Tuesday, November 10, 2009
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Schools Teaching Kids How to Be "Good Citizens"
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Posted by:
Meredith Jessup at
11:48 AM
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Listening to talk radio this morning, one caller phoned-in with more complaints about schools teaching children messages that conflict with their own family values and pride in country. This particular caller specifically mentioned a worksheet her child had brought home from school about being a "good citizen." Needless to say I was pretty shocked by some of the items she read off the sheet and did a quick Internet search to see what other examples I could come up with.
Lo and behold, I found this one right off the bat. Here are just a few items that were especially concerning:
What is a right? A right is something you are allowed to have. The right to vote means, when a citizen turns 18, he/she is allowed to vote for who they want to be president or even vote on how money in his/her town should be spent. Citizens also have the right to a free public education. Some countries don’t have those rights. There are many rights citizens of the United States have.
This definition of "rights" not only runs contrary to what I believe, but runs contrary to our country's founding documents which outline the principle that man has "been endowed" with rights by his Creator. Rights don't come from a government telling us what we are and are not allowed to do. And with the ACLU practically camping out on playgrounds with their secular friends, how is it that educators can even quote these documents without facing some kind of church/state separation lawsuit?
What is a responsibility? Responsibilities are things people have to do because it is doing their fair share.
There's that familiar phrase Obama likes to use a lot: "doing their fair share." With this logic, rich people apparently have more responsibility than the rest of us. But what about personal responsibility? Nope, no mention of that one.
Other gems include:
Who makes the rules for people to follow?
What are some ways citizens show respect for their country?
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I have seen some of the things that the public educational system think is important. I agree with the scriptural principles that what is in the heart will come out into the light and a person's actions are a result of the internal seeds of character and self-government. We all know that the State has overstepped, and in some cases forgotten, its reason for existence. The job of the Civil government is to protect the righteous and punish those that do evil. That is ALL that the goverment is to do... not provide for every citizen's every 'need'. The government is to be accountable to the citizenry for its actions. On the other hand, it is up to the individual citizen to live a life that is seeped in the character of integrity, honesty, brotherly love, and self-reliance, free from the interference of the State. The government will not be held accountable for its actions, as much as its citizens, by God. We will be judged, however, as a nation for what we do to either honor or dishonor Him with our actions. One of the worst things we can do is place the hearts and minds of our little ones into the hands of those who will not see Truth where it can be found. |
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and the Annenberg Challenge and Michael Klonsky and the rest of the SDS'ers who promulgated the entire multicultural, relativist, self-esteem the-government-is-your-father school curriculum of the last 20 years. It's resulted in guys like inthemajority, who, unfortunately, ARE in the majority- no reading comprehension skills, unmotivated, thinks he is owed a living, and feels grievances never actually experienced. |
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Perhaps I didn't make the point clear. We all grew up hearing Mom rebuke us for not turning off the lights. There's no need for the schools to be doing it except when the class is leaving the room.
It isn't the school's business to know how much energy any student's family uses. We seem to agree on that.
And yep, we've got teenagers too but it isn't the lights that's the issue. With ours, it's leaving dirty dishes around....sigh...but I loved your question! :)
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you win the idiot of the week prize. you have no idea what you are talking about and it's pretty obvious that you have never read the Constitution. |
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Your post contains both of these statements:
"This sort of thing is not about energy efficiency but rather conformity to a politically correct leftist dictum that has nothing to do with science OR the climate."
"Is there anyone out there whose mother DIDN'T tell him to turn the lights/water off, shut the door, were you born in a barn?!?"
So is turning off the lights a "politically correct leftist dictum" or not?
Incidentally, I have teenagers myself, and the answer to the question, "How many teens does it take to turn the lights off at night?" is "Nobody knows: it has never happened." |
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We possess all the rights of Nature upon birth (inalienable, from God, etc). Govt, as an instutition of coercion, can only take them away, NOT grant them.
"If one takes survival as the end, then we may ask what are the means necessary to that end. On Locke's account, these turn out to be life, liberty, health and property. Since the end is set by God, on Locke's view we have a right to the means to that end. So we have rights to life, liberty, health and property. These are natural rights, that is they are rights that we have in a state of nature before the introduction of civil government, and all people have these rights equally."
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/#HumNatGodPur
THAT is the basis of our Republic.
Of course, I don't expect public school teachers to have any knowledge about John Locke. If they do, I don't expect them to teach Locke to their students. If they do, I don't expect the instruction to be correct.
Only physical abuse is worse than sending a kid to public school.
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are more and more nothing but left-wing indoctrination centers. Michelle and others can fill the internet with examples. Many examples can be found of materials being used which are not allowed to be removed from the classroom because instructors don't want parents to find out what they are doing. Putting your children under the control of these "educators" is child abuse. |
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Last week our daughter brought home an 'energy efficiency' checklist as part of the curriculum her science class is studying about weather and climate.
Upon reading the list I was stunned to find that points were given according to whether or not one turns off the water when brushing one's teeth, driving a car that gets more than 20 mpg., inflating one's tires to the proper pressure, turning off lights when leaving a room, WEARING A SWEATER AND TURNING DOWN THE THERMOSTAT, etc. Well, duh. This is relevant how?
Once my blood pressure returned to normal, I explained to my daughter that this sort of thing is not about energy efficiency but rather conformity to a politically correct leftist dictum that has nothing to do with science OR the climate.
That evening I composed a polite email to the teacher explaining why our daughter would not participate in what was clearly an exercise in conformity that had nothing to do with her learning about the world around her, and was clearly meant to denigrate the fact that everything we use has to be mined or manufactured from something. We never did get a response, but thankfully our daughter was not penalized in any way for not giving answers that would no doubt have labeled her an energy hog.
Is there anyone out there whose mother DIDN'T tell him to turn the lights/water off, shut the door, were you born in a barn?!? |
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IT'S CALLED INDOCTRINATION and it continues at ever increasing pressure from kindergarten through college. |
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I agree that the definition of "right" is incorrect, since "allowed" implies that there is someone doing the allowing. And, as all of us LEFTISTS know, a right is something we possess inherently and which the state may not take away. The example was also not a very good one. There is indeed a "right to vote," but that particular "right" is different from free speech or religion, since it is, naturally and appropriately, limited by the state in various ways.
Still, your reaction is over the top. And saying, "With this logic, rich people apparently have more responsibility than the rest of us" is merely right wing projection, making something up to suit yourself.
The larger point here is that rights are balanced by responsibilities, and I don't see how that is a "liberal" or "conservative" concept. |
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Ask a Righty what a right is, and all they give is "the right to bear arms". That's ALL they ever give. It's as though they haven't read any government documents.
They actually think that it is OK to insert God into rights and public education. No really, they do. Look no further than Con posters and see how twisted their version of history and reality are. |
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it can be taken away without due process.
it is not much of a right if the government decides who gets it.
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Whats next? Schools asking that students define anything not involving an old man with a white beard living in the clouds. Maybe God wanted 1 + 1 = 3, so we should be looking into what the Bible wanted, not reality.
I am shocked. SHOCKED! Now lets all get back to inserting God into everything they learn.
Can anyone tell me why the definition of a "right" is a problem? How can it run contrary to what Jessup believes? Is it missing "you have the right to vote if God tell you how to vote?" "You have the right to a free public education IF it is a Christian school?"
I gotta site Jessup's writings as one the oddest rants I have heard from a Con in months. |
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school?
if so, it is not surprising in the least.
BO and a host of leftists want to replace GOD with the government.
that is what totalitarianism is all about. |
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