What I saw at my local elementary

My neighborhood held its annual homeowners' association meeting tonight at a nearby elementary school.

ELEMENTARY school.

As my husband and I walked up to the doors we thought we were supposed to enter -- the main entrance to the school -- I noticed a row of glass cases on the wall nearby. The cases look like they're supposed to be used for announcements, posters, etc.

One of the cases featured a prominent collage of magazine covers. The school is obviously having students sell magazine subscriptions to raise money for whatever the district taxpayers and the state and feds don't already buy. The case next to it featured a huge blow-up of one of the magazines for sale.

It was a recent cover of People Magazine and the nice picture of actress Kate Hudson larger than life wasn't objectionable to me at all. She's pretty and in the photo in question she's completely clothed.

No, what made my jaw drop was the rest of the cover, the part that should have been airbrushed out for a poster being used in a school setting.

Here's what else little kids can get an eyeful of as they enter their school building each morning:

"Jen and John's Hot New Romance" (story about actress Jennifer Aniston and musician John Mayer)

"Miley Cyrus' Photo Fiasco" (story about the ubiquitous and questionably talented Miley Cyrus)

and, finally, my favorite of them all, "Smiley Face Murder Mystery: Is a Serial Killer Gang on the Loose?"

Whatever happened to posters and bulletin board sets like the ones I grew up with in public school, the ones that featured famous people worthy of emulation or cool concepts in science or seasonally themed pictures, poems, and sayings?

Apparently, they've given way to hot romance and serial killer gangs -- and all before kids even get to junior high school.

"The government has taken over my family"

Those are the anguished words of a Swedish father whose 7-year-old son was removed last June from an airplane as it sat atop the tarmac waiting to take off for India. The man's wife is Indian and the family was moving there to help care for relatives.

The boy was removed by Swedish authorities because his parents chose not to vaccinate him and opted to homeschool him -- ironically both legal under Swedish law. A Swedish court subsequently upheld the forced removal.

The boy remains in foster care and his parents are allowed to visit with him for one hour every five weeks. The father reports that his wife's health is suffering because of the enormous stress of the situation.

The Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is advising the family and has documented the boy was removed from his family "without a warrant or reasonable cause to believe he was being harmed."

HSLDA also reports, "At times referred to as a 'social utopia,' Sweden is completely antagonistic toward homeschoolers and, in reality, anyone who deviates from what the Swedish government defines as 'normal.' The government's quest for conformity produces troubling side effects: the criminalization of actions – such as a parent's decision regarding the best form of education for his child – that ought to be the hallmarks of a free, democratic society."

If you homeschool, I urge you to become a member of your state homeschool advocacy group at the very least. Better yet, join HSLDA and know that your membership dues really do help to fight stupidity -- even when it happens on the other side of the world.

Better yet, visit HSLDA's website at www.hslda.org for the latest updates on the story of Annie and Christer Johansson and their son Dominic. Click on the link that lets you register your own protest with Swedish authorities over their decision to subjugate parental rights in favor of the state.

Should dignity be violated to save a life?

The Oklahoma Senate has passed a bill that if signed into law by the governor will establish one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

Abortion is a contentious subject no matter which way you approach it, and the answers to the problems that bring women to this point are easy to pinpoint but much harder to implement.

The Oklahoma bill would require doctors to use a vaginal ultrasound device on women seeking an abortion in cases where the developing baby could not easily be seen on an abdominal ultrasound screen.

The idea, of course, is to help women understand that abortion actually involves babies, albeit at early stages of development.

I'm all for education, for support programs that really help women sift through their options, and for efforts to dissuade them from taking such a drastic step especially if other reasonable options are truly available to them.

But I can't get behind a law that mandates an invasive and, yes, undignified medical procedure -- and any of my readers who've ever endured a vaginal ultrasound for any reason know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

Women with unwanted pregnancies know they're pregnant and that this means there's a baby in there somewhere. Abdominal ultrasounds are good enough to confirm a heartbeat and the existence of a developing baby in women not seeking abortions. They should be deemed good enough for women who are.

If the pro-life movement ever hopes to sway the majority to its side, it must remember the importance of compassion for the women involved. Subjecting women in crisis to invasive medical procedures is not the answer.

When Protestant homeschoolers say no

I went to my first Catholic homeschooling convention today.

I am not Catholic.

A friend of mine who is asked me to help her at her curriculum booth. She's a distributor for an awesomely rigorous writing program and since I like to write and I use parts of the program with my own children, she thought I'd be a good assistant.

When she asked me to help out, the first thing I asked her was, "Don't I have to be Catholic to get in?" She laughed as she shook her head.

Fast forward to today. . .

There was a lull in the crowd at our booth, so I told my friend I wanted to walk around and check out the other vendors. I've never met a homeschooling convention I didn't like what with the guaranteed smorgasbord of books and all. All around us was a ocean of book sellers and I wasn't about to just work and run. I had to browse!

Given the nature of this particular event,I figured most of the materials for sale would be geared specifically to Catholic families. As I started to wander the auditorium, though, I realized how wrong my assumption had been.

There were vendors offering everything from educational toys and games to books, art supply kits, and religious items. Within the latter category there were, of course, things particular to the Catholic faith such as rosaries. But there were many more things relevant to the Christian faith in general, stuff that no Protestant could possibly find objectionable.

It's no secret that many homeschoolers choose to teach their own children for religious reasons and that socially and politically conservative Christians of all kinds make up the majority of educational do-it-yourselfers.

Knowing that, I had to wonder why the auditorium wasn't packed. Where were the crowds?

After I returned to my friend's booth, a woman affiliated with the coordinator for the convention approached us and began chatting with my friend. She mentioned that the turnout was not as great as she'd hoped for. At that point, I butted in and asked, "Was this event advertised outside of the Catholic community?" The woman looked at me oddly as I continued. "I'm not a Catholic, but I was interested to see what a variety of vendors you've got here today," I said. "I'll bet if more homeschoolers knew about this, they'd come, too, regardless of their religious affiliation."

The woman began nodding enthusiastically and said, "You know, I've never thought about it that way. I'm going to pass this idea along to the woman who sets this up."

Right before my friend and I started to break down the booth at the end of the day, another woman came up to me and introduced herself. She was the coordinator for the event and said she'd heard about my suggestion and wanted to know more. I was pretty surprised, seeing as how I thought my idea was so obvious it couldn't possibly be revolutionary.

As we talked and she asked me to email her with my ideas, she casually remarked, "You know, we've been doing this conference for 20 years and from time to time we've tried to advertise with other non-Catholic homeschooling groups and they wouldn't post our information." I must've made a face because she went on. "It's true. Some Protestant groups are really polarized and they don't want anything to do with Catholics. It's a shame we can't come together as homeschoolers," she said.

I had to agree.

"You know something else? If non-Catholics want to come to our convention we'd welcome them," she said. "They wouldn't have to pay the admission fee because we would consider them to be our guests."

The admission fee for the day was $25.

I promised her I'd send her some ideas to help her publicize the event next year, not because I think a bunch of Protestants oughta crash the Catholics' party for free but because I think attending a Christian homeschooling conference offered by a group you may not know much about can actually be very educational.

On a side note, I am hugely embarrassed to learn that some of my fellow Protestant Christian homeschoolers could be so petty and stupid as to rebuff an invitation from another homeschool organization or refuse to share its information. What are they thinking? What are they so afraid of?

Last time I checked, being in the presence of a picture of the pope or in close proximity to the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas wasn't exactly the equivalent of being exposed to radioactive waste.

The world is full of Catholics. The world is full of Protestants. But the world is NOT full of homeschoolers. For that reason alone, we ought to be sticking together even as we choose to worship apart.

We're from the government and we're here to sterilize you

Ah, China. How can a land of so much beauty possess so much cruelty?

The latest news is that 10,000 parents have been rounded up and detained for forced sterilization because officials suspect them of trying to violate China's one-child policy.