Why Homeschool?

“The school system in this country—public and private—is designed for the industrial age. We’re in a technological age. We don’t want our kids to memorize. We want them to learn.”
...............Jada Pinkett Smith

Why Homeschool

"Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies -- far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity -- are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. 'We are educating people out of their creativity,' Robinson says. It's a message with deep resonance. Robinson's TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? 'Everyone should watch this."



If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. I saw it a while ago, but am glad to have seen it again; it reminds me that E is special in his own right.

Why Homeschool?

Big Brother is watching...

Surveillance cameras rolling inside our local schools is nothing new, but what's taking place inside Demarest's public schools is truly cutting edge: a live feed from more than two dozen cameras with a direct connection to the police.

Read the whole thing here.

Why Homeschool?

Crap, it just gets worse and worse...

Safford [Arizona] Middle School officials did not violate the civil rights of a 13-year-old Safford girl when they forced her to disrobe and expose her breasts and pubic area four years ago while looking for a drug, according to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.

Read the whole thing here.

Why Homeschool?

In school, children have no First Amendment rights...

"In light of the history of American public education, it cannot seriously be suggested that the First Amendment 'freedom of speech' encompasses a student’s right to speak in public schools. Early public schools gave total control to teachers, who expected obedience and respect from students. And courts routinely deferred to schools’ authority to make rules and to discipline students for violating those rules…"
- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

Here is more of his nonsense.

Why Homeschool?

Writing “I love Alex” on a school gymnasium wall brought a 12-year-old the same punishment as if she had made terrorist threats.

Here's the full story.

Why Homeschool?

Bullies.

Why Homeschool?

The video and sound fall out of sync along the way, so just listen.

10 Favorite Quotes...on learning

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly I can!". Then get busy and find out how to do it.
...............Theodore Roosevelt


I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
...............Pablo Picasso


A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.
...............Chinese Proverb


If you think you can or think you can't, you're right.
...............Henry Ford


Life is my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honors!
...............Louisa May Alcott


I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
...............Confucius


Imagination is more important than knowledge.
...............Albert Einstein


I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
...............Socrates


Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
...............Oscar Wilde


If we continually try to force a child to do what he is afraid to do, he will become more timid, and will use his brains and energy, not to explore the unknown, but to find ways to avoid the pressures we put on him.
...............John Holt

Why Homeschool?

Perhaps because we can't trust the idiots who would be in charge of our children?

Sun May 13, 5:28 PM ET

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables...parents of the sixth-grade students were outraged...

Principal Catherine Stephens declined to say whether the staff members involved would face disciplinary action, but said the situation "involved poor judgment."

I keep reading more and more of these ridiculous stories. Here's another one:

Sunday, May 13, 2007

CHICAGO — A girl and her grandparents have sued the Chicago Board of Education, alleging that a substitute teacher showed the R-rated film "Brokeback Mountain" in class.

The lawsuit claims that Jessica Turner, 12, suffered psychological distress after viewing the movie in her 8th grade class at Ashburn Community Elementary School last year.

No matter what your beliefs are about homosexuality, showing any R rated movie to an elementary class is asking for trouble!

It's downright scary that parents are expected to leave their children in the hands of morons like these. I feel so fortunate that I don't have to.