Free Republic

WASHINGTON — It’s long been known that America’s school kids haven’t measured well compared with international peers. Now, there’s a new twist: Adults don’t either. In math, reading and problem-solving using technology – all skills considered critical for global competitiveness and economic strength – American adults scored below the international average on a global test, according to results released Tuesday.

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...

A reporter asked me, "Would you prefer that students know information, or how to find information?" Clearly she thought that knowing where to find information was best. Actually knowing facts was, in her mind, not important. That was the old way, the medieval approach, when children were whipped to make them memorize the state capitals and other such irrelevant stuff. Thank goodness, she clearly believed, we have moved on to more civilized ways. Children no longer know anything. All they know is that they must go somewhere to find what they want to know. But why would the reporter believe...

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...

In this post I am trying to continue our celebration of the lost “Octave” of Pentecost. Today I want to consider three gifts of the Holy Spirit.As you may recall, there are seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude and Fear of the Lord. Most Catholics cannot define them well in any sort of articulate way. This is due to poor catechesis but also to the fact that modern English has tended to use several of these terms interchangeably, almost as synonyms, though they are distinct theologically.There are also secular usages of these terms that...

Most words can be learned and taught most easily in groups, for example, words used by doctors, terms used every day by car mechanics, vocabulary typically heard in a lawyer’s office. Imagine a photograph of a scientific laboratory with captions on the key elements: test tube, bunsen burner, beaker, pipette, thermometer, technician, lab coat, goggles, periodic table, fume hood, centrifuge. A teacher can walk students through the lab, pointing out the most interesting sights. Quickly and naturally, children learn vocabulary, they have a glimpse of what scientists do, they learn about a new world that may excite their enthusiasm. Words...

A parent in Norfolk, Va., complained that a special ed teacher injected Islamic indoctrination into the classroom. The story broke in the local paper only because the fifth-grade student was slightly injured, and the mother reported it. This teacher spent two days trying to make her students learn a Muslim “hand sign,” according to the criminal complaint. A spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations said that he had never heard of any hand signs in his faith. This odd dispute prompted many questions. Local citizens wanted to know why this teacher was trying to make her students learn Islamic...

"Why Bilinguals Are Smarter," a recent column in the New York Times, suggests that children raised in two-language homes tend to have higher IQs, because their brains are forced to be more nimble. Let's stipulate that this is true. Still, I think there's more to the story. I suspect that any intellectual activity -- playing piano, chess, daily nature walks, video games, learning the constellations -- would tend to speed up intellectual development. A lot of times our modern educators will smugly insist: don't go too fast; children need to be ready to learn! But if parents are speaking two...

From: Man Alive! A survival manual for the human mind. by Greg Swann Chapter 4. The greatest invention in the history of humanity. That chapter heading is really just a tease. WhatÂ’s the most important invention ever devised by the mind of man? Fathertongue, of course. All other inventions flow from it. Without it, we are badly-adapted hairless apes, ultimately doomed to an ignominious extinction. With it, human beings danced on the Moon. In the last chapter, I raised the idea of your being stranded on a desert island. ThatÂ’s a hugely unlikely scenario, but itÂ’s interesting to think about...

What do we really know? What do we really see? Every day are we truly trying to be Christ-like, or at least treat people how we want to be treated? Love to all people in the holy precious name of Jesus Christ.

[...]All of British society’s important power centers agreed that union with Europe would be a jolly good thing and that opening the country to floods of Jamaicans and Pakistanis would be culturally and economically invigorating. Both things were disastrous. The European project yoked Britain to a mercantilist bureaucracy tasked with “harmonizing” countries that had spent centuries developing widely differing approaches to public affairs. Mass immigration frontally assaulted Britain’s tolerant insularity, turned sleepy old working-class neighborhoods into hotbeds of crime, and introduced an aggressively hostile religion into one of the world’s least-religious nations.

This is the fourth of a series of five essays on the Internet and Social Dynamics. In Internet Forums and Social Dynamics: Part I: Everybody is someone else’s weirdo was concerned with the treatment of how internet groups (focusing on Free Republic) dealt with posters (I almost typed “posers” which on second thought would not have been a bad typo to leave in place) who do not share the prevailing views. The second part, Internet Forums and Social Dynamics: Part II: Snapbacks, was concerned with the psychological reactions when a poster who had been considered safely “one of the group”...

This was very interesting... This is a terrific test. And it shows results in a number of ways. It clearly indicates that the majority of Americans don't have a clue about what's going on in the world. No wonder our politicians take such advantage of us. It's astonishing that so many people got less than half right. These results say that 80% of the (voting) public doesn't have a clue, and that's pretty scary. There are no tricks here - just a simple test to see if you are current on your information. This is quite good and the results...

THOMAS JEFFERSON At 5, began studying under his cousins tutor. At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French. At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages. At 16, entered the College of William and Mary. At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe. At 23, started his own law practice. At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America " and retired from his law practice. At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress. At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence...

In a recent Times column entitled “Occupy the Classroom,” Nicholas Kristof went to bat for the idea of “early childhood education.” He quotes the dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, as she forcefully states what we already know: there are significant performance gaps between rich and poor students; and those gaps widen in later years. Question is, what does our Education Establishment intend to do about these gaps? Nicholas Kristof is sure that we should do something. And that something, apparently, is to do more and more of what we are already doing but force it on younger and...

Home schools emerged in many places of China today due to the parents' concern about the public education, the China Youth Daily reported Monday.A growing number of parents in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces are choosing to let their children receive an education at home rather than attend public kindergartens, primary, junior or senior middle schools.Some parents think their children cannot realize the happiness of learning, acquire useful knowledge effectively and master learning for a modern society through the current methods taught in schools. A recent seminar about launching home school projects was held by 21st Century Education Research...

A powerful inteview with Russian Refusenik Yuri Yarmin Agaev.

My will is being done through you , No longer in part but all the way through , You have passed by the Ark and now onto Zion you have come , For I AM continually with you releasing My kingdom , So now as you venture into My Will , It is My fullness that you fulfill , Not a jot or a tittle a thought or a vow , You are My Kingdom "alive" ( (( Operating NOW )) ) , So as you reach out your hands My coals of fire reveal * , All of My...

WASHINGTON -- As of today all PDF versions of books published by the National Academies Press will be downloadable to anyone free of charge. This includes a current catalog of more than 4,000 books plus future reports produced by the Press. The mission of the National Academies Press (NAP) -- publisher for the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council -- is to disseminate the institutions' content as widely as possible while maintaining financial sustainability. To that end, NAP began offering free content online in 1994. Before today’s announcement, all PDFs were...

Last night I saw the future of education in Britain – and it worked. The occasion was the launch of Katharine Birbalsingh’s free school in Lambeth, South London. As a local parent I was naturally very interested in this because at the moment round these parts you have two options when your kids turn 11: either you consign them to the dustbin of whichever failing state school you’re unlucky enough to get them into. Or you consign yourself to an old age of misery and penury by forking out for one of the many excellent local private schools. Having just...