Where the money should have been going . . .

For those of you that approach life with a more conservative bent, here is an interesting article that questions the amount of money that has been poured into the religious right political movement. The author of the article advocates that the money should have been poured into . . . .CHRISTIAN EDUCATION!

Click here to read it!

Here's an excerpt:

How would it be, for instance, if all the money raised for all the national ministries and pro-family groups since the 1970s—millions and millions of dollars, if not billions—and all the incalculable man-hours of work, had been devoted to the establishment of a comprehensive system of Christian education, coast to coast? How would it be if, instead of pouring all that money and labor into the bottomless pit of politics as usual, we'd used it to set up Christian schools and Christian colleges, Christian scholarships, Christian tutoring and homeschooling programs—and taken tens of millions of Christian children out of anti-Christian public schools?

Those millions of Christian-educated children would be grown up by now. They'd be voting, they'd be holding public office. Think they might've elected different leaders instead of the gang of thieves, liars, tax-cheats, tinhorn socialist big shots, and snake-oil salesmen who afflict us now?

The "self-esteem" disaster . . .

These type of articles are popping up everywhere - click here to read a good one.

It began as the byproduct of the 1980s self-esteem movement, in which parents and teachers were told to reward and stroke kids pretty much constantly, supposedly to make them confident.
Dr. Ernie Swihart, an author and behavioral pediatrician at South Lake Pediatrics in Minnetonka, decried the self-esteem movement from its inception. Then, as now, he believed kids should be taught to be inwardly focused, self-sufficient creatures able to shift their own gears.

Real self-esteem -- for all of us -- comes from overcoming an obstacle-laden challenge, he believes, with hard work. Lavishing praise, he contends, is counterproductive and, if anything, makes kids needy and voracious for that other self-esteem-movement buzzword: validation.

Amen.

Elizabeth Taylor !?!?!

Interesting choice of charities for Ms. Taylor - too bad she doesn't know about DLHS - read this!

In other news, I will be donating $10 to a local theatre school next month.

Wow - I wonder what the parents think . . .

Check out the lengths that a Christian school is going to to stop cheating . . . click here.

Needing more "focus and socialization"

A judge in North Carolina decides orders a homeschooled family into the public schools. I would bet that the case gets overturned, but we'll see . . . click here to read the story.

We've had that rule for years!

Who knew that DLHS could have been featured in the news? We've had that rule for years! Click here to find out what I'm talking about.

Anything to win . . .

For entertainment purposes . . . here's a crazy article about a high school basketball coach pulling out all the stops to get wins.

Click here to read the article.

My favorite line in the article: The Kansas State High School Activities Association has no rules regarding hypnosis. Hillarious.

Blogging about the administrators . . .

Read a fascinating article about a case in Connecticut where a high school student is suing to have the right to blog disparaging comments about her school administrators without repercussion from the school - click here.

Regardless of the eventual outcome, it does bear asking: what is the mom thinking?

Lauren Doninger said she wished her daughter "had used more sophisticated language," but said it was up to her, not the school board, to mete out the punishment. "It's for me to discipline her at home, not for the school."

The mom's goal is for her daughter to use more sophisticated language as she publically criticized her administrators. Good parenting there.

"No Name Calling Week"

In case you missed it, last week was "No Name Calling Week" for 5th thru 8th graders in public schools all over the country. Sounds good until you realize the agenda behind the program. If you go to the webpage of teacher materials (CLICK HERE) you'll notice the GLSEN in the upper right hand corner. If you read the materials, you'll see what they really are: tools for indoctrinating middle school students to accept homosexual lifestyles.

I'd call the creators of the curriculum, "sneaky," but I'd hate to violate the spirit of "No Name Calling Week."

The Exodus Mandate . . .

Interesting video put out by www.exodusmandate.org, a Baptist group that calls for Christian families to leave the public schools. It's a little over the top, but worth watching:

What does Christmas mean to you?

Be careful how you answer . . .

A religious rights advocate is troubled by a recent occurrence of censorship at a Mississippi school.

Hattiesburg, Mississippi, sixth-grader Andrew White was given a creative expression assignment as part of his language class. Students were allowed to choose from three topics, and Andrew chose "What Christmas Means to Me." Andrew wrote a poem titled "A Great Christmas" that reads: "The best Christmas ever is when everyone is there. It is when everyone is laughing here and there. That is the Christmas I want to share. Christmas is about Jesus' birth. About peace on Earth. This is what Christmas is about. It is when He lay in a manger. And the three wise men come to see. That's what it means to me." After Andrew referenced Jesus in his poem, his teacher Latasha Atkins docked his grade and told him that mentioning Jesus was not allowed. She then instructed him to write a new poem. Matt Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, disagrees with Atkins' point-of-view. "The good news is that the principal, Carrie Hornsby, eventually sided with Andrew and his parents, changing his grade to a 100 and conceding that there was nothing improper in using the name of Jesus," he notes. The most horrifying part of the story, according to Staver, is that this sixth-grader was told that Jesus is not allowed in public school. "I think some educators need education that the story of Christmas, and the birth of Jesus, is not banned from our public schools," he points out. Principal Hornsby did, in fact, tell school teachers to write letters home to parents informing them that religious expression is permitted under federal guidelines. However, Andrew's paper was supposed to be displayed at the Winter's Writers Board, and it was not.

"Rent" comes to a Phildelphia public high school

My drama directors showed me this - Read THIS!

Here's my favorite part:

'Assistant Director Tracey Krause says this is not a big deal at Truman High. "We have a very strong gay, gay and lesbian and straight alliance. We've had same sex couples at the proms for years. So it really isn't an issue, as odd as that sounds," says Krause. '

Email me when the first colorado high school puts on this show.

A good article for the DLHS youth and government students . . .

Others have also felt the frustration of ignorant souls who use the phrase "separation of church and state." Here is a an excerpt from a great article:

Let’s consider the 2002 case of Kala Brotos, a five-year old kindergarten student from Saratoga Springs, NY. Before eating her lunch, little Kala simply prayed out loud and gave thanks for her meal. Her teacher then scolded her before the entire the class, claiming that Kala violated the separation of church and state – Roger Baldwin’s version, that is. The teacher even claimed that Kala committed a “crime against humanity.”

Read the whole article HERE!

A beauty of a post from another blog!

A snippet from one of my favorite blogs . . . . the whole post can be seen by clicking on the Discover Christian Schools blog on the right.

How many Christian parents are failing their children on an issue with eternal stakes far greater than digital TV? This Christmas, how many Christian parents will sacrifice to provide their children with new toys, outfits, and electronic gadgets, while failing to provide what their children need most—the one thing God has commanded parents to provide for their children—a knowledge of God, a Biblical worldview?

How many Christian parents who would never, knowingly place their child in physical danger, will more than willingly place their highly impressionable children in spiritual danger every day in a public school system which must, by law, teach moral relativism? How many Christian parents will continue to enroll their intellectually curious children in a public school system which must, by law, artificially remove the truth of God from every academic subject, and which must, by law, remain not neutral (for neutrality when it comes to God is impossible) but anti-God (for acknowledging the creation without acknowledging the Creator is the epitome of idolatry)?

Have you seen the video for the Gemstone Initiative?