Where do you stand, On different social things Options

[Hartmann]

I am guessing that given the more left leaning of this board, the answers are fairly obvious but I was wondering where people stood on the ideas of self-reliance, government intervention, and work.

My firm belief is that people as a whole must be self-reliant, that government should stay out unless it is needed, and hard work is necessary to succeed.

Where do you stand?

I listen to my brothers talk about what they want to do and I'm amazed at their goals. Nothing to do with hard work or being self-reliant but more along the lines of American Idol and "famous". It is one thing to dream of being a baseball player when you're young but I get this impression that we are becoming more and more focused on the easy route rather than the tough but rewarding one.

[Inferia]

what the heck are you guys talking about? Is this a texas thing?

[Mommy]

what the heck are you guys talking about? Is this a texas thing?

Private school (and apparently homeschool) curriculum.

I just know that I learned to read way before my public school friends, and I knew complex math WAY WAY before them. We stopped using the A Beka program in middle school. We used a mixture after that. Our literature and grammar books were still A Beka, but we used Bob Jones for Biology and a mix of other publishers for math and history in high school. Our school though always used Christian textbooks (such as A Beka and Bob Jones) for science because we learned the Creation view as opposed to evolution. Other than the science area, I feel the books we used were really advanced. Our textbooks didn't focus on expanding an imagination either. I like that. I HATE reading literature and trying to decipher precisely what the writer was feeling. It's just not my thing. Our literature books focused on key historical works of literature, and left all that other artsy fartsy crap out. I think memorization is important for young children, especially in areas like history and math. People need to know state capitals and Presidents. People need to know their times tables. A lot of public school kids struggle with that. This is just what I gather from working in public schools myself. I don't think I am better. I just know that I want my kids to attend schools where they learn at a fast pace like I did.

[Inferia]

Our textbooks didn't focus on expanding an imagination either. I like that. I HATE reading literature and trying to decipher precisely what the writer was feeling. It's just not my thing. Our literature books focused on key historical works of literature, and left all that other artsy fartsy crap out. I think memorization is important for young children, especially in areas like history and math. People need to know state capitals and Presidents. People need to know their times tables.

What are "historical works of literature"? And what literature books are "artsy fartsy"? I fee like even in the classics, you have to do some deciphering of the book. Personally, I feel like knowing and understanding the fundamentals is important, but that doesn't take away from the importance of having an imagination.

I sometime feel like I live in a secluded little bubble. Are public schools that bad? I mean the public school I went to and the schools my friends went to had a pretty high standard. Most people were taking AP classes their senior year, some started in their junior year, some were able to take classes at a near by university if the hs ran out of classes (I know this is not possible at most places). We also had pretty much every AP class there exists in this country. I knew this was somewhat above average, but it didn't feel like it was that hard to come by. I guess most of the people I know are sons and daughters of doctors, lawyers, professors, and other professionals.