I heartily AGREE with this!

For once, I agree with the ACLU.  Why?  They've filed a suit against the state of Michigan - over kids not being able to read at grade level, as the state is charged with ensuring.   

To this, I say a hearty BRAVO! and HUZZAH!  I run into kids at church, that are in 4th grade, that cannot read at a 2nd grade level.  Much of this, however, I blame on the PARENTS.  People don't read to their kids, or teach them anything before they go off to school, and the teachers are put upon to teach the kids even basic things like 'how to squeeze a bottle of glue so the glue will come out" or to hold scissors, or hold a crayon.  

Our oldest's favorite number is 7.   Why does she say it is? Because she had trouble recognizing it when she was little, before school, and so we made that her favorite number.  

I really don't get the parents that just hand their kid a Nintendo, Wii, an iPhone, or plop them in front of the television, and expect these kids to actually accomplish much of anything.  

I often get accused of "lazy parenting" because I am a Free-Range parent - meaning, the kids actually have freedom to do stuff, their days are not laid out by me, I don't hover over them - as in doing everything for them.  Some people think that Free-range parenting is just totally hands-off, but it's not.  It's more of letting kids actually DO stuff, instead of doing everything for them.  How will they learn if not actually doing something for themselves?   Lenore Skenazy, over at http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/ Free Range Kids
has this blurb along the side of the blog: 
Do you ever...let your kid ride a bike to the library? Walk to school? Make dinner? Or are you thinking about it? If so, you are raising a Free-Range Kid! Free-Rangers believe in helmets, car seats, seat belts — safety! We just do NOT believe that every time school age kids go outside, they need a security detail. 

I agree with this. 

How many of you remember summer days, where you went outside after breakfast, and you didn't show up again till it was time for dinner? Or rode your bike all over the place, going to town, to the little store that sold candy cheap, and eating it all on the way home? 

Now, parents are the #1 teachers of their children - and too many parents just don't bother to teach the kids anything.  

Oh - THAT reminds me, I was at the nail salon at our local Wal de Mart on Saturday - a woman was there getting fake nails put on - and she was jabbering away on her phone, her kids were fighting behind her, and whining for a good 30 minutes.  Then they noticed the nail art samples (long fake nails glued to a board).  They started picking off the nails.  Mom noticed nothing, and the owner of the salon, they kept handing him the nails they had picked off.  I lowered my voice, put my hands around my mouth, and said loudly "You stop picking those off there, right now!".  Kids immediately stopped, mom just looked at them and said "don't do that" and went back to talking on the phone, ignoring her kids again.  The owner said thanks to me later for stopping HER kids from tearing up his display.  

Anyway, the article I was reading, about the ACLU suing Michigan - http://www.aclumich.org/sites/default/files/RighttoReadComplaint(1).pdf">HERE
is the complaint that they filed, in case you'd like to read it.