Our public education system, somewhat off topic.

I have heard so much about our education system and I'm sure some of it is true. However, I would like to relay a recent experience I had......

Living in a small community that is loaded with history, I and a couple of other "older" ladies hosted the local 4th and 5th grades on a field trip regarding the history of a couple of landmarks.......anyone interested can visit my website http://www.ozarkmountainmemories.com and read about them.

I was to do the historical presentation on the Cane Hill College Building. My good friend was to do the presentation on the Old Mill. Before I knew that there were 212 students plus teachers and parents, I opened my big mouth and said I would make cookies and Kool-Aid for the kid's field trip. I ended up having a lot of help there!!!

Both my friend and I were very apprehensive about this field trip. Well, I want to tell you that those were the best behaved kids I have seen in a long time. This field trip was to prepare them to write an essay for the Arkansas Historical Society. They were attentive and, asked very pertinent and intelligent questions.

One of the teachers called me yesterday and said that she was going to bring me some of the essays the kids had written. She read one to me and it started out with "You may think the Cane Hill College is just a 2-story brick building...." and the student proceeded to write what I would consider a very excellent essay. I will post some of these on my website when I have them in hand.

I might also say that there were a good many parents present for the field trip. I came away from that field trip with a whole different perspective on the local school, which is reputed to be one of the worst school districts in the state with the highest teen pregnancy rate. I think if these 4th and 5th graders continue through high school with teachers such as I met and parents who are involved in their education, each and every one of them will be just A-okay.

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to protect them against advances of sexual predators. It's all how you twist the words. Remember, too much twisting and you cut off the blood supply and wither away. watch out mcc.

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we
rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and

NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank koolade made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because .

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day.

And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down
the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms..........

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,

made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang
the bell, or just walked in and talke! d to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.

They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO

DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them . . . CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as
kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives

for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

I do believe that I stated below that I am not one of the irresponsible people who got us in this mess. My husband and I pay our bills and our mortgage. I know the government won't pay off my mortgage. It was wishful thinking and playfulness. That is why I encouraged others to think about what they could buy if they didn't have their mortgage to pay each month. I'm sorry but you have taken it WAY out of context and blown it WAY out of proportion. I don't expect any one to pay my bills but me and I certainly don't want my money going to irresponsible people either.

Don't get me wrong, it would be nice if the government would reward responsible people for once instead of continually giving more money to crooked politicians and crooked rich people and constantly giving to irresponsible people. What do honest, hard-working Americans get in return for their hard work......we are asked to give more of our money to the government so they can spend it well on Pelosi's mice and other porky things in a stimulous package that will not work.

BTW, you assumed that I'm a pub. When it comes down to it....I'm a middle of the road kind of person. I agree some with one side and some with another. So don't stereotype me as a pub and call me a hypocrit. It was wishful thinking and playfulness and you turned it into this huge issue when it should not have been.

I pay my bills. I pay my mortgage. I expect no one to pay my bills for me. I was suggesting the government paying off my mortgage for me in a playful manner. That is why I encouraged others to think of things they could buy if they didn't have to pay their mortgage every month. You assume that I am a pub obviously or you would not have attacked my playful topic and called me a hypocrit. Well, I am not a pub. I am a middle of the road kind of person who can see some points on both sides of the fence. So stop stereotyping me and please reduce your caffeine intake and learn to take a playful topic as that....just for fun.

I wonder when the ACLU will get involved....Isn't teaching waiting until marriage to have sex a religious viewpoint and what's it doing in public schools?

Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvCvw...erallyi-CLOWNS

As clownish as Dye�s words may sound to you, they are unfortunately not rare ones for young people to hear in classrooms all over the country. Thanks to George W. Bush and a complicit Congress, we currently spend $1.5 billion a year to fund abstinence-only until marriage sex education in our public schools. And yes, that money goes to people like Derek Dye, as he is employed by the Elizabeth New Life Center that received a $800,000 CBAE grant in 2007 to promote abstinence until marriage. His qualifications? A �Bachelor of Fun Arts� from Barnum Bailey Clown College, and an abstinence educator certification that can be purchased for $50.

So� what�s wrong with abstinence-only until marriage sex education? Abstinence-only programs censor information about contraception and condoms; make moral judgments students may not share; stigmatize and shame students who have already had sex; and discriminate against GLBTQ students who can�t legally marry. These programs often encourage stereotypical gender roles, use scare tactics, blur religion and science, and contain factual errors, like saying that HIV can be spread through sweat and tears.

And using condoms is like juggling machetes�

What�s more, abstinence-only programs don�t work � independent study after study has shown that students who receive them don�t have lower pregnancy, HIV, or STI rates. And worse, students who receive abstinence-only programs are less likely to use contraception and condoms when they do have sex.

Then again, as one colleague told me today, nothing wants to make her have sex less than a clown� so maybe they�re on to something.

So� what can we do to make sure that abstinence-only programs like this one are not funded with our tax dollars? First of all, contact the Obama transition team to make sure that they ZERO OUT these programs in their first budget. Also, ending abstinence-only funding is currently 3rd place on Change.gov's user rankings, so you can go there and vote for it, too.

Secondly, we must contact all of our representatives to let them know that we do not want this waste of money being snuck back into the budget through the appropriations process. Send them that message here.

For those of you living in Ohio, call or email your Ohio State Senator today and urge them to co-sponsor the Act For Our Children�s Future, a bill to establish standards for comprehensive sexual health education in Ohio�s public schools.

LET�S SEND OUT THE CLOWNS!!!

It's me - the one who's been posting under all the gt alias joke monikers. I just had to blow off steam after the conservative board debacle last night. Don't know why I get involved in it. My fall equinox resolution will be to inform, not condemn.

how similar the McCain story is to that offered by Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsen and then later popularized by Christian leaders Chuck Colson and Billy Graham. Sullivan also points out other suspicious changes:

At Saddleback, McCain talked about a single guard being the protagonist. The same guard loosened his ropes and then later sketchd the cross in the dirt. In McCain's 1999 book, these were two different guards at two different prison camps.

McCain's first writings about his time in captivity didn't mention the story at all, so he's asked his readers for evidence of McCain offering that story prior to his 1999 book (when he was gearing up for a presidential run).

There has always been scandal and there always will be because we're all human. I think Obama wants us to think he's "not involved" and does not promote it, which I'm sure he doesn't, but you can't think that he's not liking the negative attention casted towards that party rather than his. This has become something big (baby mama drama) in this country. It's everywhere. I think Maury Povich does a show every day on it doesn't he? Paternity testing and such... It's in our world and there's no turning our backs on it.

What if you consider the law immoral (such as, for example, segregation)? What if you consider integration immoral? How much does individual conscience have to do with this? Easy to say someone else's conscience is in error, but they are saying the same about yours.

Some people try to short their taxes because the money goes to fund a war they do not believe in (there's usually one going on) or to fund abortions, or medical research they abhor, and now to bail out failed businesses and individual mortgages. I think everyone could find something that's funded by our tax money objectionable. How much are we morally required to render unto Caesar?

It's illegal to overstay a parking meter. Is it also immoral if you did it intentionally, simply because you've violated a law? How about sliding through a red light at 3 a.m. on a deserted country road when you could not possibly injure anyone?

If it's legal to raise rent past a tenant's ability to pay, is it also moral? What if this makes them homeless?