Free Republic

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...

PERRIS - Gov. Schwarzenegger hopes to increase the state education budget by 6 percent to $61.5 billion, the largest amount given to schools at any time in history, his staff said Wednesday during a visit to the Inland area. But some local educators say it won't be enough -- even if the Republican governor's budget is passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature. Schwarzenegger's representative, Scott Himelstein, met with an invited group of educators, school administrators and community leaders at Val Verde Union School District office in Perris to discuss the education budget. Himelstein will become deputy secretary of education and chief...

On March 17, 2005, 15-year-old Delusa Allen was shot in the head while leaving Locke High School in Los Angeles, sending her into intensive care and eventually killing her. Four months before that several kids were injured in a riot at the same school, and last year the district had to settle a lawsuit by a student who required eye surgery after he was beaten there. In 2000, 17-year-old Deangelo Anderson was shot just across the street from Locke; he lay dead on the sidewalk for hours before the coroner came to collect his body. Violent crime is common at...

JOHN BAPTIST de la SALLE 1651-1719 Feast: April 7 This saint is the patron of teachers, his great achievement having been to provide a system of education for the common people at a time when the poor were grossly neglected; not mercy by founding charity schools, a cling which had been attempted countless times before only to end in repeated failure, but by creating a body of trained teachers, and thus setting them on the only possible basis which guaranteed success. It was not by inclination, but solely by chance chat he was led to take up this work....

It used to be red - before an unfortunate encounter with a bottle of bleach. That's the last time anything even remotely pink hung in my closet. Let's face it, pink is for little girls, Barbie, and of course, the inmates at the Maricopa County jail. For some time now, those in fashionista Sheriff Joe Arpaio's lockup have worn pink underwear and slept on pink sheets. Now they're wearing pink handcuffs, fluorescent, during transport. Seems Sheriff Joe was losing his regular handcuffs to his own deputies and other law enforcement agencies. So he ordered up a thousand of the day-glo...

War or no war, the Marine Corps recruiting juggernaut just keeps rolling. The Corps' ability to attract men and women has led to the recruiting equivalent of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak: the Marines' nine-plus-year run of making its personnel enlistment quota, unofficially known as "The Streak." The next closest service is the Navy, which has made its recruiting numbers for three years. Part of the Corps' success arrived at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego last month when educators from Redding, Folsom, Shasta and other towns within Maj. David Sosa's recruiting district in Northern California arrived for...