Free Republic

"The Dozen Most Overrated Black People": Can you imagine if I (or any other columnist) actually wrote an article with this title and subject? ....So what to make of Columbia University Associate Professor Marc Lamont Hill's article.....entitled "The 15 Most Overrated White People"..... ......This cannot remain acceptable in America -- by which I do not mean that Hill should not be heard, but rather than he should not be heard without the challenges he so richly deserves. The media and Columbia University do the nation a disservice by giving this transparently racist pseudo-intellectual an uncontested platform from which to further...

Rockford Public School high school teacher Craig Beach wrote a column for MLive in which he alleged that Republican lawmakers are ruining the teaching profession and talked about a colleague’s daughter’s views on teacher pay. Beach quoted the young woman criticizing the teaching profession’s “extremely low pay” with “I want to eat and have a life.” The article quotes the young woman as saying: “Mom, I know what goes into the profession. You demonstrate the many hours put in after leaving school, the stress, the lack of respect and now extremely low pay. I want to eat and have a...

President Obama met with executives from the nation’s largest corporations and demanded large cash payments for education. Corporate bosses eagerly agreed to fork over what amounts to additional taxes for a schools system that does little to educate future employees. President Obama agreed to do nothing in return to improve the state of the public schools. He orated: “We’ll tell you what you need. Your job is to feel guilty and sign checks.” Corporate executives and government officials held hands and sang verses from Gilbert and Sullivan, with an especially rousing rendition of “We are the very model of a...

A look inside a teacher's mind could help you understand lesson plans and maybe even guide your child to perform better. 1. If we teach small children, don’t tell us that our jobs are “so cute” and that you wish you could glue and color all day long. 2. I’m not a marriage counselor. At parent-teacher conferences, let’s stick to Dakota’s progress, not how your husband won’t help you around the house.

A Spanish teacher in the Brownsville Area School District, she was suspended for 30 days without pay because a photograph of her with a stripper at a colleague's bachelorette party was posted on the popular social networking website. On Tuesday, she said she felt vindicated, as she and her ACLU attorney announced a $10,000 settlement with the district, along with full back pay and a clearing of her disciplinary record. Butch Santicola, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Educators Association, said teachers have to be careful in what photographs they take, what gets posted and where. "This is something that's...

Everybody wants to know: what the heck happened to American education????? Why this race for mediocrity???? Here's the whole story in maybe 600 words. The shortest formulation I've been able to come up with. Obama. Health care. Socialism. Pol Pot. Contempt. Bad education policy. John Dewey. It's all there. (A column on American Chronicle. Title: "Here's What Happened to American Education--The Very Short Version")

It starts with a little extra attention and affection, a personalized note on a term paper and chummy after-school banter. Before long it escalates to hugging and explicit text messages. It's called "grooming," small indiscretions that child abuse experts say should alert principals and parents to a developing sexual relationship between a teacher and student. But too often, these subtle cues go unnoticed until a relationship becomes inappropriate, or even criminal. Roy Junior High teacher Kenneth Taylor, who was charged 10 days ago with having sex with a former female student, is the latest addition to a growing list of...

SALT LAKE CITY -- A recent statewide screening of education workers' backgrounds turned up close to 7,000 arrests, criminal charges or convictions. It also shows 30 to 50 teachers had been arrested or convicted of serious enough offenses in the past that they could be fired or reprimanded. Nine education workers are out of jobs following the check. According to the Salt Lake Tribune: •The Granite School District has terminated three workers due to the screening •The Alpine district fired one •An aide for the Canyons district was let go for an open container violation and contributing to the delinquency...

(HELPER)—Two teachers at a small-town school are facing charges, accused of illegal sexual conduct with students. Both women had been working at Helper Junior High, until the Carbon School District learned of the cases at the end of July. Investigators say Melissa Andrini developed a sexual relationship this summer with a boy who may have been one of her students the previous year. Andrini has since resigned. Another teacher is accused of unlawful touching during the 2007-08 school year. Carbon School District Special Programs Director Robert Cox said she is currently on paid administrative leave, pending the investigation. Carbon County...

ROY -- The same day a 47-year-old Ogden High School teacher was accused of having a sexual relationship with a then 16- or 17-year-old former student, a Roy Jr. High teacher has been accused of the same thing with a former jr. high student. "They're victims. They're preyed upon. They're manipulated. They're not, by societal standards, mature enough to make some of these adult decisions on their own," said Roy police Chief Greg Whinham said. "We've been in this weird world where we're having one a week become the headline in the paper. There's definitely a problem." Ogden police and...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to cut deep into education funding includes shortening the K-12 school year by a week – the first time in the history of the state, experts say, that the school year has been sharply reduced, rather than lengthened. But that measure, among others, is being offered because the current economic crisis “is probably the most challenging budget situation the state has ever faced,” the administration says. “Most other industrialized countries are in excess of 200 days a year, and today we go 180 days. This proposal would whack that to 175 days,” said state schools Superintendent...

More evil and violence from the ‘religion’ of ‘piece’. No wonder muslim kids grow up so full of hate and venom, the very people charged with protecting them are beating them down in the name of allah. Gee what a shocker there… Muslim children are being beaten and abused regularly by teachers at some British madrassas - Islamic evening classes - an investigation by The Times has found. Students have been slapped, punched and had their ears twisted, according to an unpublished report by an imam based on interviews with victims in the north of England. One was “picked up...

July 19, 2006 Hello Fellow Christian/Conservative Public School Union Member, I am Jeralee Smith, California public school teacher and one of the three founders of the NEA Conservative Educators Caucus. In this letter, I am representing my own opinions. The Conservative Caucus has not asked me to write this, though most would probably agree with what I am about to tell you. This is a long letter, but I am morally compelled to give you this information and urge you to give it serious consideration. Many Christians and conservatives of other faiths are re-examining their relationship to teachers unions in...

VICTORVILLE —Victor Valley Union High School District teachers have been coached on a new approach to disciplining students. At issue is whether teachers need to adjust how they interact with and discipline students who misbehave, particularly students from difficult backgrounds. Culberson, director of youth services for the San Bernardino City Unified School District, said at a back-to-school inservice meeting that students today have less respect for authority than they did when many teachers were in school and consequently, some teachers have unrealistic expectations of their students. The district superintendent, Julian Weaver, said Culberson’s message does not represent a change in...

HOUSTON, July 20, 2006 – A new program aims to help military students develop leadership skills, patriotism, commitment to selfless service, and intellectual and problem-solving capacity. The "Student 2 Student Initiative," under the auspices of the Frances Hesselbein Student Leadership Program, is a student-led, school-managed program designed to help students moving from one school to another focus on the positive aspects of their new experiences. The Military Child Education Coalition, a nonprofit group that advocates on issues facing military families, sponsors the program. "The leadership program will develop our leaders of the future, who are our hope," Frances Hesselbein...

The big difference in the latest spate of horror stories about academic abuse is that they are taking place in lower grades. Sean Allen, a 10th-grader from Colorado who made national news when he taped his World Geography teacher’s political rant, spoke from experience, “I was flooded with similar stories from students across the nation,” he said at a conference on academic freedom. “We can’t simply deal with this on a case-to-case basis, we have to get to the root of it.” Sean firmly believes that the Academic Bill of Rights crafted by conservative author and activist David Horowitz gives...

Friday Evening Plenary, 7:00 pm Keynote Speakers: Howard Zinn, Boston University (retired), author and activist Andrea Smith, University of Michigan Saturday Morning Panels NOTE: One panel is scheduled for each time slot. Empire and Resistance, 8:30 – 10:15 Chair/commentator: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, California State University at Hayward Amee Chew, Why the War Is Sexist (and Why We Can’t Ignore Gender Any More; Here’s a Start for Organizing) (tentative title) Alan Dawley, The College of New Jersey, Anti-Imperialism in the Wilson Era John Mason Hart, University of Houston, The Rise of the American Empire Ngocnga Nguyen, University of California San Diego, U.S....

ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. (Army News Service, Nov. 9, 2005) – An initiative to promote understanding of the U.S. military matched up the Army’s top parachutists with some of Florida’s most influential citizens, during a tandem jump clinic in central Florida last week. Twenty community leaders, educators, and media personalities attended the two-day event northeast of Tampa, where they were given the opportunity to tandem skydive with the U.S. Army’s elite Golden Knights parachute team. Following a morning training class and meeting with the Golden Knights, the civilians were taken up in the Golden Knight’s signature UV-21 Twin Otter, paired up with...

A teacher at a San Marcos high school deliberately coached as many as 60 students before they took the science portion of annual state aptitude tests last spring, school district officials have found. The teacher, whose name, grade and tenure were not disclosed, resigned over the summer after officials discovered he had given Mission Hills High students advice on how to answer questions, Kevin Holt, assistant superintendent of human resources, said recently. Holt said the tests were given to different student groups at different times, and that gave the teacher a chance to see the questions and coach his students...

ATLANTA, July 8, 2005 – The U.S. Virgin Islands don't have any active duty military installations, but Army and Air National Guardsmen and their families can boast of living in America's Caribbean paradise with breathtaking beaches, secluded coves, pristine coral reefs and untouched rainforests. This U.S. territory also can boast of having caring and compassionate support for citizen-soldiers and airmen fighting the global war on terrorism and the loved ones they leave behind. "The services we render are to children and family members of the Virgin Islands National Guard, particularly those who are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan," said Evelyn...