Free Republic

Self-Esteem Bottoms Out Malcolm A. Kline, June 25, 2010 While everyone from Middle American parents to the U. S. Secretary of Education are expressing a lack of confidence in the ability of ed schools to deliver qualified teachers to public schools, the deans of those institutions have no such angst. “Universities say we’re going to protect this because it is something we can do better than anyone else,” Dr. Sharon P. Robinson, president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) said at a lunch on June 18, 2010. “Deans and department chairs were much more...

Teacher’s Self-Defense Manual Malcolm A. Kline, June 24, 2010 An interesting flip side of the victimology that permeates public schools is that teachers are frequently expected to play the villain. One self-help expert who literally advises educators to turn the other cheek is Dr. Eric P. Hartwig. “He is experienced and licensed as a Director of Pupil Services, District Administrator and a School Psychologist,” his web site tells us. “Presently, he is the Administrator of Pupil Services for the Marathon County Children with Disabilities Education Board and is the author and principle trainer on the Just-in-Time: Behavioral Initiative Project.” “Dr....

Onward Christian Schools Online Deborah Lambert, June 24, 2010 In the highly competitive online environment where everyone is seeking to develop a niche market, Christian colleges appear to be gaining ground, according to Education News. Schools like Grand Canyon University, forced to reinvent itself or go bankrupt a few years ago, went from 3,500 enrolled students in a traditional setting to 36,000 in its current online environment. And 90 percent of its students are “distance learners.” Mid-Christian University recruited some brains behind the online giant University of Phoenix to develop an aggressive five-year strategy they hope will quadruple the size...

“The Lottery” Deborah Lambert, June 24, 2010 A new documentary film called “The Lottery” that takes on the topic of charter schools, is getting cheers and jeers from critics and filmgoers. Variety called it “advocacy to the point of propaganda” that creates a “virtual PSA for charter schools and New York’s celebrated Harlem Success Academy in particular.” The film focuses on founder/CEO Eva Moskowitz who has to battle with stupidity, corruption and practically has “to apologize to the New York City Council for being a white woman living in Harlem.” Madeline Sackler, a 27-year-old filmmaker, tells the story of four...

Out-Of-The-Loop Campus Groups Deborah Lambert, June 23, 2010 For students who are bored with the same old special interest campus groups, Naomi Rockler-Gladen reported that they might try something a bit out of the ordinary, like the following: The Carleton College Mustache Club welcomes members who have real or fake mustaches. “Women are invited to join if they are willing to shave all of their faces except for the upper lip area.” The University of Minnesota Campus People Watchers is billed as a “non-creepy organization for those who are into the social, psychological and analytical aspects of people watching.” The...

The Education Bubble? Deborah Lambert, June 23, 2010 Has higher education become the equivalent of a giant Ponzi scheme? Perhaps. For generations, the promise that their pricey diploma held the key to the American dream, has attracted students and their families to follow that dream, no matter what the cost. Plus, the “cheap and readily available credit” made the borrowing process a snap. That may be about to change. In fact, savvy students and their parents are already hitting the brakes. No wonder. Money magazine reports that the amount families pay in financial aid increased by 439 percent since 1982....

Books Bite the Dust Deborah Lambert, June 22, 2010 Given the lack of student interest in reading these days, it’s no surprise that the University of California at Berkeley decided to completely change the dynamics of the summer reading list. In fact, this year they didn’t even attempt to saddle incoming freshmen with a book. Instead they have assigned the non-reading task of “returning a cotton swab with cells from the insides of their cheeks.” The school will analyze the returned samples for “three genes that help regulate the ability to metabolize alcohol, lactose and folates,” said the New York...

Dutch Country Educational Drama Malcolm A. Kline, June 22, 2010 Call it a mystery with a moral but first-time novelist John DeFrank delivers both with stunning success in Condemned to Freedom, set in a public school in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. It should be noted that in this case Freedom is both the name of the fictional town and county the book takes place in as well as an allegorical reference to the responsibility that goes with the state of being. It is a milieu DeFrank knows well, having spent three decades plus as a teacher/counselor/administrator in the Lebanon County...

The Twitter Drug? Deborah Lambert, June 21, 2010 When 200 University of Maryland students were asked to blog about their experience of giving up social media outlets for 24 hours, their reactions, ranging from misery to anxiety and frustration, were similar to drug addicts’ withdrawal symptoms, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. One student reported that the normal routine of “texting and sending instant messages” provided a “constant feeling of comfort” without which the student felt “quite alone and excluded from my life.” The study results showed a high level of addiction to all types of media, said study...

The Life of Buckley Bethany Stotts, June 21, 2010 At Accuracy in Academia’s June 14 Author’s night, Heritage Foundation scholar Lee Edwards described the late William F. Buckley Jr. as the St. Paul of the conservative movement. The founder of National Review, Buckley Jr. was a devout Catholic. Buckley “could almost be called in some sense the patron saint of the tea party movement,” which supports limited government, is anti-establishment, and “love[s] to stick a finger in the eye of the Republican party, and the Democratic party…and all organized parties,” argued Edwards, author of William F. Buckley, Jr.: The Maker...

Summer Reading Blues Antidotes Malcolm A. Kline, June 18, 2010 Not content to rest on their laurels for the summer break after nine solid months of no-thrill drills, college faculty and administrators try to keep their charges from getting rusty over the summer break. Although one third of the summer is nearly over, Accuracy in Academia would like to offer some summer reading suggestions to fill in the gaps left by university recommendations. Dutch Country Educational Drama Call it a mystery with a moral but first-time novelist John DeFrank delivers both with stunning success in Condemned to Freedom, set in...

Educators Lacking Common Sense Bethany Stotts, June 17, 2010 If there is one place where common sense seems often in short supply, it is in the classroom, be it in kindergarten or all the way up through higher education. Wisdom of the Faculty Lounge“We [Americans] are being run by the mindset of the faculty lounge, as if the philosophy or English department has taken over running the country,” writes former California State University, Fresno professor Victor Davis Hanson on June 13. Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. “Some of you were not academics for 21...

Imperialism & Free Pizza Sarah Schaerr Norton, June 17, 2010 WASHINGTON, June 16, 2010 – Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski, an attorney for the American Civil Rights Union, will discuss their book, The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency at the next Accuracy in Academia authors’ night. What: “The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency” Who: Ken Blackwell, Former Ohio Secretary of State & UN Ambassador Ken Klukowski, Senior Legal Analyst, American Civil Rights Union When: Monday, June 21, 2010, 6:00 pm Where:...

Tiananmen Square Remembered Emily Jaroma, June 16, 2010 It has been 21 years since the 1989 Tiananmen Square Democracy Movement. It was on June 4, 1989 that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Chinese protested for democracy and as a result were brutally murdered by Chinese government officials. Yesterday Initiatives for China hosted a memorial service to remember the victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Many gathered to remember those who died standing for freedom as well as share their stories about what life is really like as a Chinese citizen today. The Memorial service was held at the Goddess of Democracy...

Forecasting the Next Crisis Bethany Stotts, June 16, 2010 Johan Norberg, author of Financial Fiasco, argues that countries worldwide have set themselves up for another, more severe, worldwide financial crisis by holding interest rates artificially low and accruing government debt. “All the measures that we have taken to save the economy: the low interest rates, the massive debt, the safety net for the financial industry—these are the very things that led us into a crisis in the first place,” he said when narrating the film Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis. “We’ve been saved from the consequences of one burst bubble...

From Bluebook to Blueprint Malcolm A. Kline, June 15, 2010 Giving academics the opportunity to do whatever they want with the federal government may not be the brightest idea on the planet. “One great example of a dangerous Obama czar who will have to testify before Congress and did undergo Senate confirmation hearings is John P. Holdren,” Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski point out in their book, The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency. “Dr. Holdren is President Obama’s ‘science czar,’ meaning he is the director of the White House Office of Science and...

Where the Jobs Aren’t James F. Davis, June 15, 2010 To solve the problem of creating more jobs, one has to understand what motivates and fosters the creation of new jobs and what discourages the creation of new jobs. Most of my adult life was spent as an international banker, evaluating and financing business expansion proposals which created hundreds of thousands of new jobs. There were some consistent trends. When any government raises taxes and/or imposes expensive mandates (e.g. Health Care), it makes it more difficult for a business entity to make money and/or be competitive. Businesses then do not...

Salary Rheeview Bethany Stotts, June 14, 2010 Michelle Rhee and the Washington Teachers Union have reached a tentative union contract which “will boost the average annual salary of a D.C. educator from $67,000 to about $81,000 and gives the city’s public school teachers salaries comparable to those in surrounding suburban districts, according to a union survey,” according to the Washington Post. In 2007 the Washington Post called the D.C. Public Schools system “among the highest-spending and worst-performing in the nation.” The Washington Post reports that the tentative agreement (pdf) with the Washington Teachers Union * redefines tenure as a due-process...

Iran and Human Rights Spencer Irvine, June 14, 2010 The human rights violations and overall human rights conditions in Iran have greatly deteriorated, guest panelists in the Heritage Foundation forum, “Human Rights Under Attack: Oppression in Iran,” claimed. With Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Jim Phillips, the three guest panelists discussed and agreed on the need for more U.S. government-led pressure for sanctions against Iran. Panelist Renee Redman, director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, dissected the success of the Iranian government in “suppress[ing] dissent” of political dissidents. She said that the Iranian government has “successfully kept [suppression of dissent]...

Educating For Disaster Malcolm A. Kline, June 11, 2010 The good news is that our political elites from both parties are highly educated. The bad news is the education that they and their progeny receive. “Today’s ruling class, from Boston to San Diego, was formed by an educational system that exposed them to the same ideas and gave them remarkably uniform guidance, as well as tastes and habits,” Angelo M. Codevilla writes in the July/August 2010 issue of The American Spectator. “These amount to a social canon of judgments about good and evil, complete with secular sacred history, sins (against...