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Education Buzz
\"Exodus\" From California Schools
COLUMBIA, South Carolina, Feb. 7—Christian Newswire— California Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation mandating that public school children be indoctrinated to accept as normal the homosexual lifestyle and other forms of sexual deviancy. In the wake of the failed effort to obtain a referendum to repeal this legislation, a broad coalition of Christian grassroots organizations have endorsed the Campaign for Children and Families call for California families and churches to rescue their children from California’s public schools.
The growing coalition includes Eagle Forum, the Campaign for Children and Families, Exodus Mandate, and ten more sponsors, five of which are based in California. These organizations will be providing information to California parents and pastors concerning the new school legislation, how it mainstream’s sexual deviancy among children, and what alternatives to California’s public schools are available.
According to Phyllis Schlafly, President of Eagle Forum, “Many of us have worked to reform public schools. Unfortunately, SB 777 and the related legislation represent a repudiation of 2,000 years of Christian moral teaching on human sexuality, marriage, and the family. The result is that California’s schools are now promoting behaviors and lifestyles that are physically and spiritually dangerous for children. Consequently, in California, parents must try to find alternatives to the public schools.”
Chairman for California Exodus is Dr. Ron Gleason, theologian and pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church, Yorba Linda, California and stated clerk of the South Coast Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America.In accepting this assignment he said: “As a parent and grandparent, I want those near and dear to me to have quality education. This country excels in every social, economical, scientific, and political category known to man, but gets low grades on the education of its children. We should be leading the world in developing well-educated young people. This role is first and foremost the responsibility of parents.”
One California-based sponsor, Denise Kanter, Founder of Considering Homeschooling Ministry said, “We hope our ministry with its free resources and web site will encourage families to provide their children with a safe Biblical home education.” Dr. Robert Simonds, President of Citizens for Excellence in Education, also a California organization, added, “Now is the time for the pastors and churches to fulfill their role in rescuing their own children and helping society by providing K-12 Christian education too.”
Randy Thomasson of the California-based Campaign for Children and Families has witnessed the attack on parental rights and sexual indoctrination of children coming over the last several years, “First, the law allowed public schools to voluntarily promote homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality. Then, the law required public schools to accept homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual teachers as role models for impressionable children. Now, the law has been changed to effectively require the positive portrayal of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality to six million children in California government-controlled schools. To rescue their children, loving parents need to find an alternative to government schools, and every church needs to make it a priority to help parents be in charge of their children’s education again.”
E. Ray Moore, Jr., believes that it is urgent that the coalition make parents and pastors aware of how dangerous the new legislation is going to make public schools and that they must take up their God-given responsibilities with their children. In fact, according to Moore, “The Biblical and theological case for Christian families and churches to practice K-12 Christian schooling or home schooling is strong. Christians should begin with the belief that children belong to the Lord and are a stewardship of the family, not the state.”
Bruce Shortt, author of The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, notes, “Christians have already become numb to the moral relativism that is taught in all public schools today. Now children will be told that their sexual orientation and gender are relative, too. No longer will children raised in these schools understand that God made us male and female with different, but complementary roles. Instead, children will be taught that sexual orientation and gender are merely a matter of personal choice. Thus, children will be told that because there are many sexual orientations and gender identities, they simply have to reach their own conclusions about which sexual orientation and gender ‘possibilities’ are ‘right for them.’ Along with this will come the message that you really can’t tell wheth! er you like something unless you have tried it. The likely consequences of this for children, the institution of the family, our churches, and our culture are horrendous.”
Additional information can be found at, www.californiaexodus.org, www.savecalifornia.com, and www.exodusmandate.org.
List of sponsoring organizations: Phyllis Schlafly with Eagle Forum; Denise Kanter with Considering Homeschooling Ministry; Dr. Robert Simonds with Citizens for Excellence in Education; Star Parker with Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education; Patch Blakey with Association of Classical and Christian Schools; Dave and Kim d’Escoto with Dexios; Dan Smithwick with Nehemiah Institute; Alan Schaeffer with Alliance for Separation of School and State; Linda Harvey with Mission America; Randy Thomasson with Campaign for Children and families; and Dr. Ron Gleason with California Exodus.
Read More...The Ugliness of the New Beowulf Movie
This is a few opening thoughts from a young, seminarian and culture critic, whose blog name is vanwedgeworth. His insightful comments are about the new Beowulf film:
“The new Beowulf was an evil movie. It was a full attack on Jesus Christ, and that fact should not be missed. In this regard, it should also be noted that the new Beowulf movie (I will never simply refer to it as b Beowulf,b since the original remains a Christian masterpiece) is one part of the larger attack of the new atheism. Da Vinci Code had the same b cherish the myth anywayb moral at the end of it, and I suppose the upcoming Golden Compass will echo similar platitudes.
The most striking thing about the new Beowulf movie, though, was its ugliness. Hrothgar was a fat, drunken, impotent, dolt. Beowulf was a prideful and greedy betrayer. The mead-hall was a place of debauchery rather than joy. Wiglaf seemed to embrace the eternal recurrence of greed and death. No one could have any kids, and life was always dying.
This is the atheist myth of origins.
It should be noted that the characters in the real Beowulf were fully the product of Christianity. Grendel, as the bad guy, was a descendant of Cain. Hrothgar did have kids. Beowulf killed the She-Wolf, Grendelbs mother, and went back home to reign. Wiglaf grants his aid to Beowulf as all the of the rest of the army runs away, and the noble Beowulf gives his life in the battle.
There are three major conflicts because the Christian life is always triune."
Read More...Graduation Rate a Sign of Multiple Failures
June 12, 2007, Columbia, SC - SCRG President Randy Page released the following statement with regard to the latest report ranking South Carolina last in its graduation rate:
While most of the talk about this year’s lack of productivity in the General Assembly revolves around their not passing a budget or DOT reform, the 2007 Diplomas Count report showing South Carolina last in graduation rates once again is a stark reminder of how they truly failed.Read More...
The reality is our legislators will come back next week and most likely pass a budget and craft a compromise on DOT. They will then leave Columbia until next January without implementing any policy that substantially helps the thousands of children being denied an adequate education.
We hear it over and over and over again that education is our state’s top priority; yet a majority of the General Assembly, most of the media and our education leaders are unwilling to support a proven method to help increase our 53.8% graduation rate. That method: comprehensive school choice. There was ample opportunity to do that this year, but legislators failed our children once again.
Apologists can tout our standards all day long, but the harsh fact is South Carolina continues to graduate only 1 out of 2 students. That is an unacceptable statistic that is a much larger drain on our state than any of the other issues addressed (or not addressed) by the General Assembly. Coupled with our dismal proficiency rates and poor performance on college entrance exams, there is no disputing our state is in dire need of real education reform.
Not only does this report show a failure of our system, but it shows a failure of our elected officials. And that should be the lasting impression of this legislative session.
New SAT Blues
Janie Cheaney writes in World Magazine of the ills and ilks of the new SAT. She observes not only the shortcoming that the SAT is the major factor of entering college, but that the new essay, like the standardized test itself fails in a full-orbed analysis of a student’s abilities. The essay portion focuses on specific writing rules (grammar, et al), but allows little to now room for accuracy in creativity or accuracy is persuasive essays—what she calls “style at the cost of substance” and “divorces an arguments methods from its value.” Like the No Child Left Behind standardization, the standardizing of education—John Dewey’s dream—is harmful to real and full education of children because of the narrowing of content. She says, “Whatever its merits, the new SAT requirement (the essay portion) does nothing to fill it."
Patrick Henry College
The past year for Patrick Henry College, located in beautiful Purcellville, Va., has been one of remarkable progress. First and foremost, on April 17, the college attained accreditation from the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, which is recognized as a national accrediting body by the U.S. Department of Education.
Reported from HLSDA
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