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Elections...
Two sites for your consideration regarding
the upcoming November elections:
Slate and
ArkansasTonight. Also worth a look, the
Arkansas Secretary of State.
For a complete list of candidates with
links to respective websites, visit
US Elections: Arkansas. Also,
OnlineLittleRock and
U.S. Politics Today offers some informative stats and topical
views.
If you're interested in Gozarks' opinion on
who and what to vote for, starting with the
ARKANSAS HIGHER EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY AND FACILITY IMPROVEMENT ACT we
shall vote NO. Why? Because the powers that be already have a
huge a budget and don't get as much education for the technology-buck as
does the typical homeschooling mom (read A Real Education, below). Check
back for our ballot recommendations on candidates, coming soon!!!
A Real
Education...
First for your consideration, this
Ben Frank Hyde for Congress (in Alaska) website was recently
referenced to me along with a link recommending a country song
titled "Takin
My Country Back." I downloaded the audio while poking around a
bit on the site and now must say that I personally am more impressed
with this candidate's
Issues page than any I have ever toured. The man gets right to
the point. If he were running in Arkansas I'd vote for him, no problem.
About the time I'd reached this conclusion,
the song came on and, well, I think it's one of those you've just gotta
listen to and judge for yourself. I will, however, say that I find it to
be a toe-tapping country tune of high caliber which I'm about to listen
to again, and maybe again after that <grin>. As to it's message, well...
like I said. You will have to decide that for yerself...
On other fronts (as if all things were
actually 'unrelated' <ha-ha-ha>!!!),
following for your perusal and
consideration is my most recent contribution to an
ongoing conversation on the subject of education. It is good to
note as context that this particular list-conversation has been ongoing
since October of 1999 and is subscribed to by nearly 500 members. The
list originated as a means of discussing, developing and implementing
the ideas about education which are articulated on the
Creating Learning Communities website, at which I personally believe
you would enjoy taking a long, lingering look. In the interim, have a
read of my note addressing the theme "parents/mentors" and "life without
school":
Hello Andrea, Marion, Bill and all... I
will explain my opinion as to why parents are the only rightful mentors
and primary teachers of their children. First, let me recap Bill's
definition, re: mentoring being a mutual learning process and teaching
being the communication of learned information from one mind to another.
That said, also please allow me to respond to the question Bill raised,
as to whether all parents are qualified to be teacher/mentors of their
children. From my point of view, the answer is yes. All healthy parents
are innately qualified, competent and rightfully entitled to satisfy
this need -and- the social myths (ie: the need for academic testing)
disable parents by undermining their own confidence in their own
competency.
Of course there are exceptions. Every individual is unique and thus has
specialized areas of competency along with certain areas of
incompetence. To expect a parent who cannot read to teach a child to
read is unrealistic. However, for a parent who cannot read to mentor a
child who (also) wants to learn to read is the best possible quality of
family-centric learning that can take place. Also, the act of mentoring
(when understood as 'creating the environment and opportunity to learn')
may be applied to any field of study with the parent/mentor enabling the
child/learner to gain access to requisite information (ie: driving the
child to the library, furnishing computer access, etc.) and trusting the
child to 'learn' on his/her own.
In today's culture, however, parents and children are immersed in a
society which dishonors the birth right of the parent to be the primary
guiding influence in their own child's life. This is self-evident by the
number of hoops many parents are legally bound to jump through in order
to comply with mandated 'official' criteria. These laws themselves
undermine a parent's self-confidence and -- since children 'learn what
they live' (which is often contradictory of 'what they are taught') this
insecurity is then subliminally transferred to the child.
Think critically, for example, about the inherent 'teaching' of the
conventional public schooling system: Students are segregated by age and
'classed' by (supposed) level of intelligence. Skill-sets (reading,
writing, etc.) are compartmentalized by 'subject matter' rather than
being blended into a flexible and intricately interconnected 'whole'.
Children (and teachers) 'learn' in an environment where they are NOT
held accountable for the well-being of the facility which serves them (ie:
they do not wash the windows, sweep the floors, clean the toilets or
cook the meals they themselves eat; they have no decision-making role in
'how money is spent'; they must 'comply' with the edicts of those
'employed' by the system, yet they have no authority to 'hire and
fire').
Thus they are subliminally 'taught' that life is a hierarchy with the
'top' rung of the ladder occupied by 'the authority/elite' who
essentially do as little 'mundane' work as possible with such tasks
being ('rightfully') delegated to 'lesser' individuals who are 'paid' a
smaller wage than they (the elite) would accept for doing comparable
work.
Keeping this 'autonomic' (by example) teaching/mentoring principle in
mind, consider that the parent is (rightfully) the only person entitled
to immerse and thus inculcate their own children with the fundamental
tenets of 'how people behave in society'. And the fact is that parents
are doing this 'teaching' every time they drop a child off at daycare to
be tutored by paid employees who have not known the child from birth and
have no accountability to the outcome of whatever the child learns
whilst in their care. Thus this 'hired help' -- no matter how loyal,
loving or dedicated -- is not equipped with the desire to build a
life-long relationship with the child and during the child's most
formative years (birth to about age 12), the 'role model' that is being
(subliminally) taught to the child is one of instability (ie: caregivers
always changing, no 'one person' to rely on ALL the time) and
authoritarian (do as I say but not as I do) hierarchy.
Thus the self-reliant autonomy of the family begins to disintegrate and
the 'state' takes on more and more parental duties in the hopes of
solving the growing social crisis (drugs, teen pregnancy, street gangs,
illiteracy) but instead of ameliorating the debilitating circumstances
-- as the intervention increasingly interferes with the 'natural'
(parent directed) social-learning process -- the disabling effect on the
child, the family and society as a whole is exacerbated.
To fully appreciate this perspective, we must consider the base-line
objective of 'education', ie: What is it most important for children to
learn? That is, is it more important for children to learn arithmetic or
trust? Spelling or respect? Geography or ethics? History or integrity?
And of course all may be learned at the same time, which is ideal.
However, our present system of education does not value the acquisition
of social skills (who to trust? how to discern honesty? what does
'integrity' mean?) as equal to the acquisition of 'book learning' about
subject matter (math, history, etc.). In fact, if you look closely at
the 'acceptable status quo' of the social environment considered
acceptable in the mainstream educational moral, you will notice that
(contrary to what is 'said' about what is desired) children are
permitted, enabled and encouraged to participate in the anti-social
'games' of domination and control. Winners and losers are abundant (with
the ratio about 10% to 90%), elitists have control, power is worshipped,
money rules, and superimposed authority is aggrandized. These (socially
acceptable) policies and parameters are NOT grounded in trusting the
individual to know what is 'best' for self thus disrespecting the
uniqueness of individual creativity/integrity and, by adherence to
hierarchal/authoritarian mandates, the wholeness of the person/family
are evermore undermined.
Now, in stating all this I admit that (imho) many parents in today's
society are ill-equipped to consummate the requisite duty. This,
however, does not mean they are incapable, but only that they have been
inculcated with a (subliminal) set of 'debilitating beliefs' which
essentially disable their innate potential to 'do a good job'. This
social anomaly can be (and I would say 'is being') eradicated by
individuals who take the time to think things through, determine for
themselves 'what is best' to enliven the day-to-day quality of their own
lives, assert their own independence and CHOOSE to work
cooperatively/collaboratively with like-minded others to engender trust,
self-reliance and accountability to self-defined/adopted standards.
And as I see things, the first three steps of making the quantum leap
from where we are right now into the convivial world we envision is (1)
to 'trust' that ALL parents are capable and rightfully entitled to
'educate' their own children howsoever they envision as 'best', (2) to
'trust' that ALL children are capable of their own volition (given trust
and respect of course) to mature into healthy adults, and (3) when asked
by others 'how do you do that?' (whatever 'that' is), to respond with
information, encouragement and love....
Anyway, hope this is useful... on with life!!!
:-)
Christine
-----------------------------
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired,
signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not
fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." ~President Dwight D.
Eisenhower, April 16, 1953
-------------------
C.L. (Weiss) Beems
media & marketing management
editor@gozarks.com
POBox 211, Shirley, AR 72153
501-745-4153
http://www.gozarks.com
---------------------------------------------
Wanna
Hug...???
If you like hugs you'll love this
short movie
FYI: HUGS RULE!!!!
Of course, no matter how much we like them,
hugs are not enough to keep us happy, healthy and warm. For that, we
need 'energy'... and I was intrigued recently to visit
this site which indexes a number of technologies for energy
production & conservation the development of all of which has
(supposedly) been somehow thwarted by high-powered suppression.
Usually, we tend to attribute such tales to
the ilk of those who routinely wear tin-foil hats <grin>. However, take
a read through the above referenced index, do some googling for yourself
and then see what you think.
For one example, TOMI (Theory of Magnetic
Instability) technology employs FREE magnetism as its driving force and
"appears to be the embryo of a valid free energy device."
Invented by Stewart Harris (follow link for 'build-it-yourself'
plans) in 1978, his patent application was rejected contrary to a
favorable review by patent officials. Then, allegedly shortly after the
demonstration, "all copies of the patent application and other
information subsequently disappeared from the Washington Patent Office"
and "Mr. Harris’ home was broken into and his original drawings, papers,
applications, and correspondence were stolen."
Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it???? Be
the first to build one, send us proof that it works, and we'll give you
an even better prize than the one we're offering in our
Be A Music Agent
contest <grin>...!!!
Also new this time around, Gozarks is
pleased to announce our recent professional affiliation with
Worth Remembering Publishing (WRP). Headed by John Velke, a man of
much expertise, this innovative company compiles custom volumes of
unique biographical tributes, commemorating the lives of deeply
cherished family members and friends. There is a fee, of course, however
for the quality of service provided and the intrinsic value such a
memoir might have to the bereaved, we think WRP offers a priceless
opportunity to enshrine the memory of someone loved, forever. For more
about John, his team and WRP, have a look at our recent
News Release.
Finally for now, if you would like to
receive a head's up when Gozarks publishes a collection of interesting
items such as those listed above, we invite you to
subscribe to Gozarks Digest or one of our other specialty news
release and newsletter updates list...!!!
Good Things..
Sometimes like a smorgasbord life offers
too much of too many good things. As I think these thoughts, however, I
reflect on the fact that this statement simply is not true for far too
many people. Then I wonder, why...???
Why is it and how is it that some of us
enjoy a remarkable quality of ongoing ease and pleasure whilst others of
us struggle, stumble and fall into circumstances which no one would (I
believe) consciously desire?
Why and how is it that sometimes, no matter
how hard we work we never seem to get ahead and sometimes with seemingly
no sweat-effort at all the world seems to drop rose petals at our door?
Why and how is it that some of us seem to
recover (and even prosper) from entanglements with tragedy whilst others
of us seem perpetually driven down, deeper and deeper into a hellacious
pit?
Biology, Psychology and Theology pose
interesting answers to these questions. Could it be that some semblance
of 'truth' about balancing these scales is to be found where the
congruent principles of these -ologies align?
Biology, in the field of genetics, seems
more and more to 'prove' that the quality of life we enjoy is no more or
less than our DNA enables; that 'codes' written on the molecular
structure of our cellular make-up have a dominator effect on our lives;
that who we are and how we behave is a matter of 'pre-programming'
handed down to us by generation upon generation of ancestors, giving us
little or no control over most circumstances of our lives.
Psychology, under the heading of cognitive
dynamics, affirms the existence of the
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy effect; that 'mind' has a convoluting
influence on what we experience as 'reality'; that our own
'predispositions' about 'how things have always been and thus must
always be' have a defining influence on the outcomes we experience
day-to-day; that we and the quality of life we experience is
dramatically attributable to what we think.
Theology sets universal boundaries for 'good
conduct', subscribing behaviors which are grounded in the peaceful
expression of love for self and others; promising 'rewards' of healthy
well-being and material abundance (aka: Heaven on Earth) when the tenets
of such conduct are amalgamated into the character of one's daily life.
For centuries -- dating to the origins of
each of these respective schools of ideology -- hierarchal rivalry has
abounded. Three dictums, each vying for supremacy in the domination
game. But what if, we wonder, these various prognostications are, at
their core, all true?
What if 'genetic code' is the equivalent of
a 'default code' setting on a computer program? What if the
electro-magnetic 'energy' of mind influences this default code,
manipulating pre-programmed 'on/off' switches much the same way a
'default setting' is changed on computer screen? What if, as Einstein
asserted, the thoughts we think have a potent influence on the
moment-to-moment experience of our day-to-day routine???
Wouldn't that make it all the more vital, to quote both
ABBA and dear
Martin, for all and each of us to "Have A Dream..."
If the general conversation
here is of interest to you I highly recommend the following books.
Order here through Amazon and we at Gozarks (aka: my kids and me)
actually earn a few cents...!!!! Thanks!!!
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|
A New
Science of Life |
|
by Rupert
Sheldrake |
Avg customer
review: |
| Usually ships in
24 hours |
|
Price: $11.53 |
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| Chaos, Creativity, and
Cosmic Consciousness |
| by Rupert Sheldrake |
Avg customer review: |
| Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
Price: $10.17 |
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|
Seven
Experiments That Could Change the World: A Do-It-Yourself Guide
to Revolutionary Science (2nd Edition with Update
on Results) |
| by Rupert
Sheldrake |
| Avg customer
review: |
| Usually ships in
24 hours |
|
Price: $11.53 |
|
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Christine Beems
editor@gozarks.com
Hey! Come visit us at
SassafrasWilds!!! |
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Lake of the Ozarks Vacation Rental
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they may not always agree and yet, being true to the spirit of mutual
respect, honor our differences amicably.
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