Free Republic

Summary: It's better for everyone if teachers understand what they're doing wrong, especially where reading is concerned.. In an article explaining why children can't read, a teacher made this extraordinary statement: "I still struggle with a lot of guilt.” You almost never see this sort of confession. Teachers rarely acknowledge responsibility. Typically they are cocooned inside official policies. They're expected to agree with administrators, principals, superintendents, bureaucrats, and professors who preside godlike above them. Teachers may be using inferior methods. They may be dispensing hokum all day long. In their dealings with parents they may be lying. But they don't...

In the U.S., at least three of every four people now own a smartphone. And one estimate suggests that Americans touch their mobile devices more than 2,600 times a day on average. But what do all those pings and buzzes, scrolls and swipes actually add up to?.. Initial data from a $300-million study by the National Institutes of Health, for example, now provides evidence that a child's brain may indeed develop differently with heavy use of digital devices. Those of us whose brains matured before the first iPhone came to market in 2007 may also be vulnerable to mental changes....

Vanity: Video, made 10 years ago, is still a good summary of what happened to our public schools. 3-1/2 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/user/BruceDeitrickPrice/videos

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Our Education Establishment, no matter how many millions of children end up illiterate, is able to suppress debate and elude public outrage. Critics are typically ignored. After all, if they disagree with the Education Establishment, they must be wrong. “So it was a strange surprise,” Bruce Price explains, “ when education reformers in Italy contacted me for help in their fight against sight-words in public schools. Must be a mistake, I thought. American experts constantly stress that a phonetic language would never need sight-words. Oh, they wail, if only English were perfectly phonetic like Italian!! Here’s a...

[A simple explanation for why nothing improves in our public schools.] In the movie, Bill Murray gets up every day and has to live through the same realities that he lived through the day before. Nietzsche called this predicament “eternal recurrence.” Einstein weighed in on this topic. Doing the same thing again and again, while getting the same results, is a working definition of insanity. So there you have our public school system, an insane Rube Goldberg contraption with lots of wheels turning, balls dropping, springs springing…. but nothing is accomplished. I've been studying education for 25 years and finally...

Michigan State University is the latest public university to tweak its general education curriculum, favoring quantitative courses over traditional math courses. The math requirement can now be fulfilled by taking two “quantitative learning” classes as an alternative, though students can choose algebra and one quantitative course, the Lansing State Journal reports. “The one-size-fits-all college algebra approach wasn’t working for all students,” Vince Melfi, an associate professor of statistics, told the Lansing State Journal. Previously, MSU’s basic math graduation requirement for most students included an algebra class. Students could also test out of the requirement or use transfer credit. MSU administrators...

Do you agree? Good, then please pass this little summary to everyone you know. Or were you thinking, that’s crazy talk. Afraid not. It’s quite accurate, comparable to saying, “The sky is blue.” Reading instruction in our country has been insane and/or a criminal conspiracy for 80 years. The resulting illiteracy is a giant hemorrhaging wound. We cannot have a successful school system or a successful civilization unless children typically learn to read in the first grade or two. This is the 60th year since Rudolf Flesch wrote his famous book explaining why Johnny cannot read. Everything Flesch said in...

So much of modern, progressive education pretends to be based on big, profound insights and massive research. More often, bits of theory and dabs of testing are taped together and presented to the world as a mighty fortress, which on proper examination turns out to be a house of cards. The striking fact about education is how easy it would be to test one curriculum against another, one textbook against another, and so on. You could have 1000 students on the west side of a city compete against 1000 students on the east side. There are so many millions of...

[Summary: To dumb down the public schools, our elite educators often rely on sophistry.] Disingenuous. Paradox. Counterintuitive. Sophistry. Counterproductive. These five words always fascinated me. They suggest unexpected warps in a common-sense grasp of the world. Something is out of kilter, weird, defective, or whacko. American public education in the 20th century--which has been characterized as “deliberate dumbing down”--is impossible to discuss without constant recourse to these quirky words. They point to deception, but done with art and flair. Rod Sterling captured the resulting sense of disorientation: “You unlock this door...Beyond it is another dimension....You’re moving into a land of...

It is the ultimate accolade for a keen vegetable grower – a 73-year-old has been told not enter his village gardening competition because he is too good. David Stirzaker has been asked by the organisers of the North Cadbury and District Horticultural Society, in Somerset, not to exhibit his produce at its annual show, because his impressive record at the event is discouraging others from taking part. Mr Stirzaker – who has won 12 cups at the show in just four years, for his prize-winning carrots, parsnips and tomatoes – has pledged to take the matter to the Royal Horticultural...

The big problem is that even the country's leaders-- the best and brightest, the movers and shakers in business, politics and the community-- do NOT grasp what is happening inside the public schools. The urgent need is to educate Americans about American education, so the country can stop being the victims of bad policies. Why are there so many methods that don't work as promised? Can anyone answer that basic question? Try to find even one doctor, lawyer, stock broker, mayor, or business exec who can explain why sight-words are kid-killers; why New Math and Reform Math are so harmful;...

The king of pop, Michael Jackson, was laid to rest today. Every media outlet, the Communist News Network, the All Barack Channel, the Fe aux News Network, the Couric Buffoon Series, and the Never Been Credible news channels have taken the death of this troubled man and turned it into a circus. This particular circus has served to distract us from North Korea launching missiles in every direction, the Chinese murdering people in the streets, the Iranians crushing their people with an iron fist, our President and Vice President contradicting each other on foreign policy, cap and trade being shoved...

02.10.09MARINE VETERAN KICKED OUT OF SCHOOL FOR POSSESSING FIREARMS WOU STUDENT TRIED, CONVICTED AND SENTENCED.The WOU student who was falsely arrested and charged with possession of a firearm in a public building, had all his criminal charges dropped by the Polk County DA tonight.The DA admitted no wrongdoing on his part, or on the part of the police who arrested Jeff Maxwell for a "crime" that does not exist.In a statement released to OFF's attorney, the DA said "I believe the Monmouth Police Department issued the citation in good faith and that there was an arguable violation. However, a careful...

New York's top restaurants plagued by tip trouble Seasoned travelers know that waiters in the United States expect tips of 15 to 20 percent -- $60 on a $300 dinner for two at one of New York's top restaurants. What is less well known is that the money doesn't all go to the waiters and more lowly staff. In lawsuits filed in the last three years, staff have accused dozens of New York restaurants, including many well-known ones, of stealing tips and cheating them out of wages. Among those named in the suits are celebrity haunt Pastis; three New York...

1. SLEEP FOR CHILDREN CAN REDUCE OBESITY RISK CHICAGO | Researchers found that if third-graders sleep more, they are less likely to become obese by sixth grade.

NEEDHAM, Mass. -- Needham High School has abandoned its long-standing practice of publishing the names of students who make the honor roll in the local newspaper. Principal Paul Richards said a key reason for stopping the practice is its contribution to students' stress level in "This high expectations-high-achievement culture." The proposal to stop publishing the honor roll came from a parent. Richards took the issue before the school council, which approved it. Parents were notified of the decision last month. Richards said he received about 60 responses from both parents and students and the feedback has been evenly split for...

Sunday traditionalists long have been divided into two categories. For some, Sundays are sacred -- reserved for sleeping in, coffee, slippers and the morning paper. But for many, Sundays are a suit-and-tie affair complete with pews, hymnal and lunch at Grandma's favorite buffet. Busy lifestyles and time, or the lack thereof, are changing that. At St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salem, a 5:30 p.m. Sunday service that began Jan. 15 caters to the Sunday-morning minimalist who wants a little spirituality with her coffee and slippers. "There are a number of ways to grow a congregation," said the Rev. Bob Burton,...

Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried. Anecdotal evidence for the evolution in teaching math since the...

  Design outsourcing appears inevitable, EEs toldBy Ron Wilson, EE Times Sep 24, 2003 (12:51 PM) URL: http://www.eedesign.com/story/OEG20030924S0032SAN JOSE, Calif. — A panel session at the Custom Integrated Circuits Conference here Tuesday (Sept. 23) debated the implications for U.S. design engineers of IC design outsourcing. Panelists offered free-market platitudes, candid warnings, reassuring economic generalizations and some incisive observations that may help individual designers find a foothold on what promises to be a slippery slope for the profession in the coming years. Rakesh Kumar, president of operations-outsourcing venture TCX Inc. (Poway, Calif.) said the U.S. has a long history of...