Child Sent to Principal for Writing Rush for President

Not so long ago, at an elementary school in the Jacksonville, Florida area, the administration made a survey wherein they asked the students whom they would have wanted to be elected for president: Obama, McCain, or other. One of the students replied "other" and specifically wrote down "Rush Baugh" (he meant Rush Limbaugh, obviously); consequently, he was sent to the principal and his mother was called in. The administration told her that it was inappropriate for her son to write that and that she "shouldn't be throwing [her] views on him."

HOW INAPPROPRIATE IS THIS? Seriously? First of all, why would you ask 10-year-olds whom they want for president? I mean, they're 10 YEARS OLD; what do they know about politics? And, some of the kids do choose Rush Limbaugh, how is that a problem? YOU'RE THE ONES WHO ASKED THEM! (Not you, I mean the school...) I bet that if the kid had written Keith Olbermann, the school wouldn't have cared.

Maybe I'm overreacting. But still, it annoys me to see people (especially youth) undergo discrimination for being Conservative. The public schools are responsible for much of this anti-Conservative bigotry. And I thought it was their job to remain unbiased, not brainwash kids to the left.

What do you think?

Is English More Important Than Math?

I saw on the graduation requirements for New Trier that is it necessary to take 4 years of English but only 3 years of mathematics. I thought that this was rather weird because I've always been told that math and English are the most important subjects that you can learn in school. But if this is truly the case, why isn't there a 4-year math requirement here?

English is extremely important, especially at the high school level. We learn how to compose analytical essays relating to the literature that we read. Learning how to read in between the lines (read on a deeper level) and write persuasive and cohesive papers is something that we will need to use for the rest of our lives. But whether you realize it or not, you will use the skills learned in math (I don't mean simple computation) in the real world as well. Math really teaches you how to think, how to solve real-world application problems, the step-by-step procedures of using logic, something that everyone needs. Memorizing really long formulas is not the point of math (unfortunately some people think it is); the point is to teach kids how to think logically.

Essentially, English teaches kids how to read, write, and argue. Math helps kids in solving real-world problems that require the use of logic. It seems like they are both equally important to me; therefore, there should be a 4-year math graduation requirement here at New Trier. But the thing about English is, even though many people speak it or are learning how to speak it, not everyone does. But math is a "universal" language - it doesn't take any certain language to understand the concepts of mathematics (so anyone can "speak math"!).

So what do you think? Is English more important than math? Should this graduation requirement be changed?

Stop Illegal Immigration

I think that it's seriously about time to stop illegal immigration. I haven't seen much of an attempt to do this because many people don't realize that it is nothing but a detriment to our nation's economy and safety. The one politician whom I trust that has the capability of fixing this problem is Mitt Romney. He has a wonderful plan basically saying that if you stop giving them food, money, and jobs, they'll leave! I mean, seriously, is it that hard to understand? One of the problems I had with the Bush Administration is that they did not do enough to attempt to stop illegal immigration.

Since 1996, our nation has had to pay approximately $400,000,000,000 for social services for illegals. We are obviously in a tremendous amount of debt right now, and the last thing we need is to be paying 400 billion dollars for people who shouldn't even be here! Also, they are responsible for taking over 11 million SKILLED jobs. Now, pardon me for believing that these jobs should be handed over to the many, many unemployed legals in America who are willing to work hard. I mean, after all, they are the ones who live here legally. Additionally, since 1996 we have had to pay about 15 billion dollars for their education (K-12), which is incredibly unfair. We could have used all of this money to better the educational programs on which some schools need improvement.

The crime rate and drug trafficking has severely increased due to illegal immigrants. There are around 730,000 illegal alien fugitives. Many of the members of some of our nation's most vicious gangs that traffic drugs are illegals. The cost of incarcerations of illegal immigrants since 2001 is approximately $1,500,000,000. Plus, I watch America's Most Wanted sometimes, and many of the criminals wanted are illegal aliens.

Please don't misinterpret my argument. I am not against immigration, just illegal immigration. I just want to show you how detrimental it really is. If you want to come to America, please join us. But do so legally, and learn English.

(Note: these statistics were taken from an illegal immigration hotwire, immigrationcounters.com)