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