[Gefreiter]

The enclosed recommendations will never happen to anyone's satisfaction. The far left will see them as recommendations for "linguistic racism" and fight them tooth and nail. And raise another generation of ignoramouses with high self-esteem.

[Taliesan]

Typical goofball solution to a simple problem. You don't make better writers by teaching "writing theory". You make better writers by getting them to read good writing, and then write.

Then you give them feedback like: "There are no paragraphs. Create paragraphs, and turn it back in." And if they don't, you flunk them.

That will fix it.

[Stand Watch Listen]

indexing

Here are links to various education threads (also containing numerous helpful links)

FReegards

Demoralized Teachers, Unruly Students, Bureaucracy Top Concerns About Schools
Source: AP Breaking; Published : April 23, 2003; Author: Siobhan McDonough

Red Pencils, Low Marks - How the diversity industry dumbs down American education
Source: WSJ Opinion Journal.com; Published: April 22, 2003; Author: Gary Rosen

Left High and Dry
Source:Lew Rockwell; Published: April 21, 2003; Author: Linda Schrock

Teaching Tomorrow's Teachers: Instructor To The Trustafarian Class
Source: Toogood Reports; Published: April 11, 2003; Author:| Bernard Chapin

How Not to Teach Math
Source: City Journal; Published: 7 March 2003; Author: Matthew Clavel

Government Schools Have U.S. On The Fast Track To Third-World Status
Source: Toogood Reports; Published: March 6, 2003; Author: Bob Ellis

Sodom and Gomorrah University
Source: WorldNetDaily.com: Published: February 19, 2003; Author: Michelle Malkin

The Union That Killed Education
Source: newsmax.com; Published: February. 17, 2003; Author: Paul Craig Roberts

Walter E. Williams: Inferior Education of Black Americans
Source:CNSNews.com; Published: February 05, 2003; Author: Walter E. Williams

Union Fraud Underscores Need for School Vouchers
Source: CNSNEWS.com; Published: February 05, 2003; Author: Linda Chavez

Time for public schools to throw in the towel?
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: January 27, 2003; Author: Dr. Laura Schlessinger

My Classroom From Hell
Source: The Wall Street Journal; Published: January 24, 2003; Author: Joshua Kaplowitz

Can more money make schools better?
Source: TownHall.com; Published: January 21, 2003; Author: Phyllis Schlafly

Are public schools constitutional?
Source: NewsWithViews; Published: JANUARY 20, 2003; Auythor: Lynn M. Stuter

The intellectual rape of Oakland's schools
Source: TownHall.com; Published: January 17, 2003; Author: David Horowitz

Hip-hop hogwash in the schools (Michelle Malkin)
Source: TownHall.com; Published: January 15, 2003; Author: Michelle Malkin

Dumbed Down and Dumber Still
Source: The American Prowler; Published: January 15, 2003; Author: By George Neumayr

Washington's education establishment
Source: TownHall.com; Published: January 8, 2003; Author:Walter Williams

NEA Hastens Death of American Education
Source: INSIGHT magazine; Published: January 6, 2003; Author: Ralph de Toledano

White Teachers Fleeing Black Schools
Source: Newsmax; Published:January 1, 2003; Author: Chad Roedemeier

Fiddling whilst Rome burns
Source: TownHall.com; Published: December 26, 2002; Author: Walter Williams

Government School Monopolies Leave Children Behind
Source: Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty; Published: December 4, 2002; Author: Clint Green

The silence of the lambs: McMillan blasts bureaucrats for destroying public education
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: August 15, 2002; Author: Craige McMillan

Taking Charge: Let's Stop Aiding and Abetting Academicians' Folly
Source: HOME EDUCATION magazine; Published: July-August 2002; Author: Larry and Susan Kaseman

’Open Directory’ --Society/Issues/Education/Education_Reform

Deconstructing Public Education
Source: www.newsmax.com; Published: July 26, 2002; Author: Diane Alden

Specious Science In Our Schools
Source: Toogood Reports; Published: July 9, 2002; Author: Alan Caruba

SYMPOSIUM Q: Is the National Education Association Being Fair to Its Religious Objectors?
Source: INSIGHT magazine; Published: June 10, 2002; Authors NO: Stefan Gleason ////\\\\ YES: Bob Chase

Public Sector Subverting Productive Industry
Source: Toogood Reports; Published: May 16, 2002; Author: Henry Pelifian

History of America's Education Part 2: Noah Webster and Early America
Source: Sierra Times; Published: March 27, 2002; Author: April Shenandoah

How Communist is Public Education?
Source: sierratimes.com; Published:March 22, 2002; Author: Chuck Morse

History of America's Education Part 1: Johnny is in trouble
Source: Sierra Times; Published: March 20, 2002; Author: April Shenandoah

Audit rips Georgia schools' curriculum
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Published: March 11, 2002; Author:JAMES SALZER

Why schools fail: Samuel Blumenfeld warns Bush's education legislation is ineffective
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: March 2, 2002; Author: Samuel Blumenfeld

Public School Isn't Like I Remember It
Source: Too Good Reports; Published: February 28, 2002; Author: Phyllis Schlafly

What Is Lacking In Our Educational System
Source: Too Good Reports; Published: February 28, 2002; Author: Ben Cerruti

The charade of education reform
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: February 2, 2002; Author: Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld

American public schools: Working just as designed
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: January 21, 2002; Author: Vox Day

High Schools Fail Thanks To Grade Inflation And Social Promotion
Source: Toogood Reports; Published: December 5, 2001; Author: Vin Suprynowicz

WHY AMERICANS CAN’T READ
Source: Accuracy in Media; Published: December 4, 2001; Author: Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid

The Failing Teacher and the Teachers' Code of Silence
Source: CNSNews.com; Published: December 3, 2001; Author: Glenn Sacks

Time for outrage! Linda Bowles reports latest results in America's public schools
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: November 27, 2001; Author: Linda Bowles

Illiterate in Boston: Samuel Blumenfeld explains U.S.'s ongoing reading problem
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: July 20, 2001; Author: Samuel Blumenfeld

NEA - Let our children go!
Source: WorldNet Daily; Published: June 23. 2001; Author: Linda Harvey

COOKING THE BOOKS AT EDUCATION
Source: Accuracy In Media; Published: June 5, 2001; Author: Cliff Kincaid

Why Do Schools Play Games With Students' Minds ?
Source: The Detroit News; Published: April 1, 2001; Author: Thomas Sowell

The Public School Nightmare: Why fix a system designed to destroy individual thought?
Source: http://home.talkcity.com/LibraryDr/patt/homeschl.htm; Author: John Taylor Gatto

Dumbing down teachers
Source: USNews.com; Published: February 21, 2001; Author: John Leo

Free Republic links to education related articles (thread#8)
Source: Free Republic; Published: 3-20-2001; Author: Various

Are children deliberately 'dumbed down' in school? {YES!!!}
Source: World Net Daily; Published: May 13, 2001; Author: Geoff Metcalf {Interview}

Could they really have done it on purpose?
Source: THE LIBERTARIAN; Published: 07/28/2000; Author: Vin Suprynowicz

New Book Explores America's Education Catastrophe
Source: Christian Citizen USA; Published: April 2000; Author: William H. Wild

Deliberately dumbing us down (Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt's, "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America"
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: December 2,1999; Author: Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Deconstructing the Western Mind: Gramscian-Marxist Subversion of Faith and Education
Source: www.petersnet; Published: Winter 1997; Author: Frank Morriss

Littleton Crisis to Government Control

The UN Plan for Your Mental Health

Lexington Institute

NonPartisan Action For a Better Redding

Quality of Education Commentary, Opinion, and Book Reviews

[TheAbbodad]

• States and the federal government should provide more money so schools have the time and staff needed to focus on writing.

The key to this entire article. Let's just throw more money into a non funtional system.

[steve-b]

Ask high school juniors to write a paragraph about a haunted house, and nearly half are unable to do so satisfactorily.

"The ghosts were becoming restless. Each had lived in the great white mansion for a few years, serving his nation by executing its highest office. Now, the defilement of this revered place by its current occupant, who treated it as a combination of flophouse, whorehouse, and safehouse, was becoming unbearable...."

[King David]

My 13 year old daughter has read "Atlas Shrugged" and is nearly finished with "The Fountainhead".

Trust me--not all kids nowadays have diminished communications skills, in either reading or writing.

[MattAMiller]

I blame Email and IMs. It's even harmed adult writing. You see a lot of bad writing in IT work, even those these are smart well-educated people. It's just not a highly valued skill anymore, so even the smart and the studious can tend to neglect it.

There's a bit of a danger in reading too much into this. I'm not suggesting that we can all just get by with a bunch of people who can't write coherently but the standards by which a dullard is distinguished from a genius change over time. It's no longer important to be able to do math in your head, so older folks marvel at younger folks who are lost without a calculator.

Now it would be a great idea to reimpose the value of good writing. But to infer from this that we are raising a generation of idiots is taking a bit too far.

[1Old Pro]

I hope their series about the hugh reform needed.

[E Rocc]

I picked up most of my writing skills in two classes. They were "Literature of Sports" and "Popular Culture", taught by the same (excellent) teacher in my high school. Some of the stodgier teachers were contemptuous of his methods and the subject matter, but both were highly effective.

I firmly believe that one of the keys to effectively educating teens is picking subjects that hold their interest.

-Eric

[Sofa King]

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[FourPeas]

This isn't a new phenomenon, though. My father who received his Ph.D. in 1972 had incredibly poor writing skills. Since his area was mathematics, he never concerned himself with learning to write. Years later, as he had proposals turned down because of poor writing, he still never realized the importance of good writing skills.

My husband, who graduated high school in 1971, is a terrible writer and speller. When he was in school, it was accepted that girls wrote well and boys didn't.

Frankly, our educational system has been in the process of failing for much longer than the past decade or two. That it's now not much more than a glorified baby sitting service in many communities is the outgrowth of liberal policies starting fifty years ago.

[shadowboxer]

I taught 6th grade for one year and I had to get out. This was a great source of irritation for me (one of many) as a teacher and as a parent. The trend for so many years was to focus on the "content" and the "creativity" not the mechanics of writing because it will stifle them. Well what the hell good is creativity if no one can read what you have written? Fine, but the rules of writing were never taught. All though we seemed to have plenty of time for multi-cultural non-gender bias lessons. I couldn't stand all the wasted time in the school day on everything other than teaching. The act of teaching was pretty low priority. I had thought I was getting into teaching to TEACH-but did I get a rude awakening. My hat is off to the teachers who stay and continue to battle "progress".

[SuziQ]

Bump for later reading.