"Diversity book bag"

[Jerk]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060505/ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage_schools

I was about to copy and paste the article, but it's so boring and I decided not to. The only thing that caught my eye was the "diversity book bag" that the little snot nosed KINDERGARTNERS were made to take home by their schools, among them a book about a gay family. This kind of stuff is more irritating than a hemorroid. If I had kids - I'd home school them. Forget about the homo debate, the prayer in school debate, the condoms in school debate and just try and imagine this: THEY'RE TOO YOUNG FOR THIS SH** mY gawd CAN'T THEY JUST TEACH THEM THE ALPHABET AND THEIR 1 2 3'S?

FOR CHRIST SAKE, WTF IS WITH THE POLITICAL INDOCTRINATION OF 6 YEAR OLDS?

EDIT - I betchya these are the same type of nazi mofer's who had the first grader "arrested" for touching a girls butt.

We need trees and we need rope.

[crawfish]

Heaven help us we let parents decide what's best for their children.

[walkoffsooner]

I hate gays lesbians are ok though

[Jerk]

I hate gays lesbians are ok though

hah!

KMOD in Tulsa has a promo that goes like this:

We support gay marriage, as long as both chicks are really hot!

[Chuck Bao]

I don't know. I can see both sides.

What if you were a teacher and you overheard one little kid tell another little kid: "Yeah and my father says you Mexicans are all illegal, you steal jobs from real Americans and you can't speak English very good"?

Would you agree that a teacher is responsible for trying to keep a positive education environment for all the little kids?

I don't think the diversity bag with the same-sex parents book was any form of sex education. I imagine that it was just explaining that others could be different and still have a happy home and loving parents.

Of course it goes with saying, little kids, these days, are pretty smart about these things.

[David Earl]

I wonder if that bag is diverse enough to have room for a Bible? Oh I know, we have to keep religious values out of school, unless the values happen to be secular humanist religion. Then they're fine! Fill the bag... and the schools... and the kids minds!

[Chuck Bao]

Oh I agree. Just keep hate out of it.

[David Earl]

Oh I agree. Just keep hate out of it.

My wife teaches third grade, Chuck. It is amazing how many of those children are taught (by parents of all colors!) to hate others. I agree teachers have to try and teach values that promote love for fellow man. It's a constant battle and probably always will be.

[slickdawg]

My wife teaches third grade, Chuck. It is amazing how many of those children are taught (by parents of all colors!) to hate others. I agree teachers have to try and teach values that promote love for fellow man. It's a constant battle and probably always will be.


What? It's possible for someone besides a white male to be racist?

[Jerk]

I don't know. I can see both sides.

What if you were a teacher and you overheard one little kid tell another little kid: "Yeah and my father says you Mexicans are all illegal, you steal jobs from real Americans and you can't speak English very good"?

Would you agree that a teacher is responsible for trying to keep a positive education environment for all the little kids?

I don't think the diversity bag with the same-sex parents book was any form of sex education. I imagine that it was just explaining that others could be different and still have a happy home and loving parents.

Of course it goes with saying, little kids, these days, are pretty smart about these things.

Dude, there is nothing wrong with teaching kids "the Golden Rule." In fact, it should probably be the #1 thing that is hammered in their tiny little heads. The Golden Rule covers all people, no matter who they are. Treat other people as you would like to be treated. It's taught in virtually every religion on earth, so no one can claim it is a sole Christian value. But...a "diversity bag" is political- straight from the academic PC crowd claiming that some "groups" need special treatment. bullsh*t! Keep the left wing politics out of it and just teach them to treat others as they would like to be treated.

[GottaHavePride]

My wife teaches third grade, Chuck. It is amazing how many of those children are taught (by parents of all colors!) to hate others. I agree teachers have to try and teach values that promote love for fellow man. It's a constant battle and probably always will be.

And they're taught never to question their own point of view. Through questioning your own point of view you can gain a better sense of why you believe what you believe, and how it is possible for others to believe differently without being evil or wrong.

For example, I was talking to a lady that teaches freshman world history at a high school in Wichita. As she was covering the whole period around the BC/AD switch some freshman girl spouted off rather indignantly "You mean to tell me that the first Christians were Catholics?!?!?!" The teacher just looked at her for a second and said "Yes." So the girl kept going "You mean Jesus was a Catholic?!?!?!!" (the girl kept saying the word Catholic the way most of us would say "you mean Mother Teresa was a Nazi?!?!?!!")

The teacher stared at the girl and then said "No, Jesus was a Jew!"

Shocking the lack of thought that gets by anymore.

[handcrafted]

Public schools are beyond help. You get the occasional good teacher, but they're hamstrung by the administrators and by the state and federal education agencies.

Private or home schooling are the only options if you want any sort of control over what your kids are exposed to.

[GottaHavePride]

The more I look at the education system the more I think that - when I have kids - they'll go to a private school if I can find any way at all to afford it.

[handcrafted]

The more I look at the education system the more I think that - when I have kids - they'll go to a private school if I can find any way at all to afford it.

I'm willing to live on beans and peanut butter if it means my kid(s) can get a real education.

[OklahomaTuba]

Teaching 6 year old about gays? Oh no, theres no gay agenda at all!

We already have had this crap happen in Tulsa at a school trying to get little kids to read king and king, and then putting up a huge *** gay pride display right by the childrens books display.

And I think it was in MASS where the parent was actually arrested for trespassing when he went up to the school to confront the teacher for sending home this vile BS.

Its crap like this that going to cause the liberal run school system to collapse, which it is already, slowly and painfully.

[Soonrboy]

Did the parents HAVE to read the book? I mean was there someone there actually holding a gun to the parents' head and making them read the book?

My gawd, that's a powerful book bag.

Getting a good education anywhere demands time from the parents ... time to actually spend it with the kids and talking with them. Those who leave education only for the schools are setting their kids up for families. Schools, private, or non-private, are not the cure or cause of nature's ills. It is the breakdown of the family. Guess it's easier to point fingers than to realize that people need to actually spend time with their kids.

[soonerscuba]

Two points, no, everybody is not smart enough to teach their kids. In fact I would venture to guess that most aren't. Lord knows there is no way in hell I could teach a child math beyond about an 8th grade level.

Some say "home school", others see it as a mean for religious fundies to protect their kids for a couple more years. Whatever, they are going to find out anyway, and gasp, probably make their own decisions one way or another. Plus, home school kids are generally total freaks, probably because their parents tend to be total freaks.

[Jerk]

Two points, no, everybody is not smart enough to teach their kids. In fact I would venture to guess that most aren't. Lord knows there is no way in hell I could teach a child math beyond about an 8th grade level.

Some say "home school", others see it as a mean for religious fundies to protect their kids for a couple more years. Whatever, they are going to find out anyway, and gasp, probably make their own decisions one way or another. Plus, home school kids are generally total freaks, probably because their parents tend to be total freaks.

First point - you want to take a bunch of home schooled kids and a bunch of public skool kids and put em in a room, give em' a standardised test, and see who does better?

Second point- Can't they wait until the kiddos at least lose their baby teeth until they're undoctrinated with the gay agenda? These are kindergartners. Come on.

I guess they also started em' out right early in the Soviet Union.

[Boarder]

Freaks? As in "Wow, those freaks sure do score high on tests" or "That's the smartest, most well behaved freak I've ever seen!"

[soonerscuba]

Okay, I'm not saying that public education is the finest form of education. But, if people really cared more about education for their children than being exposed to the evils of homosexuality, than they would send then to a good private school. At which point I'm sure they would be exposed to evil science. So at the end of the day, home school is about pushing an agenda, just a different, and in terms of education, a more dangerous one.

And I would absolutely love to hear about how the lack of institutional education prepares them for the rigors of higher institutional education, especially on the graduate level.

And don't kid yourselves, everybody had the hermits in their neighborhood that home schooled. There is a stigma to the home schooled, if you want to pretend it isn't there, be my guest.

[Soonrboy]

First point - you want to take a bunch of home schooled kids and a bunch of public skool kids and put em in a room, give em' a standardised test, and see who does better?

Second point- Can't they wait until the kiddos at least lose their baby teeth until they're undoctrinated with the gay agenda? These are kindergartners. Come on.

I guess they also started em' out right early in the Soviet Union.


Do I get to choose which public school kids get to take the test? I mean after all, public schools do teach everyone, not just the ones they want.

[Soonrboy]

dp

[Boarder]

Home schooling is MUCH more popular and accepted now. I agree, back when I was in school, the home schooled kids were total freaks. Nowadays, they actually have groups that get together, sports, activites, etc, so it's not as big of a social freak-out. It used to be, though. That's true.

Private School can be pretty expensive. I'm sure there are people out there who would like to send thier kids to one, but can't.

[Jerk]

Do I get to choose which public school kids get to take the test? I mean after all, public schools do teach everyone, not just the ones they want.

Oh I'm sure you can find a few mensa members out of millions. Fact is, the majority of them can't find Iraq on a map of the middle east.

[Soonrboy]

Oh I'm sure you can find a few mensa members out of millions. Fact is, the majority of them can't find Iraq on a map of the middle east.


so, you are thinking that every home schooled child is receiving a better education than they could in a public school?

[Jerk]

so, you are thinking that every home schooled child is receiving a better education than they could in a public school?

No. I guess I have to repeat myself and say the same thing over again.

I bet that as a group the homeschoolers do better.

[Soonrboy]

No. I guess I have to repeat myself and say the same thing over again.

I bet that as a group the homeschoolers do better.

That's redundant. :)

[Jerk]

That's redundant. :)

LOL yeah.

10-4 I'm outta here.

[David Earl]

We started homeschooling a couple years back. We went to a homeschool graduation last night. Homeschool is getting more popular all the time and the universities out here are scrambling to recruit the homeschool kids.

[GDC]

I have yet to see any significant amount of empirical evidence that home-schooling is superior to either private or public schools.

[David Earl]

A home school is only as effective as the parents conducting it.

[GDC]

True. That's why it's so difficult to effectively compare, because individual families would by defintion be considered anecdotal data.

[SCOUT]

Two points, no, everybody is not smart enough to teach their kids. In fact I would venture to guess that most aren't. Lord knows there is no way in hell I could teach a child math beyond about an 8th grade level.

Some say "home school", others see it as a mean for religious fundies to protect their kids for a couple more years. Whatever, they are going to find out anyway, and gasp, probably make their own decisions one way or another. Plus, home school kids are generally total freaks, probably because their parents tend to be total freaks.

So, you saw a thread about diversity and being accepting of others. You saw that some people didn't agree with it so you decided to show how accepting you are by demeaning a group of people with stereotypes. Interesting.

[handcrafted]

Two points, no, everybody is not smart enough to teach their kids. In fact I would venture to guess that most aren't. Lord knows there is no way in hell I could teach a child math beyond about an 8th grade level.

Some say "home school", others see it as a mean for religious fundies to protect their kids for a couple more years. Whatever, they are going to find out anyway, and gasp, probably make their own decisions one way or another. Plus, home school kids are generally total freaks, probably because their parents tend to be total freaks.

Aren't we nice and tolerant of others' viewpoints today?

[David Earl]

True. That's why it's so difficult to effectively compare, because individual families would by defintion be considered anecdotal data.

There are some pretty impressive statistics out there. I did a considerable bit of research on this before taking the leap. The data that pushed me over the edge was information about the colleges out here and what they were saying about the homeschooled kids. I don't know how scientific their surveys were (was the sampling fully random?) and I know there are grevious exceptions, but the homeschool kids consistently (statistically) did better than the public school kids in all the material I could find.

[yermom]

i wonder what the percentage is of homeschoolers that do it for basically religious reasons? in my limited experience i think all of the parents i've known that did it were VERY religious

i would say that the difference between public and private schools is large though, having attended both

i think that most adults in this country aren't equipped to teach much beyond elementary school, and only a small subset of people could do it successfully, of course i would imagine they'd probably have to be pretty well off as well...

[David Earl]

i wonder what the percentage is of homeschoolers that do it for basically religious reasons? in my limited experience i think all of the parents i've known that did it were VERY religious.

In our area there are a lot of homeschool families like you describe, very religious. However, I hear there are a fair number of atheists that do this for academic reasons. I'm sure they have their seperate organizations. The home school organizations to which we're exposed out here are centered around fundamental Christian beliefs. There are other organizations, I'm just not well acquainted with them. In case you're curious, we have not joined any of these groups. We sail under our own flag, so to speak.

[Scott D]

Personally I think homeschooling is like putting a bandaid on a severed limb.

[Soonrboy]

I commend people who choose this and can't do it very well. I do not like the idea that parents do this to keep their children away from "others", you know what I mean? The ones who isolate themselves against everything else.

Unfortunately, my experience with home-schoolers has not been entirely positive.

[King Crimson]

i can see the reason why many home school, but young kids need to be around other kids--to be social people. and develop as people.

home schooling is not going to protect a child from the idiocy of life.

[ChickSoonerFan]

In my opinion, it is all about parenting. If you home school, send your kids to public, private, Christian, Jewish school, your child will get what is needed if the parents stay involved. Diversity should be learned through life experiences, not a book. I think sending information home WITH those children that young is not a smart idea. Send it to the PARENTS. If the children need to learn to tolerate, it is probably because the parents need to learn it.

As a parent, I know my children are going to be exposed to beliefs that I do not agree with. It is my job as the parent to instill in them the beliefs that I think are best, not to wait for the schools to teach them otherwise. And I do not mean teaching by telling them but teaching by example. I live my life in a way that I want my children to respect...and that includes making mistakes and taking responsibility for them and steps to correct them.

[yermom]

i can see the reason why many home school, but young kids need to be around other kids--to be social people. and develop as people.

home schooling is not going to protect a child from the idiocy of life.

very well might make them more maladjusted when they have to deal with real people on the outside world though...

i can only imagine going off to college

it was a pretty big shift going from high school to OU as it was

[sooner n houston]

Wellll, as a parent who has home schooled 3 kids, manily my wifes job but I helped, you people are clueless. There are a world of resources out there. When we lived in Bartlesville, we had many friends that home schooled their kids as well. We shared ideas and even cross trained our kids in some areas. We had a great support network through our church. The kids in our church were 50/50 home schooled / public schools. And yes, all three of my kids were/are in college and averaged 3.5 GPA's or better. No problem at all getting in either!

[JohnnyMack]

I think it's funny Jerk lumped gays and nazis into the same group.

[David Earl]

Personally I think homeschooling is like putting a bandaid on a severed limb.

I always thought of it as more like putting a severed limb on a bandaid, but that's just me.

[David Earl]

1. People who homeschool in order to keep their kids away from trouble are making a mistake, IMHO. I told our youngest (the only one we've homeschooled) to understand going in I was going to try and create adversity for her that would mimick what she will face in life.

2. There are MANY opportunities to get your kids around others for socialization skills, etc.

[GDC]

I think the bottom line is we need more parents like DE who are trying to do what's right as they see it for their children, whatever their choices happen to be. We have way too many kids without one or more parents, or they are around but simply don't give a ****.