Free Republic

We’re All Right-Wing Bastards Now —that is, if the NEA’s logic is to be believed. On the final day of the National Education Association’s convention last summer, its outgoing general counsel, Bob Chanin, gave a speech for the ages. After sharing fond recollections of his 41 years as the NEA’s top lawyer, he switched gears and started lobbing grenades at “conservative and right-wing bastards,” including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. The NEA and its affiliates, by contrast, were “the nation’s leading advocates for public education and the type of liberal social and economic agenda that these groups...

Amazon review of 1959 book by Merrill Root. Reveals how totalitarian enemies try to control what is taught in public schools. ///START REVIEW/// The Illusion of Choice. Or: How Commies Win and We Lose /// One big question circa 1955 was why so many American POWs in the Korean War had surrendered to Communist interrogation techniques? Why had these young soldiers become what the Communists themselves called "progressives"--that is, men who were Communist sympathizers or collaborators--or both--during their time in captivity? The author's starting point is that these young Americans knew little that was positive about their country, for the...

Here is video of CNN anchors John Roberts and Kiran Chetry essentially “rolling their eyes” even as they report on the accusation that Sarah Palin “rolled her eyes” at a teacher she was having a debate with in Homer, Alaska. Palin encountered the teacher as she walked through town. The woman had a huge banner that attacked Palin as the “worst governor ever.” Palin engaged the woman in debate, and when learning the woman was a teacher, she appears to raise her eyebrows and look over at daughter, Bristol. Now, the media is attacking her for “rolling her eyes” at...

CNN has an interesting roundtable on the case of Jennifer Keeton, who has sued Augusta State University to keep from getting expelled for not repudiating her statements about homosexuality. Keeton expressed her biblical perspective on the subject in and out of class while working toward a degree in counseling, and the school mandated a “remediation plan” that appears to have required her to renounce her Christian doctrine in order to gain a diploma from the school. The school has responded that a bias against homosexuality would disqualify Keeton from certification, a position that would put most Christians in Keeton’s position.Does...

Waiting for Superman is the new documentary by the same people who made An Inconvenient Truth, and this film sets out to do with regard to public education in America what its predecessor did with regard to climate and energy policy. That is, to expose the manifest failings of the system, point to the culprits for those failings and, finally, to suggest remedies. Making the case that the American education system is failing is probably the least contentious part of that process. The statistics on American educational underachievement are far less disputed than those on global warming. And the movie...

...the near future: Augustus Merryweather IV glanced up at the tapping on his office door. Harvey Carbunkle stood there... "You're firing me?" "I have no choice. Your work, ...it hasn't been up to the standard we expect for an editor at Merryweather Publishing. Frankly, I'm surprised. When I saw that you were a graduate of BU, I couldn't wait to hire you..." A proud smile. "Yes, sir. That's Beck University." Augustus was confused. "I've never heard of..." ..."You know, Glenn Beck? ...He founded an online university back in 2010 so people could learn the real truth they don't get in...

A manhattan dad nearly choked on his Wheaties when his 14-year-old son timidly asked: "Dad, do I have to wear a dress to school?" No joke. These conversations went on in kitchens and living rooms around the city, as a top school that educates learning-disabled and autistic children staged a student production of "La Cage aux Folles" -- a cross-dressing, limp-wristed, gay comic romp whose main characters are a pair of "married" men. (snip)the kiddie version of "La Cage" was cooked up by the executive director of Child School, a private institution on Roosevelt Island that takes on youngsters from...

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=XdaG2GaGnz> School children are lead by a teacher in a chant that begins with "I will be anything I want to be." At one point during the incantation the teacher asks the students to repeat the phrase "I am an Obama scholar."

It’s not that I have anything against Mexico; love the country; love the people. It’s just that I would like to edge the state of Texas over the border and out of America. My issues with the Lone Star State, aside from the fact that it nurtured and launched the career of George Bush, is that the Texas school board has staged an intellectual coup d’état, voting in changes to the school curricula based on political and religious bias rather than educational criteria. In this case, the board is pushing an ultra-conservative, Christian agenda. But no religious or political agenda...

This will make every Conservative parent’s head spin! A student expressed her conservative beliefs during a conversation on the school bus about abortion, gay marriage and Barack Obama. The school bus driver, Betty Campbell, overhears the conversations and launches a full on attack at the child saying she was a, “stupid, little bigot!” “If you can’t believe in tolerance towards one another, you don’t belong here. You belong in a parochial church school!” http://www.kcci.com/video/23680243/index.html Later the bus driver dropped the children off at their homes and actually CAME BACK to the child’s home and took her onto her bus to...

On April 28, Palm Beach County’s school board voted unanimously to amend their Equal Opportunity Policy and its Policy Prohibiting Discrimination and Harassment to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression.” Both policies are expected to be formally ratified at a public hearing within a few weeks. Palm Beach County Human Rights Council (PBCHRC) is a non-profit organization that seeks to end discrimination towards the LGBT community in the county, founded by Rand Hoch, a Civil Rights Attorney. Since 1991 PBCHRC has asked the county’s school board to prohibit discrimination against their gay employees. Hoch says in 1991 there...

What follows is just a short review of a book nobody would think of reading, a paperback published in 1964 to help parents understand New Math. But if you've been wondering how our Education Establishment has managed to sabotage math skills in this country, this review will be helpful:---------------- "New Math was one of the silliest, most pretentious, and finally most unsuccessful educational gimmicks ever devised; and this book perfectly captures the idiocy of it all. In fairness, the authors were trying to do a good job but their mission is to explain the preposterous. Prefatory copy in this book...

.... He insisted the new curriculum applied to "all students in publicly funded schools, including Catholic schools." His education minister, Leona Dombrowsky, also said the Catholic Church supported the new curriculum. But Catholic officials made it clear they were not prepared to implement any of the more controversial elements, including talk of homosexuality and masturbation in Grades 3 and 6 respectively..... "Talking about homosexuality and masturbation to primary children is hardly age appropriate," Sister Joan said. "Certainly it's not in the Catholic community. I'm not judging for other people. "The Church disapproves of masturbation on any level," she said. Homosexual...

TORONTO - Ontario's Catholic schools can't opt out of a revamped sex ed curriculum even if it goes against their religious beliefs to teach kids about masturbation and homosexuality, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday. Several conservative and religious groups claim the changes coming this fall will corrupt young minds with "explicit" topics like anal sex. But Ontario's Catholic premier made it clear that all public schools must teach the lessons that will start as early as age six. The first changes to Ontario's curriculum in a dozen years will see students learning about masturbation in Grade 6 and oral and...

THIS YEAR: JOIN the WALKOUT! Help spread the word to parents around the state and around the country! And here's what you can do in your own school: (1) Call your school and demand to know if there will be ANY activities regarding the Day of Silence, and what day it will be held. (2) Let them know that your child(ren) will not be coming to school that day - and why. NOTE: This also applies to private schools and (sad to say) even some parochial schools.

The Rochester school district says that a teacher's use of his school e-mail account to send a message urging staff to join a counter-rally against Thursday's Tea Party Patriots rally violated the district's e-mail policy. "The District considers an e-mail message that was sent out by a District employee on Friday, April 9, 2010, an inappropriate use of District e-mail. In compliance with the District policy, all personnel issues will remain confidential and the District will take appropriate action according to our policies," according to a statement released Monday by the district. The teacher sent an e-mail to other teachers...

For years I have been telling congressional staffers that they have it within their power to bring balance to institutions of higher learning. All they have to do is cut federal spending on education. Yet and still, as a great man said, "There are simple answers, just not easy ones." Don't scratch your heads over the source of that quote: It was Ronald Reagan. Now, from inside the academy, comes affirmation. "We have reached the point where for many institutions of higher education, the amount of revenue that they derive from either of their two traditional source-tuition and either state...

Portage High School West school board member Cheryl 0prisko has forced her school's students into a partisan controversy entirely of her own making. Presentation of the colors by a JROTC color guard is a typical event at all sorts of civic events, including partisan political events. But 0prisko seems to be woefully uninformed. At Al Gore's 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, a JROTC color guard presented the colors.

Few adults may know it, but kids across the country are about to celebrate a holiday: Earth Day, which is April 22. Schools will take a break from normal instruction to discuss the importance of preserving the environment. That may sound like a harmless activity, but too often Earth Day becomes a platform for pushing an ideological brand of environmentalism. Parents need to pay attention and ask their children's teachers what's their plans are for Earth Day. Unlike most holidays, Earth Day expressly focuses on youth. No gifts will be exchanged and no Easter Bunny will deliver jelly beans in...

Lately, Duke University has been doing more withdrawing than Marion Barry without a crack pipe. Readers will remember that they had to echo Gilda Radner with a giant “Never mind” after they jumped the gun and punished several lacrosse players falsely accused of rape. Now, they’ve decided to withdraw a promise to provide space for Duke Students for Life to hold an event at the Duke Women's Center. The planned "Discussion with a Duke Mother" event has now been aborted. This late-term abortion of free speech is entirely unjustifiable according to the stated mission of the Duke Women's Center. It...