History -- who needs it? In Loudoun County, Virginia, a local judge has given five teenagers who vandalized a historic black schoolhouse with racist graffiti last year a novel sentence -- and several nonfiction ones too. Rather than sending them to juvie or having them do some community service that amounts to busywork, Judge Avelina Jacob, following a suggestion by a prosecutor, is requiring the teens, aged 16 and 17, to
I don't buy that. The swastika has been around for 5,000 years and was used as a symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and other religions. To expect Indians to give up the symbol—one that lives on in contemporary culture—because the Nazis bastardized it, is not esoterica. Maybe few people know this, but it would be better to restore the actual meaning to the original swastika, so that no one is caught off-guard. The people from India who wear their jewelry shouldn't have to apologize for it.
Because I always make big decisions about my children's education by doing what random strangers on the internet say, I'll definitely take your advice.
That's is your prerogative Ms. Cheryl, and you may be well qualified as a pedagogue. In my experience, most people who are home schooling their children are not and are doing so out of a desire to either shield them from other children or enforce religious bias into their education or both. If that is not your approach, then I sincerely apologize. But I believe you to be the exception.
I want well brought up children such as yours to be educated in well functioning public schools so that other less fortunate children will have the benefit of knowing them.
I'm an atheist and I have no issue with other children. It's the adults in the school system I object to. I got tired of so-called science teachers introducing the subject of evolution with a wink and phrase like, "I'm required to teach this, but you don't have to believe it -- it's just a theory". I got tired of constantly fighting for services for one kid who was very gifted and another who was developmentally delayed, neither of whom were served very well by our local schools. I wasn't interested in sacrificing my children's education to a sub-par system just for the socialization -- my kids socialize with those kids just fine in the neighborhood, in the nearby parks and playgrounds, and in the libraries, children's museums, and local events that I make sure that we go to. The private schools near here are all religious, and too expensive anyway.
My oldest is 16, in his second semester of college now, and on the Dean's List. My middle child couldn't read by the third grade and was coming home crying and calling herself stupid. And homework was a multi-hour stressful nightmare because she was miserable enough in class without being forced to relive it all at home. With 6 months of one-on-one work, she was reading fluently, and now she actually reads for pleasure instead of crying and hating it. She's also learned how to code and speak French. I'm pretty sure if I'd left her in school she'd still be a struggling reader who hated reading. I'm satisfied that we're doing the right thing for now.
That is indeed a happy result and I congratulate you and your children. I believe that what you have accomplished, a 16 year old in college and a French speaking coder, is very much the exception. You are clearly doing the right thing by your own children as you should.
In the meantime, the other less fortunate children are subjected to religious indoctrination (atheistic, winking or otherwise) and a sub-par education. I think we should be concerned about them too and trying to figure out how to replicate your successes on a larger, more public scale. And not with private, charter, religious or other (Betsy DeVos-led nonsense) schools.
I am in total agreement with you there. I can only homeschool because I happen to already work from home and because researching and learning is more or less my job anyway -- teaching myself how to teach my kids wasn't really far out of my wheelhouse. Lots of people aren't that lucky, and I wasn't that lucky myself for a long time. Public schools are what most people have to work with, and I want them to be better. I want people who have a choice in the matter to have a good reason to consider choosing the public schools in their area, and I want people who don't have a choice to feel comfortable with what they have. That's why I voted for Hillary, why I send money to local politicians who want to fund and support the schools instead of turning them into Bible School, why I sent my senators letters and emails and phone calls about not confirming Betsy Devos. I'm just not currently supporting the schools by putting my kids in them. I think my kids have a better chance of becoming adults that can be part of the solution by staying out of the schools we're currently zoned for right now. If I moved or if something changed with the schools here, I'd reconsider it -- believe me, homeschooling was the court of last resort. It's a lot of work! But I needed my kids to be challenged when they needed it, to not be left behind when they were struggling, and most of all not to hate learning, and our schools just couldn't seem to give them that.
I once worked at a large public library, and all the senior staff were asked to be judges at the local junior high school Science and Social Studies Fair. I judged about 80 entries total in both areas. Every entry had a poster board AND a written report. Every single report was lifted word-for-word from the Web. The kids were so dumb they left HTML codes in the reports. When questioned about their projects, the vast majority were totally clueless and could not answer questions. They were not learning anything.
You make good points. It is very difficult to separate one's judgement on this point from one's personal experience. I was raised by empathetic parents who had suffered discrimination in early life, and they shared this with me. I saw global poverty first-hand when I was only 5 years old, and my mother suffered a disabling disability when I was 17, when I had to become her caregiver. I was what they call a "good kid" - smart, articulate, socially conscious, responsible. All my close friends were the same.
But I vividly remember my mindset at age 15 and 16. I think of it as a short period of temporary insanity while I tried to make the values and priorities I had developed from age 10-14 work in the real world with real problems. I was rejecting my childhood Catholic teaching. Nixon was lying to us. The Viet Nam War was ending. I was becoming a militant feminist and pondering my sexuality. I had to get good grades in high school so I could get a scholarship to college. My 16-yr-old brain was under attack from every direction. I was lucky - I didn't make any mistakes, but looking back I can see occasions when I narrowly avoided doing so. Perhaps I was lucky because nobody bought me a car when I turned 16. I had a bicycle. Different times.
Let me check with Mr. Goodbar.
I don't buy that. The swastika has been around for 5,000 years and was used as a symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and other religions. To expect Indians to give up the symbol—one that lives on in contemporary culture—because the Nazis bastardized it, is not esoterica. Maybe few people know this, but it would be better to restore the actual meaning to the original swastika, so that no one is caught off-guard. The people from India who wear their jewelry shouldn't have to apologize for it.
I think you are confusing "teachers" with "parents" here....
I wish I could share your enthusiasm. I put "graphic novels" on the same literary axis as coloring books for adults.
Please don't home school your children.
Because I always make big decisions about my children's education by doing what random strangers on the internet say, I'll definitely take your advice.
Oh no, wait. The opposite of that.
That's is your prerogative Ms. Cheryl, and you may be well qualified as a pedagogue. In my experience, most people who are home schooling their children are not and are doing so out of a desire to either shield them from other children or enforce religious bias into their education or both. If that is not your approach, then I sincerely apologize. But I believe you to be the exception.
I want well brought up children such as yours to be educated in well functioning public schools so that other less fortunate children will have the benefit of knowing them.
I'm an atheist and I have no issue with other children. It's the adults in the school system I object to. I got tired of so-called science teachers introducing the subject of evolution with a wink and phrase like, "I'm required to teach this, but you don't have to believe it -- it's just a theory". I got tired of constantly fighting for services for one kid who was very gifted and another who was developmentally delayed, neither of whom were served very well by our local schools. I wasn't interested in sacrificing my children's education to a sub-par system just for the socialization -- my kids socialize with those kids just fine in the neighborhood, in the nearby parks and playgrounds, and in the libraries, children's museums, and local events that I make sure that we go to. The private schools near here are all religious, and too expensive anyway.
My oldest is 16, in his second semester of college now, and on the Dean's List. My middle child couldn't read by the third grade and was coming home crying and calling herself stupid. And homework was a multi-hour stressful nightmare because she was miserable enough in class without being forced to relive it all at home. With 6 months of one-on-one work, she was reading fluently, and now she actually reads for pleasure instead of crying and hating it. She's also learned how to code and speak French. I'm pretty sure if I'd left her in school she'd still be a struggling reader who hated reading. I'm satisfied that we're doing the right thing for now.
That is indeed a happy result and I congratulate you and your children. I believe that what you have accomplished, a 16 year old in college and a French speaking coder, is very much the exception. You are clearly doing the right thing by your own children as you should.
In the meantime, the other less fortunate children are subjected to religious indoctrination (atheistic, winking or otherwise) and a sub-par education. I think we should be concerned about them too and trying to figure out how to replicate your successes on a larger, more public scale. And not with private, charter, religious or other (Betsy DeVos-led nonsense) schools.
I am in total agreement with you there. I can only homeschool because I happen to already work from home and because researching and learning is more or less my job anyway -- teaching myself how to teach my kids wasn't really far out of my wheelhouse. Lots of people aren't that lucky, and I wasn't that lucky myself for a long time. Public schools are what most people have to work with, and I want them to be better. I want people who have a choice in the matter to have a good reason to consider choosing the public schools in their area, and I want people who don't have a choice to feel comfortable with what they have. That's why I voted for Hillary, why I send money to local politicians who want to fund and support the schools instead of turning them into Bible School, why I sent my senators letters and emails and phone calls about not confirming Betsy Devos. I'm just not currently supporting the schools by putting my kids in them. I think my kids have a better chance of becoming adults that can be part of the solution by staying out of the schools we're currently zoned for right now. If I moved or if something changed with the schools here, I'd reconsider it -- believe me, homeschooling was the court of last resort. It's a lot of work! But I needed my kids to be challenged when they needed it, to not be left behind when they were struggling, and most of all not to hate learning, and our schools just couldn't seem to give them that.
I like you.
Pfft, I stopped caring about hockey after the last strike/lockout. Too many other forms of entertainment took their place too easily.
And every one a hit!
I once worked at a large public library, and all the senior staff were asked to be judges at the local junior high school Science and Social Studies Fair. I judged about 80 entries total in both areas. Every entry had a poster board AND a written report. Every single report was lifted word-for-word from the Web. The kids were so dumb they left HTML codes in the reports. When questioned about their projects, the vast majority were totally clueless and could not answer questions. They were not learning anything.
They know it's a bad symbol used by nazis. But I can well believe that they didn't understand the seriousness of it and what it stands for.
You make good points. It is very difficult to separate one's judgement on this point from one's personal experience. I was raised by empathetic parents who had suffered discrimination in early life, and they shared this with me. I saw global poverty first-hand when I was only 5 years old, and my mother suffered a disabling disability when I was 17, when I had to become her caregiver. I was what they call a "good kid" - smart, articulate, socially conscious, responsible. All my close friends were the same.
But I vividly remember my mindset at age 15 and 16. I think of it as a short period of temporary insanity while I tried to make the values and priorities I had developed from age 10-14 work in the real world with real problems. I was rejecting my childhood Catholic teaching. Nixon was lying to us. The Viet Nam War was ending. I was becoming a militant feminist and pondering my sexuality. I had to get good grades in high school so I could get a scholarship to college. My 16-yr-old brain was under attack from every direction. I was lucky - I didn't make any mistakes, but looking back I can see occasions when I narrowly avoided doing so. Perhaps I was lucky because nobody bought me a car when I turned 16. I had a bicycle. Different times.