Free Republic

The Reading Wars were always chaotic and confusing. Here’s the gist: ----On the one side, you had earnest, sincere people warning the country about the dangers of non-phonetic approaches (these were called Look-say, Whole Word, sight-words, and other jargon). The warning was always the same. Nobody can learn to read that way. It’s a hoax. Don’t do it! You’re being punked. On the other side, you had patronizing professors of education saying the exact opposite. Phonics is old-fashioned. Dull and dreary. We’ve got the fun new way to learn to read. Kids think of words as graphic designs and memorize...

Recent headline on an education site sums up the story: “The majority of public supports Common Core, but opposition is growing.” Another ed site announced, with a map: “Breaking News: 20 States' Pending Legislation...to Reject or Limit Common Core." Common Core Curriculum, steamrollered across the country several years ago and adopted by almost 45 states, may be faltering. Why do so many people consider this wonderful news? Here are 8 good reasons: 1) Common Core represents a federal takeover of education. This is a dream that progressives and liberals have pursued for a century. States and communities have traditionally been...

1) Bruce, about 4 years ago, you wrote ”An Open Letter to Bill Gates About Education.” What was it all about? In 2007, Bill Gates helped prepare a report on American productivity. The report concluded that public schools are so bad they are a threat to the economy. I was tremendously impressed by this directness. We need that. Unfortunately, the report went on to suggest scores of small fixes, not the radical reform we need. Bill Gates seemed to think that our Education Establishment would listen to him, that it would be enough if he made smart suggestions. I argued...

In first grade the child comes home with lists of sight-words to be memorized. It’s a struggle. As fast as he memorizes new words, he forgets the previous words. Well before the end of the year, he is officially identified as a weak reader. The mother suffers more than the child does. The teacher says the school is is doing everything it can; the parents must do more. In second grade, the child is a bad reader and is very conscious of it. If he memorize words in a list, he doesn’t recognize them in a story. The teacher mentions...

How many stars on the American flag? You’re guessing “a lot.” Can dolphins communicate? You think, of course they can. They’re a footbal team, they have to communicate. The three states of water? You guess Oregon, for sure, because it’s rainy there. Gravity? You wonder what’s the big deal about gravity? If something is heavy, it’ll fall. A camel can walk a long way without what? A map? The language Shakespeare wrote in? You’re thinking French? Maybe Shakesperean. When multiplying 6 x 7, you need a calculator. But you can’t think of any good reasons for doing this. A rolling...

Four years ago, psychologist Leonard Sax (MD, PhD) wrote a well-received book titled “Boys Adrift.” The doctor tried to answer the question, why have so many young males fallen into passivity and indifference? Dr. Sax had heard more and more parents complain that their boys stayed indoors most of the time, spent hours on video games, and in general seemed to lack the confidence and esprit de corps that had characterized boys throughout history. “Something scary is happening to boys today,” Sax concluded. “From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were...

The debate about defined benefit pensions in K-12 education has focused on unfunded liabilities rather than appropriate levels of retirement compensation. Public K-12 employees typically retire at much younger ages with more replacement income and better inflation protection than private sector counterparts. School districts use contribution rates derived from uncertain assumptions about pension plan returns as substitutes for estimating realistic retirement compensation levels. The contribution rates ignore the considerable value of risk assumption that public employee pension plans provide to career employees. ...

The big difference in the latest spate of horror stories about academic abuse is that they are taking place in lower grades. Sean Allen, a 10th-grader from Colorado who made national news when he taped his World Geography teacher’s political rant, spoke from experience, “I was flooded with similar stories from students across the nation,” he said at a conference on academic freedom. “We can’t simply deal with this on a case-to-case basis, we have to get to the root of it.” Sean firmly believes that the Academic Bill of Rights crafted by conservative author and activist David Horowitz gives...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court's upcoming ruling on affirmative action in college admissions has the potential to subtly or significantly affect the nation's 15,000 school districts, many of which have long considered race in shaping student enrollment plans.Already, lower court rulings in recent years have directed some districts -- and led many others -- to abandon race-based plans. The Supreme Court's higher education ruling could invite schools to revisit that use of race or to eliminate it as a factor.``Everybody sees the handwriting on the wall,'' said Michael Simpson, assistant general counsel for the National Education Association. ``If the...