Free Republic

In a recent story about political polarization, The Washington Post quoted a Michigan teacher who claimed the Mackinac Center for Public Policy is out to destroy public education because it has published the salaries of particular teachers. Erin Mastin, a teacher with Boyne City Public Schools, was portrayed in the article as someone concerned about divisiveness, and who believes the political system is rigged in favor of the rich and powerful. From the article: She could feel the influence of money in politics in her classroom, she said. In recent months, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative Michigan-based...

UNION, S.C. (WSPA) — Leigh Anne Arthur, a teacher at the Union County Career & Technology Center has resigned after a nude photo of her was spread through the school, says the district’s interim superintendent. The district said Arthur had nude photos of herself on her phone and a student took her phone while she was out of the room. The student then took photos of the nude images. The student then shared the photo throughout the school. The district became of aware of the incident last Monday and she resigned on Tuesday, according to the district. Arthur reached out...

Prof. Susan Engel, a psychologist, author and educator, published a controversial article in Bloomberg. The headline was "Want kids to learn math? STOP teaching it." http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-06/want-kids-to-learn-math-stop-teaching-it My local paper picked it up and I had a very violent reaction: that is the stupidest thing I have ever seen in a newspaper and, as you know, that covers a lot of ground. Later, when I went to Bloomberg to check on the comments, I was pleased to see many other people reacted as I did. Independent George wrote: 'This is quite possibly the worst educational advice I've ever read. I don't...

As a state college professor, upset over the disaster that our public schools have become, I have been thinking a great deal about the most effective teaching strategies. These obviously differ according to subject matter. But these are some points I’ve worked up over the years; it is now time to post them, hoping to get feedback and a discussion going. The Democrats have ruled public education through the chains of the federal government and unions for decades. It is time to take back education into an arena of challenge and success. 1) First we have to acknowledge that we...

No excerpt allowed from Bloomberg, story here.

When socialist Bernie Sanders beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in a landslide Tuesday in New Hampshire, he crushed her among young voters by a whopping 83 percent. Tuesday night in New Hampshire, 83% of voters aged 18-29 chose Sanders, according to exit polls. And those voters were a full one-fifth of the electorate. Sander's message of "income inequality" (Hillary has one too, but her Wall Street ties and personal wealth make it transparent) is popular with young people drowning in student loan debt (thanks to liberals proclaiming college is for everyone and by promoting the purchase of worthless degrees without the prospect...

The Detroit Public Schools is seeking a temporary injunction against teachers after sick-outs closed 88 schools in Detroit today - the largest in a string of teacher protests. The district is seeking relief in the Michigan Court of Claims, naming among the 28 defendants Steve Conn, the ousted leader of the teacher's union, interim president Ivy Bailey, and several groups including DPS Teachers Fight Back. Teacher absences forced 88 Detroit schools to close today, the largest sick-out meant to call attention to large class sizes, dilapidated buildings and other problems in Michigan's largest school district. The sick-out idled most of...

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Four schools within the Houston Independent School District will be renamed and four others removed from the discussion after approval Thursday night. Just after 7pm, trustees approved a plan to begin the process of renaming four schools with Confederate titles. Those schools include Henry Grady Middle School, Richard Dowling Middle School, Lee High School and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson Middle School. Trustees approve plan to begin process renaming 4 schools to represent #HISD values/diversity: @GradyMS @DowlingMS @LeeHSHouston, Jackson MS — Houston ISD (@HoustonISD) January 15, 2016 Four other schools with ties to the Confederacy were removed from the...

On January 1, California residents will have to accustom themselves to a number of new laws that will be implemented in the state. These are some the laws that will likely have the most profound effect: SB 172: High school seniors will receive their diploma whether or not they pass or even take an exit exam; the law also applies retroactively to students who have graduated since 2004; ... SB 707: Bans concealed firearms from college campuses and K-12 school grounds

Can you name the most contentious issue in American politics? Here's a hint. It's being fought at the federal, state and local levels. And it doesn't go away. The struggle is persistent, ongoing, unending. Here is a second hint. The issue is not gay marriage, or gun control, or police brutality and or immigration. Those issues are either settled, largely settled, isolated or completely out of the control of local and state governments. Here is a third hint. The issue divides Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals. But it is especially divisive among Democrats and among people who call themselves...

A southeastern Idaho cafeteria worker said she was fired for giving a student a free meal costing $1.70, but the school district offered her the job back after a national outcry. Dalene Bowden received a termination letter from the Pocatello School District last week after she gave a tray of food to a 12-year-old student who said she didn't have money for the meal.

A Texas mother is speaking out after her daughter's school gave the young girl a henna tattoo the week before Christmas. Tammy Samour was shocked when she picked up her daughter Leah, 7, from Ed White Elementary School in Houston and saw the second grader's hands covered in the designs, which are traditionally applied to the hands and feet of women during Hindu ceremonies and festivals. That shock soon turned to outrage however as Ms. Samour says she never gave the school permission to tattoo Leah - and now the brown paste will not wash off her hands. It can...

Were you aware that Christian parents are in the grip of fear over Islamic indoctrination in public schools? Neither was I, and I live at ground zero of a raging controversy over the manner in which public schools teach Islam, Christianity, and other world religions. My home county, Maury County, Tenn., made headlines when parents objected to an assignment, to middle-school kids, to write the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith. Other parents objected to apparent bias in the curriculum, noting that instruction about Christianity was both delayed and skewed, with an emphasis on Christians persecuting other Christians and...

CBS NEWS December 18, 2015 School Cancels Santa Field Trip After Mom Objects SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Parents of San Jose school kids confronted a school board Thursday night after a decision to cancel a field trip to see Santa Claus followed a complaint by a Jewish mother who objected to the school-sponsored outing, CBS San Francisco station KPIX-TV reports. The visit to Santa, along with a "Dear Santa" assignment, was a decade-long tradition at Sartorette Elementary School, part of San Jose's Cambrian School District. Last week, the Sartorette staff informed parents the school would suspend the outing to see...

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Not enough teenagers are being taught about condoms, artificial birth control, and other "skills" "needed to avoid HIV, other STDs, and unintended pregnancy," says a new government report. Every other year, the CDC surveys the nation's high schools and middle schools. Last Wednesday, it released the results of the 2014 School Health Profiles Survey at the National HIV Prevention Conference. The results covered a wide variety of health behaviors, including a section on sexual education. The sexual education results were unsatisfactory, said a press release, which noted that "fewer than half of high...

A Kentucky school district is being urged to reconsider after censoring "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and other programs by removing all references to religion. The Alliance Defending Freedom weighed in Tuesday after Johnson County Schools officials agreed to modify its holiday programming in order to avoid a potential lawsuit, a move prompted by a complaint from a parent about the classic Peanuts play.

Have you ever wondered what it's like to wear a Islamic hijab, which is mandated by Islamic law? Is that what you want for your daughters? Have you ever wondered what it feels like as a woman to wear a hijab? The terror connected Muslim Student Association recently held an event at a high school in Chicago where they encouraged non-Muslim girls to wear traditional hijabs (bolding is mine). The "Walk a Mile in Her Hijab" event Wednesday, hosted by the 10-member organization, was designed to allow non-Muslim female students the opportunity to wear the head covering and gain a...

Charlie Brown: I guess I don't really know what Christmas is about. Isn't there anyone who understands what Christmas is all about? Linus: Sure, I can tell you what Christmas is all about. -- "A Charlie Brown Christmas" In the Peanuts Christmas (not "holiday") classic, a morose Charlie Brown struggles to come to grips with "the true meaning of Christmas." Recall that Lucy, dispensing psychiatric advice as a cure for Charlie Brown's melancholy, therapeutically tasks him with directing their school's Christmas play. "You need involvement," she tells him. "You need to get involved in some real Christmas project." When...

Santa Claus is banned. The Pledge of Allegiance is no longer recited. "Harvest festival" has replaced Thanksgiving, and "winter celebrations" substitute for Christmas parties. New principal Eujin Jaela Kim has given PS 169 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a politically correct scrub-down, to the dismay of teachers and parents. "We definitely can't say Christmas, nothing with Christmas on it, nothing with Santa,"PTA president Mimi Ferrer said administrators told her. "No angels. We can't even have a star because it can represent a religious system, like the Star of David." Kim, 33, did not return a call or e-mail seeking comment.

Youssif Zaghwani Omar, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri, was arrested on suspicion of child abuse this past week for “allegedly grabbing a 14-year-old female relative by the hair and dragging her into a car after he noticed she wasn’t wearing a hijab.” Omar was at a local high school when he saw the girl without the Muslim headscarf. The Daily Mail reports: Officer Latisha Stroer told the Columbia Tribune in an email that Omar grabbed the girl ‘very violently by the hair’. He then allegedly slapped her across the face, and pulled her by the hair down...