Could our public schools be better run by state and local citizens?

Tags

bad teachers, Common Core, education, government bloat, learning differences, NEA, public-schools, states-rights, teach-to-the-test, teachers' unions, tenure, US Constitution

Republican Proposes Eliminating Department of Education. Here Are 7 Reasons That’s A Great Idea.

 

For years, I fought the NEA as a teacher, to teach to the student, the individual student instead of the “class.” Sadly, at tis point, the NEA is more interested in political statements an political correctness than in the actual education of our students. If you look at the front page of their website, there is very little about the education f our students, but much about various political viewpoints.

The NEA is arguably one of the most powerful Unions in America.They are noted for huge donations to candidates of the Democrat party and to the party itself. They also played a huge role in the design and implementation of “Obamacare.”It is very confusing to me, as a teacher, that the focus of tis powerful union is on anything BUT the education of our students.

I began asking about the significance of the Dept of Education 2 or 3 decades ago as the curricula began to stray from the basics of reading, writing and math. Now, students are taught many things that will carry little significance as they enter real world and become productive citizens.

Who knows their children better, the federal government or the locals? Who can better adjust the curriculum to improve local results?

This article is wonderful!  What do you think?

**********

House Republican has proposed abolishing the

Department of Education.

By: Aaron Bandler

February 9, 2017

A House Republican has proposed abolishing the Department of Education.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) put forth a bill that simply states that the department will cease to exist at the end of 2018. It has the support of at least seven other House Republicans, including Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Raul Labrador (R-ID)

Here are seven reasons why eliminating the Department of Education would be a great idea.

1. Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education as a form of political payback to the teachers unions. According to Reason, Carter had decide to establish the department to thank the National Education Association (NEA) for their support in 1976 and, given his low approval ratings at the time, he hoped that forming the Department of Education would ensure the NEA’s support for the 1980 election.

A House Democrat even admitted at the time, “The idea of an Education Department is really a bad one. But it’s NEA’s top priority. There are school teachers in every congressional district and most of us simply don’t need the aggravation of taking them on.”

The NEA’s executive director in 1980 declared, “There’d be no department without the NEA.”

What better way to help break the teachers unions’ iron grip on education than abolishing the Department of Education?

2. The department is unconstitutional. The Constitution makes no mention of education; it is not an enumerated power given to the federal government. Therefore, under the Tenth Amendment, education should be left to the states and the federal government should be kept out of it.

 3. The results under the Department of Education have been abysmal. In January 2016, the Daily Wire highlighted the following statistics from Mark Levin’s Plunder and Deceit: Big Government’s Exploitation of Young People and the Future:

• U.S. fifteen-year-olds scored below average in math, science and reading among OECD nations, according to the Program for International Student Assessment. This is despite the fact that Luxembourg and Norway are the only two OECD nations that spent more per student on education than the U.S.
• Only 43 percent of students who took the SAT in 2013 were deemed as “college-ready.”
• 2013 was the fifth straight year where less than half of those taking the SAT scored above 1550, which is “the threshold for demonstrating the capability to maintain a grade point average (GPA) of B-minus or better in a four-year degree college or university.”
• Only 26 percent of U.S. 12th graders are skilled in math and only 38 percent are skilled in reading, according to the 2013 NAEP report.
• 66 percent of all applicants to the Armed Services Vocational Battery “fail to meet the minimal educational standards on the tests.”

Levin also cites a study by Andrew Coulson, director of Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, which determined that SAT scores over the past 40 years have declined by an average of 3 percent, similar to trends observed by the NAEP.

“Consistent with those patterns, there has been essentially no correlation between what states have spent on education and their measured academic outcomes,” Coulson writes.”

The Department of Education has been an abject failure; it only makes sense to get rid of it.

4. Eliminating the Department of Education would end Common Core. The Daily Wire has previously highlighted the following about Common Core:

As Michelle Malkin has explained, Common Core has further federalized education and co-opted schools into dumbed-down standards, revisionist left-wing history and ridiculous math problems that are more complicated than they need to be while setting back children’s progress in this crucial subject compared to other countries. It is also a massive data mining scheme that collects “information on every student’s personality, attitudes, values, beliefs, and disposition, a psychological profile called Interpersonal Skills Standards and anchors” that the federal government uses as part of a “decision making model,” according to Fox News.

Read more here!

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“What is the purpose of public education?”

Tags

a House divided against itself cannot stand, Americanism, citizenship, common ground, divisions, education, freedom, legal immigrants, melting pot, public school

The question is,”What is the purpose of public education?” That depends on who you ask.

“The purpose of education is to enable us to develop to the fullest that which is inside us” Norman Cousins, prominent political journalist, author and professor

“The purpose of education is to cultivate human minds with values and principles that help to distinguish between wrong and right. The purpose of education though has a much broader aspect which also entails learning skill for a certain area along with achieving overall development. While life passes education never ends, so education purpose entails a continuous change in direction.” (emphasis mine)

Horace Mann, commonly named the “Father of American Education,” “founded and edited The Common School Journal. In this journal, Mann targeted the public school and its problems. His six main principles were:

(1) the public should no longer remain ignorant;

(2) that such education should be paid for, controlled, and sustained by an interested public;

(3) that this education will be best provided in schools that embrace children from a variety of backgrounds;

(4) that this education must be non-sectarian;

(5) that this education must be taught by the spirit, methods, and discipline of a free society; and

(6) that education should be provided by well-trained, professional teachers.

Mann worked for more and better equipped school houses, longer school years (until 16 years old), higher pay for teachers, and a wider curriculum.”

The problem with today’s public education is that it generally fails in all six principles. Many of our high schools produce children who still cannot read with comprehension, write grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs, or  essays or solve basic math in life situations. Public school has been repeatedly and routinely dumbed down, especially over the last decade, to the lowest common denominator, and its original purpose: to prepare our children for a productive and responsible adult life, has been perverted to emphasize our differences rather than our common ground.

Parents are much busier in their own lives which means generally less involvement in their childrens’ educational process. In America’s early years, parents were actually fined if they were found slacking in the education of their children. Now, in essence, our children are being raised by the State which is not allowed to teach morals. Deposited in local daycares as early as 3 weeks old, many parents see their children long enough to feed them, bathe them, and tuck them into bed. Whose responsibility is it to see that your children are properly educated and prepared for adulthood?

In this era of political correctness, the American public is  told education must be all-inclusive across the board. That means ethnicity, race, religion, ability, and legal status, supposedly, don’t affect the availability or quality of education . As commonly happens, however, in the attempt to equalize that which is not equal by definition, the prevailing thought is seen to be “old-fashioned,” “too narrow,” “not appropriate for today’s youth,” or just idiotic.

“Because the way a people schools its children is so closely tied to how a people sees itself and its priorities,” history tells us that while once, it was “wishful thinking” for Americans to see themselves as the proverbial “melting pot,” a unified society, over the last decade, history seems to indicate that the “wishful thinking,” or perhaps the “social communism” taught in our schools today demonstrates a question of whether Americans still “wish”to be unified.”  from Public Education in America: Born in Unity; Endangered by Disunity

“If we look at it analytically, if we look at it historically, we quickly find out exactly what it is. Political Correctness is cultural Marxism. It is Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms. It is an effort that goes back not to the 1960s and the hippies and the peace movement, but back to World War I. If we compare the basic tenets of Political Correctness with classical Marxism the parallels are very obvious.”

When public school was born, our nation was populated predominantly with legal immigrants from many nations far and wide. Public school was designed at that time to teach “Americanism!” It was supposed to even the ground so all knew the American way AND the American Dream. In complete contrast, now, Americanism is gone, and schools are sterilized lest anyone be “offended” at what might appear to be American. Some schools g so far as to disallow clothing or decals depicting the American flag.

Schools are supposed to teach by the spirit, methods, and discipline of a free America. Like,uh, no patriotic clothing or gear, no Christmas, no Christianity, but satanism is okay, Islam is okay, existentialism is okay, humanitarianism is okay … and of course, materialism is wonderful, but capitalism is EVIL. Education is taught from a liberal political perspective, especially in our colleges and universities, and all other thoughts are dismissed as absurd.

When public school was born, America was a young nation of legal immigrants in search of a better life. It became obvious quickly that with all the different nations, languages, religions and ethnicities involved, something had to be done to get everyone on the ame page, so to speak. Public school was born, not just to teach basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also Americanism … and even in some places, trades. Whether or not it began as a myth, it morphed into the reality many of us knew as children.

No longer are those basic academics taught adequately, but all that has been AMERICA is being scrubbed from the curriculum as well and replaced with certain bits and pieces of chosen cultures and doctrines, many of which are completely counter-American.

I asked this question before, now I ask again … Who are we, America?

E Pluribus Unum: Out of many, ONE

“A people only begins to discover conservatism when it becomes aware of something it has lost. By the mid-20th century, Americans knew they had lost their independence from the affairs of the old world, and they increasingly felt the loss of the culture and community that had defined their form of self-government. Now America was a nation of big business and even bigger government … Today the country pays the price for the left-wing ideologies that ran rampant in the 20th century and the right-wing, but not conservative, reaction that has only exacerbated the destruction wrought by the left. To solve the country’s seemingly intractable–and, in the long-term, lethal–strategic, economic, and socio-cultural problems requires a rediscovery of traditional conservatism.”

Do we still comprehend the meaning of FREEDOM?

Are we still …

the Land of the FREE and the home of the Brave?

Or have we been bought

by the promise of a lifetime vacation

with plenty of FREE goodies

paid for by … ?

AMERICA, who are we?

ADDITIONAL READING:

Public Education in America: Born in Unity; Endangered by Disunity

Who are We, America?

Who We Are

Who Are We?: The Challenges to America’s National Identity

The Contest for Pennsylvania

Tags

economy, education, election 2014, enery development, information, jobs, Pennsylvania, politics, reality, US Military Veterans

Don’t be fooled by the polls showing Corbett behind. Those are “soft” numbers that don’t reflect the reality. It is important to remember that in the 1980’s Republican Governor Dick Thornburg was 15 points behind his challenger at this point 5 weeks before the election and won. So there’s no need for us to give up.

A little info …

Tom Corbett won the first debate with his opponent last week. In that debate Tom Wolf showed that he has no specific plan or ideas for PA and that his high tax and big spending ideas will drive jobs and prosperity out of Pennsylvania. Why would a Pennsylvanian choose a man with no plan, no experience, and only bad ideas shared with the worst President in American’s history? The next 2 debates on Oct 1 and Oct 8 will further reveal that Tom Wolf is not qualified to be governor.

Compare & choose …

Tom Wolf is a millionaire’s son who spent 13 years after graduation from high school being a “professional student” in college and the Peace Corps to avoid the draft. When he finally started his first job at age 31 he took over his father’s company. He’s never run for elective office and served only 2 years as Revenue Secretary for Ed Rendell which was largely a political appointment. Tom Wolf will be Pennsylvania’s version of Barack Obama with no experience, no qualifications and radical left wing ideas. By the way, Wolf has maxed out his contributions to Barack Obama.

In contrast, Tom Corbett has had a long career of public service starting as township supervisor in Shaler and serving as assistant district attorney in Allegheny County, U.S. attorney, and then PA Attorney General. Not only is Corbett experienced and competent but he is honest and decent with humility that Wolf seems to lack. Please check out this link to Tom Corbett’s web site for more info – http://www.tomcorbettforgovernor.com/

PLEASE …

This election is so important for the future of Pennsylvania and for the quality of our lives and the future of our children. We cannot just sit on the sidelines and allow our state to fall into the hands of those who will destroy jobs and prosperity. Everyone seems to have high level strategic ideas for how the campaign should be run, but the best way that we can can really affect the outcome of this election is by rolling up our sleeves and doing the needed grassroots work in our community to persuade people to vote for Tom Corbett. This means talking with friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers about Tom Corbett. It also means bumper stickers and signs in your yard and canvassing and phone calls. Too many people are not willing to work for good candidates and that’s why we end up with so many unqualified and corrupt elected officials.

Is the future of Pennsylvania important to you? If so, then it’s time for us to stop complaining and pitch in.

READ MORE:

The Power of Education

Supporting Pennsylvania’s Veterans

Creating Jobs, Growing the Economy

Making Pennsylvania a Critical Energy Supplier

The Spirit of “Paul Revere’s Ride”

Tags

courage, education, globalists, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, leadership, lofty ideals, obama, patriotism, Paul Revere's Ride, personal sacrifice, work

In third grade, I was required to memorize and recite the first three stanzas of this epic poem classic. (Do schools ever do this any more?) It was the spark that ignited my fascination with the search for the New World, the great experiment known as AMERICA.

The spirit of Paul Revere’s Ride goes beyond the poetic perfection of the rhyme and meter achieved by Longfellow, even beyond the historical relevance, to the heart of one man, a Patriot, sometimes referred to as “any-man.”

America, too, is much more than her geographical dimensions, her conglomerate of peoples and tribes and nations all mixed together into One People. America is even more than her founding documents: the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States of America.

America is an idea. It is BIG and BOLD. It is unique in the world. It is INDEPENDENCE – depending on no one else for anything, and she promotes independence in her people and around the world. It is pride, but not arrogance. It is generosity, but not manipulation. It is compassion, but not lawlessness. It is unique in ideal because it seeks “equality” for all, under the law. It is contrary to human nature, but still possible, if we are willing to WORK for it, willing to sacrifice for it, willing to swim against the stream for it. It’s easy to be mediocre, middle of the stream, average. Not so easy to be the best, the strongest, the leader because leaders are RESPONSIBLE for & to those they wish to lead.

“My legacy will be an America brought down to the level of the rest of the world.”
~ Barack Obama ~

Why the Globalists Selected Obama to be President

I wish “Paul Revere’s Ride” was required reading, not only for third graders, but for each and every adult citizen of this nation. Please read it … aloud, if possible, and let it stir your heart, your love for the IDEA of AMERICA. And then, share that Spirit … the spirit that says we can be AMERICA again. We can be strong, but compassionate, A NATION OF LAWS, and not men. We can be innovative, yet controlled. We can rein in our spending as a government and reduce the waste and overlap of offices. We can return to the perimeters of the Constitution, if we are willing to count the cost of NOT doing so.

Surely, if evolution is fact, then shouldn’t the human race be bettering itself instead of seeking mediocrity and the lowest common denominator?

Read … and share!

The Landlord’s Tale. Paul Revere’s Ride

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in ‘Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light, —
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

Then he said, “Good night!” and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street,
Wanders and watches with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry-chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade, —
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town,
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night-encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, “All is well!”
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay, —
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride,
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse’s side,
Now gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle-girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry-tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! As he looks, on the belfry’s height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns!

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet:
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.

He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders, that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer’s dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket-ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled, —
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farm-yard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm, —
A cry of defiance and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Click HERE to jump to amazon to buy a copy for your shelf or for your children or grandchildren!

Follow the Matrix of Liberty

Tags

America, character, Christianity, education, faith, Forefathers' Monument, Founders, freedom, justice, LAW, liberty, Matrix of Liberty, mercy, morality, Pilrims, Separatists, tyranny, youth

Matrix of Liberty: The Founders’ Monument

or
Where Do We Go From Here?

Unknown or unacknowledged by many, our forefathers erected a “Matrix of Liberty” for the purpose of documentation. It documents the road map they followed to win and establish LIBERTY in AMERICA. The monument has been there for decades, built with government funds, in the off chance We, the People would lose our way and allow the government to assume tyrannical power. Oops! Good thing, right? Yet, it is ignored.

Below, the matrix is explained. Each of the granite figures carries meanings like pieces of a puzzle. I have outlined each figure below, but the video completes the explanation. Please watch and be amazed!!!

FAITH
Meet FAITH! She is paramount! She is pointing upward toward the God of the Bible. FAITH in God is what brought the first Pilgrims, or Separatists, to Plymouth. Not the sour, pious stiffness we were told in school, but a LIVE FAITH that carried them through persecution and hardship as they broke free from tyranny.

MORLITY
Morality is internal liberty, and starts in the HEART of the individual. As we pursue our God in faith, He teaches us true fairness via internal morality of heart.

EVANGELIST
EVANGELISTS preach the message that transforms the heart. TRUE Freedom and Morality are products of FAITH in GOD and His Promises, the BIBLE, studied and taught to every person.

LAW
A MORAL SYSTEM translated from God’s Law into civil law, balanced by MERCY and JUSTICE, with Equality under the LAW for each individual.

EDUCATION
A Woman training her young children (YOUTH) according to heart-held principles and an honorable character, preparing the next generation to carry forward the “Matrix of Liberty!”

LIBERTY
LIBERTY is the result of following the “Matrix of Liberty!” LIBERTY is seated in Victory. He is holding the broken chains of the manacle of tyranny attached to his leg. He has slain the Lion Tyrant, yet bears the marks as a remembrance on his shoulder. Liberty has his foot on the chest of Tyranny, holding it down by following God’s principles only – no bloodshed! Strength based on Morality, overcoming evil with Goodness!

So much of what we were taught in school, and even more of what our children are being taught in school today is simply untrue based on historical documents still in existence. Notably, the first Bibles printed in the United States were funded by CONGRESS in 1782 for the use of our SCHOOLS – First public school law!!! Bibles were used in schools starting in 1647 through 1963 (which I remember!)

LEARN MORE … PLEASE WATCH VIDEO!!!!!

So … where do we go from here, America? Toward FAITH or TYRANNY?

Related reading: The Forefathers’ Monument Explained – VERY COOL!

You Might Really be a CONSERVATIVE if …

Tags

conversation, education, freedom, government, government intimidation, help, Individual rights, intelligence, IRS, label-less, labels, mis-information, NSA, personal entitlement, Personal responsibility, privacy rights, questions, universal moral code, US Constitution, welfare

You might be a Conservative if …

A number of times I’ve heard Conservative leaders indicate a dire need to educate the American public about the current status of the political system in the US. The Party of JFK, for instance, is not Obama’s party. Neither is the party of Sen. McCain, the party of most Republicans. Party lines have been skewed … or blurred … or even erased in favor of self-interest.

In light of this mass confusion or mis-identification, some questions are listed below to clarify the mis-information espoused by the media and those pushing to deceive the American people for selfish gain.

So, without further ado, YOU might really be a Conservative if …

1. you think our federal, state, and local governments ought to be required to formulate a budget and stick to it … Period! (just like you and me!)




2. you understand government is hired by the People, and must answer to the People for their policies, decisions, and actions.




3. you know ALL humans are greedy, not just the rich.




4. you think a “Fair Tax” (or flat tax) is the most equitable way to tax the nation. It’s simple and fair!




5. you there are many types of intelligence, most of which can not be well measured!




6. you think any individual’s greatest personal treasure is his/her dignity.




7. you understand that every human being needs a purpose, a reason to live, and that most find that in work and family.




8. you know that the earth has “seasons” for various things, and that while the earth is actually cooling, it has nothing to do with “greenhouse gases,” which are actually Carbon dioxide – what you and I exhale and what green plants ingest. You also understand that things like “green” electric cars must be plugged in, and therefore actually use MORE fossil fuel while claiming to be “green friendly.” It’s all a scam!




9. you appreciate the benefits of living in a nation enriched by a multitude of cultures imported by legal immigrants.




10. you know Jesus taught “personal responsibility,” not “personal entitlement!”




11. you wonder where all the bra-burning feminists are when it comes to the growing college interest in radical Islam that enslaves women.




12. you favor the Constitutional rights of the individual over the assumed “good” of the “collective.”




13. you think greed has corrupted corporate America, but also government and the Unions, and only a free market can hope to counter greed’s effects.




14. you know that even when it’s rainy and overcast, the sun is still shining!




15. you understand a universal moral code is necessary for a civilization to thrive.




16. you remember the days when neighbors actually knew one another, helped one another, and accepted our differences, instead of suspecting them of any number of crimes.




17. you understand that “political correctness” is just another word for censorship!




18. you’ve been a convenience store clerk, a school teacher, a soldier, a mother, and never been on welfare even though it might be more … politically correct.
19. you think most Hollywood celebs would be much better actors (and people) if they remembered what it felt like to struggle.




20. you question the message of both Lenin and Lennon!




21. you understand that making welfare a lifestyle is not HELP, but just another name for slavery.




22. you believe in the “Hand up,” but not the “Hand out!” For something to have value, it must cost something.
23. you want our federal government to STOP sending money and weapons to those who are NOT our allies.




24. you believe all individuals are created equal under the Law, that each individual has the right to pursue his/her life according to his/her dreams, values, and goals as long as they don’t infringe someone else’s right to the same.




25. you believe we are all different, uniquely gifted and valuable to society.




26. you believe it is impossible to create an education system that will produce only “successful” students.




27. you adhere to the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.




28. you are willing to fight to maintain the Right to bear arms in defense of yourself, your property, and your Constitution.




29. you think education’s role is to equip students to consider options and think for themselves rather than program them how to think.




30. you think the purpose of government is to facilitate the ability of the People to pursue their individual life, liberty, and happiness.

Amnesty’s Second Wind

Tags

amnesty, citizenship, education, emplyment, fairness, heathcare, jobs, obamacare, unemployment

Supporters of a higher minimum wage demonstrated outside a McDonald’s in Detroit. Published: July 31, 2013

By Arnold Ahlert
Why conservatives may be more vulnerable than ever to persuasion.

“America remains mired in the weakest recovery since WWII. The unemployment rate of 7.4 percent obscures the reality that we have the lowest workforce participation rate since 1978, 75 percent of the jobs created in 2013 are part-time with lower wage levels, and American incomes have declined 4.4 percent since the recovery began in 2009. In short, Americans need jobs. Despite that reality, President Obama is aiming to pursue comprehensive immigration reform, even though it is utterly anathema to the interests of American job-seekers.

“A report issued last summer by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) reveals that American job-seekers would get hit with a double whammy of lower wages and higher unemployment levels. “Taking into account all of those flows of new immigrants, CBO and JCT expect that a greater number of immigrants with lower skills than with higher skills would be added to the workforce, slightly pushing down the average wage for the labor force as a whole, other things being equal,” the report states. “Although the average wage would be lower than under current law over the first dozen years, the minimum wage would keep the wages of some less skilled workers from falling, dampening businesses’ demand for those workers,” the analysis added.

“Comprehensive immigration reform supporters cling to the one nugget of good news in the report, noting that the CBO estimates a reduction in the federal budget deficit of $175 billion over the first ten years following reform, along with a decrease in the federal deficit by another $700 billion the decade after that. In other words, the federal deficit would be reduced by an average of $43.75 billion per year over 20 years. In March, the Senate adopted its first formal budget in four years. They want to spend $3.7 trillion for 2014. Thus, assuming the CBO numbers are accurate, America would be shaving a grand total of just under 1.2 percent off 2014’s budget total. Since the federal budget has nearly doubled since 2000, the ongoing savings over the course of two decades would amount to little more than a rounding error.

“Furthermore, assuming the CBO’s calculations are accurate is a big “if.” According to a devastating report by the Heritage Foundation, comprehensive immigration would cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion in new spending on entitlements and social programs over a 50 year period. Heritage contends that $9.4 trillion in government benefits included in the Gang of Eight bill, namely Social Security, Medicare, social programs like Medicaid and food stamps, and coverage under Obamacare, would be offset by only $3.1 trillion in taxes paid by those who receive de facto amnesty.

“The business community isn’t buying Heritage’s contentions. As a result, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with the nation’s leading trade associations, will be backing Republicans who favor immigration reform when they run against Republican candidates who don’t in upcoming primaries. In Michigan, Reps. Justin Amash and Kerry Bentivolio will be targeted. In Alabama, business groups hope to undermine the candidacy of Dean Young, whose grassroots campaign propelled him into a Republican Party runoff with former state Senator Bradley Byrne. Business groups may also support Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Simpson, who faces a tea party challenger who pushed Simpson to embrace defunding ObamaCare.” Read MORE

Meanwhile, back on the ranch … or at the local McDonalds, min wage earners, prodded by Unions, STRIKE for $15/hr wages, so they can buy shoes for their children. Strangely, across the nation, the theme of shoes for kids was part of the “random response” from striking workers. Not one mention of greater educational opportunities, or trade school options, or maybe just looking for another job for increased wages. Strange, huh?

What do you suppose it all means?

First, Obamacare is thrust upon us. The White House’s attempt to impose federal healthcare on 300 million adults, plus unknown numbers of illegals, will fundamentally change the relationship between government and people to sovereign and subject! In addition, it will flood the healthcare system with needless tests and procedures for routine “hemorrhoids and hangnails.” (Just spend an hour or two in any ER and see who comes in and why!) Add in the flood of healthcare professionals leaving the field, and you have hospitals, doctors, and clinics overrun and overwhelmed and therefore unable to properly tend to the needed healthcare concerns to those truly in need of care.

A government run website costing $635 million launched 1 Oct is still not working properly on 23 Oct. Worse yet, almost any IT tech worth his salt could probably build a WORKING site for about $100k. And worst of all, NO SECURITY!!! We’re asked, if we manage to get through, to input all kinds of personal information with no safegaurds in place. No background checks are done on those working with our personal information. It’s a security nightmare!

Second, the White House and Congress conspire to grant “AMNESTY” to the hundreds of thousands of illegals already in our nation enjoying FREE food stamps, FREE housing, FREE college tuition (or reduced), FREE “obama-phones” … all funded graciously by you and me, citizen tax-payers!

Do you suppose it’s FAIR that these illegals be allowed to stay at the expense of those who waited LAWFULLY for their turn?

Do you suppose it’s FAIR that these illegals reap benefits they never paid into, again, at the expense of those legitimately in need?

If this White House is all about FAIRNESS, when will he be FAIR to the working men and women of America? When will the White House and Congress strip away the crippling regulations and restrictions and allow AMERICANS to do what we do best … CREATE WEALTH???

TRAINED FROM BIRTH

Tags

education, goals, honor, life, morality, poetry, purpose, SGT Sanchez

Although still recovering from his injuries overseas, Sgt. Sanchez insisted on leaving his electric wheelchair to walk the flag down Main Street, U.S.A., saying “If it’s for the colors, I’ll walk”

I was born at a time when freedom was honored,
Trained from birth to be a productive adult,
Emotive and intuitive, pensive and strong,
With many gifts and talents, among them, the gift of thought.

Back in those days, Parents and Teachers actually taught;
We learned how to read, how to interpret and think,
To see life’s difficulties as training for coming events,
Fodder for the cut and paste adventures in Life.

I just don’t know how things got twisted around,
And comfort and ease became watch words and goals,
Is nothing worth working toward, nothing innately prized,
And what about morality – Is it all about fast pleasure?

I weep and I mourn for our culture of leeches,
Unwilling to work – unable to dream,
But able to kill, to rape, and to languish
Without a purpose, without goals, without freedom.

Oh people, my friends, don’t you see what’s going on;
Don’t you feel the manacles tighten with each handout received?
Don’t you sense the great insult: always underestimated,
Coddled and indulged as lies wrap around and around?

Hear me and break free; please open your hearts,
To think for yourselves as the valued creations you are;
Yes, masterpieces of ability and bundles of talent,
Nobility untried awaiting Truth to break you free.

** For Inspiration Monday via Bekindrewrite

A Performance Worthy of an Oscar, but Not American Leadership!

Tags

Actor, Benghazi, Crushing debt, education, fast-furious, Impeachment, jobs, leadership, obama, Oscar, SEAL6, Sequestor, unions

It becomes more and more clear that President Obama’s strategy to implement as much of his Socialist agenda as possible involves an acting role for him. Rather than acting like a genuine leader, and leading our nation back from the economic slump, he has chosen the role of defiant savior warding off the evil effects of HIS OWN POLICIES, but blaming them on … Bush, the Republicans, Rush Limbaugh … anyone will do.

The pathetic part is,
It’s WORKING!

His opposition doesn’t quite know how to attack it, either. TRUTH doesn’t work, because the pieces don’t fit. The media & Hollywood (for reasons I may go into later) have assumed the supporting roles affirming and confirming anything and everything the President does. no matter what it is, they twist it and turn it until it FITs the script. Truth is irrelevant. That’s why he can get away with …

Benghazi: 4 Americans dead on 9/11/12 in Libya, 30 something survivors bound by Federal Law to SILENCE, Suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists running AMERICAN weapons through Libya, to Turkey, to Syrian rebels who are also for the most part Al Qaeda.

Gun Control: Fear is a powerful motivator, and President Obama and the liberals are taking full advantage of the fear many people quietly harbor about weapons, in general. We fear what we do not know or understand. That is normal. We look at people swimming in the ocean and feel some fear … until we step slowly into the salty water and feel it, experience it for ourselves. Many Americans have never been around weapons and are unfamiliar with them, so there is a natural fear of them … until there is some personal experience with a weapon.“If the liberals currently in control of the federal government were really concerned about saving lives by banning things we don’t “need”, there are a number of areas that would have a much greater effect.” So Do You Really Need an AR-15?

Fast & Furious: Border Agent Brian Terry dead along with many Mexican civilians with American weapons smuggled INTO Mexico via FBI agents and Mexican drug cartel members to increase crime along the Mexico/America border to further President Obama’s “Gun Control” agenda

SEAL6: There is naturally a lot of confusion involved with SEAL6 and the other Special Forces assets involving the mysterious Chinook crash and subsequent deaths of these assets. This article might help clarify. SEAL Team Six Helicopter Crash: Let’s Debunk a Myth

A Crushed economy: “The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife.” –Thomas Jefferson
Unemployment up, more jobs lost, more regulations, our government borrowing nearly 40 cents on every dollar it spends. We haven’t even begun to realize the additional regulations, fees and taxes hidden within the 2000 pages of OBAMACARE or “Omamageddon!”

Education: First, every educator knows (and most parents, too) that the “formative years” where most vital learning occurs are ages 0 – 5, or more conservatively, 0 – 3. Yet, every administration – EVERY administration has focused federal monies on HIGH SCHOOL age programs. Preschool teachers are NOT standardly certified, nor are they unionized or well compensated. In spite of the President’s NEW emphasis on a Preschool program for EVERY 4 yr old, the MONEY still goes to secondary school programs. RE: American Education: Rotting the Country from the Inside

Sequester BS: “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.” –Thomas Jefferson
No amount of conversation or public outcry seems to have any positive affect on the liberal legislators in office. They are hell-bent on the continued ruination of America via outrageous and uncontrolled spending. The Sequester? Well, it is a case of the proverbial, “Much ado about nothing!” It is NOT a CUT, as you and I think of cut, as in what WE must do to compensate for the rise in fuel prices. We have to CUT spending in some area to cover the Spending for Fuel. No, the government sequester “cuts” are simply cuts in proposed spending! My budget says I will spend $3500 on groceries in 2013. However in 2014, I expect to spend, say, $5000. That is an increase in spending of $1500, right? It is STILL an increase. Now, if, I find, I can only increase my grocery budget in 2014 to $4500, I have CUT the INCREASE. It is STILL an increase in spending, but less so than anticipated.

• Hysterics Over ‘Cuts’
• Barack Obama, extortionist in chief
• The President’s ‘Really Bad Idea’

While President Obama has clearly polished his acting skills at the expense of AMERICA, he is unable to ACT like a leader strong enough to lead this great nation toward prosperity. Instead, hes busy campaigning against the very effects HIS POLICIES have or will create: falling employment, rising prices, growing unrest … etc. I present all this to you, fellow Patriots, as a concise case for IMPEACHMENT. After all, we DESERVE, a President! The world NEEDS an American President! The Founders would be horrified by what I see … How about you?

The growing case for impeachment of Obama

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EDUCATION: A Primary Tool is the Liberal Arsenal

Tags

civics, curriculum, dumbed-down, education, Great Divide, I'm OK; You're OK, John Dewey, NEA, New Education, paleo-moral judgments, politically correct

I spent a decade teaching in a private school in my attempt to negotiate the Union trap doors and administrative bullying, so I know first hand how manipulative our education system can be. It all seems so innocent. Subtle changes here. Rewording there. Omission of certain details in the life of George Washington or skewed emphasis on uncertainties in the life of Abraham Lincoln don’t seem like monumental issues in the overall education of children. Toss in a little “I’m OK; You’re OK” and John Dewey’s perspective on education as part of a young teacher’s training, and we begin to see – way back in the 70’s – the beginnings of what we are reaping today. In their effort to indoctrinate our students in a politically correct manner, relevant disciplines have been compromised, watered (dumbed) down, or completely omitted. There is evidence, the decline in US education has much greater impact on our further than most of us may realize.

To any American who believes whole-heartedly in the virtue of our public school system, please know you are completely … UNAWARE!!!

Education’s Great Divide: My Time in the Trenches

By Glenn Fairman

In thinking about how valuable education is in cultivating the next generation of Americans, my mind took me back nearly twenty years to when I was a graduate student functioning as a substitute teacher at La Puente High School in Southern California. On one assignment, I was to cover a social studies class of some old-timer; he had written down in his instructions that since his classes were on a field trip, my sole duty was to show a movie at 6th period to those who did not attend. What I found that day opened my eyes.

In a dusty corner shelf of the room was a set of thirty-year-old textbooks from the mid-1960s, and although my memory cannot now relinquish their title, their contents burned themselves into my brain. As I flipped through the pages, I was astonished to find what I would now consider an upper-level college textbook under color of what in the high schools used to be termed “civics.” This text contained a very detailed understanding of political theory, constitutional law, macroeconomics, American history, and comparative political systems. I spent the rest of the day in slack-jawed amazement, perusing what a student in a working-class town was expected to know before the mavens of education began tinkering with the curricula of our schools.

When the instructor returned at the end of the day, I revealed my astonishment to him, and he informed me that he had used those texts when he first hired on. Now, however, could not do so, since they would be incomprehensible to nearly every student — especially considering that the nature of history and American government had been changed in the current texts. The teacher related to me that the current texts had been scaled down to what used to be a grammar-school understanding, and they carried within them a jaundiced view of America, preferring to accentuate the warts and blemishes rather than the achievements of our political system.

I then made it my business, when finding an older teacher, to ask if education had been “dumbed down.” To a person, I found that this question unleashed volatile diatribes on how dull children had become since the responders had begun as idealistic young men and women in the field. Algebra teachers informed me that every year they were forced to eliminate problem sets that previous years had mastered. English teachers who once taught Shakespeare and Dante were now reduced to leading seniors through Orwell’s Animal Farm or postmodern novels featuring teens in existential moral dilemmas. Moreover, the analysis of themes in book reports had been deconstructed into not what the author was attempting to portray, but what personal emotions were elicited in the reader.

Teachers, who are part and parcel the products of our New Education, can never be fully aware of what diminution has been wrought subsequent to the Great Divide. From elementary school and into the colleges, disciplines of objective knowledge have been either discounted or leveled, and critical thinking has been pushed aside for the subtle indoctrination of a specific worldview. Students are deemed to be merely clever animals, and the slow, simmering replacement of a spiritual for a biological self-definition is therefore woven into the fabric of how they are taught life and the world.

Campus speech codes and filtered curricula have denuded the classical goal of the acquisition of a free and analytic mind. The capacity to seek and apprehend truth has devolved into the project to fashion pliable minds with correct and proper opinions, in which truth itself is a problematic, wavering, conventional construct. Passion and commitment in service to a politicized cause are indeed more valuable than the veracity of that cause, since the absence of truth renders one construction of the world coequal with another.

The moral equality of lifestyles, as well as the preferred end of an equality of material results, is deemed by those who design curricula to be consistent with “anointed ideologies.” All permutations of sexuality are to be held valid, protected from the scrutiny of blighted paleo-moral judgments. All cultures and religions are also worthy of celebration — with the exceptions of Christianity and the American regime, who are guilty of a plethora of crimes throughout the earth and must therefore be lowered in stature to ensure the final egalitarian assessment of distinction-free understanding. The fiction must be implanted that we are all one worldwide loving and happy family, benevolent and divided only by geographical and artificial political overlays.

Read more: HERE

For those with children or grandchildren in public schools today, I cannot urge you enough to pay VERY close attention to the assignments, the textbooks, and the classroom discussions so you are both informed and able to rebut in your time with these children. It is a VITAL INTEREST to educate this generation about the workings of our government as the Founders intended, to educate our students on HOW to learn because teachers do NOT! Some teachers actually (I know this, too, first hand) read from a SCRIPT, and they call that “teaching!” We all know our ABC’s, so let’s USE the skills and knowledge we have to educate our children. We cannot count on the government sponsored public school system to uphold our “traditional American values,” if we are not willing to do so ourselves.

The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle that Changed the World is an excellent place to start. The future of our nation depends on the values and Constitutional knowledge of our children and grandchildren, and who is better equipped to help them understand than US … you and me working together to LIVE and BREATHE LIBERTY as a God-given gift and responsibility! We must turn the tide.

Related articles:

Parents as Teachers: Every Parent Can Be a Child’s First and Best Teacher

7 Signs That U.S. Education Decline Is Jeopardizing Its National Security

Corruption in the Public Schools

LIBERALISM AND SOCIAL CONTROL: THE NEW CLASS’ WILL TO POWER

Liberalism’s Modest Proposals

National Education Association