Category Archives: My Two Cents

Heavyweight blog, lighthearted photos

Posted on by
Reply

As Mark Twain once said, “The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.” Most of us clear-thinking folks can attest to that, but it is especially injurious when a tax payer must support something he vehemently opposes on principle.

Like the pro-lifer being forced to subsidize the abortion racket or the anti-war activist compelled by the state to finance the ever-growing military industrial complex, so too is the homeschooler, private-schooler or child-less citizen required by law to fund the monopoly known as government education.

Public Good theory

Yes, yes. We have heard the political parlance that it’s a “public good,” but that, of course, is debatable. I can see the emotional allure of the notion that a solid liberal arts education for all people will foster a better society at large.

But has this grandiose and exorbitantly over-priced collective experiment panned out? Has the system that raises revenue by coercion in order to inflict forced compulsory government education on the masses delivered on its promises?

In a bold fashion statement, Houston added lots of modern bling to his non-historical knight costume this Halloween.

I think not. And the edu-crats’ drumbeat supporting their dysfunctional system cannot take away from the simple fact that government schools get an F in their one true task: educating children. Bummer, I know.

Sure, there are schools that do their best to buck the trend and, indeed, there are many great teachers. But we’re not talking about exceptions to the rule. We’re talking about a broken and unaccountable system that rewards conformity, punishes innovation and leads to mis-education en masse.

Social experimentation gone mad

Thanks to No Child Left Behind and Common Core, the symbiotic relationship between the policy makers and the teachers’ unions want to create a nation busy worker bees and uninformed derelicts dependent upon the Labor Theory of Value.

It’s subterfuge at its core, enriching its player with both power and money, and all at the expense of the tax payer. Can anyone say conflict of interest?

Zeke is ready to slay those who challenge the Knight’s Code of Chivalry.

And as these busybodies and collective-bargaining bullies hold families hostage, America’s kids truly paying the price. Some of the ways the punitive monopoly of government education is overtly gipping students of the tools they need to succeed, include:

  • the near-nonexistence of US history and Western Civilization courses;
  • the emphasis placed upon multiculturalism and other white-guilt victimologies;
  • an ever-increasing trivialization of non-essentials over math, reading and writing;
  • political indoctrination through chosen and/or lacking curricula;
  • teaching to the test, instead of the child;
  • discouragement of rigorous debate and intellectual curiosity;
  • and the requirement of near total submission to all that is politically correct.

“To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves … is sinful and tyrannical.” — Thomas Jefferson

Political correctness has jumped the shark

There are simply too many PC examples to cite them all, so I’ll tackle the anti-bullying bandwagon, since it’s so vogue these days and yet so fraught with abuse — not by the supposed bullies toward their victims, but rather, by those who craft and implement the programs against those who challenge a school’s social goals and overall status quo.

Anti-bullying schemes are just a tactic in which those in powerful positions, protected classes and/or a special-interest groups cry foul simply as a way to try to control other people’s actions and words. It’s a mantra void of good intentions.

Gabriel, who was a bit more conventional in his dress-up approach to being a Medieval knight, is ready to score some candy!

By pushing acceptance in the name of tolerance, and valuing some people’s opinions and choices while stifling others, the anti-bullying movement is simply a covert tool used to suppress speech.

“Freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend people.”
— Brad Thor, American novelist

Is it really bullying to call someone a name, even a slur; not accept his lifestyle; offer an opinion that runs in opposition to his; pray to a God that he doesn’t believe in; or to defend your own principles, even when unpopular? Let’s look at a definition.

bully: a person who uses superior strength or influence to harm or intimidate someone who is weaker, typically to force him or her to do what one wants. So, just because a student might not want to participate in Spirit Day, we can see that that’s not bullying; it’s just good old-fashioned dissent.

Consequently, bullying is so overused a phrase that it has become almost as empty a term as racism, which is saying something in our race-obsessed times. And as a result, freedom of expression is gasping for breath in schools across the government-education empire.

Show me the money

And let’s not forget about the money. From the NC Education Lottery, constant school bond referendums and proposed property tax hikes in nearly every locality, to a ballot initiative in Colorado that tried to undo the state’s flat income tax in an effort to raise funds “for the kids,” government education is awash in cash.

Although disgusted by having to pull the innards from our pumpkin, Zeke & Gabriel get excited about the prospect of eating its roasted seeds.

Per pupil spending in American public schools dwarfs the money allocated to students in other industrialized nations. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, such spending ranged from $6,212 per child in Utah to $19,076 in New York.

The statistics from fiscal year 2011 include, “Of the $595.1 billion in total expenditures for public school systems:

  • $522.1 billion is comprised of current spending (i.e. operational expenditures, not including long-term debt).
  • Expenditure for instruction amounted to $316.3 billion (60.6 percent) of the total current spending,
  • while costs for support services amounted to $178.7 billion (34.2 percent).
  • Instructional salaries [including benefits and pensions] were the largest expenditure category for public elementary and secondary education, accounting for $208.8 billion in 2011.”

“On the revenue side, public schools received $599.1 billion in total revenue for 2011, an increase of 1.1 percent from 2010.

  • The largest source of revenue is from state governments at $265.9 billion (44.4 percent of total revenue),
  • followed by local governments at $259.5 billion (43.3 percent)
  • and the federal government providing $73.7 billion (12.3 percent).”
  • Notably, “Property taxes accounted for 65.6 percent of revenue from local sources for public school systems.”

Houston relaxes w/ our freshly carved jack-o-lantern, lovingly referred to as Pooty the Pumpkin.

Are we getting bang for the buck?

The short answer, no. Despite massive investment, overall student achievement is abysmal, proving that feel-good programs, multi-cultural curriculum, special education, and counselors galore are not what students need to thrive intellectually in our increasingly competitive world.

According to the 2009 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Reading Test, 1/3 of American 4th-graders scored scored “below basic,” while a whopping 67% are “below proficient,” meaning not reading a grade level. And nearly half of these students come from low-income families.

Older kids didn’t fare much better on the NAEP, with about 26% of 8th-graders and 27% of of 12th-graders scoring “below basic,” and a trim 32% of 8th-graders and 38% of 12-graders reading at or above grade level.

Globally, stats aren’t much better. Even in an assessment done by the government-policies-can-cure-all-social-ills group, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, American 15-year-olds were ranked 25th out of 30 countries in math and 21st in science.

Casey (seen here w/ a gleeful Papa) flew into town from New Orleans to attend Mom & Dad’s 50th wedding anniversary party in early November.

It’s a moral issue

Money is just a symptom of the problem; rather, it is a moral issue about empowering parents, like those who feel they are being held hostage to compulsory education cartel, due to their crime-ridden neighborhood and/or their limited resources.

And it’s about choice. Parents need to be able to pick a school that best aligns with their values, whether that be parochial or secular; conservative or liberal; private, charter or magnet; homeschool or brick-and-mortar.

It’s about letting those who want to opt of a discordant educational system the ability to do so without heavy government regulation and oversight. By giving the families the financial and legal means of school choice, parents get to decide what’s best for their kids — not the local school boards, the state, the feds or the teachers’ unions.

And the cool thing about all this school choice is that it would increase accountability and competition among all schools as a consequence, providing a better pool of options for all families, despite their address, income-tax bracket, race, religion, gender, political affiliation or sexual orientation. What could be more egalitarian than that?

Mom hangs w/ Mike, Tommy & Betty, who happen to be both awesome friends & family!

So, what is a public good?

As economist Randall G. Holcombe explains, “A public good, as defined by economic theory, is a good that, once produced, can be consumed by an additional consumer at no additional cost.” Does government education really fit the bill?

“(My family’s) hopes & dreams shouldn’t have to be sacrificed on the altar of a government fiefdom.” — Jason Lewis, radio talk show host

Holcombe explains, “The persistence of the theory of public goods makes sense if the theory of public goods is considered as a tool of the government to justify the legitimacy of its activities and make it less costly to get citizens to comply with its wishes.

“The theory is promulgated by the state-supported education system,” he adds, “giving educators, as employees of this state-supported industry, an incentive to promote the theory of public goods. This all-purpose justification for government activity serves the government well by arguing that its activities are legitimate means of enhancing social welfare …”

“(The theory) does not do a very good job of explaining what the government actually does, or should do, but can be better understood as a tool that the government employs for its own benefit,” Holcombe concludes.

Long lost cousins: Hanging out for the first time in probably 20 years, Matt & I have fun catching up at the anniversary party!

Allocation of money is the cure

It’s easy to see that school choice would make educating children less costly for everyone, make high-performing schools more accessible or allow homeschooling as a greater option for lower and middle-class families. But how to accomplish that end?

Some school-reform proponents are for vouchers, while others are for letting the funds follow the child, not the school (as is done in many Western European countries). But with both of these options, there is still heavy government involvement in the allocation of tax-payer-funded revenue.

Other reformers want to go back to a time pre-compulsory education in the form of total privatization of education. While I like that idea on principle, I think that’s too radical an idea for a nation dependent upon entrenched bad habits and its inclination to worship at the altar of “public servants,” like teachers.

“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.”
— Voltaire

Therefore, I am in favor of tuition-tax credits. However, many homeschoolers, including Classical Conversation founder, Leigh Bortins, is wary of this solution. In fact, she likens the prospect to being “pimped by the state like any other crony capitalist.”

dina & grams

Dina & Mom are looking hot to trot @ the party — proof positive that youthful genes run in the family!

By this logic, Bortins falls into the trap that getting to keep one’s own labor (your income) is somehow a “state-financed” system. She posits that credits would intrinsically tied to government oversight and control, like vouchers, and thus, antithetical to choice and liberty.

But my point is that tuition-tax credits would give all families greater control of their own money and let individuals decide how the fruits of their labor best be spent on their own kids’ education.

Plus, there’s Supreme Court precedent to buttress my point. In ACTSO vs. Winn, where the court ruled in favor of education tax credits, they ruled that”

“A dissenter whose tax dollars are ‘extracted and spent’ knows that he has in some small measure been made to contribute to an establishment in violation of conscience … (but) awarding some citizens a tax credit allows other citizens to retain control over their own funds in accordance with their own consciences.”

As is their wont, Mike, Dad & Matt enjoy cutting up for the camera.

In other words, tuition-tax credits would be harder to attack and regulate since they aren’t a subsidy; they’re simply are vehicle allowing tax payers to keep more of their own money.

“The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom & benefit.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Moreover, many Americans are taxed twice in our current paradigm. They’re forced to purchase one product (government education) while opting to buy another (homeschool or private school).

So, tax credits would put to an end what would be an anti-trust violation in any other sector of our economy, while simultaneously lessening the financial burden of excessive taxation for all.

The only thing that would be preferable to tuition-tax credits is to reform the tax code as a whole and implement a flat-rate federal income tax. Unfortunately, that is not as tenable a political proposition in our current social climate of greed and envy, so it’s a moot point for now.

Real educational equity

If Otto von Bismark was right that “Politics is the art of the possible,” then I firmly believe that many Americans could get on board with tuition-tax credits.

Sure, many politicians aren’t for school choice, since they already opt out of the system by sending their kids to private and prep schools and/or are beholden to the teachers’ unions.

Meredith, Jacob, Stephen & David have fun celebrating Gramsey & Papa’s golden anniversary.

But if tuition-tax credits are framed as a matter of freedom, conscience, choice, tax fairness, educational equity, fiscal responsibility, and raising the bar of educational performance for all children, I think it’s a winning strategy that most common-sense folks could embrace.

Freedom of choice

In conclusion, political satirist P.J O’Rourke summed it up best in his eloquent and scathing Liberty Manifesto — sentiments that are as true today (if not more) as they were when he penned the proclamation more than 20 years ago:

“(Freedom) is not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the ‘right’ to education, the ‘right’ to health care, the ‘right’ to food and housing. That’s not freedom, that’s dependency … Those aren’t rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle … There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please.”

And with more of your own hard-earned money in your pocket from tuition-tax credits, that’s exactly the free-market power American parents can wield as consumers deciding on their kids’ education. The choice is up to them.

Don’t let the vortex get ya down

Posted on by
1

Sometimes I let this fallen world get me down. Whether it’s the politics or the culture (or both), it’s occasionally my wont to focus on the negative.

Zeke loving it on the Pullen Park carousel in Raleigh: How could anyone be bummed out around this cutie pie?!

Honestly, it’s difficult not to occasionally fall down that deep, dark vortex of pessimism when hostility, division, narcissism, corruption, amoralism, nihilism, tyranny and a deficit of common sense seem to be the norm.

Or when the contentions that “there is no right and wrong,” “there is no such thing as objective truth” and “the Constitution is archaic” seem to be gaining traction, you know that (at best) the stability of our nation and (at worst) the perpetuation of Western civilization are both  in deep doo-doo.

The 3 Amigos enjoy checking out a freight car @ Pullen Park during our visit to the Capital City for Education in Action Day.

I mean, it’s hard not to get down when the feds are trying to their damned best to strip Americans of our right to keep and bear arms. After all, if I’m void of the ability and means to defend myself and my family, all other rights are meaningless, since they can so easily be infringed upon.

Or the executive branch’s hubristic attempt at trampling the rights of citizens to due process, which is enshrined in the 5th and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution. So, the killing of an American in the homeland should be cool, as long as it’s “appropriate.” All I can say is, “Don’t drone me, bro!”

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” — Albert Einstein

And then you have our Attorney General Eric Holder, the highest judicial officer in the land, arguing that it’s not necessarily a violation of a parents’ rights if the government were to (hypothetically, of course) outlaw homeschooling. As long as the law were to be applied equally to all citizens, he sees nothing wrong with such a legal argument.

“No nation can remain free when the state has greater influence over the knowledge & values transmitted to children than the family does.” — Dr. Ron Paul

Whether it be the Red Guard, the young paramilitary communists Mao Zedong used during China’s Cultural Revolution; or the Hitler-Jugend, the revolutionary youth-group movement organized by the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (a.k.a. the Nazis); history shows that seizing parental authority has dire consequences.

“When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’” Adolph Hitler said in 1933, “I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already. … In a short time (children) will know nothing else but this new community.’”

“This new Reich will give its youth to no one,” Hitler declared in 1937 (one year before the Nazis outlawed homeschooling), “but will itself take youth & give to youth its own education & its own upbringing.”

You can easily spot such power grabs by authoritarians throughout history. It’s scary that it ever happens, but even more unsettling that it always recurs in yet another place, in another time and by another despot, all while folks say, “Oh, calm down. That could never happen here.”

Houston, Zeke & Gabriel are so proud of the “types of ocean floor” model we made for a recent science lesson.

And then there’s just the tyranny of law. I mean, there are so many federal statutes (more than 4,000) that you’re certainly in violation of one of them at any given time. And somehow we’re supposed to keep up with it all while maintaining our liberty.

Case in point: federal anti-trust laws. If a business keeps its price the same as a competitor, that’s collusion; if the biz raises its prices higher, that’s price gouging; if the biz cuts the price, well, that’s predatory pricing. It’s a pickle, ain’t it?

But it’s not just the leaders, the lawyers, the special interest-groups, the political power brokers and cronies that make me wary. What about the some of the garbage the so-called the “intellectuals” are pushing?

Houston & his Stuffee camp out w/ brothers in the teepee Mommy picked up for cheap @ a kids’ consignment sale.

Example: There’s a school of thought in academia within the ethicist community that says infanticide is okay … but just up to two years of age. Whew, that sure makes me feel better! Man, who ever knew “after-birth abortion” would ever be an idea that any feeling human would entertain?

Here’s another: There’s a growing movement in higher education that’s pushing to normalize pedophilia. Seriously, I’m not lying. I know you think I must be mistaken, but it’s real stuff. Check out the insanity for yourself.

Having said all that, I’ve never been a defeatist and, overall, I’m a pretty positive person — always have been, always will. My parents reared me in an empowering way and in a freer time that instilled in my core the currently unfashionable truth: You can do anything, if you put your mind to it.

“Whoa, lugging all this cool stuff around is hard work,” Gabriel says of his Stuffee, & the beads & clapper Cousin Casey sent to the boys in a fun-filled Mardi Gras package.

Couple my not subscribing to the woe-as-me, always-a-victim mentality that pervades our society with my efforts to become a mature follower of Christ, and I actually have hope in these times that oftentimes seem so hopeless.

“I am your refuge & strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, you don’t need to be afraid of anything — not even cataclysmic circumstances. The media are increasingly devoted to fear-inducing subject matter. … If you focus on such dangers & forget that I am your refuge in all circumstances, you will become increasingly fearful. Every day I manifest my grace in countless places & situations, but the media take no notice. I shower not only blessings, but also outright miracles on your planet. … You have eyes that see & ears that hear, so proclaim my abiding presence in the world.” — From “Jesus Calling,” by Sarah Young

Here’s a more secular take :

“Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from human haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.”
— William Shakespeare

And most importantly, I already have a joy that’s so abundant and powerful that no man can tear it down. It’s a kind of empowerment and liberation that no hater can ever understand. Nor can he regulate, confiscate or legally banish it from my heart.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” – Galatians 5:1

Adiós y gracias, Señorita Jessie!

Posted on by
Reply

The biggest thing as of late is that Miss Jessie is leaving her regular weekly gig here at “the zoo.” She is taking a job at her church, which is a great thing for her both career-wise and spiritually.

Pajama Day @ CC community: See if you can spot the 3 Amigos.

But this change also fits into my plans. See, after much prayer and reflection, I had recently decided that I was finally ready to wean myself from Jessie’s help. My realization had nothing to do with her job performance.

Simply put, Miss Jessie is amazing, so it’d be daunting undertaking to find a better childcare professional. She is creative, giving, sweet, energetic, punctual, hard-working, honest and loving.

If you think back to when Jessie started in September 2011, the 3 Amigos ages 4 and under and Stephen was working long hours, which was why we wanted an extra set of hands in the first place.

Then Stephen took a job where he worked out of state four days a week. That was a grueling 11 months, and I honestly don’t think I could’ve survived (or at least, kept my sanity intact) without Jessie’s assistance during that challenging time.

Houston plays around with our kids’ 6-string electric guitar (minus two strings). Hey, at least our piano’s tuned now.

But now that the boys are more mature and independent, Stephen’s working a normal come-home-to-your-family-every-evening job, and I’m getting more confident and comfortable with homeschooling, the time has come for me to fully embrace my role as teacher, housekeeper, family planner and all-around domestic guru.

And isn’t it remarkable how God somehow enabled Jessie’s and my major plans to work in tandem together? The Lord has a cool way of doing that.

Be sure to check out the Shutterfly photo book I made for Jessie as thanks for her contribution to our family. Click the thumbnail image under “recent activity” and be sure to use the “single-page view” and “full-screen” options (found in the upper righthand corner of the photo book template).

A long time dream of mine, I finally get a photo of Zeke and his bros on the big red balls at Target.

FYI, since Stephen and I have never found the time to poke around and figure out how to upload video to our Word Press site (should be easy, but it’s not), I plan on adding videos of the kids to Shutterfly … coming soon!

Gabriel had his final basketball game last Saturday. It was actually supposed to be two make-up games back to back, but the first team didn’t show. And then only one kid from the second team was present.

To make the best of a lame situation, the boy’s two brothers, Houston and Zeke, and a couple other meandering kids were recruited to play what turned out to be the most fun and lively game of the season. Way to go, Wildcats and Warriors!

A proud Gabriel shows off his much-deserved trophy for a great season of basketball!

After the game, we met Christie and crew at a free winter carnival, hosted by one of the CC moms who runs a dance school with her husband. The school, which shares a space with a martial arts business, offered grappling, foam-sword fighting, a bounce house, crafts and lots of games. It was a blast!

Last week, the boys and I went on a CC field trip to see a saxophone quartet performance. The event was for young kids, so the musicians included lots of explanation about their instruments, the pieces of music they played and how they came to be professional saxophonists. The boys thought it was okay, but I was mesmerized.

After that, we headed to Miss Christie’s for an afternoon of doing cool volcano experiments, playing guitar and singing (practice for our upcoming family presentations at CC), and jumping on Asher and Jackson’s new trampoline. Good times.

An intense Houston makes his play-doh volcano erupt.

Speaking of music, we finally got our piano tuned on Monday. It was a hand-me-down a neighbor had given us about five years ago. Needless to say, the instrument was extremely out of tune, had a broken key and was in dire need of repair.

It sounds phenomenal, so it’s time to start looking into lessons for Houston, and then the twins when they’re a bit older. Jessie has been giving the boys informal lessons for a few weeks now and they’re enjoying it, so I’m hopeful they’ll take to piano and grow in their love of music.

Wednesdays have stunk lately. In fact, January is a major stinker, as has been the case for three years running. Luckily, we made it through the first month of the year none worse for the wear and hump day is looking a bit brighter these days.

The source of one of my biggest frustrations lately has been Houston’s negativity toward school. Having already tried the “it’s the law” approach (as mentioned in the last blog), I decided to try to establish a reason for learning.

Gabriel loves playing @ the water-current station @ the Natural Science Center.

I thought this would be a good approach, since strong-willed children often need to know “What’s the point?” of a task. So, Houston and I talked about the importance of education as a whole and how homeschooling is a vehicle for that.

We discussed how knowledge glorifies God’s greatness, helps people learn from the mistakes of past, gives us information for conversation, guides us to areas of interest future study, offers ideas for employment, teaches us about who we are and where we came from.

But most importantly, we said that learning is often fun. And when the material is particularly difficult, mastering it is all the sweeter and satisfying.

Another bone of contention for Houston was time. “School takes so long,” he would often say. So one day, I used a stop watch to time all the lessons, minus breaks for discipline, household stuff, meals, hygiene, potty breaks, etc.

Asher supervises Zeke in the volcanic eruption process.

To Houston’s surprise (and mine), our actual time schooling — which that day consisted of CC memory work, phonics, math, a science experiment and a little art — took just around two hours! Sure it took all morning and into the afternoon to piece it all together, but sometimes life gets in the way of life.

Since then, Houston’s attitude has improved, thankfully. And I don’t feel like the lamest slow-poke mom on the planet.

And just as we’re starting to hit our homeschool groove, I find out that Saxon Math (the curriculum I currently use) is going to be aligning with the federal government’s educational mandate, the Common Core State Standards. Sounds like an oxymoron, right?

Obviously, seizing power from the states, their local school boards and parents writ large isn’t something of which I’d approve. After all, even Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Joseph Califano, admitted in 1977 that “national control of curriculum is a form of national control of ideas.”

Gabriel, Zeke, Asher & Houston recover from foam-sword fighting & eagerly await cage grappling.

Michelle Malkin has written extensively on the matter: Rotten to the Core: Part 1 and Part 2. She even has a feed about Common Core called Reader Feedback from the Frontlines.

But if you don’t buy Malkin’s arguments or any of the feedback she has received, maybe you’ll believe Kris Nielsen, a former North Carolina teacher used to defend Common Core. He even gave a presentation at his school in support of the mandate in order to ease parents’ concerns.

Since then, Nielsen has had a change of heart, which he wrote about on his blog, Middle Grades Mastery. Here are some highlights:

“The Common Core State Standards is a sham, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is an instrument of devastation.” (Common Core) … “has one goal: to create common people. The accompanying standardized tests have one purpose: to create standardized people.

” … But more importantly, all of the skills (like creativity, communication, critical thinking and collaboration) … lead our students to be profound, critical and meaningful participants in a modern democracy. Some would argue that our days as a free country for the people and by the people are limited, and running out fast.

“If we continue to support the path that our nation’s educational system is on, we will speed up the end of our democracy. When students are forced to learn for the sake of a score and are denied the opportunity to think and reason and question and appreciate the world in which they live, they are all the more easy to control and deny basic rights.”

Playing w/ the guitar pick makes strumming all the more enjoyable for Gabriel.

And not only is one of my homeschool curriculums selling out, but then I hear about U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder, implying that a law banning homeschooling would not violate the fundamental liberties of individual citizens. (Who wants to bet that they’ll be propagating such dangerous ideas in Common Core.)

“Freedom for the mind and spirit is as important as freedom for the body and spirit.” — Michael Farris, founder and chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association

If you have the time, please read more about Romeike v. Holder, the case that’s before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Whether you homeschool or not, certainly most common-sense people believe in school choice and the rights of parents — not government — to decide what’s best for their children.