If you are truly here to question the voluntaryists/ancaps' beliefs, then you should at least understand what those beliefs are. You obviously have very little understanding of voluntaryism and simply hold it to your own worldview with little to no logical consistency. I suggest you youtube the voluntaryist vs socialist debate on youtube if you are truly trying to question/understand the philosophy. However, if you are just here to troll, you are wasting your time. Just saying someone's beliefs are wrong without any logical/reasonable proof is a waste of everyones time and close-minded. You will convince no one of your ideals, except those who wish to remain oblivious.

Thanks for posting though. It creates discussion and allows us to logically explain our points of view.

We certainly do need protection, to stop those who would harm innocents or their property. This aspect of what police do is a genuine service. The problem is that people are forced to pay for it, whether they want to or not, and not allowed to select alternatives. This reduces accountability.

If you find that the police are acting in a way you believe is immoral — if you believe they are not effective, or not efficient, you should have the right to select an alternative.

Personally, I would like to switch my funding to a police force focused strictly on stopping those who harm persons or property, rather than the enforcement of arbitrary regulations and victimless offences. If I were to choose to do this with my own money, however, they would threaten to send men with guns to take my home away, or otherwise harm me.

This is the behavior of a protection racket, not a legitimate organization.

The next night, Lewis appeared in the lead role of an adaptation of his novel It Can't Happen Here. After the performance, an usher handed Lewis a note from a member of the audience. There was the note he had written the night before: "Why can't you find a hobby that doesn't annoy other people?"

Otherwise, quoted without comment:

Social Democrat on Sun, 6th Jun 2010 2:06 pm

"Come-on…If your going to write, be a good wordsmith…"

Also, you edited the piece, making it read like one of those old communist pamphlets… Very dry reading… I prefer the Sentinel's version…

You are correct to include the excluded the "snitches" observation… I laud you for that…Not to mention you excercising your free speech.

For your offending the community-at-large, you do contribute to the marketplace of ideas…For that I thank you.

—SD

When the act first came to the front, the state moved to a state standard testing system that was both neutral to both rural and urban parts of the state. Understand that some folks in the ‘bush’ don’t know what a computer is so making a math problem ‘John has a computer and spends 2 hours a day on it. He spends 3 days a week on it. How many hours does John use the computer in a week?’, wouldn’t make sense to someone who hasn’t ever seen a computer. The first test run through of tenth graders state wide lead to a 40 percent success rate, the rural schools did better then urban schools on a per student basis.

What did you think the state’s board of education do with these standards? Teach to them? No, instead they dumbed it down. The next year the next group of tenth graders scored 60 percent. Was this good enough? No, we need to do better, lets teach to these standards. Did it happen? No, the test was dumbed down again. The next year the next group of tenth graders were tested. Did you know that statewide 80 percent of them passed? Did the board of education keep these standards? No, of course not, they again dumbed the test down, though this time they caught flack from parents. The next round of test takers scored 90 percent as a whole, and that’s where the standards remain today.

I’m a home schooling parent, my idea of an educated child is much less then most people. It is my idea that once a child can read, write, and do simple math, that he ought to be placed in charge of his own education, he ought to be allowed to pursue what he chooses to pursue, or even to choose not to pursue anything further, because that is a choice as well.

I have taught myself more then any teacher can have claimed to teach me. My education, partly, has come due to market demands. As a electronics salesman, I taught myself more about percentages then any teacher taught me about the subject. Managing money I self taught as well as the market need arose, if you don’t have any money left, you’ll not be able to buy things.

The fact that children are enslaved in indoctrination camps for the better part of 10 years is horrible. Learning facts that aren’t true, such as Columbus discovered the America’s, and then later finding out, no, he didn’t, Lief Erikson did. Learning that the founding fathers were good people, nevermind that Samuel Adams didn’t believe in property rights as much as most did since he destroyed the tea during the Boston Tea party. Learning phonics instead of the older method of sight reading, incidentally, had I know it was so hard to teach kids phonics, I’d probably started with sight reading instead. I could cite more examples of government school problems, but they have enough problems right now.

Just yesterday I heard a group of teachers talking about how this teacher received a second pinkslip and most likely wouldn’t be returning next fall and how all the teachers with seniority were staffing the best schools leaving the worse schools to the less senior teachers. Their concerns on how they would see increases in their class sizes this year. All of this because the group of people who represent them, namely the NEA has raised their pay rate to beyond the means that the people are willing to pay. I can teach my son on less then $3K a year, but they spend $15K to teach other kids the same thing I’m teaching my son.

It is crazy to me to see a starting teacher getting $29K the first year, and $80K the twentieth year for doing the same exact job, you’d almost never see this in the private sector. They reward teachers to stay in the job, no matter the productivity that they do. If you fail to move up you are stuck at the same rate of pay. It is the incentive of more pay to move up that drives employees to better themselves or their work.

The reason you won’t hear a lot about what we would do different is due partly in that most of us don’t want the job of educating our kids, after all we have to work long hours to just keep food on the table and roof over our heads, educating our children is hard work too.

If I was in charge of a private school, and I mostly am as a home-school parent, I’d establish employee standard review. Every month my staff would be appraised based upon their productivity. That is how many students passed the school’s monthly exams. The staff would receive a base pay, and would receive a bonus to their pay, an amount to be paid per child who passed and penalized for each child who didn’t pass. Those who consistently failed to have passing students would be asked to leave or be required to meet some goals that would help them to be better educators on their own dime.

I’d also allow staff to defend themselves against students who were just cruising through school, such students wouldn’t be allowed at my private school, but then again I’d put the cost of education on the student rather then a third party so that only those who wanted to learn would be in my school in the first place. Staff would be able to defend themselves though keeping a record of their attempts to educate a child. My son is difficult to teach sometimes, he may have ADD, as I was or another learning difficultly as my wife has, and I want those who like to educate to educate.

My school would be formed around what works, such as educators specializing in areas, rather then being general educators. Allowing educators to develop their own curriculum, and assisting in establishing testing standards. I’d also involve parents more, or at least give them the option, through the use of technologies that already exist in the marketplace. I’d get rid of mandatory homework, instead making it optional, of course those who needed it would do it since they are after all paying for it, those who didn’t need it wouldn’t have to. I’d also use technology to decrease the amount of time educators spend outside of the classroom. Educating should be done in the classroom and you shouldn’t have to take your job home with you.

Thanks for reading and posting here.

"Interesting you had to call the city police to protect you from middle schoolers and irate parants…Beware of the Soccer Moms!"

I think Sam did the absolute best thing. Although legally he would have been justified in using force to get his property back (both morally and under state law – see http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/LXII/627… the problem exists that inherently what people like Sam are doing make them targets for retribution from the government.

Sam also is very correct about the similarities between prisons and schools. The design and methods of administration are all about control.

Again, thanks for being here.

- Brad

Since words are so silly, can you tell me what I was protesting against?

I was there engaging in outreach to share the ideas of Free Keene and School Sucks Project with the kids. To have them question the things they have been told by the school.

As for the Snitch comment, I was happy to hear it at first, but later I was overcome with sadness. I realized small children being forced into an environment where they respond the same way prisoners, is because they are being treated similarly in both environments. Nothing says quality education quite like that.

If you put the bottle down, you may realize I called police because of people like you stretching the truth to fit your wold view. I could have caught the kid, taken back my sign, and left him alone. No telling how the bureaucrats would exaggerate that, so I let the cops handle it.

Now here's a question, seeing as how this happened in front of the teachers and administrators, on school property, was he disciplined for it? What if he did that to teachers protesting too small of a pay raise?

I didn't put my views in the Sentinel, the Sentinel did (or at least my comments that supported their viewpoint)

Take a look at the results, not a single comment on their story so far. While here there are over 20 comments, discussing the various issues addressed in the story. Which one was more effective? Which one caused people to examine their own beliefs and share them with others? Which one presented a one sided view?

I do like the fact you and yours were called "snitches" by 40 students, a rich fact left out in the Sentinel piece.

Interesting you had to call the city police to protect you from middle schoolers and irate parants…Beware of the Soccer Moms!

If you want to put your views in the Sentinel, please consider their Community Voices column option, but please, make it well-written.

—-Social Democrat