Why a Schoolteacher is Quitting Her Job and Homeschooling

I posted an awesome article about homeschooling on my homeschool blog.  It was originally from Ladies Against Feminism. 

At my annual review yesterday, my principal gave me quite the compliment. He said, “I love the way you make everyone around you want to be smarter. I finish talking to you and I think to myself, ‘I’ve got to read more!’” We talked about that for a bit, and I realized that the thing that makes me valuable as a schoolteacher is the same thing that makes leaving my job and homeschooling imperative. That thing is a love of excellence.My parents were committed to getting me an excellent education, and thus moved me around from school to school. I went to seven different schools by the time I was in ninth grade. I was the “new kid” for all three years of junior high. I went to a variety of schools, including an all-girls school, a progressive public school, and then a fantastically wealthy public high school that looked like a country club. I also spent three years being homeschooled full-time during elementary school, and homeschooled myself part-time for the last two years of high school. (Yes, you really can do that.)



I can say that every school I went to was exceptionally damaging to my sense of self-worth and my education. Being the socially clueless kid with a bad hair cut (and, later, with train wreck acne) did me no favors in a system where being pretty and hip is a prerequisite to being accepted. Each of my schools had a different system of education where the focus seemed to be on new methods and rearranging the desks every few months. None of the schools focused on assessing student learning. One could know nothing about the subject being tested, fail the test, and get a B because of homework and participation. That kind of grade reflects docility, not knowledge. Nobody seems to care if students actually learn anything, so long as it looks like the teacher is teaching. That’s an important distinction.


The only types of schooling that worked for me were homeschooling and college. I’ve never been good at staying focused on tasks that are drawn out. If learning a new math skill should take 10 minutes to teach and 50 minutes to practice, then so be it—I’m your girl. I’ll listen closely, work hard, and follow your advice. However, I have never been able to focus on a 45-minute lecture while sifting out the 10 minutes worth of usable material. My response in school was always, “I guess I don’t really need to know this, since nobody can explain how it works or why it’s useful.” Asking things like, “How can I use this information?” or “How will I know that I’ve mastered this skill?” were treated like mutiny. (I don’t remember this, but eyewitnesses swear that it’s true: when I was a junior in high school, a few weeks into an allegedly tough English class, the teacher, who routinely graded papers with college-level rubrics, had us pick out plastic animal figurines from a bag, then sculpt our bodies so that we resembled the animal. Apparently my response was, “This is malarkey; I am not doing it,” and then I walked out of the classroom. I do remember dropping the class and homeschooling myself in English, German, and humanities for the rest of the year, taking just a few classes for the rest of high school.)


Based on my experience, I believe that students in regular classrooms learn many self-defeating lessons from their teachers and classmates.

To read the rest of the article click here.

Tea Party Racism by my good friend, Emery McClendon

My dear friend Mary Ann Hunt posted this on her blog and I wanted to share it.  If you'd like to check out her blog click here.  I don't know Mr. McClendon, but if he's a friend of Mary Ann, I know he is a reliable and honorable man.

To Whom It May Concern:

The following is a response to charges of racism at Tea Parties. I hope that you will consider using it. Thank you

In response to the mainstream media outlets that are trying to discredit the Tea Party Movement as racist, I feel that it is imperative that the truth be presented by one who’s been there.

First of all let me say that I am a conservative African American and a Veteran. I have not only attended several Tea Parties, but I organized the Tea Party event in Fort Wayne, Indiana in April of 2009! The event turned out to be well attended. Our keynote speaker was also African American; former presidential candidate, Dr. Alan Keyes. I also recently was a speaker at the Indianapolis, Indiana 2010 Tea Party, and I was the Keynote speaker in Wabash, Indiana.

I am outraged at the biased coverage of these events. The racist accusations against the Tea Party movement are false and do not portray the truth about a movement which is waking up Americans to the principles that founded this great nation. Every day a new charge is made, and the major media outlets refuse to allow someone like me refute these allegations and defend the Tea Party, and those that attend the rallies.

I challenge the media to allow an African American conservative patriot to evaluate the Tea Party movement based on experience. I also accept the offer to be that person, because I would like to share the truth about them from my first hand experiences.

I have attended dozens of these events, and have been featured as a speaker at several of them. I have also served on several U.S. Senate candidate panels, and was the moderator at a Senate and Congressional debate. I have also been asked to serve as a speaker at Town Hall Meetings. It has been wonderful to meet and to talk to those that attend. These are folk that love their country, share a deep respect for our Constitution and those that serve in our nation’s Armed Forces. It is a movement that unites everyone, regardless of race, based on those beliefs.

I have never encountered any racism at any of the events that I have attended throughout Indiana or in other states. Even after being the only Black person at a Tea Party in an Indiana town that has a very racial history in the past. The people there were friendly, and allowed me to ask questions, and to speak to them.

I have also attended rallies in the nation’s capital, and these have also been with out any incident.

I cannot sit by and allow a movement such as this to receive unwarranted negative publicity.

The movement is driving true patriotic Americans back to our founding principles and recreating a love for our Constitution. It does this across racial and cultural barriers. The Tea Party movement is bringing us together to stand up for a common cause; that of restoring the traditional values which encompass all people who call themselves Americans. Perhaps unity is what is what the naysayers really fear and the race card is always a handy tool to divide the people.

Sincerely;

FREEDOM and LIBERTY (Use Them Or Loose Them)

Emery McClendon / KB9IBW

American Family Association - Action Alert

Army disinvites Graham to Pentagon Prayer Day Insist your members of Congress declare a position on the issue


American Family Association - Action Alert