The wussification of America is almost complete. I know the word does not exist, but I have created a new phrase to fit what is happening in our country. There was the day in America that people were strong enough to stand up and say, "I made that decision and right or wrong I still am the one who is responsible". Not so any more in this great land of freedom, no one wants to be responsible for what they do or say. The legal industry has something to do with this state of mentality, the public un-education system has something to do with this, as well as many well meaning parents and some parents that should have never been parents, and finally the church had a hand in this too. Where ever the pointer lands we need to understand what it means.
The USA is no longer the home of the brave and land of the free, if this path continues. This country was founded by men and women who were willing to stand up and fight the world super power of the time for freedom. Patrick Henry is often quoted "Give me liberty or give death", he knew if the American Revolution failed he and many others would be hung as traitors and was willing to stand up and be counted as that for freedom. He took responsibility, he and the others of the outlaw colonial revolt were convinced that God had a mission and that was the freedom of America, where people could take responsibility for themselves.
The funny thing is that God gives us the freedom to take responsibility for our spiritual lives as well as our physical lives. I find the two are connected at the deepest level, people who don't want to take responsibility for their physical life and the mess that they have created, never take responsibility for their spiritual life either. Have you ever given that any thought? If you do, you will find that it is a true statement.
Freedom is a two edged sword and one must learn to handle it without getting cut, you have the freedom to chose which path you will take, failure or success. You are the one who decides which path, you can blame it on someone else and deny your responsibility, but it was you who made the decisions.
God gives you an escape hatch, if you will use it. The first step is taking responsibility for your mistakes and admitting guilt, I made the mess and I don't know how to fix it. This applies to your spiritual life and physical life as well. Step two is ask Jesus to forgive you and take over as Savior and Lord. This is the step that most people fail at and don't know it. Jesus will be your savior, but to have victory you must let Him be Lord and have control. That means you must learn to listen and do what He directs and take responsibility for doing what He wants you to do. If He is not your Lord, you may not be His child, remember the verse,"Depart from me" Matthew 7:23. At this point it will be too late to blame someone else.
What to do? Take responsibility for your actions, ask Jesus to be your savior and Lord, listen and respond. Don't pass the buck on this one, no one can get you out of this except your self with Jesus.There is no "free pass".
God Bless
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Why is Public Education Failing?
Everyone seems to agree that the public education system in America is failing on all fronts. A recent survey revealed that of 25 developed countries the USA was 23rd in student scores. Many well educated and well meaning people have spend countless hours trying to figure out how to solve this problem. All the focus is always on what the school system needs to do to fix the problem. The teachers usually take a punch to the nose, in most of these reports and surveys. I am not convinced that it is all the teachers' fault, yes there are teachers who are just making time until retirement and that is a situation that needs to be addressed.
No child should be left behind was the brain child of a recent President, and has pushed the educators in our schools to teach students to pass a test. Every teacher is graded on how well the students in their class take and pass the end of grade test, (EOGs), and every student will tell you that the EOG is something they stress about. The schools are ranked and graded based on the overall results of the EOGs, and teachers' and teacher assistants' salaries are connected the results of these test. Conceptually this is a good idea and rewards high performance schools and faulty. The draw back is, that no exceptions are allowed and those students that can not, for physical or mental reasons, pass the EOGs, are still required to take the test and expected to perform. Even that can be over come and is not the root cause of the problem. To fix a problem one must get to the root of the problem, if your car tire is low on air you can air it up for a little while, but you better find the leak and fix it.
We now have the first group of children in the school system that was and is being raised by the village. The biggest problem in our school system is the home of many of the students. We have students in our school system that have no idea of how they are suppose to behave in public, because they have no direction at home. The school system is not allowed to correct the problem with any authority, other than corrective positive reinforcement. The teachers and assistances are so busy trying to teach children how to act in public and function in a group environment, that they can't teach reading, writing and math.
My wife is a teacher assistant in a public school and is in a K grade class and has had children tell her this year that they would hit her if she corrected their behavior. Her teacher calls it a power struggle and refuses to address the behavior, of course that is coming from the Principal of the school who uses the same methodology.
The school used to be a great magnet school of math and science, and had a great group of children and parents, from across the city. The leadership has changed and is focusing more on being a neighborhood/community based school, sounds like a good idea, the only problem is that the community is 98% low income black. Most of these students are from single parent households and may even be living with a elderly grandparent, and may not be receive the discipline they need. There fore these students don't know how to behave in public and think that they are in charge, thereby the "power struggle" in class rooms.
The answer may be as simple as restoring strong corrective discipline in the school system, but we know that is a simplistic answer. Parents need to be re-empowered to take control of the children and provide discipline and direction to children, the idea that children should be disciplined by positive corrective reinforcement sounds nice in books and seminars, but rarely works.
Now I am not encouraging child abuse. What I am encouraging is setting limits and having accountability for actions. Sometimes a swat to the bottom will go a long way to provide needed corrections. To answer the question of what is the root of the problem, I have a fairly simple answer, families are needed to raise children, and discipline needs to taught at home, not at school.
No child should be left behind was the brain child of a recent President, and has pushed the educators in our schools to teach students to pass a test. Every teacher is graded on how well the students in their class take and pass the end of grade test, (EOGs), and every student will tell you that the EOG is something they stress about. The schools are ranked and graded based on the overall results of the EOGs, and teachers' and teacher assistants' salaries are connected the results of these test. Conceptually this is a good idea and rewards high performance schools and faulty. The draw back is, that no exceptions are allowed and those students that can not, for physical or mental reasons, pass the EOGs, are still required to take the test and expected to perform. Even that can be over come and is not the root cause of the problem. To fix a problem one must get to the root of the problem, if your car tire is low on air you can air it up for a little while, but you better find the leak and fix it.
We now have the first group of children in the school system that was and is being raised by the village. The biggest problem in our school system is the home of many of the students. We have students in our school system that have no idea of how they are suppose to behave in public, because they have no direction at home. The school system is not allowed to correct the problem with any authority, other than corrective positive reinforcement. The teachers and assistances are so busy trying to teach children how to act in public and function in a group environment, that they can't teach reading, writing and math.
My wife is a teacher assistant in a public school and is in a K grade class and has had children tell her this year that they would hit her if she corrected their behavior. Her teacher calls it a power struggle and refuses to address the behavior, of course that is coming from the Principal of the school who uses the same methodology.
The school used to be a great magnet school of math and science, and had a great group of children and parents, from across the city. The leadership has changed and is focusing more on being a neighborhood/community based school, sounds like a good idea, the only problem is that the community is 98% low income black. Most of these students are from single parent households and may even be living with a elderly grandparent, and may not be receive the discipline they need. There fore these students don't know how to behave in public and think that they are in charge, thereby the "power struggle" in class rooms.
The answer may be as simple as restoring strong corrective discipline in the school system, but we know that is a simplistic answer. Parents need to be re-empowered to take control of the children and provide discipline and direction to children, the idea that children should be disciplined by positive corrective reinforcement sounds nice in books and seminars, but rarely works.
Now I am not encouraging child abuse. What I am encouraging is setting limits and having accountability for actions. Sometimes a swat to the bottom will go a long way to provide needed corrections. To answer the question of what is the root of the problem, I have a fairly simple answer, families are needed to raise children, and discipline needs to taught at home, not at school.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Truth of Christmas
I watched "Charlie Brown's Christmas" last night and had a good laugh, and was reminded that there was a day that the truth of Christmas could be publicly stated on television, as Linus recited the Biblical story of the birth of Jesus.
My wife made the comment that someone would probably complain to the television station about the story of Jesus' birth. That gave me a thought, what do atheist celebrate at Christmas, why do these folks even have a holiday during the winter at all? The word holiday actually mean Holy Day and holy only comes from the acknowledgement of God or Supreme Being if you wish. The winter holiday, aka Christmas is an a celebration of the birth of Jesus the Jewish Messiah, and foundation of the Christian faith. If one does not believe in God, then why would one believe in the Son of God and celebrate His birthday. If a person doesn't believe in something why would they spend time talking about it or complaining about it.
Let me share an example with you, I don't believe in vampires and there fore I have never seen any of the vampires movies that have been out in the last couple of years. I don't talk about vampires or protest the movies, I simply ignore what I care not to believe in, this works well for things that don't exist. Not so easy to ignore something that does exist and that which most of the world accepts as fact because there is more proof than not.
For the atheist that wish to ignore the truth of Jesus, let me suggest that you forget the winter holiday completely. That will save you money and there is no need for you to exchange gifts anyway. Please allow us simple minded individuals who understand the truth that God is real and Jesus is the Messiah to enjoy a holiday and all the tradition and fun the goes with it.
It is my prayer that the truth of the message of Jesus and the Christmas story will reach your heart this year.
My wife made the comment that someone would probably complain to the television station about the story of Jesus' birth. That gave me a thought, what do atheist celebrate at Christmas, why do these folks even have a holiday during the winter at all? The word holiday actually mean Holy Day and holy only comes from the acknowledgement of God or Supreme Being if you wish. The winter holiday, aka Christmas is an a celebration of the birth of Jesus the Jewish Messiah, and foundation of the Christian faith. If one does not believe in God, then why would one believe in the Son of God and celebrate His birthday. If a person doesn't believe in something why would they spend time talking about it or complaining about it.
Let me share an example with you, I don't believe in vampires and there fore I have never seen any of the vampires movies that have been out in the last couple of years. I don't talk about vampires or protest the movies, I simply ignore what I care not to believe in, this works well for things that don't exist. Not so easy to ignore something that does exist and that which most of the world accepts as fact because there is more proof than not.
For the atheist that wish to ignore the truth of Jesus, let me suggest that you forget the winter holiday completely. That will save you money and there is no need for you to exchange gifts anyway. Please allow us simple minded individuals who understand the truth that God is real and Jesus is the Messiah to enjoy a holiday and all the tradition and fun the goes with it.
It is my prayer that the truth of the message of Jesus and the Christmas story will reach your heart this year.
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