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In a message dated 1/30/03 9:02:02 AM, lurningathome@... writes:

<< Is it really because they don't care that so many Americans don't vote? Or

is it because they can't read the ballot? We tend to blame lackluster

politicians or negative campaigning for low turnout at the polls. But what

if the real reason is that most of our citizens are not sufficiently

educated about the basic concepts of democracy to understand the issues –

even those that directly impact their self interest? And what if that

ignorance is compounded by illiteracy? >>

I know enough math to know that in my case it wouldn't matter. I quit voting
years ago. Keith and a friend of mine who volunteers with the League of
Women Voters stuck a registration form in front of me a while back and then
stuck an absentee ballot in front of me a while later.

But statistically, assuming the people who don't vote are as representative a
sample of the constituency as those who DO vote, we could do with saving the
gas money. I'm better off at home with my kids than studying up on a bunch
of school bond issues and mil tax issues and city councilmen and judges, let
alone U.S. Senators, the governor or the president.

<<For example, our public-school children hear that the Founding Fathers are

not to be revered. They were greedy, patriarchal oppressors who were in it

for the money and the power. America is not a noble experiment in freedom

and equality. That was the cover story, as we stole the land from the

indigenous people. America wasn't recently attacked by terrorists. America

is the terrorist!>>

Gosh. Is it possible for people to have balanced opinions?

<<Those deconstructionists have been very busy, because they didn't stop with

the English language. They have also pretty successfully deconstructed

family, religion, values, ethics and morality as well. We all know that, if

there can be no right answers, there obviously is no right and wrong. No

one's behavior can be judged because the most heinous acts can be excused

on the basis of what the perpetrator may have suffered at the hands of his

parents, the police, the inequitable society. Yada, yada, yada.>>

I bet $50 the writer was spanked lots and spanks.

Does that make me prejudiced?

<<God is dead (although the Wiccan goddess still has a fighting chance, I

guess) – traditional morality is destructive; excellence is discredited and

devalued; grades are antiquated. Discipline is discriminatory because

there's no such thing as bad behavior, just children with "special needs."

>>

Buried in that adrenalated crash of thoughts are some actual reasons it would
be good for school to back off!

But unfortunately, people like that do give homeschooling a bad reputation,
and I'm not proud to be associated with them.

Sandra