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A Catholic university recently cancelled classes for the day in order to address the alleged problem of racism on its campus, with the school also bringing in a professor from California “who focuses on diversity and inclusion” in order to speak to the students this week. The University of St. Thomas, a Catholic school in St. Paul, Minnesota, gave students the day off of classwork as part of its plan to “[take] action after a racist message was recently written on a student’s door,” KSTP reports.

pronouns Todd Starnes By Todd Starnes Published August 27, 2015 FoxNews.com Facebook106 Twitter35 livefyre36 Email Print University of Tennessee University of Tennessee Educators in the Volunteer State are very concerned that students might be offended by the usage of traditional pronouns like she, he, him and hers, according to a document from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. “With the new semester beginning and an influx of new students on campus, it is important to participate in making our campus welcoming and inclusive for all,” wrote Donna Braquet in a posting on the university’s website....

Adam Stinnett looks up to his older stepbrother – a soldier in the U.S. Army. So when it came time to get a haircut, the seven-year-old told his mother he wanted a basic military-style cut. And that’s exactly what he got – high and tight – just like his stepbrother. Adam got his haircut on March 8. On March 9, his mother got a letter from the principal of Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School in McMinnville, Tennessee. It seems they were not all that thrilled with the second grader’s new hairdo. The principal told Amy Stinnett that her son’s haircut...

The father of a La Plata High School student has been barred from the school grounds after officials said he threatened to disrupt the school environment. Kevin Wood was issued a no-trespass order last week after a telephone call with La Plata High Vice Principal Shannon Morris on Thursday. Wood called to air complaints regarding his daughter’s world history assignment that asked students to examine elements of the Islamic religion. Morris and La Plata High Principal Evelyn Arnold reported to the Charles County Public Schools central office that Wood in his phone call had threatened to upset the school environment...

The sun was just beginning to rise over the Rocky Mountains, but Sheriff Justin Smith was already awake. He was standing outside Fort Collins High School – shivering in the frigid cold. It was 12 degrees. Snow was falling. But Mr. Smith, wearing his dress blues, stood resolute, waving an American flag. The sheriff of Larimer County, Colorado had come to school Tuesday to send a message to those responsible for educating the county’s children. The sheriff was not in a good mood. He was standing in the winter snow to protest the school’s decision to ban a celebration of...

Bolivia will this month table a draft United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" the same rights as humans — having just passed a domestic law that does the same for bugs, trees and all other natural things in the South American country. The bid aims to have the UN recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to "dominate and exploit" — to the point that the "well-being and existence of many beings" is now threatened. The wording may yet evolve, but the general structure is meant to mirror Bolivia's Law of the Rights of Mother Earth,...

She called in sick. Then, police say, she robbed a bank.

"MANY AMERICANS do not believe that the success of our students or of our schools can be measured by one test administered on one day, and I agree with them. This is not fair," Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, told the National Press Club last month. As the House Education and Labor Committee he chairs is expected to roll out a draft for legislation to reauthorize the 2001 No Child Left Behind bill, Miller and fellow Democrats want to change NCLB testing. Currently, the law requires that students be tested in math and reading every year between third-grade and eighth-grade, then...

Other than a three-day weekend, most Americans don't give much thought to what they're supposed to be observing on Labor Day. In practice, it's become little more than the unofficial celebration of the end of summer. Back in 1882, when New York City's Central Labor Union inaugurated the holiday, the labor movement was quite a different thing than it is today. Once upon a time, workers had valid grievances regarding pay, hours, conditions and safety. Unions served a positive role in leveraging the collective influence of their members to pressure management to redress those grievances. But labor unions are political...

House votes to end need for 60% on school levies By Andrew Garber Seattle Times Olympia bureau OLYMPIA — The state House of Representatives yesterday passed legislation, for the third year in a row, that could make it easier for school districts to get property-tax levies approved by voters. The constitutional amendment now goes to the state Senate, where it has died in past years. It would allow school levies to be approved by a simple majority of voters instead of a 60 percent supermajority. The amendment would go before voters in November if approved by a two-thirds majority in...

If We Bought Groceries the Way We Buy Public Education By: Jerry Agar Public education is a monopoly controlled by the government. Whenever I point out that socialism doesn’t work, I am invariably told that I am wrong and that education is too important to be left to the private sector. Children have a right to education, and some children would not be educated without total government involvement. Should we then decide that food is too important to be left to the private sector, in the belief that only the government can equitably distribute groceries? After all, if we don’t...

<p>Justine Steele is a senior at Independence High School in San Jose, a sprawling campus of 4,054 students where 8 percent are Caucasian. Forget the numbers. "Look around," she says. There are Indians and Vietnamese, Mexicans and Filipinos.</p> <p>Here, a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes stands out.</p>

"Crummy public schools are producing a crummy workforce and that is really killing us in the global work place." I'm trying to write a reasoned response to the above as if it were (another) letter to the editor of a newspaper, for a class assignment (social, multicultural based foundations of ed). I am soliciting any notions (on either end) for ideas, statistics, pointers, websites, etc. Please help. Send freepmail, respond here, whatever, but soon because this is like a final due in a couple of days. Thanks! yours in jeffersonian liberty, -SteveH

Author 'really surprised': Several nations with poor attendance do well on academics Heather Sokoloff Canadian teenagers are among the world's worst offenders when it comes to skipping school, with one in four regularly not showing up for class, according to a new report on students' feelings about school. Only Spain, Denmark, Greece, New Zealand and Iceland report higher absentee and tardiness rates among 15 year-olds in the 28 countries surveyed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Students in the United States are more likely to attend class than their Canadian counterparts, with one in five admitting they...

http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/midsouth_news/article/0,1426,MCA_1497_2180978,00.html Audit shows Shumaker lived it up while UT paid the bill By Duncan Mansfield, The Associated Press August 14, 2003 KNOXVILLE - Former University of Tennessee president John Shumaker tipped well, traveled extensively and lived lavishly, according to an internal audit released Wednesday. It listed such expenditures as $6,000 for a flight to Greece, more than $165,000 for tailgate parties, and nearly $500,000 for furnishings and improvements to his residence. "I think people will be mad about it and I think that anger is appropriate," Gov. Phil Bredesen, who is chairman of the UT Board of Trustees, said at...