Why I Homeschool- Part 3 of ?

Health and What I Won't Trade for Cash

I maintain that if all of my friends were somehow stranded in the same room that…well, someone would get hurt. Like everyone else, I hold a unique basket of views. My friends and I bond over different combinations of those views we have in common and I can respect differing perspectives…unless my children hang in the balance.

I disagree most passionately with Donald Tudor, South Carolina’s DOE School Transportation Director. I can think of quite a few reasons why school districts shouldn’t have the option of selling ad space inside school buses. Will I agree with the decisions of the “district appointed personnel” who will approve the ads before placement? Not likely. Kudos to the SC Senators who authored and sponsored S.1071 to ban the use of school buses to advertise anything to children. Yet, that bill has been stuck in committee since February and, meanwhile, the ads are being installed.

I disagree with the author and sponsors of SC Act 102- “Students Health and Fitness Act of 2005.” While their intent was good and the
Section 1 “Findings” are powerful motivators, their goals were not what I’d call lofty. Two and a half hours of physical activity a week- sixty of which must be in the form of P.E. class. Let’s see, that leaves 90 minutes for other physical activity, which comes out to 18 minutes of recess per day.

That’s just cruel, to ask a young child to be in the classroom all day with so little free time and so little outlet for the incredible energy he has. After homework, dinner, bathing, and whatever else a given family does as nighttime routine, what’s really left? What does this policy say about the SC DOE and legislature’s commitment to children’s fitness?

I disagree with the local school boards who have seen the statistics and have not yet pulled junk food from the school cafeterias. I commend the representatives and senators who sponsored H.4650 and S.1149 which would have banned the worst of the crap. What were the members of the panel who voted the house bill down today thinking?

Course, I know what they were thinking. Same thing the SC DOE employees were thinking of when they signed a contract to sell ad space on buses. Money. My sympathies go to the parents and other interested parties who’ve argued against such measures and had their voices drowned out by the almighty dollar…and by the silence of other parents.

If my kids were enrolled in public school, there wouldn’t be enough time in the day to mitigate the damage, mount effective opposition and still do our normal family stuff. As a homeschooler, I can feed them good food and make sure that they have free time and exercise; all this without permission, opposition, bureaucracy and advertising revenue. Wow! A say in the health and well-being of my own children.

And I haven’t even gotten around to education yet.

The Whole Post