GGIC,

We don’t seem to learn from past war history do we.It is a shame homeschooled or not it will not matter who educated our kids when marching them off to fight!A draft is in our very near future and this time no ones child is safe.That goes for your kid too superdave.

Jane,

We don’t seem to learn much from history, war or not, the way it keeps repeating itself.I’ve heard experience is being able to recognize a mistake when you make it again.I prefer to learn as much as possible from other people’s mistakes,though, as I don’t have time to make them all myself,LOL.Times are definitely getting scary.

GGIC: It’s interesting you would mention “room cleaning” as an adolescent challenge. There are kids among us whose challenges are a bit more stressful: whether they’ll be attacked by gangs when they step off the school bus; whether they’ll be allowed to enter their house after school, if mom or dad is “entertaining”; whether or not there will even be a house to come home to; how to get through another cold night/hot & humid night of homework without heat or cooling–sometimes without electricity, and certainly without the quiet environment conducive to study; whether anyone will “bother” to fix dinner….the examples are endless!

Kids in these environments wouldn’t likely do well if they found themselves in a virtual or home-school environment. These are extreme cases, but even those kids exposed to lesser crimes-against-youth are often unprepared to benefit from virtual educational pedagogy.

“Education” means a lot more than a lesson in school, or a theme for the day. It’s a process to equip kids with the tools they need to learn to live with human dignity.

Ryan,
how are greens post not self-serving they go on and on…..we should all be so lucky!

Ryan,

I TOTALLY agree-I’m sure some of those kids were classmates when I was in school, as well as when my son was.No, homeschool or virtual schooling or anything else that didn’t remove them from that environment would absolutely NOT be in their best interests.That is an even bigger problem for society today than education, and I think they are totally connected.Unfortunately, I don’t have the answers, I just do the best I can for my kids.We tried to help a homeless kid that my son got to know several years ago,even let him live with us, and it really bit us in the a**.Short story, there were problems and the kid broke my son’s nose and my husband,well,reacted like a dad,-the kid was arrested and I don’t know where he went after that.They say no good deed goes unpunished.

I mentioned “A Child Called It’-have you read it? I cried all through that book and the next two because the mother was beyond words.Fortunately,Dave Pelzer turned his life around and used it for good instead of becoming a serial killer.No kidding, I read about abnormal psych,too,some stuff that really turns the stomach,like pedophiles.I have tried to impress on my kids that SO MANY others would change places in a heartbeat, because what they consider hardship is hardly more than inconvenience.There is a difference between “nothing to eat” and “nothing I WANT to eat” that escapes them at this time,LOL.Also, with the room cleaning, at least they have a room, and stuff to clean.I remember when my son was little, we saw a stray dog,and he said”aw, it needs someone to love it” and I was thinking”no, it would rather have someone to feed it”.We have taken in our share of strays.I keep thinking about foster care or being a CASA volunteer, but I don’t have time right now, and I think I would get too upset at some of the situations and want to hurt someone(just kidding,mostly).I tend to be protective of kids, not just my own.

I think sometimes government has to legislate what common sense and common decency should dictate,but until there is a solution,nothing changes in the way it should.Civil liberties aside, some people just don’t seem able to run their own lives.Too many different lifestyles, too many different opinions,not that different is bad, but certain behaviors are generally unacceptable to most. Obviously, that doesn’t stop it from happening.Many of the examples you gave seem to be stemming from parental problems,though. I don’t advocate letting the “government” or whoever raise your kids, but sometimes the kids are better off, if the parents aren’t even able to take care of themselves.I doubt many homeschoolers would disagree. I think we are looking at polar opposites on the parental measuring stick.At one end you have the total derelicts(not talking about those going through tough times, but those who have no business procreating but did anyway), at the other, parents who like being parents and give it their all(these can be homeschool or not-many kids in school have very involved parents ,too).Many also fall towards the middle.Until only people who have the ability and the desire to be parents ARE,I think there will be problems.These problems haven’t gone away in the history of the universe(not that I claim to have read it all,LOL),so I doubt they will be fixed in our lifetimes.Still, we need to keep trying. We may not be able to fix the problem, but we can minimize the damage.

Bean,

I’m sorry you think my posts are self-serving-what exactly do you mean? I do realize how blessed I have been, but it was not without a lot of effort and some adversity on all our parts, so I don’t feel guilty enjoying our circumstances.Everybody has the opportunity to read and learn to try and improve their situations in life-look at Oprah Winfrey.Where would she be if she decided “oh, my life is too hard, I’ll just sit here feeling sorry for myself and hope someone HELPS me”?She certainly wouldn’t be one of the richest and most influential women on the planet.I admire her greatly for her drive and philanthropy.You get out of life(and anything else) what you put into them, so if you are unhappy, the only person to blame is you.What, are my posts forcing you to overwork your brain?Sorry for the inconvenience!

Green- Your sister needs to brush up on her history. General Butler is one of 7 Marines and one of 19 total who have received two Medals of Honor. He was also recruited (supposedly) by some in the business community to overthrow the government of FDR for his redistribution of wealth ideas. He refused and ratted them out to Congress

Slamfist,

Actually, she just told me to look him up and check out the “War is a Racket” speech.The rest came from wikipedia or another site on the ‘net.Apparently, you have more current info.I haven’t seen the rest, but I haven’t had time to do more than a cursory search.Any good, reliable sites I should be looking at?

Slamfist,

WOW, I just checked out the plot against FDR on Yahoo-what an eye-opener.I’m sure they didn’t mention that in any American History class I’ve ever had.I think I’ll add one of the books mentioned to my ever- growing reading list.History is so much more fascinating when you sift through the dirt! Thanks for the correction-old Smedley seemed an interesting enough character without plots to overthrow the government.I guess we’ll never know if it was true, especially the possible link to the current president’s relative.