Posted on 07/16/2008 5:09:31 PM PDT by tcg
A just philosophy of government is predicated upon the understanding that the family is the first government and that all other government must first be at its service. In his marvelous apostolic exhortation on the family ("The Role of the Christian family in the Modern World") the Servant of God Pope John Paul II affirmed the social and political role of the family and called for the development of a “family politics”.
Catholics, other Christians, other people of faith and all people of good will should embrace this challenge to develop just such a "family politics". It is time to help people understand that what is really behind the issue of Parental Choice in education is the recognition of the family as the first vital cell of human society.
Parents simply are the first teachers of their children and all education begins in the home.
We need all of our candidates to affirm their support of the fundamental educational mission of parents as the first teachers of their children. We also need them to acknowledge the parental right to choose, for their children, from a full array of options, public, private, parochial,charter and home schools, no matter what their economic status, as an extension of their educational mission.
We then ask that they support any effective and constitutionally sound effort to encourage, empower, and support all parents in extending their educational mission, no matter what their economic conditions, through Parental choice in education.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
On July 16, 2008, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, Senator John McCain addressed the 99th annual NAACP convention. He spoke to a number of policy issues. We excerpt the portions pertaining to his support of Parental choice in education.
I like what he is proposing, very much. He is addressing the matter. And what alternatives WILL WORK.
The Senator said:
---snips:
“Democrats in Congress, including my opponent, oppose the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. In remarks to the American Federation of Teachers last weekend, Senator Obama dismissed public support for private school vouchers for low-income Americans as, "tired rhetoric about vouchers and school choice." All of that went over well with the teachers union, but where does it leave families and their children who are stuck in failing schools?
Obama Barack specifically rejects school vouchers.
John McCain supports vouchers, and online virtual schools, and so forth - parental choice. And has done a masterful job of outlining his unspoken thoughts in re homeschooling, and parents rights to homeschool.
My eldest, around year 1995, and in a supervised chat area found other children who were also at "home", schooling. We parents pooled our thoughts and began a virtual online classroom. And with families ALL over the world. Families in Scotland, Africa, Canada, Nova Scotia, Germany. We parents culled our areas of knowledge and we each took on a subject to teach. The classes were not by age, but by interest. Ergo, we'd have a virtual classroom with kids from age 6 to 18 in any given subject. And without even our encouragement, the older students began tutoring and assisting the younger ones with the subject; and eventually teaching the virtual classrooms in a given subject once they themself had mastered the subject. It was a galvanizing and marvelous experience. What we needed, however, was the "credentialling" part. Verifiable records that said student had taken subject X and had passed or not passed, or scored Y.
I took this matter up, in my state of CA. And learned that no homeschooling, virtual or at home, would be recognized by any institution throughout CA.
A lot has changed since then. ;>
“Parental Choice in Education” affirms that Parents are the ones who should be able to make the choice of extending their own teaching mission from a full array of options,no matter what their economic status.”
In other words...COMMON SENSE.
(nodding). Common sense, respect for others, and choice.
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