Free Republic

The nine main problems and a relevant link for each: 1) Bad Reading Methods. Whole word (also known as sight-words, Dolch words, and many other aliases) is an 85-year flop that never worked. Children are told to memorize words as graphic designs. For most children, that’s effectively the end of literacy. (Learn about phonics.) 2) Inane Math Instruction. New Math and Reform Math mix advanced concepts with elementary arithmetic, guaranteeing that children are confused and make little progress. Inefficient methods are taught. The rhetoric is that children are learning the meaning behind the numbers. For young children, this is an...

What a wonderful world it would be if, for example, the people in charge of our public schools really believed in knowledge. If, for example, the National Council of Teachers of English, really loved English. If the National Council of Teachers of Math, really loved math. Alas, that does not seem to be the case. A lot of boring things are being taught in boring, incoherent ways, with the result that children learn almost nothing. Then the Education Establishment comes up with so-called “authentic assessments” to prove that the children learned a little something. There’s an easy way to tell...

A painter friend of mine is putting on a web convention of famous contemporary artists. It includes interviews with Marvin Mattelson, Albert Handell, Fernando Freitas, and many other Masters in the art world. I apologize for not posting this sooner, as it's been going on for a week now and is only available until March 26, 2014. There have been six interviews released with a new one every day. If you are an artist or art-lover, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to gain information and inspiration to help transform your own art or hear from the masters. This is really...

The U.S. unemployment rate edged up to 6.7 percent in February as men struggled to find work, according to the Labor Department report issued Friday. More than 160,000 men joined the ranks of the unemployed. That increase raised their unemployment rate to 6.4 percent from 6.2 percent. Particularly hard hit were African-American men. Their rate climbed to 12.9 percent last month from 12 percent in January. It did so because more African-American men began searching unsuccessfully for work last month. …

Sarah with Greta On the Record. Very interesting. She gearing up for her speech tomorrow. Video here.

A student group at LeMoyne College, a Jesuit institution in upstate New York, will be hosting its second annual drag show on Monday March 10, according to CampusGroups.com. The group Creating Awareness and Reaching Equality (C.A.R.E.) writes about the event on its Facebook page, calling it “a fun event for everyone” where students can “learn about drag culture ettiquet (sp), enter prize raffles, and dance!” The poster for the event shows a man with half his face made up as a woman and says “Mondays are Such a Drag.”

Parents have condemned a school's decision to ban all pork products from the menu and replace other meats with halal versions. Pupils aged between three and 11 at Brinsworth Manor Infant and Junior Schools in Rotherham - which Ofsted identifies as having only a small number of pupils from minority ethnic groups - will no longer be able to enjoy sausages, bacon or ham. Parents at both schools, which share a site, were told of the decision in a letter from Rotherham Council’s principal catering officer Ron Parry, who wrote that there had been ‘minor adjustments’ to the lunch menu....

**SNIP** Late last week, it came to light a class of seventh-grade female students at Stephen Decatur Middle School had been required to make clay models of male genitalia as part of the Family Life and Human Development program taught in county schools to students in grades 5-11. While most agree the course, which teaches students about their changing bodies and making good decisions, is an important one for the students, few agreed making clay models of the male reproductive organs was an appropriate component of the program. **SNIP** Luzier said the girls in the class made life-size male genitalia...

The original Dodge Viper revealed in 1992 was a beast of a machine — an attempt by then-Chrysler exec Bob Lutz to revive the spirit of the Shelby Cobra and give Chrysler a world-class sports car. Powered by a massive V-10 with 400 hp, the early Viper's brute force overwhelmed many drivers. Today, the power that made the Viper a legend appears to be at the heart of an order from Chrysler to dozens of trade schools, demanding the immediate destruction of some 93 early Vipers, including a preproduction model that could likely fetch a couple hundred thousand dollars at...

New Jersey teenager Rachel Canning, 18, lost a lawsuit asking her parents to pay her child support. Canning, however, is still hoping that the judge will order them to pay for her college education. We think black parents would have handled the situation a little differently. We took a survey of The Root staff to find out how our parents would have reacted, and this is what we found:

Calgary residents are throwing their support behind a local school bus driver who was fired for picking up a group of students in her own SUV. Kendra Lindon was fired by First Student Canada after she picked up six junior high students in her own vehicle last month, after discovering that her bus wouldn’t start. There weren't enough seat belts for two of her passengers, but Lindon said, at the time, she was more concerned about the students waiting in the extreme cold. The temperature that morning was in the minus 20s. She also said she wasn't sure a replacement...

An East Bay teacher is asking actor and comedian Will Ferrell to be his "date" at his school's upcoming prom. Chad Cochran, who teaches at San Ramon Valley High School in Danville, posted a YouTube video pleading to Ferrell to join him at the campus' senior ball. "I am asking you, Will Ferrell, will you please chaperone the senior ball with me?" Cochran asks in the video. The teacher follows up by saying he is happily married with two children and two dogs. His wife, however, won't be able to attend prom. Why should Ferrell accept the educator's offer? Cochran...

Real WW2 combat footage - Kamikaze Attack, USS Laffey (DD-724)

The College Board announced Wednesday that it is overhauling the SAT, dropping the timed essay and focusing less on fancy vocabulary in order to level the playing field a bit for high school students from a wider range of families. The organization's own data show that wealthier Americans, from more educated families, tend to do far better on the best. As do white and Asian Americans, and those students who had the opportunity to take the PSAT in high school before taking the SAT. Almost certainly, these four findings have common origins in that the SAT benefits families who can...

LANDIS — A Rowan County school bus driver remains in jail today after Landis Police say he allowed students to smoke marijuana on the bus. Police say it wasn’t the first time he allowed students to smoke on the bus. Brian Davis Overcash, 30, was charged with four counts of misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The incident occurred Feb. 20 after Corriher-Lipe Middle School assistant Principal Matt Krome contacted authorities. Krome told officers with the Landis Police Department that Overcash, who drove bus No. 162, told the assistant principal that several students were on the bus smoking...

SONORA (CBS SF) — Three third-grade students at a Sonora elementary school were busted for smoking pot in the school’s bathroom last week. Two 8-year-olds and a 9-year-old were caught by another student, who immediately informed school administrators. Those officials then alerted local police. The students were questioned by officers, and later released to their parents on February 27th. Sonora Elementary School Principal Chris Boyles would not speak with CBS SF regarding the case, but Superintendent Leigh Shampain confirmed that the students were caught smoking marijuana in the school’s bathroom. He would not discuss how the students might be disciplined.

"When walking in open space, collision avoidance with other pedestrians is a process that successfully takes place many times."

Full Title - "Lawyer on Chris Christie’s SCHOOL FUNDING task force is bankrolling teen suing parents for college cash" The prominent New Jersey attorney who is funding the legal costs of 18-year-old Morris Catholic High School senior Rachel Canning in her lawsuit against her own parents serves on Gov. Chris Christie’s School Funding Task Force. The attorney is John P. Inglesino, the managing partner at Inglesino, Wyciskala & Taylor, LLC, a 10-attorney firm in Parsippany, N.J. Gov. Christie’s School Funding Task Force exists to eradicate abuse and fraud from New Jersey’s education system, explains the Common Sense Institute of New...

EVIDENCE has emerged that the views of the Paedophile Information Exchange influenced policy-making at the National Council for Civil Liberties when it was run by former Labour Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt. PIE members were lobbying NCCL officials for the age of consent to be reduced and campaigning for “paedophile love”. Their view that children were not harmed by having sex with adults appears to have been adopted by those at the top of the civil liberties group. Today we publish extracts from an NCCL report written for the Criminal Law Revision Committee in 1976 when Mrs Hewitt was general secretary....

Despite an increase in the number of students who receive free meals as a part of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, 1.6 million students have dropped out of the school lunch program, according to a Government Accountability Office Report (GAO), which noted that part of the decline was due to the palatability of the lunch offerings, and “plate waste”—students throwing away some of the food. […] “Further, some SFAs we visited noted that negative student reactions to lunches that complied with the new meat and grain portion size limits directly affected program participation in their districts,” said the GAO. The...

<p>A Minnesota public high school was so committed to obeying its fire drill policy to the exact letter of the law that it forced a female student–dressed only in a swimsuit, and sopping wet–to stand outside in the freezing cold for ten minutes. As a result, she suffered frostbite.</p>

Students at a central Florida high school are devoting their prom money to helping a popular math teacher who is very ill in his third round with cancer, WESH reported. The prom team at Pine Ridge High School in Deltona has taken on the moniker Team Charlie in honor of Charlie Lundell, who has been at the school since it opened 20 years ago, according to WESH. "He really cares about helping people learn and really wants us to be our full potential," junior class President Katie Buday said of Lundell, and students want to help him out. Now the...

Right wing think tanks have taken a principled stand against the CCSSI on the grounds that it violates the constitution and laws of the United States[6]. Folks at Schoolsmatter and Susan Ohanian are almost lone wolfs on the left in vigorously targeting the CCSSI as “authoritarian”, and exposing the role venture philanthropy (especially Bill Gates) plays in imposing the CCSSI.

Community Connect is working with Planned Parenthood's National Office on a new Affordable Care Act (ACA) Outreach Campaign. Community Connect in support of this work is launching a dynamic operation to reach, engage, and educate women and help them begin the process of obtaining health coverage. Community Connect is looking to hire Canvassers for the campaign that will be responsible for executing the robust door to door canvass program to educate the local community about the ACA, assist them through the initial steps of the enrollment process and register residents to vote.

A Florida teenager's Facebook post has cost her father an $80,000 legal settlementA Florida teenager's Facebook post has cost her father an $80,000 legal settlement. The Palm Beach Post reported Sunday the father had sued a Miami-area preparatory school for age discrimination after he lost his job as headmaster. Dana Snay's father, Patrick Snay, had settled an age discrimination case with his former employer, Gulliver Preparatory School. Elderly Man Wakes Up in Body Bag at Funeral Home The school agreed to settle the case for $80,000 and the settlement agreement included a stipulation that the man and his wife not...

Caphaw Trojan Found in Youtube Ads In Malware, Malware Alerts by steven on February 25, 2014 | Deutsch, English, Français, Italiano, Ру��кий 99 EmailShare youtube-logoLast Friday – under the shadow of two critical zero day exploits on Internet Explorer and Adobe Flash – researchers at Bromium Labs discovered malware in an advertising network connected to Youtube. Specific details are yet unknown and the threat has yet to be completely mitigated. As of Friday, Google Security was made aware of the issue and is currently investigating the matter with Bromium. What is Known The malware being served is a Caphaw banking...

A California couple that discovered $10 million worth of gold coins last year will have to pay nearly half that amount in federal and state income tax, regardless of whether they sell the coins.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman will retire from Princeton University in June 2015 and move to New York, he announced on Friday. […] Krugman credited the move to location and to his increased focus on public policy, specifically income equality …

As you read the following, keep in mind that this happened three weeks ago. The only reason I know about it is because Glenn Reynolds linked to it this morning.WXIA in Atlanta, Feb. 5: The FBI says a Georgia Tech graduate student was burned by a Molotov cocktail at his apartment in the 200 block of 10th Street, not far from Piedmont Park. Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones said Saamer Akhshabi suffered third-degree burns over 90 percent of his body. Lighter fluid and a charred pillow and mattress were found inside the apartment, along with the Molotov cocktail and several...

Long before he arrived at the White House, Barack Obama was the son of a single mother, challenged and tempted by the same societal ills that disproportionately keep African-Americans impoverished and behind bars. Now the nation’s first black president is unveiling a new initiative aimed at breaking down those obstacles, and pledging to continue the fight long after his presidency ends. Joined at the White House by young men of color, Obama on Thursday was calling on America’s businesses, philanthropists and government leaders to join forces to put more boys on a path toward successful lives. Foundations were to announce...

"Google has spent years analyzing who succeeds at the company, which has moved away from a focus on GPAs, brand name schools, and interview brain teasers...Google looks for the ability to step back and embrace other people’s ideas when they’re better. “It’s ‘intellectual humility.’ Without humility, you are unable to learn,” Bock says. “Successful bright people rarely experience failure, and so they don’t learn how to learn from that failure....Those people have an unfortunate reaction, Bock says: “They, instead, commit the fundamental attribution error, which is if something good happens, it’s because I’m a genius. If something bad happens, it’s...

In case you haven’t heard, an Alaskan Malamute killed a 6 day old baby in Wales this week. The dad had brought the dog home from the pub several months earlier because someone said they were going to get rid of it. This news makes me incredibly sad. It also makes me painfully aware that the breed may soon be as demonized as the Pit Bull. But humans also carry some responsibility for this tragedy. What with your fanciful ideas about dogs and such. So at the risk of upsetting some of my readers, let me state what should be...

It’s not just about what America’s kids are getting in the lunch line. The Obama administration is moving to phase out junk food advertising on football scoreboards and elsewhere on school grounds—part of a broad effort to combat child obesity and create what Michelle Obama calls “a new norm” for today’s schoolchildren and future generations. “This new approach to eating and activity is not just a fad,” Mrs. Obama said Tuesday as she described the proposed rules at the White House. Promotion of sugary drinks and junk foods around campuses during the school day would be phased out under the...

Conservative student group Turning Point USA caused a stir last week by posting pages online from a textbook used at the University of South Carolina. The book calls Ronald Reagan “sexist” and says conservatives “take a basically pessimistic view of human nature” — one in which “people are conceived of as being corrupt.” Several avowed conservatives balked not just at the negative portrayal of Reagan but also at the idea that the conservative persuasion contains a measure of pessimism. On this point, the textbook is right and they are wrong. Russell Kirk was the man credited by William F. Buckley...

Penn State's Thon ended Sunday afternoon with a record-breaking finish. Last year's $12.37 million was surpassed with this year's $13,343,517.33. The total was revealed Sunday at the 2014 Thon at the Bryce Jordan Center. This is the 42nd year for the student fundraiser. Thon is a 46 hour no-sitting, no-sleeping dance marathon. Since 1977, Thon has raised more than $101 million benefiting the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital.

Education departments in a number of regions in Saudi Arabia have banned female employees and visitors who do not wear a face veil from entering girls’ schools, the Saudi Gazette reported on Monday. The report cited a pamphlet sent by education departments to school principals, in which male and female school guards are instructed to abide by Islamic rules, regulations and directives and moral principles. …

Even if you are not shopping for a Glock 42, this is still an excellent comparison of many single stack pistols on the market. There are almost an overwhelming number of options for a .380 or 9mm concealed carry weapon. Hopefully this video helped you glean some information.

For the fourth straight year, Washington, D.C. is the most literate city in the United States, according to a recent study on literacy. The study, by Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), examined how well Americans used their literacy skills in the nation’s largest cities. Rounding out the top five were Seattle, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Pittsburgh. CCSU ranked the cities based on six categories: bookstores, residents’ educational attainment, newspaper circulation, use of online resources, the library system, and periodical publishing resources. The most literate cities were largely in the Northeast, and they generally had a well-educated and well-paid population.Click here to...

I've come to a time in my life when I should make some decisions about what happens when I'm gone ...

After a year of fundraising, months of planning, and 46 hours of dancing, this year’s IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon shattered last year’s final total and raise a whopping $13,343,517.33 For The Kids. With the flipping of those iconic white placards by the 2014 Executive Committee, another beautiful chapter was added to the story of THON — our story of THON. This is the tenth straight year THON raised more money than the previous year. Since 1977, when THON and the Four Diamonds Fund paired up for a common cause, more than $100 million has been raised, excluding this year’s efforts....

I recently graduated with a Business degree, accounting major. I initially wanted to pursue a CPA license, but it doesn't look practical at this point. How did you prepare to pass the EA exam? Gleim? Thanks.

1.Be Weather-wise Always check local weather conditions before departure- TV and radio forecasts can be a good source of information. If you notice darkening clouds, volatile and rough changing winds, or sudden drops in temperature, play it safe by getting off the water. 2.Follow a Pre-Departure Checklist Proper boating safety means being prepared for any possibility on the water. From compliance with fire safety regulations to tips for fueling up, following a pre-departure checklist is the best way to make sure no boating safety rules or precautions have been forgotten. 3.Use Common Sense One of the most important parts of...

Why Can’t College Students Write Anymore? Is it just me, or are student competencies like basic writing skills in serious peril today? Granted, I am about a decade in to my teaching career, but even within this fairly short span, I have noticed a startling decline in the quality of written work turned in by my students, regardless of which institution (community college, private, four year school) the papers are coming from. It’s not just that students aren’t demonstrating critical thinking skills in their writing, basic competencies like proper syntax, spelling, and even proper structure like paragraph indentation and how...

BERKELEY, CA, February 21, 2014 (LifeSiteNews) – An unsuspecting group of elementary and middle school children witnessed vulgar and sexually-explicit sights when they visited the campus of the University of California at Berkeley this week. While walking through the campus, the children witnessed such sights as a man dressed in a giant penis costume and students playing “pin-the-tail on the anus” or throwing condoms through holes on poster boards meant to represent vaginas. Click "like" if you say NO to porn! Though these events were pre-planned and school-sponsored, student Claire Chiara said that “it was poor planning on the part...

After FCC commissioners announced they have reached a deal to approve the merger of Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI) and XM (NASDAQ:XMSR), Stern ranted about Democrats’ ‘gangsterism’ and ‘communism’ and the obstacles to the merger. Stern described a phone conversation he had with his agent, who he described as a “liberal Democrat kind of guy.” “I go, ‘That’s it!’” Stern said. “[I] go, ‘You know what Don, I’ve voted Republican and I’ve voted Democrat. I have vowed I will never vote for a Democrat again. I don’t give a [expletive] – no matter who they are. I don’t care if God becomes a...

Though former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told his Fox News Channel audience in early December he was no longer supporting the Common Core standards for which he had avidly campaigned, his message to one of the groups that created the standards was different.According to The Washington Post, at a recent meeting of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), one of the organizations that created the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), Huckabee urged state education officials to get rid of the “Common Core” name because it has become “toxic.” As the Post indicates, however, Huckabee still intends to support...

Not all at once, by some surgical procedure. No, this will be a slow, subtle process, taking place over years. Every step will be conducted with utmost seriousness. Scientific validity will be claimed. Endless research will be constantly referenced. If there is little progress or outright failure, teachers always seem amazed, as if such a thing had never happened before. Principals explain that the school is doing everything it can, if only parents would help in this delicate training. Children and families will be told with absolute confidence: we use the best methods here and our students learn to be...

A Florida school teacher faces battery charges after allegedly forcing a 10-year-old student to put his hands in a filthy urinal last week. Police say Jennifer Forshey, 58, made the student fish out paper towels from the urine-filled pipes. Forshey apparently believed the child had clogged the urinal and police say she showed no remorse at the time of her arrest. 'Victims hands were saturated in what smelled like urine from the urinal and the paper towel that was in the urinal,' reads the Coral Springs police report obtained by CBS Miami. Forshey was questioned and police say she regretted...

Yet the liberal obsession with “academic freedom” seems a bit misplaced to me. After all, no one ever has “full freedom” in research and publication. Which research proposals receive funding and what papers are accepted for publication are always contingent on political priorities. The words used to articulate a research question can have implications for its outcome. No academic question is ever “free” from political realities. If our university community opposes racism, sexism, and heterosexism, why should we put up with research that counters our goals simply in the name of “academic freedom”? Instead, I would like to propose a...

Here we are again, another February, black president firmly ensconced in office -- for a second term, no less -- and still we feel the need to set aside a month to celebrate the contributions of Black Americans. Each year we get a collective pat on the head by race hustlers and guilty liberals who act as if our skin color is akin to suffering from some kind of affliction that needs special compensation. Maybe we could organize a telethon to help find a cure? So even with a so-called post-racial president, there are still far too many of us...