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Barb’s Blog » Entries tagged with "schools"

U. S. Capitol Tour

August 31st, 2010 | Add a Comment

We often hear about the “Separation of church and State” from the onset of our Founding Fathers ideals, yet, this tour proves otherwise. Did you know that the first Bible printed in English in America today, was first printed by Congress for use in our schools? Did you know Thomas Jefferson sent missionaries to evangelize the Indians using federal funds to do so? Did you know that out of the 56 signers of the Declaration, 29 had seminary or Bible School degrees? … Read entire article »

Filed under: General

Buy a Better Grade

November 11th, 2009 | 1 Comment

We have all seen the pie charts how much education takes from our budget, be it on a federal level or state level. It’s usually very substantial and schools are always crying for more. (I wonder how much of those taxes the schools actually get to use, and how much ends up in bureaucratic pockets?)   I think a lot ends up in someone’s pockets because schools are always using students (and their tax-paying parents) to peddle the latest chocolates or other fund raising items for schools. Having said that, the U.S. Department of Education says: Education in America is primarily a State and local responsibility, and ED’s budget is only a small part of both total national education spending and the overall Federal budget, ED currently administers a budget of $62.6 billion … Read entire article »

Filed under: News Items

8th Grade Education

October 20th, 2009 | Add a Comment

I remember my mom telling me how she only went to school until the 10th grade (She later got her high school diploma at our local college). Yet she could read and learn and do crossword puzzles and do the Reader’s Digest vocabulary test with ease. Now she didn’t have a lot of science in school as it wasn’t taught, but what she was taught, she knew. The following is supposed to be true, it hasn’t been proven false. Since it seems quite possible, just listening to stories my  mom has told, and her frustration with my education even back then, I will print this here. (If you want the answers to the questions, email me) ““““““““““` Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check … Read entire article »

Filed under: General

Hot for Teacher

August 7th, 2005 | 2 Comments

…another reason to homeschool! I joined the homeschooling bandwagon a lot earlier than many. I wasn’t a true pioneer like my cousin Lois was, but she inspired me to homeschool Enric soon after. The reasons to do so were many. Too many to list here, but as the years pass, I feel more vallidated in my decision. Like recent headlines about way too many sex scandals involving teachers and their students. I remember in my junior high school there were whispers of one English teacher and another young girl. If that was later proved to be true, I never learned about it. Some years later, however, there arose yet another scandal in my old high school, and incidently right across the street where I was living at the time. Living there became a nightmare … Read entire article »

Filed under: News Items

Go Ask Alice, Rainbow Parties, and Socialization

June 10th, 2005 | Add a Comment

Go Ask Alice, Rainbow Parties, and Socialization

If you are about my age, you might remember the book, “Go Ask Alice”. There was a movie that followed it, and of course there is always the line in Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” with Grace Slick vocalizing “Go Ask Alice” I am not sure what the intention of the book was, but I always had the feeling it was supposed to teach us young people to stay away from drugs. After all, “Alice” was … Read entire article »

Filed under: General

Are American High Schools Obsolete?

June 8th, 2005 | 1 Comment

The day I graduated High School was one of the happiest days of my life. I went to a school where we had a million dollar gymnasium, and not one book in the entire library. It wasn’t hard to see what the focus of that school was: SPORTS. Oh sure, academics were important too, but they bowed to the ‘jocks’. (The term for beer drinking, rowdy, atheletes at our school) The other group were the ‘heads’. They were the pot smoking, deep, and sedate hippy like bunch, that were of course frowned upon by the jocks, naturally. The last group were the poor souls that didn’t fall into either of these groups. Usually the ones that did all their homework, excelled in their classes, and ran for class president. The pressure was amazing no … Read entire article »

Filed under: News Items