I agree. Google is a an excellent tool, and should be used. News which one wants to share, can then be posted, with a link.

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I followed JoanneB’s suggestion to Google “sexual assualt” and “school” and now I do believe there is a real problem that’s not being adequately addressed. I do not think it’s “common,” and especially not the homosexual angle — most of the incidents that search turned up were of boys victimizing girls, and they were more on the order of harassment than actual assault — but still, it’s a problem.

That’s not a reason to reject the public school system, which is the only realistic option for most people, but it is a darn good reason to put pressure on local school boards and municipal governments to step it much more firmly than some of them seem to have so far.

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But still, if you can’t bear to dredge it up and provide specific proof, don’t make reference to it. Honestly, the atrocities you describe are things I can hardly believe. I can’t imagine that things are consistently that horrible. Like Victoria, I’m not saying that I don’t believe you.

And Erasmus, a good dose of facts will only serve as an antidote for fervent religiosity if A) said religiosity is toxic or B) said religiosity is disprovable by said facts.

In other words, the correct religiosity will only be helped by facts, assuming of course that these facts are true.

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I wouldn’t doubt it.

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YOU WRITE:……. “Yes. education would eliminate most of your objections from the argument for religious freedom, as there is no greater antidote for fervent religiosity than a good dose of facts.”

There are facts and then there are the so called ‘facts’ from the extreme left, who would love nothing more than to indoctrinate/educate the children of the United States into all the ways of homosexuality, bi-sexual, etc, etc. Yep, that sounds like a dose all right!

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After I graduated I worked for a couple of years, then decided to attend San Jose State University. Two things stand out about my experience there: 1. we did a lot of reading, I mean A LOT of reading, and 2. my teachers told me that my first two years of college would require me to learn things I SHOULD have learned in high school. Even back then, 1975, the University was concerned about the lack of education me and my contemporaries were getting.

But even then, I wasn’t too worried about sending my kids to public school. It wasn’t until I began my own teaching major that I discovered a very good reason for NOT sending my own kids to public school. And I can assure folks like Eurasmus that it had NOTHING to do with my religion. My decision to educate my kids at home had nothing to do with the curriculum or how that curriculum might run contrary to my own beliefs. Contrary to the current reasons Evangelicals give to home-school, our decision to home-school was based on completely different reasons.

I’ll tell you my reason, but first I want to say something about the situation back then, when making a decision to home-school was a risky venture. Don’t forget, back in the early ’70s it was dangerous to keep your kids at home to teach them. Besides the usual truant officers, the Child Services departments were just growing teeth and beginning to feel free to take kids from their parents, which was a scary thought. But above all, judges were not sympathetic to the rights of parents to teach their own kids and were ruling against those who did. Believe me, it was best to keep your head down, your doors closed and your kids inside the house during the day. And it was best to have a cover story ready when your parents or friends would ask the kids, “what grade are you in?”

Anyway, the reason my wife and I decided to keep the kids at home had more to do with HOW the kids were taught, rather than WHAT they were taught. During that period of time, education theory was in a huge turmoil as ever-increasing new theories about how kids learn were argued and debated amongst educators. Moreover, as each of these new theories were being proposed, educators felt the need for empirical data to support their respective theories.

Many of these theories were born from philosophical questions concerning what it means to be a human being. At one end of the spectrum we had B.F. Skinner, who treated human beings as nothing more than machines who merely acted in response to environmental stimuli. At the other end of the spectrum were Jean Piaget and his cognitive development theories.

The fact is, I didn’t want my kids to become guinea pigs in an experiment. I didn’t want my children to experience the behavior modification or mind control pressures born of Skinner, and neither did I want my kids to experience the lack of discipline born from Piaget. Frankly, I would have been satisfied with the education I got.

For me, and perhaps others, our choice to home-school had nothing to do with religious training or values education. I felt confident that I would be able to teach moral values to my children at home. My choice to educate at home, and thus risk state sanction, was a choice to save my children from the destructive effects of an education profession in crisis.

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JoanneB, may I suggest that you cite the newspaper issue that your articles come from? And if you can, the date and station of the radio program you mentioned? And the magazine issues? That way, those who wish, can find them. As it is, since we do not know you, we have a hard time believing something as bad as what you have talked about.

Erasmus #95. “But I agree this JoanneB character is a trip.”
That is a rude and uncalled for statement. It pretty much ruins any credibility you have.

In my post earlier, I mentioned that I did not consider the SAT or ACT tests accurate. While not an exhaustive study, the article I am linking give several good examples of why the tests are pointless.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61961-2004Jun22.html

The ACT and SAT tests are two of the most respected standardized tests. If they can be shown lacking, then I would expect that many other standardized tests could be found lacking.

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