Free Republic

Communist China can repurpose its anti-American propaganda budget for other pursuits with a presidential administration like this running its top competitor.The Biden administration cites the anti-American 1619 Project and hatemonger Ibram X. Kendi as guiding its criteria for federal American history and civics education grants in a proposed rule out in the Federal Register on April 19.The U.S. Department of Education’s education priorities as described in the Register accepts and amplifies Chinese Communist propaganda accusing the United States of “systemic racism” and recommending anti-white racism as the cure. The document cites The New York Times’s error-riddled 1619 Project, divisive identity...

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas State Board of Education agreed to new social studies standards on Friday after the far-right faction wielded its power to shape the lessons that will be taught to millions of students on American history, the U.S. free enterprise system, religion and other topics. In a vote of 11-4, the board preliminarily adopted the new curriculum after days of charged debate ... Decisions by the board — long led by the social conservatives who have advocated ideas such as teaching more about the weaknesses of evolutionary theory — affects textbook content nationwide because Texas is one...

“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it” is one of the most oft-quoted aphorisms of Edmund Burke, an 18th-century Irish-born member of the British Parliament and fearless friend of liberty. Judging from the results of a recent survey conducted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), most of the 14,000 college students who participated sadly will be repeating history. Considering that most of the 14,000 students who completed the exam (7,000 seniors and 7,000 freshmen) scored an F on the portion of the test covering basic American history and institutions...

College fails to teach civic knowledge - including American history and national institutions - and has an influence on liberal leanings among students, a new study says. The study, conducted by the conservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute, specifically cited typically liberal positions on gay marriage and school prayer. Richard Brake, the director of ISI's Culture of Enterprise Initiative, said high schools could be partly to blame for a lack of civic knowledge but college courses should provide more concentrated study. "You should reinforce it and go beyond it," he said. "Learning is about reinforcement." The study tested 2,508 Americans with various...

A Christian student government president in California faces recall for allowing a pro-life display on campus.Sacramento City College recently celebrated Constitution Day, an annual celebration of the U.S. Constitution and free speech. The Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), a pro-life organization, requested and was granted a display space at the event. Steve Macias, 19-year-old Associated Student Government president, and Monica Guzman, student affairs commissioner, now risk losing their positions for refusing to kick the pro-life group off campus.

You know those groan-inducing spots on late-night television when the typical person-on-the-street can't identify the vice president? That's akin to what happened to the state's education system Tuesday, with the issuance of a new report that found only 3.5 percent of traditional public high school students would be able to pass a U.S. citizenship test— bombing out on questions such as who was America's first president, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and what do we call the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. There's little room to be smug from the charter school or private school arenas. While they...

PUEBLO, Colo. -- A ninth grade history project at a high school in Pueblo was supposed to teach students about terrorism, but instead it outraged parents.Gini Fischer says her daughter came home Thursday saying she had two minutes to come up with a plot for an act of terrorism.  Over 110 freshmen at Pueblo County High School were given the project.The teacher claims the assignment was to illustrate an act of terrorism by a foreign government on American soil.Fischer says, "To ask them to use their creative energies to come up with a plot for an act of terrorism...

Mason school officials said they are taking a proactive educational approach in advance of next week's planned Inauguration Day activities. "Inappropriate comments that may make other students, staff or families feel unwelcome or uncomfortable in school or on the bus will not be tolerated," Superintendent Kevin Bright said in an e-mail sent to parents Monday, Jan. 12. The district, he said, expects students and staff to show respect for President-elect Obama and the incoming administration, as well as President Bush and the outgoing administration, and recognize that "while the election is a competitive process, our nation's greatness is displayed when...

( After the Bush hatred and disrespect that became actually "trendy" in all quarters, with the establishment turning the other way...NOW they want to put a gag on this stuff?) Superintendent warns against 'inappropriate comments' Bright sends out e-mail to Mason parents in advance of Inauguration Day. By Eric Schwartzberg and Marie Rossiter Staff writers Thursday, January 15, 2009 Mason school officials said they are taking a proactive educational approach in advance of next week's planned Inauguration Day activities. "Inappropriate comments that may make other students, staff or families feel unwelcome or uncomfortable in school or on the bus will...

NEW ORLEANS -- The American Civil Liberties Union is urging Louisiana school officials to respect students' right to express their views on the day when Barack Obama is sworn in as president. In an open letter sent to school superintendents this week, ACLU of Louisiana executive director Marjorie Esman expressed concern that students in some Louisiana communities were punished for voicing support for Obama's victory in the November election. Esman says some students were told not to mention Obama's name or discuss the election at all. She is encouraging schools to treat Inauguration Day next Tuesday as a teaching tool.

If there is any presidential speech that has captured a place in popular culture, it is the Gettysburg Address, seemingly recited by school children for decades. The truth is, however, Lincoln’s most memorable words are now remembered by very few. Of the 2,508 Americans taking ISI’s civic literacy test, 71% fail. Story Below The test contains 33 questions designed to measure knowledge of America’s founding principles, political history, international relations, and market economy. While the questions vary in difficulty, most test basic knowledge. Six are borrowed from U.S. government naturalization exams that test knowledge expected of all new American citizens....

Civics Quiz Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams.

Voters Fail the Test By Kathleen Parker Tuesday, November 25, 2008; 7:56 PM WASHINGTON -- So much for the wisdom of The People. A new report from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) on the nation's civic literacy finds that most Americans are too ignorant to vote. Out of 2,500 American quiz-takers, including college students, elected officials and other randomly selected citizens, nearly 1,800 flunked a 33-question test on basic civics. In fact, elected officials scored slightly lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent compared to 49 percent. Only 0.8 percent of all test-takers scored an...

WE’RE NOT LED BY THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST: US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday. Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). “It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI’s civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned,” said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy...

NEW YORK — Sandra Day O'Connor is developing a free interactive Web program for middle schoolers on the U.S. court system. The program will be called Our Courts and allow students to participate in realistic government simulations and investigate and argue actual cases. Arizona State and Georgetown universities are helping the retired Supreme Court justice develop the program. Arizona State professor James Paul Gee says the program will teach children the importance of free and independent courts in a democracy. The Web site will be launched this fall. O'Connor is the first woman to have served on the nation's highest...

Progressive Calls for Civics Education by: Bethany Stotts, April 11, 2008 Contrary to the assumption that curriculum reform is promoted by only by conservatives, a member of the progressive movement recently lamented that students were losing touch with their American heritage. “We need to care, the Progressive Movement needs to care that the fabric of civics education in our country essentially has been decimated,” said Andrea Batista Schlesinger at a recent conference on the New Deal. However, Schlesinger warned the audience to not tell anyone what she said, lest she be accused of being a neoconservative. “And this where I...

Outrage in Minnesota: Spurning Our Military HeroesPosted By Gary Larson On March 27, 2008 @ 4:20 am [1] The liberal left's antipathy for the American military was on full display at Forest Lake High School after it banned Vets for Freedom following complaints from anti-war activists.  When a high school canceled a Vets for Freedom's educational program in Minnesota, the act drew public outrage. Not lost was the fact, a plain one at that: Professional educators often turn somersaults for the Left, perhaps their natural allies, and spring attacks on our military in schools across the nation. Besmirching our nation's military...

Seniors at UC Berkeley, the nation's premier public university, got an F in their basic knowledge of American history, government and politics in a new national survey, and students at Stanford University didn't do much better, getting a D. Out of 50 schools surveyed, Cal ranked 49th and Stanford 31st in how well they are increasing student knowledge about American history and civics between the freshman and senior years. And they're not alone among major universities in being fitted for a civics dunce cap. Other poor performers in the study were Yale, Duke, Brown and Cornell universities. Johns Hopkins University...

Caitlin Upton should feel very proud today. It seems she's not the only young person in America who appears to be a little less than informed. Christian activist and author Mark Dice dropped by San Diego State University to see how many of tomorrow's leaders know what year 9/11 happened.

Colorado Springs - Douglas Bruce is known as a frugal man, not a giver of gifts. But when he tried last spring to give pocket- size copies of the U.S. Constitution to high-school seniors, two Colorado Springs-area districts said "no, thanks." snip Bruce said he made it clear that copies of the Constitution were to be given to seniors, but "I said nothing about giving them at graduation or interfering with the ceremony or my being there. That was a contrived excuse by Lewis-Palmer School District."