I have talked to three schools about it. All of them said, "Don't bother. We don't look at it." Also, my oldest dd's college did not require it. She didn't take it.

Of course very few people publicly state that bullying is hunky dory. That doesn't stop them from doing it, though. It happens every day. Anyone who doesn't admit this is being willfully ignorant. Some people have very warped ideas about what constitutes kindness and compassion.

Well, either the OP did a poor job of explaining the book, or she did explain it accurately and it's not something I am interested in.

I have actually talked to my parents about this very thing. They claim that they and their friends did not agonize over being parents the way people do now. They were not overly concerned with Ruining Their Kids' Fragile Little Psyches By Making Mistakes the way they perceive parents today are. They believe that parents today have a much more stressful time but that most of it is self-imposed. They never thought of parenting as a career. I brought this up with them (separately, because they are divorced) because I was feeling very stressed about issues with my kids and wondered whether I was worrying too much.

We have friends who recently moved to Colorado, near Denver, and they don't like it. They cite the pot smoking, the ginormous housing costs coupled with the extremely tiny lot sizes, the ridiculous rate at which Denver's population is exploding, the horrific taxes, the blandness of the sprawling suburbs, the relatively conservative nature of the people who live there, and the culture war between the northern and southern areas of Colorado. They say that if they could, they would move back to the Midwest. My kids often play hockey in Carmel. I wouldn't move there, personally. There are better areas of Indy to live in. ETA: Ooops, sorry, I was confusing Carmel with another area of Indy my kids often play in. We don't even live in Indiana, and I feel like we spend half our life there, anyway!

We made up our own. My dd will be watching some Great Courses, reading some books about the Greeks and the Romans, reading speeches, poems, and plays of some of the greats of ancient Greece and Rome, and creating a website to showcase the information she's learned.

This bears repeating.

You keep saying this, yet we do know their motivations. They are very upfront about them. You may choose not to believe them, but that doesn't mean their motivations are murky and unknowable. It just means you choose to be suspicious.

Come now, albeto. Surely you realize that any time you question the dominant religion, you are being rude, violent, and militant. The dominant religion is immune from questioning and criticism, and it is only people who are threats to the social order who don't fall in line. You are smart; if you pretend not to know this, you clearly are being disingenuous. :001_rolleyes:

People have been asking that since at least the time of the ancient Greeks. There's nothing new about that. I haven't read the book, but if it's another "you and your lousy parenting" book, no thanks. He sounds like John Rosemond.

If the Christians would be polite and tolerant, then the atheists wouldn't have to make noise. When the Christians stop trying to prevent other people from enjoying the same rights Christians demand, then everyone else will stop feeling the need to agitate for equal treatment.

I don't feel that abstaining from voting is a protest. It's more of a capitulation. The fewer regular people who vote, the more we're just handing power to those with wealth and influence. This country's government would look a lot different if more people voted.

Even more specifically, I don't think they like the idea of anyone having an alternative interpretation of their beliefs. Which really just proves even more the need for a group of people who promote free thought and free inquiry. As a member of a non-dominant religion, I have seen and heard hundreds of weird, incorrect, or potentially offensive interpretations of my religious beliefs. Most come from people who haven't bothered to become educated about it and don't really care to. They just don't like that something is different. Really, this is not threatening to me. If someone else wants to misunderstand my religion, have at it. It really doesn't affect me. I will counter misinformation if the subject is brought up, but beyond that, I have no personal stake in people understanding or believing in my religion's ideas. So honestly, I have a hard time understanding why it matters to other people.

The same is true of many other religious groups. We can either take people at face value or be suspicious of everyone. But we are supposed to give Christianity and other mainstream religions the benefit of the doubt just because, well, we're supposed to. Btw, the co-founder of the Satanic Temple has stated that he believes they can be both satirical and genuine. I agree with that.

Yep. They choose to see Satan as a metaphor for standing up to tyranny and blind obedience and for personal autonomy. Whether others like or agree with that is rather immaterial to the fact that the Satanic Temple people do, in fact, have a developed rationale for their choices.

Because generally when "we" (general we) say that others shouldn't use an offensive word, it's because people are using an offensive or derogatory word to describe a person or group of people. We don't call people "retards" or "niggers" or "faggots" because that is negatively labeling people, and it's just not nice. I would not call someone "Satanic" in a negative way. However, calling your group Satanic Temple or your club After School Satan is not labeling a person or group of people in a personally negative way. They are using the concept of Satan (and they make clear they are referring to the literary, not the Biblical, Satan) to describe their beliefs. Just because some people think Satan is a bad, bad thing doesn't mean that other people shouldn't get to use the word. If a group of people who revered Hitler wanted to start a children's club and call it Hitler Youth, that would be entirely appropriate, regardless of the fact that I personally am offended by the ideas of Hitler and and associate him with evil. I don't get to tell other people, "I don't like that word, so you don't get to use it to describe yourself/your club/your mission." It seems to me that if people would visit the Satanic Temple site, or even read about the Satanic Temple on Wikipedia, they would have a better understanding of what it's all about and stop making uninformed assertions about what they assume it's about. But I could be wrong.

My dd loved The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland ... . Have you read Mr. Popper's Penguins? How about The Phantom Tollbooth? We also really liked Kenny and the Dragon.

Six Weeks to Understanding Grammar Lori D. suggested it to me, and it is the first time grammar ever made a lick of sense to my son, who was in 7th grade when we started it. You don't have to do it in six weeks. The author explains that a highly motivated student could do it in six weeks as a review, but someone who is learning grammar (not reviewing) is encouraged to take as long as necessary. It is not a textbook or workbook. It is written to the parent/teacher, explaining why traditional grammar approaches can fail and giving a sequence and tips for implementing the program. Each "week" is a chapter with a narrative schedule and way to approach the teaching. You definitely have the author holding your hand as much (or as little) as you need when working through the book. Each grammar session begins with a review of everything you have learned so far, continuing with the introduction of just one new concept, which is practiced for as long as necessary before moving on. The author provides some sample sentences to work with, but the strength of the program (imo) is that students compose their own sentences. Students do not just mark someone else's pre-written sentences. That is the key that helped my son unlock grammar. My son has said, "I like this because it's not just jumping around all over the place, confusing and too quick. I work on things until they make sense to me." The book is super cheap for Kindle and worth many times what I paid for it.

Does she listen to audiobooks? That's how my dyslexic son consumes the majority of his literature.

I wonder whether people who continue to assert that the Satanic Temple is being disingenuous and only going for shock value (in the face of easily accessible material that explains the Satanic Temple's point of view) would be perfectly fine with other people accusing them and their religion of being disingenuous and shocking just because those people disagreed with them. Perhaps this is actually a perfect example of why we need things like FSM and ST to begin with.

I agree with Janet. This is just another way to continue to privilege the privileged kids.

http://thesatanictemple.com/faq/

Not true. I am both an atheist and religious. My religion does not require me to believe in a god.

They aren't being deceptive. All their information is readily available on their website. They are perfectly upfront about who they are and what they believe. When I said to myself, "Self, what is this Satanic Temple I am hearing about?", I sat right down and Googled it and, lo and behold, the internet had a wealth of information readily available to me. I get that people object to them using the word Satan, and I understand (even if I don't agree with) why. But to claim that the Satanic Temple is being deceptive is simply wrong; they state very clearly why they chose the name Satan (which is not actually copyrighted and doesn't belong to anyone, so there are no rules or laws about how it can be used) and how it relates to what they do. However, I absolutely think that the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks should change their name, as they don't actually do anything to help actual elks. It's really misleading.

Yes, I agree with the fact that they are metaphors for those things. I also think there is nothing wrong with pointing out that this is a rather arbitrary and cultural designation and that there can be alternative interpretations. I'm off to have dinner with my dad and family. Have a good one!