Spread your wings and fly away

BY A 15 yr. Old SCHOOL KID IN GEELONG VIC:

Since the Pledge of Allegiance & The Lord's Prayer are not allowed in most
public schools anymore, because the word "God" is mentioned....

A kid in Geelong Vic wrote the attached:-

NEW School prayer :

Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd.

If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.

Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense - it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.

For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state.

We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.

We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.

It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take !!!

Amen

Says it all lol

Here are just some ideas to get around it

Breaking News from the NASA Website, they have found water on Mars which leaves us with the question - Can life be found there?

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It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once said - something which I wholeheartedly agree with.

Today has been spent doing the usual, making sure there is enough money in the account for those end of month bills - thankfully I get paid on Tuesday and can't wait, though most of it is spent already

My youngest son also tried to bankrupt me in Waterstones as well. We had passed by it on the way to the building society (big mistake) and he asked if we could just have a look in there. I resisted the urge to buy any books to add to the pile that still have to be read, even though there were some lovely ones I keep meaning to buy on a 3 for 2 special offer :groan my son made up for this though by picking out a number of books that he liked the look of. Persuaded him to pick just one, on the premise that if he reads it to me and finishes it, we can buy another one.

I really don't mind buying books, I prefer to do this rather than visit the library. I am useless at taking books back and end up paying a massive amount of fines which defeats the point of going to save money really, so may as well just buy the book in the first place lol! Anyway the children tend to re read favourite books and even though youngest struggles I am always willing to buy anything he is interested in for him - struggle he may do but he eventually gets there and I feel the key to reading is not to read endless books in a reading scheme, some of which can be classed as boring, but to read something that engages the reader, that develops their enthusiasm or imagination.

At the moment youngest is upstairs sorting out the bulging bookcase in his room. He wants to get rid off all those books he considers babyish and build up his own library of books that he wants to keep and re read. Simon did the same thing a couple of years back, however like his mother, he is a little bit of a hoarder hence the fact there are two bookcases in his room that look as though they are about to collapse under the weight of books. Between us I am sure we could open up our own library.

There are books here that cover a variety of themes and topics. Some are fiction - historical, crime, sci fi, general chick lit, there are the non fiction ones - poetry, encyclopedias, information books full of facts that can be used in homework or just for general knowledge. I have lost count of the number of dictionaries we have, or thesauruses which can be found scattered around the house. All kinds of things can be found here and though a lot of them seem to be in paperback, they are in good condition. I have taught my children to love books, to respect them, to look after them well. They trawl through book catalogues - The book people, scholastic, looking for yet another one to add to their collection. Christmas lists always include a book of some sort to be bought as a gift. Their favourite pastime has always been to go to the bookshop in town and spend an hour or two looking through the books, money to search for 'the one' that will take them to an imaginary land.

The internet is a wonderful device full of information, good and bad, that can help any child achieve in life, but nothing, in my view, will ever replace a good book. As an American Educationalist once said:

A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them.