Picking Battles...The Email

I have tried to figure out how to handle the Geography Assignment that was given to son #3. I decide that I would have him do the assignment, filling all the expectations, showing he is “Competent” which is one of the new buzzwords in education these days, along with rigor, and vigorous-but having him do it from a fictional point of view. He will make up a boys name, pick a country, address, and learn about that culture. He will do the assignment from that fictional boys point of view. Now hopefully his teacher will go along with this. Here is the email I have sent her.

Mrs. XXXXXXXX,

I am hoping that you will accept a modified version of this Geography of Me assignment. When XXX brought the paper home to show me he made the remark, “I have a really intrusive Geography project to do.” Naturally that got my attention. With all the things that have come out about the IRS, and the NSA among other government agencies collecting data, and have been proven to use such data against people, this assignment gives me pause. Even if that wasn’t happening, having a book compiled with everything about my child, including actual address, longitude/latitude, favorite past times, activities and other personal identifying information all in one place, really makes me uncomfortable. If any of these books came into a predator/pedophile hands, it could make any of our kids’ easy prey. I am having XXX do this project as a fictional character. In this, he will be researching and learning about a different country and customs, while making sure to meet all Five Themes of Geography, to hopefully demonstrate that he is at least ‘Competent’ in doing this assignment. I hope this will be acceptable. I look forward to your response.

Kathy Dunton

She is probably going to write me off as being whacked. And I probably am not going to get her vote for School Board. But that is what happens when you have to choose and pick a battle. It will be interesting to see where this goes, for me anyways.

Picking Battles...

About 12 years ago a made a decision to return boy #1 back to public education. He had started there, went to private school for 2 years, and due to financial reasons, I had to pull him. I then home schooled him badly for 2 years. I say badly because we were in financial chaos. My husband had 2 back surgeries within 2 months. He had been out of work for a while, and it was taking a long time to catch up. I wasn’t able to work 10 hour shifts waitressing and home school effectively. So I re enrolled him in school his 8^th grade year, and just resigned myself to pick my battles. When you have a different world view from what is being taught in school, there can be a lot of battles. I believe I have brought my kids up well. They are strong in their beliefs. With boy #2, I did the same and honestly except for having to point out to a principal once, that having a Christmas tree in a class room was not a church and state thing, there haven’t been many battles. Until now. Common Core is more like a war. You face them with statistics, facts, and experts, and they just repeat the same unproven propaganda. I regress, Common Core is not what this blog is about, or at least that I know of at this point. This week, boy #3 brought home a Geography project. It’s called The Geography of ME. It kind of an “All About Me” book he is supposed to compile. Benign right? Well maybe if you have been sleeping for the past six months. In this project he is supposed to include latitude/longitude data on where his house is and nearby landmarks. Describe his family, religious group, what holidays he celebrates. Compare that to some of his friends. What is his most prized possession? What movies does he enjoy? What music does he like? Who does he look up to? What are his plans for his future? Where does he go? How does he get there? I.e. bus, car, walk…How has he altered his environment to suit his purposes? First thing I thought of was the article I read last April about MD having a rain tax. (Anything that prevents rain from seeping into the ground, driveway, roof, patios sidewalks, etc. can be taxed). All my misgivings about this project can be summed up in the IRS/NSA/FBI Trifecta extraordinaire scandals.  Being that I have much in common with the people that have been targeted by these agencies ~ Bible Believing, Pro life, 2^nd Amendment, political active mom,~ I’m a little sensitive about these things. Picking my battles. Hmm not sure what to do. Any ideas?

Maybe Pigs are flying, maybe it's cold in hell, but today I attended and supported a cause that Burt Cohen, former democrat state senator organized. It was a vigil against Obama's proposed military action against Syria. If you know anything about Burt Cohen, you would understand why me supporting anything he supports is extraordinary. Just under 30 in attendance, Burt told me that these peace vigils, are happening all over the country. I spoke to a retired teacher from Portsmouth that thought it was a pretty good turn out considering he only read about it in the paper this morning. He also stated that the last time he attended a protest at the North Church was back in 2003, protesting the Iraq war. Besides the familiar, beautiful face who went with me, Michelle Desrochers -Jim Rubens from Hanover, was the only person I knew in attendance. This was my first protest, I hope that there are more and that more get involved so that we can send a message to our elected officials, that we don't want our troops touching Syria, this is not our war, 
and somebody needs to be returning a Nobel Peace Prize... Just Saying

Reflections of, the way life used to be..(now that's gonna stick in your head)

Been a while since I had done any actual blog writing. I have been busy researching a government program coming to every US school district, and gearing up to try and stop it, by way of writing local newspapers and a run for School Board in a few weeks. Something happened last night that took me back 30 years or so and has been occupying my brain for the last 12 hours.

I walk into the room and they look up. They put their heads together and begin talking and staring and pointing at me. I look down and try and find a seat out of the way, and will myself to disappear. What will it be today, Annie anorexic, Cambodian child, Olive oil or is it my eyes today,-frog eyes, boulder eyes, bug eyes. Doesn't really matter, every nick name I would hear would chip away a piece of my soul, my self-worth. I didn't go through my adolescence saying 'Look at me!' it was more like, 'I'm sorry for breathing your air, I have to be here, could you just ignore me, and not say mean things?'

Even though I grew up knowing my worth in Christ, what I thought I knew could not compete with what I was told every day in school.

Thank God that He uses painful things in our lives to mold us into whom He wants us to be. I am not the same quiet, meek, too tall, too skinny, always apologizing for my existence kind of girl. I actually have battled the bulge for the last 12 years, (kids will do that to you). Because I had the experience of being bullied, not in the push and shove, getting beat up kind of bullied, but in the ripping out your soul bit by bit way-I have chosen to raise my boys to not only be kind to those that are different, but to take up for the underdog. I am so proud of my boys.

So last night "when I walked into the room and they looked up and they put their heads together and begin talking and staring at me, I stared them down. They looked away. When they looked up to see if I was still looking, I smile and nod." They were 3 different generations of mean girls, I could tell. I'm not going anywhere, I have a voice, I deserve to have a place at the table.

I write this today to encourage you. When you are facing a situation or a battle that you think may be too much. That you can't do it. It's too big, remember that God has molded you and brought you through everything in your life for this time. Everything that has happened to you is a chapter in your book, His book, to be used for His purpose. Keep your head up and your hand on the plow. Don't give up.

Romans 8:28

WHAT IS COMMON CORE, AND WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?

The following was published in the Rochester Times on August 1, 2013 and as Community Commentary in Foster's Daily Democrat on August 17, 2013

What is Common Core, and why should you care?

 

Common Core is another attempt by the Federal government to take over local control of our schools. It is not unlike Goals 2000 and No Child Left Behind.  The newest program, Common Core, is designed to ‘help align’ schools to have the same standards.  This was done by dangling the carrot of Federal money for the states who signed on.  Unfortunately New Hampshire received no federal funding through the "Race to the Top" grant program.  That means the financial burden falls on the local communities.  That sure sounds like an unfunded mandate which is prohibited in the New Hampshire Constitution under Article 28-a. 

 

What is different about Common Core? Bill and Melinda Gates have dumped almost $30 million dollars to push these ‘standards’ into our states. Much of this curriculum that has been implemented in states across the country,-has teachers and parents concerned. 

 

From a tax payer perspective, standardized testing is expensive.  Most standardized testing is now done on computers. When computers need to be upgraded and or replaced, who do you suppose would be getting most of that business? Microsoft, maybe? Who is the Chairman of the Board at Microsoft? Yup Bill Gates. It’s a neat little investment he made.  The enormous cost to taxpayers is already driving some states to abandon their commitment to these new nationalized standardized tests.

 

Many questions on these standardized assessments have no worth in evaluating academic skills. Instead the new assessments are a vehicle to collect private information on children and their families.  This has caused such a great deal of concern for parents in other states, legislators are now proposing legislation to re-instate privacy protections that were changed by the Federal Government .

 

We all now know that all data collected is going to be stored, forever. Questions that are included in the Common Core Assessments: What is your bus stop arrival time?  What is your Health Condition? What is your insurance coverage? What is your IP address? Do you live with your mother, stepmother, foster mother, father, stepfather, or foster father? What is your religious affiliation? What is the voting status of your parents? Why are they asking this? Have they run out of 501(c) 3’s to audit?

 

For a complete list go to:

http://nces.ed.gov/forum/datamodel/eiebrowser/techview.aspx?instance=studentPostsecondary

 

 

This information can be used by any government agency for any reason at any time. It can and will affect your child college and career choices. I feel it IS a violation of privacy.

 

Once CCSS is implemented, you can’t just have a conversation with your child about only answering academic questions, and not the personal or the ones that are being asked to evaluate their teacher. This is all computerized testing now, gone are the days where you need the #2 pencil, you can’t skip a question because if you do, the screen will not prompt on to the next. Your only recourse is to opt out of all CCSS testing and many parents are doing that. With CCSS your children’s education, behavior and beliefs will be tracked. There will be an electronic footprint of all things your child…if Common Core is implemented.

Kathy Dunton

Rochester, NH