I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "subgroups who cannot access the texts." I'm also unsure what you mean by it being unfair for a school to require a child to read a book.

I would love to see actual physical education in the schools. What I see around here is PE classes that are jokes and athletic departments that rival college programs.

Maybe part of the issue is that we encourage so many sports that require costly equipment and venues. When I was in high school and decided to participate in a sport, I chose cross country because all I needed was shoes. Then, we ran around the school and downtown. Pretty cheap. :D

Curious. Are Hyland's teething tablets homeopathic or not?

We're making the call for both of our dogs on Monday. They're 12 and 13. Both are now incontinent. They don't move from their beds most of the time. One is deaf. She is also becoming aggressive towards the kids. I can't justify prolonging their lives via costly measures. They are simply old dogs. :(

I have attended multiple meetings of our county board of commissioners. We don't have a city council.

State and federal legislatures are their own hot mess. I expect to be able to converse face to face with my local officials. When my little portion of the district elects someone to the board, he is my representative. His job is to listen to every "dingbat" out there because, like it or not, that person has a right to be heard by the people who represent him. It doesn't meant that every person is going to be satisfied with the answer, but they still get to speak up. When people join private organizations, you agree to the rules. You can be kicked out if you break the rules. Nobody "joins" their local government. Our contracts with our local governments are in constant flux. If the people 20 years ago thought that a written question format at public meetings was acceptable, that doesn't mean that that is the rule from now until eternity. How easy it is to write off another person's concerns when you think, even rightly so, that he doesn't know what he's talking about. What about when the tables are turned?

It's not up to anyone to decide whether someone's question is valid. They have a right to ask what they want of their elected officials. Mr. Small may have been making statements and grandstanding, or he may not have gotten to his question yet. Do you say the same of the officials though? Are they not sitting on stage and making statements? Are they engaging with their constituents?

I understand that. It seems like there aren't any meetings where rules are mutually agreed on, though. It's not a political debate. In a political debate, all parties involved hash out the rules and agree to abide by the ones that are settled on. Here, you have a small group of people deciding the rules, stating the rules, and then forcibly ejecting anyone who tries to speak up. That's not right. I know that there are a lot of misconceptions about these things and, again, Common Core has not been on my radar and probably never will be. I just don't like this trend that I'm seeing of local officials, people who are our neighbors and our coworkers, act as if they suddenly can dictate the terms of public meetings and shut down any opposition to what they decide is best for everyone else.

Here's another article: http://www.examiner.com/article/exclusive-video-school-supers-have-parent-arrested-from-common-core-meeting Yes, I'd be ticked if I wrote the former and my name was read out as the author of the latter.

I don't know. I think the video starts going off the rails when a security guard comes over to "calm him down" while he's still politely reading a written question.

You decided all of that from a couple of posts? I don't care about Common Core. It makes no difference in how I educate my children. I don't know if the guy has a valid point or not. I darn sure know that elected officials should not get to silence people's concerns so cavalierly. The news reports on this incident indicate that there have been no open forums for the parents. The other forums all had the same written-question format. This is more than Common Core. My own community is experiencing something similar over our county board of commissioners trying to eliminate public discussion over whether or not we should give $20 million in taxpayer dollars to a private company so they can build a fancy athletic park. They're trying to do the same thing with written questions instead of oral statements, changing the rules for participation, etc. It's unacceptable. And yes, we could just vote them out, but elections don't happen every year. They can do a lot of damage very quickly.

I can see someone coming up with the meeting format saying that, but my goodness you would think they would understand that not having a back and forth is just going to feed into the craziness! From my disinterested eye, I see a group of people who are objecting to what they see as the powers that be ignoring their opinions about their children's education. I don't see TPTB making much of an attempt to personally engage with these people at these meetings. They can direct them to any website they want to, but that's not going to be the same thing as making people feel that they have a say in what's going in their children's school. And maybe, I guess, they really don't have a say anymore and that's why there is no back and forth. Maybe the State has decided (for better or for worse) and any discussion is moot.

His question was concerning the goal of CC. He was concerned that CC's goal is to prepare kids for community college instead of a university. He stated he had nothing against community colleges since he went to one himself before transferring to the University of Maryland, but that community college shouldn't be the end goal for education. Is community college the goal for CC? I have no clue. I don't have a dog in the CC fight, either. I haven't spent time researching CC because I have our own curriculum to worry about and research. Regardless, you have a board of elected officials who are telling adults with children in the school system that they can't speak to the board! They have to write their question on a piece of paper, have it read, listen to the answer, and that's it. No back and forth. No clarification. Not even the piddly three minutes to talk at the podium that is sadly standard at most local government meetings.

In a town of 4500 people, I'm surprised that every parent is not at the school grounds demanding a change. That's a small school in a small town. I would think the people would feel more ownership of their school and be comfortable speaking up. :(

I would turn off the water supply to the sprinklers and advise the property manager that you will not reconnect until the sprinklers are fixed. I would advise the property managers that they need to provide an exterminator for the mice. If my concerns had not been addressed within thirty days, I would begin making plans to find a new rental.

Rather than turning this into a debate on CC, would anyone care to comment on whether or not the man in the video was making untrue statements?

I think security is standard at any large gathering now. However, security should be there to protect people from harm, not to prevent people from speaking at a public meeting.

Also good to know. I'm just fine with knock-offs. If we got the AG doll for our daughter, that and a couple of outfits would be Christmas. I'm not comfortable spending hundreds of dollars on a three year-old.

Sure, rules should be followed. But why does the School Board get to decide that the rules will be no oral questions? That the written questions submitted can be paraphrased or have the wording changed while still attributing the changed question to the original questioner? Watch the video. The man was polite. The crowd was supportive of him asking the question. He didn't shove the guard. The crowd audibly gasps when the man is grabbed by the security guard. There is something very wrong here. A few people on a School Board do not get to decide how we can discuss issues surrounding the education of our children.

Good to know!

It's so odd with the emphasis on homebirth and grinding your wheat and all of that. There's such an overlap between what I've always considered a "crunchy" lifestyle and this ultra-strict religious group. It makes me wonder if some of the very strident sites I see about these commonalities are coming from an ATI background or if they've been unknowingly influenced by it. I mean, until I read all of this, if I was speaking with someone who shared that they are homeopaths, make everything from scratch, homebirth, etc., I would just assume they were into organic living. I'm not even sure what I'm trying to say, but it just strikes me as odd. On a side note, if everything is supposed to be natural, how are the Duggars getting away with tater-tot casserole? :D

I am unsure. I had a lot of fun with sleepovers as a kid, but I'm facepalming right now thinking about how much trouble we could have gotten into. My regular sleepover was at my best friend's house. She had a slightly younger brother and he had three friends ranging from his age to my age that would regularly spend the night too. We never did anything "adult." I don't think it would have crossed our minds, even as tweens. What we did do (and we were able to do this because my friend's mom was newly single and out at night) were things like dress in dark clothes, smear our faces with shoe polish, and go on "missions" around our neighborhood. Or go "nutria-hunting" on the neighboring golf course with flashlights in the middle of the night. Or take little paddle boats on the golf course ponds at night to look for alligators. :svengo: We were all between 10 and 12 years old. We were out running around at 2 in the morning and having a grand old time, but I know now that my parents would have had heart attacks if they knew what we were up to! Sooooo. Yeah. Not sure about sleepovers.

For those who know: I'm thinking about getting a Bitty Baby for our three year-old for Christmas. I think it might be cute to get our daughter AG pjs and have her open her doll in matching pjs on Christmas morning, but I'm balking at the clothing prices. I seem to remember reading that AG has an annual sale on accessories. Any idea when that might be?

I love seeing the prices come down for services. :) Right now, I still have a "dumb" Tracfone, but since I'm home with a computer all day I don't need smart phone features. My husband has the $30 T-mobile unlimited data and 100 min/month plan. I'll have to keep this in mind in case we ever decide to change. Thanks for posting!