Starving the Standardized Testing Machine

A co-worker came to me yesterday to ask about the best methods for protesting standardized testing in schools. I cautioned her that letter-writing campaigns to the Texas Education Agency (T.E.A.) and state legislators were ineffective - I was knee deep in those efforts fifteen years ago, to no avail. It compelled me to unschool my daughter instead.

The truth is, Public Schooling is the biggest corporation in any state. It was the original Obamacare. When you force the populace to purchase a product, you're in the money for good. Compulsory Education transferred the monetary responsibility and accountability of education from the parent to the State, creating the perfect environment for inflation. TESTING is the lazy way for state legislatures to hold the Education Administration accountable for the huge education expenditures. Nevermind that anytime the government gets involved in "quality", the standards reflect minimal expectations and outcomes.

"Between fiscal year (FY) 1950 and FY 2009, the number of K-12 public school students in the United States increased by 96 percent, while the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) school employees grew 386 percent. Public schools grew staffing at a rate four times faster than the increase in students over that time period. Of those personnel, teachers’ numbers increased 252 percent, while administrators and other non-teaching staff experienced growth of 702 percent, more than seven times the increase in students." http://www.edchoice.org/Research/Reports/The-School-Staffing-Surge--Decades-of-Employment-Growth-in-Americas-Public-Schools--Part-2.aspx

TESTING feeds the Public Education Machine, keeping legislators off the backs of state administrators while appropriating more tax dollars to hire teachers, aides, district and school administrators, architects, construction workers, curriculum and test writers, publishers, etc., let alone the latest greatest teaching model inventors and trainers that have to be rewritten every two or three years. Just imagine how many jobs depend on public education. Retailers LOVE Back to School season. Why, even the typical American's social calendar is based on the school year!

Public Education was a huge part of the economic revival plan for the U.S. after WWII, creating a need for women in the workforce as public school teachers, and instant "free" day care for other moms (so they could get jobs and pay income taxes too). The reason School Choice Week (this week, by the way) is hardly discussed is because our state and federal economy would literally collapse if a majority of parents chose private schooling for their children.
http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html

To reduce TESTING, we must starve the Machine. You won't convince your representatives or administrators. You must convince Parents to take back their educational authority. After decades of parental dependence upon the "free" day care and abdication of their educational role, this will be difficult, especially now that so many active, dedicated parents have already transferred their children to private or home schooling. The majority of parents don't really care what their children are doing during school hours as long as they are safe and they make decent grades.

There are a few parents who are beginning to resent the repetitive testing because of the sour moods of their children and the pressure by the school to practice perfect attendance and tutoring (even this is provided "free" to low-achieving students, continuing to feed the Machine) so that the school can achieve or sustain high rankings in the district. These parents might be willing to demand changes if they knew how easy it is, merely by submitting a yearly letter stating: "In accordance with Texas Education Code, Title 2, Subtitle E, Chapter 26, I hereby exempt my child from all standardized tests for this school year." http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/ED/htm/ED.26.htm

If enough parents choose to opt out of standardized tests for their children, the state education agency will find other ways to spend their billions, especially if parents stay engaged and demand things like school gardens, workshops, mentorships and field trips.

We won't succeed in dismantling the Machine, but we can choose what to feed it.

Is Obama Cursing our Nation?

Scripture promises:
"I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:3New King James Version (NKJV)

Has our nation had an administration that dishonored this promise more than the Obama White House?
From the inhospitable rudeness by our President to the Israeli Prime Minister in March of 2010 when he abandoned Netanyahu in order to enjoy a meal with Michelle and his daughters:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/7521220/Obama-snubbed-Netanyahu-for-dinner-with-Michelle-and-the-girls-Israelis-claim.html

continuing with repeated judgments against the protection of Israel:
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Our-world-Israel-Hamas-and-Obamas-foreign-policy-369338

it is clear that "Obama is siding with Hamas, and its Muslim Brotherhood patrons", 
including Iran. 

The U.S. continues to bribe Iran NOT to end their nuclear plans to destroy Israel,

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/21/us-to-award-iran-11-billion-through-end-nuke-talks/

as the White House promises revenge for the invitation from our newly elected Congress to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu. 

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/01/23/obamas-hollow-threats-of-revenge-on-bibi-netanyahu-israel/

If Obama is a Christian, as he claims to be, why wouldn't he choose to bless Israel? Why does he surround himself with those who have no love for God's chosen people? Our President has appointed members of the Muslim Brotherhood to his cabinet! His closest advisor (some say the Power Behind the Throne) is Iranian!

http://www.dcclothesline.com/2014/05/01/sharia-advisors-barack-obamas-muslim-appointees-high-security-positions/

No wonder "conspiracy theories" persist that Barack Hussein Obama is a closet Muslim! 

It's one thing to forsake Israel for religious reasons - he'll have God to answer for in that regard. 

But Obama took an oath of office to defend and protect our Constitution. Instead, he has worked tirelessly to diminish our geopolitical standing, enrich enemies of our Republic and THREATEN OUR BLESSINGS AND VERY EXISTENCE BY CURSING ISRAEL!

http://www.god1st.org/why-bless-israel

There Are Worse Things Than Death

In the summer of 2003, my husband, daughter and I traveled through southwest Oklahoma on our way to visit my son in Nebraska. We stopped at Indian City, located in Anadarko, OK. Once a small group of tourists had gathered, our tour guide began his memorized narration of the various tribal dwellings featured along the path. It was a warm day and some chose to take a short rest on convenient benches beneath a shady arbor while others took a closer look at the Pueblo display. J. J. Lonelodge broke from his rote speech to answer questions from the mostly Caucasian visitors. He told us about his recent survival treks, adding that current Native American leaders are encouraging their young men to relearn the old ways of living off the land. When asked why, J. J. told us that many tribal leaders are convinced that there is a great disaster coming upon the earth that will force humanity to survive as hunter/gatherers once more.

As a student of eschatology, this was quite intriguing, especially in light of recent “end time” pronouncements from evangelical teachers as well as a growing consensus among rabbinical leaders of an imminent messianic era.

After relating J. J.’s revelation to friends who join us once a week for unschooling learning adventures, we all decided to pursue an education in survivalism. We discussed edible vegetation, necessary equipment, farming skills, animal husbandry, natural medicine, and developing a commune in the event that we would not be able to purchase our necessities. Since we study current events, especially in light of prophecy, we were also learning about the sub–dermal microchips being implanted in humans for the purposes of healthcare information, security, and financial transactions. If these chips became the prophesied mark of the Beast, without which we could not buy or sell, we would choose to disengage ourselves from an economy enslaved to the government of Antichrist.

A popular radio personality that expounds on his interpretation of prophecy keeps warning his audience about the dangers of taking the mark of the Beast and swearing allegiance to the one–world government. Many people call in to his program, concerned that a national ID card or biometric techniques constitute “taking the Mark”, but this preacher reassures them that as long as they don’t proclaim an oath or “bow the knee” to the regime of Antichrist, they have not stepped over the line into apostasy.

Personally, I seriously doubt that diabolical agents wearing 666 insignia will come to pound on my door one day, demanding that I swear fealty to the UN flag under threat of snatching my credit cards, confiscating my property and sentencing me to the guillotine.

I can’t help recalling Christ’s warning: “You cannot serve both God and Mammon (money)”. Yet, that’s exactly what our culture does, doesn’t it? Besides blatant materialism, don’t we even rely on money to further the Kingdom of God? Christians use their luxurious homes, automobiles and technology to serve their communities and glorify God. But what if we had to make a choice: God or Money? Could we choose just one?

I believe Jesus was warning his future disciples that, in the end time, materialism would encompass all aspects of idolatry. Consider the manner in which every lust is employed as a sales pitch! Beauty, sexuality and competitive pride lure us to purchase the latest, greatest necessities and luxuries.

I’m sensing an escalation in another area of idolatry as well. We’ve become enslaved to convenience. Bartering evolved into the exchange of coins; money evolved into checks; and checks evolved into credit cards. Because credit cards are easily lost or stolen, sub–dermal microchips are the next logical step in financial convenience and identity theft protection. (Notice how one’s “identity” has become synonymous with economic veracity!) 1 Timothy 6:10 tells us of a love of money “for which some have pierced themselves with many sorrows”. Could this be the prophesied “Mark of the Beast” enslavement to economic idolatry? (During the Roman Empire, a slave was recognized by a hole through the earlobe.)

Our nanny government, wanting to protect and nurture us from cradle to grave, now mandates that everyone must have "health care" insurance to expedite improved healthcare (don't be surprised if the embedded microchip is next), forgetting to mention that more people die each year from medical malpractice than cancer. Thanks to a culture obsessed with youth, sex and materialism, death has become the ultimate enemy, avoided at all cost. And I do mean all cost.

Deceiving society into believing that they have conquered death, the medical profession squeezes as much money as possible out of its patients before they expire. (The patients of even the best doctors have a mortality rate of 100%.) It’s money that purchases more time to pursue youth, sex and possessions! Medicine flourishes as an idol today, especially among believers, just as in the time of Moses, when some of those who were healed from snake bites established a cult, worshipping the snake on the staff! The same caduceus that identifies the medical profession today.     

Although nothing on this earth will last, we insure everything against loss and theft, including our health and lives, forgetting that all we enjoy is a temporary gift from God for the purpose of sharing with others.

The time will come when we must choose God or Money. The middle ground of mediocrity will be eliminated during a season when God’s people will be strong and do exploits in His strength and provision alone. Will we be like the Israelites who complained that life was more pleasant under the yoke of slavery? Or will we trust the Lord in the wilderness, willing to gather our daily bread from His merciful hand with undivided devotion?

21st Century Religion

This morning, on the Bill Bennett Show on 660 The Answer, I caught bits and pieces of an interview with Samuel Tadros, the author of this new book:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18078961-motherland-lost

This radio interview, juxtaposed with the heinous jihadist attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper employees and officers in Paris, causes many to wonder why radical Muslims continue to uphold 6th century traditions and religious tenets.

Islam is actually the latest interpretation of monotheism, based on the whims and “insights” of one man: Muhammed (c. 570-632 CE). Many of his writings reveal an amalgam and corruption of the monothestic Jewish and Christian faiths.

While Charlie Hebdo was an equal-opportunity religion-basher, printing cartoons poking fun at Jewish and Catholic representatives as well as the Muslim “Prophet”, murderous assault was not perpetrated upon the French news agency by adherents of the Bible, but by those who revere the Koran.

If Coptic Christians are considering the wisdom of modernizing their practice, why hasn’t the world-wide Islamic population risen up to condemn violence wrought by their own fundamentalists, and committed themselves to updating their sermons to exclude bloody jihad? This unanswered question condemns the Islamic religion as a whole.

By extension, one might wonder whether secular Judaism has replaced strict adherence to the commandments in the Torah. Even the most pious Orthodox Jew does not obey the vengeance taught in the Old Testament.

What about “Fundamental Christianity”? Is this religion stuck in the 1st century? Or would it be more relevant, dynamic and attractive (let alone potent!) by allowing its teachings to include the 20th century truths found in the study of particle physics?

“Heresy!”, you say? (I’ve actually been told that combining Science and Faith is heretical.) I contend that if everything does not prove the truth of Christ, then nothing will. I don’t believe in the Divine Creator and Savior, I can scientifically prove Christed Metaphysics.

https://imaprayer.wordpress.com/superstring-theory/

Federalist Paper General Introduction

Are the Federalist Papers relevant today? In the famous words of Sarah Palin: "You betcha!"

At a time when we are witnessing new, insidious efforts to divide our nation by punishing tax-payers and rewarding the "entitlement" demographic, widening the socio-economic gap by thwarting job creation and vilifying the industrious, advocating victimhood and promoting punitive wealth-redistribution, usurping states' rights and expanding executive power, and fomenting racial discord, the Founders, in their divinely-inspired wisdom, addressed these dangers in the Federalist Papers.

True, the very Federalism proposed by its advocates create the delicate tensions that make the above dangers possible, but in the words of Capitalism apologists, "it's the worst system until you consider all the rest". So it is with Federalism. The faults of the system are revealed in the base nature of man, not in the ideal. What we are seeing, and will see from time to time in the history of our great nation is the fault of Man as the Republican ideal is manipulated to the benefit of a few and the detriment of the whole.

"Among the most formidable of the obstacles which the new Constitution will have to encounter may readily be distinguished the obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power, emolument, and consequence of the offices they hold under the State establishments; and the perverted ambition of another class of men, who will either hope to aggrandize themselves by the confusions of their country, or will flatter themselves with fairer prospects of elevation from the subdivision of the empire into several partial confederacies than from its union under one government."   - Alexander Hamilton (Emphasis mine.)

Writing to the constituency in New York, Hamilton wisely proposed: "It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force." (Emphasis mine.) 

Federalism, while strengthening the whole, is firmly based on the will of We the People, not the whims of current power-hungry politicians.

"[T]he vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and well-informed judgment, their interest can never be separated; and that a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people". (Emphasis mine.) Boy, this sounds familiar!

The "vigor of government" presupposes its authority in the will of The People, a foundation that our current politicians have nearly succeeded in crushing. "Sound and well-informed judgment" has been replaced with blatant propaganda and lies from this administration, as "dangerous ambition" under the guise of social justice, or "zeal for the rights of the people".

"[T]hose men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants." Wait - was this written in the 18th century or today?!

Again, Mr. Hamilton admonishes our young nation's citizens: "In the course of the preceding observations, I have had an eye, my fellow-citizens, to putting you upon your guard against all attempts, from whatever quarter, to influence your decision in a matter of the utmost moment to your welfare, by any impressions other than those which may result from the evidence of truth." (Emphasis mine.) 

Again and again, in the short history of the Obama administration, citizens have been enticed to make legislative decisions based on lies. 

Hamilton invites the reader to consider the proposal of a Federalist Constitution based on the "evidence of truth":

"I propose, in a series of papers, to discuss the following interesting particulars:

THE UTILITY OF THE UNION TO YOUR POLITICAL PROSPERITY THE INSUFFICIENCY OF THE PRESENT CONFEDERATION TO PRESERVE THAT UNION THE NECESSITY OF A GOVERNMENT AT LEAST EQUALLY ENERGETIC WITH THE ONE PROPOSED, TO THE ATTAINMENT OF THIS OBJECT THE CONFORMITY OF THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTION TO THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT ITS ANALOGY TO YOUR OWN STATE CONSTITUTION and lastly, THE ADDITIONAL SECURITY WHICH ITS ADOPTION WILL AFFORD TO THE PRESERVATION OF THAT SPECIES OF GOVERNMENT, TO LIBERTY, AND TO PROPERTY." (Emphasis mine.)

In the last six years, we have witnessed a concerted effort to recreate a confederacy of political and cultural division based upon deception and domination. It behooves us to revisit the "evidence of truth" for a Constitution that preserves our Federalist Republic.