[W]hen people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult but trivial and dreary, I simply give up the question. For I cannot with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean. When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery, all the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the word. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge [at his work]. But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless and of small import to the soul, then as I say, I give it up; I do not know what the words mean…. I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children [arithmetic], and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness." ~G.K. Chesterton
I have been looking for this to post. It's one of my favorite quotes. H/T to Laura!
There are so many reasons why we say "Boy, am I glad we Homeschool".
Most of those reasons are positive. We love being able to help each of the boys learn to the best of their ability in their own way. We love being able to take off and go on field trips or vacations when we are studying something interesting. We love being able to choose challenging curriculum, that is tailored to each particular learning style. We love being able to work one on one and watch the way these fabulous minds spark and catch fire. There are so many positive reasons to do what we do, that we frequently forget about the other reasons....the negative ones.
In our homeschool there are no bullies, and no one is allowed to belittle or demean another person. That doesn't mean that it never happens, but it does mean that we do not tolerate it.
In our homeschool there are no school shootings, no knife attacks, no beatings, and no one is allowed to be disrespectful of the teacher. It really helps that we love each other so much, but I have noticed that the boys seem to be carrying these lessons out into the world.
In our homeschool there is absolutely no fear for personal safety. Each and every one of my boys knows that we love and respect every part of each of them; mind, body and soul, and that they should love and respect the minds, bodies and souls of others. We are very careful about where they go and who they are with, and we have an open line of communication that we hope they will always feel free to use.
In our homeschool there is no condescension and no mental abuse.
I am not saying that our school is perfect, far from it. We struggle. We are always concerned about whether we are doing the very best. I try to make sure that they all know that I am mom, and not just teacher. I think and pray about our direction, and I am constantly trying to evaluate my own performance. The reason I am so concerned is because I love my kids so much and I want more than anything to see them become capable and happy adults. I want them to be able to do anything in this world that they decide they want to do. I know them and I love them more than anyone else does, well, with the exception of God and their dad!
We are so blest to have the right to choose the educational direction that we believe is best for our family. There are people that don't agree that we should have this right. For many reasons these people feel that parents are not competent to teach, not trained in the formal processes of education.
Recently it came to my attention that the High School in the town that we call home, our small city by the bay, has been the center of a very hot controversy in the area of parental rights.
Parental rights are something that I hold very dear. The right to raise our children the way we believe best has always been one of the greatest rights and responsibilities that we have in our American Culture. There are those, in our own country and in international circles, that believe that parents are not the best people to decide what their children should learn, believe, or be exposed to and when. There are actually people out there who believe that in parenting, the parents must prove their fitness and that most parents are less than capable of knowing what is best for their children.
In the case of our High School it has become apparent that when children are at school, during school hours, the administrators and staff believe that they have authority over all that the young people see, hear and experience, and that, for those hours, parents are not the primary caregivers of their children.
The issue involves a now-controversial program that the school has been using to reach young people that may be facing serious mental health issues, with the hope that they would be encouraged to seek help. Help that is available through the school. The name of the program was Drama Therapy, and it is actually a proven method of therapy within a certain framework of treatment or diagnosis. "Drama Therapy" itself isn't the problem.
I have gone to a screening and viewed the content, and while it was not in any way wholesome, it would probably fit the Drama Therapy parameters, if there were actual therapists present and participating. It seemed to me that it was students treating students..but that is another story... If you want to read more about it, including excerpts from the plays, you may read about it here.
The problem arose when some of the parents of the young people that attended the mandatory assembly, where this program was performed, heard that it had been done without any parental or even administrative involvement. No parents were informed that it would be taking place. There was no chance for anyone to review the scripts or opt their kids out of the program.
This was a HUGE oversight on the part of the administration. Looking back they can see the errors and the potential for problems in the way that it was handled, but there is no excuse for the way that the families that came forward to express and uphold their rights as parents were vilified and disregarded.
The program was put on by a group of very well-meaning people, who had the kid's best interests at heart. We have the right to protect our children from "well-meaning" people.
The program was put on to help the kids find direction and inspire an environment of openness. We have the right to direct our children and to protect them from an environment that we feel may damage them.
The program may have been intended to put into play the values that the organizers felt the children need to be focusing on. We have the right to define the values and help to inform the consciences of those children in our care. There was no direction, no lessons taught by anyone in authority.
People in this country have been sold a bill of goods by the nanny state.
They believe that only "professionals" are capable of knowing what is best for their families, for their health, for their futures.
Who are these professionals? Do they have it all together? Do they know whereof they speak?
We have the right to know what is going on in our kids classrooms, and we have the right to say that we do not approve.
We have the right to say that there is an objective moral absolute and that we expect our educators, leaders, politicians and government to live up to it.
We have the right to be appalled at the lack of rigor in our school systems, the dropout rate, the illiteracy, the tenure system that keeps incompetent teachers and professors in their jobs.
We have the right to expect to be listened to when it comes to the health and well being of our kids!
Not everyone can homeschool. Most don't want to. They shouldn't have to!!
I am so glad that we can... I am so grateful that we have the laws that we do in this country. Many people have worked very, very hard to make sure that we continue to have this right. There are those that would strip it away.
We need to be aware of the attempts to remove parents as the primary authorities in their kids lives. We need to elect people that will respect and uphold those rights. Do some research. If you can't get a straight answer from a candidate on this issue, then look elsewhere. Find out if they will oppose the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which will put parents directly under the thumb of the UN.
Go to ParentalRights.org and read about what needs to be done and who is working on it.
There is only so much time, your kids only have one childhood...
(Adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776) The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
Read entire text - including a list of grievances against the King of Great Britain here.
Modern translation:
Whenever a group of people needs to separate themselves from their government and assert their universal and God-given independence and equality, it's important to clearly state the reasons why.
We think it's obvious that God created every person equal, and He gave each person specific unchanging rights that should never be trampled upon - these include the right of the people to live life in freedom without undue harm, and pursue their dreams and goals. The very reason we have man-made governments is to protect these rights, not to interfere with them. Furthermore, whatever power and authority governments have are given by the people's permission and limited to their protection. When any government starts to undermine the very purpose of protecting the life, freedoms, and happiness of the people, then they have the right to change the government or even to pull the plug on the government if things get too bad. The people have the right to set up a new and better government based and organized upon tried and true principles that protect, rather than threaten, their safety and happiness. It's not wise to change a long-standing government for some trivial or fleeting reason or for the latest political fad; and, in fact, history shows that people are more likely to put up with unbearable evil they even get used to it!, than they are to correct the problem. In other words: Put a frog in hot water and he'll jump out. But put him in cool water and gradually turn up the heat, and he'll fry to death. But when a government becomes tyrannical and abusive with consistent, repeated violations of the people's rights, with the intent to make them slaves of the state, then the people have the right -- in fact, the duty -- to revolt and put new safeguards in place to protect their future rights.
High school seniors Terrence Stephens and Jason Ankrah, star football players at Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg, Md., were sitting on a plane returning from a recruitment session at the University of Nebraska when they struck up a conversation with the man sitting next to them.
Their seat-mate just happened to be a major Cornhuskers fan.
When they started chatting, Stephens and Ankrah didn't have a clue they were holding court with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
"I was amazed this guy knew so much about us as football players and as people," said Stephens. "That was shocking. I felt honored to be known by someone of his caliber. He was just a regular old guy, sitting in coach, which really shocked me."
By the time the plane landed, the students had figured out who Thomas was, and they promptly told their principal they wanted to invite Thomas to give the keynote speech at their high school graduation. Of course, Principal Carole Working didn't exactly think Thomas would take them up on it. But he showed up at the high school on Monday.
Without the Standing Sentinel, and ever must there be. Without the Standing Sentinel, not one could long live free.
I know they're all still out there, together evermore,
From Continental Army, Or maybe long before, When the 1st American casualty, fell on these now ancient shores.
They wear tri corner hats, coonskin caps and kepis, wide brimmed cowboy hats, steel helmets and berets,
But just the same, They belong to us. It is from us they came.
Through mists of time and place, They've come to stand and wait for those to come, and come they will,
To the Sentinels at the gates.
They wait…They wait. One day they'll welcome me.
For once I was with them, and privileged that to be
a soldier for my country, that's the best to say of me.
Father, son, husband, brother, Important things these are, But to stand with men of honor, Is a better thing by far.
For without such men of honor, ready to give their most, what father, son, or brother, would be left with any hope,
That there would even be tomorrow, for this Nation proud.
Lest men as these we find, fit my Country for a shroud. Yes there they all are waiting, they're all together now from every war and conflict, shot and shell they found. At peace eternal wait they now,
On holy, hallowed ground.
How can we ever thank them, these selfless angels past?
But thanks are unimportant, unless we dedicate our every waking moment
To the sentinels at the gate.
For there they stand awating, watching how well we do.
Will we let slip away, That which they loved so well Their full measured honored duty, Will we so cheaply sell?
Yes there they stand awating, they're all together now,
They know some soldier stands at ready and he will show them how.
Then they'll welcome him, as they all once were called:
"Brother, home my brother, See your name upon the wall."
"You have done what was your duty, The load you proudly bare"
"Is left to them to carry, Those others, over there."
"So take your place beside us, hang your cap upon the tree,"
"And wait not long you Sentinel, In time you too will see, Another coming to the gates, That others will live free."
Without you Standing Sentinel, and ever must you be. Without you Standing Sentinel, not one would long live free.
