Greetings Blog! I haven't seen you in years, in fact, since I was trudging through the MAT program at University of Alaska Southeast and was writing under the duress and coercion of assigned tasks.  For the last 6 years I have worked as a substitute in the public school system, and have enjoyed the flexible schedule such an occupation has afforded me.

I have not been a writer these long years, though I have studied voraciously. Upon completing my degree in English at Eastern Oregon University (2005ish), I could only recognize the content of my writing as another pained and angry voice to add to an already cacophonous world of woe.  In short, I refused to write (besides mandated assignments) until I could proclaim a message of redemption, rather than mere lamentation.  Though I knew Christ was the key to this development, I had not been able to state with any degree of confidence that such a transition had occurred, until now.  Through Christ's redemptive work in my life, though I face you as an overtly flawed human being, I can confidently assert that the Gospel has changed my heart and mind, reprioritized my life, and given me a zeal and sense of adventure that I have longed for since my earliest memories.  Where I stand now, I can tell you truly, whether through exultation or lament, silliness or just plain vanity, redemption is a part of my story.

That being said, here is my letter to "anyone who cares" concerning our recent decision to homeschool for the 2014/2015 school year. 

April 7, 2014

            To anyone who cares:

            The reasons we believe our daughter can acquire a better education at home are myriad, but brevity is a virtue.  While we have always enjoyed the content of public school curriculum as a springboard for important and lively conversation and debate at home, our conscientiousness toward ethics and a literal interpretation of the word "education" simply cannot tolerate the cavalier attitude being expressed by teachers in the classrooms of the Stikine Middle School. 

            When Mr. Brooks reached for the nearest tabloid and presented it to his students as "history", he drew a line in the sand between this family and his school.  The website, Explainingtheholacaust.org, presented Christians as the leading cause of the holocaust, the primary enemies of the Jews, and noted the New Testament as a book which people who had been misled into believing Jesus is the Son of God, used to persecute Jews.  Upon perusal of the page this very morning, we discovered that all of these articles are now missing from the site.  Not so much as a disclaimer even exists.  We are encouraged by this fact; we hope the missing pages are a direct result of outrage against sensationalism being taught as fact.  Nevertheless, we are disappointed that our child's teacher found the material worthy in the first place.  When we passed on an article to Mr. Brooks which gave a thorough explanation of Jews in the New Testament, he did not find there to be any reason to seek further discourse with us on the matter.  Only after I withdrew my daughter from SBA testing did he send us an email that invited us to come to his classroom if we wanted to converse.  As is often the case, professionalism is put on as a defense, as if wearing a tie is somehow a public service. 

            Where was professionalism when my daughter was being taught the latest, skankiest dance moves in PE, but despite having paid her sports fee was kicked off the volleyball team 2 years in a row for daring to try to play both volleyball and softball because one sport didn't end before the other began? When the state pays thousands of dollars every year for her to be a student at their school, shouldn't there be a little more consideration toward her range of opportunities?  What about Brooks' lessons on the American Revolution and the 2nd amendment suggesting that our founding fathers didn't want American citizens to bear arms any more powerful than a musket? Outrageous.  Where is professionalism when evolution is taught as scientific fact, despite one observable shard of proof? When asked which other theories were relevant to the beginnings of our world, my daughter was told with snarky smugness to , "go take a religion class."

             Just because Atheism makes less sense than any other religion in existence, does not mean it is not a religion.  They have their beginnings story, their local flood stories, their prophets (Darwin among them), and their self imposed legalities (aka pseudo-professionalism).  They even have a doctrine of the afterlife, which sounds something like: there is no afterlife, so get what you can now, in any kind of tooth & claw manner you deem reasonable according to  your own standards.  This cruel and nonsensical mindset has contributed to a vast hopelessness which thoroughly defines our anti-depressant addicted culture.  Our postmodernist mindset has established a paradigm where truth is subjective.  Moral relativism has always existed, but is now established as the pervasive thought pattern of today's world.  Like every other religion in the world, atheism is Man's Will & Self Righteousness exerting dominance over God's Will & Pure Righteousness.   The solution? The solution hasn't changed since the beginning.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  He is Jesus Christ, the God of the Bible, the One who made you, and the One who made me.  Repentance is the simple solution if you have been living in rebellion to The Truth.  With the conflict as it stands between our family and the school, we could no more reenter their education system than we could bow to the statue of Nebuchadnezzar.  The school would like us to believe that we are damning our children to certain failure in life by pulling out of their supposedly competent care.  We consider this notion no more than the possibility of any other hardship or fiery furnace.  So be it.  "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

            While brevity is indeed a virtue, like many other virtues, it is not one that  we have necessarily mastered.  Thank you for your time,

                                    Ron, Jamie, Sami, Dylan