Free Republic

The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.”— Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. One of the nation’s largest, sharpest, and wealthiest school systems, Fairfax County, has announced a bright, new idea (to take effect in 2016) that will directly influence district students in grades seven through twelve. It’s not a faster way to learn math, a more creative way to write stories, or a better...

A head teacher at a state school in Munich is attempting to introduce a strict Christian regime by hanging crosses in the classroom and holding daily prayers. He’s within the law, but parents and pupils are beginning to resist. According to Spiegel, the headteacher of Geretsried comprehensive was covering a lesson for a class of 14-15 year-olds when a debate broke out after the class refused to say a prayer. At the end of the debate, he said atheists were stupid, sparking outrage among teachers, parents and students alike. Not all pupils are baptized, and some teachers—including the biology teacher—don’t...

Private school kids can read. Classical academy kids can read. Montessori school kids can read. Homeschooled kids can read. Spot the pattern? It’s only kids in public schools who can’t read. Why is that? You would think our education professors would figure out what the schools are doing wrong. In fact, they have not figured out very much in the last 80 years. Our professors seem mainly concerned with perpetuating the wrong ways to teach reading. And so the crisis continues. Truth is, reading is easy to teach and easy to learn. All the phonics experts agree: reading is no...

My antennae go up whenever any education initiative is associated with radicals, like Bill Ayers. We still don’t know why Bill Ayers was at an education conference with Arne Duncan and a representative from Achieve, the well-connected, Washington-based non-profit organizing this effort to nationalize education. But once I began investigating the curricula and test questions I learned that sure enough, the rigorous “standards” turned out to be nothing more than efforts to impose a curriculum that will make global citizens out of all American students. Or the kind of curriculum Bill Ayers would like.

While America continues to face an expanding national security threat, President Obama has great difficulty in identifying the enemy that has been at war with the United States for over 35 years. Using terms such as “violent extremism” and “workplace violence” does an enormous injustice to our military forces, as well as to all law enforcement agencies that must be prepared to confront the Islamic jihadis on a daily basis. For example, the Obama administration directed all of our training manuals, that accurately portrayed the Islamic threat, to be purged by removing anything that didn’t portray Islam as a religion...

Scene: You're a woman, sitting on a bench reading a book. Your male friend sees you on the quad and comes over to say hello and talk. You put down your book, lean back against the bench and smile. He doesn't sit next to you; instead, he puts his foot on the bench and leans over his knee. So sexist, right? That scene is depicted in a statue at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, and despite no sign of distress or physical assertion, some women have decided it is a statue of "mansplaining" — a...

(Nov 27, 2013) Referred to as ‘Common Core lead standards authors’ by the Council of Chief State School Officers, David Coleman and Jason Zimba are just two in a long list of Common Core creators whose academic roots are with the education-for-a-revolution machine borne by Annenberg Institute, Carnegie Corporation, Bill Gates, et al. Today, Coleman and Zimba are head of Student Achievement Partners, an organization that played a leading role in developing the standards and actively supports districts and states in implementing them. Prior to Student Achiement Partners, Coleman and Zimba were co-founders of the Grow Network (now owned by...

Track star and Ivy-League freshman student Madison Holleran, age 19, had been a “happy go lucky,” though achievement-oriented, kid all her life, according to her father. She had no history of mental illness. At home for Christmas break last year, she broke down and told her parents that she had been having suicidal thoughts and was depressed. Her mother said that “I was shocked. She’s never been depressed before,” according to the Daily Mail. “I knew she needed a therapist, but I couldn’t get her an appointment because it was weekend.” Madison seemed to respond somewhat to the TLC she...

MACKINAC ISLAND, MI -- Mike Rowe made dirty jobs look cool. Can he do the same for the tool and die industry? The state today at the Mackinac Policy Conference annouced a partnership with Rowe and his foundation, mikeroweWorks, to produce videos that show students skilled trades are sustainable, good career paths. Rowe's videos, targeted to middle and high school students, will highlight industries like tool and die, health care, construction and welding. "Closing the skills gap is not about creating opportunity. It's about making sure that people understand all of the opportunities that currently exist," Rowe said Wednesday. "Michigan...

Erasers are an ‘instrument of the devil’ and should be banned from classrooms, an education expert has warned. Guy Claxton, visiting professor of learning sciences at King’s College London, said rubbers wrongly encourage children to feel ashamed of their mistakes. Youngsters need to be unafraid of making errors, to recognise and learn from them, the cognitive scientist added. ‘The eraser is an instrument of the devil because it perpetuates a culture of shame about error,’ he told the Daily Telegraph. ‘It’s a way of lying to the world, which says, “I didn’t make a mistake. I got it right first...

I was once reasonably dignified. I dressed like a gentleman and luxuriated in the cultural heritage of Western civilization. My three places of residence—my home, my office, and my mind—were free of clutter and arranged so as to allow me both to make the most of my days and to begin to venture out into intellectual life. Then I became a father.

It’s difficult to describe anything as a “feel good story” on a day when we are commemorating the Honored Dead, but I suppose this story comes as close as any. CBS News is providing the details of a tale which took place long ago in a small village a bit to the north of where I live, in Gowanda, New York. They have a war memorial in their town just like so many other places around the country. But for the lifetime of most of the current residents, one name has been missing. Carroll Heath was a young boy born...

Police say a 15-year-old baseball player has died after being struck by a ball in the northern Minnesota city of Bemidji. snip Police say Zacharie was pitching and was struck by a ball that a batter hit. He died later at a hospital.

The teeming plant world could become a virtual mystery in the coming decades as college students increasingly shy away from studying botany and universities across the U.S. shutter their long-standing herbaria. Since 1988, the number of research universities offering botany degrees has dropped by half, according to National Science Foundation research funding statistics. And the National Center for Education Statistics reports that fewer than 400 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral botany degrees were awarded in 2012. Educators say that’s because students are being pushed into more modern, technology-related majors. Current botanists fear that will lead to a dearth of people able...

The Pilgrims Formula To Save America! Kirk Cameron in Monumental ( 15:19 ) Published on Sep 30, 2012 If we go back to the formula the Pilgrims laid out for a successful America, we can still save America.

A Las Vegas high school sophomore says school administrators denied her application to form a pro-life club on campus. West Career and Technical Academy Vice Principal Allan Yee allegedly told Angelique Clark that the club would be “controversial” and would make pro-choice students feel left out. He also reportedly said that others were “more qualified to speak on the issue than a high school sophomore.” …

Seniors at a Utah high school received one final spelling lesson at their graduation ceremony. 600 graduates of Fremont High School in Ogden, Utah, were given graduation medals inscribed with the words “Clas of 2015.” Yes, that's “class” with only one “s.” …

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) recently proposed the Parental Choice in Education Act as a way to provide more opportunity for parents in choosing which schools would be the best fit for their children. The legislation would use $70 million in taxpayer money to create an education tax credit for families making $60,000 or less. Parents who qualify could receive up to $500 in a tax credit or refund for each student attending a private school. Among other benefits, it would also encourage more private school scholarships. "This is about fairness and this is about parents choosing the school that is...

THE FOLLOWING IS BASED ON ACTUAL EVENTS...... I have been on vacation, or as they say in England, "Drinking A Lot". I spent a day in The City Of Lights which is, of course, Spokane, Washington. It was their annual Lilac Day Festival where they celebrate, well, Lilacs. They have a parade and a car show and lots of fragrant bums, no, Lilacs. The bums are more pungent than fragrant. The parade was quite enjoyable. They had at least 150 Rodeo Queens riding their horses in the parade. Every small town around Spokane must have a rodeo and by logic,...

My Dad's been experimenting with ways to prevent squirrels from accessing his bird feeder. Mounting it in another place would be too easy. Any other ideas?