The Day of Silence, which is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), fast approaches. This year it will take place in most public schools on April 16. On this day, thousands of public high schools and increasing numbers of middle schools will allow students to remain silent throughout an entire day-even during instructional time-to promote GLSEN's socio-political goals and its controversial, unproven, and destructive theories on the nature and morality of homosexuality.

Parents must actively oppose this hijacking of the classroom for political purposes. Please join the national effort to restore to public education a proper understanding of the role of government-subsidized schools. You can help de-politicize the learning environment by calling your child out of school if your child's school allows students to remain silent during instructional time on the Day of Silence.

Parents should no longer passively countenance the political usurpation of public school classrooms through student silence.

If students will be permitted to remain silent, parents can express their opposition most effectively by calling their children out of school on the Day of Silence and sending letters of explanation to their administrators, their children's teachers, and all school board members. One reason this is effective is that most school districts lose money for each student absence.

School administrators err when they allow the classroom to be disrupted and politicized by granting students permission to remain silent throughout an entire day.

1. Call your local schools and ask whether they permit students or teachers to remain silent in the classroom on "Day of Silence." IMPORTANT: Do not ask any administrator, school board member, or teacher if the school sponsors, endorses, or supports DOS. Schools do not technically sponsor the Day of Silence. Technically, it is students, often students in the gay-straight alliance, who sponsor it. Many administrators will tell you that they do not sponsor the DOS when, in fact, they do permit students and sometimes even teachers to remain silent during instructional time. Also ask administrators whether they permit teachers to create lesson plans to accommodate student silence.

2. Find out what date the event is planned for your school. (The national date in 2010 is April 16, but some schools observe DOS on a different date).

3. Inform the school of your intention to keep your children home on that date and explain why. (A sample letter is available.)

For more information or questions, visit Day of Silence Walkout.

From: Home School Legal Defense Association hslda@hslda.org>
Sent: Wed, March 31, 2010 4:01:10 PM
Subject: HSDLA: Beware National Education Standards 2.0

Dear HSLDA Members and Friends:

Numerous news reports have recently discussed a move by states and the National Governors Association to create common core curriculum standards. These standards have been created by a team of education experts, teachers, and other stakeholders, and will then be submitted to the state legislatures for approval. The stated goal is to create a national network of common core academic standards.

 

To paraphrase Shakespeare, however, a rose by any other name is still a rose, and national standards by any other name are still national standards. In fact, one of the major proponents of these standards, The New America Foundation, recently wrote in a major issue paper on the subject, "As part of a broader move towards common, national educational standards, a Next Social Contract for education must establish clearly articulated standards for what children should know and be able to do by the end of the third grade."

HSLDA has been fighting national standards for decades, and we believe that the Common Core State Standards Initiative is national standards merely by a different name. Accordingly, HSLDA strongly opposes this initiative.

The proponents believe that national standards, or common state standards, will increase school readiness, increase academic proficiency, and better prepare students for life and the workforce. The common standards are not stand-alone: many of their proponents call for aligning curriculum from pre-kindergarten through graduation from college, so-called "p-16." Others call for even more drastic intervention in the lives of students and families: place children from birth until graduation from college into government run programs and schools. We believe that this threatens parental rights and ultimately, homeschool freedom.

I

n the 1990s, HSLDA opposed Goals 2000 because it called for a seamless government program of intervention into the lives of children and families in this very same manner. We were ultimately successful in defeating Goals 2000. However, it has returned, this time under the name of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

 

We now have an opportunity to voice our opposition to the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The draft k-12 common core state standards were released on March 10, 2010, and the comment period for people and groups to express their position on this draft ends on Friday, April 2, 2010. We encourage you to go to the Initiative's web page, read these standards, and leave a comment about the standards specifically or national standards in general. You can leave comments at the Initiative's webpage.

 

We will continue to provide updates on the Common Core State Standards Initiative, as well as actively opposing attempts to create national standards through this initiative.
Sincerely,
J. Michael Smith
HSLDA President

HSLDA's Federal Relations Department: "The Danger of National Standards"
HSLDA's Federal Relations Department: "Is Congress Moving Toward Nationalized Standards?"
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