Four More Reasons to Homeschool

(www.RemnantNewspaper.com) Never let it be said that The Remnant doesn’t recognize its own shortcomings: no sooner did we publish an account of what appeared to be an absurd overreaction by Spotsylvania, Virginia, school authorities to a peashooter incident than we are confronted with this horror story: “Mistakenly believing that a middle school classmate had caused the arrest of a friend, a quartet of Florida teenagers exchanged Facebook messages discussing the killing of the suspected “snitch,” according to police,” claimed a 3 Feb 2011 article posted at The Smoking Gun. (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/internet/teens-arrested-facebook-death-threats)

Just as fourteen seemed a bit old for fooling around with a peashooter, fourteen and thirteen seems a bit young for making death threats on a social network internet site, particularly when said threats are for the alleged turning in of another thirteen year old arrested for carrying a firearm to school at the North Fort Meyers Academy for the Arts.

This particular taxpayer funded facility describes its “mission” as: “Academics and Arts for life long learning in a safe and caring environment” (emphasis added). But—hey!— it’s “a state of Florida Grade A School for the third year in a row!  (2009-2010 school year) NFMAA is a Title One School, a GOLD LEVEL PBS Model School, a CRISS Demonstration School and an Arts Achieve Model School!”

Let the students speak for themselves: “IMA HELP KILL HIM!! THAT PUNK RUINED OUR LIVES!! HES SOO DEAD!!” wrote a fourteen year old whose mug shot reveals an overly-made-up (so much eye-liner she looks like a raccoon), prematurely aged child who looks like she could audition for a part in “Me and Charlie Starkweather [look him up] Go on a Kill-crazy Rampage.”

The thirteen year old upon whose page the death threats appeared led the frenzy with this: “Found out who Nick’s snitch is [naming the alleged tattletale] later adding, “He ruined my bestfriend’s life! And ima end his!!” The gun-toter, you see, is the “love of her life,” according to the barely-post-pubescent girl.

Let’s examine the school they attend.

First, a “Title I School.” According to the U.S. Department of Education the purpose of Title 1 funding, “is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high quality education and reach, at minimum, proficiency on challenging state academic achievement standards and state academic assessments.”

“The basic principles of Title 1 state that schools with large concentrations of low-income students will receive supplemental funds to assist in meeting student’s educational goals. Low-income students are determined by the number of students enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program. For an entire school to qualify for Title 1 funds, at least 40% of students must enroll in the free and reduced lunch program,” states an “educational” web site called “Bright Hub.”

One might begin by pointing out that most all students are “low-income,” unless, of course, by that is meant “low-income family students,” but why split hairs in the interests of correct writing? And, too, we learn that there is in fact such a thing as a “free lunch,” at least for some, although in fact those lunches are paid by taxpayers.

Now what, pray tell, is a “Gold Level PBS Model School?” Look it up at http://flpbs.fmhi.usf.edu/modelschools.asp  and treat yourself to some bureaucratese at its best. “PBS,” by the way, stands for “Positive Behavior Support.” Sound like a social engineering term? Yes? Go to the head of the class!

Now, on to a “CRISS Demonstration School.” What might that be?

“Project CRISS (CReating Independence through Student-owned Strategies) is a professional development program designed to help all students read, write, and learn more effectively,” states their website. “Student-owned Strategies!” In times gone by, teachers were supposed to be able to help parents in teaching reading and writing, and no outside agency was necessary.

“Arts Achieve! Model Schools is a program designed by Arts for a Complete Education/FloridaAlliance for Arts Education (ACE/FAAE) to recognize school models that offer a comprehensive, sequential, high-quality program of visual and performing arts instruction,” claims the Florida Alliance for Arts Education website. It would appear that NFMAAE forgot the exclamation point, but that’s hair-splitting again.

North Fort Meyers Academy for the Arts is not necessarily a school to which one might wish to send a child, in spite of all the nonsensical “qualifications” listed above.