Schools As Microcosms of the Socialist State

I read a post on our Facebook page today that really just made me shudder - and that happens rarely anymore with all I've learned about the Common Core and specifically the data collection aspect of the initiative. 

Here is the post by DeShawna Marie Smyth:

"What is sad is our school is spending less and less time on actually educating our students and more time sending the students home, calling the parents, or ticketing the parents because the child is wearing a zipper on their sweater, or a hood on their jacket, or the wrong color of tights! Our uniform rules have gotten out of control here! Not only are parents getting tickets, but children are worrying too much about what they need to be wearing at school and less about what they are learning!"

And now my return post:

OH WELL SAID!!!! I knew that 'uniform codes' were so much more insidious than everyone thought and I think this is one of the things they are supposed to do (in order to change society)! Along with putting the child in a box (the school makes them feel inseparable from their counterparts). After all, you can't have a society of little automatons who are willing to do the state's bidding if you don't first decide to take away their sense of 'self' - their sense of who they are. See, everything is done for the sake of 'safety' these days. Schools tell you, "We're installing this retinal scanner to make sure your kids are safe" and "We're making all kids wear a uniform because we don't want kids to be sad if they don't have enough money for the clothes the other kids have" - which, incidentally is socialism! What happens when you buy all the items (school supplies) the school wants at the start of school. The school takes them and puts them into a single pile so no one has the items they bought and brought with them, doling them out instead to the kids 'according to their need. 

DeShawna replies to my comment:  

This is exactly how I feel!!! They add more and more restrictions and call it "Safety" when it's really "conformity".

Apparently this struck a cord because here are a couple of other posts:

Tina Dobbs: Don't forget, not wearing a belt is a huge offense as well!!

Paula Ray: Or can't take purse with ya because of personal reasons on a field trip because not allowed to bring bags, electronics, or jackets.

Until I pulled them from school, ALL my kids were in a public elementary school that forced a dress code.  The worst part about the whole thing was not the conformity, but the LACK of conformity.  Basically, I was one of the only parents in the entire school that followed the dress code!  My kids would put something on in the morning that was out of dress code and I'd tell them to go change, after which I'd get a 5 minute diatribe about how I was so mean and "no one else in the school followed the dress code".

I would show up at school on numerous occasions and I could tell the dress code wasn't being enforced - or at worst, it was being enforced SELECTIVELY.  

What did this teach the kids?  That not only were rules not important, but if you were important enough, rules didn't apply to you.  Gosh, I get this feeling about our President everyday!  Is this why the word 'president' and the word 'precedent' are so similar? 

I can't help but come back to the frog in the boiling water scenario.  Parents are that frog.  Schools have turned up the heat on us so gradually by implementing 'tools' to help them 'teach' our children better or keep them 'safer' and we've been either so dumbed down or trusting - or a combination of both - that we've gone right along with it to the point that now, many schools are simply little socialist states.

I'm telling you, I think parents are starting to wake up - at least I hope so, because the lives of our children and this country are at stake.  

Here are my thoughts:  When you find your school not allowing your child to use the school supplies you bought - BE CIVILLY DISOBEDIENT!  Say, "I do not want these items used for other children - I bought them for mine", and then have your child play tattle-tale!  

If your school has a dress code, get some parents together to ABOLISH it and if that's not possible - BE CIVILLY DISOBEDIENT and say, "I'm sorry but my child will not wear a uniform to a public school.  I have the right AS HIS/HER PARENT to allow him/her to dress any way I find fit that doesn't offend others."  (Sadly, today you'd have to add that, as many parents seem to be uncertain of what is appropriate clothing and need to be educated on the topic - notice I say EDUCATED and not HAVE THEIR PARENTAL RIGHTS USURPED!)

If your school is giving Common Core tests and you don't want your child to take them but the school won't provide an opt-out - BE CIVILLY DISOBEDIENT and say, "My taxes help pay for this public institution and I don't agree with the tests and standards this school is using, therefore, my child will not be taking the tests."

There is no reason to be ugly and certainly not violent, just kind, but firm!  Stand parents - it's time!

Common Core Ushers In The Police State - America's New Way Of Life

I was mortified when I went out looking for a photo to add to this blog and found this picture on Bing.com images.  I'm sure this was not an actual Newsweek cover, but it sure could be!

Anymore, I frequently ponder the movie "Minority Report", detailing a world in which everyone was GUILTY until proven INNOCENT and you could be jailed for a crime BEFORE it was even committed because the police (government) had enough data on you to determine your every move.  Of course the journey for the cop at the center of the story - the one who had been such a proponent of the 'predictive' software used by the police - is to discover that even he has no liberty in the end.

We are heading for a police state in this country and people aren't noticing it because it's been a long, slow road getting here - a 'death by small cuts'.

We don't think about having to be fingerprinted or scanned to get into our kid's school because long ago the state made us put our picture on our driver's license with a bar code that can be scanned anywhere to reveal our personal information.  But we have to drive, we figure, so we'll put up with that (except for my brave friend Kaye Beach who is actually fighting this nonsense on religious grounds!).  Or, we think we need to fly, so we'll let TSA agents grope us like perverts because we're now presumed to be TERRORISTS until they find NOTHING on us - a presumption of GUILT instead of INNOCENCE.

This really hit home for me in a big way when I saw this video of a man standing up at a Common Core 'Forum'  in Maryland where a school board had an open time for parents to ask questions, but then wouldn't take direct questions from parents.

Attendees had to submit questions to the board in writing and then individual questions were asked from the pile of questions. (Gosh, how many legislative Town Hall meetings have begun using this tactic?)

Apparently, answers were not forthcoming at this meeting in the manner parents expected.

ROPE isn't surprised, we've seen this before over and over in Oklahoma where, for example, the State Superintendent filibusters for 25 minutes before even getting to the question of Common Core at the Common Core Forum in Tulsa in August and then repeats classic Common Core messaging for every answer to every question - or where the Superintendent makes comments like, "We anticipate low costs" when asked about how much Common Core will cost.

At the last (and I mean probably the LAST we will attend) board meeting we attended - where we were FINALLY going to be allowed to speak at all on Common Core (July 25) - a husband and wife from Edmond had seen our plea to come speak about Common Core at the Board Meeting - and they came.  The husband was an Airman at Tinker Air Force Base.  After speaking out against the Common Core, the Airman had a seat.  Upon listening to Amber England with Stand for Children tell everyone at the meeting that the military were all for Common Core, the airman's wife reacted by blurting out, "You don't speak for the military."

Good Lord, you would have thought she pulled out an AK47 and began to cut down everyone in the room the way Superintendent Barresi and Board Member Amy Ford nearly came across the table at the woman, screaming something to the effect of, "You need to be quiet or you'll be removed!" as if they saw her as an imminent threat to their lives. (This can all be found on the audio recording from that meeting just in case you want to check me up on my story).

At any rate, ROPE isn't surprised at what happened to the poor parent in Maryland who DARED to try to get some answers from a school board and was FORCIBLY REMOVED from the forum by a police officer and later provided with the charges of

second-degree assault of a police officer and faces a $2,500 fine and up to 10 years in prison. He was also charged with disturbing a school operation, which carries an additional $2,500 and up to six months in jail.

He absolutely did NOT assault the police officer - the police officer assaulted HIM - and if you watch the video you will see that.

WHAT IS MAKING THESE PEOPLE SO ANGRY?  What is it about the Common Core State Standards that means you can't answer questions about them, but send people out in an audience like a mobster to break the arms of parents who merely try to ask questions?

As the man leaves the hall at the forum, he tells people they are sitting there like 'cattle'.  Fortunately, as I went back to listen to it again, I definitely heard at least two or three people stick up for the guy and tell the 'powers that be' to let him stay - obviously to no avail.  There were MANY people in that room apparently.  What should have happened is that EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THAT ROOM SHOULD HAVE STOOD UP and deflected that policeman- turned-board-body guard and stuck up for the man.  He was not being rude or ugly or screaming and shouting, he was just tired of not having questions answered and spoke out of turn.

How long are we going to be rule followers when it seems that the PROPONENTS aren't following 'the rules'?  How long are we going to let educrats and those making money off  school 'reform' measures pull us around by our ears and tell us how they're going to spend the money we are forced to contribute to such a broken system?  A system so broken that many parents have given up and now pay TWICE - once for public school and again to a private school or for home school curricula because they refuse to allow their kids to partake of an education that is not only not helping them, but hurting them, their development and their worldview.

I've said it before and I'll say it again....it's time for Civil Rights era tactics.  If we're not going to be heard, we'll sit quietly until we are - even if that is well after time to close up shop!  If we're not going to be heard, we need to take our children out of public schools and deny them their funding until schools again work for PARENTS and CHILDREN and not software developers, book sellers and politicians.

I fear that Common Core is just one of the symptoms of a parasitic disease that is slowly killing its host - America.  I leave you with the following quote:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.