published on or around the 15th of the month

from the author of www.brightkidsathome.com
April, 2007    volume 1- Issue 7
Welcome to Java House - radical opinions about whatever from, OldSage


Writer's Name: OldSage
Interests:
Everything in particular, and nothing in general.
Expertise:
Advice.
Occupation:
Other
Industry:
Other

There are a few rules I live by:

Good judgment comes from the experiences gained when exercising bad judgment.
The biggest trouble-maker you will ever to deal with watches you brush your hair in the mirror every morning.


No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Here's who I am:

I believe that today's public school system is failing for the most part, though I continue to support it through taxes and buying magazine subscriptions from 8 year olds.

I believe that you can be whatever you want to be.


I firmly believe that you can gain an incredible education by studying at home.

Old Girl Power?

Elsie McLean, 102, becomes oldest golfer to ace hole
"For an old lady," she said, "I still hit the ball pretty good."
April 8, 2007 CBS SportsLine.com wire reports

CHICO, Calif. -- Elsie McLean thought she might have lost her ball on the par-3, 100-yard fourth hole at Bidwell Park.

Instead, the 102-year-old Chico woman became the oldest golfer ever to make a hole-in-one on a regulation course. [read on]

And the best part was that the record setter was a girl!!!


Ivy League Day Care: What Happened to Crayons?

The cornerstone of Crème de la Crème is its spectacular 21,000 square foot facility, which can accommodate approximately 275 children and is located on approximately three acres of land. The entrance to the center is an elegant lobby featuring elevated ceilings, hand crafted woodwork and a sitting room warmed by a fireplace. The passageway from the lobby to the main facility consists of a small wooden bridge that crosses a flowing streambed containing rocks, plants, and live fish. Across the bridge is the magical and captivating world of Crème de la Crème. The main interior resembles a Victorian Villagescape, residing under a 34 foot translucent skylight. In the village are a computer lab, arts & crafts studio, library, dance studio, gymnasium and a mock television studio. The exterior areas include reduced size tennis and basketball courts, a custom designed mini water park and numerous play areas containing an assortment of toys and playground equipment. Extensive security measures are in place at each Crème center to ensure the health and safety of every child. Closed-circuit TV monitors provide continual surveillance of changing areas, washrooms, classrooms and other areas. There is a computerized access system to gain entrance into the building.

Crème's educational curriculum is the foundation of the Crème concept. The curriculum for children from ages two to five years was developed by Crème's staff of early childhood education experts. The Crème curriculum combines learning with fun activities incorporating interactive exercises. In addition, starting at two years of age, children learn a second language (Spanish), computer and other subjects.

Cost: $1350.00 a month for ages two to five

Think we can shove them out the door any earlier for learning experiences?


From the "That's Just Dumb" Department: Cuban-American Censorship

Leonard Pitts Jr.: Buy a book, defeat the censors
Miami Herald, March 03, 2007
The first thing I need to say is that the library at Bossard Elementary School just got its book back. <SNIP.>

Among South Florida's Cuban-American community, too many people behave as if hating Fidel Castro is license to do any dumb thing that flits into their heads. Using that hatred as justification, some have committed assault, banned magazines, blocked freeways and spent tens of thousands of public dollars pursuing constitutionally illiterate positions in court.

Now, Dalila Rodriguez steals a book. It is an offensive book, she says, citing a line that says many Cubans immigrated to Florida when Castro took power in 1959. Cubans "immigrated" to Florida the way you "immigrate" to the front lawn when your house is on fire, so her ire is understandable.

Her theft is not. Do we all get to remove from the library any book that hurts our feelings? Pretty soon you wouldn't have a library — just a room full of empty shelves. [read on]

So, How Do We Fix the Public School System in Ohio?

Do homeschoolers here really care?

This one does.

Because if they [governement officials] are looking to reign in other choices [vouchers] for reasons like:

"It's undemocratic," he said, and it signals an abandonment of the public school system. Vouchers "represent the use of public tax dollars without any public oversight, without the public having the ability, through their elected representatives, to have any influence over (school) hiring, firing, curriculum, or discipline procedures. It's an attempt to help a few students shine, when I think our goal should be to improve our public schools so that every student would have a high-quality education. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland from:Parents fight to keep vouchers BY DENISE SMITH AMOS, Cincinnati Enquireer, Friday, April 13, 2007."

The potential for a scrutiny of the homeschool laws that are already established is there. Though this particular state official seems more focused on the bottem line and in getting more dollars to the schools. This homeschooler hopes that Gov. Strickland recognizes that homeschoolers, as do families who send their kids to private schools, contribute to the tax base for the schools, but many of us don't even use any part of the public school system and for good reason. On any one day, you can find stories like these portraying our schools as failing or dangerous:

Gunman dead after bloody campus rampage
POSTED: 4:14 p.m. EDT, CNN.com, April 16, 2007

A lone gunman is dead after police said he killed at least 21 people and perhaps more Monday during shootings in a dorm and a classroom at Virginia Tech -- the deadliest school attack in U.S. history.

At least 31 people were killed Monday in a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, according to two Virginia congressmen -- making it the deadliest school shooting incident in U.S. history. "Some victims were shot in a classroom," university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.

Study gives teachers barely passing grade in classroom
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY, March 29, 2007

The typical child in the USA stands only a one-in-14 chance of having a consistently rich, supportive elementary school experience, say researchers who looked at what happens daily in thousands of classrooms.

The findings, published today in the weekly magazine Science, take teachers to task for spending too much time on basic reading and math skills and not enough on problem-solving, reasoning, science and social studies. They also suggest that U.S. education focuses too much on teacher qualifications and not enough on teachers being engaging and supportive.

Just one test can hurt
BY DENISE SMITH AMOS , March 13, 2007

<SNIP>
Even so, about a third of the 10th-graders who took the test last March failed one or more parts. State figures show 58,548 out of 147,605 students had to retake the tests.

Students get six chances to take the test to graduate on time.

Cincinnati Public Schools, which had a 52 percent passage rate last March, has high schools offering practice sessions and tutoring before and after school and on Saturdays.

 

You can also find success stories, but these in general aren't about things that really matter to someone who has already made the decision to homeschool.

So why offer a solution to fix the public school system?

To keep officials busy with trying to fix a dike already riddled with holes, so they'll leave homeschooolers alone?
Once they have a public school system that is attractive, or at least interesting to those of us who homeschool, maybe then they can find good ways to reel us in. Maybe we'll want to be reeled in. But I think the day of the little red school house is gone. Our culture has forgotten what it means to educate offspring, this much is very clear to this homeschooler.

If Parents Controlled the Schools
Ned Vare May 1996

IF PARENTS CONTROLLED the schools, would we...

  • Insist children learn the same things at the same time?
  • Create a bleak artificial environment and lock our kids in it for years, knowing that most of what they learn is irrelevant or wrong?
  • Allow them to have no standards, no goals, and to dumb down the kids?
  • Allow our property to be confiscated if we didn't pay their bigger bill each year?
  • Hire unionized teachers with binding arbitration who could vote for their raises?
  • Let them give our kids mind-altering drugs (Ritalin) to control behavior as insane asylums do?
  • Suspend the band and sports for a year to coerce ourselves to vote for a tax increase?
  • Believe that 10 to 15 percent of our kids are "learning disabled" when figures show only a 1 percent likelihood?
  • Allow our children's and our lives to be so dominated by school's synthetic experience that there's no time left for real experiences?
  • Use standardized tests that have no education value and can damage kids?
  • Use only "certified" staff when private schools have no such restriction and avoid hiring them?
  • Assign 60 percent of every day to non-academic indoctrination like "social values?"
  • Allow the state to dictate who can run our schools?
  • Let teachers use our children as shills for their pay raises?
  • Pay twice what private schools charge and get half the learning?

The answers are either no or hell no.

Parents are encouraged to relinquish our natural roles as educators. Feeling guilty about that, we are easy prey for schools that demand more taxes to raise our children badly. Educationists have learned to hustle us, shake us down in a shell game for control of money and our children's lives.

What's wrong here in my city is what is wrong everywhere — school is a state monopoly that can neither educate effectively nor inform the public honestly. To become responsive and accountable, education needs to be separated from government. Otherwise, it will continue to serve only itself and we will remain its slaves.

I think the regular guy would shocked as to the laws that are on the books regarding the education of junior.

When did we decide the state was better suited to educate our children than we are as parents?

Why do we hand our kids over to the state and allow them to determine what they ultimately learn?

What education is?

Are we really that stupid? We used to afraid of Communism.

The one thing that always gets me is how silly things are with spending for education in our state. The public education system is a starving beast that never seems to have enough, no matter how much we throw at it. At every turn in the road, the beast wants more:

Opinion: Cut fat at top; get involved at bottom
Sunday, March 18, 2007

MANY REASONS NOT TO SUPPORT NEW LEVY
Every time I read about the idea of a new levy on the ballot for the Cincinnati Public Schools I just cringe. You asked for my thoughts, and here they are. Don't put a new school levy on the ballot, and do something smart with the money you already receive from the taxpayers, like hiring experienced business professionals to manage the books.

Here's the list of reasons I feel justify my attitude:

Cincinnati Public Schools are giving up $40 million during the next four years to get $54 million a generation from now - partly to help out Hamilton County and its attempt to stave off a stadium deficit.

The "gift" mentioned above is supposed to return meager interest over 10 years, though if the schools have that money to "invest," why not invest it in a more reliable, higher-yielding investment ... maybe coins? Why not invest it in teaching kids how to learn and in how to enjoy learning? It's a pity only 70 percent of our seniors can pass the Ohio Graduation Test.

A day after Cincinnati Public Schools lopped 13 schools from its $1 billion construction plan, some school supporters say the district should do immediate damage control to avoid losing more families who are unhappy with the changes.

Every day I drive by Kilgour Elementary School and see it is under construction and wonder why this is so when it seems all the students from Hyde Park and Kilgour seem to be doing just fine in one building at the corner of Edwards and Observatory.

I also wonder why if we have so many commercial buildings sitting empty, why we don't use these as schools instead and spend the billion in construction money on educating kids?

In a 1997 landmark case called DeRolph vs. State of Ohio, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled the state's school funding system unconstitutional and ordered the General Assembly to find a solution within a year and amend the process. It's still unconstitutional in 2007. Why is that?

I pay what amounts to a private school's tuition for a year in property taxes in the city of Cincinnati. I home-school my student. Where does the money for what would be earmarked for my student and many others who home school in the CPS district go?

Call me crazy, but these items just don't make sense to me as a taxpayer that doesn't even use what they are paying for. [read on ]

What if we all got together in the state of Ohio and wrote laws for public education simialr to what they wrote in Utah regarding homeschools:

The Best Homeschool Laws in the USA are the ones in Utah.
Senate Bill 59: Homeschool Freedom Bill, passed both houses of the Utah legislature unanimously early in 2005. and the governor signed it into law on March 18, 2005.

The bill provides that a school-age minor shall be excused from attendance upon the filing of an affidavit by the parent stating that the child will be homeschooled. This bill makes it clear that a parent is in charge of the child's education. It states that

  1. The parent is solely responsible for the selection of instructional materials and textbooks, though the required subjects must be taught.
  2. The parent is solely responsible for the time, place, and method of instruction, though a child must be taught "for the same length of time as minors are required to receive instruction in public schools."
  3. A school board may not require a parent to keep records of instruction or attendance.
  4. A school board may not require credentials for individuals homeschooling their children.
  5. A school board may not inspect homeschool facilities.
  6. A school board may not require standardized or other testing of homeschool students.

 

Why is it the responsibilty of the state to educate it's citizens anyway?

Why did we give our power as parents away?

The solution to education in Ohio might take on these ideas:

  1. Encourage parents NOT to relinquish their natural roles as educators.
  2. Put parents in charge of a child's education. Hold them accountable for their kids successes and failures in the schools. Reward them with tax breaks when they remain in control of their kid's education.
  3. Fund schools in parternship with parents and require a tuition structure based on number of kids per family actually using the public schools and impose a property tax, on not just the house, but all the toys, on those same familes. Accountabilty in the schools would improve immensely, I am sure of it.

 

 


Teach Your Children Well: Personal Finance

Recenly I received a not from Bank of America that they were going to charge me $1.50 a month if I did not carry a balance on my credit card. This to a customer who

  1. Pays their balance off every month.
  2. They gave a $38,000.00 credit line to.
  3. Only got the card to get free shipping from LLBean.

As one might imagine, I played the came and wrote a letter in response to reject the finance charge notice, as I was only able to reject the charge by writing a letter and sending it to a specific address, clearly spelled out in the smallest of print in a paragraph buried in this charming letter to their customer.

Then I canceled the card. In writing of course.

There are only so many things one can write to a Congressman about....

 

Credit cards: they really are out to get you.
Consumer Reports
Publication Date: 01-NOV-05

Ruth Owens' troubles began when she stopped using her Discover card. The Cleveland woman, who was on Social Security disability, had just passed her $1,900 balance limit.

Over the next six years, she made $3,492 in payments but never reduced her debt. Discover charged fees and finance charges that used up all her payments and ballooned her balance to $5,564. In 2003, the card company sued Owens, asserting that she breached the card contract by failing to make minimum monthly payments. "After paying my monthly utilities there is no money left," Owens pleaded in court papers. "If my situation was different, I would pay." Cleveland municipal court judge Robert Triozzi ruled that Owens had paid enough, declaring that she had been prey to "the plaintiff's unreasonable, unconscionable, and unjust business practices."

Getting trapped in the jaws of credit-card debt has become alarmingly easy.

CONSUMER REPORTS INVESTIGATION FINDS SOME CREDIT CARD ISSUERS PREDATORY
How to Fight Back; the 10 Most Consumer-Friendly Credit Cards

YONKERS, NY – Thanks to cozy relationships that have developed over the years among lawmakers, federal regulators, and credit card issuers, getting trapped in the jaws of credit card debt has become alarmingly easy. A Consumer Reports investigation in the November 2005 issue of the magazine finds that credit cards have become much more treacherous for consumers. The investigation reveals that credit card issuers have imposed interest rates in excess of 30 percent on consumers whose only offense might be a late payment to another creditor. The report also exposes other practices by issuers of credit cards that pose hazards for consumers, including:

  • Battered card holders with fees and penalties that now often hit $39.
  • Reduced grace periods when new purchases are free of interest.
  • Lobbied successfully to weaken protections for cardholders.
  • Increased fees for tardiness and for going over the credit limit.
  • Reduced minimum payments, thereby increasing the debt.

CardWeb.com, Inc.® is a leading online publisher of information pertaining to all types of payment cards, including, but not limited to, credit cards, debit cards, smart cards, prepaid cards, ATM cards, loyalty cards and phone cards. The firm uniquely serves all constituencies connected to the payment card business: consumers, institutions, merchants, acquirers, processors, manufacturers, consultants, news reporters and many others. The company is renowned for its independence, credibility and fairness.

 

How to win at credit cards

  1. Choose well.
    Hunt for cards with consumer-friendly policies. Also consider cards issued by credit unions. A July 2005 study by the Woodstock Institute, a nonprofit economic development policy group, found that cards issued by credit unions had much lower fees and penalty APRs. To find a credit union for which you might be eligible, visit the Credit Union National Association Web site at www.creditunion.coop or call 800-358-5710.
  2. Scope out the offer.
    Scan the Schumer box, named for Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who sponsored a law mandating disclosure of all rates in a type size that customers can read. Pay attention to notices you receive from your card issuer. If you use your card after receiving them, you may be tacitly agreeing to new terms, even if you claim you never saw the notice.
  3. Negotiate better terms.
    If your card issuer hits you with a late fee or a rate hike, ask for a waiver. The better your credit score, the more leverage you have, says Scott Bilker, author of “Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card Debt.” “Even if your score is a little below average, you’re still going to spend money and they would rather have it be on their card than a competitor’s,” he says. If you can’t get a better deal now, you can improve your credit score over time by making on-time payments and by not increasing your balance. You can ask for a lower rate later.
  4. Pay on time.
    Mail your payment as soon as you receive your bill or set up direct online payment arrangements with each card issuer, suggests Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com. “Even when you’re paying electronically,” he says, “some issuers may take two or three days to post payment to your account, so it’s wise to go online to authorize your payment at least that far in advance of the due date to play it safe.”
  5. Complain.
    First register a complaint with your state attorney general. (Contact information is available at www.naag.org .) Also lodge a complaint with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, at www.occ.gov or 800-613-6743. If the OCC doesn’t regulate the card issuer, it will help you find the agency that does.

 

See you next Month -- OldSage


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Updated: April 18, 2007