Or it could be something as innocent as "my mom smokes funny looking cigarettes", or "my dad looks at magazines with naked women in them". Things that might be more embarrassing than dangerous.

How about my father is working undercover looking for teachers who are child molesters?? Now we are looking for big brother to use children to spy on their parents.

What a LOAD OF...........

Heya New Jersey.....how about adding this question to the documents for your folks running for office. I am so sure they would tell the TRUTH on the answer.

Yeah, this question really has a lot to do with education. Remember the teachers on the picket line wanting more pay, longer vacations and shorter workdays ? They will say "It is for the children."

The idiots that approved this question to start with should disciplined. They showed extremely poor judgement in allowing a question like this to be put on the test in the first place. Teachers should never have asked students to break a confidence, it is definitely not an appropriate lesson to be teaching them. Some secrets really are meant to be kept secret. Imagine if some kid had said that my name really isn't Jimmy Jones, my daddy testified against some bad men and my real name is Johnny Smith.

Getting that kind of information is supposed to happen during art period.

Daddy digs alot of holes out back and takes me to the Badda Bing afterwards......

It took concerns raised by parents before the education board realized this was not a great idea? Ok, then.

: l

Girl I got a secret
See if you can guess
Put your heart into the problem
See if you can pass the test
(Can you see it?)
It’s a natural occurrence
1+1 makes 2
If I’ve been acting crazy that’s
Just one more clue
When I see you

(In case you're wondering, those are the opening lyrics for "My Secret" by Bobby Brown's former/current group New Edition)

I imagine kids writing down funny things such as:

• "Daddy wears mommy's clothes."
• "Mommy says the strange man that comes over after daddy leaves is the plumber inspecting the pipes."
• "Darth Vader is my father."

To think that educated people, the school board and teachers, would think that this question should be on a test aren't appearing to be very educated. What the hell were they thinking? Spying into the personal lives of the children as well as their families? No wonder I have little regard to the teaching profession.

So, you know, in the former Soviet Union, the KGB would question children about things, and their parents would disappear. Is this the sort of effect we're going for here in the United States Where We Used To Be Free?

@theCavalier

Yes. The bigger government gets, the more it wants to stick its nose into citizens' private lives. At the same time, government doesn't want any of us to see what goes on behind its closed doors.

It's not the government its the religious right and the 1% looking to control us

Sure Richard.................. Anything you say.

next question coming to a standardized test near you:

why do you find it so hard to report your friends and families suspicious or illegal activities to homeland security?

The reason this was on the standardized test was because it is something that a lot of teachers have been doing in their classrooms anyway. One would be appalled at the personal questions that kids are asked to write on. And this is done at every grade level. I know one student who put a stop to it when specific teachers were named as doing certain things. Did the student know the teachers were doing anything like that? NO! But he was also upset about those questions had long thought that they could affect the grade given. There was a full investigation, and then administration tried to criticize the kid for making it up. In truth, it was a well written essay. It also proved that what is written doesn't just get turned into the teacher for grading on how well it is written.

Kevin that's part of the problem. People are so quick to jump to thinking that parents would be upset because they are child molesters. Others have already mentioned that the KGB used to have children spy on their parents. It's just sickening.

Mike; you memorized Bobby Brown lyrics? Now that is something I'd keep a secrete (must be to impress the ladies, like memorizing Shakespeare).

I'd actually like to know what answer my son would have given back in third grade.

Can't be any worse than the kids who show up to Show and Tell with daddy's gun or mommy's pills :) My ex is a teacher - they don't need some test question to know your secretes - your little angels offer up that info every day. The current wife works for CPS; they can tell when a kid is really keeping something very bad from them.

So, what are you people doing that you need to hide? I think I've revealed everything there is to know about my self, here at Newsvine - but try and get simple answers from conservatives here and they won't even admit to where they work (yep - I took it political... lol). You don't need to hide your Dooms Day bunker any more - 12/21/12 was debunked. For Sale - one never used bunker.

drain you're an idiot. State Board of Education= Libturds. arsehole.

We have nothing to hide. It's none of your business. That's why it's called a secret. It's our personal lives and not for you to poke into it. Whoever put this question on the test should be fired.

What does this question have to do with an education? What did the kids learn from a teacher that they had to study for this question? This is purely invasion of privacy.

This is wrong and out of the scope of education.

Anything to try to catch someone doing something "wrong." Any excuse to call child protective services on people as well. I have dealt with all manner of scum who will call child protective services for all manner of reasons such as, their neighbor wouldn't lend them their vacuum to the neighbor no longer allows their children to play with your swearing ones. The person who thought up that question should be horsewhipped in public and have their children removed from their holier-than-thou custody.

No problem with asking kids this question, as long as teachers are required to respond to the inquiry...

"Have you stopped beating your wife?"

Actually, having lived in Jew Jersey for over twenty years, it doesn't surprise me. What a lot of people may not realize is that the beloved Garden State is rapidly turning into a Police State. I'm glad I'm out of it, now, and would advise anyone with any intelligence to do the same.

@railfan-2949830

Actually, having lived in Jew Jersey for over twenty years,

Yeah railfan, you must be glad to get out of that horrible place filled with Jews and Blacks. It's funny you mention intelligence, because most of the Jews I know are all above average in intelligence. I remember going to school in New Jersey, our reading and math classes in 5th and 6th grade were divided into 3 levels, advanced, average and slow. And guess what, the advanced level classes were about 80% Jews.

Also New Jersey is famous for it's large population of Catholics and Italians, are you glad to be getting away from them as well? Let me guess where you moved to...Somewhere in the South? Or perhaps the midwest?

Thanks for leaving New Jersey though, it's a better place without you.

This test was begun, according to the records about 6 years ago, passing through numerous national and state entities.

During the 1980s- 1990s conservative years with the Reagan 'just say no to drugs' program, and the starting of the 'war on drugs' , many folks seem to have forgotten that during that time children used to call the police to report their parents for or was using drugs. LOL

So how is this 'reveal a secret' essay supposedly a liberal thing in particular?

Anyhoo, the 'reveal a secret' essay thing is just bogus imo. Well at least this put parents and others on notice that children do repeat the view point of their parents and others around them.

Wonder how many children wrote that mommy and daddy have their money in a tax shelter under another name or have hidden assets in their child's name to avoid paying taxes blah blah blah. LOL

Or perhaps some of these kids big secret is that they are still being breast fed and they do not have to stand on a chair to reach the boob either . LOL

Seeing this happened in NJ... wonder how many of these kids have 'outed' 'de-closetted' their parents or other family member? Wonder how many mentioned that their parent or parents are opera singers...soprano, mezzasoprano, alto, bass and even a tenor or two....LOL Also, wonder how many wrote what their parents may think about the NJ Govenor or the govt etc...LOL On the other hand some folks that may be here illegally may have started to worry too...

Anyhoo..... Pointless asking for the essays that have already been done to be returned to the children/parents. But if it was my child I would be asking the child what he/she told as a secret. Some parents probably better start thinking about getting a lawyer to protect themselves and to always remember the old saying about 'little jugs have big ears'. LOL

But one could say that whatev these kids wrote about as a secret will no doubt come back to bite them on the butt when they are adults. Sadly though if the child's secret was about being sexually abused, then this essay thing has just made matters worse, as the info in the essay probably cannot be used against the abuser. And as now with the revelation of this sort of 'spilling secrets' essay hitting the media this this sort of questions have been included on standardized tests, may have resulted in the child being questioned by the abuser or whomev about what was written/spilt.

It is doubtful that any of the secret info gleamed from these children- what ev it may be - can be used as it was obtained under false pretenses and on top of that without parental consent ie a parent being present.

Whoev came up with this bright idea (sarcasm) whether it was to test the children's comprehension, reasoning and or writing etc skills is looking at a boat load of trouble/problems from the look of things.

On the other hand as many folks are apt to state ' if you did not do any thing wrong then you do not have anything to worry about' blah blah blah. LOL That is usually from folks who are or were usually apt to deride the ACLU when they pushed back about our rights being taken away especially after 2001 and the terrorism thing. Now it is too late as our rights have already gone. LOL

LIke the song goes... you ain't seen nothing yet, oh baby you ain't seen nothing yet'. First the Grope, (airport and patdowns/search on the streets), probe (vaginal) and now spill (the beans, secrets)... Yep, we surely are a touchy, feely and speaky/spilly profiley nation... From AZ to NJ and to a State near you. LOL

Hey.. don't worry..... if you haven't done anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about..... just saying.. LOL

Peace.....

Richard the religious right does not run the NJ public school system just look at the PC crap going on there and you'll know that. It is wrong to teach children to break a confidence for a grade. Think of yourself if your friend said you know I really like that guy but don't tell anybody OK. What would happen if you told the whole office? I think you would probably lose a friend and not many people would ever trust you again.

@drainbramage:

No, no. NEW EDITION. lol. As a group, they were/are great. Bobby Brown was okay when he first went solo, not so much since.

@drainbramage

'secret'

D.A.R.E. turned our little darlings into deputized DEA drug narcs. CPS can break up your family, take your kids and force you into poverty trying to defend yourself from the basest of accusations. Girls as young as 5th and 6th grade are being told by school councillors that they don't need parental permission to see an abortion doctor, given condoms at school and encouraged to act out on their budding sexual urges, despite any potential moral or religious objections by their parents....

The government (and its union-backed indoctrination drones, i.e., teachers) is trying to make parents irrelevant. Families irrelevant. They have been systematically tearing apart the very fabric of the nuclear family since the 1960s. It's not that we have anything to hide, it's none of their damned business in the first place! Teachers are NOT social workers. They are NOT police officers. And they most certainly are NOT looking out for the welfare of our sons and daughters, only for their next union-negotiated, non-merit-based pay raise.

Stick to teaching the three R's and stay the hell out of our private lives. It's bad enough our kids aren't even being taught the evils of communism and central planning tyranny. Those who learn nothing from history are doomed to repeat it.

It's bad enough our kids aren't even being taught the evils of communism and central planning tyranny

not to mention ultra-nationalism, imagined superiority and religious tyranny

2-sense; lol, spell check failed me again. Oh well, we had lots of college graduates working as laborers at my job - this idea that education will bring you wealth isn't working so well in the real world.

My what a nasty bunch - you tell it like it is, and they don't like it as it is.

Paranoia will destroy ya... there's a little green man in my head. Mike, now that is a song worth memorizing :)

Poor teachers can't win - they don't enquire and you want their head - they do enquire and they want your head, maybe if you actually got involved in your local schools - your voice would be heard. Better yet, change it from the inside, become a teacher your self.

@drainbramage~

I know what you mean about people not liking it when you 'tell it like it is.' People often resort to personal attacks if they don't understand or disagree with something you post.

That happened to me just the other day...

I guarantee that this was approved by snarky people looking to get a laugh.

What the hell is wrong with our country? We leave our children with these people? A group of people actually got together and thought this was ok? WTF?????????

Lourdes...Camera lights for traffic violations are just one step closer to cameras in your home. This is about as close to the Orwellian, "1984" as it can get. It wouldn't take a whole lot more for some nut job politician to find a way to push legislation that mandates all new homes have "video cameras" in them to "protect children".

First of all, I would bet that that question was on the writing portion of the literacy assessment. I can't see that it has anything to do with critical reading.

And second of all, the folks who make up questions that every third grader in New Jersey can answer in an 'essay' have quite a task! They have to find topics that all eight-year-olds have experience with. That is not as easy as it sounds.

I agree that someone should have picked up that 'secrets' might open up many a can of worms. But you usually don't make it to third grade without having to keep a secret. A surprise party for a family member. A best friend who told you what she was going to be for Halloween. You know about Santa Claus but your little sister doesn't. Like that.

The 'powers that be' probably were not thinking about 'family secrets' -- many of which actually weigh down on the family and should probably be addressed. It is true that schools are required by law to report anything that is harmful to the children; and it's also true that there may be repercussions from the information kids provided in answer to that question!

Why not have them talk about their moms taking them to the tanning salon as a topic? Every child in NJ is familiar with that.

Why not have them write about Their favorite book or vacation trip. It's really not hard to find a subject that kids have in common that doesn't invade their privacy.

And to those that find no problem with this type of intrusion into your life, march right down to the police station and give your DNA sample so it will be easier for the government to implement pre-crime arrests based on the THEORY that a certain DNA type will commit crimes.

Everything is not a conspiricy but not everything is innocent either.

Failed to mention the board of teachers were union (njea). HiTler used this same tactic on children! What's that say about unions? I live in N.J. and the njea is the worst piece of garbage calling themselvesAmericans. They bully students at will than attempt to hide it. UNIONS HAVE NO PLACE IN THE CLASS WITH CHILDREN. Winslow Twp. is the worst in the state. Gov. Christie needs to start there. The people need to start a drive to get the public sector parasite union away from our children! just saying

If you observe most educators behaviors, you'll see not all have brains in their heads. Those college degrees are their badge of intellectual superiority or so they think. Hang around a few of them for a while and you discover most suffer job burn out by the time they are teaching 5 years. I don't blame it all on the teachers. What most New Jerseyans are soon to learn is that it isn't always the teachers making all the classroom decisions. Take a harder look at those adorable double cheeked asses on your school boards who do.

I'm not fond of NJEA by any means. I think they are unnecessary. If teachers are professional, why do they need a union like common blue collar workers? New Jersey's teachers are THE highest paid in the country. It's the reason our property taxes are the nation's highest. There isn't a homeowner in NJ paying less than $3800 a year for school taxes, 85% of which goes to school salaries and benefits.

Should eight year old children really have "secrets" that they can't tell?

ewent, I am not sure where I referred to "protecting children."

Were you referring to the part about the law?

Most higher level universities and institutions look at a "whole person concept" so if you're a lousy test taker but demonstrate your competence in other areas, your fine.

But standardized tests, while not always optimal, are the only way to measure academic competence. And... I've met very few people who can't obtain an adequate score through dedicated hard work.

Saying standardized tests are worthless is like saying how many points a basketball player scores has no bearing on how good he is at basketball.

Standardized tests actually have limited usefulness. They do provide a snapshot of a student on a particular day responding to a particular set of questions. They compare that snapshot with snapshots of lots of other students under the same circumstances, and can give you a sense of where a student stands on those tasks among his/her peers.

The real problem is with how the tests are used. They could provide specific information as to how a student responded to particular questions, which could be helpful to educators. They could provide information as to which concepts students in any given group might still need to work on.

But instead, the Powers-That-Be insist on using them in questionable and even harmful ways. Standardized tests should NOT be used to evaluate a child's ability, and should not be the determining factor in placing kids into special programs on either end of the spectrum. They are NOT useful to determine a teacher's effectiveness as a teacher. (As a test-prep provider, maybe -- but not as a teacher.) And they do NOT provide any reasonable comparison among schools.

As I understand it, NJ is scrapping the whole NJ ASK program. In a way, that's too bad -- the NJ ASK is the best standardized test I've seen in over 40 years in education. Of all the standardized tests I encountered, it was the most reliable in reflecting how kids performed day-to-day in the classroom. If you have to have a standardized test, you want it to reflect as accurately as possible the performance and abilities of your students.

As long as Bill Gates is putting out money for standardized tests, demanding that his money produce results he is looking for, and as long as Congress continues to drag out "No Child Left Behind," schools will be ruled by standardized tests.

Bill Gates is dead........

I think you're thinking of Steve Jobs.

Rather than "standardized tests" why don't we have tests on material that the kids are taught, to see if they are actually retaining any of it? Or better yet, why don't we actually teach the kids information followed by exercises to get them to do creative analytical thought, rather than social engineers masquerading as teachers?

It's not the test it's the UNION teachers.

lee...Most teachers belong to National Education Association, the federal union the state teachers' unions all originate from. Go to your local school board meetings if you want to know what really goes on in your school district. These school board make a whole lot of the decisions for curriculum based on their budgets. Don't be surprised if a testing program is chosen only because it doesn't cost as much as one that's more comprehensive. All voting age Americans need to wake up and attend school board meetings whether or not you still have kids in the system. It's where all of the school taxes come from. You'd cringe if ever you saw how some school boards manage to tuck in those cut little add-ons that jack your school taxes.

I paid school taxes 5 years before I had a child in our district's schools. Both of my kids are out of school more than 30 years and I'm still paying school taxes with one difference. In 1966, school taxes were less than $350. Now? Almost $4,000. In NJ, you either move out of state to avoid paying for the McMansioners kids to go to school and sell your home you invested 4 decades of property taxes in or you go bankrupt trying to afford school taxes. And no. None of the politicians in NJ EVER want to touch the outrageous NJ property tax issue. It would mean a whole lot of those 12,000 ritzy titzies would be paying their fair share of property taxes instead of gettng a landfill of tax breaks.

Morrigan...And just how far do you think it is right to go "protecting children"? Cameras all over our homes? People who don't protect children are the problem. I am so fed up with nosey bodies who think every detail of my life is THEIR business. These are the very same people who'd be the first to complain if their business was as freely aired.

Twisting the use of a standardized test to also include family business that isn't anyone else's business is what the old folks referred to as "nosey"

Crying shame...There's one other little dark secret...those standardized tests are a bone thrown to private education testing businesses who always think "bottom line" first.

Somehow, I doubt third-graders understand things like tax-evasion and immigration status.

The other stuff, quite possibly so.

Kids that are keeping the really big secrets in the family are so brain washed they don't even know what secrets are.

According to one state level school board biggie, this question on the test was assumed to be "national security".

On target. I've known some business types with MBA degrees that couldn't find their a$$e$ with both hands and a diagram.

You spelled further wrong.

You misspoke. What can you expect from NJ. Look at their past governors, McGreevey and Corzine. At least this governor is willing to take on the way too powerful and way too corrupt teacher's union.

Not really, o'really.

Christie is TOTALLY UNWILLING to take on the way too powerful and way too corrupt banksters and corporatists. They actually put him in office. He is happy to decimate the public sector in the interest of lining the pocketbooks of the already wealthy.

There are some people in New Jersey who have swallowed the poison of the right wing pundits, and look at his public rudeness and his bullying behavior for character. They are mistaken. He's got his small group of patrons and he is making no bones about acting in their best interest (and his own).

Actually, Christie's new budget is increasing money to education and pension funding. The last couple years of austerity and tax cuts have allowed the private sector to grow and produce more jobs and real growth. The libtards wanted New Jersey to fail under Republican backed austerity measures, but they have been proved wrong yet again. Continue cutting taxes, continue cutting bloated budgets, and everyone prospers (except maybe a few greedy bureaucrats).

No, he's just putting back some of the money he took away originally. School districts are still strapped. Haven't seen much of that "real growth." Every twenty-something I know is unemployed or underemployed.

Cutting taxes is a "granfalloon" -- a word Kurt Vonnegut invented to mean something that a lot of people believe but has no basis in reality. It may mean that I pay $50 less to the State of New Jersey -- while some 'big guy' is paying $50,000 less. New Jersey can keep my $50 and fill a pothole; that $50,000 could mean one less overcrowded classroom or a couple of classrooms with another adult to help out in the room.

Property taxes in NJ are the highest because of school taxes, over 2/3rd of my property taxes go to school funding, It has nothing to do with the amount spent on education here in NJ but more to do with how the money is spent and where it is spent, We spend more and get less.

Dumping money into a failing educational system does not make it better, Personally I will take the $50.00 less and I do not care if someone else pays $50,000 less because if they are paying $50,000 less I know they are still paying in one whole heap of money here in NJ.

Can you guys come up with some other ideas besides tax the rich more and more and dump more and more money into a failing school system? If throwing money at schools worked, we should be seeing a great improvement in Newark schools, but a great improvement would mean graduating one out of every three students and giving the graduating students the ability to pass remedial classes in community college. But like they say in NJ, Ain't gonna happen.

@morrigan-1568233

This is about a lot more than $50 dollars. More money doesn't always mean smaller classrooms and filled potholes, just fatter salaries for greedy bureaucrats and public unions. I'm sick of the ever increasing expendeatures of the public sector with little or nothing to show for it.

If you review all of the so-called vunderkinds of the present Governor, you find he's used the very same one-shot deals to close the gap in dwindling state revenues all other governors have used. The problem he will never address is property taxes. They can't go any higher. Christie knows this. So he cut everywhere but his rich North Jersey cronies with all those wannabee Noo Yawkah McMansion properties.

He cut income taxes 10%. Great. Anyone earning the average salary in NJ which is $80K will benefit an average of $200....all while all those cuts Christie made to fire, emergency, education and social programs end up costing towns higher taxes...but anything so the rich under a Republican Ass doesn't feel the pinch of austerity right? That's for the Middle Class peeons.

o'really...As opposed to what? Tax the Middle Class so the rich don't have ANY taxes to pay? They are already taking full advantage of 3 tax cuts from 2001, 2008 and 2009. Meanwhile, the Middle Class is disappearing while the rich bois continue to control 40% of the entire wealth in the country. Pardon the Middle Class if we take exception to handing tax subsidies to businesses who are already obscenely profitable and tax reductions to people who don't pay their fair share.

Nothing in the Constitution says Americans are obligated to keep Big Businesses profitable or the 1% with all the wealth continually growing wealthier.

WHAT FAILING SCHOOL SYSTEM?????

Another granfalloon. Overall, New Jersey's schools have been among the best in the nation. They may well still be, despite Christie's best attempts to handcuff and blindfold them.

http://www.edweek.org/media/ew/qc/2011/QualityCounts2011_PressRelease.pdf

That is not to say that the system is perfect. No system is perfect. The quality of education in New Jersey school districts often reflects the socioeconomic standing of that district. As Pine Barrens noted, much of a district's money comes from local property taxes, so the wealthier a district is, the more money their schools have to work with. But even the wealthiest districts depend on state money to supplement local taxes.

And the people who are most disenfranchised -- the last to be hired, the first to be fired, the people who can't even get on to the bottom rung of the ladder to the American Dream -- their kids end up going to the schools that are failing.

But the problem here is not the teachers, the problem is not the unions, the problem is not the schools themselves -- the problem is the two-headed monster of poverty and greed That same problem is holding our country's economy hostage. Some people are availing themselves of money that would better be used for the public good, while others cannot climb out of a hole that keeps crumbling as they try.

We must do something to address poverty, so that children grow up in a safe, caring and nurturing environment and come to school ready and eager to learn -- and we must do something to address greed, so that dishonest people cannot appropriate public resources for private gain.

Uhtred.. thats exactly what Catholic school was like for me! Thanks to Father "Reacharound"

Uhtred.. thats exactly what Catholic school was like for me! Thanks to Father "Reacharound"

Urban Cowboy...Catholic schools are private education institutions and not bound by the local school board jurisdictions. Their authority is diocesan. The only state mandate for private schools is that teachers have state certifications to teach. Perhaps some professional help will help you move on?

or not :)

You had a bad experience in the Catholic schools well I had a great one starting with Sister Raphael who said she could take care of a kid who flunked kindergarden without keeping me back. She gently had me on track in just a few weeks. The 1132 kids in my parochial school consistently outscored the local public schools. And my HS band went to both the NY Worlds Fair and the Montreal Worlds Fair and scored 17 1st places in the state band competition. None of us needed remedial classes when we went to the state university.

Good point. SprDg.

One of the major issues that comes up during a writing exam is, "I don't know (Fill in the blank). Sometimes they really don't know. In this case, perhaps a kid really didn't ever have to keep a secret. Other times, they're kind of anxious and they just can't remember.

Our advice to kids who were practicing for the test was, if they really never had the experience, to turn it into a creative writing exercise. Because of the scoring rules, kids who said "I never had to keep a secret" could not get full credit, and possibly might get no credit at all for being off topic. If they produced a piece of believable first-person 'realistic fiction,' they could get credit.

So you are right -- the first question that would need to be asked is, "Is this piece fiction or nonfiction?" And if it is nonfiction, the conversation from then on would have to be very careful, respectful and nonthreatening.

@morrigan-1568233

So in other words, the "scoring rules" encourage children to lie. Probably a good skill set to have in New Jersey, but still not one that should be taught in taxpayer funded schools.

Best answer ever?? "I killed a man just to taste his flesh"

Anthony, it's part of 'teaching to the test.' It is a test of writing -- so your job is to show the scorers how well you write. Good fiction is harder to write than memoir, but if you do not have an actual memory you really don't have much choice... (That's why coming up with a good topic for kids to write about is so hard.)

Urban Cowboy: (Evaluation 1) You have a score of 0. Your answer was inappropriate and off topic (no mention of a secret). (Evaluation 2) You have a score of 1. You answered the question but you did not provide any supporting details and you did not say why it was hard to keep your secret. Actually it would probably be rated unscorable.

Morrigan...That was the best evaluation ever!! BUT.. he did taste like chicken....just in case you are curious. Thanks for the laugh!

actually, I've read that it tastes closer to pork...

danwill. i think it all really depends on how its prepared. :)

look up "long pig"

"would you like light meat or dark meat?" LOL

Michael M Evans...Answer from one teacher's kid, "My Mommy (or Daddy) grades some kids papers with bad grades cause she hates them." That be okay too? I'll bet Mrs. Drama Queen at the blackboard won't like that answer. Even better..."My Mommy (or Daddy) took a paid sick leave but we went to Disney World."

"My Daddy took a paid sabbatical so we could vacation in Atlantic City and he gambled in the Casinos."

"My Mommy came home drunk from her teachers union meeting." See? Secrets aren't so much fun are they when it's turned in on their inquirers.

what a crock of crap that story was.....

did this mother also work in the ad business and come up with the line for Las Vegas?

Yes. All of the hundreds of mothers they're talking about are advertising executives who came up with the Las Vegas campaign slogan. ha. ha.

Um no. And that saying is actually very true in the Black Community. There were not horrible things that were done, but my mother used to tell us all of the time that " What goes on in this house, stays in this house".

You just don't put your business in the street. Not that we were perfect, it was just that some things no one else needed to know. I have no idea why the state DOE would even think to allow this question on a test. It simply makes no sense.

My family said the same thing and nobody broke any laws or hurt anybody. It is not your business if my mom and my uncle got into a shouting match because he got a little drunk. That stayed at home. It was not your business if we were on unemployment because Uncle Sam couldn't get a budget passed in time. And I guess Uncle Sam could get mad because my cousins hated corn bread and I loved it so we traded food. That also stayed in the house.

I called the NJ school board and got some info about the school board members from the person answering..."dey be gewd COMRADES ana wantz nuttin moer den wattz iz bestist fur dah state...so says 'Peggy'"

dragonmaster...whew...I was beginning to think I have too many grey hairs under my Clairol...rofl. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who notices this Brown Shirt mentality. Every day, I encounter some twit who thinks they have a right to know what goes on in everyone else's life. Then, they turn that into ammo. I don't know about you. But, I believe this is a relic of the Daycare most of the twits spent their early years living. Regimentation in Daycare isn't good for any child's individuality. Neither is struggling for a scrap of attention from Daycare staff whose centers are always overpopulated. By the time these kids get into elementary school, they become little self-possessed tyrants who think they rule the universe.

I am so glad now that our government told me I made $15 a year too much to send my kid to headstart. She got her early indoctrination at home into our family values instead of the governments. It didn't slow my mother down she just went to the senior citizen afternoon program with mom and thought all those old people were family. My girlfriend homeschools and the government sent somebody to her house to tell her how she was being neglectful of her children by not sending them to headstart. She told them where they could go in a very christian way.

gotta get that proper "christian" creationist nonsense and anti-science indoctrination firmly in place

remember those "chjristian" morals:

hate everyone that doesn't think like you and refuses to convert

do everything to crush all opposition and god will reward you

get into politics and pass laws that ban anything non-christian

deny that we are shoving this crap into your head and play the "persecuted christian" bit instead

Somehow, I don't think not hating teachers as you do is equivalent to not "having a life."

If todays teachers taught instead of indoctrinated I wouldn't be upset either. They are too busy teaching our children values often at odds with those of the home enviornment. Too much of school these days has nothing to do with teaching the subject as you can tell by our falling in regards to other countries in education. If I had a child of school age I would homeschool or send them to a parochial school not a public school at least they would learn then.

The reason that the Obama girls attend private school has nothing to do with public schools "not being good enough for them". It's a matter of security. It's easier for the Secret Service to keep an eye on the girls at a small private school than it would at a large public school, where outsiders would have more access. And Obama is not the only president to do this - it's pretty much traditional for White House kids to go to private schools. Let's be realistic - if YOU were a high-profile individual, and had young children that could be targets of kidnappers, wouldn't you have them attend a school that would minimize the opportunity for them to be kidnapped?

Yeah right have you seen the ratings of the DC school system. I don't think Johnny from the hood is out to get Melia. And since DC is a federal police jurisdiction I'm sure the feds could controll one school for the Presidents kids. If that school isn't safe enough for his kids why are anyone elses kids going there.

Ummm... socialism is an economic system. It has nothing to do with "turning children into informants against their parents," which can happen in *any* nation-- including the capitalist capitol of the world, the good ol' USA.

Yes....it can happen here.

yep, under the guise of "homeland security" and "keeping us safe from foreign terrorists and invaders"

yes danwill, and it would be nice if more people could see what's happening. Now the government has the right to hold us without trial and most people think that's ok? wtf?

My neighbor's daughter at that age said her mom buried her baby sister in the back yard, my own son came home from school one day and told me a classmate just "fell out of his seat and died". Brother told his teacher our parents fed us rat poison because Mom spanked him that morning and he was mad. Kids at that age have very good imaginations and don't understand the possible consequences of what they say, especially to a teacher. Back in the 70's the teachers just laughed because obviously, he hadn't been poisoned. Now my parents would have been investigated and after finding it to not be true, would still end up with it being put on their "permanent record".

motorricker...Uh...I believe what you are describing was known as "fascism". It was the tactic of Hitler, the ultimate fascist and Mussolini. Since 9/11, the number of excuses for invasion of privacy are now proving that when you force others to give up their human right to privacy, you reduce their freedoms even further. But then, reduction of freedom is usually a dictator's idea of "control", isn't it?

but don't forget ewent, "if you aren't doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to hide, so you shouldn't be bothered by our watching your every move just to keep you safe"

Shandrill tell that to the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or back farther the National Socialist Party. You know Stalins regime and Hitlers regime. Yeah those socialists were just economic systems too.

thus, lonereb proves that point that the nutcase right wouldn't know socialism if it kicked them in the teeth

lonereb, the only thing "socialist" about the nazis was the name. the nazis were vehemently anti-union, strongly pro-big business, and huge on pouring enormous sums of money into private defense contractors

gee, which party does that sound like?

I think my new step-daddy might be an alien from outer space... He has funny eyebrows and his ears are kind of pointed. Last night while we watched tv in the dark, I noticed that he looked kind of green! I told my mom, and she said don't tell anybody else, so it must be a secret.

deb...You are soooo right. I was a dance school owner/teacher for over 3 decades. One of my funniest memories was of one of my dance school students, age 4, in my pre-school dance class. She just blurted out "My mommy died". That day, she was driven to my studio by a neighbor which added further credibility to what the child said. You can imagine my relief when the class ended and the student's mother appeared to pick her child up from class. As it turned out, it was the child's grandmother who has passed away.

Her mother and laughed for years after.

it's not just the position they are put in that you describe, but the potetial for abuse, and we all know law enforcement always abuses it power, that truly was the goal of the question, after all the schools are forced to report anything that is considered illegal, and when in writing it becomes iron clad, likke video of someone robbing a bank.