Public School (ConVal)

[shyfrog]

I'm seriously considering yanking my daughter out of public school now. There is just this feeling of utter helplessness when I go to the school to drop something off for her and I'm not allowed to even see her. O.o

Complete opposite of what my children have experienced when they have come to visit me at work. Open door, no fear, no control, no bureaucrats.

I can understand "why" the public schools are like that. But they don't have to be. Not sure they'll ever come to understand that.

So...I'm looking for resources. I'm looking for activities. I'm looking for organized groups.
I may even be looking to host a site dedicated to bringing all these resources together.
It will be far more difficult for me to include my daughter in daytime activities since I work all day. But we'll do what we can.

I hosted, for a short time, a site in Utah for the Wasatch Home Educators Network. They have a large organization of 200+ families that can pool their resources for field trips, science shows, tickets to performing arts, etc. It would be nice to have something similar to that here in NH (maybe there already is?)

Just throwing out some thoughts

[shyfrog]

Looks like there are plenty of resources. There is a family near my apartment that owns and runs a hotel who homeschool their kids.
They gave me a list of links and I'm already sending out emails and looking at all the options.

[Kat Kanning]

New hampshire homeschool coalition has a lot of info.  We have a homeschool group in Keene.

[J’raxis 270145]

Two freestaters that I know of that are big on homeschooling are Kate (Rosie the Riveter here) and Chris (toowm). Natalie (RattyDog) will be organizing a lot of homeschooling stuff together, too, for the Manchester Free Press, so talk to her, too.

[shyfrog]

Now, even more reason to pull kids out of public school. Especially the one my daughter is attending.

[dalebert]

You need child actors?

No. Need adults. So this is just kids? Don't you stay in touch with any of them after they graduate?

[TackleTheWorld]

Now, even more reason to pull kids out of public school. Especially the one my daughter is attending.

Oh no!  Eli get out of there while you still have a soul!

[CNHT]

I have to include a statement made by the principal in the "Parent Orientation" I attended last night. I will try to quote verbatim:

"We believe in student individuality and that there is no 'one size fits all' approach to education. Tomorrow at the freshman orientation assembly we hope to have all our students chanting the school mission statement"

Make no mistake about it: the missions statement of American public schools is to make each and every student into a World citizen.
I was almost forced to sign something like that ('I pledge to prepare students for being citizens of World Government' or somesuch nonsense) or lose my job.

I said, NFW will I sign or do this, you can fire me.

[Rosie the Riveter]

Eli is a strong enough soul and a smart enough individual that she will not be consumed by the system if she chooses to continue going to "school".

I support an individual's right to choose to attend gov. school or not attend as long as it is actually their choice.

[Raineyrocks]

I have to include a statement made by the principal in the "Parent Orientation" I attended last night. I will try to quote verbatim:

"We believe in student individuality and that there is no 'one size fits all' approach to education. Tomorrow at the freshman orientation assembly we hope to have all our students chanting the school mission statement"

Make no mistake about it: the missions statement of American public schools is to make each and every student into a World citizen.
I was almost forced to sign something like that ('I pledge to prepare students for being citizens of World Government' or somesuch nonsense) or lose my job.

I said, NFW will I sign or do this, you can fire me.

Yup, my sister was going to college to become a teacher and some of the things she told me were freaking ridiculous with all the red tape and the way they want teachers to be like commanders and zombies not teachers.  She quit college and told her professors why she quit and they said they totally respected why she was quitting.

Then she wanted to become a counselor or therapist and had to sit it on a real meeting at a mental health center for observation.  Anyways she said most of the psychiatrist sat around and made fun of their clients and that all they talked about was shoving "mental health" drugs down kids throats.  So she quit that too!

[Rosie the Riveter]

You need child actors?

No. Need adults. So this is just kids? Don't you stay in touch with any of them after they graduate?

I teach musical theatre to kids. The graduates that I do keep in touch with attend college out-of-state.

I do know a few places where you could recruit.

Like this -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nh-ma-theatre-lovers/

or this -- http://www.nhcommunitytheatre.com/index.php

[CNHT]

Yup, my sister was going to college to become a teacher and some of the things she told me were freaking ridiculous with all the red tape and the way they want teachers to be like commanders and zombies not teachers.  She quit college and told her professors why she quit and they said they totally respected why she was quitting.

Then she wanted to become a counselor or therapist and had to sit it on a real meeting at a mental health center for observation.  Anyways she said most of the psychiatrist sat around and made fun of their clients and that all they talked about was shoving "mental health" drugs down kids throats.  So she quit that too!

Even the most a-political and dumbest of the teachers sensed something was wrong with that pledge -- they were like, aren't we citizens of the USA? They knew that there were other governments diametrically opposed to our constitutional government and they knew somehow this was not right even though they did not know the fine points on it until I filled them in on what it meant. Believe me the UN runs our public schools. If that incident isn't proof I don't know what is.

Recently I attended a speech in Concord. I stood up and said that I felt the UN ran the schools and someone in the audience who is currently teaching and who is about as mainstream as you can get, nodded her head and agreed with me out loud.

[Rosie the Riveter]

   
ConVal drug sweep prompts lawsuit

By NANCY FOSTER
New Hampshire Union Leader Correspondent
22 hours, 54 minutes ago


PETERBOROUGH – The New Hampshire branch of the American Civil Liberties Union is taking the town and school district to court over a drug search conducted earlier this year.

The NHCLU has filed suit in Hillsborough Superior Court against the town of Peterborough, the Contoocook Valley School District and the Peterborough Police Department, claiming that a comprehensive search of ConVal High School conducted on June 7 was unconstitutional.

"On June 7, with no warning, all 1,100 students were herded out of their classrooms, told to leave their belongings behind, and were sent to the football field and locked behind a gate," alleged Claire Ebel, director of the NHCLU. "They weren't told why this was happening, and if they resisted, they were threatened and coerced into complying."

Ebel said that once the students were "held prisoner" on the field, Peterborough police used drug-sniffing dogs to search the school, going through backpacks and other personal belongings, and ultimately, coming up empty.

What makes the search unconstitutional, under both state and federal Constitutions, is that police and school officials allegedly had only "a hunch" that drugs were present in the building, Ebel said.

"The New Hampshire Supreme Court has held that a dog search, under our Constitution, cannot be conducted without probable cause," said Ebel.

Peterborough police Chief Scott Guinard refused to comment about the incident.

"The town, the school district, and myself have taken the position not to comment on this matter in any way," said Guinard when contacted by phone on Wednesday.

Richard Bergeron, the new superintendent for ConVal, who wasn't employed by the district at the time of the search, said that the district has received positive feedback following the search.

"The community response regarding this June search, that yielded no arrests or seizures, has been overwhelming positive," Bergeron said via e-mail.

According to Ebel, the search was ridiculous for several reasons.

First, while students were held in the hot sun without food, water or sunscreen for several hours, the dogs didn't actually find anything. Second, had the dogs uncovered drugs in a student's personal belongings, the evidence would likely have been thrown out of court because it was obtained illegally.

"The reality is that this isn't how you go about creating a drug-free school," Ebel said. "You deal with drug problems through education and by building trust. Illegally searching students isn't a way to build trust."

According to Ebel, using dogs to search for drugs in schools is just another example of what happens when a society becomes too fascinated with instant results and quick fixes.

"Drug searches by dogs don't require as much thought or effort or genuine work as conducting a search using traditional police methods to build a case," Ebel said. "This is an end run around the responsibility of police to do the work that's needed to secure a search warrant."

"The point of this lawsuit is to say to every school district in the state that this kind of search is a violation of the Constitution," Ebel said. "These are educators, not evil people, who are trying to keep the schools drug free. But they need to understand that there are ways of doing things that don't violate the Constitutional rights of their students."

[Rosie the Riveter]

A man who taught in NYC schools for 30 years converted my suspicions about all gov-funded schools into fact- and history-based stone cold convictions.  John Taylor Gatto's The Underground History of American Education (http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm) is an absolutely stunning book.  It's available online, free to read, via that link. 

Hope things all come right for the kids discussed in this thread.  Sounds like their parents got 'em started out on a strong basis, so not much reason for worry.  Even though, yes, the institution of 'school' is pure trash.  Planned that way. 

John Taylor Gatto Rocks!!

Welcome to the forum

[Kat Kanning]

I heard him speak in CA...it's what made me think I should homeschool my daughter.