Cultured Media

A California appeals court ruled that parents must be certified teachers in order to home school their children. The decision has sent a chill through the nation’s growing home schooling community. We’ll look at trends in home schooling and new attempts to regulate it.

The interview is with:

• Mike Donnelly, staff attorney, Home School Legal Defense Association
• Rob Reich, associate professor of political science and ethics in society, Stanford University
• Gretchen Roe, home schooling parent for the past 14 years; part-time home schooling community liaison for Calvert School

Listen on the Diane Rehm Show

Being the victim of a bully at school is often dismissed as just a part of growing up, but many say it can leave lasting emotional scars. A survivor of peer abuse offers advice for parents, teachers and children on coping with and putting an end to the abusive practice. Her main point is not to tell your children to take an adult route and “just ignore it.” She also stresses that we should find out why someone is bullying and deal with the problem and not the symptom.

Listen to Jodee Blanco on Diane Rehm

Ben Stein is perhaps best known for his role as the boring teacher in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and his stint as host of the award-winning game show “Win Ben Stein’s Money.” But Stein’s experience extends far beyond the entertainment world. As a former speech writer for Presidents Ford and Nixon, a lawyer, a financial expert, and author of over a dozen books, Ben Stein spoke recently at the Commonwealth Club of California about the financial, political and social challenges he sees facing the world today.? He quotes Martin Luther King, tells about the death of his parents, and references “America’s Most Smartest Model,” a VH1 comedy special to determine how much models know.

Listen to How not to ruin your life, Word for Word from American Public Media

In 2005 an American nun was murdered in the Amazonian rain forest in Brazil. For forty years she worked on behalf of the poor, the landless, and the forest. The story of the life and death of Sister Dorothy Stang as told by Binka Le Breton.

Listen to Binka Le Breton tell the story of Sister Dorothy Stang on the Diane Rehm Show

One of the few African-American, female billionaires describes how to empower women all over the world and her life as a musician, entrepreneur, advocate for the arts, and philanthropist. I’m going to guess that I don’t agree with her politically (and how can someone who has made money with BET advocate for women not being exploited?) but I am glad that she advocates for women’s education in third world countries. Did you know that 75% of women in the world are illiterate?

Listen to interview with Sheila Johnson

Jim Wallis, the founder of Sojourners magazine and author of “The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America,” participates in a panel discussion entitled “Choosing a President: What do Evangelicals Want?” The panelists include Rev. Cheryl Sanders, Rev. Joel Hunter, Bishop Harry Jackson, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, Richard Cizik, and Lynne Hybels.? The panel is moderated by Steve Waldman and David Kuo of Belief.net and takes place at George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Watch at this panel discussion, Choosing a President: What do Evangelicals Want, at BookTV

Tens of millions of Americans are obese. And each year more and more Americans join the ranks of the overweight. A leading health economist explains how advances in technology and changes in the way we work contribute to our expanding waistlines. An interesting academic/economic approach to getting fat. Finkelsteins says that Americans use less energy and therefore are more productive and financially better off even though they are obese.

Eric Finkelstein: “The Fattening of America”

I recently browsed though the book, The Best Old Movies For Families: A Guide to Watching Together. Boston Globe film critic explains how to introduce classic films like Bringing Up Baby and North by Northwest to younger viewers without having them looking for the remote. Burr breaks his titles down according to age group, creating the best movie guide we know for future filmistas. My local library recommended this book back in October 2007. I enjoyed browsing through this book and might use it in the distant future. My wife watched over three-fourths of the movies listed during her childhood. You might be offended by some language and crass/ironic humor of this book if you are the home-schooling Christian subculture. This book is more for the family that wants to watch less Barney and more Marx Brothers, than it is for someone wanting to totally shelter their children from the evils of the world. And by old movies, Burr means 1970.

As you know, I support listening to opposing viewpoints. I offer the following discussion as part of that ethic.

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I strongly believe that an embryo does not have more rights than a women, and that an embryo is not an independent life at that point [14 weeks pregnant].” - Susan Wicklund

On today’s show Diane Rehm interviewed a doctor that performs abortions on her show. The doctor’s point of view was that abortions would be performed no matter what–whether the procedure was legal or illegal. As an example, she told the story of her grandmother (a non-medical person) killing a friend while trying to perform an abortion more than fifty years ago.

She states that if women cannot decide when to bear children, then she no longer has control over her own education, her financial situation, emotional and physical health. She believes that pro-life advocates want to force all Americans to have sex only to procreate and that having sex out of wedlock should not be shameful.

Halfway though the show, Diane talked to Lori Campbell who wrote an article for Vogue magazine about her own partial birth abortion. The article was called “Private Lives” and is on page 66 of the January 2008 volume. The subtitle is “When Lori Campbell’s second pregnancy
developed complications, she was faced with a painful decision. But she was thankful it was hers to make.”

The author recounts how her water broke at 22 weeks pregnant. She and her husband were devastated when the doctors told them there wasn’t much chance for the baby to survive if it were born at this point. They insisted the best course of action for her would be to terminate the pregnancy.

After thinking it over, while Mrs. Campbell said she wished for the child to live, she felt the most “humane” thing to do was to take the option of terminating the pregnancy via partial-birth abortion, since the chance of the child living was slim. She decides to make the decision to abort the child. She justifies her decision by saying she is saving the baby from needless suffering if it is only going to die anyway.

What surprised me was in the interview on the show, she has no problem using the word “child.” I have always thought for most of my life that abortion was framed from perspective on whether you thought that a fetus has a life and soul. I’m assuming by her phrasing that Mrs. Campbell does believe that her child had a life. She believed that euthanizing her child was the most humane thing to do. She believed that it was the path of least suffering for her unborn child and her and her family.

When did the path of least suffering begin to justify euthanasia?

Listen on the Diane Rehm Show to an interview with Susan Wicklund

Jim Lehrer hosts By the People: Citizenship in the 21st Century, a documentary to air on PBS this month, featuring some of America’s most talented and influential leaders debating the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The one-hour special will show highlights of the dialogues in Democracy project that By the People is undertaking in partnership with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. A major focus of the broadcast is the By the People convocation that took place in Williamsburg, Virginia, from November 8 through 11, with the goal of creating thoughts for a new Declaration of Citizenship in the 21st Century.

The convocation brought together a diverse group of approximately 50 influential Americans, reflecting diverse perspectives. Among the participants were: Nathan Baxter, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania;David Davenport, former president of Pepperdine University; Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General; Leo Melamed, Chairman Emeritus, Chicago Mercantile Exchange; Robert Moses, founder of The Algebra Project; Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist; and Indianapolis 500 driver Janet Guthrie.

Watch over an hour’s worth of the documentary at By The People: A National Conversation about America in the World.