Online Education vs. School Education

Over the past twelve years, studies have shown that students who study online are ranked higher in tested performances. Online Education is expected to expand sharply in the next few years.

Online Education has improved drastically in the last couple of years because of instant messaging, web-based video, and collaboration tools. The real benefit of online education is that it enables students to do the "learning by doing" method. And their studies are more tailored to their needs.

Many K-12 schools and universities are using programs such as Moodle or Blackboard in their classrooms. On these programs teachers can post assignments and grades for a particular class.

Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/study-finds-that-online-education-beats-the-classroom/

My Opinion

I have never personally taken an online class. It seems to me that you would learn the same online as you would in school. I would forget everything equally. But what does my opinion matter anyway? I'm being forced to write on issues that don't even matter or contribute to anything important.

Gay Curriculum in California Schools

In California, 250 schools have registered to show their children a curriculum of films that encourages teens to rethink their sexuality, society, and even religion. The program is called Youth in Motion: Empowering students through LGBTQ film. They want teachers and students to educate their peers about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transexual culture and history.

There are several packages targeted toward different age groups. The Gender Matters package includes a video about "two-spirit people." Two-spirit people are Native Americans who embody the masculine and the feminine side of their bodies. They become a third gender, something more then a man or a woman.

They also ask the question, "Does religion or cultural events encourage gender choice or reinforce gender expectation?" Schools can show these films without parental consent, as long as they do not show or talk about sexual and reproductive systems. Parents may or may not be given the choice to have their kids opt out.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=110248

My Opinion

This absolutely disgusts me. I do not understand why school officials think that it's ok to show these things in school. This world and the media are so corrupt. Just because some people have different sexual preferences, does not mean that they have to educate us about it. And the fact that some parents can't opt out for their kids is unthinkable. Sexual things should not be talked about in schools. (Especially when they refer to Darth Vader's helmet.)

Big Brother Barack

The White House is hiring a contractor to extract information about Americans from social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Flickr, and YouTube. The NLPC (National Legal and Policy Center) has revealed that the White House New Media team wants to hire a technology vendor to collect data such as commments, posts, tags, e-mail, audio, and video from any place where the White House "maintains a presence." The information will be held up to eight years.

NLPC warns, "[V]irtually any communication mentioning the president or the administration could become subject to collection and archiving under the act. This is not out of an 'abundance of caution,' but out of an over-abundance of power. President Obama should make sure that this plan goes no further."

According to the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, federal agencies have negotiated agreements and contracts with social networking sites like Google, YouTube, SlideShare, Facebook, AddThis, Blist, Flickr and VIMEO to collect information on visitors for federal websites. All of these private companies are known to have agreements with federal agencies, but the public has never seen them.

In public comments submitted to the Office of Management and Budget, EPIC notes it has obtained documents that show federal agencies have negotiated these contracts with the private sector in violation of "existing statutory privacy rights." Those agencies include: Department of Defense, Department of the Treasury, and the National Security Agency.

My Response

This is getting scary. First Obama starts a snitch website so people can report anyone who tries to oppose his new health care bill, but now he wants to keep track of anything and everything we say. Why do they need this information? What are they using it for? They have NO RIGHT to do this. Next thing we know, if we even think about disagreeing with the government, they will track us down and chip us. With Obama as our president, things are getting worse by the day. To those of you who don't think that he can ruin this country in four years, think again.

Keep Your Kids At Home Day

On September 8th, 2009, Obama is planning on giving a nationally televised address to schools nationwide. He is broadcasting from Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. He plans to address the nations schools about "education and the future." This broadcast has greatly upset parents nationwide. They are afraid that Obama will indoctrinate their children and that it will take away from important class time. Parents nationwide have dubbed September 8th as "National Keep Your Kid Home Day."

Schools are giving kids the chance to opt-out of the address with parental consent. In Utah, Salt Lake City School District is advising schools to have teachers notify parents if they will be showing the presentation, than give them the chance to opt-out. One Utah father told the Deseret News he will pull his four children out of school rather than allow them to watch the Obama broadcast. "We will go on a picnic and read the Constitution – learn something useful," he said.

Other quotes from angry and concerned parents include:

• He is treading on very dangerous ground.
• I would keep my kid out for the whole day instead of just a couple of hours – the school districts receive an amount per student based on their daily attendance, so the thing to do is to hit them in the pocketbook, where it hurts.
• I assume brownshirts will be taking the names of those who opt out.
• Obama's campaign promise was all about change. He wants to change everything good in America, and he is using the media to control and plant communist ideas in the minds of our children.

Also part of the media presentation is a pre and post lesson. For the K-6th graders there is a worksheet that poses questions such as:

• What is the president trying to tell me to do?
• What is the president asking me to do?
• What new actions and ideas is the president challenging me to think about?

For the 7th-12th graders they get questions such as:

• Why does President Obama want to speak with us today?
• How will he inspire us?
• How will he challenge us?
• What might he say?

Jim Greer, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, said in a statement that he believes Obama's speech may be a platform "to spread" his "socialist ideology."

"As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology. The idea that school children across our nation will be forced to watch the president justify his plans for government-run health care, banks, and automobile companies, increasing taxes on those who create jobs, and racking up more debt than any other president, is not only infuriating, but goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans, while bypassing American parents through an invasive abuse of power."

My Lovely Response

I absolutely agree with the parents opinions in this article. Obama has no right to go into our classrooms and try to brainwash us into his way of thinking. He does not have a teaching degree, so therefore he has no right to force himself into our classrooms and teach us his socialist propaganda. We do not need or want federal interference in our educational system.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=108795