Separation of Church and State

This article talks about a teacher who has been fired for reportedly preaching to his class and burning the image of a cross into student’s arms.  He taught for twenty-one years in that district and during that time taught creationism in his science class and refused to remove his Bible.  Here is another version.  How the teacher is portrayed is totally different depending on which article you read. 

But let’s look at the facts.  Much of what he did is protected by his first amendment rights.  However, should a teacher really let his or her beliefs influence his/her teaching?  I always felt that my religious beliefs had no place in a classroom.  Why? Because of that little separation of church and state thing.  Pesky as it may be it isn’t my place to teach children about my religious beliefs.  Are my beliefs right?  Of course.  Should everyone learn about them and agree with me?  Darn skippy.  Does that mean I should shout it in the classroom or demonstrate my beliefs with abandon…not if I work for the government.  The government doesn’t run schools you say?  Yeah, right.  We may not be an official branch of the government but as schools are currently structured it might as well be the fourth branch. 

No matter which article you read you will see at least a bit of sympathy for the man because his beliefs are Christian.  Do you think there would be any sympathy at all if the man was Muslim and had the Koran on his desk?  Or if he had been Hindu and had the Bhagavadgiitaa out on display?  My guess is everyone would be screaming at the top of their lungs about the separation of church and state in those cases and people wouldn’t be upset at all if a man of one of those faiths was canned for preaching.

So here are my questions.  Do you think the man should have been fired?  Do you think the separation of church and state is getting fuzzy?  Do you think educators should be allowed to interject their beliefs into their curriculum?

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I was reading a magazine earlier today and came across a small ad for Green Hour.  As a new mother with a technologically addicted lifestyle I’ve often wondered how I will keep my son from becoming a net potato.  I think this site has some wonderful things to offer.  It was created by the National Wildlife Federation which is a fantastic group.  I didn’t realize it as a child but they produced my absolute favorite reading early reading materials, Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard.  I see they also now have a magazine called Animal Baby.  I will definitely be buying these for my son as he gets older.  Before I go any further I suppose I should tell you, you can check out Green Hour here.

Back to the Green Hour website.  They talk about how it has become increasingly difficult to unplug our kids even though most of us had unplugged childhoods.  This resonated with me right away. 

The Discovery Journal & Activities page is nothing short of amazing!  It includes a little story about the current activity along with book recommendations, how to make or perform the activity, safety information,  a parent’s guide and several other nice resources.  The activities are updated roughly once a week.

Green Hour Blog is written by different people and is updated randomly but it has some great ideas and information for parents.

Community Corner There is a place to meet and chat with like minded individuals.

I really love that there is a website out there that can help me bring my child and myself back in tune with nature.  What did you think about this site?  Are there other Green sites that you particularly like??

I know I said I would get more serious but I do seriously LOVE Pacman.  It is probably one of my favorite ways to mindlessly spend several hours.  I even like the little song :)  I figured I would share this ridiculous love/addiction with all of you!  If you want to go down memory lane (or for you youngsters out there, make new memories) check out these PacMan games!

• PacMan game as well as photos and a brief history.
• This PacMan game has a better video quality and has all of the original levels as well as the Mrs. PacMan levels.
• Mrs. PacMan is out there as well.  Wouldn’t want the ladies to feel left out

I hope you enjoy your PacMan time as much as I do.  Let me know which of the above you liked the most!

I’ve said before that I wish there were national standards and that the education system in America was more streamlined and universal.  Well it looks like we might be taking the first baby steps in that direction.  This article talk about a possible new national mandate that would require specific graduation tracking processes.  This would primarily affect graduation statistics, however, once the states are able to compare themselves to one another more accurately I think they will want to be able to compare apples to apples.  Right now we are comparing apples to oranges and bananas and kiwi and grapes and mangos and who knows how many other kinds of fruit.  I really hope this process of comparing graduation statistics is the first step in making our country more competitive educationally.

What do you think about this proposal?  Do you agree with me that each state should have similar standards?  Do you think the government should get out of the education business altogether?

Now that I am moving this blog to a more educational bent I thought I’d give an online IQ quiz (or two) a go.  I had to take a real IQ test many years ago and I’ll just say that my score was somewhere between the two online quizzes :)  But hey, they are fun to take!

The first IQ test I took you can find here.  According to this IQ test my “general IQ score is 158. “

“A person whose IQ score falls in the range of 144-160 is considered to be “gifted”.

An IQ is a composite of your scores across 12 distinct aspects of intelligence. Each person has a unique intellectual make-up, with strengths and weaknesses that affect their methods of understanding, recognition, communication and association. Using a carefully cross-reference scoring scheme, TestCafe is able to accumulate a profound quantity of information about your natural intellectual abilities.”

Unfortunately they wanted me to pay for the full analysis, which I’m not going to do for something that took a few minutes :)  This is my favorite test because it says I’m smarter than any other test I’ve taken :)  Mensa, here I come!

The next IQ test I took can be found here.  I was average on all of them except verbal where I was Excellent…more on that

Your age adjusted IQ score is 112 and the average score of all test takers is 100.

According to this test you are a word wiz with a very high verbal IQ! You have probably read lots and are likely to be well aware of the numerous advantages of expressing yourself in a precise manner. You appreciate the sometimes subtle differences between words and can easily communicate to others what you really mean. Overall you have a much better understanding of the intricacies of communication than most people. Remember there is no ceiling to your knowledge and you can improve your verbal ability infinitely.

This one was a bit lower than my actual results so I don’t like it as much.  In my defense, however, we had a storm and the power went out while I was trying to take this one soooo my guess is that lowered my score.  These tests being timed and all.  I suppose then that this one is more accurate than the other.  ::sigh:: No Mensa for me

Speaking of Mensa.  If you take the tests and decide you are Mensa material you can visit their website here!

How did you do on your IQ test?  How accurate do you think they are?  Are you a member of Mensa, if so what’s it like being that smart?!

This video is a song that Pink sings for President Bush but I really think it is applicable to all political leaders.  It even talks about No Child Left Behind, although not strictly in terms of education. 

Even though I know that as the leader of a country (any country not just America) you must make difficult decision and it must be impossible to please all of the people all of the time.  BUT I swear it seems like politicians (and again I’m pointing my finger at politicians in general and not just President Bush) have no common sense.  I sometimes wonder if to be a politician you have to be disassociated from reality.  I’ve heard the politicians from this country talking about sympathizing with the average American when their lifestyles clearly indicate know little to nothing of what life is like for the majority of Americans. 

I got all ranty and a bit off topic so I’ll stop and save my I’m disappointed in the government speech for later. 

Tell me if you liked the video and if you did or didn’t why!  I think it is a beautiful song with a lot of great points, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Maya Angelou is one of my favorite authors, poets, speakers.  I could listen to her read the phone book and be enthralled.  Here is Maya Angelou reciting one of her poems.

As I said before I love Maya Angelou.  Did you like this video?  Do you like her?  Who do you love to hear speaking?

I don’t know anyone who isn’t looking forward to retirement.  Countdown to Retirement was fun even if there weren’t as many options as I would have liked. If retirement is too far away and is depressing to think about, what about a Road Trip?  I am not so good at games that require hand eye coordination but it stimulating in that I had to focus focus focus.

Money games are always fun and at least make you think about how you are spending your money.  These games would be great as a treat for kids after finishing an assignment if you have a classroom computer, or for kids at home who want to play on the computer.  They are free and they are non violent.  They even have some educational value.  That makes them worth checking out.

Did you like these games?  Will you use them for yourself, your children, or your students?  Do you know of any other online games that are free and at least a little educational?  If not educational how about free games that achieve mental stimulation?

Time for some more puzzle fun, this time with a math puzzle!  Have fun with it and I’ll post the answers tomorrow

Try to fill in the missing numbers.

Use the numbers 1 through 9 to complete the equations.

Each number is only used once.
Each row is a math equation. Each column is a math equation.
Remember that multiplication and division are performed before addition and subtraction.

How are you enjoying my puzzle week?  I didn’t realize I was going for a them till I became obsessed!  Do you like the puzzles?  Want more puzzles?  Hate the puzzles?  After I play with it this week I think I might scale back to once a week.  Let me know what you think!

I created this Famous Poets word search with the help of Discovery Education’s puzzle maker.  I adore this tool and most of the tools at Discovery.  It is a great way to wrap up a lesson on just about any topic as the puzzles are customized.  I hope you have some enjoyable mental stimulation finding the answers in this famous poets word search.

H R R H B O O K O W R Q T T Y Y B J P S
R Y V L J G Z W O Q A A H E Z Z E F S G
M I O I L X T L G L V O J G N D F D C K
K I S J N L L H E U R S L Z R N J V Z J
J Y V W H E W F A E E Q P B X E Y Y F Z
T E Z Q F D H E A S J H H G Z A L S B A
U V Z G Q G I U R W P M U L P T J S O Z
K N N G T P T Y T I H D I C K I N S O N
S O L V S L M Z H W E R V O B F W Y Z P
L T Q B O O A J V B C K F Q J U X N B Y
T G A H R H N Y J F T V S F X G Z E A Z
U N J E F K K L R N I A A N I D O O R Z
E V T G Y D T S O Y K R U Y O P F T V X
O T R Z Q P G H U N S G Y W H B I N I G
X U X S K S Z C Q H Q D U F W P G T B D
L T M T E G F B Y Z C H T H F E Z H G E
S F P D L L O R R A C Z B F Z R O B R K
G O O S W Q V L Z P K Q X N T I V X I U
G K Y A N W S K W X W P K C E Z O F L T
T Z D Z J O O J P D B J F R O W Y A H T

CARROLL

DICKINSON

FROST

LONGFELLOW

POE

TENNYSON

THOREAU

WHITMAN

YEATS

Did you enjoy today’s famous poets word search?  Would you like more games like this?