Who needs American History?

In the need to raise good little socialists......the dumbing down of some of America's children continues. You can not raise socialists unless you avoid teaching them the truth about the founding of our Country.


Quote of the Day - " A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink of it deeply, or taste it not, for shallow thoughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking deeply sobers us again." - Alexander Pope

Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.

The following piece appears on the Examiner.com website. Be sure to visit their website to read the links.

N.C. high schools to replace U.S. History with environmental issues
February 4, 9:36 AMConservative ExaminerRobert Moon

North Carolina public high schools are trying to erase all early U.S. history from the curriculum, ranging from the Founding Fathers to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War...in exchange for things like environmental issues. This kind of blatant propagandistic slant has become routine in public schools (see here and here).

Even though many Americans are increasingly convinced that we need to be embracing the Founding principles now more than ever, the far left teachers' unions driving this latest attempt to accommodate mediocrity disagree. They insist that lowering educational standards even further to such completely dysfunctional levels will somehow enable public school students to gain a more in-depth understanding of current events.



Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, explained the decision this way:
"What we are trying to do is figure out a way to teach it where students are connected to it, where they see the big idea, where they are able to make connections and draw relationships between parts of our history and the present day."

In other words, the left-wing teachers' unions running our public school systems (into the ground) have dumbed down education so far at this point that they now must sacrifice everything about who we are, what we stand for and how we got here in order for their victims to graduate. This is what happens when you put Democrat power (forced union dues) before the interests of the people and care more about manufacturing racially-sensitive little environmentalists than actual education.

It is more difficult to notice how fundamentally un-American the left's Constitution-trampling agenda is when no one is even talking about the Founding era anymore.

The Continuing Attack on the Homeschoolers - Homeschoolers Speak Up

The following piece appears on the Examiner website.

Quote of the Day - ""It is difficult to be the victim of repeated attacks by legislators who hold and use their power inappropriately, discriminating against responsible citizens." Doris Hohensee - New Hampshire Alliance for Home Education

Cathy

Home school families shocked by letter sent by state representative to NH Department of Education
February 4, 10:56 AMSouthern New Hampshire Education ExaminerTammy Andrew

January 13th, 2010 House Bill 368 (HB368) was voted 324-34 as Inexpedient To Legislate. Home educators throughout the state who were part of a grassroots effort to stop the bill presumed the bill would no longer haunt them.
February 2nd, less than one month later, the members of the Majority on the House Education Committee learned of a letter written by Rep. Emma Rous, Democratic Chairman of the House Education Committee to the NH Department of Education on January 25th. Rep. Rous' letter, endorsed by eight other members of the House Education Committee, sought increased regulations on home educators similar to the recently failed HB368. In response, the House Education Committee members have asked for a retraction of Rep. Rous’ letter.

Home educators across the state are also extremely upset with Rep. Rous after discovering her letter to the Department of Education. "It is difficult to be the victim of repeated attacks by legislators who hold and use their power inappropriately, discriminating against responsible citizens," states Doris Hohensee, from the New Hampshire Alliance for Home Education. She adds that it seems, "Rep. Rous is on a personal mission to increase regulation on home educators in New Hampshire, undermining parents’ fundamental rights without due process of the law."

A Round of Applause Please

As homeschoolers are continually attacked by some rogue democratic legislators and some members of the HEC it is refreshing to see someone speak up for our rights. The following letter is from Sherman Packard, House Republican Leader.

A big thank-you to Sherman Packard for standing up for homeschoolers and parents' rights to educate their children as they see fit.

Cathy Peschke
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.



Dear Chairman Lyons & Honorable Members,


On January 25 a minority of the House Education committee sent you a letter in which they claimed that “many members have grown concerned about the level of accountability for home education programs.” As the chair of the committee stated in the letter, an amendment failed in committee and then, on the full floor of the House of Representatives, the bill (HB 368) was summarily killed without debate by a substantial 324-34 vote. The voice of the legislature was loud and clear on this issue in recent weeks, as it was in 2009 when HB 367 was also heard and killed in similar fashion; the House has sought fit to leave thehome schooling issue alone. It was inappropriate for the chair of the Education committee to send this letter to you on committee letterhead, not representing the whole committee, not even a majority of it, or the House of Representatives, in suggesting changes to the rules procedure.




There has been long-standing policy that administrative rules are not changed without some legislative guidance, and that guidance has been unequivocally issued by an overwhelming vote of the whole House, not a minority of the Education committee which sent you that letter. I hope that you will take the letter sent by Rep. Rous and her eight colleagues on the committee as comments not reflected by House Leadership nor of the Education committee as a whole.


Thank you for your attention.


Sincerely,


Rep. Sherman Packard
House Republican Leader

Today We are Headed to Concord Yet Again

HB 1580 the homeschool freedom bill will be voted on today by the HEC committee. HB 1580 is unlikely to pass, the evil legislators on the the committee are trying to ram down homeschooler throats HB 368 which was soundly defeated last month. The following is a letter that these incredibly hateful people sent to the DOE to avoid the legislative process. Notice that all those who signed on are Democrats, Democrats who must be voted out of office the next time their seat is up for re-election. I have been told that Democrats are open-minded, believe in civil rights, believe in choice and believe in freedom, clearly nothing can be further from the truth when it comes to these people. Clearly these people have an agenda against homeschoolers and the rights of homeschoolers.

Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.


(on letterhead)
State of New Hampshire
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Legislative Office Building
33 North State Street
Concord, NH 03301-6328
TEL: (603) 271-3334
TDD Access: Relay NH 1-800-735-2964
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

Emma L. Rous
Chairman

J. Timothy Dunn
Vice Chairman

January 25, 2010

Dear (Chairman Lyons and Members of the NH State Bd. of Education)

The House Education Committee has been involved in a review of the home education statute for several years. During this period, many members of the Education Committee have grown concerned about the level of accountability for home education programs. We retained HB368 and every member of the committee served on a subcommittee to review the statute. On Nov. 19, 2009 the committee voted 10-10 on an amendment to strengthen the evaluation process for home educated students. Failing to get a majority, the committee rejected the original bill, which was also defeated without debate in the House.



In the course of committee discussion, many questions were raised about the role of the State Board in setting rules. RSA 193-A:3 empowers the Board to “adopt rules…relative to administering the home education program.” HEAC is charged to “recommend…changes in rules…” but serves in an advisory capacity rather than a decision-making capacity. As a current member of HEAC, I do not believe the department violated appropriate process in recommending changes to the board. While the laws cannot be changed by the rules process, the board can and should clarify and further specify how the laws are implemented.

Based on discussions in committee, testimony from superintendents and home educators, and a review of home education regulations in other states, I recommend the following rules changes in bold (references are to DOE’s initial proposal dated 10/14/09):

Ed315.02 Definitions
(1) “Teacher means a teacher other than the parent who holds NH certification….

Currently parents who are certified or teach in a private school can and do write their own evaluations. The consensus of the Education Committee is that this is not appropriate evaluation.


Ed315.04 Notification
(c) (1) The commencement date of the home education program contained in the written notification shall be on or before the date that the education will replace public school attendance;
“Written notification” is not currently specified in statute and should be clarified in rules. Superintendents testify they sometimes have trouble getting timely notification, resulting in ambiguity regarding truancy.

Ed315.07 Annual Evaluation
The department recommended eliminating (a) which requires that “No evaluation shall be used by the participating agent as an annual evaluation unless approved by the parent” and recommended instead that the evaluator shall:
315.07 (b) (1)
a. Sign the evaluation

b. Submit the evaluation to the participating agent; and

c. Give a copy to a parent

315.07 (c) (5)
The department also recommended revising (c) (5) to require “The signature of the teacher” (eliminating “and the parent.”)

I urge the Board to adopt the Department’s original recommendations. If the evaluation is to have any validity, parent should not be allowed to shop for an evaluation until they get a favorable one. EHAC argues the evaluator may not understand the parent’s program, but parents can screen evaluators before hiring them. Under the current system, parents choose and pay the evaluator, and evaluators are the only ones to see the student portfolio. There is no requirement to meet with the student. Evaluators have no incentive to be thorough or to give a critical evaluation.

Members of the Education Committee eventually dropped the idea of collecting data on numbers of home education students on probation because we do not believe, and superintendents concur, that superintendents have enough information to determine probation. We believe probations are only assigned for test scores under the 40th percentile and rarely, if ever, for negative portfolio evaluations. Only if the portfolio evaluation process is significantly strengthened would we encourage accurate data collection on probation by the department.

Ed 315.07 (c) (3) and (4)
Evaluations are currently brief and cursory (see attached example). Developing a DOE sample model for appropriate, thorough portfolio evaluations and referencing that model in rules should be a high priority for this round of rules revision. The department recommends making the following addition to (c) (4): and the facts the teacher relied on to develop the concluding statement. This is a good starting point, but should be much more specific and complete. Current (c) (3) asks for “a description of the work reviewed,” but what should be in that description? Similarly, parents need guidance regarding what should be included in a portfolio.
If parents have chosen not to teach all of the subjects listed in RSA 193-A:4, the portfolio and the evaluation summary should include a rationale for leaving subjects out. (See Ed 315.08 (a) (2). [sic]
Ed 315.17 Grievance conference
The department has added language stressing that a conference may be requested by “parents or participating agents.” This is an important clarification because HEAC should not only act as advocates for home education parents with grievances against school systems, but as facilitators and problem solvers for struggling or challenging home school programs.

Prompted by the Home School Legal Defense Association, home educators have asserted that changes in home education laws and rules would be unnecessarily burdensome and make us the most regulated state in the country. HSLDA currently ranks NH among the less regulated home school states. Over 4,000 students home school in NH, and we know that families move from more regulated states like MA and NY to home school here. While there are states with very little regulation, there are also states that require much more than NH. For example, requirements that:

-the parents have at least a high school diploma (or in some cases a BA)
-curriculum parallel that taught in public schools
-home schooled students study an equivalent number of hours as public school students
-home education cannot be initiated to avoid disciplinary action or to drop out early
-portfolios be submitted to superintendents
-all home educated students take the statewide achievement tests
-home education program report quarterly
-tests cannot be administered by the parent

NH has none of these requirements. I believe the rules changes suggested above are important, appropriate, and well within the jurisdiction of the State Board of Education. I hope you will support these changes.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,
Rep. Emma Rous (signed)
Rep. Emma Rous

Rep Rick Ladd (signed)
Rep. Roderick M. Ladd (hand-printed)

Rep. Claire Clarke (signed)

Rep Judy Day (signed)
Rep Judy Day (hand-printed)

Rep. Rachel Burke (signed)
Rep Rachel Burke (hand-printed)

Rep. Judith Reever (signed)
Judith Reever (hand-printed)
Charles B. Yeaton (signed)

Philip R. Harvey (signed)
Rep. Philip R. Harvey (hand-printed)

Rep Kim Casey (hand-printed)
Kimberly Casey (signed)

Is your Child Being Asked to be a Brown Shirt?

Is your Child Being Asked to be a Brown Shirt? Oops I mean is your child being recruited for Organizing for America for Obama at their public school?

The following piece appears at Atlas Shrugs. You must visit their website to see all the great links and the forms being handed out at school.

Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.


ATLAS EXCLUSIVE: OBAMA ORGANIZING IN HIGH SCHOOL

An Atlas reader has a student in the eleventh grade in an Ohio High School. Her government class passed out this propaganda recruiting paper so students could sign up as interns for Obama's Organizing for America.

Obama is using our public school system to recruit for his Alinsky-inspired private army. Organizing for America is (and I quote) recruiting in our high schools to "build on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering students across the country to help us bring about our agenda" ............of national socialism.



This is incredible. And evil. Suffer the little children -- enlisted like SS youth. This is no accident. Obama is poisoning our public school system. He acts as if it's his own private breeding farm. Once again academic learning and achievement is hopelessly abandoned, and supplanted by radical leftist activism by the leftwing Alinksy inculcators in the perverse public school system.

Remember the children singing heil Obama songs? The Obama youth regiment brigade.

How about being forced to listen to his creepy speech?

During the election he had those freaky kids parades.

And video after video of kids singing brainwashed tunes of Obama praise here and here.

Atlas had The Obama Childrens Book -- illustrations show rainbows, sunbeams & an aura around Obama. Rainbows and moonbeams -- got that?

Then the goosestepping kids for Obama -- a school project. And now this, high school pods for O.

And what will these "interns" be force fed? The mother's milk of the left - anti-war agitation, anti-capitalism, Marx, Lenin, Ayers, Ellie Light activism, LGBT agenda promotion, global warming, pro-jihad, and illegal immigration. For starters.