Free Republic

Thousands arrested in Tehran after the schools reopen Friday 23 September 2005 The regime's brutal disciplinary forces over the recent days arrested thousands of innocent Iranian people, calling them hoodlums and scum. The regime, which considers the reopening of the schools and universities as a threat, has deployed its security agents all around Tehran in order to make their presence felt. Revolutionary Guard Zaareii, the Commander of the disciplinary forces of the regime in Tehran spoke at a gathering of other squadron leaders; he shared his apprehension of the reopening of the schools and what troubles can lay ahead due...

Students at the Al-Sayad Primary School show their appreciation as they depart with their new backpacks, Sept. 13, 2005. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Bill Iraqi, U.S. Troops Provide School Supplies Iraqi students received school supplies, but the biggest hit of the day was the book bag give-away. By U.S. Army Sgt. David Bill 48th Brigade Combat Team BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 20, 2005 -- Students at the Al-Sayad Primary School are now able to carry their school work home in new book bags, thanks to the efforts of Iraqi and U.S. soldiers. Iraqi Army and Task Force Baghdad...

In preparation for the new school year that is set to begin on Monday,teachers,principals,and even parent coordinators are being subjected to endless hours of “professional development.” In fact, hundreds of millions of dollars, an unprecedented amount anywhere, will be spent every year to train these staffers. So that us ordinary folk can keep up with the Bloomberg educational “reforms,” I humbly submit this short “professional development” course to help parents and taxpayers understand what is really going on. The new uniform literacy curriculum is actually not a curriculum at all.

BATON ROUGE, LA (September 9, 2005) — The New Orleans Archdiocesan Catholic Schools Office announced school reopenings in St. John and St. Charles parishes and the closing of schools in St. Bernard Parish for the 2005-06 school year. It also announced the establishment of satellite schools in Baton Rouge where many New Orleans evacuees have taken up residence and where the archdiocese has established its temporary headquarters. Schools in St. John and St. Charles civil parishes will reopen as early as Monday, Sept.12. All schools have agreed to register as many additional students as possible to help students displaced by...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Sept. 8, 2005 – Military families received free back-to-school supplies at Mary Fay Pendleton Elementary School here Aug. 24, thanks to a donation from a local business. The donation came just in time - five days before students returned to Camp Pendleton’s schools for the 2005-2006 school year. Camp Pendleton’s Office Depot donated 725 backpacks filled with school supplies to Mary Fay Camp Pendleton Elementary students. In addition to the backpacks, the school received office chairs, two pallets of paper, four pallets of cardboard tubes, 10 cases of toilet paper and 10 cases of facial tissue. Office...

The school supply distribution event also recognized several students who achieved high academic grades. BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 6, 2005 — More than 200 students, teachers and family members attended a humanitarian event sponsored by U.S. soldiers assigned to Task Force Baghdad in the Karradah district Aug. 28. "We never saw anything like this under the old regime. Under Saddam, they had many meetings about getting supplies but were told by the government that they would have to get it themselves." Iraqi teacher Nadhera Abbood Mohammed Soldiers from 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division distributed...

Classes for the Mobile County public schools' 65,000 students will definitely resume Monday, officials announced Tuesday. Even the schools thought to be the most devastated -- Alba Elementary and Middle, Dixon Elementary and Bryant High, all in or around hard-hit Bayou La Batre -- will open on that same day. Only one school, Grand Bay Middle, will not be ready to host classes by then, Superintendent Harold Dodge said. Grand Bay's students will attend Causey Middle School in west Mobile on a split-shift schedule. That's a much better outlook than what school officials had even last Friday, when Dodge said...

Texas schools began preparing today to accept masses of newly homeless children whose families fled Louisiana and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The Texas Education Agency instructed school districts to accept all school-aged evacuees, who now are classified as homeless, without requiring documentation of residency. "I want those stranded families to know that the doors to Texas public schools are going to be immediately open to their school-age children,'' Gov. Rick Perry said. "I've asked the Texas Education Agency to work with them to make sure that we have, for instance, the textbooks that they're going to be needing for...

The Minneapolis and St. Paul federations of teachers, with unquestioned loyalty to the National Education Association, are urging their members not to purchase back-to-school supplies at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart, they say, has unfair labor practices, pays substandard wages and has a high percentage of workers without health insurance. "This is the beginning of a much more in-depth education program, in which we tell our members why and what Wal-Mart does — not just to small towns, but to workers," said Louise Sundin, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers president. Education and labor leaders also have urged Wisconsin parents to cross Wal-Mart off their...

It's back to school for the kids, and the Freeper-friendly conservative humorists at IMAO have produced new audio for the cool kids and their parents. This politically-incorrect audio features: • IMAO Bloggers start their own college: "IMAO U." • Harvey has Fun Facts about Illinois • Dubya gets an honorary degree from Frank J. • Spacemonkey teaches Intelligent Design to atheists • Samurai partying tips from Miyamato Mushashi • Laurence Simon mentions Michelle Malkin in his Bedtime Story Check it out: http://www.imaopodcast.com/podcast/IMAO-Aug22.mp3

It’s not uncommon for parents who fight the culture on a daily basis to assume they’re alone -- that no one else shares their concerns. But the responses I received when I wrote a column last month about my near-futile efforts to find modest clothing for my 13-year-old daughter, Kristin, proves otherwise. Many parents are fighting the same fight --and quite a few were kind enough to write me encouraging notes. The details of our frustrating shopping trip, which yielded only two acceptable items out of the dozens that Kristin tried on, evidently touched a cord. So with back-to-school season...

NEW YORK - This week's award goes to the National Education Association for its silly boycott and slander campaign against Wal-Mart. The NEA claims with no evidence that the discount chain has "drained billions from public coffers, money that could otherwise fund schools." This shows two things: Politics trumps children's welfare at the NEA; and the country's largest teacher's union hates market economics. The volume of Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) rants, and their feverish tone, is amazing when set against the paucity of words on the NEA's purported mission: education. On economics, the NEA proves itself...

As a kid I hated this time of year. Remember that sick-to-your-stomach feeling when in the middle of your summer vacation, and without notice, you saw it — the newspaper ad for the "Back to School Sale"? While parents may rejoice in seeing those back-to-school ads, they can't be all too jolly about doling out the green for the school supply list they get from their kid's teacher. A reader sent me what I assume is a pretty standard list, from Bear Creek Elementary. You have to wonder if Boulder Valley School District is in collusion with the Crayola Corporation....

"Back to Class" read the headline on a full page Macy's ad for "back to school" clothes in the L.A. Times. Accompanying the headline was a photo of a couple of eleven or twelve year-old kids dressed like, well, a couple of eleven or twelve year old kids. The boy was in baggy jeans, sneakers, and short sleeve untucked shirt; the girl wore a gypsy-like wrinkled skirt, boots, and white clingy top. Perhaps these two were dressed a tad better than the usual "hanging out at the mall" group, since they weren't in the standard shorts and flip flops —...

Target Resurrects 'Baby Got Back'POSTED: 10:16 pm EDT August 2, 2005 NEW YORK -- Remember "Baby Got Back?" It's back -- this time in a cleaned-up version being used by Target department stores to hawk back-to-school wares, like backpacks. But wait, wasn't that song about the well-endowed female derriere? Yes, but it now has a "G-rated" pedigree, thanks to some careful editing from the Target ad people. Some might be put off by the campaign -- after all, MTV even barred the song during the daytime because of the rump-shaking women in the video. But ad executives tell the New...

Excuse the rant but yesterday I bought school supplies for 3 children. I wonder what everybody else had to buy. Is this just Louisiana? Second grader list included 48 pencils, 6 packs of colors, copy paper, etc. Is this because some parents can't afford school supplies so you buy for everybody? 4 boxes kleenex, 4 rolls paper towels 2 boxes clorox wipes, 3 boxes wet wipes, folders(8), scissors, 4 glue sticks, small bottle elmers glue, 2 large bags of candy, pencil bags, book bags,art fees, book fees. 1 box quart size ziploc bags, 4 large erasers, 6 packs wide ruled...

Ok - I've been presented with an opportunity of sorts - to return to school to complete a bachelor's degree. With my work schedule the way it is, the best way is probably going to be through the online degree programs being offered. I'm looking at Tusculum here in East Tennessee, but some folks have told me I should consider the University of Phoenix. Any fellow Freepers have any experience with the University of Phoenix or any other online degree programs that they'd care to share? Any kind of tips or clues you'd care to offer would be more than...

Over the past several years at the start of each new school year, I have written columns detailing the policies of a number of school systems where educators confiscate the school supplies of students in order to redistribute them along more communal lines as classroom administrators see fit. Noting fewer and fewer signs of the practice in school supply lists at Wal-Mart, I figured either school officials had come to their senses by returning to a more individualistic approach to scholastic resource management, had grown tired of parents spurred on in part by my columns griping about this glorified form...

Start of School Very Different for Parents of Boys, Parents of Girls By Glenn Sacks We received the notices for my son's and daughter's school in the mail recently. My soon-to-be-first grade daughter jumped up and down, wanting to know who her new teacher will be, what room she will be in, and "when do we get to start?" My middle school son examined his letter, and optimistically noted, "the first week is mostly minimum days, except for a Friday, but that's almost the weekend, when there's no school. So the week will go by quickly." I called my son's...

**In response to reader requests of my Republican Voices newsletter ( www.republicanvoices.org ), Emil Levitin has agreed to writing a series detailing his adventures in the socialist bunker...a.k.a. public school. The following is the first installment.** It’s that time of the year again. Time for non-stop ‘Back to School’ commercials, parents rushing out to catch the latest deals on school equipment, and rank-and-file Democrats droning about their plans to improve public education. It is time to return to enduring daily rants by instructors about their ‘hero,’ Teddy Kennedy, and the ‘war criminal,’ George W. Bush. Oh, and, of course, it...