THE MODERN AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: BIRTH, HISTORY, FALL, AND SOLUTION - PART III: THE EXPERIMENTAL YEARS

PART III

(Click to read Part I, and II, then IV)

You will recall that in the early 1900s, Horace Mann and John Dewey laid the foundation for an experiment in education. Their philosophies, coupled with world politics, literally changed the world. Quoting once again from the Utah State Governor’s report, “A Shift In Focus:”

“Another war, World War II, changed everything again. As men went off to war, women came out of the home and into the factories and mills. In 1945, the soldiers, sailors, and airmen came home and, on the GI Bill of Rights, swelled the number of college students. The increasingly complex post-war world demanded more advanced training. Adult education programs expanded. We also started hearing calls for educational reform as the college prep role of public schools began to increase in importance.

“When the Soviet Union beat America into space with the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the cause of reform took on real weight, producing an overnight clamor. More math! More science! Back to basics! More advanced curriculum for all students. Help America catch the Russians by reforming the schools. The FEDERAL role in education began to mushroom.

“Then came the 1960s, with a broad context of social concerns and changes–civil rights, integrated schools, special education, increased job opportunities for women, nutrition, ‘latch-key’ children, and questions about America’s role in the world, against the backdrop of the Vietnam war. The teaching force changed, seeking a greater voice in the system (often unsuccessfully); and students changed, having grown up in a television-dominated world” (Shift in Focus, Op. Cit., pp. 7-8).

Horace Mann, Father of American Education

The First Wave:

Parents Challenge False Philosophies and Anti-God Concepts

With all these changes in society, many parents felt uneasy about the anti-family, anti-God focus that was beginning to permeate the educational system. As a result, an upsurge in private schools and home tutoring developed. 


The first wave of home schooling families were those who were extremely concerned with what they called “false doctrines” that were being introduced into the classroom. They were upset with the introduction of Humanism, Communistic ideas, evolution, and other Godless ideas.

Leaders began warning parents that many of the changes in education were being encouraged and at times even financed by individuals and governments hostile to the
American dream. For example, it was during this time that a grass-roots movement swept the country against the tactics of Communism. According to the Communists themselves, they had set 45 major goals pertaining to the weakening of America that they wanted introduced as part of school curricula. A summary of those 45 goals appears in the 1961 best-selling book, The Naked Communist, by W. Cleon Skousen. They are:

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet Satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China; admission of Red China to the UN.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the Germany question by free elections under supervision of the UN.
9. Prolong the conference to ban atomic tests because the U.S. has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the UN.
11. Promote the UN as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the UN as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other….)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.
26. Present homo-sexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a world-wide basis.
30. Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of “the big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use “united force” to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally Reservations so the U.S. cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
(See The Naked Communist, published by The Reviewer, Salt Lake City, UT, 1961, pp. 259-262)

It is noteworthy to mention that, as of this writing (2005), every one of these 45 Communist goals have been met. Back in the 1960s, it seemed ludicrous that such goals could ever be accomplished. In fact, most Americans were made to believe that Communism actually died when the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall fell. However, Communism simply camouflaged itself until its insidious tentacles have reached into the very fiber of domestic life in America. Although America seems to be doomed, later on in this report we shall see that there is reason to have great hope. Meanwhile, we continue our historical background of how education got so far off track:

The 1960s also brought a cry for “social” changes necessary for “modern times.” Soon parents began hearing unfamiliar phrases and titles under the concepts of “progressive education” such as values clarification, child rights, free speech, do your own thing, my fair share, new math, and police actions.
Exotic grooming and dress styles were described as the “in thing.” Deviant sexual practices were explained away as “acceptable alternate life styles.” Secular Humanism was touted as the NEW HOPE of the world. Any challenge from the parents was shrugged off as an obvious example of the “generation gap.” Standards of the past were called “obsolete, non-progressive and restrictive” to child development.
In the name of “progress,” the social scientists argued against the necessity and importance–or even the right–of parents and teachers to have traditional Judeo-Christian values taught in the schools.
To ensure the secular approach to public education, prayer and Bible reading have been eliminated from most public schools. Stories with moral lessons disappeared from textbooks. In effect, the teaching of spiritual values and morality were eliminated from the responsibility of the schools altogether.
Frantic parents first tried to become involved with their children’s education in the public system, but found it almost impossible to permeate the barriers professional educators defensively built around the system. 

Much of this wall between parents and schooling was excused because professionals said that parents were “untrained” for modern education. A “generation gap” theme created an additional chasm between many families and the classroom. It was as though the educational planners did not want parents to know what was going on inside those halls of learning.

When students began to get the idea that there was a “generation gap” between themselves and Mom and Dad, they no longer respected them as guides and counselors, but looked upon them as old-fashioned, and not capable or willing to keep up with the modern times–especially if parents criticized the system. This was one more step towards keeping parental influences out of the classroom so that the children could be taught “the realities of life.” 

It wasn’t long before many parents found themselves disrespectfully shoved out of the educational picture.

As alert parents watched with dismay what was happening, they decided to abandon the public educational system altogether, and to teach their children themselves at home, or enroll them in private schools.

Were Parents Justified?

It was as though George Orwell’s terrifying public novel, called 1984 was becoming a reality. His best-selling book, published in 1949, described a totalitarian society of the future: a society that “punishes love, destroys privacy, and distorts the truth.” Orwell also predicted that the government would introduce a new language which he called “newspeak” and which could only be understood by the elite.

Indeed, abandoning the “old” in favor of the “new” was the ultimate goal of the founders of the “modern” system of education. One writer for The Humanist agreed that a war was taking place for the minds of children in the public schools:

“The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new–the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism” (John Dunphy, The Humanist, January/February 1983).

One of the most dismaying comments comes from a Harvard professor, Dr. Pierce, in a written address he delivered to 2,000 teachers in Denver, Colorado in 1973. He declared:

“Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances toward our founding fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It’s up to you teachers to make all of these sick children well by creating the international children of the future.”

That same year, Gloria Steinam, editor of Ms. Magazine and leader of the Women’s Liberation movement, told listeners: “By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God.” At a Houston meeting she boasted, “For the sake of those who wish to live in equal partnership, we have to abolish and reform the institution of marriage,” echoing the Humanist promotion of divorce. The Saturday Review of Education (March 1973)

In the late 1980s, humanist Dr. John Goodland wrote a report for the National Education Agency, arguing that one of their goals is to re-educate children and to turn
them away from the values of their parents. He said:

“Our goal is behavioral change. The majority of our youth still hold to the values of their parents and if we do not re-socialize them to accept change, our society may decay.”

(As quoted by Dr. D. James Kennedy in a sermon entitled “A Godly Education,” delivered to the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The quote came from Dr. Goodland’s report entitled “Schooling For the Future.”)

Reverend Donald N. Sills of Fredericksburg Virginia quoted John Dewey as once saying:

“If the public schools can keep children occupied from 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning, throughout the day, with sports after school, and homework in the evening, the parents will have less than an hour a day with their children, and the family’s and Christian church’s influence over them could be broken in about a generation.” (Donald N. Sills, “Crisis in Education–An American Enigma” 1994, p. 1) 

As We Sow, So Shall We Reap

The results of this experimental cycle became obvious. Not only was society plagued by the now infamous culture of this era–pock-marked by “hippie” life-styles, flower children, drugs, jungle-beat or ethereal drug music; an acceptance of homosexuality, atheism, anti-religious movements, anti-prayer and draft-dodging attitudes–but also by a radical decline in academic achievement and a high increase in school drop-outs.

The Second Wave:

More Dissatisfied Parents Challenge the Public School System’s Academic Failures

In the 1980s, the American people received a wake-up call. It came in the form of an extensive report on the condition of American education, and was compiled by those who were in the educational system itself. It was called “A Nation at Risk.” In this report, Secretary of Education William Bennett emphatically declared that academically, schools were failing the students in many areas. The shocking report became the battle cry for this second cycle of reform.

Especially shocking was the declaration that a full 25%, one in four, of all adults in America were found to be functionally illiterate. The experimental public educational system of the past had failed drastically, and unless drastic measures were taken, little hope was seen for the future!

Again, concerned parents, fearing for what was NOT being taught in school, joined those who had begun home schooling because of what WAS being taught in the schools. This caused another groundswell in the numbers of home schoolers.

On the heels of the “Nation at Risk” report came studies from every sector of society analyzing student achievements. The results of these studies were equally as shocking as the “Nation at Risk” report. Because of the dismaying statistics, more and more private schools sprang into existence.

THE MODERN AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: BIRTH, HISTORY, FALL, AND SOLUTION - PART II: INSTITUTIONALIZING PUBLIC EDUCATION

PART II

(From “Restoring the Educational Dream” by Glenn and Julianne Kimber)
(Click to read Part I, and then Parts III and IV)

An excellent educational report called “A Shift in Focus,” was created by a Utah governor’s committee in the late 1980s. This report continues Part 1 of our “Humpty Dumpty” story about what gradually happened to education in America:

“The Civil War and the Industrial Revolution changed everything. Americans started moving to cities and society demanded more education than families could provide, even when they got together. A wave of immigrants, primarily European, arrived on our shores in great numbers, generally settling in the cities.

“Throughout the country around the end of the 19th century, schools began to be organized around the production practices used in the factories–the best model we had at that time for processing things in large numbers. Schools faced vastly increased demands–more English, more math, more geography, more social studies, more of everything. Learning took place in a formal classroom setting, for a set period of time, with a single subject being taught at a time. Students were assigned their places on the basis of age.

“When a bell rang (like a factory whistle blowing?), the students reassembled themselves in a different set of rooms, or put aside the subject being addressed, and started over again–new topic, same conditions, same exact amount of time.

“Industrial society required interchangeable parts, and the diversity of home schools meant chaos in the workplace, when graduates with varying skills and extents of knowledge came together to produce a product or perform a non-farm service. As a result, specialized academic textbooks, written by experts, became the basic tools teachers used in the classroom. As more students went to school, school districts became larger, more structured, and more uniform. Teachers, with more and more expected of them, received more formal training for their jobs.

“Some students thrived in this environment; some did not. For a time, those who did not were allowed to drop out with no stigma attached, to find their own way in the work force. Job skills were rudimentary at best, and these dropouts created a convenient labor pool that helped fill the factories and build America into a world power. Society, in general, was in balance.” (Shift in Focus., pp. 6-7)

The Ultimate Disguise

This “balance of society” was beginning to fulfill a dream for some of the so-called “social scientists” of the day. Under the guise of modernizing education, they began pushing a system which shifted the focus of education away from the needs of the student. Instead, they concentrated their efforts to see that education would serve what they saw as the needs of society. Hence, the system became more important than the student. These social scientists also abandoned McGuffey and any God-centered concepts. Instead, they focused their attention on the philosophies of a scholar by the name of Horace Mann.

In the 1840s, about the same time McGuffey was developing his primers, Horace Mann began a crusade against the McGuffey concepts of moral education. Mann espoused the idea that the authority and responsibility of education should be shifted from the parents to the state. His philosophies and concepts included:

• Children should no longer be held responsible for their “natural instincts” of behavior, but are to be looked upon as “innately good.”
• An elite educational establishment should be organized to “save our society” and manipulate how education should be administered.
• “Man” should be “the measure of all things”–not God.
• Children should be taught that there are “no absolute values” of right and wrong–and that one’s decisions are always based on particular situations at the time. (See Klicka, The Right Choice–Home Schooling, pp. 80-94)

Horace Mann further stated:

“What the church has been for medieval man the public school must become for democratic and rational man. God will be replaced by the concept of the public good….The common schools…shall create a more far-seeing intelligence and a pure morality than has ever existed among communities of men.” (Ibid., p. 32)

Horace Mann continued to promote his educational philosophies, and convinced many parents that their children had a right to education, and that the state ought to see that they got their rights. His goal was to create a nonsectarian school system, and his vision was that education would become the salvation of society.

In fact it is incredulous to imagine Horace Mann’s arrogant thinking when he said he wanted “a new religion, with the state as its true church, and education as its Messiah.” (The Messianic Character of Education by Rousas J. Rushdoony, [Nutley, N.J., Craig Press, 1968], p. 21)

John Dewey Creates the System to Incorporate the Philosophy

Once Horace Mann’s ideas were in place, a man came along by the name of John Dewey. He too believed in the “messianic character of education”. However, Dewey took Horace Mann’s philosophies one step further and organized them into an “educational system.”

John Dewey also incorporated into his system his own philosophies that he had developed over many years of selective study.

In 1916, John Dewey published his book Democracy and Education, in which he advocated an entirely new, revolutionary approach to child training. The American schools have never been the same since.
John Dewey called his brainchild progressive education, but even liberal educators such as Robert M. Hutchins called his whole conception regressive education. Here is a brief summary of his life and philosophies, written by W. Cleon Skousen in an article called “John Dewey: The Man Who Betrayed Education.”

John Dewey received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins where G. Stanley Hall, a disciple of the German socialist philosopher, Wilhelm Wundt, indoctrinated him with the vision of a welfare state with the schools serving as the change agent to bring it about in a single generation.


Democracy in Education turned out to be a planned pattern of anarchy in education. Something called “self-realization” became the goal instead of “learning.” 


Nothing but the most casual reference was made to English grammar, ancient history, U.S. history, geography, the classics of Western civilization, or even the basic sciences. School was to be just fun, with each student doing his own thing in a climate of permissive, unstructured confusion.
Contemporary educators of national stature treated Dewey with respectful demeanor but expressed professional horror when they saw what Dewey was promoting as “progressive education.”
Robert M. Hutchins declared: “His book is a noble, generous effort to solve…social problems through the education system. Unfortunately, the methods he proposed could not solve these problems; they would merely destroy the educational system” (Great Western Books, vol. 1, p. 15).

In practice, Dewey practically threw traditional “book learning” out the window. Dr. Hutchins wrote: “The disappearance of great books from education and from the reading of adults constitutes a calamity. In this view, education in the West has been steadily deteriorating; the rising generation has been deprived of its birthright; the mess of pottage it has received in exchange has not been nutritious; adults have come to lead lives comparatively rich in material comforts and very poor in moral, intellectual, and spiritual tone” (Ibid., preface; pp. xii, xiii).

Dewey looked upon the schools as a wonderful opportunity to indoctrinate the American youth in the virtues of a glorious age where private property, the free market, open competition and profits would all be eliminated. He visited the Soviet Union in the late 1920s and, instead of recognizing the wasteland of revolutionary desolation and the widespread destruction of human values, he blissfully described it all as “a popular culture impregnated with esthetic quality” (John Dewey, Impressions of Soviet Russia, [New York; 1932], p. 44).

Long before, in 1904, he had joined the faculty of the Teachers College at Columbia University. He had then teamed up with James Earl Russell, the dean of the Teachers College, who was also a student of Wilhelm Wundt, and together they had worked for a quarter of a century diligently building this branch of Columbia University into the largest institution in the world for the training of teachers. By 1953, about one-third of all the presidents and deans of teacher training schools in America were graduates of Columbia’s Teachers College.

“Today we are reaping the tragic results of the pedagogical misery that America inherited from Dewey’s misadventure in experimental education. At the same time we rejoice in the five recent surveys by top professional teachers that recognize the need to divorce Dewey and get back to excellence in American education.” (W. Cleon Skousen, editorial, The Freemen Digest, May 1984)

John Dewey built his entire program on the educational concepts of Humanism. To understand the depths of these anti-God ideas, a closer look at what Humanism really is will be very beneficial. Here is a summary of the beliefs of secular humanism as described in the pamphlet “Weep For Your Children” by Dr. Murray Norris:

“To most people, Humanism sounds almost nice. After all, if you are ‘human’ it means you are kind and thoughtful and possess the many other qualities that make you ‘human.’
“But if you are a Humanist, you do not believe in God; you attack the moral values taught by parents and church; you believe in suicide, abortion, divorce, euthanasia, and complete sexual freedom to commit adultery, fornication, and all types of sex perversions….
“Touchstone of the Humanist philosophy is the Humanist Manifesto II, written in 1973, to replace Humanist Manifesto I, written in 1933. This Manifesto affirms the beliefs of Humanists in suicide, abortion, euthanasia, sexual perversions, and divorce. It talks about freedom and world peace, but insists that there is no God, no life hereafter, that man can make his own morals, his own values, his own goals.
“In practice, Humanists are adamant that Christians shall not teach anything that interferes with their promotion of the evolution theory (which many textbooks insist is fact) or that allows a child to learn about God in school….
“Typical of the attitude of Humanists, is this creed from the British Humanist Association:

“‘I believe in no God and no hereafter. It is immoral to indoctrinate children with such beliefs. Schools have no right to do so, nor indeed have parents. I believe that religious education and prayers in school should be eliminated. I believe that denominational schools should be abolished…I believe that children should be taught religion as a matter of historical interest, but should be taught about all religions, including Humanism, Marxism, Maoism, Communism, and other attitudes of life. They must also be taught the objections to religion. I believe in a non-religious social morality….

“‘Unborn babies are not people; I am as yet unsure whether the grossly handicapped are people in the real sense.

“‘I believe there is no such thing as sin to be forgiven and no life beyond the grave but death everlasting….’

“This is only part of the beliefs of Humanists who are now promoting their religion in our public schools–Humanism was twice declared to be a religion by the U.S. Supreme Court, once in 1964 and again in 1969.” (Dr. Murray Morris, “Weep For Your Children,” published by Christian Family Renewal & Valley Christian University, Clovis, CA, 1977, pp. 3-4)

The amiability of Dewey’s philosophies to these concepts can be borne out in the fact that:

• John Dewey signed the Humanist Manifesto, consenting to the false principles it contained. These principles include atheism, evolution, society-based values, immorality, and the acceptability of euthanasia and suicide.
• He was the first president of the American Humanist Association.
• He applied the philosophies of the Humanist Manifesto to his system of public education.
• He believed that humanism was actually a religion, and that the teachers were the prophets.
• He emphasized “social unification” as the goal of the public schools in order to promote “state-consciousness.”

John Dewey himself admitted his atheistic beliefs when he declared:

“Faith in the prayer-hearing God is an unproved and outmoded faith. There is no God and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, the immutable truth is also dead and buried. There is no room for fixed, natural law or moral absolutes.” (John Dewey, “Soul-Searching,” Teacher Magazine, September 1933, p. 33)

What an amazing contrast these ideas are compared to the Bible-based ideals that were part of America’s beginnings!

How the Dewey/Mann Philosophies Were Received in America

At first, the philosophies of Horace Mann and the system proposed by John Dewey were resisted by many Americans. But a monumental transformation was soon to begin in America that would distract many of its citizens away from traditional education with its fundamental God-centered base.

THE MODERN AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: BIRTH, HISTORY, FALL, AND SOLUTION

I will post here a series of articles that I really enjoyed reading and agree with.  They come from THIS website. They are in regards to the modern public education system in the USA, its beginnings, problems, and solutions.  Hope you enjoy reading it.  (Parts II, III, and IV)

(Update: This website has updated/changed this page so that it now (Oct. 2016) only contains Part I & II, and left out Part III & IV. I am keeping the original Part III & IV posts I made.)

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PART I

Old Mother Goose has been eulogized by generations of children and parents in many lands. Those familiar rhymes and riddles have been sung and repeated by nearly every child and adult in America . One of the most popular rhymes is the story of Humpty Dumpty, the egg who sat on a wall.

According to the story, Humpty was quite a popular egg. He sat balancing on top of the wall where everybody could see him. Nursery rhyme books show pictures of how even Humpty was pretty proud of himself for being so daring!

But then, of course, we remember the fate of Humpty Dumpty. He had a great fall! Apparently, the whole countryside came running to him. The alarmed people even summoned Aall the king’s horses and all the king’s men to put Humpty together again. But alas, the task could not be doneBnot even by the king’s most trusted stewards, mounted on his finest steeds.

This popular nursery rhyme has been used by many writers to illustrate various aspects of life. Few illustrations, however, show such a parallel to real life than when we use this simple yet understandable fantasy story to outline the plight of America ‘s public education system.

This country’s educational system was once regarded as one of the finest schooling programs in the world. In fact, not too long ago, it was balancing on the wall for the world to see. So many people chose to come to America for their education, that newspapers and magazines around the world relayed the fear of some leaders that many of these other countries would suffer brain drain.
That fear has vanished! Americans are now finding themselves grappling with the fact that our public education has not only bumbled from its high and lofty perch, but is presently considered to be a system of crumbling aspirations. People everywhere are seeking answers to what happened. What caused the fall and what can be done to put it together again..

A closer look at the history of our Educational Humpty Dumpty reveals an interesting parallel to the rhyme of Mother Goose and the three major cycles of education in America.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN (The First Cycle of Education in America ) 

It is important to remember that it took the American Founders 180 years (1607 to 1787) to come up with their successful formula of government for freedom, prosperity, and peace. But once this formula was solidified it proved so successful that for the next 200 years it was the hope of the world.
Experience had taught the Founders that the very underpinning of a free, happy, and prosperous America depended upon the development of an educated citizenry. Their goal was to have Auniversal education. As Thomas Jefferson stated, AIf a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. (See The Real Thomas Jefferson, by Andrew M. Allison, NCCS, p. 409.)

THE FIRST SCHOOLS

America’s first Aschools existed mainly within family units. The home was the classroom, and the subjects taught, as well as the methods used, reinforced the family’s perception of the world. Their Acore curriculum included religious values, basic reading and writing, ciphering (math) skills, a little history, and farm skills which were pertinent to an agrarian society.

As the country grew, communities combined their resources and hired Ateachers to educate their children in Alittle red school houses. Their focus was on making sure the students had the ability to function effectively in the society where they would live. In those days, a child’s future was fairly predictable.

By 1836, William Holmes McGuffey (1800-1873)Bconsidered by many today as being the greatest educator America has every producedBbegan publication of his famous McGuffey Readers. His books were indicative of the first cycle of American Education with a strong emphasis on Abasics. These included:

1. Basics in reading, which embraced phonics and memorizing.
2. Basics in writing, with extensive practice in penmanship. Script was taught in the first grade.
3. Basics in arithmetic, as applied to bookkeeping and business.
4. Basics in oral and written communication, with emphasis on vocabulary and spelling.
5. Basics in literature, music, art forms and nature study.
6. Basics in history, particularly American history, including geography.
7. Basics in civics and the American system of Constitutional government.
8. Basics in hygiene, physical and mental.
9. Basics in community ethic with emphasis on respect for one’s elders.

During this first cycle, there was also strong significance placed on spiritual values, together with the mandates of morality and the qualities needed to develop sound character. There were frequent references to the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, and popular Bible stories.

Parents and community leaders alike expected both the teachers and the texts to drill into the students the necessity of being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. These principles not only became incorporated in the laws of the Boy Scouts of America, but likewise were included in the routine disciplines of every classroom.
This formula for education propelled America into world leadership, not only in education, but in industry, science, medicine, and agriculture, which produced an enviable standard of living. It also generated the most charitable nation the world has ever known.

By 1905, though a tiny nation with less than six per cent of the world’s population, America was producing more than 50% of the world’s developed wealth. Country after country strived to emulate America ‘s educational and governmental system.

The world looked to America for all the best and greatest opportunities. Students from countries everywhere came to America to learn the leading edge information that America had to offer. Immigration was indeed the sign of the times.

Then two famous scholars arose in the educational arena whose ideologies changed everything. In next month’s article, we’ll find out who was responsible for the change in America ’s successful education, and the principles that led to its downward spiral. The Educational Humpty Dumpty was about to teeter on the wall.

Part II will follow.  Stay tuned. :)

JUST WHEN YOU THINK IT'S SAFE .....

Jessica texted me today to tell me that she unblocked me from facebook, but that she still isn't ready to friend me, and for me to please not rant and harp on her, that she "still needs time."

My first reaction was incredulity.  She really doesn't see it.  She continues to blame me for the enmity she feels toward me. 

I wish she was rational and I wish I could say:

"Time" for what? Time to go on sinning and not have your family, especially your mother, around to be reminders that what you're doing is wrong?  Check. 

Please don't "harp" or "rant" on me?  You mean like all those "lectures" I made you endure where I said things like: "Jessica, whichever direction you choose to go in, please just CHOOSE one!  It HAS to be YOUR choice.  Daddy and I cannot make those choices for you, but stop lying to us and stop living a double life.  You're lying to yourself as well.  Just be honest and choose.  If you came to us and told us that you want to do "x, y, and z", then we can work with that so long as you're being honest!  But where there is no honesty, there is no trust, and where there is no trust, there is no relationship."  I guess that's "forcing" or "ranting" or "harping".  Hormones!!!

For my part, I have finally come to accept that she WILL NOT SEE things in their true paradigm until she has a child of her own and that child either suffers due to Jessica's choices, or that child causes Jessica to suffer as much as she has caused me to suffer.  THEN she will begin to understand. 

Until then, we simply try to ignore her, not think about her, and we move on in our own lives.

I could not have made it through the past two months without my Savior.  I have come to Him in prayer, and read His word, and every time I have been comforted.  Jonathan, too, has been a great comfort to me.  Whereas my natural inclination after such a terrible betrayal on Jessica's part, is to not be able to see hope in Jonathan and Emily, thinking that one day they, too, might lie to me and hurt me as much as she has, and then protect myself against that, and make life even more miserable for them by imposing more boundaries.  However, I am thankful to say that Jonathan has turned out to be my shinning star on a dark and starless night!  He has more than EARNED our trust.  He does what he says he's going to do, he's where he says he's going to be, and, more importantly, the Spirit had never prompted me to check on him the way it did with Jessica, helping me finally understand that it wasn't me after all!  It truly WAS the Spirit. If I had been the one that was paranoid, then I would feel the same way with Jonathan!  But I don't!  It is SO NICE to have a teenager that you can trust, talk with, laugh with, and that you don't have to worry about "the other shoe falling" or worried that the Spirit might prompt you at any moment now with bad news.  He is pure in heart, and he is honest.  He's not perfect, but he's HONEST.  And he is not vulgar or lascivious in the least!  Those two things have made all the difference.  I wish Jessica had come to understand that 5 years ago!

I am grateful for my Savior, and for my son.  Because of Jonathan I feel hope in the future of both him and Emily.  He has made my life bearable and even enjoyable during this horrible trial. 

I am a blessed Mom and wife.  I have a clear conscience before my Maker.  I have done the best I knew how in raising my children, and have taught them the true principles of salvation.  I have begged and begged Jessica for the past two years to be honest with us.  Her refusing to do so has nothing to do with us, but herself.  It is sad to watch.  Sad to see her blame others, rather than accept her own responsibility and improve her life.

We pray the Lord will watch over her and that one day she may come back to the straight and narrow path and join her family again.  Because we love her.

MY SON IS NOW A HEPCAT!!

So exciting!  Jonathan learned swing dancing for the North Texas Regional Jubilee put on by The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints this summer. He LOVED swing dancing and caught on rather quickly.  As a result, he's been invited to join the quasi-professional LDS Swing (Hepcat) Dance Team!  He's THRILLED!  And his parents are very proud of him!

Not only that, but he continues to grow and develop in his singing and guitar playing!

Music is truly the language of the soul!

MOVING ON.....

You know, there is no easy way to do what I have to do. Our daughter is gone.  Bob was right all those years ago, "one day she's going to grow up and leave home, and never look back."  It has happened.  I am so sad for her.  Her patriarchal blessing says she'll have many dark days, and it tells her how to get through them, and even how to minimize them.  But it's all conditioned on her worthiness.  And, as we have taught her, "worthiness" means that you simply get back up each time you fall. That's what "worthiness" really is.  It doesn't mean you're perfect.  It means you do you very best.

Well, today I actually let her go.  I don't want anything more to do with her in this state of existence that she has chosen.  She has made it very clear she doesn't want us or need us, and she is happier without us.  I cannot go on and keep worrying over her, and loving her and thinking of her on a daily basis.  For one, that causes way too much pain, and for another it isn't real.  What is real is that I have two children at home who still need me.  I have a husband who needs me.  And I have ME who needs me.  The only way to move forward is to put her behind me. And so I have done.

If the day ever comes that she wishes to come to her senses, to humble herself, and to actually seek the professional help she so desperately needs, then we are here for her with open arms, and all the tender love of a parent.  But, like the prodigal son's father, we cannot just sit here mourning her, and waiting for her return.  We have lives that we must keep living.  And so we are.

It doesn't sound pretty, does it?  but it's what's right.  Our love for Jessica is forever.  We will help her whenever she honestly desires that help.  But until then, the only option is to let her go.  This is the only way she has chosen to learn from life.  I fear for her.  But I have left her in God's hands.  He can meet out consequences, both good and bad, much better than I ever could.

We wish her well.  We love her.  We will miss her.  And we look forward to the day we can see her again, embrace her and let her know again that we love her.

I feel better.  More "settled" with all this drama.  I feel more free to press forward now with our two youngest.  I am so thankful for the Gospel, for our family, and for such a wonderful husband.  I could never make it through life without him!  I truly am blessed!!! 

PERFECT PARENT SYNDROME

I have come to the conclusion that no matter whether you raise your children to believe that you are the All-Seeing God-Parent, or that you are a sin-filled, fallible Human-Parent, that your children will ALWAYS think of you as the PERFECT PARENT!

My father raised us kids to believe that he was the all-knowing, all-wise, God-parent.  Did he do it on purpose?  i don't know.  I just know that that is what we all thought, and that he actually vocally took pride in it at times.  So as I grew older I vowed that I would NEVER do that to our kids.  Our kids would KNOW that Bob and I are most definitely IMPERFECT, full of sin, full of weakness, and that one of the reasons Heavenly Father places the human in a family setting, is so that we can live together, come to know each other's weaknesses, forgive each other, over come our weaknesses AND OTHERS' weaknesses, and just "hold hands and love each other anyway"!

So, that is exactly what we did.  We taught our kids - practically every time we screwed up: "see?  we mess up too.  we make mistakes too.... NO ONE IS PERFECT!... so you should never listen to satan's discouraging thoughts he tries to put in your head that you just can't match up, and you might as well give up, because you'll never be perfect. Of COURSE you'll never be perfect! NONE of us are!"

We have taught all three of our kids this since the day they were born. I have taught them that especially - because it took me decades before I came to fully understand the power of the Atonement - and how the Atonement can apply in our lives.  I still don't comprehend it 100%, but I do enough to know that there is no sin that is too big that the Atonement won't cover.  There is ALWAYS HOPE in CHRIST. 

Well... evidently it doesn't matter that we taught them that.  Our oldest daughter has recently run away from home and she is fully convinced that she can never be as perfect as her parents are - specifically as perfect as her mother is.  Somehow she got it into her head that she is past hope, that the Atonement will cover everyone else on earth except her, and that somehow WE expect her to be perfect!!!

What!?!?!?!?  That is 100% opposite from all that we have ever lived and taught her!!  How could she possibly believe that?

I don't know.  All I now it that it didn't seem to make any difference that we taught our children that we are not perfect.  Because, I guess, in a child's eye, you - the parent - will forever be "perfect". 

Maybe it's just something that comes with with being born into this world, to a mother and father???
Maybe it's something that we just assume, deep down in our spirits, because, after all, we did just come from heaven, where our Mother and Father there ARE perfect.

I thought I'd do our kids a favor, by helping them learn early in life that their parents are far from perfect, and that perfection was never something that was expected of them.  Evidently, there is no such thing as teaching your kids that you are not a perfect person/parent. 

I don't know about any of you, but I find comfort in knowing that we are all sinners, and that we are all trying to endure well unto the end, and that we are all "in this together".

RUN-AWAY-DAUGHTER

Well, not much to say right now but that our daughter, Jessica, has run away.  I guess it's not called "running away" when the person is legally and "adult" at 20 yrs old.  But in essence that is what she did.


She has been struggling with bad choices the past 4 years.  We have tried to work with her, help her, counsel her, reach out to her, and allow her the agency she has to make her choices and suffer her own consequences.

It seems the more we tried, the more she rebelled.  She actually told us that her entire life had been one big lie.  From the time she was a toddler, she said, she would say "yes" to our face, but do "no" behind our backs.  How do you work with that?

It became painfully clear just last week that she desperately needs professional help.  We actually had an appointment, which she went to this past Tuesday, and then on Wed. morning - poof! - gone.  My heart breaks for our two younger kids. Emily has asked a couple of times "Why doesn't Jessica love us?" and Jonathan feels betrayed and deeply disappointed.

We know Jessica deep down.  She is a vibrant, intelligent, loving, fun, wanting-to-please-Heavenly-Father kind of girl.  When she sets her on mind on something, there is nothing that can stop her from achieving that!  She makes friends so so easily, and can blend in with any type of person or culture quite easily.  She is artistic in all her ways and has a natural God-given talent with all animals and in particular with horses.  She is a natural "horse whisperer"... she has been able to reach horses and get them to do things when no one else could, and that was all by her own teaching and reading books!!  She is truly amazing and has so much potential!  She has always been sensitive to the Spirit and has had many occassions where she had spiritual experiences and where her testimony of the Gospel grew.  So how could this have happened to her?

I know in part it's been that she has lied for so long, and eventually acted on all those "bad thoughts and desires" that she said she's had all her life, and then living under the enormous GUILT of it all, that finally it ended up affecting her thinking patterns.  Right now she feels so utterly unworthy that she truly has listened to the adversary and thinks there is no hope for her to repent.  She feels that she has gone past the point of no return and that the Atonement is not good enough or strong enough to cover her sins.

How do reach in to a person's head like that, and get them to understand how utterly wrong and ridiculous those thoughts are?  And get them to truly understand that the Atonement covers PRECISELY those multitude of sins!  That's what it's all about!  But she simply refuses to believe.  Plus - she's not ready to believe.  She WANTS to finish living out her dreams and desires.

Our concern is that when you go down that road, those particular dreams and desires turn from one bad thing, into a worse thing, into a purely evil thing, and it goes further downhill from there. 

But we have LET HER GO!  We have come to accept that she simply insists on learning things the hard way.  She must experience things and touch things for herself.  She's not satisfied until everything had been touched and tasted and done.  So... in a sense I guess we're glad that she is gone.  We love her and miss her, and we're not glad about all that she will be going through, but we are glad that the process has begun.  What process? The process of having her hit rock bottom, and then one day coming to her senses and realizing that that is not the life that will bring her true peace and true joy.  That is all she's looking for.  Peace, joy, love, acceptance.  I understand.  We all fall short, and we all sin.  We all wish we could do all the things we secretly want to do, and wish it was "ok" to do them.  I guess some of us have to actually DO THEM. 

So we wish her well.  We pray for her and for her safety.  And we pray that people will be placed along her path that will love her righteously and unconditionally, that will be able to reach out to her and/or be an influence for good in her life, and that will make such a difference in her life that heart will soften, and that her mind will become ready to accept the truths of the Gospel and repent, and turn her life around.

She has projected on us, and especially on to me all the frustration, enmity, and resentment of having always known what she was up to, and always trying to help her and call her back to repentance.  She has grown to hate us so much, that she has completely tried to block Bob and me out of her life completely. 

We thought we was living with Nate, the current boyfriend.  But now we believe she might be living with a lesbian gal.  Both this gal and Nate are bixsexuals.  Wow - today's youth are really messed up.  I feel so sorry for them, but even more so for Father in Heaven. I cannot imagine the pain He must feel when He watched us, His children, make bad choices.


We love our Jessica so very much.  We will have to leave her alone, and work out her own path, and just keep her in our prayers.  We are so thankful for the Gospel and that the four of us that are left can continue on in life and continue to feel joy and peace and happiness, as we try to keep our covenants and do the best can.  So thankful for the Atonement of the Savior, which we know will cover not only our sins, but will covers any sins that Jessica can think to commit.  We pray she will turn back to Father in Heaven one day.

That's her below... she looks so "happy" doesn't she?  It's all fake. Evidently, it always has been according to her. :'(

SOMETHING'S IN THE AIR TODAY...

... And it's not just me.  I've already read like 3 or 4 facebook friends state today that they are glad the day is OVER!  ME TOO!  Let's see - here's what's been on my plate lately:

1.)  Our beautiful daughter has been making so many bad choices in the past 4 years that we had to invite her to move out.  She continued making bad choices and her kind, sweet, roommate (who was her visiting teacher and had taken her in to give her a chance and opportunity to turn things around), also found herself having to invite her to move out... after only 10 days.  Now, another sweet and big-hearted friend has offered to let her move in.  The bad thing is this friend is very young, married only 9 months and has financial and marital difficulties to overcome herself. The last thing she and her husband need is our daughter's problems.  But they don't have the blessing of wisdom that comes with age and experience. So they opened their home, and in their eyes it's a great thing because now they can all "split" the rent.  Meanwhile, our lovely daughter is unrecognizable to us. She has been passive-aggressive, defiant, and down right stubborn, and all while putting on a "good face" and making everyone around her (including her family, her Church friends, her boyfriend, and her non-Church friends) think that she's doing "Fantabulous", she's responsible, she's got everything under control, and nothing is going to stop her.  God bless her and watch over her.  As a parent, I can say this is the hardest thing I've ever done.  To just sit back and watch her ruin her life, knowing that there is nothing we can say or do that will change her mind and help her see that her paradigm is really, really messed up.  May Heavenly Father bless us all.  I cannot go through this without His help.  None of us can.  We do the best we can.  We have taught our children correct principles.  She knows better.  But she also has her agency and no one, including us, can take that from her.  Nor should we.  The Spirit has told us to let her go. This is how she insists on "learning".  So be it.  But let me tell you, it is very heart-wrenching to say "no" when your own child asks if they can come back home "just until (they) find a roommate?"  "No."

2.)  It seems that every single year when there is General Conference that our plumbing decides it's time to have problems.  So it was this time.  Like an alarm clock, our Bathrooms (two of them) over flowed with toilet water coming up from the base of the toilet.  It was Saturday night when it happened, and Home Depot and other stores were already closed.  Bob went on the Sabbath to buy a chemical to flush down the toilet and see if that would help.  That way he wouldn't have to work and get nasty-dirty if he didn't need to on the Sabbath.  But no, the chemical didn't work.  So today after work he got home, put on his grubbies and went to work on the plumbing with our great son, Jonathan.  It's been 4 hours now, and they finally fixed it!  Yay!  Now... I'm thinking that in October when we have the next General Conference we'll just rent the machinery from Home Depot on Friday, so that we'll be ready for the weekend!

3.)  Is it just us, or is everyone feeling the terrible WEIGHT of Obama's STUPID decision to "end" the recession by plunging us into a bigger recession? Gas prices are almost tripled.  Food prices too.  Clothing is doubled.  Everything has increased in price.  I no longer have enough in my "allowance" to make ends meet. So several things are going to have to "give".  It's only three days past payday and I'm completely out of money!  Nothing depresses me more nor faster than not having ANY money to cover those expenses for the next two weeks:  where will I get the money to buy that bread, eggs, or milk that will surely run out before next paycheck?  What about personal hygiene items, fruits and veggies?  What about ... oh you get what I mean.  It is so depressing!  The "silver lining" to this is that we have lived by cash alone since 1995.  So we are not in debt (other than cars and mortgage of course) and we do not owe anything or anybody.  We just make sure we pay our tithing and fast offerings, and we put our trust and faith in Heavenly Father.  He has ALWAYS taken care of us and watched over us. We have never lacked for food, shelter and clothing so long as we were faithful in paying our tithing and fast offerings. 

4.)  Earlier today our oldest daughter (see #1 above) posted on her facebook that she needs a job.  Wow. She got fired. She calls it "quitting" - her boss simply stopped giving her hours, for the past three weeks!  He would tell her to come in and then she would sit there for two hours "waiting to be clocked in" and finally he'd say "we won't need you today after all".  After three weeks she finally caught on.  So she "quit".  Well, at least that way this employer doesn't have to pay her unemployment now.  So now, because I'm forever a mother and will never stop being a mother, I am worried about her financial situation too.  But I'm trying hard to put it behind me and not think about it.  That is her life, her choices, her consequences.  We have taught her that she lives up to her covenants and the Lord's commandments, the Lord will bless her.  As soon as she stops, He withdraws His blessings.  A couple of weeks ago I saw this coming on, when they hired a full time gal to work as cashier and put Jessica "outside" again (selling carwashes)... which is something she had not done well at before.  So I knew then that she was on the way out.  But her OVERLY positive attitude kept her from seeing it. 

So... I sit here typing.  I'm stressed.  I feel alone.  I feel frustrated.  I feel anxious.  I feel like my house is falling apart (so many things need to be repaired or replaced!) I feel like my daughter is going further and further into the Great and Spacious building (read about that vision of the prophet Lehi HERE.)  I feel like my husband is tired of hearing my worries.  I feel like I've been less of a mother to my kids than I should have been.  I feel like there is a power of darkness is trying hard to tear our family to pieces.  But when I feel all these things, I remember my Savior and what He has done for me (for all of us!)  I remember the great love He has for me.  I remember that the powers that are pulling for me on the other side, are greater than the powers of darkness that are trying to pull me down.  I listen to music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and I can't help but feel His Spirit envelop me and calm me.  I read the Scriptures and I am reminded of what is real and true and what is of most value. 

All these things will be for my good.  Of that I am confident.  I know that the Lord will not give us more than we can handle.  In Elder Gibbons talk during the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference he made reference to the fact that when we have difficult children or problem children in our lives, perhaps we need to think more in terms of: "The Lord knew I would need this experience just as much as my son/daughter would need this experience."  That by going through this it would "polish" me and help me grow in patience and wisdom.  It is actually helping me become whom I was intended to become.  The same can be said for Jessica.

So, I will continue pressing forward, with an eye single to the glory of God.  I know in whom I have place my trust.  He is my Redeemer, the Savior of the world.  In Him, and through Him, all things are possible and will work together for the good of those who place their faith and trust in Him.  I am so thankful for the knowledge that the true Gospel of Jesus Christ brings into my life.  It is truly a lamp unto my path. 


So, yes... today was a horrible day.  But tomorrow the sun will rise and it will be a new opportunity to live my life again.  Today is done.  Time to focus on renewing myself for tomorrow. I love my Father Heavenly and I love my Savior.  I love my husband and my children and I look forward to the day that we will spend eternity together, working for the glory of God and having put disease, evil, problems, and other "issues" behind us. :)

TEN DAYS IN THE LIFE OF.... US

Here are some photos of what's been going on lately in our home....

On February 10th Bob and I celebrated our 22nd Wedding Anniversary!  Has it really been that long?  Sometimes it feels like it, other times it feels like it was just yesterday!

He took me to Fogo de Chão - a Brazilian Churrascaria.  Basically you feel like you eat an entire farm worth of animals. Chicken, Pork, Lamb, Beef, you name it. Cooked in all sorts of ways.  Their salad bar is amazing:  quail eggs, asparagus, all sorts of salads and fruits, and all the vegetables you can imagine prepared in yummy delicious ways! Their staff and service are excellent.  VERY attentive and well-mannered.  Their dessert is delicious.

This is the face my beloved makes when he tastes something that is super-oober delicious... I HAD to catch it on film for posterity's sake! haha!

Speaking of which, we were so full we didn't order dessert, but when our waitress found out it was our anniversary, she brought us a beautiful dessert to celebrate - on the house!  Yummy "Pastel de Tres Leches" (cake that is soaked with three different kinds of milk after baking.)

And to top off the evening - one of my very favorites!  FLOWERS!!!  I know that roses are "the" flower, and while I love all flowers, Carnations are my very favorite! I love how they look like lace, they smell like flower-scented powder, and they LAST FOREVER!  And you can't go wrong with "happy" daisies!! It made my heart happy! :)

Moving on.... At the end of last week I finished all the levels of a fun iPhone application called "Let's Create Pottery!"  Here are a couple of samples that I created....

Now if I could only do it in real life! Wouldn't that be FUN!?

Also, I recently joined a produce co-op that tries to get as much "local" and organic produce as is possible.  It's only $15 per "basket" (bi-monthly) and the produce is the BEST I've ever seen.  Huge, fresh, and delicious!  I think I'm hooked!

Earlier this week Bob went to Portland, Oregon, on a quick business trip.  While there he thought he'd go check out the Portland Temple.

He also brought Emily back a little surprise:  some cute heart-shaped earrings that have ash inside them from Mt. St. Helen's.  She was so happy about it, especially since she's been taking a Geology class at our homeschool co-op and has learned a bit about volcanoes and volcano ash! :)

Bob and Emily went to Walmart tonight where she found this pink pig pillow pet, which reminded her of me.  So she asked Bob to take a picture of it and send it to me.  He did.  And it warmed my heart.  I heart piggies!  (see her new earrings she's wearing!?)

Here is a picture of what I do with my salad greens.... (thought I'd share my little secret)....

I put a damp paper towel on the bottom of the tupperware, made damp by cold water.  Then I tear up the lettuce, mix it all with Baby Spinach and put it in the bowl and cover it with another cold-water dampened paper towel.  Put the lid on and you're good to go.  I don't know why, but the paper towels make all the difference!

And finally tonight Emily put on a "Webkinz Birthday Party" for Lily (black lab), Sofie (pink cockatoo), and Saphira (pink dragon) along with Josefina (the "Mexican" American Girl doll.)  She is my little homemaker and took great care to arrange the Twinkies in just the right way. We hold a Webkinz Birthday Party almost each month to "celebrate" that/those Webkinz special days.  Really, it's only an excuse to have Ding Dongs or Twinkies which I would never buy otherwise.  I haven't had Twinkies in about a year, and when I ate one tonight it tasted so blah and bland.  Yuck!  All it tasted like was lard.  But don't tell Emily I said that. :)