WOW, Required now = volunteering?

[jnmurra]

Originally Posted by kamie3535

It's not funny girl. How the hell is he going to pull this "crap" off?

Dear God it's worse than we thought.

What will this do to home schooling?

I haven't read all the responses yet, but I know how and it burns my butt.

He is going to pull it off by cutting federally funding to schools. There is a speech he made in July of this year about this very subject that I just found a couple weeks ago. I'm paraphrasing, but something along the lines of making federal funding contingent upon this forced volunteerism.

I will be pulling my children out of school to homeschool for sure now. This is the push I needed. I don't have time to explain why right now, but what I will say is it is ATROCIOUS to me that for schools like ours and others like it, in one of the poorest states in this country, will have federal funding cut for kids where the majority live in poverty because the schools may not be able to implement these types of "volunteer" programs.

[Bailey4]

Originally Posted by kamie3535

I wonder what happens if you don't want your child in this volunteer force of required volunteering? Are you left no choice? What is the penalty?

See that's what confused me about the middle school thing. High school and college are more obvious. Without the required hours you don't graduate for those schools that have the requirements. We had a bunch of football players helping out with our library sale last fall to meet their requirements last month. For some kids it is a matter of finding projects that work around their class, work, and activities schedules. As much as many find it hard to believe kids who want to go to college often do have to work and they also need the activities to both get into college and to apply for scholarships. So it isn't just about being selfish and unwilling to help. I'm all for volunteering and getting kids interested in projects but I have an issue when it comes between them and a diploma when the hours start to become more than reasonable.

[zg04]

With education, can you imagine the strain it would put on schools and districts? There are at least 2 million homeschoolers, and those are the ones that are accounted for because not all states have accountability requirements. And some states, don't take a head count, just a school count. In Alaska, I chose not to go with the accountability requirements.

My husband tells me how weird I am about comparing things to 1984, ( he read the cliffs notes, I read the book). But he is starting to see the thing's I see. TV's in the walls? We have flat screen tv's that mount to walls now. There is technology available, so that someone on the other end of the tv can see you and watch you and tell you what to do...the whole digital turnover scares the poop out of me. Now we have the internet, and the news of the internet Army that is on stand-by. In 1984, they had almost the same thing, and no newspapers (how many newspapers do you see going strictly online), and people that would go in and change what was spoken or "misheard". Education...the kids were taught that the government was right, and if they saw any sign of descent even it was the parents, they got turned in. You had the working class...the ones that didn't question the government, and then you had people that lived poor lives, but amongst those people were government plants to find any form of discent. In England, they have 13 camera's for every one person!! And then there is someone on the other end, who if they see you litter, says pick it up??? Those camera's are starting pop up everywhere here...it starts traffic light camera's and has gone on to crime cams in some cities. Also, let's not forget about text speak. We see it everyday! LOL...IMHO...DD...DS...



I really don't care if I am called a conspiracy theorist. I understand things would have happened with McCain also, but not as far reaching as Obama plans to do or as quickly.



Edited by: zg04

[Bailey4]

Originally Posted by jnmurra

I haven't read all the responses yet, but I know how and it burns my butt.

He is going to pull it off by cutting federally funding to schools. There is a speech he made in July of this year about this very subject that I just found a couple weeks ago. I'm paraphrasing, but something along the lines of making federal funding contingent upon this forced volunteerism.

I will be pulling my children out of school to homeschool for sure now. This is the push I needed. I don't have time to explain why right now, but what I will say is it is ATROCIOUS to me that for schools like ours and others like it, in one of the poorest states in this country, will have federal funding cut for kids where the majority live in poverty because the schools may not be able to implement these types of "volunteer" programs.

You know how to reach me if you need any help.

[cgraham30]

Depending on where you live this is already a requirement for "some" middle school students. My son is in the 8th grade, takes high school classes thrua saturn program,and he is required to volunteer 4 hours a month (36 hrs a year)..so i really have no problem with this requirement

[kamie3535]

Originally Posted by cgraham30

Depending on where you live this is already a requirement for "some" middle school students. My son is in the 8th grade, takes high school classes thrua saturn program,and he is required to volunteer 4 hours a month (36 hrs a year)..so i really have no problem with this requirement

May we ask why he's required? Is he in some sort of advanced program and this requirement helps pay for it or something?

[jnmurra]

Well, *I* certainly have a problem with it because why in the hell should the government have this much control over our children, #1. And number 2, to cut federal funding??? Are you kidding me? We have NOTHING here the way it is and he's going to take MORE money away from our schools? We are just now finding out our schools in this county are being taken over by the state because we are so broke and the $49 million bond on our ballot this past Tuesday didn't pass. There is no other way to raise the money we need to keep our schools and the state is taking over and God only knows what's going to happen. We're understaffed, underfunded, and failing, and yet we're supposed to put "volunteering" as a priority when are kids keep falling further and further behind.

Here's the part of the speech I was talking about:


Just as we teach math and writing, arts and athletics, we need to teach young
Americans to take citizenship seriously. Study after study shows that students
who serve do better in school, are more likely to go to college, and more likely
to maintain that service as adults. So when I知 President, I will set a goal for
all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a
year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This
means that by the time you graduate college, you値l have done 17 weeks of
service.


We値l reach this goal in several ways. At the middle and high school level,
we値l make federal assistance conditional on school districts developing service
programs, and give schools resources to offer new service opportunities. At the
community level, we値l develop public-private partnerships so students can serve
more outside the classroom.

<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/07/02/obamas-remarks-on-service/" target="_blank">
</a>http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/07/02/obamas-remarks-on-service/</span>

[jnmurra]

Originally Posted by Bailey4

You know how to reach me if you need any help.

THANK YOU because I am going to need it! I don't even know where to start....[img]smileys/smiley36.gif[/img]

[Bailey4]

Originally Posted by cgraham30

Depending on where you live this is already a requirement for "some" middle school students. My son is in the 8th grade, takes high school classes thrua saturn program,and he is required to volunteer 4 hours a month (36 hrs a year)..so i really have no problem with this requirement

Well be prepared to up it to 50 hours which for many kids is a bit more challenging and since he's in 8th grade it will go up to 100 hours when he enters high school next year. I'm editing because I realized it doesn't increase to 100 until college when many are holding down an extra job to pay for the cost. Don't worry I'm sure he'll keep up.

Since when did the word volunteer become mandatory?

I like seeing kids volunteer and I love seeing parents encourage it. However, I do find it bizarre that we force kids to volunteer for graduation or other requirements and then actually call it volunteering. It rather ruins the whole definition of the words. I think the schools that call it a service requirement have it right. You aren't volunteering when the school forces you to, you are completing a service requirement so you comply.

Volunteering implies a choice.

As a first initiative to improve education I would have thought focusing on spending money on let's say figuring out how to bring up performance in math, science, and reading would have been well ahead of mandating service hours.Edited by: Bailey4

[kamie3535]

Originally Posted by jnmurra

Here's the part of the speech I was talking about:


Just as we teach math and writing, arts and athletics, we need to teach young
Americans to take citizenship seriously. Study after study shows that students
who serve do better in school, are more likely to go to college, and more likely
to maintain that service as adults. So when I知 President, I will set a goal for
all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a
year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This
means that by the time you graduate college, you値l have done 17 weeks of
service.


We値l reach this goal in several ways. At the middle and high school level,
we値l make federal assistance conditional on school districts developing service
programs, and give schools resources to offer new service opportunities. At the
community level, we値l develop public-private partnerships so students can serve
more outside the classroom.

<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/07/02/obamas-remarks-on-service/" target="_blank">
</a>http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/07/02/obamas-remarks-on-service/</span>

So in other words, he wants to make all kids good little government proponents.