Today’s school-aged parents are parents of my generation. We’re accustomed to changing technology—at least in our adult lives. Sometimes however, we seem to recollect our own childhood education experiences as the continuing norm when that just isn’t so. When we were school-aged, we went from a period of no public internet to dial-up internet. Our idea of research was to randomly browse a ProQuest archive for as long as it took to find something relevant, because searching was an emerging art. This isn’t the world today, and we should stop acting like it where our children are concerned.

I’m not an expert, but I am a parent. I’m a parent who cares about and is committed to my children’s success. I’m one of many who have been on the fence about, but am now leaning towards and preparing for homeschooling. In exploring this idea and making preparations to execute it, here are some of my findings.

Homeschooled kids have largely been stereotyped as being socially awkward and not prepared to handle the real world. However a new Harvard study has found exactly the opposite; Homeschooled kids are more well adjusted and engaged than their public schooled peers. This is because homeschooled kids are more self-sufficient, and thrive on how to think than what to think.

If you think as a parent you are unfit to teach your children, this is merely a confidence problem you have to overcome, rather than an ability problem. This is especially true since we live in the age of information, whereas the self learning experience is a far cry from what it was when we experienced gradescool. 

Where exactly are your kids with education? How do you know where to start? The easiest answer is simply to let your kids show you.

For literacy, start with your child journaling. Whether a real journal about their day, or imaginative stories, they’ll show you exactly where they are. The words they misspell are their challenge words. They clearly know what the word means if they’ve used it accurately in context, so now it’s time to teach them how to spell it. Then it’s time to teach them similar words, and their meanings, that follow the same spelling rules while you’re on that theme. Then teach them a few alternate synonym word choices to that word. Encourage them to use these new words in their future writing. You’re creating a literacy web, while you should be challenging them to expand.

Once you have expanded literacy, you’ve given them the opportunity to learn whatever they would like if you have fostered an environment of curiosity. Raise a self starter and they will learn.

Mathematics is a challenge for me, but lucky for me I’m good with money. Coincidentally, money is a great way to introduce any mathematical concept visually all the way up to Pre Algebra. Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Decimals, Fractions and Percentages can all be visually taught with pocket change. It’s crucial to visually teach these concepts with real world tangibility before moving to written mathematics. Teaching the “why behind the what” with something as motivating as money is a great way to introduce new concepts. As for that later Algebra stuff… well, I have a few years to figure that out.

If you’re still stuck on the social aspect part, then there’s a good chance that you’re actually shallow and you should work on that. You weren’t really socialized so much as you were part of a hierarchy, and lucky you for not having been at the bottom of that hierarchy like I was. Getting pushed didn’t do much for me socially. Getting a concussion in a classroom only to have the school lie to my father about it (zero tolerance bullying) didn’t do much for me socially. Getting put in choke holds in the locker room didn’t do much for me socially.

Sunday school did a lot for me socially. If it weren’t for Sunday School, I’d be far worse off socially. If public school is where I gained my social skills, I’d probably be a psychopath right now. I understand religion is a debatable topic in libertarian circles, but community churches certainly engage in the community service and voluntarism that libertarians espouse. Sunday School is where these concepts were introduced to me and where I first engaged in them. 

Regardless of how one feels about religion, your child will fare far better socially by going to Sunday School than public school. Or any club or sports team. There are far more beneficial ways for your children to learn constructive social skills than public school. Even just a few short hours a week of constructive social activities far outweigh hours long days of public school where kids are exposed to negative behaviors and interactions. Even the kids who bully other kids aren’t getting anything positive socially, because that behavior won’t get them far in the real world, even though schools effectively enable it by pretending it doesn’t happen.

All in all, you as a parent are your child’s best teacher. There are resources out there to help you that didn’t exist when you were your child’s age. If you are committed, your children will be better off learning from you. 

The post Considering Homeschooling? You’re Far From Alone. appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Mary Margaret Olohan 

Hundreds of church goers attended religious services in both Louisiana and Florida over the weekend, despite government coronavirus restrictions.

About 500 people attended a church service at Life Tabernacle church in Louisiana, just outside of Baton Rouge. The people gathered to worship after New Orleans police broke up a Saturday “funeral repast” attended by about 100 people, the Associated Press reports.

Pastor Tony Spell reportedly bused worshipers to Life Tabernacle from several different parishes, according to NOLA. Sunday’s service was the second service that Spell has held in defiance of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edward’s ban on gatherings of more than 50 people.

“The virus, we believe, is politically motivated,” Spell told NOLA. “We hold our religious rights dear, and we are going to assemble no matter what someone says.”

Edwards said Sunday that those who violate his order are  “grossly irresponsible” and “take the time and attention of first responders and make it much more likely that this disease will continue to spread,” the AP reports.

The Louisiana governor also emphasized again that the New Orleans city hospitals will likely run out of ventilators by April 4 and will also likely run out of beds by April 10.

Today, @LouisianaGov and I toured the medical surge buildout at the Convention Center. These 1,000 beds will free up ICU space at hospitals needed for the most critically ill, with additional capacity if needed. No walk-up admission—patients will arrive from hospitals. pic.twitter.com/k8fz4ywv5J

— Mayor LaToya Cantrell (@mayorcantrell) March 29, 2020

More than 3,500 Louisiana residents have been diagnosed with coronavirus, more than 150 have died, and over 1,300 of the coronavirus diagnoses as well as 73 of the deaths have been in New Orleans, the AP reports.

Worshipers also flocked to a Sunday religious service at the River at Tampa Bay Church in Florida, a live stream of the service shows.

“In a time of national crisis, we expect certain institutions to be open and certain people to be on duty,” the church said in a statement. “We expect hospitals to have their doors open 24/7 to receive and treat patients. We expect our police and firefighters to be ready and available to rescue and to help and to keep the peace.”

“The Church is another one of those essential services,” the church added in the statement. “It is a place where people turn for help and for comfort in a climate of fear and uncertainty.”

The River at Tampa Bay emphasized that the church is continuously cleaning and sanitizing surfaces and encouraged parishioners who are not feeling well to stay home and watch services online.

“We feel that it is very important, at this time, that we keep our doors open for anyone who needs prayer or ministry and to make ourselves available to minister hope and healing and comfort to them,” the church added. “We are the Body of Christ and the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe God‘s Word to us, which says to trust Him and to not be fearful but to have faith in Him. We are praying—as are our fellow Christians around the world—and we know that God answers prayers.”

Neither Life Tabernacle nor the River at Tampa Bay Church responded to requests for comment.

This article is republished with permission from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Image: Facebook live screenshot

The post Southern Churches Draw Hundreds To Sunday Services Despite Coronavirus Restrictions appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Some attribute the dropping number of Catholics in America to being so well off in terms of our economy, technology, and other luxuries compared to other countries. Although I won’t deny that is a factor, I believe that the Catholics proposing a new law every time something bad happens are much more to blame. In fact, I would assert that these advancements have made Catholics lazy, so that they would rather let the government take care of problems, rather than step up and do it themselves.

Lets look at charity and the welfare state. As far back as 1955, we see a decline in Catholicism in the US following years of the New Deal putting forth economic welfare programs, and as the Eisenhower administration is adding disability insurance to social security. Yet, this was praised by Catholics, as many believed the charities at the time had been stretched to their fullest extent due to the Great Depression, and the government helping people is charitable.

What those Catholics advocating for those welfare programs then and even larger programs now fail to understand is that this does not help people. Government welfare programs are not nearly as effective as private charities, and in fact hurt private charities’ ability to help people. For example,  last year a soup kitchen in Kansas City had government officials pour bleach in food meant for the homeless, because “the volunteers preparing and serving food didn’t have permits.”

Another result of the government getting involved in “helping” the poor is that the private industry has less funding to put towards charities due to higher taxes and increased prices needed to pay for said programs.

Above all else, the government does not use voluntary means to fund these programs. It is only through taxes, under the threat of imprisonment by the government, at the end of a gun that people comply to fund these programs that Catholics are under the impression will help people. This is not charity in the slightest, and isn’t even close to Christian and Catholic values.

Conservatives, you’re not without sin in this, either. While it is true that most of the policies I listed above are touted by much more liberal Catholics, your constant desire to use the state to establish a moral code is no better.

Your crusades against weed, prostitution, and having the government involved in marriage has not helped the church at all. Saint Thomas Aquinas would actually agree with me as well, as in his Summa Theologica he states,

“Now human law is framed for a number of human beings, the majority of whom are not perfect in virtue. Wherefore human laws do not forbid all vices, from which the virtuous abstain, but only the more grievous vices, from which it is possible for the majority to abstain; and chiefly those that are to the hurt of others, without the prohibition of which human society could not be maintained: thus human law prohibits murder, theft and such like.”

The desire to establish the perfect government theocracy where everyone is moral, respects each other, and follows God’s teachings is understandable. What Catholic conservatives fail to realize is that the perfect theocracy cannot be run by imperfect men (i.e. every man ever); thus, we should instead wait for God’s return when that perfect theocracy will be established.

The second we start to advocate for a government that establishes the moral code, we risk the men running that government turning the tables on us and making our religion illegal, such as they have in China, burning bibles, churches, and forcing Christians to renounce their faith.

How would they do this you might ask? Well, we do believe that at every mass we are consuming the body and blood of Christ, clearly making us a threat because we are not psychologically stable. Or they look at any random scandal from recent years, and use that to lie to fabricate a justification in order to protect others from us.

Ultimately, big government policies continue to exist because Catholics have become lazy, making Americans turn from the Church and toward the government. We would rather the needy and misguided get help and direction from the government instead of getting on our own two feet, going to these communities in need, and helping them.

This has done nothing but create a much more dangerous religion compared to any others throughout history. The government giving out these resources and setting the moral standard has created the religion of Statism. A religion that operates and grows based purely on force, but justifies it’s actions for the “common good.”

We must stand up to Statism, empty our pockets to charities, and go to those communities in need that lack morality. We need to set the example that we have been taught by the Church. Perhaps by following our lead, they will cross the Tiber, come home to Rome, and grow the Church further.

“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought”

–Saint John Paul II

The post Big Government Catholics Are Destroying the Church appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

HPeter Hasson on February 18, 2019 

Liberal actor Jussie Smollett is accused of staging a racist and anti-gay attack on himself, which Smollett blamed on supporters of President Donald Trump.

Smollett’s alleged fake “hate crime” appears to be the latest instance of liberals manufacturing hate crimes for attention in the Trump era.

The Daily Caller News Foundation compiled below some of the most outrageous fake hate crimes since Trump was elected, in rough chronological order:

Anti-Muslim Hate Crime In Michigan Turns Out To Be A Hoax (Nov. 2016)

A Muslim woman at the University of Michigan received national attention from national outlets like The Washington Post in November 2016 after she claimed a drunk 20-something man threatened to light her on fire if she didn’t remove her hijab. The university condemned the “hateful attack,” which turned out to be a hoax.

Bisexual Student Fakes Trump-Inspired Hate Crime (Nov. 2016)

Taylor Volk, an openly bisexual senior at North Park University claimed to be the target of hateful notes and emails following Trump’s election in November 2016. Volk told NBC News that “I just want them to stop.” But the “them” referenced by Volk turned out to be herself, as the whole thing was fabricated.

Gas Station Racism Goes Viral — Then Police Debunk It (Nov. 2016)

Philadelphia woman Ashley Boyer claimed in November 2016 that she was harassed at a gas station by white, Trump-supporting males, one of whom pulled a weapon on her. Boyer claimed that the men “proceeded to talk about the election and how they’re glad they won’t have to deal with n—–s much longer.” Boyer deleted her post after it went viral and claimed the men had been caught and were facing criminal charges. Local police debunked her account.

White Men Rob Muslim Woman Of Her Hijab And Wallet — Except It Never Happened (Nov. 2016)

An 18-year-old Muslim woman in Louisiana claimed in November 2016 that two white men, one of whom was wearing a Trump hat, attacked and robbed her, taking her wallet and hijab while yelling racial slurs. She later admitted to the Lafayette Police Department that she made the whole thing up.

Church Organist Vandalizes Own Church (Nov. 2016) 

A church organist was arrested in May 2017 after he was found responsible for spray-painting a swastika, an anti-gay slur and the words “Heil Trump” on his own church in November 2016. When the story first broke, media outlets tied the hoax to Trump’s election. “The offensive graffiti at St. David’s is among numerous incidents that have occurred in the wake of Trump’s Election Day win,” The Washington Post reported at the time.

“Drunk White Men” Attack Muslim Woman In Story That Also Never Happened (Dec. 2016)

Another 18-year-old Muslim woman, this time in New York, was the subject of breathless headlines in December 2016 after she claimed to have been attacked by a group of Donald Trump supporters on a New York subway while onlookers did nothing. The woman, Yasmin Seweid, would go on to confess that she made the whole thing up.

White Guy Sets His Own Car On Fire, Paints Racial Slur On His Own Garage (Dec. 2016)

Denton, Texas, resident David Williams set his own car on fire and painted “n***** lovers” on his home’s garage, in an apparent attempt to stage a hate crime. Local police investigated the arson as a hate crime. Williams and his wife, Jenny, collected more than $5,000 from Good Samaritans via a GoFundMe page before the hoax was exposed.

Prankster Tricks Liberal Journalist Into Spreading Anti-Trump Hoax (Dec. 2016) 

As tales of Trump-inspired “hate crimes” were spread far and wide by liberal journalists after Trump’s election, one online prankster decided to test just easy it was to fool journalists. The prankster sent Mic.com writer Sarah Harvard a fictitious story in which a Native American claimed to have been harassed by an alleged Trump supporter who thought she was Mexican. Despite no evidence backing up the claim, Harvard spread the fake story, emails the prankster shared with The Daily Caller showed.

Student Writes Anti-Muslim Graffiti On His Own Door (Feb. 2017)

A Muslim student at Beloit College wrote anti-Muslim graffiti on his own dorm room door. The student was reportedly motivated by a desire to seek attention after a Jewish student was targeted with an anti-Semitic note.

Israeli Man Behind Anti-Semitic Bomb Threats in the U.S. (April 2017) 

Media outlets didn’t wait to find out who was behind a string of bomb threats targeting synagogues and Jewish schools before linking the threats to Trump. A U.S.-Israeli man was charged in April 2017 and indicted in February 2018 for the threats. A former reporter for The Intercept was also charged in March 2017 with making several copycat threats.

Hoax at St. Olaf (May 2017)

Students at St. Olaf college in Minnesota staged protests and boycotted classes in May 2017 after racist notes targeting black students were found around campus, earning coverage in national media outlets like The Washington Post. It later came out that a black student was responsible for the racist notes. The student carried out the hoax in order to “draw attention to concerns about the campus climate,” the university announced.

Fake Hate At Air Force Academy Goes Viral (Sept. 2017) 

The Air Force Academy was thrown into turmoil in September 2017 when horrific racist notes were found at the academy’s preparatory school. “Go home n***er,” read one of the notes. The superintendent, Lt. Gen. Jay B. Silveria, went viral with an impassioned speech addressing the racist notes.

Two months later, authorities determined that one of the students targeted by the notes was also the person responsible for writing them.

K-State Fake Hate Crime (Nov. 2017)

A student at Kansas State University filed a police report in November 2017 over racist graffiti left on his car. “Go Home N***** Boy” and “Whites Only,” read the racist graffiti, which the the student later admitted to writing himself.

Racist Graffiti Carried Out By Non-White Student (Nov. 2017) 

Another instance of racist graffiti that same month also turned out to be a hoax. A Missouri high school investigated after racial slurs were left on a bathroom mirror in November 2017, only to find that the student responsible was “non-white.”

Waiter Fakes Note Calling Himself A Terrorist (July 2018)

Texas waiter Khalil Cavil went viral after posting a Facebook picture of a racist note that he claimed a customer had left on the receipt, in lieu of a tip. The note described Cavil as a “terrorist.” Saltgrass Steak House, where Cavil worked, initially banned the customers for life, before their investigation revealed that the waiter had faked the racist note. “I did write it,” Cavil later admitted. “I don’t have an explanation. I made a mistake. There is no excuse for what I did.”

Waitress Fakes Racist Note, Blames Law Enforcement (July 2018)

A Texas waitress apologized in July 2018 after blaming local law enforcement for an offensive note targeting Mexicans. She later admitted to writing the note herself.

New York Woman’s Hate Crime That Wasn’t (Sept. 2018)

A New York woman was charged in September 2018 after police determined she fabricated a story about white teens yelling racial slurs at her and leaving a racist note on her car.

Student Faked Racist Notes (Dec. 2018)

Several racist notes at Drake University were actually the work of one of the students who had been targeted by them. “The fact that the actions of the student who has admitted guilt were propelled by motives other than hate does not minimize the worry and emotional harm they caused, but should temper fears,” university president Marty Martin said afterwards.

The Covington Catastrophe (Jan. 2019)

National media outlets pounced on a selectively edited video from the March for Life that showed Native American activist Nathan Phillips beating a drum in front of a boisterous group of boys from Covington Catholic High School.

Phillips originally told The Washington Post the students swarmed him while he was preparing to leave the Indigenous People’s March scheduled for the same day. Phillips originally said one student, who later identified himself as high school junior Nick Sandmann, blocked his path from leaving as he tried to do so. The extended video shows that wasn’t the case: Phillips approached the high school boys during their cheers, not the other way around. Some of the people with Phillips were directing racially charged language at the students, not the other way around.

Phillips told a second variation of his story to the Detroit Free Press. Phillips claimed he was playing the role of peacemaker by getting between the students and four “old black individuals,” whom he claimed the students were attacking. “They were in the process of attacking these four black individuals,” Phillip tolds the Michigan paper. “I was there and I was witnessing all of this … As this kept on going on and escalating, it just got to a point where you do something or you walk away, you know? You see something that is wrong and you’re faced with that choice of right or wrong.”

“These young men were beastly and these old black individuals was their prey, and I stood in between them and so they needed their pounds of flesh and they were looking at me for that,” he added. Extended video shows that account also isn’t accurate. The four individuals Phillips referenced were members of the Black Hebrew Israelites and they launched racist and anti-gay slurs at the high school students, not the other way around. (RELATED: Nathan Phillips Keeps Changing His Story, Keeps Getting It Wrong)

WATCH: 
[dc_video id=0]

Bonus: Anti-Semitic Vandal Exposed As Democratic Activist (Nov. 2018)

Anti-Semitic vandalism turns out to be the work of a Democratic activist. It wasn’t a hoax — the anti-Semitic vandalism was real — but the perpetrator wasn’t the right-winger some had assumed him to be.

Bonus II: Trump-Inspired Racist Blaze At Black Church Was Carried Out By Black Church-goer (Nov. 2016)

This hoax occurred one week before Trump was elected, but TheDCNF is including it as a bonus because it was so egregious. Leftist media outlets ran headlines like “A Black Church Burned in the Name of Trump” after a black church in Greenville, Mississippi, was set on fire and spray painted with the words “Vote Trump.” The Washington Post’s original coverage of the incident read in part,” Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons called the fire a ‘hateful and cowardly act,’ sparked by the incendiary rhetoric of GOP nominee Donald Trump during his presidential campaign.” But the church was set on fire by one of the church’s own congregants, who is black.

Did we miss any hoaxes? Shoot me an email. 

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The post Here’s A List Of Hoax ‘Hate Crimes’ In The Trump Era appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.