TEACH YOUR CHILD TO LEARN BY PRINCIPLE NOT PRINCIPAL

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Are you teaching your child to play the “grade game”? If you are…you’re not alone. Everyone in the educational institutions from the principal, to the teachers, to the students themselves have been doing the same thing…teaching your child to play the “grade game”. While grades are important as a rule, they should not be the main reason a student attends school or seeks to know something. The idea that the grade will get you where you want to go in life is flawed.  

Many parents continually harp on the idea that the student must get good grades so that he can go to a good college or university…and that graduating from a good university will guarantee him a good job. This focus on grades during the school experience of course will ultimately make for a good life. Sounds like a solid way to view education doesn’t it? And statistics relating to grades have seemed to generally bear this out prior to the last decade or so.

It seems, however, that we may have over-sold this idea to the detriment of the current and coming generations of children. Grades are focused on what you know of what you have been taught, how well you test or how well you have been prepared for the test, and how well you game the system. We even have a program coming from the Federal Department of Education called Common Core to “help” students “game the system” even more. (Common Core is a topic for another time.) Suffice it to say, it is another form of the “grade game” handed to you and your child so as to affect more control of your educational lives.

The real goal of educating ourselves should not be to obtain a grade by the least amount of effort possible. It should not be to obtain a grade at all. The real goal of our education should be the acquisition of the knowledge we can use to earn ourselves a future that is to our liking and of service to mankind. We need to understand that some knowledge is preparatory to understanding other knowledge. Students need to seek knowledge with the idea of using it for purposes known or yet to be discovered. It is the knowledge that is important…not the grade.

You must also add to the knowledge a work ethic that will use well the knowledge you have gained. In his New York Times article of May 28th 2013, Thomas L. Friedman put it this way; “Underneath the huge drop in demand that drove unemployment up to 9 percent during the recession, there’s been an important shift in the education-to-work model in America. Anyone who’s been looking for a job knows what I mean.

It is best summed up by the mantra from the Harvard education expert Tony Wagner that the world doesn’t care anymore what you know; all it cares “is what you can do with what you know.” And since jobs are evolving so quickly, with so many new tools, a bachelor’s degree is no longer considered an adequate proxy by employers for your ability to do a particular job — and, therefore, be hired. So, more employers are designing their own tests to measure applicants’ skills. And they increasingly don’t care how those skills were acquired: home schooling, an online university, a massive open online course, or Yale. They just want to know one thing: Can you add value?”  

Knowledge is key. Not grade. Focus and emphasis need to be on the gaining of knowledge and a work ethic to use it productively. As a friend of mine, Col. Eldon Bodily pointed out to me in an email relating to this topic, “it is related to the question of a coal mine owner in PA when interviewing local job applicants. “If you want to work come and see me, if you want a job go elsewhere.”

By Nicholas Pond

How Can ‘The Family’ Change The World?

By Nicholeen Peck Recently, I came across a quote that said that the “spiritual solidarity of the family” would determine the success of many things, such as churches and societies.  This inspired a lot of thought.  We all know the family’s role in society is crucial.  In fact, the whole of society pivots around the family.  We know that if the family isn’t pivotal and valued the society decays.  Could spiritual solidarity be the answer?   What is spiritual?  In Webster’s 1828 Dictionary spiritual is defined as “consisting of spirit; refined from external things; not sensual; holy”   So, according to this definition, a spiritual family would focus on keeping the spirit of love, of unity, of God with them at all times.  Their hearts would be knit together in love, which is a spiritual expression.  They would know what this feeling felt like and would deliberately invite this spirit into their communications and relationships.   This definition also makes it clear that a spiritual person is not the same as a worldly person.  They have been refined.  The spiritual person, or family, would focus more on the internal workings of themselves and the family than on the external.  As the family focused on inviting the spirit of love into the interior of their relationships and home life they would not give in to the sensual, often selfish, desires and cravings we all experience in life.  They would know that the spiritual is more important than the sensual and would choose not to act upon those sensual voices.  The process of choosing the spiritual voice over the sensual voice makes a person self-governed and holy.  This is the kind of person who learns to listen to the Spirit instead of the cravings of the body is a powerful person indeed.   What would happen if each person in a whole family had this kind of self-government; if they understood spirituality and lived spiritually solid?   Let’s talk about solidarity.  Online solidarity means, “unity or agreement of feeling or action within a group.” For further understanding, I searched in my Webster’s 1828 Dictionary for the word solidarity, but couldn’t find it.  Apparently, the word was not used in 1828.  But, the root of the word, solid, was in the dictionary. Understanding the word solid helps the word solidarity make much more sense.   Solid means, “firm; compact having its constituent particles so close or dense as to resist the impression or penetration of other bodies…parts are not easily movable or displaced.”   How Can The Family Change The World?   Eureka!  The definition of the word solid is a gold mine for societies, governments and the world. Most people don’t like change.  In fact, no one is happy when major things in life, like family relationships, change or deteriorate. If the family is solid it cannot be changed by outside sources.  When the family is solid it cannot be destroyed, altered or penetrated by distractions or dysfunctions.   The unity of the family is powerful, but the spiritual unity of the family is unconquerable.   To create a spiritually solid group the family must be united in principles, beliefs, purpose, and practices. To have this kind of unity each family member must know and desire the feeling of the Spirit of love, they must understand and respect the roles of each person in the family, and they must have an effective method of communication, teaching and correction that connects the family instead of divides  the family, as is common in modern times.   I Don’t Understand   If the families in our communities become spiritually solid the damaging messages that cause so much concern to parents now days would have no effect. We live in a time when people are concerned about governments defining and controlling families, agendas forming the minds of our young people in negative ways which are contrary to the happiness of the family, and the roles of family members are being misrepresented and misunderstood.   Why do we put up with this treatment of the family?  Why are people trying to restructure the family and break it apart?  What is to be gained by this?  I don’t understand.   These are real concerns.  People, like me, spend countless days trying to stop the micromanaging and damaging of the family.  But, the real power to combat these concerns, the real answer, lies in the family. The family must heal itself.  It must become spiritually solid again, as it once was in times of old.  Then, we will be happy and impenetrable.   What To Do   To create spiritual solidarity in the family we need to:  

  1. Be firm in our beliefs.  Be religious.  Practice our faith each day alone and as a family.
  2. Strengthen relationships by having regular and frequent family time.
  3. Decrease distractions to the family
  4. Have a pre-determined, common vocabulary for basic family communication and correction that the whole family uses.  (The most common reason parents are ineffective is because mothers and fathers and children do not have a unified vocabulary for problem solving and respecting roles which leads to communication frustration and isolation.) Common vocabulary will decrease contention and increase unity and respect.

  Never in the history of the world has every family believed that the family benefits from spiritual solidarity.  There has always been opposition to this idea. But, if we look back through history it is easy to see that the families which were spiritually solid always accomplished more than those who were not.  They were also more independent of government involvement, contributed more positively to their societies, and were more attached to family and community than those members of families who were not spiritually solid.   What kind of future do you want for your family?  Socially influenced mediocrity or spiritual solidarity?   If you need help with steps 2, 3, and 4 on the list above go to https://parentingselfgovernment.com/store   If you want to see a video illustrating the differences between families who are not spiritually solid and one that is, watch this BBC show. 

Maternity

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Maternity by design is wholesome and good, and is divinely intended to benefit the mother in countless ways and at so many different levels: emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, behaviorally, biologically, etc.

All good things get challenged, so it comes as no surprise that contradictory and counterfeit ideas against maternity are promoted even institutionalized, which are not wholesome, not good, and not divinely intended, which end up harmful to women. A few days before Mother’s Day, a perfectly timed debut, Cosmopolitan published 25 year old abortion doula, Emily Lett’s essay, “Why I Filmed My Abortion.” The story has spread quickly throughout the media. Emily posted on YouTube a video of her alleged abortion. There is no verifying that what is taking place in the video is real, that part is assumed. In her essay, she says she was introduced by her administrator to Angie AntiTheist, obviously an alias, another YouTube poster who wanted to show the world how positive taking RU486 is. This became Emily’s inspiration for her clinical abortion video.

The idea of promoting abortion as positive has been the strategy of pro-abortionists for a while now. This is good news in the sense that at large, abortion is no longer accepted in society as a good choice, nor as something positive. Those who promote the dignity and rights of each individual from conception have made great headway, so much so that the pro-abortion lobby NARAL has felt threatened enough to pressure Google into blocking pro-life ads on all searches tagged “abortion clinic”-and we all thought our searches were objective. They argued that abortion industry revenues were being negatively affected by the pro-life ads.

Despite their well- funded lobby, research continues to reveal truth of the “not good” and “harmful” when it comes to abortion such as in a recent Chinese meta-analysis that links induced abortion and breast cancer.

On the flip side, one little known benefit of maternity is no breast cancer. It was known as early as mediaeval times that breast cancer was a disease resulting from not experiencing maternity; it existed primarily in nuns, and found rarely in the aged. Only in recent years has breast cancer become a disease in women of child bearing age. Research is catching up to what we already knew, maternity is the healthy, good and beneficial choice for women. WOW will be exploring and sharing research in a continuing series of articles addressing maternity and the biological effects of its expression and suppression.

Irreplaceable Mothers: The Power of Moms Who Know Their Roles

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On May 6th, 2014 I went to a viewing of the new documentary, Irreplaceable, produced by Focus On The Family. This documentary took on some of the big issues facing the world in our times such as abortion, population decline, the importance of mothers and fathers in families, and general social confusion related to misunderstanding the…

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Saving Mother’s Day

by Nicholeen Peck  Happy Mother’s Day! I hope you have planned how you will spend your special day. I usually try to find ways to serve my family like a good mother does.  Years ago I fell into the trap of feeling entitled on Mother’s Day.  I thought it was my day off.  In fact, it seemed like society was convincing me that I should feel entitled to special treatment.  One Mother’s Day, after being thrown up on and having everything go wrong, and feeling like being a mother was the worst thing ever, I decided that never again would I trick myself into that kind of selfishness.  I decided that Mother’s Day was my day to do what I do; mother people.  I decided that to honor my special day best I needed to be selfless, not selfish.  Here are some things you can do to make Mother’s Day special for you and for your family; live your role and love it!

  • Make your family breakfast in bed
  • Make a special dinner for your family
  • Tell stories from your life to your family
  • Tell your family about mothers you admire (your heroes)
  • Have a special mother’s day treat (tradition) you always serve like strawberry shortcake.
  • Send your children cards of appreciation for being able to be their mother

Happy Mother’s Day

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WOW upside down spells MOM. It’s a universally common title, but the real beauty and influence of motherhood begins to shine when Mom doesn’t accept the role as common. At a recent fundraising event, one couple at a shared table happened to be a Mom accompanied by her young son. Her husband couldn’t attend last minute, so his son was to take his place. As conversation progressed through the evening, it became obvious this beautiful woman did not accept her title as common. Motherhood was something she continually planned, prayed about, and sought wisdom in. It was something she put her best energies into. I knew I had found a kindred spirit when she said she was once asked what job she would choose if she could have any in the world. She said she thought about it a moment and then answered she already had it-being a stay at home Mom.

This reminded me of Cornelia Africana, an ancient Roman patrician whose maternal care and wisdom jolted Rome with the dignity and worth she brought to motherhood. One day sister patrician Compania showcased her jewels to Cornelia. After, she asked Cornelia to bring out her jewels for her to see. Cornelia in all sincerity gestured toward her young children and replied, “These are my jewels.”

Painting by Angelica Kaufman, 1785

Painting by Angelica Kaufman, 1785

It is true Cornelia was blessed with a life of material comfort, but she was hardly spared human suffering and grief. She was widowed fairly young, and though she bore twelve children, only three survived to adulthood. Later, even her two famous sons, “the Gracchi”, she outlived, because they were cut down in their prime of life for beliefs she raised them to stand for.

WOW respects and supports the dual role of parenthood, but today WOW wants to honour the Mother, and those who do not accept the title of Mom as common.

Happy Mothers Day!

Legislative Update

HB286   This is the mandatory child sexual abuse education for children ages K – 12. This bill passed the House and the Senate and will be implemented in two years.  Hopefully, next year it will be repealed. On the surface this bill looks like it helps children. But, on closer observation it is easy to see that this bill is a violation of conscience for the children. Children should not have to be exposed to talk about sex and  mutilation with anyone other than the protector of their spirits; their parents.  

The statistics they have been publicizing are not correct.  They have said that 60% or so of abused children are abused by their parents.  That sounds huge.  But, they are only talking about the children that ARE abused.  And the statistic changed multiple times over the course of the argument so it isn’t consistent. The statistic they should have listed was that only about 1/2% of children in a school are mistreated by their parents.  This means that 99.5% of children who are not mistreated at all by parents would need to listen to information about how their parents are scary and are perpetrators.  

Grandmas and grandpas are portrayed as not safe in the educational materials, and the trainings are usually administered by Planned Parenthood supporters or agencies.  The only out on this mandatory class is opting your child out of it.

Do you know what is really happening at the United Nations?

United Faiths at the United Nation By Nicholeen Peck Do you know what is really happening at the United Nations? I thought I had a pretty good idea. After being asked to speak at the United Nations a year or so ago I started looking into the documents which are debated and signed and the key organizations who support certain positions. At one point, my learning became a bit frightening.

It is no secret that boundaries are being crossed and topics are being legislated at the United Nations that are not the proper role of national government let alone international government. “The family” a term we are very used to hearing is not a term that many organizations and world leaders favor now days. They think the term is too limiting. Many of these groups also don’t like the term “motherhood,” as they see it as degrading to women. The family is being attacked and motherhood is disregarded.

This reminds me of a quote by Napoleon prior to the French Revolution. He said, “The great want of France was mothers.”

Samuel Smiles added to Bonaparte’s thoughts that, “When the great national outbreak occurred…morals, religion, virtue, were swamped by sensualism. The character of women had become depraved…maternity was held in reproach…family and home were alike corrupted…Domestic purity no longer bound society together…France was motherless, the children broke loose, and the revolution burst forth, ‘amidst the yells and fierce violence of women.”  

The family and motherhood are only a couple of the topics being discussed year after year at the Convention on Population and Development as well as the Convention of the Status of Women (which is one of the best attended U.N. Conferences) Other topics, relate to abortion vs. life, child rights vs. parent rights, climate change, comprehensive sexual educational programs for children, etc.

After months of study, I knew what language I supported and that the groups against the family seemed to out-number the groups at the conferences who support the family as the fundamental unit of society. After my first day at the United Nations, I was pleasantly surprised.

 About the Document

Each year at the conferences they try to create a document that further clarifies their plan of action as a group of nations. These documents talk about everything from availability of jobs for women to education of children. Some of the dangerous terms that the pro-family groups watch for in these documents are: sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender women and sex workers, unsafe abortions, contraception services, discriminatory social norms…etc.

What the pro-family groups do is watch for these words and then alert ambassadors to the social ramifications of using language like this in a legal document, and whether the language has already been “agreed upon” or not. If the language has not been “agreed upon” previously, it is supposed to be agreed upon before being approved in a new document. The fight over wording in the documents is intense. People line the halls of the United Nations waiting to show support for certain kinds of language.

This year, the pro-family groups of all religions showed great support for the family, motherhood and sovereignty. As a side note, I ended up at a meeting held by a group of feminist women, who were so angry that the document contained the word “sovereignty” so many times. They were hoping to get the term removed. They did not want the states (countries) to be able to have sovereignty on the family issues discussed.

About the Conference

For many days there are classes from each of the NGO groups who attend the conference. I was there on behalf of The Worldwide Organization for Women, United Families International, and Family Watch International. All three of these organizations are actively promoting strengthening families in local and national government as well as the United Nations.

The class I presented was called “Cultural Parenting Revolution” which was designed to help parents see which methods of parenting damages relationships and which parenting style leads to secure family relationships as well as promotes self-government for the whole family. The room was packed. There were people standing in every open place and watching from the hall.

Following the class, people of all nationalities, religions and even differing views on the family told me how happy they were to hear the presentation. One Islamic woman said, “Thank you! This will help me. This must be why I came here. Many people say they are going to help the family here, but no one really tells us how we can fix the problems at home and strengthen the family.”

One ambassador said that he knew the family was the basic unit of society and needed to be fixed but didn’t have the answers for how to fix the family problems. He was happy to meet me and hear about the parenting message I gave. SOME GOOD NEWS 🙂

It was presented at the UN that the “Family” be a new development goal for the upcoming years. At the conference, a new idea came up for a development goal. The idea presented by four different states was that “the family” be a permanent area of focus for the upcoming years. This development goal idea was encouraging to me, but I must admit, I was surprised that no one at the United Nations had thought of deliberately supporting the family like this on paper before.

It is my hope that next year at the CSW conference that the ambassadors will adopt “the family” as one of the new development goals. It would be a wonderful step toward strengthening families all over the world.

Here is a copy of the class I gave at the United Nations entitled “Cultural Parenting Revolution.” https://teachingselfgovernment.com/store/cultural-parenting-revolution

Did you know….? That the United Nations was originally intended solely for the purpose of making peace treaties between countries? Now the United Nations attempts to regulate everything from family structure to educational programs.

One of the reasons WOW attends the United Nations and participates in the discussions there is to protect the sovereignty of individual nations.