Tom Cruise’s Sis Takes Care of Kids

With the whirlwind year Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had in 2007 (along with the overwhelming press attention to their daughter Suri) you gotta wonder where the “Mission: Impossible” actor’s other children have been hanging out.

And it turns out that Tom’s sister Cass has been playing parent to Isabella and Connor ever since he left for Germany to film Valkyrie. Now that he’s finished with it, they’re just waiting for their $35 million home to be renovated before reuniting.

Reportedly, Cass has been homeschooling the Cruise kids for awhile now, as she lived with Tom and Katie in their Beverly Hills home until recently, when she got her own house.

From: http://www.celebrity-gossip.net/celebrities/hollywood/tom-cruises-sis-takes-care-of-kids-202803/

It would be great if some emails came from New Zealand.

—–Original Message—–
From: Chris Klicka
Sent: Friday, 11 January 2008 1:00 p.m.
Subject: We need an email from you for Romania ASAP

Urgent Email needed for Romanian Homeschoolers!

January 10, 2008

Dear Homeschool Leaders:

As you know, we have been working with Gabriel Curcubet, president of the Romanian Home Schooling Association, in order to convince the Romanian government to specifically recognize and legalize homeschooling.
The last email elert to parliament helped the Ministry of Education put homeschooling starting at 5th grade into the Educational Law project. They are now calling for a public debate. We must continue to fight for home schooling beginning from grade K.

The project will be in public debate for one month. Around the middle of January will be submitted to the Parliament, and the two educational committees.

Gabriel has been active in talking with members of the Romanian Parliament, and has personally contacted 5 key members who would like more information on homeschooling in order to help pass a law for all grades.

These five members of Parliament, listed below, need to hear from you by January 17.

Please include in your letter 4 things:

1. The name of your homeschool organization and how many homeschoolers you represent (estimated number in your state).

2. Academic achievement of homeschooling in your state or country (anecdotal or statical)

3. The benefits of homeschooling to the good of the state or country.

4. Affordability to the family and the savings to the government.

Please send a copy of your email to each person listed below:

Senator Irinel Popescu, irinel.popescu@icfundeni.ro
President of the Educational Committee of the Senate who wants more information on homeschooling.

Senator Radu Tarle, radut@rdslink.ro
He is not a member of the Educational Committee, but he is one of the key parliament members who is interested in home schooling—he also serves in the European Parliament.

Senator Gheorghe David, gheorghedavid@yahoo.com
He has talked to the media about homeschooling. He also committed himself to help legalize home schooling, after
the mass e-mail alerts we did to parliament a few months ago.

Deputy Petru Andea, petru.andea@cdep.ro
One of the two vice presidents of the Educational Committee, he helped the Romanian Home Schooling Association meet the former Undersecretary of State Chiran.

Deputy Alecsandru Stiuca, alstiuca@gmail.com
Requested more information about home schooling in order to help.

Gabriel Curcubet, president of the Romanian Home Schooling Association, curcubetg@odorhei.astral.ro

Thank you for taking the time to write these Members about homeschooling achievement. You will help homeschooling get legalized in Romania!

We are planning on doing one more general elert later to get mass emails to all the parliament.

Sincerely,

Chris Klicka

Homeschool family reaches England
Fled native land because of attempt by mayor to take custody of children

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59596

Posted: January 9, 2008

By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com

A German family has completed its flight to Great Britain after the mayor of their hometown filed a court action to give custody of the children to the state because the parents have been homeschooling, according to officials at Netzwerk-Bildungsfreiheit, an advocacy organization addressing such issues.

Officials there said Klaus and Kathrin Landahl and their five children, including four of school age, "are in safety in England. They reached Dover on Saturday midnight."

However, officials said the court has not issued a final ruling in the case brought by the mayor of Altensteig, a city with a sister-city promotional relationship with the city of Butte, Mont.

Chief Executive Paul Babb of Butte told WND that he had not been aware of such controversies, and he would have to solicit input from members of the community before determining whether "this would impact this relationship."

He said he believes "it’s the parents’ right to school their children they way they see fit."

Netszerk-Bildungsfreiheit said the situation with the Landahl family is just one of many such attacks on German homeschoolers, which appear to be coming more frequently, and with more intensity.

Just this week, a message was sent from a Bavarian man who identified himself as "Mathew."

"This morning we received a call from the German ministry of education. Tomorrow (Wednesday) morning they will send the police to our home and take Josia (6), Lou Ann (10) and Aileen (13) by force, to the public school," the worried father wrote.

Continue reading →

http://www.hslda.org/hs/international/Germany/200801071.asp

January 7, 2008

Persecuted Homeschool Family to Leave Germany

The Neubronners, a German homeschooling family in Bremen, Germany, have been fighting for several years to homeschool their children. When the government refused to allow them to homeschool, they sued. In response, they have been harshly persecuted by the local authorities.

The Neubronners have suffered intense pressure in the form of huge, coercive fines (nearing $10,000), the threat of criminal prosecution and the possibility of losing custody of their children, methods authorities have employed to persecute other homeschooling families like the Brausse and Busekros families. The Neubronners have become the latest victim of Germany’s harsh and repressive policy towards families who homeschool.

Faced with these harsh measures, the Neubronners have decided that the risk to their family is too great. The family will leave Germany to protect their children from the threat of being taken away, and so that they can continue to homeschool. Mrs. Neubronner will maintain her residency in Germany, so that the lawsuit can continue and their publishing business can go on. The family hopes that they will win their legal battle and be able to return to their homeland. The Neubronners are making a stand not only for themselves, but for all homeschoolers in Germany.

Germany’s policy is in stark contrast to all other democratic and free societies that embrace homeschooling and recognize that parents have the primary responsibility and inalienable right to direct the upbringing and education of their children. It is tragic that German families must choose between living in their homeland and homeschooling their children.

Home School Legal Defense Association, in partnership with ADF and other organizations, continues to support legal, political and humanitarian efforts to change this draconian policy toward homeschoolers. Such behavior should not be tolerated by the rest of the free world. We call on governments and private citizens to take action to tell Germany that such policies are an embarrassment to them and must be changed.

Please join us in praying for and encouraging families like the Neubronners as they fight for homeschooling freedom in Germany.

http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Dec272007/dheducation2007122643217.asp

The future of education

Arvind Gupta

Schools, even with good infrastructure, qualified teachers and high charging fees fail miserably in helping children make sense of the world. All the chalk-and-talk method, rote learning dulls the mind and does not help critical thinking so essential for living.

A recent survey conducted by Educational Initiatives – a prestigious testing-house in the elite, English medium schools in our major metros of New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai revealed some shocking results. The students were from class 4, 6 and 8 and the sample size was reasonably large – 32,000 students. The children were administered a test to evaluate their understanding of mathematics, science and English.

The test papers consisted of “intelligent” questions. Some of the questions were application orientated and they tested the child’s ability not just to reproduce the text-book answer but to apply it in a real situation. The children were able to answer standard text-book questions based on recall. But if the question varied even slightly from the text-book, and involved an element of thinking then the children were in a fix. The evaluators wanted to give a practical test too, but the impossibility of administering a “practical exam” to thousands of children ruled out its possibility.

For instance, an open umbrella was shown and the children were asked the function of the thin metal rods in the umbrella? Which organ system in the human body did the thin metal ribs represent – muscular, skeletal, respiratory or the digestive system.

Another clever question was: What is the chemical formula of pure steam? There were four choices: CO, H2O, O2.
Pure Steam does not have a chemical formula.

The survey revealed that schools – even with good infrastructure, qualified teachers and high charging fees failed miserably in helping children make sense of the world. All the chalk-and-talk method, rote learning dulls the mind and does not help critical thinking so essential for living.

Continue reading →