Why are the kids depressed, anxious, and even suicidal?...

 from the combox.

Comment from an esteemed blogger buddy:

I worry about my grandson on a daily basis. I worry about all of the issues you brought up. I can see his social skills declining, and it worries me. The democrats had a plan and I'm afraid it isn't fully implemented yet.

My answer:

I would look to how home-schoolers handle their kids. In all the years of hubby teaching music the most well adjusted, happy, socialized, and smartest kids were the home-schooled. Therefore, I have to wonder what is going on to make the public school kids so unable to cope. Is it how the parents are handling all this?

Discuss...

To kick it off, here's a few comments on both sides of the issue from an article at WaPo: She hates distance learning. Is home schooling an option?

I am not a teacher but a someone who firmly believes that part of America's school problems have to do with "homeschooling." The concept is ignorant in that it presumes parents have the knowledge, time and energy to properly educate their kids, and if they are working parents, do such after work -- all of which is frequently wrong.
Why not call it instead what Republicans want: Bible-based education or rather information. Useless to intellectual advancement.
I suggest that homeschooling not be used to pretend to educate kids. That's a plain lie. But
teachers must be paid better; students who fall behind should get the benefit of free tutoring to keep up and advance. A well educated public commits few crimes and is a good thing for all of us.

and

With 3 out in college and grad school, and our fourth facing another uneven year of middle school - we decided to homeschool this year. And we couldn't be happier with the decision. We consulted several families in the area that homeschool and settled on a few curriculums that would put us ahead of where the county standards would have us end up for the year. We added some extra extra curriculars, heeding the advice of our friends (they said our student would fly through the curricula).

We've enjoyed splitting teaching duties. We are not tethered to the laptop. We have flexibility to (safely) visit relatives and do some side field trips when convenient. We are taking extra time when we need to dive deeper and we can move quickly on things that are quickly mastered. In sum, this has been fantastic - especially while I've watched our county schools struggle with the school year.

On one hand, we are fortunate to be able to do what we have done. But it is not without sacrifice of time, energy and resources. In the end, it is worth it for the student to have the best year possible.  

 

Facebook, Facebook, Facebook replaces Russia, Russia, Russia...

or it could morph into Russia hacked Facebook.

Who the hell knows - or cares.

If you are one of 100 or so peeps in the world who doesn't understand that Facebook exists to make money off of you and your information, then you need to have a brain transplant.

Rush did a masterful job of explaining this newest "crisis" yesterday and WND has a good summation of what he said - and I thank them.

Crisis?

I give you the closing paragraph on a Bloomberg article: (emphasis mine)

Zuckerberg and Sandberg plan to remain quiet on the Cambridge Analytica situation until the company completes its internal review of what happened, according to a person familiar with the matter. Until they do, questions about Facebook’s ability to cope with the Cambridge Analytica crisis will undoubtedly persist.

No, Bloomberg.  This is not a "crisis."  Not even close.

Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot Justine Damond turns himself in;

 charged with 3rd-degree murder

About time!

A School Shooter in Maryland is Dead Because a Security Officer Had a Gun and Knew How to Use It. 

No one should take joy in the killing of 17 year kid who took a gun to a school intending to do harm to others.  But it was the right outcome. Whether the officer's bullet killed him or he killed himself is still not known.

A recurring question in my mind is why parents allow their children to attend a state run school. 

Which brings me to an article by Lloyd Marcus at American Thinker today - Homeschooling: The Best Hope for America's Future. emphasis and comments in red mine

Homeschooling is far superior to government indoctrination camps, obsessed with teaching social justice, white guilt, gun control, homosexuality, abortion, and conspiring against and disobedience toward parents.  (Ummm - that's called communism)

[...] Popular among home-schoolers is the VARK model theory, which outlines four kinds of learners.  Some kids are visual learners.  There are auditory learners, reading-writing learners, and kinesthetic learners.  By understanding how your child processes information, you can design a teaching program that is right for him.  This ain't happenin' in government school halls of mass mediocrity.  (Yep!)

Meeting countless families with children in my ten years of traveling as a political activist, I learned to immediately recognize homeschooled children.  They were happy, calm, polite, articulate, filled with information, and confident, always looking me in the eye when speaking to me.  (That has always been our experience with homeschooled kids.)  read the rest

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Why is this crapola going on in public schools?...

this is nothing more than social engineering of the very worst kind.

How about they spend more time teaching the kids to read, write, and do math.

A week long project run by a Gay-Straight Alliance highlighting the problem of bullying caused, wait for it, bullying. 

It simply amazes me that parents put their kids in these public schools while complaining about Common Core and all the other crap they're taught.

If they really felt that way they'd take them out and home school.  Instant solution. 

And before you tell me how all these families need to have both mom and dad working, that is simply not true.  These are the same parents who consented to having a daycare raise their little ones and now use the public school system as a babysitter. 

A least this school did the right thing.

Suspensions Handed Out After Students Wear Chick-fil-A Attire on LGBT Day — but It’s Not What You Think

via The Blaze:

It had been a week of awareness-raising at a Pennsylvania high school — teen suicide, disabilities and other issues were marked by students wearing specifically colored T-shirts each day in recognition of each issue.

On the final day last Friday, Bangor Area High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance — which organized the week long project — encouraged students to wear rainbow-colored T-shirts to draw attention to LGBT issues.

But during televised morning announcements at the school, two of the students seen onscreen wore Chick-fil-A shirts instead, senior Erin Snyder told the Morning Call.

And then the backlash began.

Although the pair of boys didn’t say anything during the broadcast about the rainbow T-shirt day or LGBT issues, seeing them in attire from Chick-fil-A — the fast-food chain that came under fire in 2012 after its CEO publicly supported traditional marriage — angered some fellow students.

During school hours a group of them took to Twitter and called out the offending students. The online posts against them continued through the weekend, the Morning Call said.

Then on Monday students got the dreaded call to the principal’s office — but not the boys who wore the Chick-fil-A shirts.  read the rest

They are coming for your children...

home-schoolers beware.

The left hates you.  They call you names.  They think you're robbing your snowflakes of diversity.  Exactly what's diverse about locking children up in schools that resemble prisons with other children exactly the same age, and in most cases, exactly the same socioeconomic background?  

After witnessing the slovenly semi-literate children who flock to our local library after being sprung from our public schools, I would have to say they've already captured their minds and souls.

But, you say, they're at the library.  Isn't that a good thing?  It would be if they were actually reading something.  No, these children are there to play video games on the free computers.  Guess which kids are happily checking out with satchels full of books?  It's the home-schooled kids accompanied by their mothers.

We come in contact with many home-schooled children, and in every case they are better educated, better behaved, and better socialized, if by socialized you mean able to carry on a coherent conversation with an adult. 

Kevin Williamson reports on the latest assault on home schooling:

Home-schoolers represent the only authentically radical social movement in the United States (Occupy Wall Street was a fashion statement) and so they must be suppressed, as a malevolent committee of leftist academics and union bosses under the direction of Governor Dannel Malloy is preparing to do in Connecticut, using the Sandy Hook massacre as a pretext. The ghouls invariably rush to the podium after every school massacre, issuing their insipid press releases before the bodies have even cooled, and normally they’re after your guns. But the Malloy gang is after your children.

Malloy’s committee on the Newtown shootings is recommending that Connecticut require home-schooling families to present their children to the local authorities periodically for inspection, to see to it that their psychological and social growth is proceeding in the desired direction. For anybody even passingly familiar with contemporary government schools, which are themselves a peerless source of social and emotional dysfunction, this development is bitterly ironic.  read the rest - it's excellent.

This comment at National Review caught my eye because it is both foolish and sad (last sentence bolded by me.) 

Great article! A must read. We homeschooled our oldest until High school and the youngest (3) did some time at the Catholic elementary school before High school. The public High school in our small rural town had a slight conservative streak due to the presence of faith in the community. Other than that the teachers were huge libs and their lives - for the most part - were an absolute mess. But our district was better than most. My wife and I enjoyed de-programming them at the dinner table after they shared some of the crazy off the wall crap they learned in history or health class.

 Do these parents really think that countering the "crazy off the wall crap" at dinnertime is working?  The schools have these kids for hours and hours every day of the week, and they're going to fix it all over dinner.  I don't think so.  And exactly what is the message they're sending their precious little snowflakes concerning the teachers and the system?  And finally, who in their right minds would willingly subject their children to "crazy off the wall crap" day after day?  I call that child abuse.

Is "health class" a euphemism for sex ed?  Yep, just what they need.  Sex ed in schools is working so well we have two alternative schools in our smallish town where they stick all the pregnant teenagers - some as young as fourteen so they can brag on Facebook that "they're proud stay-at-home mommies."  Many of these girls are already incubating their second or third illegitimate child, all by different daddies.  And the libtards think more sex ed is the cure.

More:

The Last Tradition:  Liberals conclude Teens sexting is the “new normal” :New study 

Walter Williams:  Teacher Indoctrination    

Creative Minority Report:  Connecticut Targets Homeschoolers

The arrogance of the Marxist lefties never ceases to amaze...

To quote Voddie Baucham,  from my post Are your children in government schools?... (and if you haven't watched the video at that post - do so.  It's excellent.)

 "When you send your kids to Caesar for their education, don't be surprised when they come back as Romans."

Matt, over at Conservative Hideout, gives you more reasons that homeschooling may be your only reasonable choice.  

 Head over there and listen to what Melissa Harris-Perry has to say about your children. 

MSNBC Talking Head Melissa Harris-Perry: All Your Children are Belong to Us

 

Are your children in government schools?...

it may be a good idea to listen to this man.

I shamelessly filched this from The republican Mother who has compiled some of the best information on home schooling you can find.  On her sidebar she has links to  "Books that Make Life Make Sense."  Many of these are links to full books in pdf form like The Underground History of American Education.

In this video, Voddie Baucham, Jr. does about the best job of explaining why your children should be home schooled.  Don't like what the public schools are teaching - or not teaching your children?  Then take them out.  Imagine if tomorrow the public school rolls were cut by even 25%?  Do you think the powers-that-be would take notice?  Probably not, except for the money that would cease to flow into their corrupt institutions.  But at least your children would have first class education.

I've heard all the arguments against home schooling, many of which Mr Baucham will cover.  One he doesn't cover is the "we both have to work argument."  While there may be some people in this predicament, I challenge the people that are living in houses they can't afford, driving cars with 6 year loans on them because they cost too much to begin with, eat out many times a month, and carry balances on credit cards, to reorder their priorities. 

When your children grow up, they will not care about the house, the car, or the eating out.  What they will carry into adulthood is what you taught them.  It's a simple as that. 
  
Whoever Controls The Schools, Controls The World  

"When you send your kids to Caesar for their education, don't be surprised when they come back as Romans."

More:

Dewy from Detroit:  Know Thy Enemy I: the Education System

American Thinker:  Abolition of Sex (in schools)  

American Thinker:   The Brain Eaters Invade Massachusetts Middle School

iOwnTheWorld:   Dept. of Ed leaks students’ personal data

Nox and Friends:   Bill Gates Builds a Database to Track Students

Moonbattery:   Public Charter School Puts on Blasphemous Play

The American Dream:   Texas Public School Curriculum Teaches Students To Design A Socialist Flag And That Christianity Is A Cult

The American Dream:   11 Reasons To Get Your Kids Out Of The Government Schools

Michelle Malkin:  Common Core Corrupts

Michelle Malkin:   Rotten to the Core (Part 2): Readin’, Writin’ and Deconstructionism

Moonbattery:   California K-12 Schools Shift Corruption of Children Into Overdrive

Blue's Blog:   Remote control...

Weasel Zippers:  Texas School System Teaching Students America Responsible For 9/11…

John Stossel:   The education 'blob' that's crushing our kids

Always on Watch:   The Lorax? Really?

American Thinker:  Please Do Not Adjust Your Child

Is it time to privatize schools?

I've thought so for a long time.


Teachers’ Unions: Sacrificing the Future of a Nation’s Youth to Idleness, Incompetence, and Greed

Home-schoolers given preference in hiring?...

you bethca!

At last week's meeting of the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans, I was seated next to a gentleman who is the owner of several high-end fast food places in my town and Spokane, WA.  In partnership with his son, they have introduced a popular, successful restaurant to the area.

I brought up the fact that many of my friends have gotten out of the fast food business due to problems with the work force, which primarily consists of teenagers.  I found his responses interesting and asked many follow-up questions. 

He first of all made it quite clear that one of the things he liked most about this new venture was the interaction with the staff, and suggested that the secret to a good staff was the manner in which they were interviewed and hired.  When asked what the first thing was they looked for in a new hire, the answer was; "A home-schooled kid."   They found them to be more responsible, personable, respectful, and well, better educated.

I followed up with my usual, "Are they as socialized as public school kids?"  He answered that he finds them better socialized for the very reason that they're not locked up every day with their peers forming some sort of a "closed shop" with little influence from adults. 

Next was over-all personality and appearance.  His restaurants do not allow more than two piercings - one in each ear, no cussing, and if they have a tattoo on their arm, they'd best plan on wearing long sleeves all summer.  They are required to obtain a drug test at their expense ($30.00) which is refunded after 60 days of employment.  He said that weeds out many of the kids right in the beginning.  

Most telling was his closing statement which I'll have to paraphrase.  He said they wanted to create an atmosphere where a "good" kid could work and not feel like an outsider.

Bravo!

More:

Home School Legal Defense Association:  Can they get a job?

Ludwig Von Mises Institute:   In Praise of Homeschools

Bunkerville:   Next Generation, dumb as dumb can be?

Good morning...

the view from my window.

After agonizing for weeks about where to put my computer desk (ok - maybe "agonizing" is a bit over the top), I decided to place it an angle beside my office window.   For years I have sat at my computer with my back to the window and had no idea of all the things I was missing.  Several times a day I'm able to witness the "march of the quail" as they file by in perfect order along the fence.  All sorts of little birds come to visit and sit in the tree branches within mere inches of the window.

I'm able to see cars coming down our private road (which will be very important if we're ever invaded by aliens), and observe the demented and quite vicious chihuahuas that live on the other side of us when they are out roaming around.  Our house sits very close to the property line on the west side.  The barn belongs to our "good" neighbor, while on the east side the "bad" neighbor, who owns the chihuahuas, is blessedly acres away.  

Next (shhhhhhh - don't tell hubby 'cause this will be his job) I'm going to have him put up a bracket over my window and install one of our bird feeders on a little pulley system for easy filling so I'll be able to watch the little birdies all winter.  Life is good!   

 Homeschooling

Pundette has the "must read" of the day about homeschooling.

Getting know where: Public school kids explain why it's better than homeschooling 

 

It would be funny, if it wasn't so sad, to read some of the comments.  Without fail, the students that my husband teaches (guitar, banjo, mandolin) who are homeschooled are bright, charming, hard workers, and able to carry on an intelligent conversation with an adult. 

It is rare for him to teach a public school kid who isn't much above the level of a "drooler", which is what we call them.  These public school children are not stupid - they're simply uneducated.  The worse part is neither the parents or the kids are the least bit aware of how dumb and dysfunctional these kids are.
 
Jeffrey Tucker, over at Whisky and Gunpowder, wrote an excellent article where he dares to ask the question:  "What's going on with the occupests?"

What is going on here? Let’s speak the unspeakable truth that is still nearly taboo in today’s world. They were raised by government. From the ages of 6-18, they were tended to by the state in a system they were forced to join.

This is a point made first in an incredible book published in 1974, edited by William Rickenbacker. It is called The Twelve-Year Sentence. It is not only one of the greatest titles in the history of publishing; it is a rare book that dared to say what no one wanted to hear. True, the essays are all scholarly and precise (the book came out of an academic conference), but a fire for liberty burns hot below the footnoted surface. Especially notable: This book came out long before the homeschooling movement, long before a remnant of the population began to see what was happening and started bailing out. read it all

A few "must see" videos:

Capitalist Preservation:  Chuck Woolery on Foreign Oil

Proof Positive brings us Bill Whittle:  Three and a Half Days

Government run schools turn out liberals...

and functional illiterates.

Want your children to become good Marxists?...

a public school may be the best place for them.

A young high school acquaintance of mine wrote on her Facebook page,  I hate being white :[ (I'm disappointed in what we did in the past!)   Now where would a 17 year old come up with that?  It certainly wasn't from her parents who I know don't hold that view. Her friends?  Probably not.  The only place left is school.  

Karl Marx said, "The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, shall be in state institutions at state expense."  He'd be very proud to know how well his "state run" schools are doing their job. 

Schools have ceased to be places where children are taught to read, write, and learn math skills.  No siree.  They are rapidly declining into state-sponsored indoctrination mills.  No prayers are allowed, but "gay" clubs abound.   Teaching about "safe sex" has replaced the McGuffey Reader.  Children are suspended for wearing t-shirts with pictures of American flags, while being encouraged to celebrate "gay pride" and "Muslim Week." 

All of these goings on in our schools is a form of "Cultural Marxism."  Terry, of Abbey-Roads, posted the following video that provides a very good overview of this phenomenon.  

Here's a handy check list for turning your children into Marxists:

• Make sure both parents have to work in order to pay for the house and the two 40K SUV's they couldn't afford.
• Allow them to have a computer in their room away from prying eyes.
• Let your daughters dress like Lady Gaga and your sons like gang wannabees.
• Don't force religion down their throats.  They can make up their own minds when they're adults.
• Make sure they're engaged in several sports programs where there are "no losers".
• Give them unlimited spending money and a car when they turn 16, priming them for an entitlement mentality.
• Tell them at every opportunity how wonderful they are in order to build their self-esteem.
• and by all means - put them in a public school.
• If they are in a public school, don't monitor what's going on - after all, teachers know best  /sarc

More:



Zombie : How a Teachers’ Rally Made Me Anti-Education  Excellent!
H/T to Sentry Journal for the Zombie article.
The Daley Gator:   3rd Graders Indoctrinated In School Budgeting By Milwaukee Teacher
Red State:   Unapologetic Public School Officials Turning Children Into Good Little Comrades
Conservative Hideout:   Quick Hits: Why are Your Children Still in Public School?
The Blaze:   Why Are NY School Kids Being Taught To Emulate Van Jones?

NEA wants to teach oral sex, masturbation. Advocates for "inclusive" sex education based on liberal hetero and homosexual expression...

 GoProud unavailable for comment.

Color me confused, but why the uproar over such classes?  If homosexuality is just another "sexual orientation", and if organizations such as GoProud are welcome at conservative gatherings such as CPAC, than why not teach the kids to be inclusive? 

There were plenty of young people at CPAC who were tacitly fed this message while many conservatives trumpeted the "any homosexual that supports fiscal conservatism is welcome" meme.  You can't have it both ways.

 [...]“Oral sex, masturbation, and orgasms need to be taught in education,” Diane Schneider told the audience at a panel on combating homophobia and transphobia.  Schneider, representing the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers union in the US, advocated for more “inclusive” sex education in US schools, with curricula based on liberal hetero and homosexual expression."

[...]“Gender identity expression and sexual orientation are a spectrum,” she explained, and said that those opposed to homosexuality “are stuck in a binary box that religion and family create.”   Diane Schneider (NEA) to United Nations

Didn't Joycelyn Elders get there first?

Meantime, Huckabee gets skewered for suggesting that Natalie Portman maybe wasn't the best roll model for young girls.  I'm not a fan of Huckabee, but he was simply stating the truth.

And let's not forget our national obsession with Charlie Sheen and his two live-in "goddesses."  Either he's as crazy as a bed bug (are bed bugs really crazy??), or he's one sharp fellow.  Either way, haven't we got anything better to do than watch him "jump on the couch?"


Some of the Best Coverage:

Maggie's Notebook:  Diane Schneider Obscenity Agenda for Your Children: Schneider on Teaching Children Oral Sex, Masturbation, Orgasms
The Other McCain:   The Global Orgasmatron for Kids
The Lonely Conservative:   What the NEA and the UN Would Like to Teach Our Children
Uncoverage:  NEA to UN: “Oral Sex, Masturbation and Orgasms Need to be Taught in School

Along the same lines:

Creative Minority Report:  A Tale of Two U's

Wisconsin: Reason Number 4,085 to Homeschool

These are the faces of the people teaching your children...



There have been reports that teachers actually dragged students to some of these protests. Is that even legal without the parents consent?

I have long advocated for the privatization of schools. Dump the Department of Education, the local school boards, over-paid administrators, principals who make more money than the average attorney or doctor, and let the cream rise to the top.  Quit stealing money from taxpayers to fund a failed system that turns out functional illiterates.

As for the teachers marching around in Wisconsin protesting?  Fire them.  Immediately.

From Doug Ross:

At the federal level, President Obama's budget calls for $77.4 billion to be allocated to the Department of Education, which represents a 22 percent increase from 2010, and a 35 percent increase from 2008.

Take a look at how the game works.  As always - Doug has some fine graphics - and we thank him!

Increasing funding for the Department of Education has nothing at all to do with education. It has to do with getting more Democrats elected -- using the taxpayers' money. read it all

More:

Patrick McIlheran at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:  Unions want to overturn election result 
Hot Air:  Have teacher unions nuked the fridge?

Schools gone wild...or why you should homeschool

While Provincetown, MA is handing out condoms to kids K - 12   look what's going on in Shenandoah, Iowa...

Left Coast Rebel: Case Number 23,789 for Home Schooling, Catholic Schooling and Especially - Privatization

From the Green Room of Hot Air:

37 vulnerable House Dems we need to target on health care

Hop on over and check out the list provided with phone numbers, addresses, faxes, and emails.  It also identifies area's of vulnerability for each senator. If you see your senator on the list - you know what to do...

Also at the Green Room is an outstanding article by Directorblue (Doug Ross) "The Path to Slavery"

"Modern liberal Democrats like to talk about “choice”. But when it comes to school choice — allowing inner-city children to escape the enslavement of teachers’ unions — Democrats shriek in opposition  "read the rest

 Which bring me to what New Hampshire is up to (rat scum bags!!!)

New Hampshire Poised for Landmark Homeschool Vote

Proposed law would make New Hampshire's homeschool law the most restrictive and burdensome in the nation

 CONCORD, New Hampshire, January 7, 2010  - The New Hampshire House of Representatives is scheduled to consider next week an amendment to House Bill 368, which critics say would make New Hampshire’s homeschool law the most restrictive and burdensome in the nation. read the rest

I get really riled when they go after the home-schoolers.  It has been proven over and over that home schooled kids do better academically than the kids in government run schools.  I have also never met a home schooled kid that wasn't socially head and shoulders above a public school kid.   The government has no business indoctrinating "educating" our children. 

And then they do stupid things like this:  New York Couple Arrested for Failure to Register Homeschoolers

Kudo's to Homeschooling

From World Net Daily

Study: Homeschoolers score 37 points higher
Costs also average $500, compared to $10,000 at public school

This does not surprise me one teeny tiny bit. My husband teaches guitar, banjo, and mandolin to mostly adult students, but he still gets his fair share of young people. When comparing the home schooled kids to the public school kids he teaches, the differences are remarkable.

In almost all (there are exceptions) instances, the home schooled kids are better educated, better students, and much better at their interpersonal skills. They are able to carry on an intelligent conversation with an adult, probably due to the fact they are not glued to a cell phone texting someone.

A link from this article led me to:

The Myth of Teacher Qualifications
by Chris Klicka
Senior Counsel for Home School Legal Defense Association
(pdf - but a very well behaved pdf!)

I taught 4th grade for several years at a private boys academy, where teacher certification was not a requirement. Almost none of the teachers were certified, including myself.

By the end of the school year, the boys in my classroom were able to diagram sentences at the level of a 6th grader (do they even teach sentence diagramming in public schools anymore??), were able to give answers on written tests in essay form, read at the level of an 8th grader (I had to search the book storage room for readers that were compatible with their skills), and had mastered pure phonics. They had beautiful cursive penmanship, and fully half of them were altar servers in the traditional form of the Mass, necessitating the memorization of complicated Latin prayers.

Every Friday afternoon, the last period of the day was devoted to classroom cleaning involving washing the desks, vacuuming the room, washing the black board, and cleaning and organizing their desks. I have long wondered why public school kids are not required to keep their own classrooms neat and clean.

They brought their lunches, and different boys were appointed to lunch room clean up on a rotating schedule. They washed the table and swept the floor. They didn't have much to do because the teachers made sure their classes cleaned up after themselves.

Lunch time was a time to sit and converse with our students and gently teach manners. Just so you don't think we were some sort of adult ogres, we were still treated to orange peel smiles or Cheetos "fangs" and found them quite amusing.

At our local Catholic school, where they do a fairly decent job, the kids are served a complete hot meal and trash the lunch room, necessitating an adult to clean up after them. Even with parent volunteers, the cost of staff to run the kitchen plus cleaning up the lunch room, adds considerably to the tuition and reinforces the modern concept that the world revolves around "the children."

Our local public high school has acres of rolling grass that requires lots of water spewed out of automatic sprinklers and a complete staff of grounds people to cut and fertilize. Does all that grass make the kids any smarter? They have a state of the art gym, wrestling room, and weight room, but the majority of the kids are what could only be called functionally illiterate - incapable of even writing a complete sentence.

Are these kids stupid? Of course not. I'm sure they can tell you how to properly apply a condom or save a tree. They are just trapped in an educational system that has evolved into some sort of glorified babysitting service/country club tended to by unionized teachers who are "certified."

Our government-run schools have become nothing more than places to indoctrinate children with the Socialistic attitudes the Left are so fond of. Anyone who can possibly keep their kids at home really should consider doing so. The parents who homeschool should be rewarded with vouchers or a tax break, not punished and demonized.