I'll be brief. I have agreed with most of Obama's decisions up until this point. I am outraged and bitter. I voted for Obama because he talked about pulling the troops OUT. I knocked on doors to help get Obama elected because he talked about pulling the troops OUT.

I grew up with a kid named Mark, his younger brother's name was Tommy. I have a younger brother named Jeff and our ages matched (Mark was my age and Tommy was my brother's age). We grew up together after our mother's met each other on a field trip. From Chuckie Cheese trips (aka Show-Biz-Pizza at the time), baseball games, we did a lot together. Somewhere in the high school years though we lost touch.

Then about two weeks ago my mom called me to let me know Tommy died in Iraq. He was 23 years old.

I don't want to sound like a bleeding heart, and for those who dont know me this isn't like many of my other posts. But I just wanted to share a snippet of how the war is effecting me. I have family members there, numerous friends from high school and college. I think about them frequently and shake my head at the thought of them on patrol.

More troops and more cash thrown at the military. More dead kids. *sigh*

Hello??!! Architecture has resonant properties?! Beyond the obvious, Canadian news guys, direct transmission that lasts many lifetimes?! Why is this on the "lie" channel. Because it's a fiction story?? No conspiracy here. Freemasonry and architecture: Doesn't any one have a special "free mason delivered" experience? For instance, I knew a friend of a friend that helped someone masturbate on a field trip to the Washington monument.

This vulgar kitty-porn makes me sick.

>> ^demon_ix:
Itteh Bitteh Kitteh Committeh goes on field trip!


I believe it's the "Itty Bitty Titty Committee" to clarify.

Itteh Bitteh Kitteh Committeh goes on field trip!

Neat. I haven't seen one of these plants since a field trip in... second grade? I love the internet.

Ah, a field trip with the mother-in-law ... what joyful times.

>> ^spoco2:
Ok, so tell me the real reasons as to why you've chosen to homeschool? You have said it's none of the reasons I give... so, why do you do so?
[edit]
According to a survey mentioned in the wiki article on homeschooling. 85 percent of homeschooling parents cited "the social environments of other forms of schooling" (including safety, drugs, bullying and negative peer-pressure) as an important reason why they homeschool. 72 percent cited "to provide religious or moral instruction" as an important reason, and 68 percent cited "dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools." So, the vast majority of parents are doing this either because they think their children can't handle being around other children, or due to religious reasons. Neither of which I think are doing the kids any favours whatsoever.

Looking at that survey, it seems to be in the United States whereas we are in Canada. Most of those reasons/problems in the US don't exist in Canada and none of those reasons are why we homeschool.

In fact, you are assuming that homeschooling has nothing to do with public education. In Edmonton it does. We are registered with the Edmonton Public School Board and we have EPSB facilitator that we meet with once a month. We are given the choice of following the Alberta Curriculum or following our own, or a blend of both. We are members of two different homeschooling groups in town and most of the educational destinations (science center, art gallery, etc.) offer homeschool events during the day that are far more fascinating than the field trips I went on.

What is so bad about school that makes you feel that your kids won't learn there?

There is nothing bad about school and our kids would absolutely learn there. This has nothing to do with the schooling available, as the Edmonton Public School Board is renowned in many North American education circles and we have many educators that that visit and study the system in Edmonton. This isn't about trying to get away from something bad. This is just an educational choice.

Surely the longer that the kids are away from formalized education, the harder they're going to find it to actually move into it eventually (As I'm assuming you aren't accredited to hand our bachelor degrees).

Amusingly enough, my wife recently attended a homeschooling round table where that exact question always get asked. There were a number of students up there that were attending college and university that were homeschooled. Some of them decided to attend high school, others took a year of college before going into university. Some just challenged the high school finals and went into university never once attending elementary, Jr. or Sr. high. Short answer: there are no problems and its not that hard. And its worth noting that college/university education is nothing like high school.

Why do we homeschool? Because we want to.

>> ^Shepppard:
This actually reminds me..
In a field trip during my grade 11 year, we went to.. I believe it was a Muslim Temple.
What they were basically saying, was that to be muslim, you have to believe in god, but deny.. Either the existence of Jesus altogether, or deny that he was gods son/prophet.
He also went on the explain that a Ji'had is NOT a holy war, rather then it's your duty. The example he gave was that if your mother is sick, it's your Ji'had to help your mother... or something along those lines, I was sitting in the front row trying to to laugh my head off because my friend and I kept making jokes.


Thank you. Very insightful indeed =)

This actually reminds me..

In a field trip during my grade 11 year, we went to.. I believe it was a Muslim Temple.

What they were basically saying, was that to be muslim, you have to believe in god, but deny.. Either the existence of Jesus altogether, or deny that he was gods son/prophet.

He also went on the explain that a Ji'had is NOT a holy war, rather then it's your duty. The example he gave was that if your mother is sick, it's your Ji'had to help your mother... or something along those lines, I was sitting in the front row trying to to laugh my head off because my friend and I kept making jokes.

I think once someone hits 500 star points, they should be removed from daily Sift activity and placed in the Sift Hall of Fame, where famous Sifters go to die. Then once a year, on Yom Kippur, we all take a field trip (if our parents sign the permission slips) to see the old-timers in all their glory. After returning home, we can lock the probies in dungeons made of cat fart videos, and not let them leave until they promise to submit a thoughtful, inspiring video of the quality that is expected on the Sift. Anything less, and they will be subjected to waterboarding until they realize the error of their ways. Once they submit a video of the highest quality, they will be allowed out of the dungeon in order to vote on a few videos per day. But only a few. That way they don't get a big head and try to become a Bronze Crown overnight! We must control the population through sifting sterilization and enhanced interrogation techniques. After all, I imagine these probies know of other probies who are lurking around, waiting to find a Bill O'Reilly video to vote up. Oh, the humanity!

>> ^dag:
Oh god back to the pork-barrel ear marks. Projector for a planetarium sounds like a good earmark to me.


Adler Planetarium needs the help. I remember taking a field trip there in 3rd grade and being bored out of my mind, and I like science!

Its nice to see people standing up for freedom of speech, this is what America is all about.
Fuck Fox News!
PS. Whats with the dude holding the kid, not really a kid friendly place. Maybe its a field trip to show her freedom in action? Shes gotta learn the earmuffs rule.

Reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Marge goes on a crusade against porn but then is confronted by the hypocrisy of her zeal when Michelangelo's David fit's the same definition.

I remember a kindergarden teachers comment about field trips to the museum - the tykes will oggle the appendages of a Venus or David for a few seconds then move on to the far more interesting dinosaur exhibit.

Hmm, the other one is dead though, and karaidl hasn't been seen since the field trip.

>> ^spoco2:
My question is why can't the museum throw the shit head tour guides out.
Because you just shouldn't. Your whole post is about intolerance. Just because we disagree with what they are saying doesn't mean they don't have a right to go through the museum and discuss their warped views with people. It's a free country.
Start moving down the road of throwing them out of the museum because you don't like what they say, and what next?
If the reverse happens in the creationist museum then that just goes to show how seriously fearful they really are of the truth.
You shouldn't silence people like this with force, just reasonable debate.


I just had a little fantasy of a group of science students taking a field trip to a church... The teacher points to paintings and talks about historical inaccuracy... Talks about the books being manipulated and translated multiple times... And finishes it off with getting the kids to all agree how crazy religion is and mocks the people on their own turf.

Imagine the crazyness that would follow! There's a good reason science is considered a religion. There's also a good reason why religion shouldn't be discussed with people outside it.