NY Times: We're Not Biased...Wait, Yes We Are!

A correction that appeared in today's New York Times offers a hilarious example of their bias (hat tip: Best of the Web):

An article on Tuesday about President Bush’s defense of American policy in the fighting between Israel and Lebanon incorrectly described the planning that led to Mr. Bush’s meetings on Monday at the Pentagon and the State Department. Mr. Bush’s schedule for the day was prepared weeks ahead as part of the annual presidential review meetings; it was not devised last week as part of a White House effort to seek political advantage on national security after Senator Joseph I. Lieberman’s loss in Connecticut’s Democratic primary and news of a disrupted terrorist plot in Britain.

At least they had the courage to come clean.

Modesty and Purity

The other day I was in the grocery store with my youngest daughter (who is 9). As we passed by the magazines she asked me a question that totally floored me: "Don't you think people have better things to do than look at each others' body parts?"

With her simple question, she had hit upon one of the things that is so wrong with our society today: we are a sexualized culture that no longer sees modesty (or purity, for that matter) as something to be valued.

I wish I could take credit for a really snappy comeback to her question but I was caught completely off guard and didn't know what to say.

Her question, however, got me thinking onto the subject of modesty.

As a father of two girls, I want my daughters to grow up understanding the importance of dressing modestly. But I also want them to understand that it's about a whole lot more than not showing off their bodies. Modesty is part of living a life in pursuit of purity. Too often we don't frame a discussion about modesty this way. Instead, we define modesty as adhering to a particular style of dress and setting up rules to follow in how we are to appear in public. It's important, however, that our daughers understand that dressing modestly is part of keeping themselves and others pure.

As Joshua Harris says so well in his incredible book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, (Dads - do yourself a favor and read this book with your teenagers) purity is a direction, not a destination. Rather than drawing a line in the sand and say we're not going to cross it but moving as close to the line as possible is not pursuing purity. Pursuing purity demands that we flee from temptation (even those magazines in the store that we shouldn't be looking at). Teaching our kids this lesson can be one of the greatest legacies we can leave as Dads.

9/11 Blog Memorial

Danny Carlton of JackLewis.net has created a 9/11 blog memorial (you can see it in the sidebar) that will display the names and brief biographies of the victims of 9/11. It's one more way that bloggers can help us all remember the high cost of 9/11 and why we fight this war on terror.

Anti-War Left Completes Takeover of Democratic Party

Democratic leaders (including senior members of every congressional committee on military, intelligence and international affairs) have sent a letter to President Bush urging a complete withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

The Anti-War Left has completed its takeover of the Democratic Party. By making the War on Terror the central issue of the upcoming election, they are only reinforcing their image as a party that cannot be trusted to keep America safe.

Many Americans realize that this war is going to be a long war. It's better for us to fight this war patiently and deliberately rather than sit back and wait to be attacked again.

Until Democrats accept the fact that we are at war and that they need to come up with a realistic strategy for winning instead of just cutting and running, they can expect to lose more elections. Perhaps getting soundly beaten at the polls a couple of times will help them see the error of their ways. But I wouldn't count on it.

Surfin' the Blogroll

Here are a few links that caught my eye this weekend while checking out the blogs on my blogrolls:

Doug posted an interesting item on the unreported consequences of abortion. Would abortion advocates be so enthusiastic if they paid attention to what the real cost of the procedure is on lives of women?

Here's an interesting twist on Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

Intelligent Design blogging: check out newCreationism.org's Designwatch Blog.

Tim Ellsworth reports on the growing anti-spanking movement. I spanked my kids when they were younger and they've turned out just fine. I've met too many parents who didn't spank their kids (or discipline them in general) to believe that the occasional spanking is wrong.

I haven't spent any time studying the issue of cessation of spiritual gifts. It's an interesting debate and one that invokes strong feelings on both sides. However, Ilona from Intellectuelle dove in and sums up her post with a very good point:

In the end it doesn't matter what we'd rather have or rather do in God's
Kingdom, but giving ourselves to what The Lord has for us. He is simply the only
one who sees the whole picture, and I think in many of our debates we tend to
forget that. Perhaps this is an emotional appeal, when a reasoned debate is
desired, but there have been reams of reasoned debates when sometimes what is
needed is true desire to reconcile and keep the fellowship of the faith.
Sometimes, I myself have been slow to see that, and mistook it for compromise.
But I think of how often Paul used the word, "beseech" and how highly he
recommended keeping peace and unity in our common faith, and I feel this is what
is called for when looking at these contested scriptures. I feel Adrian Warnock
was so successful in doing that in his post. And I'm glad it is being discussed,
but there is whole segment of Christians who have been hurt by the deployment of
some of the arguments. Because not everyone has been so even handed and kind.
And so it gets back to that.... what does it matter if I speak in the tongues of
angels if I don't show love?

The Doctrines of Men

Thirsty Theologian has a great post on an issue my fellow Two or Three.net contributor Aaron has commented on previously: the Southern Baptist Convention's unbiblical prohibition of alcohol use by its membership. (Hat tip: Evangelical Outpost)

The argument that this resolution is a clear violation of Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone is authority over the life of a Christian) is compelling. In fact, I'm not sure which is worse: the fact that the SBC would sink to such depths of legalism or that the passage cited to justify the resolution was ripped totally out of context and twisted to justify the convention's actions.
This is, of course, nothing new for the SBC or other churches, for that matter. Different groups have longed try to use Scripture to justify positions that are not directly addressed in God's word. These teachings are what Jesus referred to as the "doctrines of men".

When our attention becomes focused on issues of Christian liberty and practical applications of God's word (in which there can be legitimate disagreement) rather than Scripture itself, Christians run the risk of becoming irrelevant and losing our influence in a world that so desperately needs to hear the truth.

Vacationing in Lebanon?

Rich Galen has a great column today on the 25,000 or so Americans who are stuck in Beirut and waiting for the U. S. Government to come rescue them.

One question: why are they there? Sierra Faith has some answers.

Honestly, would you want to spend your vacation in a war zone? Personally, I prefer Walt Disney World.

Never mind the fact that the State Department has had warnings posted for six months about the dangers of travelling to Lebanon.

Mike Gallagher's analysis of the situation is right on the mark:

Once more, we’re confronted with the ugly image of people shirking their personal responsibility and wanting to blame everyone else for their decisions. If you make the choice to take a holiday in a place like Beirut, it sure seems like there’s a possibility that you might not enjoy it when the terrorists get antsy. At the very least, you might want to hold your tongue and not complain, gripe and moan about your country when it comes and rescues you.

These people likely learned a thing or two from the reaction to flooded New Orleans. Sure, there were some people who couldn’t leave when Katrina was on its way. But let’s face it, there were many people who became victims because they made a choice to stay in New Orleans despite being warned to get out of town. Their bad decision became the government’s fault.

Just once, I’d like to see an American on TV express some appreciation for their country during times like these. What a joy it would have been to turn on the television and see an evacuee from Lebanon say something like, “Boy, was I ever dumb for deciding to take a vacation in Lebanon. But thanks to the United States, I’m now safely sitting in the Baltimore airport and am I ever grateful. Thanks to the brave men and women who helped rescue my family and me, and God bless America. It sure feels great to be home.”

No, that wasn’t what these people said. Not even close. Their sense of outrage and entitlement is slowly but surely becoming the American way. And it’s positively disgusting.

Not So "Disproportionate" After All

So much for the criticism that Israel's response to Hezbollah has been "disproportionate" (hat tip: Mark Levin):

Israel has been willing to give up the element of surprise in its battle against Hizballah to warn civilians that they should flee areas where the Air Force is planning to attack, an army official said on Thursday.

Israel has been accused of using disproportionate force in its response to Hizballah attacks on Israel, and in some cases, of deliberately targeting civilians.

For the last eight days, residents of northern Israeli communities, including Israel's third largest city, Haifa, have stayed in bomb shelters and security rooms as more than 1,600 Hizballah rockets have crashed into the country. Twenty-nine Israelis have been killed and hundreds more wounded.

Israel has launched massive air strikes on what it calls Hizballah targets, including weapons caches, trucks that may be used to transport weapons, and other infrastructure that may be of use to Hizballah. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said on Wednesday that more than 300 Lebanese civilians have been killed in the last eight days.

But Israel said it is going to great lengths to prevent civilian casualties by warning civilians of impending attacks.

"We've taken numerous actions telling civilians to leave, [even] losing the element of surprise trying to not injure civilians," said Army Capt. Doron Spielman.

"[Hizballah] is imbedded within densely populated areas. We're losing [part of our] military might [by dropping fliers]," said Spielman in a telephone interview. "We're not always able to drop fliers," he added.

The Israeli army has dropped fliers in many areas where it intends to bomb Hizballah targets, warning residents -- sometimes hours in advance -- that they should leave the area because it will soon be attacked, said Spielman.

The fact that Israel is willing to sacrifice the element of surprise is amazing. It's no secret that Hizbollah imbeds their personnel among civilians making it extremely difficult to separate the terrorists from the innocent bystanders. Perhaps critics of Israel's tactics will think twice and realize who are the real villians.

Developing Discernment

The other day my daughters were watching a movie on one of the kids' channels on TV. Based on what they had told me about the movie (which was all that they knew from looking it up online) it sounded like it would be okay. But after it was over and they came to tell us about it, we discovered that there were elements of the story that were not necessarily things we would want them to be exposed to. In fact, if we had known about it ahead of time we probably would have told them not to watch it.

However, I was not angry with them nor did I get angry with them. Instead, I used the opportunity to discuss with them the issue of discernment and being able to determine whether something was appropriate for them based on what was contained in the program. We discussed specific examples of other programs we have told them not to watch and why we found them objectionable.

Our goal is not to police everything they watch or read. Rather, it is to help them to develop discernment and to understand what worldviews are being represented in different programs. Often, we find that material that is theoretically targeted towards kids our age (they are 10 and 9) has content that is really more suitable for older children. We've had to work with them to help them understand that they need to be aware of the messages that are being relayed through media and be able to understand the agenda behind the entertainment.

Developing discernment in my kids has not simply been about telling them what is right or wrong. Nor has it been to say "this is okay" or "this is not okay". Often, we have to go beyond simple right and wrong and explain the reasons why we object to something. By explaining this to them we are helping them to make wiser decisions on their own. That's really the point of training a child in the way they will go: so that they can make wise decisions when they don't have Mom or Dad to make them for them.

Creating Memories

The other day my parents took us to the circus. I knew this was a fairly costly endeavor for them. We had a great evening out and our girls were captivated by the different acts. But as we were leaving my mother siad to them that they needed to be sure to bring their own children to the circus.

The point really wasn't so much about the circus itself as it was about creating memories. She was encouraging them when they had families of their own to be sure to create special memories for their own kids. That was very good advice.

Making memories does not always have to be an expensive endeavor, either. It can be the simple act of spending time with our kids doing something special. As parents, we need to remember that the time we have with oru kids is limited and truly precious. We need to be sure to give our kids our time and provide them with memories that will not only stay with them but have an impact on them the rest of their lives. This is part of the legacy we can leave as parents.

Hopefully my kids will grow up remembering their dad as someone who wanted to spend time with them, play with them, and even be somone who was always there ready to listen when they wanted to talk about whatever was on their minds.

If I've learned anything as a father it is this: I can never spend too much time with my kids.

Book Review: Help! Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper

Katherine DeBrecht has done it again. Following up on the wildly successful Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed, she brings a hilarious sequel in Help! Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper. Once again, DeBrecht takes aim at liberal elites and has them dead to rights in this amusing satire of celebrity worship and the cultural influnence that we allow them to have.
Jim Hummel again provides the illustrations for this book and his caricatures of the different celebrities are so good it's impossible not to guess who is being skewered.

The story involves Janie and Sam, two sisters who want to start a babysitting business to save money for a new bike. But they are also big fans of certain celebrity shows (along the lines of Entertainment Tonight or just about anything you see on E! Entertainment Network). Soon Janie and Sam start paying attention to what these celebrities have to say about fashion, manners, and other things and that's when everything goes awry.

This is a great book that parents can use with their kids to show them the dangers of celebrity worship and also to make them more aware of how the media attempts to influence culture and values. Best of all, Ms. DeBrecht presents her message with a humorous touch that makes the book easy to enjoy.

Here's hoping that there are more Help Mom! books to come to help parents equip their children to be more aware of the influences around them.

This book was provided to me by Word Ahead Publishing through Active Christian Media. No compensation was received for this review apart from the book.

Christian Carnival CXX

It's a privilege to once again host the Christian Carnival, the weekly roundup of some of the best writing in the Christian blogosphere. This week. we have posts on politics, life, church, economics, and much more. Here are this week's entries submitted for your consideration:

Do faith and politics mix? Northern 'burbs blog continues a series on this topic by examining how Christians need to be salt and light in political involvement.

Cross Blogging explores why protecting marriage is important to protecting parental rights.

Jack Yoest asks whether America is trending pro-life and what that might mean for marketers.

In Chickenhawk Christians, Laura at Pursuing Holiness ponders the war and how a Christian can support it.

Meanwhile, Imago Deo takes a Baptist Protester to task for speaking out against the war.

John Bambenek at Part-Time Pundit answers the question of how to reconcile disagreements with government policy with St. Peter's teaching on obedience to the government.

What is a blog? And how does it fit into the realms of good and evil? Shaun Nolan suggests that if blogging is to be worthwhile, it must enter into, and remain in, the sphere of that which is “true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and worthy of praise.”

Thoughts of a Gyrovague wonders whether we are losing the art of linguistics in a post entitled The Art of Persuasion.

Kneon has a sneak preview of upcoming Christian comic book special to be given away at comic book conventions.

A Penitent Blogger reflects on the need for Christ to be heard in a culture that doesn't want to listen.

Kim from Life in a Shoe has a story about the preciousness of life in a post entitled Sarah.

Can faith and science co-exist? Thinking Christian examines whether belief in miracles is compatible with science.

Parableman tackles whether Intelligent Design is compatable with the laws of nature by examining the arguments of William Dembski.

Bruce at It Seems to Me... offers God and the Astronomers, a look at faith and science, specifically, the type of faith that scientific inquiry is likely to produce.

The Doctor Is In reflects on how the onslaught of modern medicine has prompted a decision to change in The Epiphany.

What should a church look like? According to Rev Bill, it should look like a biker wedding (and I'm inclined to agree with him).

Fresh from live blogging Together for the Gospel, Light Along the Journey looks at Two Ways a Pastor Must Die.

Crossroads looks back at history to answer the question of whether Control is Good?

In "Three Persons, One Substance" - Paradox or Solution, Kenny Pearce discusses the origin of this particular formulation of the Trinity, how much information it contains, and whether Protestants ought to regard it as a dogmatic definition, since the exact phrase does not appear in Scripture. In particular it discusses the question of whether the words 'person' and 'substance' in this formulation are intended to have their ordinary meanings, and analogous meaning, or no meaning at all.

Welcome to the Fallout has a three-way conversation about what went wrong with mankind and who's to blame in Hashing Out the Problem of Evil.

My God is not capable of lying; is yours? The doctrine of inerrancy, and why it matters, is the subject of this week's submission from The No Kool-Aid Zone.

Kehaar presents Count Your Blessings posted at Life Rebooted. This post had me thinking about the many ways that I have been blessed and should be more thankful than I am.

Sun and Shield has a review of Michael Wittmer's Michael Wittmer's book, Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God.

That's all for this week's carnival. Thanks to everyone who contributed. Next week the carnival will be hosted by Something Epic.

Southern Baptists and Public Schools

Last summer, it was the Presbyterian Church in America. Now it looks like it's the Southern Baptist Convention's turn to debate whether a resolution should be passed calling for members to withdraw their children from public schools:

Southern Baptist activists are again urging the denomination to remove its children from public schools, two years after a similar action was blocked.

The resolution calling for an “exit strategy” from public schools is co-sponsored by Texas lawyer Bruce Shortt and Roger Moran, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee. They plan to submit the proposal for a possible vote by the convention at its annual meeting in North Carolina in June.

The resolution says recent federal court rulings have favored public schools “indoctrinating children with dogmatic Darwinism” and have limited the rights of parents in deciding what schools can teach, including on matters of sexuality.

Shortt and Moran announced their resolution after 56 pastors and church leaders urged Southern Baptists in a letter last week "to speak positively about public education."

But the debate raises some interesting questions such as whether a denomination has the right to dictate to its members what choices they should make in educating their children.

Although I have chosen to educate my children at home, I find such resolutions troubling. As far as I know, there is no specific prohibition in the Bible against sending children to public school to receive their education. While that is not necessarily the best option that is available to parents, it's not up to the churches to dictate what is essentially a matter of liberty to its members.

Baptists would do well to stay away from debatable social issues such as this and focus on being salt and light in the world as Jesus commanded.

Taking Google to Task

In case you missed it, our friend Stacy Harp of Active Christian Media was on Fox News yesterday discussing Google's refusal to remove pedophilia blogs from their site. Click on this link to see the video.

Godd job, Stacy, and keep up the good work!

Time With Dad

I used to think that spending time with my kids meant doing soemthing elaborate or special with them. I’d take each of my daughters on “dates” which were special evenings out that we would go and do something they liked. While thse were good times (and I still occassionally try to have those dates with my duaghters), I was reminded this past week that sometimes that time with my kids doesn’t have to be anything elaborate at all.

Take my oldest daughter, for example. If I’m running errands (such as going to the grocery store) she willl invariably want to tag along not because she finds what I am doing so exciting but because she just wants to hang out with me. In fact, I asked her on one of these recent excursions why she wanted to go with me and she said that she just enjoyed hanging out with Dad. I also have discovered that these are her opportunities to ask tough questions of me. She likes to use these times together to ask me about things that she has been thinking about. It’s in these moments that I get glimpses into what’s going on in her world.

Although my youngest daughter prefers to hang out at home, she will also desire that one-on-one time with me. Like my older daugther, she’ll use the opportunities when we are together to talk to me about difficult things that she may not want to share in front of anyone else.

We have so little time to make an impact on our kids as fathers. By being intentional about simply spending time with them we are allowing for those teachable moments to be created and the door opened to the hearts of our children. For me, spending time with my kids is no longer just about doing something special. It’s about just doing something with them.

Play Ball!

Baseball is back.

Political Correctness Gone Awry

In 2004, the United Methodist Church passed a resolution forbidding their convention to meet in a city with sports teams that have Native American nicknames because such nicknames are offensive. Until recently, the UMC had been planning to hold their 2012 convention in Richmond, Virginia. That is, until somebody pointed out that the nickname for their minor league baseball team was the Braves.

This is about politics: nothing more and nothing less. When the church (and particularly large demoniations) get sidetracked on political issues such as this, they lose their effectiveness as ministers of the Gospel. Suddenly the church becomes defined by the political stances that they make instead of lives lived according to Scripture.

I'll admit that I am biased since I lived in Richmond for nine years. It's a great city and a tremendous loss in not being able to host the convention. But the greater loss may be for the UMC and other denominations like it that make boneheaded political decisions such as this one. I cannot understand why they chose to focus on this one issue and turn their backs on many more pressing moral issues that have a greater affect on our culture.

In the end, the UMC is not the first large denomination to make a minor political issue a major point of contention. They certainly won't be the last, either. That is truly a shame.

What's Your Theological Worldview?

I don't normally put a whole lot of stock in quizzes, but this quiz seems to do a pretty good job of pegging a person's theological worldview. (Hat tip: sprucegoose)

Just for the record, here are my results:

You scored as Reformed Evangelical. You are a Reformed Evangelical. You take the Bible very seriously because it is God's Word. You most likely hold to TULIP and are sceptical about the possibilities of universal atonement or resistible grace. The most important thing the Church can do is make sure people hear how they can go to heaven when they die.

Reformed Evangelical		79%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan		75%
Fundamentalist		68%
Neo orthodox		64%
Emergent/Postmodern		46%
Charismatic/Pentecostal		32%
Modern Liberal		29%
Roman Catholic		21%
Classical Liberal		18%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

Virtual Visitation

Yesterday's New York Times offered an interesting peek in to an evolving trend in the often-heated custody battles: visitation with Dad by computer (Full disclosure: my brother-in-law is profiled in this story:

With work and the school week behind them, Charles A. Mason III and his daughter, Arielle, who live more than 1,500 miles apart, prepared for their scheduled weekend visit. There was no packing involved, no plane tickets, no car rides or drop-offs. All it took was some instant messaging on their home computers and a little fidgeting in front of their respective Webcams, and father and daughter were chatting, playing checkers and practicing multiplication tables.

"It's funner than talking on the phone, because I can see him," said Arielle, 10, who lives with her mother in Longmont, Colo., but has regular "virtual visits" with her father as part of the custody arrangement her parents worked out after her mother moved eight years ago. "It's just like being in front of him, but with games and computer stuff added."

As for Mr. Mason, who lives in Warrenton, Va., the video chats are a vast improvement over telephone calls, during which his daughter — like many children her age — is often monosyllabic and easily distracted.

"I can barely hold her attention on the phone for five minutes," he said. "When we can play checkers and look at one another, I can keep her talking about school and life for an hour or more."

As divorce has remained a constant, custody arrangements have evolved over the last half-century. Increased awareness of the toll divorce can take on children and fathers' increased involvement as parents, combined with the demands of working parents who often have to move in order to get and keep jobs, have made for increasingly creative and sometimes complex custody agreements.

As the legal system begins to acknowledge the potential benefits of technology in bridging the physical and emotional distance caused by divorce and separation, more families are experimenting with computer-assisted custody sharing.

Although any separating couple can opt for virtual visits in their custody agreement, debate surrounding the issue is unfolding on the state level as advocates push to have the option spelled out in state laws in order to broaden awareness of the practice and enable judges to grant such visits where they see fit.

However, some say that virtual visitation is not necessarily a good thing:

But not everyone gives virtual visits a ringing endorsement. In addition to concerns that it may be used to limit in-person visits, some lawyers and noncustodial parents also worry that it may be used to bolster the case for a custodial parent's contested relocation.

In 2001 an appeals court in New Jersey overruled a lower court decision denying a custodial parent's request to move out of state, reasoning that the court did not consider computer-assisted visits as an option for the noncustodial parent who objected to the move.

A Massachusetts court ordered video visits in 2002 in another contested relocation dispute. The father in the case, who argued that video visits were being imposed to replace in-person visits with his children, lost his appeal to stop the move.

"The danger is that it will become a substitute for real time," said David L. Levy, chief executive of the Children's Rights Council, based in Hyattsville, Md., which advocates for children affected by divorce and separation. "Virtual time is not real time. You can't virtually hug your child or walk your child to school. We don't want this to be seen as an excuse to encourage move-aways."

The Utah and Wisconsin regulations specify that virtual visits should be used as a supplement to, not a substitute for, traditional visits. The Wisconsin bill also specifies that virtual visits should not be used to justify a custodial parent's relocation. The laws define "electronic communication" as contact by video conference, e-mail, instant message, telephone or other wired or wireless technology.

"I think that most judges understand that children require physical one-on-one contact with the absent parent," said Cheryl Lynn Hepfer, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Clearly, such technology offers both promise and peril for children of divorced parents. For such visitation arrangements to work effectively there needs to also be in-person visitation. The custodial parent needs to still be involved in the process of allowing their child to be online to ensure their safety. States need have specific requirements in place that do not allow custodial parents to use virtual visits as a reason to relocate far away from from the other parent. But in situations where the child is already living far away from the parent, the new means of communication available through the Internet allow parents to bridge the distance and spend more quality time with their children. That is something children of all ages and life situations need: time with their parents.

Driver's Education for Blind Students?

Chicago students are required to take drivers' education even if they are blind according to the Chicago Tribune (hat tip: Best of the Web):

Mayra Ramirez scored an A in driver's education this year, but sitting through the 10-week class felt like a bad joke to the Curie Metropolitan High School sophomore.

Ramirez is blind. She knows she's never going to drive. She can think of a lot of things she'd rather be studying than rules of the road, but she didn't have a choice.

Chicago Public Schools requires all sophomores to take the class and pass a written road-rules exam--a graduation requirement that affects about 30 blind and visually impaired students in specialized programs at Curie and Payton College Preparatory High.

"In other classes, you don't really feel different because you can do the work other people do," said Ramirez, 16. "But in driver's ed, it does give us the feeling we're different. In a way, it brought me down, because it reminds me of something I can't do."

State law requires that all districts offer driver's education, but does not mandate it as a graduation requirement. For the hundreds of high schools that do, there should be some exemption option for disabled students who cannot drive, a state education official said.

"It defies logic to require blind students to take this course ... and waste their academic time," said Meta Minton, spokeswoman for the Illinois State Board of Education.

Chicago's public schools have no such exemption. That is something the Curie and Payton students are pushing to change, through an advocacy program at the Blind Service Association.

Another fine example of taxpayer dollars at work in government schools. Perhaps this should be added to list of 101 reasons to homeschool your kids.