> That is the problem. Why not make public schools better?
People have tried. The problem is the governance structure that creates a race to the bottom. It's not a question of funding anymore.
The reason that private school is so successful? It's run by teachers. People who have gone to school, received training and degrees as professional educators. Not only are they able to get together to talk about new techniques, figure out the best ways to teach and improve what they do, how they teach, what they think is important to teach...but they also have to convince parents that the school is the best place for their kids to be so there's a natural balance factor in play of "teacher collaboration", "parental buy in" and "is it actually working for my child"?
What sold me was the tour we did when my son was getting ready to start K5. Everything looked great on the tour of course. I was happy with everything that I saw, but then I started asking questions.
This was during the time that common core was being rolled out everywhere and I was seeing my friends with parents of older kids talking about how students who were previously getting straight A's or perfect scores in math were suddenly getting bad grades because they were getting the right answers the wrong ways. They were turning into stressed out, anxious basket cases who hated school. That system was being thrust on everybody so quickly by careless governance that it was causing chaos.
The dean's answer? "We also use common core here, but we decided on that a few years prior after our teachers researched it and decided it would be best. It was gradually implemented over 4-5 years and parents were communicated to about the changes along the way. The entire process was very smooth."
That sold me. We actually live where we live because it is zoned for a good public school. The option to have a school experience for my kids that wasn't going to be disrupted by dramatic changes after every election was more important to me. I wanted a stable elementary school experience and we planned to move them out to public in middle school.
Then Covid hit and the school handled things much better than public schools did for those 2 years. Now we're on to high school and the political climate is just about the strangest it's been in my lifetime with so much politics aimed at school boards, so without ever planning to there's a good chance that they'll continue here for high school too.
The educational factors are important, yes. It's a rigorous school. But the stability factor is more important. My kids love school. I didn't when I was a kid and I'm very thankful that they are in an environment that gives them that.
The religious aspects for me are good, but they would get most of the same in church. But I do like knowing that the same values we teach our kids are being modeled in their daily environments.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." - Galations 5:22-23
Read it sometime. Most American Christians have never read the Bible and have no idea what they believe in.
Is this what you want to teach your kids.
Search Stoning, literally can't get through the day without being stoned.
This is how we become Ameristan.
----
Did you work on Sunday? Dead
Exodus 31:15
"Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death."
----
Little Victim Blaming, Dead
Deuteronomy 22:23-24
“If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.
------
Pretty Harsh - we'll be killing a lot of people to comply with this law. Dead.
Leviticus 20:10
“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
----
No Bad Words, or you are Dead.
Leviticus 24:13-14
"Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then let all the congregation stone him."
-----
Wave the bloody Sheet or, Dead.
And father fined.
Deuteronomy 22:20
"But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, 18and the elders shall take the man and punish him. 19They shall fine him a hundred shekels b of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.
If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, 21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you."
-------
Women are property, and the Bible lists a price sheet. Rape is just fifty silver shekels.
Not dead, but now married because you were raped.
Deuteronomy 28
"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29he shall pay her father fifty shekels c of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives."
-----
Some Sexy Times
Ironically, the least offensive thing here.
Ezekiel 23:19-21
"There she had longed for her lovers. Their private parts seemed as big as those of donkeys. And their flow of semen appeared to be as much as that of horses. You longed for the time when you first became impure in Egypt. That was when you allowed your breasts to be kissed. And you permitted your young breasts to be touched.”
I'll check out the 30,000 book.
I can't say I've read 100% of the Bible, there are some pretty dry books that don't add much. But, I didn't just search the web and find some good quotes.
I often advocate that Christians should read the Bible.
For two reasons,
1. Most Christians advocate/believe things that are not in the Bible and if they are going to so passionately drive the country off a cliff, they should at least know what is in it.
2. Reading it kind of cures them, there is no 'atheist' argument against the Bible that is as strong as just reading it. Read all the parts that churches cherry picks around. Actually reading it will cause most people to realize they don't believe it.
Christianity was viewed as a 'mystic cult' from the beginning, it is almost 'pagan' in its beliefs, which sounds strange today. But seeing a group chanting and talking about Democrats being possessed by demons and thus we need a war to kill them, it all looks very much like a bad horror movie.
-> It really is an argument for why religion should NOT be in politics, because politics is messy and the religion is then tainted by the politics. By being involved in politics the religion is diminished.
If you really want to spread the word of Jesus, then how is politics helping that, unless you are doing it for control. Look at me, I'm open to trying to understand the Bible, but if all I see are evangelicals talking about demon possession, and the need for guns to fight a holy war, and chanting around the president, that is not helping spread the word. It's the opposite, they look crazy and scary.
1. This is true. When I read it the first time I was more shocked by how much wasn’t in it than how much was.
2. I had the opposite experience. I was an atheist/agnostic (and an angry one at that) for about 8 years. Then God changed my life in a manner so direct that it left me with no doubt at all. I read the Bible over 3 years to understand what happened to me and I helped a lot. Then I started doing studies, joined a Sunday School class, a men’s Bible study and even guest taught a few lessons. I was greatly encouraged to find that I was allowed to disagree with people during Bible studies and we would all learn together. This blew away all my misconceptions about church in general. I always assumed everybody agreed about everything. That’s not the case. Everybody is there to learn. The more you study, the more you can contribute.
As far as politics, the biggest thing people push for is the freedom to live without being forced to do what they believe is wrong or to have their children forced to participate in things that violate their faith. I can’t see any problem with that.
I wish everyone had that attitude about their religions. Learning is something I can get behind in any endeavor.
Guess why this subject gets heated is because Christians do tend to think their freedoms are infringed upon by others having freedom. Like "other people being allowed to be gay, infringes upon my freedom to not allow gays to exist". (gay as just example here).
That is the problem with Religion. If my holy book tells me that something is evil, and I truly believe that god is real, and this book is divine, then now I'm duty bound to go fight evil, even if it is not infringing upon me in anyway. I now must go out and stop it, and take away others freedom.
Pick any hot button issue they are fighting now, and it is very Cherry picked. All of the passages against being gay also include not eating shellfish, so where is the outrage over seafood restaurants?
I think a closer look at all of these issues, Christians are not being forced to do anything against their beliefs, instead they are actively taking away others freedoms. Lets say you do have a religious based food restraint, is there really a school somewhere tying kids down and forcing them to eat it?
In all cases, the need for religious schools is NOT to prevent kids from doing something against their religion, it is to allow them to practice their parents religion while in school, it is to purposely to keep them from knowledge, so that the message they receive is controlled.
Christians are so indoctrinated in the belief that they are the meek, the victims, that they feel justified in fighting anybody that does not believe like them, then prostrate about being the 'victim'.
In any case. It is good to hear about positive experiences. Just seems like for the typical 'user' of the text, the Bible leads more people astray, than it does leading them to any realizations. There are more wrong paths, than paths to your type of experience.
EDIT
Other good example, super hot button: Prayer in School.
But, NOBODY in a public school is forcing kids to pray to the 'wrong' god'.
It is Christians actively wanting to force everyone else 'to pray'. You say you don't want to be forced to do something, but this is explicitly a case where that happens, Christians want to force others to pray, then turn around and act the 'victim', because they can't force others.
Sure. I'll check. I'm not sure how long a discussion like this can go on HN.
And understand, in the last post, those are just some examples. Like recently, 'gay' is no longer the hot topic it was 10 years ago, now Transphobia has taken its place to fire up the religious base. So not sure the bible quotes apply. (It can get confusing, there are legit genetic disorders why victimize them?, and if a woman is infertile, is she still a woman? The religious split hairs in each case and get backed into a corner)
Not to open a whole new line, but the intersection of Religion and Technology(not science) is maybe problem. Like Blood Transfusions, some sects say the bible doesn't allow them. Or invitro fertilization is not allowed. The bible doesn't really have specific opinions on these new things, they are just shoe-horned in.
Don't know. Every Christian Sect has some interpretation.
Really, on both sides here, my side too, the arguments are old. Really hundreds of years old, with many notable names.
I do say and mean this, if Religion helped you, then good, if it is something that helps you get through the day and cope with the world, then good. I'm all for people finding some solace. Just keep it private. It's only a problem when someone has a meaningful experience, then gets fired up to make everyone else see it too.
People have tried. The problem is the governance structure that creates a race to the bottom. It's not a question of funding anymore.
The reason that private school is so successful? It's run by teachers. People who have gone to school, received training and degrees as professional educators. Not only are they able to get together to talk about new techniques, figure out the best ways to teach and improve what they do, how they teach, what they think is important to teach...but they also have to convince parents that the school is the best place for their kids to be so there's a natural balance factor in play of "teacher collaboration", "parental buy in" and "is it actually working for my child"?
What sold me was the tour we did when my son was getting ready to start K5. Everything looked great on the tour of course. I was happy with everything that I saw, but then I started asking questions.
This was during the time that common core was being rolled out everywhere and I was seeing my friends with parents of older kids talking about how students who were previously getting straight A's or perfect scores in math were suddenly getting bad grades because they were getting the right answers the wrong ways. They were turning into stressed out, anxious basket cases who hated school. That system was being thrust on everybody so quickly by careless governance that it was causing chaos.
The dean's answer? "We also use common core here, but we decided on that a few years prior after our teachers researched it and decided it would be best. It was gradually implemented over 4-5 years and parents were communicated to about the changes along the way. The entire process was very smooth."
That sold me. We actually live where we live because it is zoned for a good public school. The option to have a school experience for my kids that wasn't going to be disrupted by dramatic changes after every election was more important to me. I wanted a stable elementary school experience and we planned to move them out to public in middle school.
Then Covid hit and the school handled things much better than public schools did for those 2 years. Now we're on to high school and the political climate is just about the strangest it's been in my lifetime with so much politics aimed at school boards, so without ever planning to there's a good chance that they'll continue here for high school too.
The educational factors are important, yes. It's a rigorous school. But the stability factor is more important. My kids love school. I didn't when I was a kid and I'm very thankful that they are in an environment that gives them that.
The religious aspects for me are good, but they would get most of the same in church. But I do like knowing that the same values we teach our kids are being modeled in their daily environments.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." - Galations 5:22-23