Free Republic

This week we’ll celebrate the 237th anniversary of our independence. But are we a free people? SCOTUS made an ill-conceived ruling believing the choice of sexual behavior should trump the peoples’s referendum. We are free to love anyone or anything we desire in America, but that does not correlate to rights beyond the unalienable ones Jefferson articulated 237 years ago. In California we have a state-funded grant for the Los Angeles Unified School District to abuse the concept of public education by turning public schools into indoctrination factories, forcing children to spout the joys of Obamacare. The district listed as...

A few weeks ago I wrote something criticizing public schooling over this incident. It got the ire up of friends and family members, many of whom have spent decades of their lives teaching and working in public schools. They vehemently disagreed with my portrayal of public schooling. I reflected on what, exactly, bothered me about public schools and other activities or institutions like them, and I came up with a simple thesis:For many hours each day, you cede your authority and parental care to others while letting other children socialize your children.In the case of public school, those “others” are bus drivers, teachers,...

As dissatisfaction with the U.S. public school system grows, apparently so has the appeal of homeschooling. Educational researchers, in fact, are expecting a surge in the number of students educated at home by their parents over the next ten years, as more parents reject public schools. A recent report in Education News states that, since 1999, the number of children who are homeschooled has increased by 75%. Though homeschooled children represent only 4% of all school-age children nationwide, the number of children whose parents choose to educate them at home rather than a traditional academic setting is growing seven times...

Thinking about some of the other articles linked in the comments section as it relates to the topic in this earlier post about how children are being conditioned by our schools to view guns, I came across the following video that resonates with the ring of truth: http://youtu.be/GWRdHXbTmrsRandomly stumbled upon this article that mentions: 3) Dodgeball — The Wyndham School District in New Hampshire banned dodgeball and other “human target” games to prevent bullying, the Eagle-Tribune reported. Even before Sandy Hook, allowance of dodgeball, I believe, has been on the wane due to being "too violent". Are the adults making...

Children who don’t get a pre-kindergarten education, ideally from birth to age 5, might fall behind and “may as well drop out” by third grade, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said on Wednesday at an event to garner support for President Barack Obama's $75-billion proposal to increase pre-school enrollment across the country.

The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is pressuring public schools in this country to make special accommodations for Muslim students and to deny comparable accommodations for students of other faiths. For example, CAIR’s instructional material for teachers entitled “An Educator’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices” advises schools to permit Muslim students who wish to attend Friday congregational worship (known as Jum’ah) to “request a temporary release from school.” In Michigan, CAIR went beyond dispensing general advice from its guidebook. In April, 2013, it pushed for public schools in Dearborn, Michigan to accommodate Muslim students who wish to comfortably...

The family of the 7-year-old boy from Ann Arundel County elementary school who was suspended for making a gun shape out of a pastry has tried to clear the boy’s record. This story made headlines across the country as the gun control debate has taken center stage among many elementary schools as some school administrators flex their muscles with a “zero tolerance policy” that excuses itself from common sense. But according to the Baltimore Sun school officials denied the boy’s family’s appeal on Monday, not allowing the boy’s record to be expunged of the incident. Robin Ficker, attorney for Park...

Silicon Valley is world-renowned for the Nobel Prize winners and MacArthur "geniuses" behind theoretical breakthroughs in science, technology, engineering and math. Less well-known are people like Patrick Pickerell, a high school dropout whose $10 million-a-year Pleasanton metal manufacturing company is powered by people with no university credentials but plenty of math and fix-it skills -- ingredients essential to innovation. A new report, "The Hidden STEM Economy," reveals that a university degree is not required for 27.5 percent of all jobs in the San Jose area in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. The number is even higher --...

Absolutely no one I know is satisfied with the education their children are getting in public schools. But most of the people I talk to with young kids have two parents that work full time outside the house and are unable to homeschool their children. But a lot of parents are making the sacrifice as evidenced by the explosion of home schoolers in the US. From Breitbart: As dissatisfaction with the U.S. public school system grows, apparently so has the appeal of homeschooling. Educational researchers, in fact, are expecting a surge in the number of students educated at home by...

A Texas high school silenced its Valedictorian’s microphone during his speech when he diverted from his pre-approved remarks and instead spoke about the Constitution.

HIGHLAND PARK - "Negative environment" is blamed for the sudden, involuntary transfer of four North Shore District 112 teachers this week. One of those moved to a new school, fourth-grade teacher Ellie Rubenstein, made her side of the story public with a YouTube that's being viewed by thousands. In Rubenstein 10 minute video, now viewed by over 162,000, she blames her sudden transfer to her resistance curriculum changes and burdensome testing. "I'm not a yes man," and that teaching is no longer meaningful. "I have to get out!" Rubenstein says. snip The Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) are a set...

There are few victories sweeter in life than that of young teenagers triumphing over organized mean-spirited adults in positions of seemingly absolute power. This is a story that comes out of my own home town of Gold Beach, Oregon. It pits the high school band, consisting of 15 teenagers ranging in age from 15 to 18, against the powerful local teacher's union that tried to shut the band down because their unpaid volunteer band director, who everybody agreed was doing a good job, did not possess an Oregon teaching credential. http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/duffy141.html

highly controversial school curriculum used in much of Texas known as “CSCOPE,” which came under relentless assault from activists and parents who said it was promoting “progressive” anti-American and anti-Christian propaganda, was dealt a major blow by policymakers this week. However, despite media reports and legislators heralding the death of the divisive educational program, major elements remain in place. The system surged into the national spotlight earlier this year when conservative media outlets began exposing the curriculum contents, which critics lambasted as everything from “Marxist” indoctrination to “pro-Islam” attacks on Christianity. Others complained that parents were not allowed to access...

An Irving high school student drugged a 15-year-old classmate for several days and forced her to have sex with men who gave him drugs and money in exchange, police said Tuesday. Nimitz High School student Travis Lekas, 17, is also accused of trying to recruit other students from Nimitz and Bowie Middle School to engage in prostitution. Police said they are working to determine whether Lekas had other victims. Lekas, who was arrested at his home Monday, faces one count of human trafficking of a minor, one count of compelling prostitution and one count of sexual performance by a child....

CAHOKIA • A Cahokia High School assistant teacher and coach has been charged with having sexual contact with a teenage boy and transmission of HIV. Mario L. Hunt, 35, of the 1900 block of Florence Street in Cahokia, was charged in St. Clair County on Monday with criminal sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual abuse transmission of HIV. The offenses happened with a 17-year-old boy during the first six months of 2011.

Common Core is an educational curriculum being forced upon the states by the Obama administration, which is scheduled to be mostly implemented this year in the 45 states that have adopted it. Common Core eliminates local control over K-12 curriculum in math and English, instead imposing a one-size-fits-all, top-down curriculum that will also apply to private schools and homeschoolers. Common Core was has been promoted in a manner that sounds good and commendable – “States working together to create national standards for education… standards that are designed to be robust and relevant in the real world.” Common Core describes itself...

Hot teacher alert!

From time to time, I have been highly annoyed with the school that my daughter attends. I have set up meetings with teachers, principals, and administrators. I have brought in paperwork and pleaded my case on a variety of topics. I have made scathing remarks. Once, I even had the utter audacity to argue a point with the principal with my daughter right there in the room, which is apparently a no-no because it “undermined the authority of the principal”. However, I haven’t yet gone on a rampage against which the police would need to come in and defend the...

Here is a list of the teacher 'sexpidemic' cases WND has documented where female teachers have been accused, or convicted, of assaulting students: Abbie Jane Swogger, 34: Teacher's aide at Highlands Senior High School in Harrison, Pa., was arrested Feb. 22, 2008, for renting a hotel room where police found beer, marijuana, an open condom wrapper and at least four teenage girls and boys, including several of her 15-year-old son's friends. Though categorically denying rumors she was having sex with students from the school, Swogger was quoted as saying, "I was stupid, very stupid. I already know I was and...

We’ve almost become immune to the everyday horror stories perpetrated on innocent children in government schools. Too many parents are oblivious to the predators in and around their children – many of whom are paid with their tax dollars. But last week WND noticed the trend is reaching epidemic proportions – from teachers providing sexually explicit material to students to same-sex rape to torture to kidnap to delivering drugs to students to rigging test scores for cash. The disturbing series of reports starts in Utah, where a high school teacher is accused of sexually abusing a 17-year-old student. Both are...