MCAC
HOMESCHOOL LETTERS & LINKS:
ENDANGERED
SPECIES: OUR CHILDREN!
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Teach Your Children First
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 00:17:43 -0500
From: "kowalski " < kowalski@krlynk.com>
To: <apfn@apfn.org>
You must get your kids out from under the big brother school systems
first..This is where they are brainwashed with political
correctness(liberalism,paganism,humanism)
multiculturalism(anti-western,anti-Christian) and where they are taught to
call the cops if they are spanked, they are taught that there are no
absolute values.
I thank God I sent my kids to a parochial school, but if you don't have the
money you could home school and there are home -schooling co-ops which can
help you.Some parents are better in some subjects and can sometimes swap
subjects with other parents.if you leave your kids in the FED schools
they'll quickly become new world citizens unable to think critically and
unaware of their Constitutional and God given rights. God bless. A Christian
Patriot, Rick
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Home School News, Info. & Links
http://www.ordination.org/homeschool.htm
viper34562@aol.com wrote:
The most interesting aspect of the "Home School" debate brought a chuckle
this afternoon.........as I listened to the radio as I drove it was reported
that "A concern exists in the Federalized Education Area that Home Schooled
children are being taught too well and learning too much".........and "that
since the children are unable to interact with their peers an isolation
exists which may inhibit their growth"
This argument was "blown out of the water" by a "Home Schooled" young
man.....who told reporters that nothing could be further from the
truth.....that learning was fun, and time could be spent on the more
difficult subjects which increased learning.
Also, he said of the "Isolation" "I go to boy scouts, play with my friends
and do the extra curricular activities I would do if I were in a regular
school..........but my studies come first"
Refreshing MOST refreshing!
Viper
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(Short Sermon: The greatest danger confronting children today is the example set them by adults.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Was America founded as a Christian nation?
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Issues_and_Insights] Was America founded as a Christian nation?
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 00:57:23 -0000
From: "Russell Kaemmerling" <Issues_and_Insights@juno.com>
Reply-To: Issues_and_Insights-owner@egroups.com
To: Issues_and_Insights@egroups.com
I didn't even realize I was a "cultist" until I read Janet Reno's
definition of one (see below). Now, I find out I'm not only a
cultist, but a threat to my country! I don't think I need to say any
more! Read this statement from Janet Reno and then read the article
below.
Russ Kaemmerling
"A cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second
Coming of Christ; who frequently attends Bible studies; who has a
high level of financial giving to a Christian cause; who home schools
for their children; who has accumulated survival foods and has strong
belief in the Second Amendment; and who distrusts big government. Any
of these may qualify a person as a cultist but certainly more than
one of these would cause us to look at this person as a threat and
his family as being in a risk situation that qualifies for government
interference." Janet Reno, Attorney. General of the United States
during an Interview on CBS "60 Minutes" on June 26, 1999.
Was America founded as a Christian nation?
There are many today who would doubt or deny that this is true. There
has even been an attempt to cover up and, in some cases, to destroy
the legacy of Christian thinking that has gone into the formation of
our republic. Yet what were the true thoughts and intentions of the
men and women who came before us?
A careful look into the past reveals landmarks which were essential
in guiding America along the pathway that led us to where we are
today. More often than not, at each one of these landmarks, there
also appears irrefutable evidence that a sense of divine destiny
accompanied the most important events of our history.
Here in part are some of these landmarks:
1490-1492 - Columbus' commission was given to set out to find a new
world.
According to Columbus' personal log, his purpose in seeking
undiscovered worlds was to "bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the
heathens. .... It was the Lord who put into my mind ... that it would
be possible to sail from here to the Indies ... I am the most
unworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the Lord for grace and
mercy, and they have covered me completely ... No one should fear to
undertake any task in the name of our Saviour, if it is just and if
the intention is purely for His holy service." (Columbus' Book of
Prophecies)
April 10, 1606 - The Charter for the Virginia Colony read in part:
"To the glory of His divine Majesty, in propagating of the Christian
religion to such people as yet live in ignorance of the true
knowledge and worship of God."
November 3, 1620 - King James I grants the Charter of the Plymouth
council.
"In the hope thereby to advance the enlargement of the Christian
religion, to the glory of God Almighty."
November 11, 1620 - The Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact aboard
the Mayflower, in Plymouth harbor.
"For the glory of God and advancement of ye Christian faith ... doe
by these presents solemnly & mutually in ye presence of God and one
of another, covenant & combine our selves togeather into a civill
body politick."
March 4, 1629 - The first Charter of Massachusetts read in part:
"For the directing, ruling, and disposeing of all other Matters and
Thinges, whereby our said People may be soe religiously, peaceablie,
and civilly governed, as their good life and orderlie Conversacon,
maie wynn and incite the Natives of the Country to the Knowledg and
Obedience of the onlie true God and Savior of Mankinde, and the
Christian Fayth, which in our Royall Intencon, and The Adventurers
free profession, is the principall Ende of the Plantacion.."
January 14, 1638 - The towns of Hartford, Weathersfield and Windsor
adopt the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut.
"To mayntayne and presearve the liberty and purity of the Gospell of
our Lord Jesus, which we now professe..."
August 4, 1639 - The governing body of New Hampshire is established.
"Considering with ourselves the holy will of God and our own
necessity, that we should not live without wholesome laws and civil
government among us, of which we are altogether destitute, do, in the
name of Christ and in the sight of God, combine ourselves together to
erect and set up among us such government as shall be, to our best
discerning, agreeable to the will of God..."
September 26, 1642 - The rules and precepts that were to govern
Harvard were set up.
"Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to
consider well, the maine end of his life and studies is, to know God
and Jesus Christ which is eternall life, John 17:3 and therefore to
lay Christ in the bottome, as the only foundation of all sound
knowledge and Learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdome, Let
every one seriously set himselfe by prayer in secret to seeke it of
him Prov. 2.3."
Harvard College was founded on Christi Gloriam and later dedicated
Christo et Ecclesiae. The founders of Harvard believed that "all
knowledge without Christ was vain."
The charter of Yale University clearly expressed the purpose for
which the school was founded: "Whereas several well disposed and
Publick spirited Persons of their sincere Regard to & zeal for
upholding & propagating of the Christian Protestant Religion ...
youth may be instructed in the Arts & Sciences who through the
blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Publick employment both in
Church & Civil State."
In addition to Harvard and Yale, 106 out of the first 108 schools in
America were founded on the Christian faith.
April 3, 1644 - The New Haven Colony adopts their charter.
"That the judicial laws of God, as they were delivered by Moses ...
be a rule to all the courts in this jurisdiction ..."
1647 - Governor William Bradford publishes Of Plimouth Plantation.
"Lastly, (and which was not least,) a great hope and inward zeall
they (the Pilgrims) had of laying some good foundation, or at least
to make some way thereunto, for ye propagation and advancing of ye
gospell or ye kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of ye world;
yea, though they should be but stepping-stones unto others for ye
performing of so great a work ... their desires were set on ye ways
of God, and to employ his ordinances; but they rested on his
providence, and know whom they had beleeved."
April 21, 1649 - The Maryland Toleration Act is passed.
"Be it therefore ... enacted ... that no person or persons whatsoever
within this province ... professing to believe in Jesus Christ
shall ... henceforth be any ways troubled, molested (or disapproved
of) ... in respect of his or her religion nor in the free exercise
thereof ..."
April 25, 1689 - The Great Law of Pennsylvania is passed.
"Whereas the glory of Almighty God and the good of mankind is the
reason and the end of government ... therefore government itself is a
venerable ordinance of God ..."
May 20, 1775 - North Carolina passes the Mecklenburg County
Resolutions.
"We hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people; are, and
of a right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing association,
under control of no other power than that of our God and the general
government of Congress."
Summer 12, 1775 - Continental Congress issues a call to all citizens
to fast and pray and confess their sin that the Lord might bless the
land.
"And it is recommended to Christians of all denominations, to
assemble for public worship, and to abstain from servile labor and
recreation on said day."
Summer 2-4, 1776 - Declaration of Independence written and signed.
"We hold these truths ... that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ...
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world ... And for the support
of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of Divine
Providence..."
As the Declaration was being signed, Samuel Adams said: "We have this
day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He
reigns in heaven, and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let
his kingdom come."
On the same day, Benjamin Franklin suggested that the national motto
be: "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."
Historian and philosopher G.K. Chesterton said of the founding of
America that it is "the only nation in the world that is founded on a
creed. That creed is set forth in dogmatic and even theological
lucidity in the Declaration of Independence."
September 17, 1787 - The Constitution of the United States is
finished.
At least 50 out of the 55 men who framed the Constitution of the
United States were professing Christians. (M.E. Bradford, A Worthy
Company, Plymouth Rock Foundation., 1982).
Eleven of the first 13 States required faith in Jesus Christ and the
Bible as qualification for holding public office.
The Constitution of each of the 50 States acknowledges and calls upon
the Providence of God for the blessings of freedom.
1787 - James Madison, the "architect" of the federal Constitution and
fourth president:
"We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon
the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future ..
upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to
sustain ourselves, according to the Ten Commandments of God."
April 30, 1789 - Washington gives his First Inaugural Address.
"My fervent supplications to that Almighty Being Who rules over the
universe, Who presides in the council of nations, and Whose
providential aid can supply every human defect, that His benediction
may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the
United States a government instituted by Himself for these essential
purposes."
March 11, 1792 - President George Washington:
"I am sure that never was a people who had more reason to acknowledge
a Divine interposition in their affairs than those of the United
States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten
that agency which so often manifested in the Revolution."
December 20, 1820 - Daniel Webster, Plymouth Massachusetts:
"Let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers
brought hither their high veneration for the Christian religion. They
journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to
incorporate ... and to diffuse its influence through all their
institutions, civil, political and literary."
July 4, 1821 - John Quincy Adams:
"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected,
in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the
principles of Christianity. From the day of the Declaration ... they
(the American people) were bound by the laws of God, which they all,
and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledged as
the rules of their conduct."
1833 - Noah Webster:
"The religion which has introduced civil liberty, is the religion of
Christ and his apostles ... This is genuine Christianity, and to this
we owe our free constitutions and government ... the moral principles
and precepts contained in the Scripture ought to form the basis of
all our civil constitutions and laws."
1841 - Alexis de Tocqueville (Democracy in America):
"In the United States of America the sovereign authority is
religious ... there is no other country in the world in which the
Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men
than in America."
Summer 8, 1845 - President Andrew Jackson asserts:
"The Bible is the rock upon which our Republic rests."
February 11, 1861 - Abraham Lincoln, farewell at Springfield,
Illinois:
"Unless the great God who assisted (Washington) shall be with me and
aid me, I must fail; but if the same Omniscient Mind and Mighty Arm
that directed and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall
not fail ... Let us all pray that the God of our fathers may not
forsake us now."
Lincoln on the Bible:
"In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift
God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was
communicated through this book. But for it, we would not know right
from wrong. All things most desireable for man's welfare, here and
hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it." (George L. Hunt,
Calvinism and the Political Order, Westminster Press, 1965, p.33)
1884 - U.S. Supreme Court reiterates the Declaration's reference to
our rights as being God-given.
These inherent rights have never been more happily expressed than in
the Declaration of Independence, "we hold these truths to be self-
evident" that is, so plain that their truth is recognized upon their
mere statement "that all men are endowed" - not by edicts of
emperors, or by decrees of parliament, or acts of Congress, but "by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights and that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and to secure
these" - not grant them but secure them "governments are instituted
among men."
1891 - The U.S. Supreme Court restates that America is a "Christian
Nation."
"Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and
embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible
that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our
civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian ... this
is a religious people. This is historically true. From the discovery
of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making
this affirmation ... we find everywhere a clear definition of the
same truth ... this is a Christian nation." (Church of the Holy
Trinity vs. United States, 143 US 457, 36 L ed 226, Justice Brewer)
1909 - President Theodore Roosevelt:
"After a week on perplexing problems ... it does so rest my soul to
come into the house of The Lord and to sing and mean it, 'Holy, Holy,
Holy, Lord God Almighty' ... (my) great joy and glory that in
occupying an exalted position in the nation, I am enabled, to preach
the practical moralities of the Bible to my fellow-countrymen and to
hold up Christ as the hope and Savior of the world." (Ferdinand C.
Iglehart, Theodore Roosevelt - The Man As I knew Him, A.L. Burt, 1919)
1913 - President Woodrow Wilson:
"America was born to exemplify the devotion to the elements of
righteousness which are derived from the Holy Scriptures."
1952 - US Supreme Court defines the "Separation of Church and State."
"We are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a Supreme
Being ... No Constitutional requirement makes it necessary for
government to be hostile to religion and to throw its weight against
the efforts to widen the scope of religious influence. The government
must remain neutral when it comes to competition between sects ...
The First Amendment, however, does not say that in every respect
there shall be a separation of Church and State."
January 20, 1977 - President Jimmy Carter:
"Here before me is the Bible used in the inauguration of our first
President in 1789, and I have just taken the oath of office on the
Bible my mother gave me just a few years ago, opened to the timeless
admonition from the ancient prophet Micah: 'He hath showed thee, O
man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of thee, but to do
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God'" (Micah
6:2).
1980 - President Ronald Reagan:
"The time has come to turn to God and reassert our trust in Him for
the Healing of America ... our country is in need of and ready for a
spiritual renewal."
May 3, 1990 - President George Bush proclaims National Day of Prayer.
"The great faith that led our Nation's Founding Fathers to pursue
this bold experience in self-government has sustained us in uncertain
and perilous times; it has given us strength to this very day. Like
them, we do very well to recall our 'firm reliance on the protection
of Divine Providence,' to give thanks for the freedom and prosperity
this nation enjoys, and to pray for continued help and guidance from
our wise and loving Creator."
----------------------------------------------
"Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and
embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible
that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our
civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian ... this
is a religious people. This is historically true. From the discovery
of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making
this affirmation ... we find everywhere a clear definition of the
same truth ... this is a Christian nation." (Church of the Holy
Trinity vs. United States, 143 US 457, 36 L ed 226, Justice Brewer)
-------------------------------------------
Subject: My Grandfather on Public Education
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 23:17:52 -0800
From: Jon Roland <jon.roland@constitution.org>
To: piml@egroups.com
My Grandfather on
Public Education
© Jon Roland 1998
My maternal grandfather, Frank Kubala, taught school in Texas from the last
decade of the 19th century through the third decade of the 20th. For most of
his teaching career, he taught in a one-room schoolhouse. His students, who
included my mother and her six brothers and six sisters, were mostly the
children of humble farmers, who often paid their tuition in farm produce, so
my grandmother often had to take in washing to make ends meet, and my mother
and her siblings often went to bed hungry. Despite these difficulties, my
grandfather managed to impart a high quality education to his students, and
he had a loyal following. About 1965 some of his former students organized a
reunion to honor him, and nearly a thousand people, representing the
generations of his students and their families and descendants, attended.
In the one-room schoolhouse, which was the system of teaching established
during most of the 19th century, students were not grouped into classes by
age. Aside from there not being enough students of each age to do that, it
was considered more effective to teach by giving each student study
assignments appropriate to his or her level of development, and engaging
more advanced students in each subject to teach less advanced ones. Thus,
every student was not only expected to perform well on exams, but to perform
well as teachers of other students, which resulted in a level of mastery
that studying for exams seldom achieves.
Beginning toward the end of his career, the modern system of public
education, with students grouped by age into classes, was adopted, largely
inspired by the teachings of Frederick Taylor, the first efficiency expert
and originator of the concept of the modern factory assembly line, and my
grandfather taught in such schools until he reached retirement age and he
qualified for a pension. I knew him in retirement, and the books and
educational materials he used were among the things I first learned to read.
He was an avid reader, a life-long member of the National Geographic
Society, who used to walk to town and back every day, rain or shine, about
two miles each way, to get the mail, which included his beloved National
Geographics and a special health food he swore by. Considering that he
remained healthy and alert to the age of 94, perhaps there was something to
it.
I will never forget a conversation I had with him one day. I asked him about
his views on the differences between the one-room schoolhouse and the modern
system of education based on the Taylor model. He replied that he didn't
think the modern system was a good one. It enabled more students to be
taught with fewer teachers, he said, using a lecture method, like that used
in universities, but students learned less well, and more talented students
were held back to a pace of the average or slower student. Without having to
teach what they had learned, they soon forgot the material, especially
subjects like history, government, and law, that required an element of
discussion and debate to make them interesting.
But my grandfather had one special concern, which was that when students are
grouped by age, they spend too much time with others of their own age, and
not enough time with adults, or with students of other ages, with the result
that their development becomes excessively influenced by their peers, and
insufficiently influenced by adults. Such students would tend, he warned, to
reach the age of adulthood with adolescent values instead of adult values,
and we would increasingly, from generation to generation, become a nation of
adolescents. He might have added, perhaps even of infantiles, demanding,
selfish, impulsive, attention-deficient, and entertainment-centered.
Much has been made of the deficiencies of the current public education
system, and sometimes reformers cite exams from the 19th century as
indicators of how much educational standards have declined. I have observed
the decline during my own lifetime, from the years 1950-62 when I attended
public school in a small town in Texas, through today in California. I
estimate that the level of education to have declined by about three years
from 1910 to 1960, and another four years from 1960 to 2000, although even
at those levels, the real mastery of the subject matter has declined at each
level.
This decline has resulted in part, perhaps, from the attempt to educate
every student to the same level. In fairness to the one-room schoolhouse
era, only about 30 percent of the children of that era went to school beyond
the first few years, and they were the most talented, so that by middle or
high school the standards were set by the more talented and motivated. No
student who resisted discipline would be permitted to remain in school, and
in my day any unruly student or bully would have been sent to "reform
school". There was no question of exposing good students to bad ones in the
hope the goodness would rub off on them. It was well understood that it
would be the badness that would rub off on the good students, and that could
not be allowed. Nor could the less talented students be allowed to set the
pace of instruction. The aim was to prepare students for higher education,
not for a trade, and everything was bent to that aim.
Another thing has changed over the course of the 20th century. For the first
60 years, public school teachers were drawn from the pool of the most
talented members of society. My teachers were people who had been A-students
when they attended college. But I noticed during my senior year of high
school that it was the C-students who were planning to go into public-school
teaching, students who, in an earlier age would not have been able to get
into college at all. The A- and B-students were aiming for careers in the
professions and upper-level management positions in business. The same
pattern of drawing from the less-talented held for other fields of public
service: law enforcement, judges, legislators, and journalists, among
others. Those fields most critical to civic virtue, and ultimately, to
constitutional compliance and the rule of law, became increasingly the
domain of persons of modest talent, and more importantly, of modest virtue.
Today we are living with the results.
Most people today are so familiar with the established system of public
education, grouping students into age cohorts, that they hardly imagine any
other system, or how the mere organization of students in this way could
have a profound adverse effect on our civilization and on our constitutional
liberties and form of government. It is easy to attribute the general
adolescence and civic dereliction of our culture on affluence, but there may
be another explanation, sinister in its simplicity, and easily avoided had
we had my grandfather's foresight.
If we are to save our constitutional order, we must return to the one-room
schoolhouse model of education. That does not mean actual one-room
schoolhouses, of course, but organizing students of varying ages into
teacher-led learning villages in which the more advanced students teach the
less advanced. We should not give up on the ideal of educating everyone to
the maximum extent possible, but neither can we permit any student to be
held back by others, or exposed to delinquent influence. If some children
lack adequate parental guidance, the deficit must be supplied, perhaps by
placing them in military-style boarding schools, where they can also be
supervised to prevent them from bearing children of their own until they
have reached the level of economic and emotional development needed for
parenthood.
Whatever it takes, the pattern of children raising children must be broken,
or our constitutional civilization surely will be.
===================================================================
Constitution Society, 1731 Howe Av #370, Sacramento, CA 95825
916/568-1022, 916/450-7941VM Date:
07/16/00 Time: 23:17:53
http://www.constitution.org/
mailto:jon.roland@constitution.org
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