Free Republic

NOTE: In addition to the alarming results of the survey, Shari’a and Violence in American Mosques– where 81% of mosques in this country contained texts that advocate violent jihad– the survey presents a standard that can give law enforcement a way to monitor or potentially to predict where violent jihad may take root. The mosques surveyed contained a variety of texts, ranging from contemporary printed pamphlets and handouts to classic texts of the Islamic canon. Of these, seven Islamic texts were selected that either ‘moderately’ or ’severely’ advocated violent jihad. Nearly a decade after 9/11, Americans need more than ever...

"Death disports with writers more cruelly than with the rest of humankind," Cynthia Ozick wrote in a recent issue of The New Republic. "The grave can hardly make more mute those who were voiceless when alive--dust to dust, muteness to muteness. But the silence that dogs the established writer's noisy obituary, with its boisterous shock and busy regret, is more profound than any other. "Oblivion comes more cuttingly to the writer whose presence has been felt, argued over, championed, disparaged--the writer who is seen to be what Lionel Trilling calls a Figure. Lionel Trilling? "Consider: who at this hour (apart...

Kemba Walker has read a book. You read that right: Walker, the University of Connecticut (UConn) star guard and NCAA Men's Basketball National Champion, Walker has just admitted to finishing his first book "cover-to-cover," in an interview for Sports Illustrated. While for many that is in fact an achievement, for a junior in college who will be graduating this May, who undoubtedly should have read quite a few texts over the years, it is an embarrassment. The incident once again illustrates the fantasy that is the life of a superstar Division I student-athlete.

In 2008 my site Improve-Education.org proclaimed Jay Leno “The Educator of the Year.” This was a bit of a promotional stunt; it was also grimly serious. Public education in the US is a field disfigured by hidden ideology, dumb theories, and low performance. In this arena, Jay Leno stands out like a brave knight in silver armor. As the Proclamation dramatically stated: “Whereas Jay Leno, via the Tonight Show segment called JAYWALKING, has done more than anyone else in the USA to promote the improvement of education; whereas Jay Leno has highlighted the lowering of standards and the flight from...

Okay, folks, place your bets. Was it clueless incompetence on a cosmic scale? Or, was it John Deweys collectivist wet dream turned Clockwork Orange? One of these ways or the other, we became a country with 50,000,000 functional illiterates, people who can't read a cereal box, never mind instructions on a pill bottle when that exact skill might save a life. Prisons are full of people who can't read. The country's schools wallow in mediocrity. All thanks to educational malfeasance, decade after decade. J'accuse! J'accuse! The so-called experts in charge of reading are derelict and destructive. Please, remove these parasites...

A recent post about a new book by Denise Eide called “Uncovering the Logic of English” prompted more than 80 comments. One person in particular objected that phonics was not the entire answer, and argued that Sight-Words were easy to learn, and that many people read this way. I don’t think so. So I am always trying to figure out CLEVER NEW WAYS to explain this mess to all the confused parents out there, and the confused teachers in the schools. This new article points out quite simply that reading, as described and prescribed by the so-called experts in Whole...

Disgraceful. As he does every year, Sheriff Joe was supposed to read to 6th graders at a Phoenix school as part of 'Read Across America' week. However, his event was canceled. He says a district administrator canceled the appearance -- because it "might upset parents of Hispanic students". The school administrator at Sahuaro Elementary owes a public apology. More info here: http://bit.ly/hPNDra Outrageous. Joe Arpaio reads to kids every single year under this program. But the admin. was afraid "parents of Hispanic kids might complain", so he canceled on the top law enforcement official in the county. Unacceptable: Sahuaro Elementary...

Following is review on Amazon::::: "Memo To Teachers: Come Back To Real Reading-- Starting in 1931, the Education Establishment unleashed Look-Say upon the children of the United States. The result was a rising tide of illiteracy. The number of functional illiterates now exceeds 50,000,000. The so-called experts who engineered this decline have shown a demonic cleverness in attacking the common sense of phonics, while piling up sophistries that supposedly justify the hoax of Whole Word or Sight Words. It is against this backdrop that Denise Eide writes her book "Uncovering the Logic of English." Eide quantifies our unnecessary crisis: "The...

Don’t Tell the Children: Homeschoolers’ Best-Kept Secret BY SHERRY EARLY Homeschoolers are a rather independent lot, almost cantankerously so. So to say that all homeschoolers do, well, anything, would be a mistake. However, I would venture to say that most homeschoolers love books. For most, books are the primary educational resource, although computers are running a close second these days. But don’t tell the children. You see, my homeschooled children and those of my homeschooling friends haven’t been let in on the secret that Books Are School. They sort of think our house is furnished with wall-to-wall books just...

Rudolf Flesch published “Why Johnny Can’t Read” in 1955. It was a big success and remains one of the best-known books in American history. In that book Flesch explained the illiteracy crisis in the United States. Had the people in charge of education listened, he might have faded into history. Ironically, the fact that our Education Establishment tried to defame and ignore Flesch is precisely why he remains a cultural icon. The anti-phonics cartel was so entrenched that Flesch felt compelled to publish a second book 25 years later, “Why Johnny STILL Can’t Read” in 1981. This second book has...

-six years ago, in 1955 to be exact, the most significant book about American education was published and, with very good reason, caused quite a stir. It was written by Rudolf Flesch, who had come to America to escape the Nazis in Vienna, became highly fluent in English and got a Ph.D in English at Columbia University. The book was entitled Why Johnny Can’t Read. It became a best-seller and rankled the entire education establishment. In it Flesch explained why so many children in American schools were having such a difficult time learning to read. He wrote: “The teaching of...

The scheduled reading of the Constitution in the House went off smoothly today, after a few of the usual procedural squabbles and legislative throat-clearing. Most representatives of both parties did a perfectly fine job of reading their assigned bit of the text. Speaker John Boehner got to read the really soaring words at the beginning, and gave an exceptionally powerful performance. At the other extreme, watching disgraced Democrat Charlie Rangel read from the Constitution was like watching atheist comedian Ricky Gervais read the Bible, but not as funny. The only bump in an otherwise smooth process came when the requirements...

There are two ways to teach children to read. 1) Whole Word enthusiasts say that children must memorize the shapes of words one by one, just as the Chinese memorize their ideograms. This is the wrong way. English has far too many words for this approach ever to be considered. Even if an industrious child could memorize 2,000 word-shapes (which is extremely difficult and takes MANY years), that child would still be functionally illiterate. The vast majority of the English language remains unknown. Just as bad, words the child supposedly knows are rarely known with automaticity. Sight-word readers typically stumble,...

Since Katie Couric first asked the question a couple of years back, journalists continue to pepper Sarah Palin with that classic ice-breaker: "So, what are you reading?" The subject came up again in a recent profile in the New York Times Magazine, and last week Barbara Walters returned to the question in interviewing Mrs. Palin as one of her "10 most fascinating people of 2010." In both interviews Mrs. Palin cited C.S. Lewis as a favorite author she looks to for inspiration. This prompted talk-show host and comedienne Joy Behar of "The View" to deride Mrs. Palin and her choice...

1955 is a pivotal year in American history. This was the year Rudolf Flesch published “Why Johnny Can’t Read,” a book that explained the country’s illiteracy crisis. The biggest crime in American history didn’t start that year; but Flesch exposed it and forced people to confront it. The crime actually began 20 years earlier... Historically, most Americans could read; literacy rates went up and up, until about 1935. That was when progressive educators discarded phonics and forced Look-say into the public schools. (This method made children memorize the shapes of words, while ignoring the letters and their sounds.) Meanwhile, the...

A rider attached by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) to the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510), which proposes banning earmarks for the next three years, could have a devastating effect on educational programs like Reach Out and Read, Reading Is Fundamental, and Teach for America, which would lose their federal funding. The vote on the ban is scheduled to take place on the Monday after Thanksgiving. “The passage of this amendment would be catastrophic for Reach Out and Read and 12 other high quality, evidence-based programs that benefit millions of children and families in our country,” says Reach Out...

Think of this as a nice little time capsule from 50+ years ago....A review of "Reading: Chaos and Cure" just placed on Amazon: A wonderful and informative book I can heartily recommend to any parent or teacher. You learn a great deal about reading, for example, why Sight Words are a hoax, why phonics works. The authors state: "It is absurdly easy to teach a child to read with the proper method. Most of the children in America could be taught in a few weeks or months at the age of five. We shall tell you about various schools, now...

How to Raise Boys Who Read Hint: Not with gross-out books and video-game bribes. By THOMAS SPENCE When I was a young boy, America's elite schools and universities were almost entirely reserved for males. That seems incredible now, in an era when headlines suggest that boys are largely unfit for the classroom. In particular, they can't read. According to a recent report from the Center on Education Policy, for example, substantially more boys than girls score below the proficiency level on the annual National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test. This disparity goes back to 1992, and in some states...

I was just curious if you wouldn't mind giving your opinion(s) on which new book by which author Jason Lewis or Dr. Michael Savage(on at the same time) I should read. The books are called Power Divided is Power Checked and Trickle-up Poverty.

Israeli scientists believe they have identified why Arabic is particularly hard to learn to read. The University of Haifa team say people use both sides of their brain when they begin reading a language - but when learning Arabic this is wasting effort. The detail of Arabic characters means students should use only the left side of their brain because that side is better at distinguishing detail. (Snip) Both young children and adults call on both hemispheres to help them learn a new task. And using both hemispheres is the right thing to do when reading English or Hebrew -