The Dropout epidemic

Kristi Kane

My daughter who is graduating from high school this month announced to me that many of her friends are not. Tonight my husband and I took our boys and their friends to a movie and saw one of our girls’ friends. She works at the theater. She had played junior varsity soccer with one of my girls and ran track with the other. I asked what she was doing. “I’m not sure. I got my GED, and I’m just figuring things out.” What the heck?!

Since when did high school graduation  become an option? It is an option for so many high school students these days that I can’t help but worry for their future. They have no desire to do anything. They’re content to stay home and play hours of video games or stick with a minimum hour wage paying job and live with Mom and Dad for the rest of their lives. One of my daughter’s friends who is also not going to graduate, lives with her mother who gives her a $200/week allowance. This same girl has no job, doesn’t want a job, swears at her mother, does no chores around the house to help her mother, and just recently used her allowance to get a couple of tattoos. Are you afraid for the welfare of the next generation? I am.

Suzanne W. Morse, President of Pew Partnership for Civic Change and Founder of Learning to Finish says this:

 “Despite repeated assertions on the part of leaders in all sectors about the importance of addressing the dropout situation, the problem today is more acute than ever. Recent reports indicate that nationally about one-third of all students who enter high school do not graduate on time if ever. Some 2,500 students leave high school every day.

For the one million or so students who drop out each year, the prospects are dire. For the communities in which they live, the dropout rate is very bad news indeed. Each year, the toll of lost wages, taxes and productivity that can be attributed to dropouts comes to more than $200 billion for the nation as a whole. That does not take into account the fact that more than two-thirds of the inmates in state prisons are school dropouts.”

I realize that not all high school students are like this. In my neighborhood, there are also kids who are beginning college as sophomores because they have taken AP classes and have successfully passed their AP tests. Some even have scholarships. However, the ratio of kids who are going to college weighed against those who are not even graduating high school is alarmingly low.

For many of my daughter’s friends, they haven’t seen their own parents graduate and so for them, they don’t care if they graduate or not. Some kids get pregnant, and drop out. Others say they flat out do not like school and don’t get along with their teachers or peers. Others feel the need to drop out and obtain minimum wage paying work to help out with the bills at home. On the other hand, some of this makes me wonder if parents are part of the problem. Are we doing too much for our kids and not giving them the drive to leave home to pursue a good-paying job by way of a college education or trade school? What is it that is making these kids so apathetic towards education?

The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network lists five reasons to stay in school:

1. High school dropouts are four times as likely to be unemployed as those who have completed four or more years of college;
2. Graduating from high school will determine how well you live for the next 50 years of your life. High school graduates earn $143 more per week than high school dropouts. College graduates earn $336 more per week than high school graduates ($479 more per week than high school dropouts);
3. Dropouts are more likely to apply for and receive public assistance than graduates of high school;
4. Dropouts comprise a disproportionate percentage of the nation’s prison and death row inmates. 82% of prisoners in America are high school dropouts;
5. School districts all over the country provide alternative programs for students who are not successful in the usual school setting.

If only these kids could see 20 years down the road to what their life would be like both with and without education. They would definitely see that long-term, education is the easier and better choice.

Proselytizing compared to rape? Really?

Rachel Allison

There are bombs going off on more fronts than I can name.  The attacks are relentless and escalating.

Abortion—Now the truth is coming out about the “safety” and “compassion” of abortion clinics.  And we thought the supposed “back-alley abortions” were bad?

Euthanasia—being legalized and accepted as “killing with compassion.”

Marriage—If the Supreme Court redefines marriage, marriage, completely severed from its original purpose, might never pull out of its death spiral.  Religious freedom and rights of conscience will be severely compromised.

Educational decline—we have all witnessed its decline, and with Common Core being rammed through at break-neck speed, it will continue to be an agenda driven program run by non-elected federal agencies.

And there’s so much more…

What’s most alarming, a majority of the people seem to be totally unaware and even apathetic to the bombardment.

The most recent bombshell: Court marshals for those who proselyte  in the military.

I quote Bethany Monk from CitizenLink

The Pentagon has released a statement, confirming its policy that would punish service members who share their religious beliefs.

That follows a private meeting last week between Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and the Pentagon. Weinstein said military personnel who proselytize are guilty of sedition and “treason.” He said they should be punished to quell a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”  

“If this policy goes forward, Christians within the military who speak their faith could now be prosecuted as enemies of the states,” according to the Family Research Council. “This has potential to destroy military recruiting across the services as Americans realize that their faith will be suppressed by joining the military. Our brave troops deserve better. If chaplains and other personnel are censored from offering the full solace of the Gospel, there is not religious freedom in the military.”

As I have studied this and other relevant reporting it looks like the Department of Defense has had this particular regulation in place prior to Weinstein’s demands.

“Air Force Culture, Air Force Standards,” published on Aug. 7, 2012.

Section 2.11 requires “government neutrality regarding religion.”

“Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for an individual’s free exercise of religion or other personal beliefs and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion,” the regulation states.

Military leaders were admonished not to use their position to “promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates or to extend preferential treatment for any religion.”

Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council has said Weinstein’s hands are all over this work.  I wish I understood better whether MRFF could actually have had imput into the writing of the militaries’ regulations. Weinstein, an avid atheist is now demanding that the DOD start implementing it.

I quote Todd Starnes from Fox News

President Mikey Weinstein and others from his organization met privately with Pentagon officials on April 23. He said U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished – by the hundreds if necessary – to stave off what he called a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”

“Someone needs to be punished for this,” Weinstein demanded to Fox News.  “Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.” He compared the act of proselytizing to rape.

“It is a version of being spiritually raped and you are being spiritually raped by fundamentalist Christian religious predators,” he told Fox News.

He said there is a time and a place for those in uniform to share their faith – but he took issues with fundamentalism that he says is causing widespread problems in the military.

Perkins and members of the Family Research Council were stunned that the Pentagon would be taking counsel and advice from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

“Why would military leadership be meeting with one of the most rabid atheists in America to discuss religious freedom in the military,” Perkins said. “That’s like consulting with China on how to improve human rights.”

If Weinstein has his way, and apparently he has the attention of military leaders “it threatens to treat service members caught witnessing as enemies of the state.”  “Non-compliance,” the Pentagon suggests, “even from ordained chaplains could result in court-martialing on a case-by-case basis.”

Does this sound like something that should be happening in the United States of America…or Hitler’s Germany?

With all the social, moral, and religious bombardment taking place we need to choose our battles wisely…but for America’s sake let us choose to fight! Apathy is a killer.

The FRC has launched a petition drive urging Defense Sec. Chuck Hagel to protect the religious freedom of troops “and not to proceed with the purge of religion within the ranks called for by anti-Christian activists.”

Today’s Peace Signs

Rebecca Mallory

National headlines from the past news week have undoubtedly set most Americans on edge. Shocking scenes of the tragedy at the Boston marathon finish line and the fiery images after the explosion of a fertilizer plant in Waco, Texas leave us all bewildered and baffled in the aftermath of unspeakable human suffering. Similar tragedies such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Indonesia’s tsunami, and countless others leave us wondering where we can turn for peace. Perhaps you have specific sources of comfort on which to rely.

May I suggest some universal truths that apply to all?

Unfortunately, our destructive politically correct society has dictated the way we are “supposed” to react and respond to life’s tragic events.  Thank goodness many Americans in Boston, Waco and countless other great American cities ignored that memo this week. How refreshing it was to see the streets of Boston lined with selfless Americans forming a gauntlet and linking arms while singing “God Bless America”, praising the first responders, and supporting the victims of that tragedy. Their automatic  reaction was a testimony to human nature and the true American spirit that blasted meaningless PC nonsense and further verified that human behavior cannot, and never will be, mandated just because a few “feel good” politicians deem it so through legislation.

Anyone remotely familiar with history is no doubt reminded of the universal truths that made America the greatest nation in world history.  Through the U.S. Constitution, wise founders prepared for the frailties and selfishness of man by preparing a document unrivaled by any other nation. It is a system of checks and balances that prevents kings, dictators and imperialists from controlling a free people. Our Constitution brilliantly provides for man’s innate desire to be free and pursue his/her own happiness through liberty and the dictates of his/her own conscience. It has been the envy of every other nation. Why has it lasted so long? Why is it being threatened today? Will it survive?

Something that I have observed with each terror attack, or horrid crime committed, is how the government attempts to band-aid the situation after the fact. Everyone rushes to the scene after the damage has been done. The shocked media then puzzles away. “What happened? What possibly could have prevented this tragic event?”  The answer is in our history books. It lies in the universal truths about different forms of government and the governed – Rome, England, Greece, France, China, etc.  What do they all have in common? All world super powers crumbled and failed because of interesting similarities: an obsession with the rich and famous, with sports and entertainment and loss of moral compass. They wanted to be taken care of… They wanted things to be easy – a “give it to me now” entitlement mentality. Sound familiar?

To cure what ails us in these uncertain times, there’s a simple solution to achieve a higher degree of personal peace. Not easy, but simple.

Individual responsibility, integrity, respect and love of fellow man, and hard work. That’s it. Imagine how the world would change instantly if everyone truly adopted those universal principles. Or even made an effort! Until we take responsibility for our own character flaws, stop blaming others for our misfortunes, and correct our own selfish desires, we imperfect humans will allow other imperfect humans to govern us. There are those who “think” they know the rules better and they should be able  to  imposed them upon us. Is that a free country? (Incidentally, America isn’t even ranked in the top 20 “most free” nations in the world. And you thought we were #1, right?)

There are those who complain that Capitalism and the American ideal is somehow evil and does not work, even though history shows that more people have risen from poverty and squalor because of Capitalism than any other system.  But it is not without a price.  Capitalism and a free Republic can only be successful with an honest and self-governing people.

Democracy is a tough business. Maintaining a thriving Republic is even tougher. Most of us have never experienced anything but freedom and prosperity and cannot fathom anything but. How can we expect it to survive if each of us refuses to take an active role in preserving it? What will you sacrifice to insure a prosperous future for your children? If “you’re just too busy” or “politics just isn’t your thing”, then don’t complain when your freedoms are further eroded and safety is compromised. Today’s peace signs will be allotted to you as the government sees fit. Don’t be surprised when your parental rights are slowly usurped by that same government.

The great news is- though a small window – you and I still have a little time. Within our four walls we can affect change by teaching our children and grandchildren personal responsibility, integrity and hard work; not to sit around and wait for someone to come “save” them. They are capable of anything they can dream of. They can do it themselves. They need to hear it from you every day.  And that, my fellow Americans, is where we can turn for peace.

Some Parents Need Your Help!

Diane Robertson

Four years ago Swedish socials service officials took, seven-year-old, Dominic Johansson from his parents as the family boarded an international flight. Armed police seized the boy without arrest warrants.  Swedish officials placed him in a foster home. The boy has still not been restored to his parents, Christer and Annie Johansson.

What heinous crime did the Johansson’s commit? What did they do to their son to warrant such extreme actions from the Swedish government? They homeschooled Dominic. This happened before homeschooling was made illegal in the nation.

After 3 years, the Johansson’s finally got their case reviewed by a district court in Gotland. The court said it could not ignore the unanimous and extensive testimony of firsthand accounts of friends, family and others that Domenic Johansson was being properly cared for by his parents. The court restored the Johanssons’ parental rights. However, social services persisted and a mi-level court over turned the decision. Domenic, now at 11, has not been allowed to see his parents for 3 years!

Alliance Defending Freedom along with the United States based, Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), has appealed Christer and Annie Johansson’s case to the highest court of Sweden.

HSLDA Director of International Relations Mike Donnelly and attorney with ADF has said:

“As the district court found, Annie and Christer Johansson are good parents. It is unconscionable that the court of appeals–or any court in a democratic country like Sweden–could somehow think that it is in Dominic’s best interest to remain separated from his parents. The pain, suffering, and harm done to this family are incalculable.”

Alliance Defending Freedom and HSLDA are encouraging concerned people from all over the world to participate in an HSLDA-sponsored letter-writing campaign that asks the Supreme Court of Sweden to accept the case Johansson v. Gotland Social Services and return Domenic to his parents.

Please take a moment and help this family, and parental rights around the world. Here is how to contact that Supreme Court of Sweden.

 Swedish Supreme Court (Högsta domstolen):

Email: hogsta.domstolen@dom.se

Mailing address: Högsta domstolen, Box 2066, 103 12 Stockholm, Sweden

A 1-oz letter from the US will cost $1.10 through the Postal Service

Fax: From outside Sweden: +46 8 561 666 86  If you fax from the U.S., you will need to replace the + sign with “011” and then dial 46 8 561 666 86  From inside Sweden: 08-561 666 86

Unpopular Opinions

Diane Robertson

To have the opinion that the definition of marriage should not be changed to include same sex couples is very unpopular this spring.

Dr. Ben Carson, renowned, pediatric neurosurgeon at John Hopkins has stepped down as Hopkins Commencement Speaker.  Some Hopkins students and faculty petitioned against Carson as the commencement speaker after his comments at the National Prayer breakfast and his comments about gay marriage while on the Sean Hannity show.  When asked about the Supreme Court cases regarding gay marriage Carson said:

“Well, my thoughts are that marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s a well-established, fundamental pillar of society, and no group — be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn’t matter what they are — they don’t get to change the definition.”

Rotham, the dean of John Hopkins medical school, criticized Carson’s comments as being “hurtful”.

Carson apologized for his comments, but still opted not to speak. In an email to Rotham, Carson said:

“Someday in the future, it is my hope and prayer that the emphasis on political correctness will decrease and we will start emphasizing rational discussion of differences so we can actually resolve problems and chart a course that is inclusive of everyone.”

Dr. Carson is a great man who with hard work moved from a childhood of severe poverty to world renowned surgeon. It is a shame the John Hopkins’ students will not get the opportunity to learn from a man who has lived the American Dream to its fullest potential.

In a similar story in Grosse Point, MI, the student club, “Young Americans for Freedom,” raised the $18,000 and secured school approval to have former Senator Rick Santorum come to South Point High to speak to the students about “Leadership”. When the school superintendent, Dr. Thomas Harwood, got word of the event, he cancelled it.  After enough student and parent outrage the superintendent decided to allow the event to occur.

The student group claims that the Superintendent cancelled the event based on Santorum’s views on  gay marriage and education. The Superintendent is now denying this and saying that it was cancelled because Santorum had not sent in a copy of his speech. Santorum never received a request for his speech. The students who organized the event as well as parents complained about the cancellation. Under pressure, the superintendent compromised to allow the event to continue if students attending have a signed permission slip.

Langston Bowens, an 18-year-old senior at South Point High School, said some teachers became angry when Santorum’s appearance was announced. He said they sent video clips from Santorum’s speeches to the principal and the district superintendent, demanding the event be canceled.

“The teachers called Santorum a bigot and a racist,” Bowens said. “They said he is controversial and shouldn’t speak in front of students.”

Santorum has said:

“This issue has always been about our First Amendment rights to freely share our views. Sadly, it wasn’t until the superintendent faced tremendous pressure from parents, students, the media and even a few of his colleagues at the school that he relented. It is unfortunate that students are required to get permission slips from their parents to hear a speech on leadership and public service.”

I find it difficult to believe that educators deem it educational to bring in planned parenthood and pro-gay groups that teach about explicit sexual practices in the names of “equality”, “anti-bullying”, and “safe sex” without calling for parent permission, yet the same people would require permission slips for students to hear a speech on “leadership” simply because the speaker is a strong enough person to support traditional marriage in the face of tremendous opposition.

 

 

Remembering CSW

Rachel Allison

This week is the final week of the “Commission on the Status of Women,” a conference being held at the United Nations in New York City.  United Families International has several volunteers at the UN working to influence pro-life and pro-family language into the outcome documents that will soon become International Law.

As important as this lobbying is, those in our delegation also have opportunity to support women who have come from all over the world to speak to UN delegations concerning their difficult situations at home. Until we hear their stories many of us cannot fathom the situations these good women are experiencing.  In past years I have heard women speak about human slave and sex trafficking.  Their laws and police force do not protect them or their children from such atrocities.   I have heard women talk about watching other women stoned to death without trial or jury.  I have heard women talk about laws that do not protect their 10, 11, and 12 year-old daughters from being bought and subjected to marriage and pregnancy…pregnancy that often causes the unborn baby to die within the womb of the child bride because her body is not mature enough to give birth.

I’m not at CSW (Commission on the Status of Women) this year, but I am trying to read as much as I can about what is happening as they try to direct this year’s focus on eliminating violence against women. I just read an article by someone who is at the conference.  His words brought back vivid memories of needs and concerns that are too often sidelined.

“During the waning days of the conference’s first week and well into this most recent weekend,  I watched and listened as African women discussed and debated the all-important Outcome Document amongst themselves.  Luckily for me, English is their common language and as I sat beside them in the Business Center of our clean but quite modest hotel late into the night on Saturday AND Sunday, I heard their concerns.”

“They are worried about their daughter’s AND son’s education; they want access to potable water in the more remote regions of their respective countries; more doctors, and in keeping with          this year’s conference theme, they want real life-and-death protection for their daughters.”

As I read his article, I was taken back to the years when I attended CSW, and my heart went out to these women who are desperate for help.  I have personally seen women who have to walk miles for potable water.  I have seen the small dark tents where 15+ children huddle to be taught reading and simple arithmetic. I have seen villages whose only “doctor” is a witch doctor who uses the same needle on his patients until it is too dull to be used again.  I have seen mother’s grieve over the loss of a child to dehydration, snakebite, and disease when there was no medicine or help to save.

We who can’t imagine raising a family in such living conditions should count our blessings, and determine that we will give selflessly to strengthen our families, and then support causes that can lift and help the struggling.

Because I have seen what I have seen, and experienced what I have experienced, I cannot, without guilt, spend time on the trivial.  I’m grateful for that guilt.  There are causes too vital not to get involved.  I try to examine my priorities every day. And then I pray like the dickens that my efforts will make a difference.

Need a Cause? Protect the Family

Rachel Allison

I’m going to admit to something that very few people know.  During those crazy busy years when my children were at home, I never read the newspaper.  I just didn’t have time. Every waking minute I was occupied with feeding, clothing, cleaning, teaching, arbitrating, carpooling, communicating, appointment keeping, music practicing…all of which focused around my five active children. Our home and neighborhood were our world.  Like I said…it was crazy busy but it was also crazy wonderful.

Generally speaking today’s busy mothers are much more tuned into their outside world.  For those who are interested, computers and Smart Phones have made the world very accessible.

Good, because you busy young mothers need to be aware of what is taking place in your children’s schools, destructive apps that are available on their phones, the studies on television viewing, and many more issues that directly affect your children’s lives.

I believe it when I hear,  “having four children today keeps parents as busy as eight children just two generations earlier.”

My heart goes out to parents and children who are struggling to keep focused on issues and learning that will lift and empower toward successful happy futures. There is so much garbage to walk through, and the burden of maneuvering through that garbage falls on Mom and Dad.  They need help!

There are battles to be waged and warnings to be given.  Men and women who have time to openly and courageously fight battles to preserve and protect the family are needed now more than ever before.  There are many causes in the world, and I’m pretty sure our readers are involved in some good ones.  Evaluate your causes, and if you see a need to elevate…what better cause than the family. Get involved in your neighborhood school curriculum reviews.  Be alert to what is happening in your state legislature, and rally like-minded people to visit your legislators about your concerns. Write letters to the editor.  Be aware of what is going on in your city…go to your city council meetings.  Defend the family.  Get involved.  Read the news that is impacting families throughout the world.  You will soon realize how many are working to destroy the family as we know it. This work cannot be left to busy Moms and Dads.  They are in the “trenches” taking care of their children’s immediate needs.  But those of us whose children are grown have the time…and we certainly see the value.

“The family is the corner stone of our society. More than any other force it shapes the attitude, the hopes, the ambitions, and the values of the child. And when the family collapses it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens on a massive scale the community itself is crippled. So, unless we work to strengthen the family, to create conditions under which most parents will stay together, all the rest – schools, playgrounds, and public assistance, and private concern – will never be enough…”
 Lyndon Johnson

Education: Third Cycle, Is there Hope?

Maddi Gillel

Editor’s note:  This is the third in a series on education.  To see “The High Water Mark,” go here, the second article, “The Nose Dive,” is here.

The value of the second cycle is that many have learned the hard way what works to make a country strong, healthy, prosperous, safe, and independent  in every way.

In his book Back to Basics: The Traditionalist Movement That is Sweeping Grassroots America, Burton Yale Pines expressed the yearning of the vast majority of Americans to get America back on track.  There is a call for reform in many areas:

1-     A revival of quality education by the national  commission (A Nation at Risk: The  Imperative for Educational Reform)

2-     A return to the free- market system with less intervention by government so that millions of new jobs can be created.

3-     A restoration of moral and spiritual values in both private and public life.

4-     A reduction in taxes; federal, state, and local.

5-     Paying off the national debt.

6-     Turning public welfare programs into workfare, education, and job-creating opportunities instead of allowing millions of Americans to become permanently trapped on the poverty level.

( Burton Yale Pines)

There are many in our  society who are doing what they can to resist that which weakens our country and encourage that which makes our country strong and free once again.  There are websites that are forwarded  to thousands to keep others aware of the news of the day; there are blogs such as this one, to encourage strong families, financial responsibility, and a return to values;  many more of our representatives understand and uphold the constitution and know how this country should be governed; many families have remained sufficiently intact that they have been raised by parents and grandparents who lived during the high water mark of our society; technological knowledge is at an all- time high, which has its downside, but the upside is that more can stay abreast of advancements in every aspect of our society –law, medicine, marketing, agriculture, retailing, engineering, education, political science, etc.

Many parents recognize the weakness of the education system and choose to home school their children- and this has been going on for quite some time.  Those children are in turn growing up, getting married, and home schooling their own children.

A College/University education was at one time,  thought to be the only way to make a good living, but many are choosing the trades (plumbing, electricity, carpentry, masonry,)  which  is  less expensive, takes less time, and will afford an ability to provide for one’s family ( of course keeping a strong work ethic in mind).  Keep in mind, that one can do a lot of reading and studying about any subject on earth in his own spare time and become an ‘educated’ person – there is formal education and informal education and a truly ‘educated’ person depends on his own volition.

There are an increasing number who are becoming more aware of the democratic process and are staying in contact with their representatives – through technology.  We can even sign petitions ‘on line.’

More reporters and journalists and radio hosts are choosing to be independent of ‘political correctness’ and can thusly keep their readers/listeners  apprised of what the real story is, as opposed to sticking to the talking points-‘ business as usual.’

To sum up, it is no mystery why billions are poured into education.  The ‘powers- that- be’ know that they have got to protect this institution. They can then do as they wish so children are raised to think along the lines of:  indifference to education (reading, writing, and math) socialism, religious and moral apathy, subjection to outrageous behavior from others (bullying, assault, profanity, vulgarity, negative peer pressure, etc.) and a lack of understanding and appreciation of the constitution.

Once again, and as usual, the home is crucial in teaching our children values, reading, math, writing, citizenship, financial responsibility, and family stability.

There is hope.

Education- Phase 2 The Nose Dive

Maddi Gillel

Editor’s note:  This is the second in a series on education.  To see “The High Water Mark,” go here.

The second phase began around 1887.  There were those who wanted to experiment with ideas to make changes in the system:

1-The populist movement demanded that the federal government use income taxes to confiscate some of the property of the rich and redistribute it among the lower economic classes

2-  Industrial and financial leaders  wanted to influence the federal government to forcefully regulate our economy and limit competition at home and abroad.

3-  A group of political leaders and economists wanted to try the theories of socialism (which means government  ownership and control of production and distribution).

4-   Leading intellectuals rejected the spiritual and moral foundation of the American formula and wanted it eliminated from education.

The Founders had pronounced all of these ideas formulas for failure and warned of their destruction to the American system.  These 4 ‘experiments’ began to infiltrate  every aspect of our  society, and serious erosion began.

Five independent studies by leading educators across the country began calling for a return to basics.   A report from the National Commission on Excellence in Education declared: “The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”  (US Department of Education, “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform”)

The commission found serious danger signals, such as:

“Over 3 million American adults were functionally illiterate by the simplest tests of everyday reading, writing, and comprehension.

About 13 percent of all 17 year olds in the US could be considered functionally illiterate.

Between 1975 and 1980, remedial math in public 4-year colleges increased by 72 percent .

Business and military leaders were required to spend millions of dollars on costly remedial education and training programs  for reading, writing, spelling and computation. “

During the 2^nd cycle, the moral and social quality of our culture was in serious decline. White collar crime skyrocketed;   divorce became far more common; more babies in gestation were destroyed by abortion than were born alive; promiscuous sexuality among the youth created  a wave of unwed mothers and illegitimate children, and the social destabilization which results from these problems; sexual depravity in some of its most bizarre forms began to be widespread; filthy speech was promoted in the name of free speech (4 letter words had become prominent in routine conversations of many); First Amendment rights were used as a license for the sale, distribution and broadcasting of pornography; obscenity was the principal attraction for commercial exploitation in books, magazines, films, and television shows; drugs became a plague on the nation.

A strong drive to completely secularize all phases of public education was begun. The Supreme Court eliminated prayer and Bible reading from the schools. The teaching of morality and spiritual values were eliminated from the schools. Stories with moral lessons (which were so popular in the McGuffey Readers) disappeared from textbooks.

There was much less emphasis on patriotism or any firm commitment to the Constitution or the Founders’ formula for prosperity.  Volumes were written about the Founding Fathers which leveled serious accusations against their reputation and character.  Researchers are now finding these stories to be myths and of recent invention.

A powerful federal government began to replace local government.  The shift of power from the states to the central government involved numerous violations of the Constitution.

There was a shift from a free-market economy (capitalism) to a highly regulated economy (another violation of the Constitution).

During this time – against the Monroe Doctrine –  the U.S. entered into entangling alliances and began meddling in the affairs of nearly every nation on earth. Hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars were spent (and the objectives of this meddling were not even met).

The U.S. went from virtually no national debt, to the biggest national debt in history, and more than all other countries’ debts combined

Our soldiers were ordered to fight in undeclared wars such as Korea and Vietnam (prohibited by Article 1 section 8 of the Constitution).

The Supreme Court began issuing mandates and decrees which unlawfully amended the provisions of the Constitution.

The executive branch began issuing thousands of executive orders each year which were enforced by the courts as federal laws (Article 1 section 1 states that Americans were not to be subject to any laws which had not been approved by Congress).

The nation – without a Constitutional amendment- was taken off the gold and silver standard.

There are too many in our society that believe the way things are now is the way they have always been and should always be.  But, how is it all working for us? I would say – “not too well.”

With all of these negative experiences emerging from  the  second cycle, it was inevitable that the vast majority of Americans would begin calling for reform – which will take us into phase 3 – next week.

Precious Memories Lost or Created…Parents Choose Wisely

Rachel Allison

Reading Ann Bailey’s article about the studies that have come out against the Federal Government’s Head Start preschool program must be discouraging to those whose intentions may have been positive and even altruistic.  But the years of time and effort and billions of dollars poured into the program have proven a failure.

Who lost out? The innocent children who were used as Guiney pigs to boost the ego of brainstorming government employees who thought that they had devised a program that was better than a mother’s love and the security of home environment. What does a child need and long for more than anything else in the world? Quantity and quality time spent with their mother.

Who else lost out? The mothers who forfeited memories made with their precious pre-schoolers.

You may say, “But it was a program for poor families.”  I remember the families in my hometown who sent their children to Head Start.  The mothers loved their children.  They may have qualified for government assistance, but they were good mothers.  They mistakenly thought they were giving their children an advantage, when in reality they were giving up precious time and memories with their child for a program that failed.  Again, what does a child need and long for more than anything else in the world?  Quantity and quality time spent with their mother.

Can you sense my emotion?  For the past two weeks I have been following through on a New Year’s Resolution.  I have spent hours compiling a memory album of my children.  Each photo represents a precious memory I have with them. Each hour spent on the project has stirred emotions that have brought me close to tears. If I could I would go back in time and do it all again.

Young mothers and fathers…May I emphasize that no one will love and care for your children as well as you.  Love them. Teach them. Spend as much time with them as you possibly can.  Enjoy them, and allow them to enjoy you.  Your memories will create a valuable anchor to your soul that you will cherish more and more as the years advance. Trust me on this one.  I think it may even be a natural law.