Ask The Principal

My how time flys when you're having fun!

2008-03-10T22:05:00.002-04:00

Been a while, but it has been a good respite and time of detox having left public education for good. I am a seminary student now....and enjoying every challenging minute of it! It is a temptation sometimes to think of that time as a public educator wasted, but that would be like saying that God was not sovereign. He his...so it really wasn't. Though I try to distance myself in some ways from that time, in other ways I am constantly faced with reminders of the effects of the public schools on our culture, and on Christendom in general.

Of course I see the blatant "shock attacks" of the establishment trying to control the lives of freedom loving Christian families as demonstrated in California. I suspect they will back down...but keep pushing, and pushing, further and further. We saw that a few years ago with the 9th circuit ruling in favor of the Palmdale School District.

What I constantly see are the nuances, the subtle long-term effects that show up in the oddest places. Like the parent comment that she is dissatisfied with the youth work at their church....I see that it's not because they actually know what's going on, but because they are tired of their teenage kids complaining that youth group is boring.

Back to 9th circuit, etc...I taught in Palmdale and even worked with the man who was the principal of the school that administered those conscience-searing surveys. We were both teachers at the time...he was a nice enough guy...good sense of humor, etc. I cannot say with certainty that he was being devious...I doubt that he was, but I do know that groups like the ACLU are very missional in what they believe in. My experiences with groups like those are that they are like vultures circling high in the sky looking for something ripe and stinky to gorge themselves on to further their agenda. At least vultures do something good for the planet, these characters leave a wake of destruction and chaos...and they do it with a great deal of personal satisfaction. Oh, and the truth is helpful sometimes, but if it isn't...well, they just change it of course! It's their perceived right because they are right...at least in their own minds...and that's all that matters to them really.

So we have some child-advocacy characters that think they know more about anything than anyone regarding children and with a sense of mission and entitlement find a case they can leverage to it's fullest. Every now and again a situation pops up and all the signs look right to make a great play...and they do. So now a 3 judge panel outlawed homeschooling in California. I have to say that I really like the idea of all Christian families pulling their kids out of school. Someone was saying 600,000. At about $45/day for 180 day for 600,000 students....well that's $4.8b/year. Wow....why doesn't Arnold suggest that for the state's budget...California would be out of debt in no time.

I'm sure someone may have already figured that one considering the state of California's budget...but it was fun for me just to think through it for a minute....ok, back to the task at hand.

So what do we do? What Christians are doing now...pray first then fight back through the system as God allows. If we don't the personal costs will be higher. We shouldn't think that what happened in Stalinist USSR, or fascist Germany, etc, last century won't happen to us or our posterity in this century. But we don't do it because of a fear of what may happen, we do it to the glory of God...to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever!

I'll post periodically...if anyone is even still out there ;-). One of the main reasons to post is to get the writing thing going...it's always a good idea to write something before writing a paper for a class...which is what I am going to do next

New Year's Resolution!

2006-12-31T22:19:00.000-05:00

It's not too late to decide to educate your child at home. In fact, the holiday season is a good time to make a transition. Most schools won't start until January 8th, so you have a week to get on-line and do a little checking around.

It's my guess that more homeschooling moms read this blog than homeschooling dads, that's because there are more homeschooing moms than homeschooling dads. But I really want to encourage the dads to get active in the homeschooling of their family.

The HSLDA weekly address last week featured Scott Somerville, who started a new ministry called the K-dad network. If I ever grow up and leave public education, I want to do what he's doing...that is, to empower dads to actively disciple their families. Of course Scott's 6 kids are grown now, and my five are still 8 and younger. I'll be in the "discipling and engaging my family" stage for a few years.

In an article from the HSLDA website the following is said about Scott:

Having homeschooled all six of their children, Scott and his wife, Marcia, are now pouring more of their time and energy into ministering in other ways to homeschooling parents. “When I got to HSLDA, I thought the biggest threat was the truant officer,” says Scott. “We moved into a new phase where the biggest threat was the social worker . . . I am genuinely convinced that the biggest threat today is the disengaged dad.”

Beginning this fall, Scott and Marcia will be offering five weekend and one-day seminars for couples, moms, dads, and single adults. “I've had 20 years to make all the mistakes I can think of as a homeschool dad,” laughs Scott. Now he will have the opportunity to help others learn those lessons through a special weekend session for homeschool dads called “Principles for Principals.” The session will encourage fathers with biblical insights and practical tips for becoming stronger leaders of their families

I would like to attend one of those seminars and will if they ever make it out my way I will, but in the meantime I'll listen to the CD's and post a review at a later date. If you don't want to wait either you can purchase them here.

There. I've actually made a post in December, and hopefully encouraged someone to make the plunge into the world of home-education and family discipleship.

Remember to "Consider the End", that being, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever". Making a decision to educate and disciple your children at home this year would be a great resolution toward that end indeed!

Go Vote!

2006-11-07T00:03:00.000-05:00

My younger brother, happy to send me the following, did so.

The Teacher Applicant After being interviewed by the school administration, the teaching Prospect said,

"Let me see if I've got this right: "You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their Dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning." "You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride. "You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job." "You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of Antisocial behavior , and make sure that they all pass the state exams." "You want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card." "You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps. "You want me to do all this and then you tell me.."

"I CAN'T PRAY?"

Funny thing is that it isn't far from the truth. Note how many of the things the teacher is called upon to do are parental responsibilities. This has been floating around the web in those emails with the subject line starting with "fw. fw. fw" Emails that circulate ad nauseum....but that's just a pet peeve. What's real is that the anonymous author of this derives the humor/irony from the fact that the teaching that happens occurs because of a huge disconnect from parents and their children.

I dare say this is nearly as rampant in the church. I haven't shown my hand with regard to the church, but I will now. If you haven't already, read Voddie Baucham's blog here on "Education: the lost art of discipleship" and further here on "Answering questions on the YM issue".

So the short answer to Brian who commented on the previous post on the new ministry of Stephen Williams of www.preparetheway.cc is this: Teachers need to be able to teach truthful content regardless of the angst it causes to the PC crowd. Teachers do make a difference one way or the other, so bravo to the teachers that teach from primary sources that show the soul of history, not just the boring facts, or the twisted revisions to accommodate a relativistic/transient PC worldview, without the knowledge and passion that drove men to act, according to the sovereignty of God, to do what they did.

I don't agree that parents need to fight this battle merely to keep their kids in a public school though.

The current public educational model had it's birth in this country in the 1830s-40s. So did the American Sunday School movement. Similar in purpose, similar ends in the beginning, but the Sunday School movement was modeled after a method designed to create a different society apart from parental influence. Like the public school.

This excerpt quoting Henry Barnard from the Connecticut Common School Journal,1839, from a book by John S. Brubacher: Henry Barnard on Education, McGraw-Hill, 1931

If education was properly understood-if all the influences which go to mould and modify the physical, moral and intellectual habits of a child, were felt to be that child's education-parents and the public would not tolerate such school-houses, with all their bad influences, indoors and out of doors, such imperfect and illiberal school arrangements, in almost every particular, as are
now found in a large majority of the school districts of the State. If they had a proper estimate of the influence of teachers, for good or for evil, for time and eternity, on the character and destiny of their pupils, they would employ, if within the reach of their means, those best qualified to give strength and grace to the body, clearness, vigor and richness to the mind, and the highest and purest feelings to the moral nature of every child entrusted to their care.

(He suggests parents would pay to give the parenting priviledges to teachers...even in 1839!)

He continues:

If the ends of education were regarded, something more would be aimed at that to enable a child to read, write, and cypher, or to attain to any degree of mere knowledge. As far as the individual is concerned, it would be to secure the highest degree of health, powers of accurate observation, and clear reflection, and noble feelings: as far as the public is concerned, the prevention of vice and crime, and the keeping pure of the peace, order, and progress of society.

Parents and society must be made to regard education in this light, as their first concern:
(or else what!)the common school, as the chief instrumentality for accomplishing it; (what about the church?) and the teacher, (Go me! Oh wait! What about God-ordained parental responsibility?), as determining the character of the school. If this can be effected, the work of
improvement will be begun in earnest, and will not cease, until each district school shall witness the triumphs of education.

...We mean a proper preparation for the real business of life

I took this quote from a book by R.J. Rushdoony written in 1963 The Messianic Character of American Public Education, pp 56-57, Ross House Books, reprinted 1995. Get your copy here.

This is now a felt missionary type zeal in all levels of government education. When confronted this zeal turns to an arrogant condescending wrath with outcomes like the 9th Circuit Court's "public educators are better than you parents so butt out and don't expect us to annoy ourselves by taking your desires into consideration" . Of course the court said it in their vernacular here...

... we hold that there is no free-standing fundamental right of parents ...to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them to matters of and relating to sex in accordance with their personal and religious values and beliefs...and that the asserted right is not compassed by any other fundamental right ... We conclude ...that the parents are possessed of no constitutional right to prevent the public schools from providing information on that subject [sex] to their students in any forum or manner they select.

This all said, we need to start first in the church. The "Exit Strategy" by the Southern Baptist Convention, that didn't make it, but will keep coming back, is a start. There has to be a strategy, and the church has to be involved, but not copying a worldly system. The church needs to support the home-school model/methodology so that Christian parents don't take their children out of school blindly.

Fortunately for parents wanting to homeschool, but attend churches that start their missionary program by sending the pre-schoolers of those under their care into the world to be "salt and light", there are a myriad of resources now that make homeschooling feasible. It often merely becomes a lifestyle choice for the parents.

The real difficulty comes when parents who want to take their children out of the public school cannot do so (single parent with financial issues, a mom with an unsupportive husband, etc). The church is, I think, unprepared to handle a large scale exodus. But, I hope I am wrong and I'd love to see the current public schools fail. Oops, they are failing, but I mean to the point that we as Christians feel a powerful conviction to raise our children in the nuture and admonition of the Lord, not in the world. Actually, upon further reflection, it is my prayer that God's mercy and grace is shed on the church that the families choose to take back responsibilities God gave them, rather deferring them to the public school system or Sunday-school teacher, or youth pastor.

I like the family-integrated church model. See what I mean here. I'm glad this is a growing movement across this country. It is a model that is the antithesis of the public school model, and is resisted by other models that have bought in to the methods of the public school (like the Sunday School/Youth pastor in-lieu of parent models).

There, not a short answer after all and I have put all my cards on the table. Strong words and unpopular in many circles, but there you have it.

Oh yes! Be sure to vote today! We don't want anyone in this country thinking they can pull off what they're doing in Germany now to the homeschooling families.

Update....Elections are over and they are what they are. God is sovereign! I have modified this post a little...the way it read before was a little arduous. I did add a little extra content too, and realized that it is a little hard to blog and hold a teething child at the same time. :-)

Good morning! Good morning!

2006-10-01T11:20:00.000-04:00

I start my day at school doing my assigned yard duty by the bus drop-off. I help students make the trek in the right direction to the playground. During that 15 minute assignment I go out of my way to give these kids a "Good Morning!" and "how are you?". We're not that big of a school so with a little checking with my colleages I can find out what big assignments are due for the different grade levels. I ask "how's your biography going?" or when they bring their projects by I always give an admiring encouragement.

At first only a few kids would give me an acknowledgement to my good-mornings. Now though many make eye contact with me first in anticipation of the friendly greeting. It's a time where I can give these precious ones a quick prayer (silently) and an encouragement.

The first period of the day I have a "prep" time where I do everything from run copies, to grade papers, to enter scores on the computer, team meetings with the grade level teachers, parent conferences, etc. It never seems long enough.

The next period I teach math (32 students). The students at my grade level have been ability grouped by their test scores from last year. I have the group that measured in a category that was below being proficient according to state standards. Of the five teachers at my grade level only one is teaching a class to students that are at grade level according to state standards. The rest of us are playing catch-up.

The next period we (33 students) are reading "Acorn People". It has the word sh!t in it, and a few others. Some kids aren't comfortable saying those words in a read-aloud. I let them say "hmmmm" in place of whatever word they are not comfortable saying. Not my choice of books, but part of a "course of study" for the grade level in the district I work for. It has been taught in the district for more than 10 years at that grade level. It's a mainstay and on the state "adopted" list.

4th period is History (34 students), or as the public schools like to call it, Social Studies. I'm teaching about early man, the progression of evolution, paleolithic humans used simple tools and were hunter-gatherers, etc. This is all presented as factual. No words in the text like "theory", or anything else that suggests that these suppositions are anything but factual. There is a section on interpretation of data and how it depends on a scientist's background and amount of evidence found, but it seems to only relate to the way that hominid society lived. No questions as to whether or not that hominid was, for example, a neandethal man, because the strata that evidence was found in was determined to be during the time period that neanderthals were said to exist. We don't question that, but we can question what sort of tools the neanderthals used.

5th period (36 students) we do a combination of silent sustained reading (SSR) and Spelling during a 35 minute period. We want to create a culture and a love for reading (treat a student like a reader and they will become a reader, to which I reply 'treat a student like a pianist and he will become a pianist?') When I was the principal we used this time to teach students to read. My premise being that a love of reading doesn't come by osmosis, but by knowing how to read. The scores improved for everyone that year, even the minority and lower socio-economic status (SES) students. We met all our state and federal goals last year. Never the less the pressure to go back to the quiet reading time w/out guidance or instruction has pervaded. At my grade level we include Spelling because we still want our kids to know how to spell the words they are reading.

6th period is my 35 minute lunch and the SSR time for other grade levels. Hooray! Straight to the restroom before anything else. I think teacher bladders stretch with time. If not, well, maybe that's another reason why half the teachers leave the profession during the 1st 5 years. Then quick lunch, make some more copies of hand-outs for the afternoon.

7th period(32 students). Language Arts and writing. I don't know the research, but I think there is a close correlation between a student's reading level and his/her writing level. We are doing grammar, sentence structure, paragraph building. I find myself all over the place with the wide level of abilities in the classroom. Frustrated I cannot give enough time to the low students and really stimiulating the gifted. Inevitably someone gets cheated out of my direct instruction at his/her ability level.

8th period(33 students) is Science, and the last period of the day. The kids are wired and hard to settle down. We are working on the Scientific Method and the book starts right off applying the Scientific Method to the determining the age and situation of the earth and the dinosaurs that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. Hmmm. You are supposed to ask a question before making a hypothesis, and then testing it. I guess to be politically correct there are some questions that you are not supposed to ask....like the age of the earth and the origins of life. Yes, that must be it, because a couple of lessons later we learn about global warming and the flooding of coastlines due to shrinking glaciers, ice caps, etc.

Well that is my day. I don't have the same group of kids all day. Some are in more than one class, some only once. My intent is not to remind people why they are glad they left teaching, though I don't condemn them at all. Not one bit! It's a tough profession, but remember that God's grace is sufficient for us wherever He has us. If you're not in public education then you don't have the grace for it. If you are, then you do, if you'll lay hold of it and acknowledge the sovereignty of God. That actually goes for everybody regardless of his/her station in life.

Being a teacher is one of the best ways to show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. These demonstrations of the fruit of the spirit I suspect are ways that the goodness of God that draws men to repentance are demonstrated. Your reflection of Christ in a hurting world cannot help but bring glory to God and spread His love to the lost, even if you cannot verbally express "God bless you" without a letter of reprimand.

The hard part is to reach the educational needs of all the students in your charge in good conscience. I spent all day (yes, Saturday) grading, assessing and diagnosing and thinking of teaching strategies. I'm pretty sure that a mom with a loving heart can do as well, probably better than I can, in educating her child(ren) than I can, and in half the time, at home. In fact, I'm sure of it. And I'm a really good teacher, even if I do say so myself!

A letter to the Honorable Ambassador of Germany to the United States

2006-09-24T14:21:00.000-04:00

September, 24, 2006

To the Honorable Wolfgang Ischinger
Ambassador
German Embassy
4645 Reservoir Road NW
Washington, DC, 20007-1998
(202) 298-4000

Dear Sir:

About 20 years ago local American governments were reacting to home schooling families in a similar fashion that local German governments are acting now toward German home schooling families. Since then the local American governments have come to realize the great positive impact on society that home schooled children have had, as well as the superior education most receive over the public and even private school counterparts. Our most prestigious universities now seek out these home-educated students. Laws have been challenged and changed to allow this basic principle of liberty for parents to be able to freely educate their own children without state interference.

German governments also need to make home schooling legal. Over 40 families are being prosecuted in Germany merely for teaching their children at home. These families have been given huge fines, some parents have been jailed, some have been forced to flee to other countries, and they are all being threatened to take their children into state custody. This is deplorable and unacceptable for any free nation to persecute Christian families who are providing an excellent education for their children. We ask you to stop prosecuting these families like the Maisches, the Pletts, the Bauers, the Rudolphs, and the many others. We as Americans have learned this lesson. (Though in all honesty we still battle a desire by state bureaucrats to continue to encroach upon these freedoms.) I hope that Germany sees the need to make Home schooling legal as well.

My own children, descendants of German immigrants, are home schooled, and as a public school educator myself, I see the tremendous positive growth my own children enjoy far and beyond what the publicly educated children of my own community enjoy. We have exceptional schools here in my community as evidenced by state test scores and local community sentiment, and yet I would not have my children in that environment any more than I would have my children consume a diet of junk food and soda pop. They would be alive, but not healthy. Please allow German families to provide an educational diet for their children that would not leave the soul of their children malnourished and their minds under-educated, which is typical of any public educational system in any country compared to the home-education model.

Thank you for passing on my concerns to the officials who can rectify this situation.

Sincerely,

Home School father
American Public School Educator
Concerned Global Citizen

This letter is in response to an HSLDA bulletin requesting homeschoolers to respond to this HSLDA E-lert here. This in response to a homeschooling family that had to flee the country while the mother was taken into custody and imprisoned, as well as other atrocities. See link here.

I couldn't help calling myself a "Concerned Global Citizen" . It sounded so.....United Nations or something. I guess that's what happens when you work in an environment that is so "sensitive" to other's predispositions. Please don't call the P.C. police. I'm not really that bad off. Just a little mischievous sometimes. :-)

I do encourage everyone to make contact with the German embassy this week. I think we all would like the German homeschoolers we would be supporting to support us in the same way should we be in similar circumstances. In fact, I'm sure they would feel compelled to do so given their current experiences to help anyone going through what they are enduring now. You can see how I used part of the HSLDA template in my letter and modified it. It's not that hard.

I know some may think that they are not clever or important enough to respond to an embassy of a foreign power, but think of it this way....if you were in the house of the German family invaded by police to cart off their children to the local sewer, I mean public school....Wouldn't you at least voice your outrage to these officials? Put yourself there, then write or call next week. Be diplomatic :-) Maybe just a little honery too. :-). Try not to mention Hitler, though it was his regime that made home education illegal in Germany in the first place in 1938.

Pray for these precious German homeschool families.

A teacher's work is never done....

2006-09-17T15:49:00.000-04:00

The last time I was in the classroom as a teacher I was newly married and my bride was just finished working as a classroom aide for my mom who was a teacher at a Christian school. She was the bulletin board princess and she gave my classroom some real pizzazz. It's different now with 5 children and her homeschool responsibilities. I'm left to do more of that myself.

In a lot of ways I'm like a new teacher. All the experienced teachers have the routine down and work as a well oiled machine with the curriculum, hand-outs, routines, procedures. I've found myself putting in 60 hour weeks just to stay up. I'm buying bins and files and dividers at K-mart to get my system in place and running. It takes too long to go through the requisition, purchase order, plead with the principal for the money, and 1 month wait to get the supplies.

I have also seen the best an the worst of classrooms and I am determined to mimick the former and shun the latter. Sometimes perfectionism is really hard.

I have the oldest and worst classroom furniture because any good stuff was "traded" by some unknown teacher elsewhere in the building that, say, noticed the desk chair in my room was better so over the summer traded up and I got the old one, etc.

My computers all had hard-drive crashes and it took 2 weeks before I was online. I just got my grade program installed last Wednesday so I was going to enter 3 weeks worth of student data this weekend into the program. I could have installed it myself, but didn't have the necessary priviledges and had to wait for the availability of a district tech. Still, the time saved by doing things on the computer is worth the wait over the old gradebook method. The district server is up for maintenance this weekend though and no one is allowed to log on until 8am Monday morning.

I have my lists of English Language Learners, my Special Education students, my students with health issues (asthma..some can have their inhalers on their persons, others in the health office, and I have to know which is which).

I have IEP meetings (Individual Learning Plans) for students needing accommodations or modifications (there is a difference between an accommodation and a modification and I have to make sure I am accommodating instead of modifying, or vice versa).

I am also "learning" how to communicate with my EL (English Learner) students since our school population is growing with students south of the border. I am taking a class for experienced teachers who haven't gone through the latest training on how to "effectively" teach the EL students in a regular classroom. I have spent 6 days of training so far to learn a whole bunch of industry related vocabulary, to talk slowly and deliberately (but NOT more loudly) and with exaggerated body language to make the EL kids more at home. I joked with somebody at yesterday's (yes, Saturday) class that it's taken 6 days of training in the summer and on weekends to have us act like American tourists in a foreign land trying to communicate. Interestingly, the methods taught are what any good, intelligent teacher would already be using to help these kids transition into the English speaking American classroom. Nevertheless the state needs to know I have been trained in their latest methodology, and I need the state's notation on my license that says I have the training.

So I have all my meetings, my trainings, my conferences, back to school night, and a myriad of issues great and small for my 33 to 37 kids (depending on the period). I'm worn out.

What's funny (not funny "HA HA") is that my experience is being repeated thousands of times across the country as the school year starts. I at least have the experience to manage my classroom well and diffuse the "situations" between students well before they become serious issues. Many new teachers have already been thinking they have made a mistake being in the classroom. Statistically half of the new teachers that enter public education will have left the profession within 5 years.

All in all it has been a really good experience for me. Especially now that I am homeschooling my kids. It further strengthens my convictions about homeschooling. All of the methodologies that need to be employed to meet the needs of all the students (gifted, retarded, EL, other-health impaired, average, auditory, visual, kinesthetic, Attention deficit, multi-cultural, motivated, unmotivated, affluent, neglected, impoverished, loud, quiet, traumatized, victimized, loved, unloved, etc.) will inevitably leave some children behind. All methodologies need to be incorporated, but not all work for all kids, and rarely can more than one methodology be used at the same time. That means that for many kids, their learning styles are being addressed only a few minutes out of each hour.

I mentioned this multitude of necessary methodologies conundrum to my table group yesterday as we were discussing methods for assisting EL students. You cannot effectively reach all of the students all of the time. Not nearly as effectively as in the home school environment. They all agreed. They all were frustrated at the enormity of the task to reach such a diversity of students in the classroom. All felt as if they wished they could do more, but do not have the time or stamina to do it all.

The bottom line is, for me, for anyone, is this: can even the best trained and talented public school teacher provide a better education for children in a public classroom as what the loving family can provide for their own children at home? I maintain that the public school system will generally come short for the children in it. Even when there are good and talented teachers in it like me :-)

I wouldn't even have my own children in my classroom with me as the teacher because I know I would be divided in providing instruction different ways to so many students. My kids would come up short, as would everybody else's. No, my kids will be at home where their individual learning styles will be accommodated, and learning customized as only a mother or father could do, in order to train them in the best manner possible. A learning experience so rich, so wonderful, so focused, so intimate, that it makes even the best public education seem outright pathetic.

There is no way the public school teacher can surpass the educational opportunity provided in the loving and disciplined homeschool.

That's not just an opinion, it's a fact.

I'm back and there are a few changes around here.....

2006-09-03T15:02:00.000-04:00

I am back after a month's hiatus. Not really a hiatus, but up to my eyeballs in new changes.
I should say dozens of changes, but most of the changes are attributed to my 2 youngest, several times a day, though the older is going through the tell-tale signs of pre-potty training.... like finding a secluded place to "do his business". He's doomed. We know he knows when! Now comes the fun transition from diaper to diaperless.

The first major change is that I've left the principalship for a season to work in the classroom. The time necessary to be a good principal and a good husband and father of 5 kids 8 years old and younger doesn't exist. At least not for me. Something was going to have to give, and it wasn't going to be my family. So my workdays are a little shorter, and certainly less intense, and it has been a real blessing to me and my family.

So do I change the name of the blog? I've thought a while about it and haven't decided. For now I'll just leave it, but mention my current status as an honest disclosure. I haven't forgotten my experiences. Maybe I'll be like the Colonel for KFC and just wear the title because I've been there and done that.

So do I decide to join my local, state and National Education Association? NO WAY!!!

I saw Stossel's follow-up piece on 20/20 Friday night and I really think that he went light on the unions. Yes, there are great teachers in the profession, but if you want to see bully-like behavior, go to an educator's association convention. The unions bring shame to the profession. I won't have anything to do with them anymore, except to expose the hypocrisy. I'll comment more on the 20/20 piece later.

The other change is in regard to my desire to change professions and get a good Bible/theological education and pursue the pastorate. I am accepted to Reformed (in Jackson MS) and Westminster (Philadelphia) Theological Seminaries. Hence my roadtrip this summer with my son to Mississippi. I hope to visit Philadelphia later this year. This was another factor in leaving the principalship. It is difficult to find a good leader mid-year, so I put in adequate notice and we have a good principal in place now. As a regular classroom teacher now, I am relatively easy to replace with a competent credentialed instructor.

It has been hard going back to the classroom though, (we just finished our first week of school) but it has been professionally enlightening. I encourage all administrators to pop into the classroom for a few weeks every now and then. It really is eye opening, especially if you haven't been at it full time for nearly a decade or more, like me.

Finally, I haven't paid too much attention to the blog for the last month so some comments went unnoticed until today. I replied to several of them so you might want to go back through the last series on bullies and have a look.

Burlington Bully Fodder

2006-08-03T16:17:00.000-04:00

I am sitting and typing w/1 hand and holding my newborn son with the other. Mom is doing great and resting. In times like this a dad thinks of the future and providing the best possible for his children. This is a common parent thing that God put on the heart of humanity. Of course sin changes, twists, misinforms, and caters to selfish desires and prejudices with regard to what the "best" thing is for our kids.

I saw a Burlington back-to-school commercial and it was promising "all the hottest fashions" for school. Just following that premise brings up so many things....

what makes it "hot"?
who says what's "hot" or not and by what authority?
is that a valid authority we want to place ourselves in submission to...or our children?
how long have we submitted to that authority...or continue to submit to that authority?
is there a better way?
if there is a better way, and my conscience says there is, shall I discipline myself to find it, or just continue w/status quo and go do something quick so I can stop thinking about it?

To be fair Burlington is just one of myriads whose intent is to appeal to the lust of the eyes, flesh, and boastful pride of life enough so that we are parted with our dollars so junior can have the Burlington interpretation of "best"

So what is the greatest leverage the marketers have come up with to rid you of your cash in their direction?

Good ole' peer pressure. The fulcrum to that lever goes right back to the old socialization argument.

No Burlington et. al, you don't have in mind what is best for my children, and your methods of persuasion are very telling indeed.

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

It really comes down to whom we are going to serve. What authority we are placing ourselves under. Does "what's hot for back-to-school" result in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control? Or immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. (Galatians 5)

I'll wrap up w/a little video clip from Fox news I saw yesterday where some girls and families had to retain an attorney to force change with a school climate of bullying.

"Battle Against Bullying"

OK, my free hand is needed immediately for "binky duty". TTFN.

"Bullying and Your Child"

2006-07-30T12:17:00.000-04:00

I know I said I was going to wrap up the bullying thing. I didn't lie, but I did change my mind. I am also going to put an individual link to the posts relating to this topic at the bottom of this post, per the request of Jefferson Reed of RightFaith

With the "socialization" argument unwilling to die it's deservedly miserable death I suppose I feel compelled to keep driving a wooden stake in its blood sucking/life ruining heart.

I read this article this morning from Yahoo Health: Children's Health News. It repeats a lot of what I have already been saying in this series. Check out these stats though:

Sadly, bullying is widespread. According to a 2004 KidsHealth KidsPoll, 86% of more than 1,200 9- to 13-year-old boys and girls polled said they've seen someone else being bullied, 48% said they've been bullied, and 42% admitted to bullying other kids at least once in a while.

We as parents cannot be so naive to think that within these statistics are our own publicly educated children, if in fact we still have our children in public schools. We cannot actually think that our Christian kids who are being "salt and light" within this age group fit neatly into the 14% not affected in the least by bullying. Remember what Paul said to the Corinthians? (15:33)

Do not be deceived:
"Bad company corrupts good morals."

I'm not nearly the theologian I desire to be so I am reticent to start making exegesis of scripture to make a point unless I am fairly certain I'm not leading someone down a path of an incorrect understanding of God's word. This verse is as plain as it gets. Kind of a no-brainer, if you will.

I do have expertise on the public school institution, culture, and nuances. By relating these things that are not readily observed to the readers of this blog I hope to stimulate some careful thought as to what is best for their children. Presenting these anecdotes and observations will provide data that is often hidden for the sake of perpetuating the existing public school model.

Following is a list of convenient links to the posts on the series of school safety and bullying:

What about public school safety?

Let's talk about bullies...

A typical scenario

The parent /advocate of the bully

One way the bully says everything without saying anything

Again, I am happy to answer questions or make clarifications. It is not my intent to sound as if I am wanting to condemn someone who puts a child into the public education system, but rather to endorse (albeit strongly) an alternative, namely, the nurture and admonition that comes in a homeschool environment.

Along with this endorsement perhaps I can give an insiders look to help a family make an educated decision as to what is best for the whole family and the whole education of their children.

One way the bully says everything without saying anything

2006-07-16T15:42:00.000-04:00

Remember that the bully isn't always overt in his/her actions or statements. In fact, subtlety is an art form for many bullies, that is, subtle to the adult that would disapprove.

One of the best methods of communication for the bully is in how he/she dresses. Can you spot a bully a mile off? That's why. The manner of dress is a powerful communication tool. Over or undersized clothing, hats worn slightly, or completely askew, one pant leg rolled up, the other down, various name brands, etc. The school uniform movement is a result of schools trying to get a handle on the violent, fearful, intimidating, provocative ideas that are communicated by students to establish the peer level social hierarchy.

The dress code that most schools have is another tool to control this type of harassment directed at all staff and students. Yes, I consider how a student dresses a communicative act and thereby constitutes harassment if the message says "fear me". Other messages of "indulge in sin like me", "lust after me", "be arrogant like me" are readily observed. You know "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but from the world." (I John 2:16).

These communicative acts take place every time your son or daughter looks at this other student. Value judgments, temptations, emotional reactions to varying degrees, all take place in a moment at every glance. All day long. 180 days a year.

Serious quality discipleship that happens in the home of the family that sends it's children to public school may counter the negative effects to a certain degree, but how many Christian homes of publicly educated children have serious quality discipleship? I dare say most don't. I dare say that many feel the 10-15 minutes 2-3 times a week of family devotion (if that)/Bible reading with a heavy reliance upon Sunday School and the church youth ministry is actually going to "equip" their children to be "salt and light", little missionaries if you will, in an environment that is antithetical to anything that is of God.

I know I make bold here, but the head of each home needs to look at the current level of the nurture and admonition of the Lord in the life of their children. Try to be objective and weigh the outcome desired in the life of your child who is in public school, or is in a homeschool environment. Which enables the greatest degree of holy living? I believe that you will find in most cases that the choice is obvious, just not necessarily that easy to make.

I'm wrapping up the "bully" series at this point. It is a little dark and I'd like to put my thoughts in another direction.

Sorry for the length of time between posts as well. I have been on a 2-week road-trip with my oldest son...a father and son adventure that included history (from firing a Confederate cannon at Vicksburg to a shootout at Dodge City), geography (mountains, plains, rivers, divides), geology(geodes, volcanoes, fossils and petrified forests and relating them to ante/post diluvian flood observations/theory), mathematics (used up some great road time across the plains working on math facts....which he really enjoyed by the way), and writing (postcards home from various points of interest). A great bonding time with my 8-year-old.

I also have been, since my return, Mr. Mom (to aide my wonderful, adorable, sweet, patient, loving, humorous, helpmeet, in her time of extreme pregnancy) since we are expecting #5 any day. The official due date is 7/21, but the 4 prior children all seemed to hang on an extra 8-10 days or so. In the meantime I've been cooking and cleaning a lot, and the kids have been learning how to do household chores more efficiently. I've been a great taskmaster!

I check back periodically and will respond to comments, I just may not have as much time for new posts.

The parent /advocate of the bully

2006-07-06T04:47:00.000-04:00

One of the teacher's or administrator's difficulties in dealing with school bullies is dealing with the parent(s) of the bully. Have you heard the expression "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" ? One cannot presuppose that there will be a level of cooperation from the parents of the bully. In fact, an almost automatic adversarial relationship often develops as soon as bullying behavior is brought up with the parent. Bullying tactics are then demonstrated by the parent toward the teacher or administrator.

The teacher or administrator often becomes "gun-shy" when it comes to getting on the phone to the parent of the bully to report another episode. Administering discipline becomes an arduous process and the skill of the attorney in describing why the bully needs to spend a day or two at home is needed. Then of course the savvy parent brings in other resources claiming that their bully is being mistreated by the school and his/her civil rights and right to a "Free and Appropriate Public Education" (FAPE) is being infringed.

I had a student whose "guardian" had the ACLU fax me a letter stating that I was giving the student an inadequate educational opportunity because I was wanting to limit his exposure to other students at the school. The superintendent didn't want a confrontation and so we just put everyone at school, staff and student alike, in a place where we had to "tolerate" this student's antics. As long as the student didn't physically hurt someone. The mockery endured by the staff resulted in anger and even tears of frustration. Thanks ACLU for being such a great reason for homeschool parents to continue homeschooling!

The pressures on teachers and administrators to maintain a positive learning environment are often tested, even overcome, by pressures placed on this educational venue by other outside sources that can trump the safe school attempt.

A typical scenario

2006-06-28T23:04:00.000-04:00

A victim of a bully generally puts up with a lot before he/she either seeks help or blows up. The "narc" syndrome, or in Columbine terms, the "conspiracy of silence" is really a formidable opponent to the safe school environment. The bully often will spend days, weeks, months giving small, subtle, sneaky little harassments. Each little incident on its own is hardly worth reporting, but they build up and build up. Sometimes a victim "loses it" and goes off on the bully. Since no harassment was ever reported the bully appears to be the "victim".

After several hours of investigation and questioning of students (many, if not most, intentionally lie because of this "narc syndrome") most of what has been happening emerges. The kid who "blew up" is at an emotional peak, may have really hurt the bully, or may have given the bully the "open door" to pummel the victim. Both get suspended from school and the original victim gets a double whammy, while the bully gets a vacation.

There are interventions and strategies to deal with these situations, but the point is not that there are terrific interventions, the point is that the hostile condition exists in the first place. Again, even the safest schools are only "safe" in relative terms. This relativity is not based on the safety afforded to our children in our homeschool homes, but rather in comparison to some ambiguous idea of an urban school with metal detectors and drug deals on the playgrounds.

Of course there is little challenge to most schools to provide a safer environment than say some inner city schools, but that "safe" isn't even close to the "safe" I want for my children

Let's talk about bullies...

2006-06-22T13:49:00.000-04:00

Everyone in public school has at least one bully story. The bully stories start at the preschool level. They continue and peak around the middle school level, then go down some during the high school years. Many incidents continue into college and even into the workplace. I remember in a training on bullying that there was also an increase in bullying in the adult workplace. Seems like we train people well in the public school system on how to be a bully to the point that it affects our work culture as a nation.

The official term is "peer harassment", but everyone knows about "the bullying". One common misconception about bullying is that the bully has a low self esteem so he/she has to harass another student until the other student demonstrates a lack of power, hence the bully sees someone more miserable than he/she is and feels better.

This is actually far from the truth. The bully is actually a sadistic sort of character that derives personal pleasure and satisfaction in seeing the emotional pain and/or trauma demonstrated in the victim. An ex-bully in a video training I watched stated that he would be relentless on a victim until he saw the victim cry. That was his goal, to incessantly torment his chosen victim until the victim was reduced to tears.

How's that for socialization? Yes folks, let's put our kids into public schools to "toughen them up" against such harassments. Let's allow them to be emotionally traumatized, put down, harassed, poked, made fun of, pushed around, laughed at, ridiculed, victims of rumors, robbed of dignity, commented on their private parts in restrooms/locker rooms and told of their doomed future sexually because of described inadequacies, etc, etc, etc, ad infinitum. Or let's put our kids into a system where if they are not the victim, they at least get to see this happening everyday 180 days a year.

So often when I was investigating a case of bullying many of the "Christian" kids that I was counting on for a truthful account of the bully's actions were reticent to tell me what happened in complete detail. They weren't dishonest, but they were fearful of retaliation. So were their parents when I called on them for assistance. Their parents wanted to limit the inclusion of their son/daughter because they knew I could not fully protect him/her from retaliation.

Often too, we think of the individual bully, but bullies also run in packs, both boys and girls, looking for whom they may devour. I don't use that phraseology lightly either. It is exactly what they do. Staff and school interventions work to a certain extent, but the bully mentality is rather sophisticated and highly adept at avoiding accountability. They are aided by the almost immeasurable power of student witnesses wanting to avoid being called a "narc" as well.

Kinda makes you mad, doesn't it?

Hence programs like I mentioned in the previous post. Powerful and effective interventions like this are necessary because the public school without these programs is a very unsafe place to be. But even the most effective programs only touch the surface of the public school experience for our children.

There is still no doubt in my mind that the home school experience is still the best/safest experience.

What about public school safety?

2006-06-19T23:14:00.000-04:00

Check this out from "Safe School Ambassadors", one of the more effective programs used in public schools for school safety. This is from their site:

Every Day in America

160,000 students stay at home from school because they are afraid of how they might be treated by their peers. Every day thousands or millions more come to school with a knot in their guts unable to concentrate, learn, or perform at their best because they are afraid they will be insulted, harassed, assaulted, or worse. Every day....

If you care to follow up and read more of this group you will find that they do a lot of really good things. In fact, from my perspective as a principal this is an outstanding organization. It has benefited our school. The thing I have found is this; the more effective the organization the more it mimics what should go on in the home, and does go on in the home of the effective home school. The mentoring, accountability, dealing with character issues, exercising "tough love", etc. are all things the parent does at home.

We find that great organizations like this come up to serve the public schools and they have a positive impact on the school culture. Sometimes the impact is tremendous. With great successes it is easy then to criticize the homeschool environment and say "look how safe we made the school! You can send your kids here to be socialized now!"

I go back to my earlier premise that "there's no place like home". Wait, haven't I heard that before somewhere?

The point is, there will never be the safety at a public school that will be found in the home. The critic immediately goes to the worst case of abuse he/she can imagine or remember. I've seen and reported all kinds of abuse, but those are still the anomalies in real life, and in my experience, not one from a home school. Not that they don't exist, it only happens less often than say, lightning striking twice in the same spot. (It does, but ever so rarely in comparison)

So I will start a series of posts on school safety. I will go to various sites that promote school safety and we will start seeing similarities and especially obvious will be the areas where the best solution is the home solution. Everything else is just...not adequate.

If you have a personal anecdote to share about a public school experience feel free. It may just help the reader make a good decision!

I WON!!!!!!

2006-06-18T10:43:00.000-04:00

Amy at Amy's Humble Musings had a father's day prize for commenters and I WON! I never win anything and I won! Hmmm....should I buy a lotto ticket to support public education now that my luck is running so good? Naw...

Thanks Amy, your site is a blessing to my wife and has added nothing but smiles to our home. In fact she was delighted this morning (she was checking your blog while so patiently letting me sleep in a little :-) to show me I won your drawing.

To all the dads out there...Happy Fathers Day! Check out this congressional resolution for this 109th congress. Not a bad resolution this time around.

Am I a hypocrite?

2006-06-15T18:36:00.000-04:00

The question from an anonymous commenter asks: "Why is it okay to take money from public education to support your family but public education is not good enough for your children? Seems hypocritical to me," There are a few other items in that comment I will address here as well.

Back to the first question, am I a hypocrite? Well, only if I wasn't paying taxes. I contribute to the public education system under duress, like everyone else who has paid taxes. Ask yourself this: "Is the doctor working at the HMO that takes millions in Medicare a hypocrite if he takes his family elsewhere for medical services that are much better?"

The premise is that the state offers a "Free and Appropriate Public Education" (FAPE). The state mandates that teachers be certified in the content area of instruction delivered. Because the state has made laws dictating how the public education system works, as long as I abide by those laws I am free and clear to raise my family as I deem appropriate guaranteed by the freedoms we enjoy in this country. It is not a moral issue of public monies coming my way. I am providing a service to the state and am being remunerated appropriately by my service under conditions of my contract and state laws. No other conditions are stipulated or inferred.

Does a public defender become hypocritical if say, his juvenile delinquent son needs an attorney to defend him in court but chooses to defend him himself on his own time and nickel?

In essence the connection between public monies that pay me for my contracted services and a supposed obligation to support the system with my own children is fallacious. People sometimes get a little snotty about it (not referring to the anonymous commenter of course!) because public vs. home education is a hot topic.

As far as really good companies go, well, you will find a Chevy truck at the Chrysler dealer my brother works at, but he still makes them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. But since he drives a Chevy and not a Ram truck, does his productivity go down? No, you should see his house!

But the fact that I am a homeschool dad does not automatically make me dis-engaged/unengaged, or weak, or a weak link. Some actually hope or expect that condition to exist, as if I have no control over my own work ethic. If I do everything as unto the Lord, as scripture mandates, it doesn't matter how I feel. As long as this is the furrow I am plowing for the Lord, I won't look to the right or the left, until I get to the end of that furrow. At that point if the Lord gives me another field to plow, so be it.

The same way a doctor making his living providing a contracted service at an HMO does not automatically become the weak link there.

Believe me, there are so many weak links that are avowed defenders of public education that it isn't even funny. It is, in fact, scary. Just go to an NEA national convention.

I know how to be a good teacher, and/or principal. I can even feel good about what I do because I know how to run an educational production system that turns out a good product. If I leave the system, it will be for other reasons.

As far as educational reform goes, consider this: if you have a chronically disengaged teacher that is tenured, it takes on the average of 3 years of hard documentation, observation, coaching, observable non-growth, more coaching, letters of reprimand, mentoring/peer coaching, meetings, more meetings, union interactions, attorney's, board meetings, etc., and the cost to the district of about $250,000-300,000 to let loose of one disengaged teacher.

If the administrator has to go through that process, the rest of the school is affected seriously. So many just help the disengaged teacher limp along until retirement....and that could be 5-10 years away with a student contact figure from 200 to 1500 students over that time.

Well, hopefully that will get you thinking. Happy to address anything you think I might have missed.

On another note:

I appreciated the comments on the textbook series. I hope my last post on that wasn't too anti-climatic. Some have more experience than others and that can be intimidating to those just starting out. My point was to be encouraging to those just starting as well as enlightening to everyone that public education sometimes is just as improvising as home schooling can be, only in directions not guaranteed or even approved by the state. The point is that the text is a tool. We work with the best tools we know as we are faithful to the time He has given us to raise up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, as God provides. It's simple really, just not that easy :-)

Textbooks, the teacher substitute

2006-06-12T19:38:00.000-04:00

Before you think I'm wanting everyone to burn their textbooks I should make a point: I am not against textbooks. They are a helpful tool. They have also become a vehicle to determine what information is shared, or not shared. They have also become a tool to determine how information is shared. In fact, the textbook series in the public arena is so comprehensive that it almost makes training teachers obsolete.

Ok, not entirely, to be fair. It just makes it really easy to just copy the masters, pass out questions, speak out to the class what to discuss and what the answers should be solicited from the students (even though we have heard that there are no right or wrong answers sometimes....the teacher always has a direction the discussion will go in) and packaged tests that ask questions on what information was thought to be important enough to remember for the week.

Modern textbooks will have all sorts of resources to use. Even in homeschooling there are a lot of varieties of programs to choose from. We can become overwhelmed in trying to choose the best for our kids. So can the public educator. So what do we do?

We do what's best for our kids! The public educator does that too! Except with his/her values, worldview, opinions, biases, prejudices, sinful pre-dispositions, etc. Question is, who's values, worldview, opinions, biases, prejudices, and sinful pre-dispositions do you want influencing your child for 7 hours a day, plus afterschool homework club, etc.? Hmmmmmm. That just may make the textbook issue a little moot right now....something to think about...because just as some of you don't really use texts for all subjects, many public educators don't either. They supplement, add, subtract, modify....all according to what seems right to them.

Yes they are supposed to use approved resources and to varying degrees these resources are used. But don't think that just because a resource lines up with state adopted standards for a particular grade level, and that book is in the classroom, or in your child's backpack that that is exactly what your children are getting.

So we, as homeschool parents need to care about textbooks. But we need to care more about the spiritual state of our child, the heart attitudes that need correction that would flourish in the public school environment. It is a challenge, a really hard challenge sometimes, to find the right materials for our kids. Doggonit! Don't we want this to be easier? Yes, we want the perfect package for the perfect price. But we work hard and trust in the sovereignty of God that we are by His Grace providing the education our child needs.

The state, however, is really concerned about textbooks because that is the primary way those with influence can market their ideology the quickest. California still cannot adopt a social studies book because they can't decide how to treat certain 'religious' topics in the 6th grade text.

The next best way is influence in the universities and colleges putting out credentialed teachers and administrators. By the way, just because a teacher went to a Christian school doesn't mean that they were trained to teach in a Christian worldview. The Christian college or university was accredited by the state because it taught statist methodologies approved in that state's department of education.

Well, that wraps up my textbook series. I didn't want to get too technical...frankly because I didn't want to feel like I was in college again. But that brings up a point I alluded to earlier...that is with all the jargon and technical methods taught in universities to the teacher it is really easy for the teacher to discount homeschooling as "unprofessional" and second rate. All I can say to that, besides "humbug" is that as Christian homeschooling families we cherish what the world despises, that is, "the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God". (I Corinthians 1:18)

Finally, please stop by OneWayPurpose: Why Homeschool Part I and Part II to read an interview with me by David Boskovic. Some of the dialog in the comments would be very interesting to read. I (along with David's brother) made somebody a little cranky. We principals are wont to bring out the ugly sarcastic side in people from time to time :-)

A note of appreciation and acknowledgement

2006-06-10T09:28:00.000-04:00

This morning I am awake, and that's about it. 2 commencements, a dance (I left for an hour and came back and I'm pretty sure it was the same song...something techno, rap, hippity, raucas sort of...something. It was all very...bumpy and grindy. The parents put it together, an almost sudo-school event. I was mainly there to keep the riff-raff out and keep the peace if someone wanted to be annoying.) I almost made it to the sober grad night as an extra helper/chaparone but it just wasn't going to happen.

I have enjoyed the comments and the direction that the links have taken me. I've learned some new things. Here's one that may not be so obvious... I don't know everything (he says tongue in cheek) and I really appreciate those of you sharing your experiences and resources.

Today is my oldest son's birthday. He is 8. We are going to go fishing and then hit our favorite coffee house for something nicely caffinated for me (I'd like two extra shots in that mocha please!) and something fruity for him. We will both have whipped cream on them! The day is his, and as it turns out, mine as well.

The different baits, lines, hooks, sinkers, methods, jokes and pokes. Who gets the biggest fish and will we have it for breakfast? Will we clean the fish in front of his sisters? "Eww gross....hey daddy, what's that? Why that's the heart sweety" ( can you tell I'm not in an urban area? :-)

I will do the homeschool dad thing, which is to say I'm doing the dad thing. The schooling continues and the only text for today is "This is the day that the Lord has made, I will be glad and rejoice in it"

Monday we'll hit curriculum blue prints and mapping and a few other technical things that really do take a lot of energy and brain power to understand, but really only lend themselves to the public educator as hurdles they have overcome but the parents haven't, so the public educator is better suited to......well, my son is up and I'm going to start his day being his first happy birthday greeter :-)

An indirect criteria for textbooks

2006-06-08T00:09:00.000-04:00

When a publisher wants to sell a book it will send representatives to big conferences to make as many contacts with decision makers as possible. They will spend lots of money in a lot of different ways to garner favor. One of the best hors d'oeuvres banquets I attended was sponsored by Prentice Hall. All I had to do was go and have a good time. Major publishers have made attending these large conferences and sponsoring events a regular practice.

Teachers and /or administrators interested in textbooks may request a sample at a specific grade level or levels and will in no-time be sent some pretty amazing teacher sets of materials. These sets take on the appearance of a ready-made presentation catered to the school boards, curriculum committees, and civic groups and others interested in reviewing the materials. Categories such as "technology", "differentiated instruction" "supplemental materials" "English Language Development", "Audio/Visual", "Multi-disciplinary Instruction", and others are neatly presented in these presentation-ready sets. Some sets come in plastic bins, others in flashy cardboard displays, one was in it's own little wheeled caddy with telescoping handle so it could be easily carried from place to place. I can't even imagine the expense incurred by these publishers in marketing. When all is said and done the choice of publisher is made and the display components from the losing publishers are either scavenged or tossed. ( those little caddies could be handy for other things!)

The expenses laid out in marketing, gimmicks and gi '-me's is observably large. The waste afterward is really sad, but the publishers know the numbers. I would love to know though what a marketing analyst really thinks of the public education system after determining by the data what marketing strategies work best to sell the publisher's books to school districts.

Sales and profit margins. Arguably one of the chief criteria that influences. We know that the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil (I Timothy 6:10). Corporate greed is alive and flourishing. Among other criteria to be mentioned in future posts, this is one that has an influence that may not be as overt as a political agenda or revisionist point of view, but is none-the-less a factor in what our society is feeding our children spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally (you should see the flashy graphics and attention-getting pages in some books....like a great commercial shown on Saturday morning on the Nickelodeon channel. I wonder if the publishers hire some of the same marketing firms?)

Is it wrong to make a profit in selling textbooks? No. Can we trust that the best interest in our children will be looked after at the expense of profit? No. Are loving parents in charge of their own child's education willing to sacrifice much more than a multi-layered corporation? Probably. It seems to make sense but I won't categorically state yes, unless that parent is educating his/her child(ren) in the nurture and admonition of the Lord with an eternal view of the Kingdom of God, rather than a temporal view of the kingdom of this world.

But that is what all the criteria we look at is going to boil down to isn't it? The Kingdom of God verses the kingdom of the world? And furthermore, if one does not live in the Kingdom of God that same person will not be able to fully appraise the value of that which is born of the Spirit of God, and will view such things as foolishness (I Corinthians 2:14)

Where we see the love of money and the inability to value that which is born of the Spirit of God we should turn elsewhere when it comes to the well being of our children's education.

One consideration missing in statist criteria for school texts

2006-06-07T08:19:00.000-04:00

I really appreciated the thought behind the responses given. We could spend/have spent many hours developing our own criteria weighing it out according to Biblical wisdom for our family and sound counsel from others who have gone before us. In fact the process could be so daunting that it would be a discouraging experience.

Now place yourself in the corporate boardroom; powerpoints going, big easels with peel-off pages that stick to the walls around you with everyone's ideas, experts in the room that used to work for state and federal education departments that still have connections in both the departments and in the legislatures, cost analysis people, marketing people, university people, authors, education experts....etc. The brain power expended is really phenomenal. But what are their goals? Do we know them all?

Do their goals have anything to do with...

"Be diligent to present yourself approved unto God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15)

Do ours?

What if, in fact, this was our only goal? The goal to educate a child so that he would grow into an adult that could be spoken of as one who presented himself approved unto God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. Imagine a young adult leaving your home on his/her life path being one who could accurately hand the word of truth.

Hey John Lennon, that would be something worth imagining!

to be continued.....with some examples of statist criteria

Please feel free to continue posting your comments. I know that your wisdom gained and expressed would further help others going through the same thoughts/concerns.

Why are textbooks important?

2006-06-03T09:53:00.000-04:00

As we begin the textbook post(s) we need to examine the importance (or lack thereof) of a textbook as we know it. The first step is to do some thoughtful reflection of what we have come to expect of such a book, or text. What do we want a text book to do for us as homeschool parents? Everything? Somethings/What things? The same questions would be asked in regard to what we want for our children. Post some of your responses or email them to me. Remember, there are no "stupid" answers :-). (I'm going to have to learn how to put a real emoticon here someday :-)

Textbook post is still in the making....

2006-06-01T00:46:00.000-04:00

The textbook post is taking awhile. Since the article I referenced a few days ago mentioned a California textbook hearing I have been spending some time at the California Department of Education website (the link will take you to a search on textbook criteria) and examining official state criteria for textbook adoptions. It is really both interesting and boring at the same time.

I have also gotten a few spam comments so I have added the anti-spam measures.

I will have something to post on textbooks by this weekend. It will be more interesting and not as boring as reading all those criteria.

So why are you a public school principal?

2006-05-29T22:59:00.000-04:00

Good question! All I can say is that if I had to do it over again....well, I wouldn't. But that isn't really the point because God is indeed sovereign over the lives of men. I believe that my experiences are part of the weave of the fabric of my life as God has ordained. Part of a tapestry of grace (guess which history curriculum we use :-)

So how do I reconcile what I am doing as a profession with my personal convictions? I reconcile it by applying my training to a system of education that dominates this country. As an administrator I have a fiduciary responsibility to the community and school board I serve. I am charged with providing the best educational experience that the faculty and staff at my school can provide to the children that attend. It is kind of like being a musical conductor, but everyone marches at a slightly different beat. Nevertheless, I have to keep things moving. It is time consuming, physically and emotionally draining, but it does have its rewards as you see various successes occur as a result of your efforts from an organizational point of view.

The part that is difficult (if not impossible) to reconcile is this: how do I enforce the breaking of the first commandment on a daily basis? "You shall have no other god before Me" becomes "You shall serve any god save the Lord God". Sure there are "student led" exhibitions of Christianity, but the faculty and staff need to keep a great distance by law. Obviously this distance varies from school to school/community to community, nevertheless the fact remains, with the current interpretations of the separation of church and state, to cross the line is to break the law. And for what? To have equal access to children of all parents for a Christian agenda that the pagan has for his secular agenda? No. I don't think so. That's fighting the battle on the terms of the enemy, so to speak. I won't go there in an overt manner personally. I believe strongly in the sovereignty of the family, and would resist the influence of anyone over my family without my consent. Hence I homeschool to prevent that from happening

That said, it is still a missionfield. It must be approached though as a missionary approaches a new setting. Light shining, Fruit of the Spirit exhibited, Christ glorified in our work, speech, actions, and the gospel shared with great wisdom and understanding as opportunity presents itself, so that the goodness of God is demonstrated through us. I come from a reformed perspective so that when the Bible says we are "dead" in our sins, I believe it means "Lazarus" dead, and only Christ could call him forth. So if Christ in us, the hope of glory, happens to call someone forth when we're around, to Him be the glory all the more.

I have shared my faith and prayed with Christian staff members at school and it is not a secret that I am a Christian. Christian parents expressed gratitude at counsel I give in various situations because they recognize the Biblical wisdom in it. It is my belief though that a reformation of education is necessary, but it must start at home, with the family, and in the church.

Well intentioned organizations like Gateways to Better Education are doing their best to keep Judeo-Christian values from perishing from the public education venue. I have used their materials. I cannot fault them completely in their efforts, though I would still strongly encourage Christian parents to remove their children from the public schools.

So here I am, well trained in running a public education institution and do so with Judeo-Christian values and blogging about taking one's Christian students out. I will continue in what I am doing, though my plans are to bring about a personal change. If and when the opportunity arises I am determined to go to seminary in pursuit of a Master of Divinity degree and a pastorate. A few have emailed me and encouraged me to stay because of a positive influence I might have on the school I serve, but God has been pulling me in this direction for a couple years now. He knows who the next principal at my school will be already, good or bad, He is in control. I need to follow the calling He has placed on my life.

On another note, I have completed a batch of questions for David Boskovic's website Onewaypurpose which he will be posting near the end of the week. His current interview/remarks on mathematics and a Christian world view is very good. It's worth a look.

II Timothy 3 and the public school playground...

2006-05-26T00:38:00.000-04:00

Check out II Timothy 3 here and give it a read.

Note: If you are using Firefox or the new IE beta with tabs, open another tab with the Bible link so you can quickly cross reference the scripture.

In vs. 1-5 Paul is talking to Timothy and giving him sound counsel in practicing discernment with regard to the type of men he is to avoid. Interestingly as I read this list of sinful behaviors it sounds like the conduct demonstrated on the playground at school. We might think that if we see these behaviors as adults in the sanctuary or amongst the members of our fellowship, that we should avoid these men and we would be right to do so. Now, put your child in the middle of another sort of sanctuary...that being the fenced playground. Willingly many Christians place their precious children into this "sanctuary" and expose them, to varying degrees, to each of these vices mentioned. Not just once or twice a week, but several times daily, for 180 school days of the year. In light of this scripture would you consider this to be a right thing to do? (you decide)

Paul then describes the victims of these men as "always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth". (v.7) Believe me, these playground children are learning all the time. The question remains, what are they learning? I dare say that most learning at school happens on the playground. It is the learning of the type we as Christian parents want to protect our children from. Why do you think the "socialization" argument is so prevelent? The world wants to conform your children to itself.

The final point that I want to make is at the end of the chapter. Yes we have heard II Timothy 3:16 a lot because it is a key verse regarding the application of scriptures to all of life, but note verses 14-15:

"You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus"

We see that Timothy was read from childhood in the scriptures to such an extent that from his knowledge of the "sacred writings" along with his training he is able to receive wisdom that leads to salvation.

I try to be wary of reading too much into a scripture and I don't try to apply every scripture to every situation regardless of context. I will make two observations though. Firstly; Paul instructs Timothy to avoid men that, among other things, are disobediant to their parents. Secondly, Paul reminds Timothy of his Godly training.

I suggest that for our own children it would be a very good thing to:

Keep them from the company of other children that, among other things, are disobedient to their parents;
Provide for them the Godly training that would result in the ability of our children as they reach adulthood to "have known the sacred writings which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus". Calvin in his commentary of this verse makes note of the "kindness of God, if any person, from his earliest years, has thus aquired a knowledge of the scriptures". I suggest that for the most part this is not happening in the Christian homes whose children attend public school.

A post script; I changed the template of the blog because the old one had too much pink, and, being a teacher, I couldn't stand that the title was not in capital letters.

I have also been invited to participate in an email interview over at Oneway Purpose.

I'm not sure when it will start but I encourage you to drop by this young man's blog and give it a look. I really like what he is doing. I've been given my first question and I'll be answering it and sending the replies to him to post. Sounds like it will be an interesting exchange over the next few days.

Textbook Adoptions

2006-05-24T01:03:00.000-04:00

I received a timely email from a reader (Thanks "R") about textbook adoptions. It is amazing the religious zeal felt from those intent on "spreading the word" to the kids in school. Again, raising the children in the nurture and admonition of .....anything Godless (generally known as "the criteria"). You can read the article here. Timely for me because my district is in the middle of an adoption right now. I copied and passed out the article to teachers in the committee who found it insightful. It was nicely written and I was surprised at how well it caught the candor of the state board of education members. What is scary is that these people are so self-righteous that they don't realize how ridiculous they sound.

It was my intent to write a little more in depth on the matter but it is crunch time before graduation and its long hours for students, parents, teachers, and me of course. That is another huge drama in itself. I wrote about that a few minutes ago, but lost it. I'll chalk it up to Providence because it didn't turn out coherently.

Posts will be shorter and less frequent until the human drama of "get everything done at the last minute so I can graduate with my peers" plays out on June 8th.

How to make public school look like home?

2006-05-24T00:59:00.000-04:00

This summer throughout the country, from Maui to Colorado to Florida, tens of thousands of teachers and administrators in the public education arena are going to attend conferences to learn the latest research and hear motivational speakers that will bring tears to their eyes, and then go back to schools changed, charged, and ready to go. It's almost like going to church camp. You hear a message that is life changing, you repent of your old teaching methods, and you go back on that high that lasts until about parent conference time.

Interestingly what teachers and administrators are being taught more and more is to make the classroom setting more like a healthy home setting.

From the ASCD blog (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) we see the following observation made by experts to help combat the 8th and 9th grade student that is at risk for not graduating:

Solutions mentioned included having small groups of students monitored and encouraged throughout high school by one adult; using data of all types to inform instruction; providing computers and instruction for both students and teachers; and greatly decreasing labeling and tracking of students, including labeling of student groups as "minorities."

So let's see here. We can take the above advice to work with the at-risk student in a modernistic public school setting in loco parenti (in place of the parent), or....we can take out the words "adult" and "students" and replace them with "father" and "brothers" (or "mother" and "sisters"). The mention of the computer is just a PC thing. One simply cannot have a classroom without a computer mind you. Shelves and shelves of great books is wonderful, but the computer.....well, we just won't let our minds go there...it's just too painful. What incentives will we give the good kids if we can't let them play games and blog on "myspace"?

Sorry for the momentary digression into a pet peeve of mine.

Don't tell me that the homeschool parent doesn't know their child inside and out...there is your data, not a nationally norm-referenced test to compare your son/daughter with the rest of the nation. (Oh look! Johnny is smarter than 51.23 percent of the nation in mathematics and 48.32 percent of the nation in language arts!)

As far as labeling and tracking...well those sorts of things came out of a necessity to allow an industrialized production method to educate those that didn't fit in the norm-referenced tests given...more specifically, to create production methods that would allow these anomalies to do better on the tests, thereby validating the worth of the child (in the eyes of the system and society) and of the system itself.

Labeling occurs in the homeschool environment though. The labels are the first or endearing nick- names of the children. As far as minorities are concerned, well there generally has not been a documented case of race segregation in the homeschool system that I know of...certainly not one that required a supreme court ruling in 1954 (Brown) These "labels" are spoken in nurture and in admonishment, but always with the unequaled love and concern of a father and/or mother.

So folks, there you have it! Make the public education system look like the successful homeschool and you will have reform like no other, save of course, real homeschooling.

In the Nurture and Admonition of .........Their Peers?

2006-05-16T01:07:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned earlier, my wife and I don't have cable or satellite TV service. Besides saving $40 a month, it saves me from having to worry about how I spend my time. I know that when I come home whipped after a day of putting out fires that turning on the tube is a great escape. No conflicts that I have to resolve, complete distraction from my responsibilities (though a certain youngster of mine can provide a powerful distraction with his ability to notify the senses of a soiled diaper!)

So I get my little video fix by watching the video clips online of news-stories and commentaries. I hate having to watch the little commercials before the clip, but I do because it won't let me fast forward them. Anyway, I just finished watching a newsclip (already forgot what it was about, but that's another discussion under "dumbing down America") but I remembered the ad....it was from the "Parents, the Anti-Drug" campaign. It has a girl leaving the house in the morning shadowed by her mother reminding the girl to exercise the manners (thank you) and safety cautions (look both ways before crossing, put on the safety belt), etc. When the young lady closes the door of the car she is riding in she is offered a "hit" by one of her peers in the car. The mother who had been shadowing her disappears, as if that was the one thing she never spoke to her daughter about. The ad leaves us there with the hope we as parents will speak to our kids about drugs so that when we send our kids out the door into the world to be raised, taught, influenced, nurtured, and admonished in the ways of the world they will at least say no to drugs.

Think about this for a moment. As a culture we widely have accepted as a norm that we send our kids out daily to receive all kinds of instruction. It would be naive to think that our kids are receiving only that which the school factory deems necessary to meet AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress, an NCLB thing). In fact the child will receive input from a plethora of sources. Every glance, every snicker, jostle, push, tug, sneer, grin, burp, smell, poke, whisper, note, wink, game, etc, ad infinitum. As parents we worry often enough about the good example we make to our kids. What about the kids that intentionally make themselves an example to your children?

Just think of the movies and TV shows that have a school setting that are aimed at the youth market. What is the primary influence? Peers. Barbie peers, jock peers, Goth peers, bully peers, victim peers, nerd peers, smarty peers, smoker/doper peers, etc. Throw in the teen version of the violation of the 7th Commandment and you have yourself a summertime teen movie hit. You have the occasional made-for-big-people movies that glorify the adult influence (Mr. Holland's Opus), but that's the big-person world. Not the world of a 5, 6, 7.....15 year old.

I have seen parents throw royal conniption fits if they did not get their favorite teacher and yet remain clueless to the fact that all may come to naught in a 2 minute playground tragedy. Remember the little girl in St. Louis last week? I have seen awesome brain research and incredible intellects perfect various teaching methods, and yet the primary influence in a kid's life when he or she comes home at the end of the day will be what happened on the playground in the morning.

My challenge will be this to parents sending their kids to public school: Ask your child about his/her day. My guess is that most of the recollection will be of the social aspect of the day, what Julie said to Robbie, what Juan wrote on a note, what Billy did to Sally, etc. You will give them a little moral lesson about it and in 3 minutes the day is another part of a building reinforcement of alternative behaviors that wouldn't be allowed at home but seen all day at school. Eventually your child will grow weary of the lessons and discussions and will stop talking about the day and hope the response of "nothing special, we just had a test and I think I did ok" will suffice.

Continued exposure of our children in public school system actually trains them to be bi-cultural. There is a culture at home, and a culture at school They are different as night and day sometimes. I'm going to wrap up this post with part of a comment I posted on Spunkyhomeschool blog a couple weeks ago, and was the catalyst for me starting this blog. It was in response to the prompt "Can schools be fixed"

Can public education be fixed? It has become the venue of the pagan and the sanctuary of the loathsome. It is primarily the place where students learn first their "socialized status" and its implications in the pecking order of peers. Academics come only after as sense of "social survival" occurs in the being of the child. Innocence is diminished and another culture develops in the mind of the child separate to the culture fostered at home. It is a culture of survival. Students respond differently, whether with power or prowess amongst their peers, or hiding in a sub-group that provides protection from the unwanted.

Can a system that forces this to happen to the child be fixed? Should it? How often, I don't know, a parent has told me that the child I described to them is not their own, until confronted with irrefutable evidence, followed by disbelief, tears, and cries for help.

The system as it exists forces a separation in the family whose multi-faceted wounds are difficult, if not impossible, to heal. What the system needs is fixing, like you do to an animal that you don't want to reproduce.

Finally, even a public school administrator can put a Bible verse on his blog:

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

You shall bind them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

There is no better model of a family teaching method than this. I note how this is an all day affair and the teaching is directed to "your sons" (not pupils in general). Note also how the "school" is adorned. I propose that as Christians we train our children in these "schools" that have "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" bound to the doorposts and gates. This teaching is directed by parents to their children, and there is not a mention of sending their children into the pagan cultures so that they could be missionaries to the children of pagans.

This all said, a prayerful consideration may be in order for your family.

Stupid in the NEA

2006-05-10T23:05:00.000-04:00

Hs'ing mom of two asked in the comments about my experience w/the NEA national convention and whether or not I have seen Stossel's piece on ABC (Stupid in America). Well, I haven't seen the show (we don't have cable or satellite, mostly because I'd be watching History Channel and my wife those home makeover shows, and the kids...would be somewhere doing something that wasn't interrupting our viewing :-) but I've heard about it. Was it unfair? Does it matter? It's hard to trust anything you see on TV. If the NEA didn't like it though, well, I'd say it hit a home run. Which brings me to the 1994 NEA national convention in New Orleans. I have to say the best thing about it was the bread pudding served by the caterers in the back of the convention center. The convention was interesting , enlightening, and there were a couple times I thought I better leave before the brimstone came out of heaven...talk about blasphemies!

The convention center was huge (yes the infamous convention center of hurricane Katrina fame) and I haven't seen so many people under one roof ever. Seems like it was about 12,000 or so. Hillary Clinton was the keynote pushing her healthcare ideas. What I remember most, besides the dozens of measures passed (and the bread pudding!) that didn't seem to have anything to do with education, was the march against the state of Louisiana because of their "repressive" laws against women's reproductive rights. Convention staffers passed out little purple and white ribbons to the delegates to wear on the delegate badges. Because I was working with a pregnancy counseling center at home I happened to have an extra pair of those little gold feet that represent an unborn child's sized feet at 10 weeks. I attached my ribbon to my badge with those tiny gold feet. This symbol was completely foreign to the delegates there (Except the NEA Educators for Life Caucus, which I attended that year) and I got a lot of great kudos for the way I attached my ribbon....until I replied confidently and with a huge smile " Yes! I believe in reproductive rights for unborn women!" The reactions were priceless. Nothing threatening though. It really was the most fun I'd had in a long time. It's not often one feels complete license to be onery. Anyway, before the march took place, the Educators for Life Caucus was treated with great caution and concern (compared to the often disinterested reactions given the other delegates representing various measures), the president conducting the session brought special attention to the issues brought to the floor by Educators for Life Caucus just in case "they got one by". ELC did make some points uncomfortable to the NEA leadership though.

When the march was about to take place it began thundering outside. It rumbled the whole convention center. When the president (Keith Geiger) mentioned God and that "she" was speaking it provoked a huge roar of approval from the audience. I have never been anywhere before or since where such a huge crowd seemed to relish and even savor the jibe against the Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. I wasn't going to join the march but at this point I left. I couldn't stand it. The mockery at that level was beyond my capacity to endure. I kept thinking about Sodom and Gomorrah, yet I also kept thinking about the incredible mercy of God. I also knew that if I were HE....well, it's a good thing for everyone there I'm just a mortal like them. Still, it did rain on their parade, and I got a little satisfaction out of that. All those people standing in the rain outside singing emotionally "We shall overcome...." was marvelously pathetic though. You had to shake you head and smile.

The rest of the time was left wing politics and walking through crowds of sometimes hundreds of educators chanting silly slogans and holding signs endorsing different delegates running for NEA national posts. Rows and rows of booths catering to left wing agendas through out. It was so incredibly distasteful (except for the bread pudding of course!) that I began my Master's degree program in Education Administration that fall. I did my duty though as a delegate an voted my conscience on each of the measures.

I hope this gives you a taste of the NEA. A hugely powerful organization that feels complete license to malign anyone that challenges their agenda. You know, God was going to save Sodom for even 10 righteous. I know there were about 50 there in the Educators for Life Caucus, so maybe the NEA isn't quite as bad as Sodom, but that was 12 years ago. I don't think they've gotten any better.

Should middle school kids pick a major?

2006-05-09T00:54:00.000-04:00

Picking majors in middle school. Yes, I've heard of such a thing. It wasn't that long ago that middle school did not exist. It wasn't that long ago that the concept of adolescence did not exist. Fathers apprenticed their sons or paid tutors, mothers trained their daughters in the art of keeping the home. Then came the industrial revolution. Everyone moves to the city, becomes illiterate and then godless. So an industrial revolution response to educating the masses is born sired by feminism and nurtured by modernism and humanism. Socialism kicks in because this new system of education is the perfect venue for it to reproduce and voila, you have a governor (Jeb Bush) running an education factory system trying to apprentice the boys and girls, usurping the father's role (usually by default) to "reform" an already failing system.

I am being overly simplistic, but the general idea is this; you have a production system and you want to produce items that will be good for the company, but...from a production methods standpoint you have a failed system. So you try to introduce some of what worked in the past but force it into parameters (defined by political correctness) that doom it to failure. Then to see if it works you test each widget (child) to see if the production methods are effective. If not, then you tweak the system, call it alternative ed, magnet school, charter school, etc. and find alternate methods of measuring that....well, I'm rambling. I really hadn't used my undergraduate degree in Industrial Management until I became a principal.

Educators and administrators follow what the latest hype is. There are genuinely inspirational and motivational leaders in education who do create a "successful" educational programs. They are the ones that foster an environment that comes closest to the Âhealthy nuclear familyÂ (albeit according to a redefined model) They include in the language of their success the vernacular of what is currently politically correct and it is promoted to the forefront of the public education world by those in power who want to foster a "change" that benefits their worldview. Notoriety follows and so do copycats who really do want the best for the kids in their schools, but can't think through the pre-suppositional problems that doom it to failure. Sometimes it is research based and sometimes not. I was trained as a teacher in "whole language instruction" and we had kids that couldn't read. The whole state did that and we're still suffering for it. Then the big push in phonics and kids could decode like crazy but couldn't remember what they read or thought about it. You have waves of thought, methods, "reform" that tie into some things that are good, but are destined to failure because they lack the whole truth in some way or another.

The worst part about the whole thing is that it is the unions, teachers, and left leaning politicians that are fighting it. Not because it is failed, but because it does strangle their unbridled influence. It should be the parents responding by taking home their children and raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It is the father that needs to take hold of his boy's education and allow choice within the boundary of demonstrated responsibility. It is the mother that needs to take hold of her daughter and raise her to have the rock-solid character that it takes to be a I Peter 3 woman. Both father and mother in a marriage covenant raising their children in the roles Godly wisdom and knowledge would dictate.

A father is a Christian (by God's grace) who is a carpenter, he raises his son to be a Christian (by God's grace) , who becomes a carpenter (or whatever his father guides him to be), even if he may not really like it, but his occupation doesn't make him what he is or fulfill him as a man, his God does. It really is just that simple, even if it isn't all that easy.

Why I'm here...

2006-05-08T20:55:00.000-04:00

I've been a teacher, an assistant principal, and now a principal. I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly in public education. I've been a participant in "emerging educational alternative methods" (namely a high tech classroom in a mall, 3 doors down from the main entrance to Sears and across from the Radio Shack), a union representative, an elected delegate to the NEA national convention, a union negotiator, member of various school district and county level committees, a trainer of trainers, 504 coordinator, and have been up to my eyeballs in it since 1987. I've done all this to be "salt and light" in the public school system. And I am a homeschool dad. I can say this. God is sovereign. He has had me in the palm of His hand from the getgo (vernacular for "from before the foundations of the world"). I am at the point now where the message for me is to say .........
GET YOUR KIDS OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL AND EDUCATE THEM AT HOME!!!!!!!!!!

OK, I'll tone it down a bit, use a "cooler" color, and allow those that think I'm too enthusiastically reactionary time to catch up.

Nevertheless the transistion from public to homeschool can be a shocker, but not nearly the shocker that comes with the realization of what happens in the minds and souls of our children in the public school system in a post-modern, pagan friendly system.

This isn't an easy decision to make if one hasn't made it yet. Most want to make informed, biblical, well thought out decisions about this. I hope to be able to provide informative articles, personal anecdotes and responses from the inside of the public school system to those contemplating an exit of their children out of the public school system. To do so with informative advice from someone who has "been there and done that" can be helpful. Plenty of pundits can speak to the issue, but few from my perspective.