Saintmichaeldefendthem1

Which brings up another gross injustice. Union political pressure can drown out the voice of the people using mandatory dues to for political (democrat!) activism. I am so grateful that Governor Walker and the Wisconsin legislature stood up to the unions and listened to the people that put them into office. If it can happen in Wisconsin, it can happen anywhere.

Is it fair to say that quarterly grades mailed home is too infrequent a means of communicating that there is a problem? Sometimes that's all parents get and the semester is half over!

Not to be misunderstood, there is no excuse for infidelity. What I'm addressing is how some women cannot see their own contribution to a deteriorating marriage that causes other forms of sexual release seem appealing to their man. Of course this goes both ways and it could be the woman looking to an affair because the husband is a workaholic and as such withholds his affections. I'm just addressing the senario that you brought up. You're right that men can masturbate and be guilty of other forms of infidelity even in a marriage, but I don't think this is the case with Jackol who seems to be resisting sexual sin as best he can and seeking a legitimate outlet for his urges. It doesn't sound like he will have this issue once he has a sexually active wife.

I think we're vigorously agreeing with each other. It takes effort from both teachers and parents to stay in communication regarding a student's performance.

The issue here is how bad teachers are handled. In the private system they are terminated, neat and clean. Public schools in some areas are having to separate teachers from students and continue paying them because they can't be fired. The public system, being immune from market forces, can artifically keep afloat what should sink. Justice is slow, stymied by disproportionate union protections and "rights". I would say in general that private school teachers ARE better than their public school counterparts because private schools have a more efficient system for ridding themselves of bad teachers resulting in an improved grading curve.

Teachers in Wisconsin should have a great deal of stress lifted from them. After all, they don't have any union meetings or requirements any more. In regard to emails, they can be quick and to the point and only need to be sent for students who miss assignments or do poorly on tests, not every single student. You're right that there are no easy answers but the system needs to be overhauled so that those teachers who work harder and care more (as expressed in communicating with parents via advanced technology) can rise to the top. MOE is saying that parents should be more involved, but how can they be if teachers don't communicate? BTW, 6 months isn't being too busy, it's gross incompetence and laziness. I've annoyed my fair share of "too busy" teachers by showing up unannounced for an impromptu conference. I agree that teachers are busy, but as they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

I see I need to remind you again what you said, that private and public school teachers go through the exact same training. (scroll back) This is untrue. Every private and charter school sets their own criteria for qualifications and training. Teaching credentials aren't hard to come by, it's getting a college degree that serves as the bulk and basis for teachers' qualification to teach. After that, getting a license is a piece of cake.

In this day and age, how hard is it for teachers to send an email or text message when a student misses an assignment. Parent/student conferences can be done on line. I think you're on to something here, but I also have to point out that some teachers are also lazy and don't want parental involvement any more than some parents do. I've dealt with these types. After all, why should a teacher have to work harder for their union negotiated salaries? The beauty of the voucher system is that it doesn't defund public schools, it simply causes them to sink or swim in a competitive market. If they fail in a voucher system, they deserved to fail.

You said, Some parents might not want a teacher because she's black. It just seemed like you were taking an overt interest in the thinking process of parents when choosing a school as if they can't be trusted with such a decision. That to me screams "statist!" but I apologize if that is a mischaracterization. That was a very foolish statement. You have no idea how much time and effort I have put into making sure my kids are in the right school. It's because of that process that I'm well aware of the nuances.

You said "bimbo" referring to a private school teacher but withheld that invective when referring to a public school teacher. Your bias could not be more flagrant. You just might, especially if it's a merit based pay scale.

Yes, marriage is not the magic cure unless it is utilized. Proverbs tells us to drink water from our own cistern and to be enamored with our wife's breasts at all times. This involves a choice of looking to one's wife, and not pornography or affairs, or anything else, for sexual fulfillment. In regard to your senario, if the wife withholds her body from her husband, she is in a state of sin. As scripture explains, the husbands body belongs to his wife and the wife's body to her husband. All too many women withhold sex from their man for whatever reason and then get bent out of shape when he finds what he needs turning to porn, or hookers, or having an affair. This is wrong and if this is happening, then the marriage is on rocky ground already. Premarital counseling is priceless.

So you don't believe in school choice. Thank you for identifying yourself as a statist; it certainly clarifies the argument.

Therein lies the problem. The free market is the truest arbiter of what is fair pay, but the unions queer the system by demanding pay raises and benefits to the horizon and beyond. Vouchers that could be accepted at private or public schools would even out the pay scales and ensure that the highest pay and benefits go to the best schools and teachers. What?? Bimbo? Of course, you're not biased! It's schools that set the standards, not the teachers and MOST private schools have higher academic standards that public schools, yes I am saying that. BTW, are homeschools taught by bimbos too?

Right. An anecdote to disprove the trend. Multiple studies have already concluded that students in homeschool, private, or charter schools outperform their public school counterparts by significant margins. It's because private schools are businesses that they are far more responsive and accountable to parents. Or are you one of those who says don't trust businesses because they're trying to make money but....trust the government?

Dr. Laura enthusiastically endorsed BYU after they suspended that basketball player for fornication. I think returning to private education could only be a good thing.

Here's where I believe the LDS fall into serious error. The vessel of revelation after Christ ascended is the Church, not the prophets. Jesus instructed the apostles to teach the nations all they had learned from Him and that was the birth of Christianity. The first revelation since the assension is recorded in the Council of Jerusalem in the book of acts and since that time, all further revelations came about by councils. It was quickly determined that the Jews were no longer the oracles of God, neither are their prophets. Under the New Covenant, it's the universal church and its bishops acting through the councils that constitute the ongoing divine revelation of Jesus Christ. Not the Prophets. The age of the Prophets is over. The men who formed the canon at the Synods or Rome and Hippo were neither prophets nor translators. They were bishops who could trace their decendency from the Apostles themselves. The process of apostolic succession began in Acts with the appointment of Matthias to replace Judas, a sure sign that Judas held an authoritative office that needed to be filled when he vacated it. You say that the KJV is correct, but the KJV as well as any translation is a derivative of the councils that formed the original canon. My point about Joseph Smith is a sound one. If he wanted to restore the original church, starting with the original Bible with all 73 books as recorded, would have been a good start.

I agree. Better teachers with good recommendations can score higher paying jobs and the lazy ones can work at Head Start!

Oh, you couldn't be more incorrect! My elementary school was strict and I got in trouble with my mouth when I said "d***" which today is considered a really benign word. Compare that to what happens today where in many schools teachers don't even try to control the nonstop string of profanities coming out of the mouths of students. Sure, they'll expell you if you accidentally have a Swiss Army knife in your backpack after a scouting trip, but hats, chewing gum, and profanity...all ok. And family values are being undermined when schoolkids are taught that families may consist of a mom and dad, or 2 moms or 2 dads, or a trangender, etc and that it's ok to be gay and live that lifestyle, and look, here's how you put a condom on, we'll use vegetables for the demonstration. But the biggest reason you're wrong in saying public schools have little control over that is because private schools provide an atmosphere of discipline, teach values that correspond with those taught at home, and do so while achieving academic excellence that public schools cannot compete with. If it can be done in private schools, it can be done in public schools as well.

Anatess, you bring up an interesting point. A lot of us are supportive of merit based pay, but the only reliable method for determining the effectiveness of a teacher are tests. I see two conflicting problems here: 1. Teachers in the current system are not encouraged to work any harder than they have to. Caring more and working harder may provide personal satisfaction, but it doesn't translate into more pay. 2. The senario you laid out shows an attempt to fix this problem that has some serious flaws to it hampering "real" education. What is the solution? How do you think this can be handled?

Excommunications should be rare indeed. It's like working at a company that fires a lot of people. It may start with a few bad apples that really should be fired, but then it progresses to those employees who are just difficult at times. Soon the management doesn't even try to work with people in a remedial sense and many good quality employees are let go. I think it says a lot about a church when it takes its most difficult members and labors to work with them and rehabilitate them...or at least have a little more tolerance...rather than having an itchy trigger finger. I know churches are not employers, but the willingness to see the value in people, even in spite of unflattering personality traits, instead of "my way or the highway" diktats works the same for any organization.

And these wonderful, hard working teachers should be paid more, but the unions make sure that merit based pay will never happen. Yes! Now you're on it! I like how you used "scraped" instead of "scrapped." NCLB does seem like something to be scraped off the bottom of our shoes.

It seems you're unfamiliar with the political angle altogether and understandably are trying to keep it out of the discussion. But taxpayer dollars are involved and so it is a political issue. And who is bashing the conservative Mormon? My position is the conservative position and anatess's idea of school vouchers is wildly popular among conservatives. You're reading both our comments but it seems you're reading without understanding either of us. Right now we have a great disparity in our school system where public schools receive public funds and those who opt out and send their children to private school or homeschool still have to pay taxes for other people's children to go to public school. School vouchers would level the playing field because the money would go where the parents decide. The reason the statists oppose this is because public schools would falter in a competitive market. Parents are largely concerned with three things, academic excellence, discipline, and family values (or at least not undermining them). Public schools have failed miserably in all three categories. "Socialism is for the people, not the socialists." All the people who want to send your kids and my kids to public schools send their own kids to the most expensive charter schools to get a higher education. This is no different than the Soviet nomenclatura class that would opt their own children out of the socialist programs they designed for everyone else. If public schools are so great, then why don't its loudest advocates send their kids there? Instead, they want to send your kids and mine while their own are being groomed for an Ivy League education. You can LOL at all of this, but this is the view of many pissed-off Americans and none of us are laughing.

That's right. The Septuigent is perhaps the most reliable OT text as a written text preserved through the centuries and it was also divisive among the Jewish community some accepting and some rejecting it. It's important to note that this was the version included in the original Christian canon and was the basis for translations into Latin and other vernaculars. Ultimately, trust in any version of the Christian Bible categorically requires a rejection of the LDS teaching that the Church apostized for over 1000 years. If that were the case, then the holy Scriptures, carefully preserved through the centuries by Catholic monks and scribes, would be subject to question. Only an act of the Holy Spirit could protect the Scriptures from corruption and error for those many centuries. This even Martin Luther acknowledged.

I'm always amazed at the many points of agreement between the Catholic and LDS churches. Yes, the Bible really is only a part of the full revelation of God in Jesus Christ, a stark contradiction to sola scriptura Protestantism that heaves upon Scripture a burden it could never bear, to be the sole arbiter and exhaustive container of all Christian truth.

Gwen, when I was in 6th grade, the teacher took an adding machine paper roll and had us roll it around the room until it covered all 4 walls. Then the teacher filled in a 5 inch block using a felt tip pen to represent the amount of oil we have left in the world compared to the rest of the adding machine tape. It was not only a grevious error, but it was typical of the liberal hype that was being taught at the time; as well as the "hole" that was supposedly in the ozone layer. It's not learning that I have an objection to, it's indoctrination. I'm old fashioned I guess and believe that schools should stick to reading, writing, and arithmatic. I could have been sick on that day and not have been any stupider for missing that assignment.