Many Benefits of Home Schooling for Our Children, Environment and The Society At Large

- By Bahram Maskanian

Obviously there are many different ways of educating our children, one of which is home schooling, the subject of discussion here is about the most effective means, in terms of cost, quality and social benefits of providing first-class high quality private school education at home, at the public school costs, or even less.

Our children, students at any level need individual care, love and attention in order to be able to concentrate and learn.  Unlike private schools, public schools are built way too large, in many cases housing over 2,000 to 3,000 students, resembling prisons, or army barracks, coupled with crowded big classrooms, low-paid and under educated teachers, highly impersonal and cruel environment, causing feelings of abandonment, fear and frustration in our innocent and vulnerable children.

We can all relate to many obstacles kids have to face and deal with daily in public schools: ranging from pier pressure, the constant imposition of strenuous, often violent, harmful and humiliating bullying and hazing, idiotic cosmetic and fashion competition, never ending dimwitted popularity contest, reckless and irresponsible behavior, terrible influences of television and video games brought to school in forms of violence, drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse, consumerism, violent mind numbing sporting events celebrated as normal daily behavior, crowded classrooms, terrible school foods, harmful carcinogenic junk food and beverage spewing vending machines, appalling dumbing down curriculums and teaching methodology, awful educational policies, low-paid and unqualified teachers, and the constant sexual tension and competition between the kids are not going to be of any help to the future of our children, coupled with dangerous form of transportation back and forth trapped in the most badly designed and made death trap of the yellow school bus, and the list goes on, and on.

The question here for every parent and family is why do we allow such appalling conditions to persist?  Did we forget that our children are truly the only hope for a better sustainable future?  If instead of providing up to date high quality all encompassing futuristic education we allow our children to be trained in the arts of mediocrity and stupidity through the use of dumbing down curriculums and consumerism what would become of our society and the country at large?

In one form, or another we all have spend time in classrooms and know very well that learning is achieved at a different rate and speed for different people.  Some may learn and understand the teacher and the subject after the first time presentation, explained by the teacher and some may need to go over it more than a few times.  But the problem is that after the first and second time raising hand and asking for repeating the explanation some may be a bit apprehensive to ask for the third and the fourth time, fearing to be ridiculed and or perceived stupid.

Home schooling with the help of a content rich website on the other hand is completely free from the above problems and shortcomings and many psychological and physical health hazards. Home schooling online will only costs $1,200 per year, $100 a month, which is a tiny fraction of the most good private schools tuitions ranging from $35,000 to $50,000 per year, or more.  Besides, good private schools are hard to find, expensive, difficult to get accepted and not available in many towns and cities.

Home schooling with the help of an easy to navigate, user-friendly, content rich and secure website shall make home schooling a highly educational, entertaining and fun means of teaching and learning.  One could either through the use of our pre-recorded video, or audio course presentations of all related curriculums, or written textual curriculums, or all of the methods mentioned here together, teach and learn in an one on one bases at the convenient time of one’s choosing.

All of our registered members will be able to communicate via video conferencing with in our network with each other.  One can watch, listen and read as many time as one needs to learn, download our video, or audio podcasts and enjoy learning whenever one may find appropriate.  Use our members only secure community forum to reach out to a large network of many other home schooling teachers and home schooled students to share, exchange ideas, post questions and communicate with.

Using our online easy to learn test-creating utilities, teachers can design and administer their own tests, or take advantage of tests design by other teachers for the same grade curriculums to discover the dept of knowledge of their students on any given subject.

Our websites, servers and our entire network shall always remain a true educational environment, which means no advertisements of any kind, and completely commercial free.  Our client’s information: your information, will be kept safe and secret, and under no circumstances it will never be soled, shared, or given to any one, or company, or any organization.

We can also help our clients, if needed, with the selection of the best computers, computer monitors, printers, accessories and computer software programs in order to create the best online home schooling environment.  Currently a powerful long lasting high quality multi processor desktop computer with a 26-inch color monitor plus all the required accessories and software could cost roughly at about $5,000.  The said system if properly maintained could easily last over minimum 15 years, or more.

Below are a few more vital benefits of home schooling to our, family, community and environment.

Home schooling will cut down on environmental pollutions by reducing the use of the polluting buses and other activities such as: foods trucking and transportation, heating, electricity, unsafe cell-phone use by children, unnecessary manufacturing of carcinogenic junk foods and beverages and much more.

The 6000 year old Persian proverb - HEALTHY MIND IS IN A HEALTHY BODY -, says it all very clearly. And that is an absolute and undisputable fact, which means if we provide a healthy environment, 30 minutes a day cardiovascular exercise, good healthy foods, clean air and clean water for our children; learning becomes a highly enjoyable practice. It has been proven scientifically that every child could be a genius if the said conditions are met. Home schooling is far more relaxing and conducive to learning and it will allow our children to enjoy having healthy homemade foods, snacking on fruits and vegetables while studying. Saving our children’s mind and body from the harmful carcinogenic mass-produced vending machine rubbish, beverages and fast foods is the only way to protect them and ensure a great prosperous future for them and for the whole world.

I leave you with one other absolute proven fact; scientifically and psychologically 1000s of kids in the past couple of decades, from all over the world, have been tested and examined for their learning ability and high intellectual potentials and the results are truly astonishing, simply put; it is now proven, that no matter where the child is born on Planet Earth, as so long as she / he is breast fed, followed by a healthy none carcinogenic foods, clean water, clean air and appropriate amount of love and attention, every child can grow up to be a genius. And if we add to this equation a good futuristic curriculum in no time we will transform our world into a heavenly utopian one.

All and all, home schooling is the one and only way for many of us, the ordinary American people to provide a first-class high quality private school education at home, at the public school costs, or even less and guarantee the well being and a future of our children. - An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure. Preventive health care begins at home and so does the preventive, effective and futuristic education.

We are seeking financial, material support and volunteer work to jump-start our work and mission. Your tax-deductible donations of funds, goods and services will be greatly appreciated and will be listed on the - Contributors List - page at our website for all to see, unless to ask not to be listed there.

In conclusion I would like to invite all of those who do care and wish to help to join us. We need experienced and qualified teachers in every field, fund raising specialist and concerned parents to consider joining us and together lets make the idea of online home private schooling a welcoming reality for our children.

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* State Of Mind - The Psychology Of Total Control - And Eugenics

The Myth of Socialism

Socialism: good for the rich elite billionaires, but bad for the middle class and working poor.

- By Bahram Maskanian

Often the criminal elites, nation-less corporation’s goons and their politicians deliberately mislead and confuse the public by lying about, and twisting the meaning of certain words, or phrases, to serve their own criminal bosses and causes.  The most popular one of which commonly used to scare the good, but ignorant folks is Socialism.  They deliberately commingle Socialism with Communism to confuse and mislead.  I thought why not define these two words and the actions associated with these words, as we have all witnessed in real time in our recent history.

The True Definition of Communism:
Communism is a political and economic doctrine, which entitles the elite communist party members and their criminal goons to own, plunder and control all there is, under the disguise of public ownership.  Pretending to work for the masses, while they are robbing and screwing the public from all possible angles. We do not need to go far in order to witness the brutal abuses of Communism in: North Korea, Russia and China are still shameful glowing examples of working poor and the middle class forced to live in abject poverty, while the elite ex-communist and current communist party oligarchy and their goons accumulating billions, enslaving their own fellow citizens.

The True Definition of Socialism:
Socialism is a set of political and economic principles and values; rules and regulations designed to safe guard the public interests in all aspects.  Socialism advocates the political means of public healthcare, wellbeing, good public education, public safety and security and public welfare for all citizens.

Socialism is the political means to ensure an adequate and safe economic progress, while monitoring the quality and safety of all goods and services, distribution and exchange for public consumption.

The socialist political and economic principles and values are always paid for, controlled and regulated by the respective local communities and people as a whole.  Again to observe and learn from socialism success stories; we should simply look at the social, economic and political conditions of many European countries such as: Britain, Germany, Sweden, Norway, France, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark, etc.

All of the governmental agencies and their services, such as, but not limited to: Food and Drug Administration, Federal Communications Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Agriculture, Justice Department, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Treasury Department, Department of Interior, Department of Labor, Congress, and many more are all paid for by the taxpayers, by us, the people. - That is Socialism.

The relationship between the public, political and economic entities in the United States is very simple and straightforward.  We, the people give birth to states and its governments at all levels.  States governments give birth to corporations, which are supposed to be regulated and monitored by the states regulatory bodies to ensure their ethical behavior.

Since the states are the creatures of the people, and corporations are the creatures of the states, therefore corporations are not entitled to freedom of speech and do not have the right to participate in any political campaigns, elections, or any other means of social management and social policy generating activities whatsoever.  Corporations are nothing but a piece of paper: Corporate Certificate; stamped and authorized by the state issued to those who have applied, thus permitting them to perform certain commercial activities govern by the state law, for profit, or as non-profit organizations.

Healthcare corporations, and or healthcare insurance corporations are no different and they do not have the right to use their large ill gotten financial powers to set self-serving social policies, thus interfering and distorting publics’ best interest and welfare for their own criminal gains.

We, the people in the United States, we, the taxpayers pay for all kinds of social services ranging from public education of our children, police force for social safety and security, national parks maintenance and upkeeps, public libraries, public transportation, road and street cleaning and maintenance, Fire safety and the fire department, department of sanitation, U.S. Army, and anything and everything else in between. - That is Socialism.

Imagine you are attacked and being robbed, you quickly pick up the phone and dial 911.  The operator comes on and asks what is your emergency?  You say: we are being robbed please send help now!  The emergency operator asks:  may I have your Social Safety and Security Insurance Policy number so I can dispatch police officers? - That is Not Socialism.

Imagine your house is on fire burning up fast; you quickly pick up the phone and dial 911.  The operator comes on and asks what is your emergency?  You say: please hurry and send help our house is on fire.  The emergency operator:  may I have your Fire Safety Insurance Policy number so I can dispatch firemen? - That is Not Socialism.

You see how dumb and idiotic the whole idea of having a nation-less for Profit Corporation as gatekeepers for our safety, security, health and education?

It is imperative for every single one of us to find out the names and phone numbers of our city council member, congress representative and senator, and write them down and post the four phone numbers right next to the telephone. - Every single day call every single one, and remind them that they work for us, the people, and tell them that they must read and memorize the U.S. bill of rights, declaration of independence and the U.S. Constitution.

We must follow up on our council member, congress representative and senator work and make sure they are making progress or throw them out of the office. - Tell them, it is time to stop serving the criminal special interest, grow up and do the right thing.

Pass a universal healthcare MEDICARE for ALL, for which, we, the people are already paying in the first place. Tell them, “you the politicians must remind yourselves every single day, that you work for us, the people, not the corrupt criminal nation-less corporations.”

We must remember and must remind our council member, congress representative and senator that healthcare; education, clean air, clean water, clean soil and good organic foods are absolute public rights not privileges.

We, the U.S. taxpayers pay taxes to enjoy such social comforts, safety and security.  We must always be alert and not fall for these criminal Nation-less insurance and pharmaceutical corporations deceptions and lies.

Socialized services are absolutely necessary for an advanced society to progress and maintain an educated informed citizens, educated healthy workforce, aware and wise participant voting public, cultured and progressive population, secure and safe country.

Rampant Fraud Threat to China's Brisk Ascent

By ANDREW JACOBS - The New York Times - October 6, 2010

BEIJING — No one disputes Zhang Wuben’s talents as a salesman. Through television shows, DVDs and a best-selling book, he convinced millions of people that raw eggplant and immense quantities of mung beans could cure lupus, diabetes, depression and cancer.

For $450, seriously ill patients could buy a 10-minute consultation and a prescription — except Mr. Zhang, one of the most popular practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine, was booked through 2012.

But when the price of mung beans skyrocketed this spring, Chinese journalists began digging deeper. They learned that contrary to his claims, Mr. Zhang, 47, was not from a long line of doctors (his father was a weaver). Nor did he earn a degree from Beijing Medical University (his only formal education, it turned out, was the brief correspondence course he took after losing his job at a textile mill).

The exposure of Mr. Zhang’s faked credentials provoked a fresh round of hand-wringing over what many scholars and Chinese complain are the dishonest practices that permeate society, including students who cheat on college entrance exams, scholars who promote fake or unoriginal research, and dairy companies that sell poisoned milk to infants.

The most recent string of revelations has been bracing. After a plane crash in August killed 42 people in northeast China, officials discovered that 100 pilots who worked for the airline’s parent company had falsified their flying histories. Then there was the padded résumé of Tang Jun, the millionaire former head of Microsoft China and something of a national hero, who falsely claimed to have received a doctorate from the California Institute of Technology.

Few countries are immune to high-profile frauds. Illegal doping in sports and malfeasance on Wall Street are running scandals in the United States. But in China, fakery in one area in particular — education and scientific research — is pervasive enough that many here worry it could make it harder for the country to climb the next rung on the economic ladder.

A Lack of Integrity

China devotes significant resources to building a world-class education system and pioneering research in competitive industries and sciences, and has had notable successes in network computing, clean energy, and military technology. But a lack of integrity among researchers is hindering China’s potential and harming collaboration between Chinese scholars and their international counterparts, scholars in China and abroad say.

“If we don’t change our ways, we will be excluded from the global academic community,” said Zhang Ming, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. “We need to focus on seeking truth, not serving the agenda of some bureaucrat or satisfying the desire for personal profit.”

Pressure on scholars by administrators of state-run universities to earn journal citations — a measure of innovation — has produced a deluge of plagiarized or fabricated research. In December, a British journal that specializes in crystal formations announced that it was withdrawing more than 70 papers by Chinese authors whose research was of questionable originality or rigor.

In an editorial published earlier this year, The Lancet, the British medical journal, warned that faked or plagiarized research posed a threat to President Hu Jintao’s vow to make China a “research superpower” by 2020.

“Clearly, China’s government needs to take this episode as a cue to reinvigorate standards for teaching research ethics and for the conduct of the research itself,” the editorial said. Last month a collection of scientific journals published by Zhejiang University in Hangzhou reignited the firestorm by publicizing results from a 20-month experiment with software that detects plagiarism. The software, called CrossCheck, rejected nearly a third of all submissions on suspicion that the content was pirated from previously published research. In some cases, more than 80 percent of a paper’s content was deemed unoriginal.

The journals’ editor, Zhang Yuehong, emphasized that not all the flawed papers originated in China, although she declined to reveal the breakdown of submissions. “Some were from South Korea, India and Iran,” she said.

The journals, which specialize in medicine, physics, engineering and computer science, were the first in China to use the software. For the moment they are the only ones to do so, Ms. Zhang said.

Plagiarism and Fakery

Her findings are not surprising if one considers the results of a recent government study in which a third of the 6,000 scientists at six of the nation’s top institutions admitted they had engaged in plagiarism or the outright fabrication of research data. In another study of 32,000 scientists last summer by the China Association for Science and Technology, more than 55 percent said they knew someone guilty of academic fraud.

Fang Shimin, a muckraking writer who has become a well-known advocate for academic integrity, said the problem started with the state-run university system, where politically appointed bureaucrats have little expertise in the fields they oversee. Because competition for grants, housing perks and career advancement is so intense, officials base their decisions on the number of papers published.

“Even fake papers count because nobody actually reads them,” said Mr. Fang, who is more widely known by his pen name, Fang Zhouzi, and whose Web site, New Threads, has exposed more than 900 instances of fakery, some involving university presidents and nationally lionized researchers.

When plagiarism is exposed, colleagues and school leaders often close ranks around the accused. Mr. Fang said this was partly because preserving relationships trumped protecting the reputation of the institution. But the other reason, he said, is more sobering: Few academics are clean enough to point a finger at others. One result is that plagiarizers often go unpunished, which only encourages more of it, said Zeng Guoping, director of the Institute of Science Technology and Society at Tsinghua University in Beijing, which helped run the survey of 6,000 academics.

He cited the case of Chen Jin, a computer scientist who was once celebrated for having invented a sophisticated microprocessor but who, it turned out, had taken a chip made by Motorola, scratched out its name, and claimed it as his own. After Mr. Chen was showered with government largess and accolades, the exposure in 2006 was an embarrassment for the scientific establishment that backed him.

But even though Mr. Chen lost his university post, he was never prosecuted. “When people see the accused still driving their flashy cars, it sends the wrong message,” Mr. Zeng said.

The problem is not confined to the realm of science. In fact many educators say the culture of cheating takes root in high school, where the competition for slots in the country’s best colleges is unrelenting and high marks on standardized tests are the most important criterion for admission. Ghost-written essays and test questions can be bought. So, too, can a “hired gun” test taker who will assume the student’s identity for the grueling two-day college entrance exam.

Then there are the gadgets — wristwatches and pens embedded with tiny cameras — that transmit signals to collaborators on the outside who then relay back the correct answers. Even if such products are illegal, students spent $150 million last year on Internet essays and high-tech subterfuge, a fivefold increase over 2007, according to a Wuhan University study, which identified 800 Web sites offering such illicit services.

Academic deceit is not limited to high school students. In July, Centenary College, a New Jersey institution with satellite branches in China and Taiwan, shuttered its business schools in Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei after finding rampant cheating among students. Although school administrators declined to discuss the nature of the misconduct, it was serious enough to withhold degrees from each of the programs’ 400 students. Given a chance to receive their M.B.A.’s by taking another exam, all but two declined, school officials said.

Nonchalant Cheating

Ask any Chinese student about academic skullduggery and the response is startlingly nonchalant. Arthur Lu, an engineering student who last spring graduated from Tsinghua University, considered a plum of the country’s college system, said it was common for students to swap test answers or plagiarize essays from one another. “Perhaps it’s a cultural difference but there is nothing bad or embarrassing about it,” said Mr. Lu, who started this semester on a master’s degree at Stanford University. “It’s not that students can’t do the work. They just see it as a way of saving time.”

The Chinese government has vowed to address the problem. Editorials in the state-run press frequently condemn plagiarism and last month, Liu Yandong, a powerful Politburo member who oversees Chinese publications, vowed to close some of the 5,000 academic journals whose sole existence, many scholars say, is to provide an outlet for doctoral students and professors eager to inflate their publishing credentials.

Fang Shimin and another crusading journalist, Fang Xuanchang, have heard the vows and threats before. In 2004 and again in 2006, the Ministry of Education announced antifraud campaigns but the two bodies they established to tackle the problem have yet to mete out any punishments.

In recent years, both journalists have taken on Xiao Chuanguo, a urologist who invented a surgical procedure aimed at restoring bladder function in children with spina bifida, a congenital deformation of the spinal column that can lead to incontinence, and when untreated, kidney failure and death.

In a series of investigative articles and blog postings, the two men uncovered discrepancies in Dr. Xiao’s Web site, including claims that he had published 26 articles in English-language journals (they could only find four) and that he had won an achievement award from the American Urological Association (the award was for an essay he wrote).

But even more troubling, they said, were assertions that his surgery had an 85 percent success rate. Of more than 100 patients interviewed, they said none reported having been cured of incontinence, with nearly 40 percent saying their health had worsened after the procedure, which involved rerouting a leg nerve to the bladder. (In early trials, doctors in the United States who have done the surgery have found the results to be far more promising.)

Wherever the truth may have been, Dr. Xiao was incensed. He filed a string of libel suits against Fang Shimin and told anyone who would listen that revenge would be his.

This summer both men were brutally attacked on the street in Beijing — Fang Xuanchang by thugs with an iron bar and Fang Shimin by two men wielding pepper spray and a hammer.

When the police arrested Dr. Xiao on Sept. 21, he quickly confessed to hiring the men to carry out the attack, according to the police report. His reason, he said, was vengeance for the revelations he blames for blocking his appointment to the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Despite his confession, Dr. Xiao’s employer, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, appeared unwilling to take any action against him. In the statement they released, administrators said they were shocked by news of his arrest but said they would await the outcome of judicial procedures before severing their ties to him.

Li Bibo and Zhang Jing contributed research.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 7, 2010

An earlier version of this article incorrectly named a member of the Politburo. She is Liu Yandong, not Liu Dongdong. An earlier version of this article also gave an incorrect name for a school where Xiao Chuanguo's appointment was blocked. Dr Xiao was blocked from an appointment to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, not the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.