The End of America?

Older folks have been telling me for years that our country is in jeopardy. By "years" I mean since 9/11/2001, since the Patriot Act and Guantanomo Bay and the Bush/Cheney power grab which continues big-time today (with the Paulson power grab of all U.S. finances--whatever your thoughts on the bank bailout necessary or not, as a freedom-loving American you surely can't support how much "sweeping new powers" the Executive branch of the govt. now wants--click on The Automatic Earth for one source of info. on this). I have to admit it's taken me years to get it, and to really know enough to care.

It's been dawning on me lately that the reason the Federal Government's so-called "No Child Left Behind" education act focuses so strongly on reading and math to the detriment of all other subjects is that the government does not want our children to be learning about History, specifically American History, or Civics, or anything that might make them THINK. Or to realize that the current America is not the America of the Constitution or the laws and rights which our founding fathers brought about.

My husband, a teacher in the public schools, calls NCLB "planned failure" and says that among teachers this is common knowledge. Just today, in fact, he said that he was talking to a 6th grade teacher at his school and she told him that there is no, I repeat NO, science or social studies being taught to the 6th graders this year because they have to spend all their time on reading and math and preparing for the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests coming up in the spring.

Did you get that? To an entire 6th grade class of about 120 kids in one school in our district there will be no, yes NO, science or social studies taught this year. Oh, the teachers may sneak some in but according to the Principal of the school it can not be a focus. They also can no longer visit the local Veteran's Administration Hospital this year, as the 6th graders at the school have done for years on a regular basis. These decisions were absolutely made from the "top down", with no teacher input, because the school is in its fourth consecutive year of not making the grade on the tests.

And you wonder why I'm homeschooling my kids? Some people criticize homeschoolers for "ruining the schools" by not supporting them. I'm sorry, I think the Federal Govt. is doing a mighty fine job of ruining the schools all by themselves.

We homeschool because we believe in FREEDOM, and real learning, and because both of our kids are extremely good at reading and math already, thank you very much! We want our kids to learn to think critically, to question authority, and to have the facts as well as know about all the different ways facts can be presented and mis-presented. We feel our kids can handle that, which is why a big part of our homeschooling is just plain engaging our kids in conversations about the world around us.

Now, there are some things to protect our kids from. They'll learn all too well and all too soon about harsh reality. While we talk to them about what's going on with the stock markets, the laws, etc. when they ask, we don't offer too much information on our BIG FEARS (though of course even there they sense our feelings quite well).

Something I won't, at this stage, be having my kids watch is this video on Youtube: Naomi Wolf on The End of America. She outlines 10 things that fascist governments always do. They're going to sound awfully familiar to all of you! Verde linked this video on her blog, Justice Desserts, along with the video I linked the other day of the police in riot gear arresting 284 people just sitting in a park watching a concert in St. Paul on Labor Day. The two videos go very well together, unfortunately. Thanks, Verde, for finally getting me to watch Naomi Wolf. I know her book and the video have been around a while, but again I'm slow to get to it. I'd encourage you all to get to it, sooner than later.

Now, the consolation I have today comes from a few things. One, today we have the World Wide Web. And even though "they're" watching us, I'm sure, so many of us are still posting the truth. The dissent. It's still on here. And that gives me hope. Hope that enough of us will see this stuff. Hope that enough of us will be the Resistance. And I have the knowledge that fascist governments, while terrible when they're around, never stick around for long. They come and go and Revolutions happen to dismantle them--another thing we can learn from our history books. There is HOPE!

Have you been asking yourself this question lately: am I part of the problem, or the solution? Am I part of the status quo, or the Resistance? What do you want to be.

I can say, I would like to be the Resistance but how does that look today? I have yet to figure that one out.

There were so many to admire in Nazi Germany and all over Europe who harbored Jews and others in danger and were part of the Resistance. There were so many in slave-holding America who where part of the Underground Railroad. So many who demanded the Berlin Wall be torn down. So many who marched for Women's Rights and Civil Rights. Some of them lost their lives. Some were tortured and maybe would've preferred to die. Many put up with great hardships and in the end their cause won out.

That all sounds very dramatic, I know. And I'm really not much for drama. But we're living in dramatic times. It calls for a lot of soul-searching. Who will you be? Who are you now?