How to get a kid killed for snitching 101.

Rome, GA school pays kids to tell on each other

I am made sick once again.

IMAX will not show film because of Southern Creationists

I highly reccomend this children's book. It really helped my young son draw some connections between what he hears and a real person that is living in the midst of it all.

"The book was inspired by a July 2003, article in The New York Times about Alia Muhammad Baker, the chief librarian of Basra's Central Library, who was determined to protect the library's holdings when US troops entered Iraq and fighting and looting broke out.

When her own government refused to help, Ms. Baker began spiriting the collection to safety herself, book by book. She carried the books to her home and to a neighboring restaurant, managing with the help of friends to preserve 70 percent of the collection before the historic building burned to the ground nine days later.

In the article, Baker remarked "In the Koran, the first thing God said to Muhammad was 'Read.' " Winter, who has written biographies for children, was hooked. "What Alia realized was that without books, you lose history, culture, the rich exchange of ideas," she says.

Some Basra residents, however, thought Baker's endeavor was simply looting and questioned why she didn't steal something more valuable than books. "I got a kick out of reading about that," says Winter. "There really is nothing more valuable.""

The Librarian of Basra - A True Story From Iraq

There is some evidence that as many as half of all children with IQs above 130 get below average grades, and in one study 13% of high school dropouts were gifted. In another study, a full 25% of children diagnosed with ADHD tested so high in creativity tests they qualified for state scholarships.

Gifted children MUST receive an education that fits their needs. If they don't, they should be expected to act out or space out, and it is NOT their fault! Placing them on medication so that they can tolerate a more boring school is absurd.

When gifted children have problems

This is a follow up to a story that I'd posted a few days ago. The police officer was fired. :)

What was never mentioned in any of the articles was that the woman that was thrown to the ground during the arrest was holding another woman's baby at the time.

I've got witnesses reports here from the moms involved:
"One of the public school teachers that uses the park with us now, saw his knife on his belt and called the police saying that he had it out flashing it around their children, . . .A plain clothes investigator charged the shelter shouting at (another parent's) son to take his hands out of his pocket and then shouting at my son that he was talking to him, he never announced that he was an officer, where his badge and
gun were at on his hip no one could see at the time, when he reached out for my son, a mother stepped in and tried to keep him from grabbing him. He shoved her
backwards while she held another mother's baby. She shouted for someone to call the cops and he shouted he was the cops. He shoved my son to the ground and shouted for a uniformed officer who was catching up to him at this time to cuff her and arrest her. They walked **** to the police car and cuffed him and put him the car. She was already driven up to the police station and placed in a cell, all because she protected my son from a strange man that was being chased at a distance by uniformed officers. My son was arrested for carrying a deadly weapon/concealed weapon. She was charged with felony assault on an officer. One officer said he was about to draw his weapon, he had already unsnapped it and was pulling it out to draw and aim at my son, because he thought he was about to pull the knife on the plain clothes investigator. This same officer said no telling how many people could have gotten killed, in other words he was prepared to shoot towards the shelter with all the small children around. . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And from the other mom:

The plainclothes officer was incredibly belligerent and angry right
from the moment he rushed under the shelter. He could so easily have
stopped as soon as he came up to us, announced that he was a police officer and needed to talk to the boy with the knife, but he didn't do any of that.
Instead he shouted, shoved, verbally abused, intimidated. He acted so horrible it never occurred to me, or to any of us, that he was a police officer. He just seemed like a crazy man. He never announced who he was until he had shoved the woman holding the baby and then she asked the mother of the baby to call the police. Only then did he say he was an officer. I asked him how we were supposed to know that and he said he was wearing a gun and a badge and so it was obvious. The gun and the badge were on the side of him that was turned away from all of us, I think, so I don't know how we were supposed to see them. Also he was yelling so much we didn't think to look at... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

Follow up - Police officer FIRED for excessive force

"While Sudbury Valley gives children plenty of freedom to play and develop as individuals, it also requires them to participate in the community through school meetings, in which everyone votes on all decisions made at the school. The weekly meeting, says graduate Anna Rossetti, shows that, “democracy can be painful. You’ve got to listen to a lot of different crap before you get to a consensus.” Students and staff sometimes spend hours hashing out every single issue.

Yet Rossetti acknowledges that the experience has often come in handy. “Participating in democracy at Sudbury Valley instills in you an incredible sense of empowerment,” says Rossetti, who now works at a Whole Foods Market in San Diego, California, while finishing her bachelor’s degree in social sciences. “That’s something I take with me all the time.”

Democratic Schools - What happens when kids have a say in their education

A little more insanity...

Homeschool group says police used excessive force