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A Meaningful Activity for You & Your Animal Companion
Whether “you” means you-on-your-own, you and your partner, you and your friend, or you and the kids, the increasing understanding of the healing power of dogs (and other animal companions) offers a unique opportunity for an enriching activity. ...
HAVE TIME FOR COFFEE?
Welcome to the neighborhood - why don’t you come over for coffee? Sound familiar? You bet! Can you entertain around a terrific cup of coffee - yes, indeed! Of course, your superb coffee must be accompanied by something that might include a wedge...
Look Slimmer In Plus Size Swimwear
When you wear the right size swimwear, you can actually look slimmer than you are. With plus size swimwear, ladies who are a little overweight can look their best and still enjoy the hot summer weather. Wearing swim wear that is too small shows out...
The Fugitive
Where are the dogs of yesteryear? They all seem to be some breed or another these days. They never used to be. Back in the forties, we had dogs that LEANED in one direction or another. Or maybe two or three directions at once. But we never...
Why are we Addicted to Criminal Trials?
It’s a horrible thing when a criminal case comes to our attention. First we are appalled, then curious and then … addicted. Take the Scott Peterson trial for example. The press jumped on this case because it happened in Modesto, CA...
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Children At Risk --- 15 Ways Public Schools Can Harm Your Children
Unfortunately, public schools, even in the "best" neighborhoods, can harm our kids in many ways. Here's a list of 15 ways public schools can hurt children (and parents):
1. Public schools cripple millions of children's ability to read by using the "whole-language" instruction method (now called "balanced reading instruction" by many public schools).
2. Many public schools spend almost 50 percent of the school day on non-academic subjects that waste children's precious time. The rest of their time is spent on classes such as sex-education, personal safety, consumer affairs, AIDS education, save-the-environment, family life, study halls, multiculturalism, homeroom, electives, counseling, or sports activities.
3. Public schools teach "new" or "fuzzy" math (sometimes called by different names). These instruction methods can cripple children's ability to learn basic arithmetic. Students who fear math are less likely to pursue good careers like computer science and engineering that depend on a love of and competence with math.
4. These schools force children to read dumbed-down textbooks in English, History, and many other subjects. The textbooks are often geared to the slowest learners in the class and water-down the subject matter. Dumbed-down classes based on dumbed-down public-school textbooks therefore waste children's precious time. This is especially true for children who are quick learners, who must endure 12 years of excruciating boredom in public school classes.
5. Public schools force children to study subjects they might hate, can't learn, will never use in their lives, or which bore them. For example, many public schools force students to study a foreign language. Children learn better when they study subjects that interest them.
6. Author John Gatto, in his book "Dumbing Us Down" said that a child eager to learn can learn to read, write, and do basic arithmetic in about 100 hours. Yet our public schools keep children locked up for 12 years, yet can barely teach millions of kids to read.
7. Public schools force parents to pay heavy school taxes for an inferior, often mind-numbing education for their children.
8. Public schools are a government-controlled near-monopoly. Bad schools don't close down because compulsory taxes prop them up. Incompetent or mediocre teachers aren't fired because tenure laws protect them. That's why public schools will never improve and will always waste children's precious time.
9. Many public schools subject children to drugs, bullies, violence, and values many parents disapprove
of.
10. Public schools pressure many parents who have bright, normal children to give their kids potentially dangerous mind-altering drugs to make the bored kids "behave" in class. Over four million allegedly "unruly" kids line up for Ritalin every day in public schools across America. Methylphenidate (sold as Ritalin) and cocaine are both listed in "Schedule II" of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
11. Public schools are compulsory. They therefore violate parents’ natural and constitutional right to control the education of their children. Public school authorities, whose salaries we pay with our taxes, force parents to hand over their children to government employees called teachers and to schools that give an inferior education.
12. Public schools can destroy children's love of learning and self-confidence as learners. This can cripple children's ambitions and desire to go to college. This in turn, can force these children to end up with low-paying jobs for the rest of their lives if and when they graduate high school.
13. Public schools force millions of Christian parents to hand over their children to public schools which are decidedly anti-Christian. For example, many social studies textbooks used in public schools have censored out references to such words as 'family,' 'marriage,' 'religion,' 'fidelity,' etc. Many textbooks today refer to a family simply as people choosing to live together.
14. Public schools force children to witness sometimes shocking or obnoxious sexual material in sex-education classes, without parents’ knowledge or consent.
15. The public-school near monopoly and compulsory-attendance laws cripple parents right and ability to choose a quality, low-cost school in an education free-market that has been squashed by the public-school monopoly.
Parents should consider taking their kids out of public school permanently. Parents can take advantage of quality, low-cost education alternatives available to them right now, such as the new Internet private schools that have low tuition costs.
Joel Turtel is an education policy analyst, and author of “Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children."
Article Copyrighted © 2005 by Joel Turtel.
About the Author
Joel Turtel is the author of “Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children." Website: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com, Email: lbooksusa@aol.com, Phone: 718-447-7348.
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