weeks ago my mountain of mail delivered forth a pipsqueak mouse of a letter from a well-known publishing house that wanted to reprint my story "The Fog Horn" in a high school reader. In my story, I had described a lighthouse as having, late at night, an illumination coming from it that was a 'God-light.' Looking up at it from the viewpoint of any sea-creature one would have felt that one was in 'the Presence.' The editors had deleted 'God-light' and 'in the Presence.'"
Wow, to censor Ray Bradbury, the author who foretold of censorship. And it's not that he comes across from a Christian point of view either. Fascinating.
He then writes more about the editing of yet another "literature anthology" for school readers. He asserts:
"How do you cram 400 (count 'em) short stories.....by Twain, Irving, Poe, Maupassant and Bierce into one book? Simplicity itself. Skin, debone, demarrow, scarify, melt, render down and destroy. Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito--out! Every simile that would have made a sub-moron's mouth twitch--gone! Any aside that explained the two-bit philosophy of a first-rate writer--lost! Every story, slenderized, starved, bluepenciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read like Shakespeare read like Dostoevsky read like--Edgar Guest. Every word of more than three syllables had been razored. Every image that demanded so much as one instant's attention--shot dead.....the point is obvious. There is more than one way to burn a book."
So what does this mean for homeschoolers? Of course, I could ask, what does this mean for anyone, but the ones who really seem to care would be those who choose to home educate their children. Do your best to avoid those watered down literature anthologies or pre-filtered abridged versions of, some of the best literature that is chosen by you for your children to read. Allow them to be challenged by lengthy sentences, high-minded thoughts, tedious or challenging words. Encourage them to read broadly and express their opinions freely about what they read. I do not mean trashy stuff, I mean a wide variety with an eye to challenge and provoke them to grow into their own perspective on society, culture, worldview and ultimately to challenge them in their Christ-like walk in this age, above all not neglecting to absorb the Word of God with voracious appetite, knowing that possibly, someday, it could be abridged, filtered or burned as well.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Homeschooling using Gas Prices
The best thing about homeschooling is that we get to bring real life
lessons into our school day, and give our children the tool of learning
why they are learning
what they are learning.
So, with my usual political bent here is an interesting look at annual gas price statistics adjusted for inflation.
(taken from: http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/2012/02/27/how-high-have-gas-prices-risen-over-the-years/)
One interesting thing that I noticed, and one I hope affects the way we all vote is that many of the increases or spikes seem to coincide when we had Democrats in the office of the president or in control of the senate and the house and generally the lowest rates were when Republicans were in office or in notable control of the Congress.
You could have your children correlate this better than my off the cuff observations but I notice the first spike in the charts above takes place when the progressive (read: liberal, democrat) Woodrow Wilson takes office in 1919. There it is up there on the right side of the graph. Up and down it goes depending on the party in control. According to this graph and others, the steepest incline happened in '79 with Jimmy Carter and the drastic decline happened when Reagan took office in 1980. Reagan's vast tax cuts and conservative leadership were a healing balm to our nation.
Gas prices pretty much rise and fall based on who carried the majority in both Executive and Legislative branches with very few exceptions: gas prices went up for Democrats, down for Republicans. It's not that the president or congress had actual control over those prices. These prices are dependant upon the balance of their decisions and what is happening because of the people we vote into office. They depend on what we pay for the foreign oil, the taxes put in place, or kept in place, the wars they engaged in, foreign relations, domestic policies, and articificial manipulation of prices through speculations. All of these are contributing factors to whether or not the prices will generally go up or down. It's not a game of pure chance. So teach your children to vote RIGHT.
what they are learning.
So, with my usual political bent here is an interesting look at annual gas price statistics adjusted for inflation.
One interesting thing that I noticed, and one I hope affects the way we all vote is that many of the increases or spikes seem to coincide when we had Democrats in the office of the president or in control of the senate and the house and generally the lowest rates were when Republicans were in office or in notable control of the Congress.
You could have your children correlate this better than my off the cuff observations but I notice the first spike in the charts above takes place when the progressive (read: liberal, democrat) Woodrow Wilson takes office in 1919. There it is up there on the right side of the graph. Up and down it goes depending on the party in control. According to this graph and others, the steepest incline happened in '79 with Jimmy Carter and the drastic decline happened when Reagan took office in 1980. Reagan's vast tax cuts and conservative leadership were a healing balm to our nation.
Gas prices pretty much rise and fall based on who carried the majority in both Executive and Legislative branches with very few exceptions: gas prices went up for Democrats, down for Republicans. It's not that the president or congress had actual control over those prices. These prices are dependant upon the balance of their decisions and what is happening because of the people we vote into office. They depend on what we pay for the foreign oil, the taxes put in place, or kept in place, the wars they engaged in, foreign relations, domestic policies, and articificial manipulation of prices through speculations. All of these are contributing factors to whether or not the prices will generally go up or down. It's not a game of pure chance. So teach your children to vote RIGHT.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Government High School is not Cost-free
In working on my sons course descriptions for their transcripts, and making course choices, I thought I would glance at the course catalog from the high school I graduated from in NM. I went to a large high school with a ton of great classes offered as alternatives to the typical fare. I remember every summer when they would mail out the course catalog, how I enjoyed mapping out my course work and electives for the year based on my plans post-high school combined with whimsy. I felt privileged to be able to choose classes like Calligraphy, Interior Design, Comprehensive Law, Journalism, Humanities and Political Theory.
What I was shocked to see is that many of these classes now have a fee assessed. Many charged $20/year or higher. So, if I had chosen the creative route today instead of, say, English 10 or Plain old Algebra 2 (some of those are still free) the course load would come with a hefty price tag for a "free" high school!
Even the Foreign Languages all charged fees and for sure all the Phys Ed electives like Aerobics, Weight Training, Yoga and Sports Medicine charged fees around $25.
Anyhow, I didn't know that "free" education wasn't "free" anymore.
Call me a mushroom for being in the dark.
What I was shocked to see is that many of these classes now have a fee assessed. Many charged $20/year or higher. So, if I had chosen the creative route today instead of, say, English 10 or Plain old Algebra 2 (some of those are still free) the course load would come with a hefty price tag for a "free" high school!
Even the Foreign Languages all charged fees and for sure all the Phys Ed electives like Aerobics, Weight Training, Yoga and Sports Medicine charged fees around $25.
Anyhow, I didn't know that "free" education wasn't "free" anymore.
Call me a mushroom for being in the dark.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Kitchen Project: Getting There...
A few of the painted cabinets have been installed,along with something to house our fridge. Up until
now, it still looked like we pushed it to the
other side of the kitchen and forgot it there. At least
it now looks like we intend to keep it there. Our genius
carpenter, Rich Vogt, fashioned a new cabinet housing
for the old front which is insanely HUGE and will be a
wonderful place to hold my rarely-used holiday ware and
tablecloths. Shoot, the boys could practically hide in there during
one of their epic hide-and-seek games with their friends
and maybe give my laundry chute a break.
surface that I won't have to stress over. Wipe and go...that's my motto. Or forget to wipe and go....no worries.
We chose one in the Radiant line which was a little pricier but oh-so-pretty. It was still less than a solid surface counter and more impervious to stains.
Dare I mention why we don't have our sink/counter yet? A mistake in measuring cost us another week before it comes in so we have been operating without a kitchen sink for 4 months. I'm thankful to my mother who taught me to "make do" and deal with adversity when it comes to these sort of inconveniences. We have risen to the challenge before and another couple of weeks won't kill us.
Final post should be "before and after" shots.
Kitchen Project: Early Stages
My middle son is examining another drain/vent pipe issue. (Note that he is sporting the trendy Sonlight Window Cleaning shirt.....feel free to call for bright and shiny clean windows, gutter cleaning, pressure washing or screen repair! www.sonlightwindowcleaning.com)
Fixing the drain/vent pipe, which meant relocating it, paid a truck payment or two for our handy plumber. If my boys don't decide to become electricians, maybe I can talk at least one of them into a career in plumbing.
The old linoleum is still on the floor which sports many holes from the cleats of Tim Masthay (and his brothers probably) when they lived here. Tim has gone on to play football for the Green Bay Packers (as noted by the signs all over our fine town advertising their 2010 Super Bowl win!) The old linoleum is now gone along with the visible evidence reminding us why we don't wear our cleats in the kitchen. The football spirit remained, and my sons are now playing homeschool football with a great team, following the spirit of the football Tims. (Tim Masthay & former homeschooler, Tim Tebow)
More to come.
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