Wonderland or Not » education http://wonderlandornot.net things that concern me, and things that make me laugh Sat, 19 May 2012 05:33:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Blogging For Choice http://wonderlandornot.net/2009/01/22/blogging-for-choice/ http://wonderlandornot.net/2009/01/22/blogging-for-choice/#comments Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:56:30 +0000 cooper http://wonderlandornot.net/?p=3650 Continue Reading →

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Today is the 36th anniversary of Roe v Wade.
The theme this year, and rightly so, is “what is your top pro-choice hope for President Obama and/or the new Congress”?

My hope is that our legislatures and our leader recognizes the right of a women to make decisions about her own physical situation. As we have seen in Mississippi, where there is but one state abortion clinic left, those most affected by this continue to be the poorest among us.The private clinics where those with substantial income can go still exist in Mississippi, as they existed in this country long before Roe v Wade. It is very clear those who have had the funds have been able to get abortions even in times where it wasn’t legal. We perpetrate the poverty when we take away choice. We need to make clear to our legislatures that we want protection in states which would deem to take away the rights of those choosing to terminate a pregnancy. Making the means to carry out these choices inaccessible, or in some cases illegal is a crime against the right of a woman.

No one has the right to take away choice, my choice or the choice of any women in this country.

Please get rid of abstinence only education policy and any codicil to policy and funding which require abstinence only education as a condition. Abstinence only education does not work.

Studies have continually shown that abstinence-only students have almost the same number of sexual partners, and have sex almost as early, as students who receive traditional sex ed. In fact, abstinence-only programs may actually increase the risk of STDs and unintentional teen pregnancies. That’s because those abstinence-only students who do have sex tend to be less likely to use protection.

Stop using religious figures and their work as examples in the fight against aids in Africa, ask Uganda where it is possible the success of their abstain, be faithful, use condoms program was undermined by the later sway away from the ABC approach to the US-backed abstinence-only programs, programs which may be responsible for an increase in risky behavior, as comprehensive sex education and condom promotion are no longer mainstream. The decease seen in Uganda with the ABC program appears to be suffering a reversal in fortune as a result.

Rick Warren’s Africa Problem
The history of AIDS in Uganda

Keep up to date at Reality Check and see what else you can do to help.

Choice for everyone means supporting the means of choice, be it the choice to have sex and protect with condoms, the choice of comprehensive sex education, or the choice to terminate a pregnancy.

While you are giving back rights to the world, please leave our rights alone.

Peace

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]]> http://wonderlandornot.net/2009/01/22/blogging-for-choice/feed/ 29 Notes on Twilight and Other Civic Duties http://wonderlandornot.net/2008/11/22/notes-on-twilight-and-other-civic-duties/ http://wonderlandornot.net/2008/11/22/notes-on-twilight-and-other-civic-duties/#comments Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:51:35 +0000 cooper http://wonderlandornot.net/?p=2864 Continue Reading →

]]> While your chillin with the hot chocolate after your five mile run deciding if you really want to stand in line for a movie from a series of books geared toward adolescent girls, girls whose limited fantasy revolves around doing it with a vampire (the thinly disguised bad boy, different boy, prince charming, we all love so much), and while you’re pondering why books geared toward females still steer girls to a fantasy world where, unspoken or clearly understood, the girls want nothing more than to romanticize about doing it with “that guy”.

I haven’t read the books nor do I have the time or desire to do so, and despite my admitted lust for Heathcliff I gag when I see the term “breathless anticipation” used to describe the feeling teenage girls had on awaiting this movie premiere.

I’m totally down with immortality though, but I suggest another book for your daughter.

American Government 2008: Continuity and Change . Sure it’s expensive, but she may come out the other end a little wiser, and with something more than a vampire fetish.

NEW STUDY FINDS AMERICANS, INCLUDING ELECTED OFFICIALS, EARN A
FAILING GRADE WHEN TESTED ON AMERICAN HISTORY AND ECONOMICS ( pdf link)

More than 2,500 randomly selected Americans took ISI’s basic 33question
test on civic literacy and more than 1,700 people failed, with the average score 49 percent, or an “F.” Elected officials scored even lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent and only 0.8 percent (or 21) of all surveyed earned an “A.” Even more startling is the fact that over twice as many people
know Paula Abdul was a judge on American Idol than know that the phrase “government of the
people, by the people, for the people” comes from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

No shocker here, if you’ve spent time around the humans in this country lately.

If you’re so inclined you can take a quiz on civic literacy at Our Fading Heritage.

“Our children should learn the general framework of their government and then they should know where they come in contact with the government, where it touches their daily lives and where their influence is exerted on the government. It must not be a distant thing, someone else’s business, but they must see how every cog in the wheel of a democracy is important and bears its share of responsibility for the smooth running of the entire machine.”

Eleonore Roosevelt

peace

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