TFOT - 081608 Streaming on www.praise940.com at 8 central Saturday mornings.

TOPIC: Helping parents find truth in the statistics schools send home.

GUEST: Lowell Scott - parent to parent

Action needed:
Call your Congressman at 202-225-3121 and ask him/her to support or co-sponsor the Schoolchildren's Health Protection Act (HR 6453). The bill withholds federal funding to schools that provide children with the morning after pill. According to Concerned Women for America's August 2008 newsletter, reports indicate that are over 150 schools across the country dispense the morning after pill at school-based clinics without parent's knowledge.

Upcoming Events:
Help direct public opinion rather than be under the influence of it.
Immigration Forum
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Des Moines Area Community College Ankeny Campus
Auditorium - Building 6
2006 South Ankeny Blvd.
Ankeny, IA 50023
515-243-2000

Interview:
Schools often send home glowing reports on student achievement; yet, data continues to show students struggle with the basic academics. In the interview Lowell Scott helped parents break down the numbers and decipher what it means concerning our children and their readiness for work or college after graduation.

According to School Board member, Jon Narcisse, Tuesday, Feb 19, 2008, Dr. Sebring's achievement report to the School Board documented declines in eight of the nine academic areas for 4th, 8th and 11th grade proficiency. The school's definition of proficient means a student can be as low as 41% in the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Imagine if Olympian athlete and Iowa's sweetheart, Shawn Johnson scored 41 out of 100 points possible in Beijing. Would any of us consider that proficient?

In 2005 DM districts graduated only 69% of its students, 68% in 2006, and 64% in 2007. (Information from DSM Education Times citing a report from the DM district.)

The Indianola Record Herald reported June 25, 2008 that out of six school districts in Warren County, only one showed any improvement in all four categories on the ITBS tests. Most districts had declined, and Norwalk School District had declined in all four categories. Those categories are 4th and 8th grade reading and math scores. Avoiding any comment on the actual decline in student achievement, Norwalk Superintendent stated "Overall, this year's scores showed that students are doing better in math and than in reading." While not a statistic, this is one of those misleading statements school officials like to use rather than discussing the true issue of concern - declining scores.

In a book review on Edwatch.org Allen Quist reports "This new purpose of education in America mirrors education as defined by the United Nations. In July of 2003, for example, UNESCO, an arm of the UN, called for changing the world by utilizing education as 'the primary agent of transformation.' And how is 'transformational education' defined by UNESCO? It is defined as changing the "values, behavior and lifestyle" of the child, not as the teaching of knowledge and academic skills [p. 4 of the draft statement for UNESCO's "Decade of Education for Sustainable Development"].

Your children are your most precious resource and the only earthly treasure that you can take to Heaven with you. When you stand before God, the teacher won't be there standing next to you. You alone will stand before your Creator, who gave these children specifically to you to raise, train up, and nurture. Some will make it, many more will not. Of those who may make it academically, most will walk away from their faith. The public schools are failing you and your child while telling you how wonderful everything is. When will you stop believing the propaganda and statistics of a failing system and begin believing in your child, yourself, and the discernment and wisdom God says He will give you?

In the interview I quoted from:
The Public Orphanage by Eric Buehrer
Allen Quist's review of the book, Walking Targets: How Our Psychologized Classrooms are Producing a Nation of Sitting Ducks, by B.K. Eakman

Information gathered from:
DM Register, Wed., Aug 13, 2008
DSM Education Times, Summer 2008
Indianola Record Herald, Wed., June 25, 2008
Norwalk School District Newsletter Aug/Sept 2008

As Buehrer wrote, "It is a trap to think that the government is helping us when it relieves us of a parental task. What it is, in fact, doing by taking on such things is rendering the family irrelevant".

Blessings,
Tamara