The government is a monopoly.
Monopolies are inherently inefficient.
Therefore, the government is inherently inefficient. It should be limited.
Now, in light of those truths, is it any surprise that government run schools fail to teach that?
Is it any wonder that the “Christian” Left looks to government to solve all our problems?
Never forget that Leftists literally fail at basic economics.
The title is a memorable line from the movie Mean Girls, where the gym coach is teaching sex education (see the video below). Whether by design or not, it demonstrated the ineffectiveness of both extremes of teaching kids about an extremely important topic.
Don’t have sex, because you will get pregnant and die. Don’t have sex in the missionary position, don’t have sex standing up . . . Just don’t do it, promise? OK, everybody take some rubbers.
I like how it skewered both ends of the spectrum. Repeating the Nike hybrid of Just (Don’t) Do It won’t be effective without some guidelines on avoiding temptation and more, and passing out condoms like that is an implicit and explicit message that you expect kids to have sex outside of marriage (in addition to giving them a false sense of security).
Of course I endorse chastity and the abstinence of any sex acts outside of marriage as the ideal for everyone. It is the only proven way to avoid pregnancy, disease, and emotional damage (and, if you are one of those religious types, the only way to obey God).
Ephesians 5:3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
They should also emphasize the most recent statistics demonstrating that those who finish high school and don’t have sex outside of marriage are extremely unlikely to end up poor, whereas if you do the opposite you are very likely to be poor.
They should teach girls the lines that guys often use and how to respond to them, for example:
They should teach guys the lines girls use as well. I know of one young man whose girlfriend recently broke up with him because he wouldn’t have sex with her.
But the abstinence / chastity message should include simple but effective ways to avoid temptation. Too many people have good intentions but put themselves in situations that inevitably lead to compromise.
They should also coach you on how much your actions regarding sex are influenced by:
Contrary to stereotypes, I have no issue with schools teaching a balanced sex education program, provided it is thorough and fact-based. Birth control options are real and it is acceptable to discuss them, provided the whole story is told and the schools don’t distribute the condoms or other birth control themselves and don’t facilitate the abortion process.
For example, truly comprehensive sex education should teach the following regarding birth control pills:
More considerations and possible elements of a truly comprehensive sex education program:
And of course, Christians can teach their children about God’s plan for sex and how great it is when used as designed.
The primary problem isn’t what one class teaches in one part of its curriculum in high school. Whether you use the falsely titled “comprehensive” Planned Parenthood type curriculum or that of the abstinence groups, the whole thing is doomed to fail if kids aren’t supervised, aren’t equipped to say no, aren’t given support by parents and just wallow in the sewer of our sex-obsessed culture.
All of the evils of Planned Parenthood-style sex education are brought to you by the “Christian” Left, mocking God and his word since their inception. Churchgoers who support “same-sex marriage” have nearly identical views to the world. It shows who their real father is.
1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
Jude 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
When I pointed out problems of sex ed on one post I got this answer in reply:
The problem is that people screw.
My reply to him:
How Zen-like ;-).
Yes, and people steal. And lie. And don’t study in school. And do drugs. And drink alcohol and drive.
So do we give up educating them that abstaining from these and other behaviors would be wise?
Do we let them escape from consequences when they do the behaviors?
Do we just focus on making is safer to do these things? “If you are going to drink and drive, be sure to have an air bag in the car.”
Fortunately, one commenter saw the light:
I think his point was that no matter the sex ed, the rest of culture undoes it.
That sums it up nicely.
OK, it took some time for me to arrive at this position, but I am now a huge fan of flexible schooling. We did it the last two years of youngest daughter’s high school and wish we would have started earlier. Technically it is home schooling, but with the mix of online courses and Home School Association classes it is really more like flexible schooling.
A few benefits:
You need to be very intentional about getting the education and the socializing down. We know of a couple home schooled kids who meet the stereotype of not being socialized well (though that may have had nothing to do with where they were schooled), but countless more who are phenomenally well adjusted . It is a running joke with home schooling about that. These kids are out and about doing all sorts of things.
I know that we pay 100% of our property taxes and 100% of the extra costs of home schooling, and many people do the same to send their kids to private schools. You can just scan the cost / student in many areas (over $10,000 per student to get the current results) and see that something has gone horribly wrong with how we administer education.
We could do so much more with flexibile schooling by utilizing best-of-the-best recorded lessons, computer training/testing and having teachers do more tutoring than trying to give one-size-fits-all lessons to over 20 kids at once. It would save big $$$ and get better results.
. . . for all those who have been saturated by the Leftist education, media and entertainment industries and who have been repeating the falsehood that it won’t impact other people. Seriously, this is less than 30 minutes. That seems like a small investment to counter the hundreds of hours of propaganda that you’ve been subjected to.
People who say that “same-sex marriage” won’t harm you or others are deceived or deceivers.
People who claim the name of Christ and support “same-sex marriage” or say that homosexual behavior isn’t a sin violate the two greatest commandments.
Bible-believing Christians and even two out of the three types of pro-gay people* (religious or not) can see these truths:
Here’s a direct link to the video — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZX55HUPFSU . Please bookmark it and share it with those who say this won’t harm others.
* The three general types of pro-gay theology people: 1. “The Bible says homosexuality is wrong but it isn’t the word of God” (obviously non-Christians) 2. “The Bible says it is wrong but God changed his mind and is only telling theological Liberals” (only about 10 things wrong with that) 3. “The Bible is the word of God but you are just misunderstanding it” (Uh, no, not really.)
1. It is a perverse worldview-shaping program driven by the Left and being forced on public school students (and soon to be all students, if they get their wishes, because the Left hates home schooling).
2. It is another example of why we don’t need the Federal Government involved in education. This “optional” program is typical of how the Feds operate: They take the money of citizens by force then “give” it back if you participate in their “optional” programs like this. But if you don’t participate you get nothing. No compulsion there, right?
So what is the Common Core? Via A Monstrous Story for a Monstrous Curriculum: The Ugly Heart of Common Core.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Common Core, it is a curriculum created in the private sector but pushed onto states by the federal government and endorsed by Bill Gates. The cost of implementing the program runs from millions to billions depending on the state. It is untested and unresearched. It has been criticized for being not as rigorous as proponents claim, clearly biased to a liberal perspective, so much so that many see it as indoctrination, and it is being forced on the states in spite of the fact that a federal curriculum is unconstitutional violating the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitutionwhich established the principle that“…the “power” to oversee education belongs to the states. This longstanding principle of local control of education is reiterated throughout our laws and government codes.”
All of that sounds like something that makes NO connection whatsoever to most parents or teachers or American citizens as to why they should fight this curriculum.
Here’s an example of the morality it contains. If you’ve followed the Common Core at all you know that this is one of countless examples. You could write about it all day, every day.
Here, I am going to provide you with a concrete example that shows the ugly heart of the Common Core. There is something deeply dark and offensive in this lesson created to support Common Core. It is a lesson designed to corrupt essential human decency.
The unit – sorry “module” – that I am using as an example is centered around To Kill a Mockingbird with the theme of “How individuals demonstrate individuality in the face of outside pressures.” At the beginning of all of this, it looks good. I love the book; it is a great American classic and I have taught it many times. The module includes 30 days of lessons associated with the novel and multiple additional short reading assignments. However, as I looked this module over, I became more and more concerned. For me to break down the many problems with this module in detail would take quite a while, so I am going to show you an example of one lesson on one short reading assignment that left me speechless with horror.
This assignment in the module includes a short story by Guy de Maupassant, 19th century writer famous forThe Necklace. Again, this seems rather innocent; this story is often included in high school texts, but not thisparticular story and, more importantly, not with this particular writing assignment.
The short story is The Mother of Monsters (link below). A quick summary of the story is that a gentleman on vacation is introduced to the Mother of Monsters, a local oddity described as a “peasant” and the “Devil”. Her story is that she finds herself pregnant while she is working as a simple serving girl. She binds her body with boards and cords to hide her growing belly. Her child is born horribly deformed. She takes care of the child, but resents it, until a sideshow man comes along and offers to buy the “thing” and to pay a yearly stipend for its use. Once she realizes how much money she can make, she repeats her pregnancy pattern by birthingmonster after monster after monster of intentionally deformed children to sell to showmen. She lives a “bourgeois” life as a result (note the stab at the bourgeois here).
The narrator is reminded of this “Devil” when he later sees a popular “Parissiane” strolling on a beach followed by admirers. Her three children are also all deformed because she wants to maintain her trim figure throughout her pregnancies, so she keeps her corset tightly cinched. Peasant and lady; different, yet the same. Both the Mother of Monsters. Both display a level of selfish evil that most humans would revile.
Now as a high school story, this story may have a lot of meat to chew on for discussion…for maybe 11th or 12thgraders, but this is a story assigned to incoming 9th graders, students who are 13 or 14 years old. Students this age are not ready to handle the truly disturbing elements of a story which reveals some of the most perverse sides of human nature. That is bad enough; however, it gets worse. You may wonder what this story has to do with To Kill a Mockingbird and the theme of individuality. Here is the writing assignment associated with this story:
Write an essay that compares the cultural experience reflected in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Mother of Monsters and explain how this experience helped a character demonstrate individuality in the face of outside pressure.
Individuality! Outside Pressure!!!! These women chose to deform their children for their own selfish gains or selfish vanity! The first pregnancy of the peasant woman we might forgive out of mercy, but the purposeful birthing of the rest of the 11 children that she intentionally deformed is unconscionable and unforgivable. The same holds with the Parisienne.
To judge these women as demonstrating their INDIVIDUALITY in the face of outside pressure is absurd and defies human decency. It is like insisting Jeffery Dahmer was expressing his individuality through cannibalistic murder. Additionally, it is not a major leap to conclude that if deforming your children in order to express your own individuality is acceptable, then killing your children to protect your individuality (or selfish inhumanity) is perfectly fine too. This is obviously a pro-abortion message. This story paired with this assignment is a repulsive perversion of the concept of “lesson”; it is a corruption of anything descent and good.
There is something deeply repulsive in this lesson, especially as it is aimed at students as young as 13. I have been told that I must teach this module. I can make some adjustments, but not too many. I am struggling to find a way to NOT perpetuate the ugliness found here. I am certainly NOT going to teach this story, though I may find myself in trouble with the system as a result. Some things are worth refusing to do even if there is a cost.
This is what is going on in our schools. This is what you need to see with open eyes. They are doing more than trying to increase rigor; they are indoctrinating our children into one way of thinking—their way! Schools should teach how to think, but never what to think. This is why we must fight what some are trying to sell us as “hope and change” to America.
Here’s an even more thorough take down of Common Core.
Hey all you Christian apologists, here’s something you can work in your schedule when you retire: Take college philosophy or science classes where the professors have an agenda to bully Christian students and spread their false views. You could be good ambassadors for Christ by graciously exposing their impure motives and errors.
We know from the movie Expelled! and countless other examples how many professors aggressively work their false, anti-Christian worldviews into their classes. A family friend was taking a philosophy class at a local junior college and the teacher launched into an anti-God tirade the first day.
So wouldn’t it be enjoyable and productive to be in those classes and destroy their arguments? It sounds almost biblical:
2 Corinthians 10:5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ
Seriously, apologists could go in and be polite but firm in refuting what the professors say. It wouldn’t take long for them to go back to teaching the actual subject material — you know, the thing they are paid to do. And who knows, if you go in as good ambassadors it might just change the professors’ minds.
Christians never retire. Whatever you do after you stop working for a paycheck, strive to advance the kingdom. (Of course you should serve in many ways while you are working, but you probably don’t have the flexibility to take daytime college classes.)
No, not moron ballroom dancing, although that’s what I sometimes feel like when learning new steps.
I wanted to follow up on my original post with some additional thoughts on the hobby we started two years ago to celebrate our 25th anniversary.
We take lessons several times a week (they have group classes nightly from Tuesday through Saturday and we take at least one private lesson per week) and venture out at least a month. Our favorite place is in the Heights where they have big band music and a variety of dances. It is a great deal — only $11 per person and you can bring your own snacks and drinks.
We are taking at a Fred Astaire studio close to our house. We’ve been really pleased with the instructors. Very thorough and friendly. If you tell them we referred you it is only $25 for a startup package with two private lessons and one group lesson (and they give us a free lesson). It is $50 without a referral.
One tip that could really help you: Once you’ve learned a step, make a video from your camera phone of your instructor showing your partner. Then you can watch the steps and know you are practicing it correctly. There have been many times when I thought I remembered it correctly but ended up practicing the wrong thing, which takes twice as long to un-learn then re-learn.
Also – and I realize this goes in the Captain Obvious category — it makes a huge difference if you practice new figures. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time, just a few minutes on a couple occasions as close to when you learned the steps as possible.
And note that dancing makes you smarter! Seriously, a New England Journal of Medicine discovered that something about the rapid-fire decision making involved in some forms of dancing has a profoundly more significant impact on reducing dementia than other forms of exercise, and even twice as much as reading.
Mary left this fantastic comment on the last post:
I just got back from a ballroom dance party. Love it! It’s good exercise, fun, mentally stimulating, expressive, and it makes me happy.
It also teaches me a lot about the Christian marriage dynamic. In ballroom dancing, as in Christian marriage, the man leads, and the woman follows his lead. They work together as a team, both being equally important and necessary to the dance, but with distinct roles. The man needs to lead gently, but firmly, making his intentions clear and doing his best to bring the best out of his dance partner. The woman follows the man’s leading, being sensitive to what direction he is taking her in and going with the flow of the movement he initiates. Much courtesy and grace is needed from both parties. Both will make mistakes. The key to getting the best out of one’s dance partner is encouragement for what they do right, coupled with diplomatic suggestions for improvement. Without the encouragement, the suggestions for improvement don’t go down as well. If one party gets the dance completely wrong, the other party has to stop them and gently indicate what it should be. Sometimes, there are times when the man gets the timing wrong. The woman can help him with the timing. But at other times it’s best to just keep going with the beat in his head. It feels frustrating sometimes but it works out better than struggling with your dance partner.
I’m single, but the above looks a lot like the Christian marriage dynamic to me.
I’ve used that illustration when teaching passages about Christian marriage, such as Ephesians 5. Anyone who has danced realizes how chaotic it would be if there was no official leader. Yet the notion that you are competing with your partner is foreign to dancing. You are most clearly a team.
Pastor Timothy on the sins of class warfare — Yep. There is a biblical word for that: Coveting. It also seems ungrateful, given that the top 1% pay for 37% of Federal Income Taxes.
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From the “Socialized medicine may kill you, but at least it’s free — unless you pay taxes, and then it just kills you” category — Socialized Medicine Euthanizes 130,000 Old People per Year in UK — It is sad to see Facebook statuses from Liberals noting the joys of “free” healthcare while ignoring the bigger picture about the inevitable deadly decisions made by unelected bureaucrats.
But it gets worse: Even the examples of the “free” healthcare ignore that it is unsustainable. It is hard to conceive of a group more ignorant of history. This “free” healthcare is very new in historical terms and will vanish as their Greece-like economies continue to self-destruct. They are slowly killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
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Courtesy of Haemet, note how inflation-adjusted costs of public education have tripled while scores have flattened or declined. But if you just give them even more money, they’ll improve . . . right?! Much of that waste has been to line the pockets of public employee unions. 
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All about Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee — It is hard to imagine a bigger embarrassment to everyone she represents and it is sad that someone like her is continually re-elected. I worked in a Fortune 50 company for 17 years and saw a few egomaniacs, but I say without hyperbole that they were innocent little doves compared to her.
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Jesus is the only way to salvation. Do not be unequally yoked with non-believers and false religions.
1 Corinthians 10:20 — “I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.”
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Canada’s Registry of Homophobic Acts deserves ridicule, but it is simultaneously chilling. This is part of the endgame for the LGBTQ lobby. Too many wimpy and/or fake churches and secular free speech advocates have ignored the signs and let this happen.
I don’t know if this is out of Monty Python or 1984:
“In what they are touting as a “world first,” a Quebec homosexual activist group has launched a “registry of homophobic acts” with support and funding from the Quebec Government’s Justice Department. …
Included in the definition of actions classified as “homophobic” and deemed worthy of reporting to the registry are: “any negative word or act toward a homosexual or homosexuality in general: physical abuse, verbal abuse, intimidation, harassment, offensive graffiti, abuse, injurious mockery, inappropriate media coverage and discrimination.””
A press release from the group says that anyone who has experienced or witnessed an act of homophobia “must” report it to the registry of homophobic acts. . . .
Funding and support for the venture comes from the Quebec Justice Ministry’s department of “The Fight Against Homophobia.” The Justice Ministry was tasked with fighting homophobia in 2008 and last year pledged $7 million to ‘anti-homophobia’ activities.”
The term homophobia refers to the politically incorrect refusal to sufficiently revere unholy acts of sexual depravity that spread lethal diseases and that have been regarded as shameful, disgusting, and loathsome throughout the world from the beginning of human history. Canadian readers who do not report that last sentence to the authorities at once are in violation of the wishes of their rulers.
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America vs. the sugar lobby — a great example of how crony capitalism is bad capitalism. If you don’t limit the power of government then you get corporations and unions paying off politicians to send huge sums of money their way.
For years, the federal government has kept the price of sugar high by capping domestic production, imposing a de facto government price floor, and mandating that USDA buy excess sugar to sell to ethanol producers at a loss. The U.S. government also places exorbitant restrictions on sugar imports. The cumulative effect of all these special protections is an artificial increase in the price of sugar for Americans relative to other countries.
As a result, American consumers pay more for products containing sugar, and U.S. manufacturers of sugar consuming products are at a competitive disadvantage. Not surprisingly, many of these manufacturers have closed their doors or moved their factories to Canada and Mexico where sugar costs less than half the price. The Department of Commerce agrees, finding that for every one job protected by the sugar program, three others are lost in sugar using manufacturing industries.
There is so much to learn from the historical evils of Communism, yet you won’t find it taught in public schools. They are too busy teaching that if we just keep trying then it will work.
But if people would at least watch what is going on in Europe they could see where the U.S. is headed. Their economies are cratering under their socialistic policies, especially in the area of health care.
And the media, education, police and government are all bowing down to Islam in the U.K. Muslims have been amazingly effective in getting the taxpayers to pay for all their living, health care and education costs while they “worship” and plot how to take over the country. Don’t believe me? Do some investigation and find out. Start here: MUST WATCH VIDEO: British Freedom Party Chairman Paul Weston On The Islamization Of Britain.
Or, the “Left” answers, to be more specific. See the video at James O’ Keefe Investigation: Rutgers Education Professor in Pay-for-Play | MRCTV to see how a Rutgers education professor agrees not to make a deal until the research shows what he wants it to be.
We know how wildly biased media and education can be, but I’ve never given much thought to how many things the Left can hide in academia. Think of the studies that allegedly show how well kids turn out in gay/lesbian households. But what makes you think they wouldn’t hide a study that showed otherwise?
However, a new in-depth review of 59 studies on gay parenting has concluded that such “strong assertions” about gay parenting are “not empirically warranted.”
Most of the 59 gay-parenting studies involve children of high-income white lesbian mothers or tended to use very small samples; studied children but not teens; and either had no comparison families or compared lesbian-led homes with single-mother-led homes, wrote Louisiana State University family science professor Loren Marks.
These and other weaknesses cannot support broad statements that there are “no significant differences” between being raised in same-sex versus mother-father homes, wrote Mr. Marks, whose analysis was included in the Oct. 15 briefs filed by the House of Representatives in its defense of DOMA in Pedersen v. Office of Personnel Management.
Eternity Matters 