EDUCATION BY SPECIAL INTEREST

When you bring the Federal Government into schools what you bring with it is politics. Every lobbying effort in Washington from arts to conservation now has a seat at the table in your child's classroom. What the "experts" will tell you is that children don't need a full curriculum anymore. They don't need to memorize things because they can look them up. This is the excuse for all the classroom interruption. They will tell you that children learn through experiences and that of course, it's so important that they be socially engineered with one program after another. How could students ever live their own lives without the government telling them what to eat, what to say and not say, how and when to have sex, that they need exercise, what they should like and not like (like art), what they should believe and not believe (like global warming etc.), teach them to run the governors cup, teach them to work for nonprofits like Food Share, teach them to garden (healthy life style), manage their family with home visits and after school programs and so many other things that the "experts" haven't even thought of yet?

My son often reads the liberal nonsense on this very same internet. He read an article about education the other day hmmm-. Well, this genius he was reading had this thesis, which he did not think up himself of course, that what do you learn more from - experiencing a mountain or having a presentation about a mountain? Just think of that, this poor man wants us to go back to cave man days when all the knowledge a person had was what he experienced!! Well, I of course told my son he would learn more from a presentation- duh. If a person experienced a mountain they would know that it had plants and trees and was rocky and cold at the top. If  they had a presentation they would know that mountains have altitudes in varying degrees and exist in mountain chains in countries across the world and what fossils are and the tree line and on and on. Well, he said, you could look all that up! Well, I said, I guess you would have to know how to read to look it up, and that takes an awful lot of planned learning. In addition it's really not that simple, we can understand what we are reading because we have had presentations of knowledge. I could read a medical article but this does not make me a doctor. Learning takes time and study, it takes presentation, practice, review and evaluation over and over again for years and years. Knowledge builds in a strategic and precise fashion that builds a foundation and then builds on that foundation. This is not rocket science, and it is stupid that we even have to have this converstaion because of these imbeciles in education theory who are bending to the needs of special interests who want to make money off of our schools. Instead of moving forward we are fighting for what is so obvious. My son got it immediately "oh yeah, working smarter instead of harder."

Experience that reinforces learning is fabulous, that's what science experiments and field trips are all about, but experience without presentation is not much more than a trip to Disney Land, lots of fun, but not of real consequence in building a foundation of knowledge. The Federal Department of Defense is now being used in education. They don't teach about national defense, they teach the Star Based program. Kids in 5th grade give up a whole week of education to play with computers and space simulators. The tax payers get to pay for this. This is an example of Disney Land learning. There is no foundation for this learning, it is not part of the 5th grade curriculum. There is no teach, practice, review and evaluate to it. There is no learning that becomes the foundation for the next lesson. It's just fun. So a whole week of learning in 5th grade is sacrificed just for fun. The man who presented this information to the budget committee here in Helena, an elementary principal, wants more of this. Take every non profit in town, Grand Street Theater, Exploration Works, the museum, just any place, and put the kids there according to their interests!! This man has no idea what entails a complete and good education. He has no respect for the learning process.

People often ask me what I think of Montessori. Maria Montessori based her learning theory on a Frenchman's study of how babies learn. Piaget watched babies explore their world. He noted how they repeated tasks over and over again - like buckling or fitting one thing into another. From this he deduced, or others did for him, that children should teach themselves!! This is stupid. What I tell people is that I can't speak to every Montessori class because they are not really Montessori, they are perverted- for example, in Helena they do the Walk To Read program and the Accelerated Reader Program and the Accelerated Math program (along with all the constant interruptions that every class suffers). What I  will say is that I believe Maria Montessori was wrong. Babies are in an explore and discover mode of learning, they don't even have language yet. Small children may still be exploring but they have language and are beginning to do higher level things like reading and spelling. They are exploring their world at a much more complex level. They are beginning to build that foundation of knowledge that does not come from licking something. It comes from listening and reading and practicing and reviewing and evaluation and building knowledge strategically.

As I've said on this blog before, get the dollars back to the classroom and out of Washington. Send the special interests packing and make school what it should be- the opportunity for young people to build a good foundation of knowledge and skills that will allow them the opportunity to pursue their happiness without the Federal Government, in any way shape or form.

BULLYING PROGRAMS

Shools have always had rules against bullying. What schools have not had rules against throwing rocks, hitting, calling names, or in any other way abusing others such as not taking your turn or throwing rocks etcetera? What are playground paras for if not to referee the playground and defend students who may be being treated unfairly? If you accept that schools have always had rules against bad behavior ,have taught kindness and good behavior,and have monitored bullyings and punished violators , you have to ask yourself why the Democrats here in Montana have worked so slavishly for years to get a bullying bill. They would not be deterred. This sounds like one thing to me, as much as they may deny it- it's about jobs. Maybe that's why the unions have been championing and testifying religiously for these bullying bills. Here's how I think they will try to make it work.

The unions have been adding jobs and unions in the schools like presents at Christmas for years. As the private unions have shrunk the unions have tried to recover this lost money through government unions.In the schools it's not just teachers that are unionized now, but administrators, paras and janitors too!! Special needs students often have full time paras assigned just to them. The number of paras have sky rocketed. More than ninety percent of money spent in the schools goes to salaries- in Helena it has been as high as ninety- six percent!! So when you hear people pleading for money for children- what they are really pleading for is more money for salaries. But let's talk about how this might all work with the new bullying programs.

Bills for social workers and mental health workers are not easy to pass in the legislature these days,  so the easier way to do this is to force it through regulation or litigation. You find a student to say he is bullied (every teacher knows it won't be hard to find a student who claims his problems are the fault of others) and then you SUE the school district!! We have seen this with the ACLU supporting themselves by trying to get rid of the Pledge of Allegiance or Christmas Songs or even saying "Christmas Break" or "Easter Break". Just find ONE parent to complain and off you go to court, or the school buckles and obeys without even going to court. Ninety Nine percent of the parents and students wishes are ignored and the ONE PARENT gets what they want.

So I don't think it's a stretch at all to assume that the unions think they can get more paydays by forcing schools to hire more social workers and mental health workers by using litigation. A bullying bill gives them the law behind what they want to do. Perhaps they think the public will just pressure the legislature to provide money for all these new workers. Maybe the public will not buckle to more taxes and then the schools will have more mental health workers but lose teachers. I'm not against unions, but I am against greed. I am against looking for more money out of the schools all the time. Let's start putting our priority on students- really. School should not be about jobs and higher salaries.

Absolutely no one wants kids bullied, but bullying programs and legislation will not stop bullying anymore than food programs have ended hunger or housing programs have ended homelessness or welfare has ended poverty. It seems these problems get worse as govenment programs try to manage them. Keep it local, keep it reasonable, and keep the money seekers at bay. The money seekers are not do gooders, not really, and what is in their heart is not really our children first- not really.

WHO ARE THE NICE PEOPLE??

I just came back from a trip to California. I was once again treated to my "favorite" bumper sticker. Some old hippi had this very old and faded bumper sticker from 20 years ago when Clinton lost the house and senate- the bumper sticker says "MEAN PEOPLE SUCK"!! Hmmm- really? If mean people suck - WHO ARE THE NICE PEOPLE?

Let me think- if the mean people are the responsible tax paying indivduals the "nice" people must be the drug addicts and other totally irresponsible individuals who do nothing for anyone else and want a hand out from others. Or maybe the "nice" people are the people like Nancy Pelosi who gold plated her husbands real estate development with government favors and went on to take a private jet home to San Francisco every weekend on the public dime even though the government is floundering in debt, or Harry Reid who had all that land rezoned so his sons could make a whole bunch of money, or Barrack Obama who took essentially free land from the mob boss Rizzio, or maybe it's the all so caring Clintons that have become multimillionaires putting America up for Sale by influence peddling to any country that would give them money- including China, Saudi Arabia and Algeria - ARE THESE THE NICE PEOPLE- REALLY? I guess Martha's Vineyard is just full of all these "nice" people.

I guess the socialists are trying as hard as they can to raise "nice" children in school. We wouldn't like them to be rugged individuals who believe in themselves and work hard and are focussed. We want them to suck on water bottles all day (they need their water on demand at all times) and then run to the potty all day long (and maybe play a little in the hallway on the way- what the heck- what you miss in class isn't really all that important). We want them to give up their studies so they can help foodshare out and do a little gardening and then collect money for foodshare and cancer and so on too. Non profits aren't businesses that want to expand and have a bottom line of salaries and benefits are they? They don't have CEO's that make millions of dollars off of the public donations do they?

You know I guess "nice" people don't ask questions either. If you fill them full of a bunch of bull about global warming or how bad their country is- they will just accept that. They won't be those trouble making rugged individuals that work hard and have integrity. The "nice" people will just accept whatever the powers that be in Washington send down.

The "nice" people aren't judgemental either. Why, anything goes with them!! Have sex whenever and with whomever and take drugs too- they wouldn't want anyone to think they thought they had higher morals!! No indeed,go home mindless and watch MTV - those people on the Donna Reed show or Leave It To Beaver are just mean spirited to think there are higher morals in this world.

Well there you have it folks- raising kids the socialist way. But wait a minute- what if we all become "nice" people and there is no one left to carry the load and pay the bills? Hmmm- I guess the socialists
have an answer for that too- they control everyone and then they bring down the hammer. Don't let them America- keep fighting back- the rugged individuals will save America inspite of itself.

ELITISM AND NO ACCOUNTABILITY

It is astounding to me that the United States Senate and House of Representatives is about to reenact the NCLB (No Child Left Behind)- recently called the ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act)- in other words- FUNDING FOR THE FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION!!! This department came about in 1977 when the elitists, who today call themselves progressives, were screaming like Chicken Little that the sky was falling!! American education was failing!! American education was on the brink of disaster!! We needed the Federal Government to step in and save us!!

My, My,- 38 years and billions of dollars later what do we have? Do we have improved education in America? Well if we do, it's sure funny that the homeschool movement has mushroomed everywhere and the states are screaming for vouchers and charter schools. Actually our schools are in huge dissarray. Students' dress tells you all you need to know- they respect no one, their morals allow in many cases for promiscuity and drug use. I know there are wonderful top notch students out there, but these individuals survive inspite of the dissarray, including dishes of condoms on the nurses desk and sex clubs on campus.

Even the Elitists admit there actually is a problem- that's why they came up with the new program "Common Core" that our vaunted United States Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan has been pimping for all over the country. Has this program been tried, tested, and proven? NO. The elitists are not required to have ANY ACCOUNTABILITY. They know what's best for you, just take their word for it. They get to say anything they want, like "graduation and career ready" and "21st century!" and you are just supposed to believe it. They don't have to prove anything. In fact, they get to tell you what it is appropriate for you to say and not to say. I heard the other day that to call illegal aliens, illegal aliens is racist!! The old power politics of the race card. What are we supposed to call people who are not citizens and who broke the law and are here illegally? Are we supposed to call them citizens? So much for free speech, the elitists, who call themselves progressives ,will let us know what we can say and what we can not say. They will let us know what we must believe (like that carbon emissions cause global warming) and they are not accountable to prove anything.

The American people are trying to fight back. There was a huge tsunami election of conservatives last November. But, what difference does it make? What difference does it make if our elected representatives will just reenact the old hippi programs that have not worked for 38 years? What difference does our vote make if these representatives will not require SOME ACCOUNTABILITY before reenacting the same failed programs and spending BILLIONS OF DOLLARS on them while the security of our country, our very existence, is floundering in our more than EIGHTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS OF DEBT?!!

Maurice McTigue tells of the accountability program in New Zealand. Their government was floundering in debt and bureaucracy and over regulation. They found that for every dollar spent on education, SEVENTY CENTS WENT TO BUREAUCRATS AND ONLY THIRTY CENTS WENT TO THE CLASSROOMS!!! They did away with all the bureaucracy and went to local school boards for each school that were elected only by the parents from that school. International testing showed that New Zealand students went from fifteen percent BELOW the international average to fifteen percent ABOVE the international average.

Unfortunately, people like Jeb Bush who thinks he is going to run for president, just don't get it. They call themselves Republicans but they don't get that we don't need central control over things to make them work. They don't even get that central control doesn't work and that individuals and competition DO WORK. For two hundred years this country grew and became powerful and rich with schools that made their own curriculums and chose materials from capitalist competitive pubishing companies. But people like Jeb think the 38years of destruction by the federal bureaucrats is what we really need!! He and his counterparts won't require ACCOUNTABILITY. He never even asked for the proof that Common Core worked, the tests and pilots, before he bought their whole schtick of "college and career ready" and "21st century skills". America doesn't need anymore Bozos like Jeb Bush. We need independent thinkers that are willing to REQUIRE ACCOUNTABILITY and have the strength of character to get this American government back on track, ACCOUNTABLE TO THE CONSTITUTION AND ACCOUNTABLE TO WHAT THE GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS HAVE ACCOMPLISHED!!We need a president and elected representatives that are not afraid of unions and lobbyists. We need a president who is a strong indpendent thinker who will fight for what is right for America.

Centralized authorites have a very limited number of things that they might be able to do well and they need to get back to their knitting and let the rest of us be free and have a secure country once again. We don't have to sit and be controlled by propaganda from these elitists who think that they and or their government friends should manage all of us. They call themselves progressives but what they really are, are elitists who think you need to be controlled for your own good because you are not capable of running your own life. These elitists who call themselves progressives, get their ideas from Washington. They don't ask questions and they don't require accountability. It's up to us to unmask them and their propaganda. The American people must scream for accountability and courage, starting with NOT REENACTING THE ESEA THAT IS A TOTAL FAILURE AND PUTTING THE FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OUT OF BUSINESS FOR GOOD!! WRITE YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES IN WASHINGTON TODAY!!

INTRANSIGENT CHAMELEONS

Have you ever noticed that the liberals who are supposedly so open minded, NEVER CHANGE THEIR POSITION, NEVER CHANGE THEIR GOAL, NEVER GIVE UP GOING FOR THE SAME THINGS NO MATTER HOW WRONG HEADED IT IS PROVEN TO BE?

In Helena, our local school board and it's vaunted superintendent have been trying to set up a school bond for about five years. They hold public forums and no matter what the public tells them, they stick to their guns of 500 student institutions. Even if the people protest, make signs, put signs in their yards FOR MONTHS, they stick to their guns, we will have seven 500 student elementary schools. They say they want public input, but they stick to their guns, 500 student institutions. Why is this so? Why are they so INTRANSIGENT? They are INTRANSIGENT because these are not their ideas, these ideas come from BUREAUCRATS IN WASHINGTON THAT HAVE CONTROL OVER WHO GETS FEDERAL GRANTS!!

The idea is to make it LOOK like the "community" is participating in these decisions, but in reality the decisions have already been made in Washington. Fortunately, the public still gets to vote for these bonds so there is a slight chink in their armour. They have tried all the techniques- over and over- putting people in groups and delphiing them so the school boards wishes appear to come from the public, stacking the room with teachers and principals who will say what the superintendent wants, trying to find a few lackys in the public who may want a job with the district and having them testify, stacking the room with special interest groups so that what is reported out is that our schools need room for the homeless, early childhood, disabilities interests, poverty interests, Montessori interests, art interests and so on, none of their tricks have been successful in Helena, people on the RIGHT AND THE LEFT want their neighborhood schools.

The propaganda is of course relentless. These "experts" know what the future is going to be!! If you don't want what they want you have your head in the sand!! This is the 21st century and our schools just must be brought up to 21st century standards!! All our schools are old and decrepit and the people who support them are just hanging on to relics and stopping progress- keeping Helena in the dark ages!! Besides, we don't have the money to have neighborhood schools!! Hmmm- really? We are running those schools right now and seem to be doing alright. What, by the way, is in the future that will make 500 student institutions the answer to educational progress? For me, it is just fun to finally see the liberals stand up. These people are very smart, very knowledgeable, and very prepared when they want to be. The historical preservationists are just fit to be tied about the destruction of these beautiful historic buildings. They point out that it's not the building your in that makes a good school, it's the teacher!! Yes!! Yes!! Yes!! - but nobody makes any money over just having good teachers.

Here's where the CHAMELEON comes in. This school board that sees itself as oh just so progressive- wants to stop progress!! Yes indeed, if little school districts can have their own high schools- well- they would lose just so much money!! We can't have that change!! Growth is happening in East Helena here and they just can't have their own high school !! Things must stay as they are!! My, My, stopping the future because you don't like it are we? One liberal pointed out that trends show that people are moving into the inner cities again. What if you close all the inner city schools and then the population is not in the valley but is in town? We're not going to pay attention to that future. The CHAMELEONS want children to walk to school, but they are closing their schools. The Chameleons want home visits and children and their families to be oh so comfortable at school, but they are closing their school and their playground and their gym, and sending them away on buses to 500 student institutions. The CHAMELEONS want bike paths everywhere and think that global warming is melting all the glaciers and washing us away, but they will put all the children in Helena in buses, or their parents cars.

Be careful about listening to liberal propaganda about the future, it changes to meet their needs. No one knows the future, and they are using your willingness to think they know what no one knows, to get their agenda of top down central control that puts all of us and our children into a social engineering cage. The bureaucrats in Washington are scary people. These very malinformed elitist tyrants don't know more than anyone else, but they have government power to control you. You can stop them, vote for people who will slay this dragon. Vote for someone who is willing to cut the head off of this snarling propaganda machine.

LEARNING YOUR COLORS

A six month old child will not speak. No matter how hard you try to teach him/her to speak the baby is not developmentally prepared for language acquisition and he/she will not speak. A one year old will not learn their colors. No matter how many colors you put in front of him/her the baby will not be able to identify colors. No matter how much time you spend going over colors a one year old will not learn to identify colors because their brain is not developmentally ready to learn colors. Two year olds will not play interactively together. They play side by side because that is the developmental stage they are at. Why do present day Common Core creators think that all brain development restrictions disappear when a child is three years old, or five years old ?

The new early childhood standards, as I have mentioned on this blog before, require higher level analytical thinking of 3 year olds. They also require scientific and algebraic reasoning to be taught to these 3 year olds. They are also going to learn the planets and that buildings are engineered. Why would you write standards like this for babies? Any person who works with three year olds, or any person who has a modicum of common sense, would know that these standards are nonsense. This is like thinking that if you start your baby on reading skills in the cradle he/she will learn to read earlier and be a better reader.  This is not going to happen. Learning will happen when the student is developmentally ready to accept and use the information.

Before the current push into preschool, the Common Core geniuses (self appointed) produced the English/ Language Arts standards for k-12. In those standards five year olds will spend their time discussing their opinions with one another and comparing different stories. This is teaching the baby in the cradle to read again. Not only are five year olds not developmentally ready to extract and synthesize information while coming up with conclusions that they can defend with facts, the time that they are spending doing things that are of no value to them, is time they should be spending doing more concrete things that they are ready for like actually learning their letters and numbers and playing with their peers. Five year olds are discoverers, they need to be able to play with concrete things and work with clay and sand and so on.

It's wrong for the Federal Government or their supported central authority to force schools to do their bidding, whether you want to call it a curriculum or not. No central authority is so smart that they know what every school in America should be teaching in every grade. This group of yo yo's is particularly off course, but even if they were closer to a good curriculum, should they have the right to force a particular type of learning into our schools? This is what dictators do. This is certainly what they did in the Soviet Bloc. In America our teachers should be allowed to pick instructional materials and curriculums and teaching strategies from a myriad of private sources.

Under this system of choice, like under capitalism, bad ideas will die almost immediately and good ideas will be used and blossom. Teachers of many years are better teachers because they know what is tried and true. They have experienced things that don't work and perfected those things that do work. This is where curriculum decision making should take place, at the school level. Companies that write textbooks do this as a full time job. As they try to do well in their business they should be trying to be the best at what they do so that the teachers will choose their materials. They should not be successful by conforming to central authorities, bureaucracies. Good schools and good curriculums are not created by bureaucrats, they are created in the free forum of the schools.

As we all know, programs that are created by bureaucrats take on a life of their own and they are very hard to get rid of. No matter how bad they are, they just go on and on. That is what is happening in our schools. The whole child concept has been a complete and utter failure but the school boards go on following these programs and mandates as their schools fall lower and lower in academic success. We used to have excellent schools in Helena. Today we are at the bottom in comparison to other AA schools in the state. The whole child concept was innitiated under Goals 2000 (Hillary Clinton) in the early nineties. More than twenty years later our schools are struggling more than ever, yet no one will admit, or even look at the fact, that the whole child concept is a failure. The schools were doing better before all their whole child concept programs. The whole child concept nonsense said that children couldn't learn when they were hungry. Well, they've found out that the problem in school was obiviously not that children were hungry.

This country was built with the ideas that the Democrats say the Republicans don't have. This country
 was built with students in rows and using direct instruction. Maybe everything wasn't perfect, but it was better than what is happening today!! Good change comes slowly and it doesn't come from bureaucrats.Change comes from hard work and trial and error.America needs to get rid of bureaucrats and put their trust in themselves. Students will LEARN THEIR COLORS and everything else they should know better when America goes back to freedom instead of bureaucratic top down control.

THE BEST OF TIMES AND THE WORST OF TIMES

THE BEST OF TIMES are when we put our best foot forward, when we believe in ourselves and feel empowered to be the best we can be. THE WORST OF TIMES are when we don't believe in ourselves, when we do not feel empowered and when we turn to excuses and victimhood instead of moving forward and solving our own problems. Which kind of person do the "progressives" encourage? Do they really want you to be able to solve your own problems and get on with your life WITHOUT THEM?? Well, if their programs weren't needed they would lose all their power and disappear. So what do you think they want - THE BEST OF TIMES OR THE WORST OF TIMES?

I would say they want victims. I would say they want millions of very poor people to come into this country illegally from Central and South America because this gives them people that want and need their services. I would say that a strong and independent America is a threat to the "progressives". If you are doing well you don't need "progressives" to change things.

Personally I want a strong, free and independent America. I want people who are self sufficient. I taught students to become strong and independent when I taught school. I taught them to work hard and climb the ladder of success. I taught them that this was possible and that they were by no means victims. This is the rugged individual ethos that "progressives" decry. Why, if it were true, they wouldn't be needed at all!! So they sneer at teaching children that they can be strong and independent and free. Anyone who does not believe all their nonsense has "blinders" on according to them.

But, lets look at the real picture. We hear continually that the earth is warming because of the emissions from our cars and the industrial world. We hear that children are starving in our communities by the thousands. We hear that there is a homeless epidemic in our schools. We hear that there are mental health epidemics everywhere. We hear that the middle class is disappearing. We hear that students must learn about sex in school. We hear that families won't parent. We hear that second hand smoke in open arenas and parks is killing people. Is any of this true? Most of us read this crap in the News Paper and shake our heads and go on to the next story. The propaganda goes on and most of us try to ignore it.

NO, the earth is not warming and nor is their any proof that earth temperature changes are caused by carbon emissions. No, children in America are not starving by the thousands because there is no food available. In fact, exccept for possibly a rare case of child neglect by sick and or drug addicted or alcohol dependent people who should not be allowed to keep their children, children are not starving. As I have said on this blog MANY TIMES- I NEVER CAME ACROSS A STARVING CHILD IN THIRTY YEARS OF TEACHING. NO ONE CAME IN PALE OR CRYING OR PASSED OUT FROM HUNGER!! The left has to propagate these myths to get you to buy in to their ethos. Families do parent, some better than others, as it always has been. There is no proof that second hand smoke kills. Mental health is real and tragic, but except for the new increase in drug dependency brought on by the "progressives" who believe marijuana should be legalized and won't control our borders to keep the drug trafficking out, and the increased breakdown in the family brought about by these same individuals who taught us "free love", mental health is about what it always has been. Actually, children can figure out how to make babies without the "progressives" training them from kindergarten. Teaching about health and how to stay safe does not require teaching about different types of sexuality. Just teach about diseases and that they can be contracted by exchanging fluids. The point is, "progressives" have to lie to try to keep their ethos going. They have to lie and manipulate the public.They have to exaggerate things and contnually keep us in the WORST OF TIMES. And by the way, have any of their solutions worked in 50 years? Has bullying stopped? Has drug abuse even dropped? Has mental health improved? You need look no farther than the Black communities or the Tribal nations to answer this question. NO, "PROGRESSIVE" PROGRAMS HAVE NOT SOLVED ANYTHNG AND THEIR ETHOS HAS MADE THINGS MUCH, MUCH WORSE.

There was a Letter to the Editor in our paper the other day about banning smoking and chewing tobacco in parks. The author rightly expressed that there is no health hazard there. But many people will want to jump up and say, yes!yes!yes! we do need laws to stop tobacco use in parks. Why is this so? Because people like to control. It is a weakness of man to need to feel empowered by controling others. The "progressives" drive a big old truck through this weakness. The whole child concept in school is driven by this. We must, we must, we must- everyone is starving, everyone is under threat, everyone needs, needs, needs. No they don't. From health fads to seatbelts - Americans need to just stop supporting the need to control others. If you want your freedom you need to buck up and feel strong, smart, and powerful just controlling yourself. We really don't need Washington D.C. bureaucrats to write curriculums for our schools (yes- telling what to teach IS A CURRICULUM!! More lies again.) We really can make decisions about our safety and health and that of our children. We really can parent and teach our children. We really can support ourselves. We really can stop listening to lies, and propaganda. We really can stop letting the "progressives" manipulate our lives and our thoughts and ideas. We really can think for ourselves and be a free and strong nation once again. We really can stop the U.N. and the Federal Government from their one world agenda and get them out of our schools and out of our lives. Let's start getting our pride from our strong country and who we are as individuals and as a nation instead of from these continual made up agendas. WE CAN BE OUR BEST SELVES AND HAVE THE BEST OF TIMES!! WE CAN QUIT LIVING IN THIS WORLD OF OUR WORST SELVES- THE WORST OF TIMES!!