Free Republic

An alarming number of NYC students have scored three or more “zeroes” for their writing answers on the statewide English exams, a new study reveals.On the English Language Arts exams between 2013 and 2016, in addition to multiple-choice questions, students had to read nine or 10 short stories or texts, then write responses aimed at showing their ability to think critically and cite evidence to support their answers.

There is one constant throughout the past 100 years. Professors of education came up with ever more exotic schemes and nomenclatures for how education should be organized, even as these schemes confused students and destroyed achievement. Each scheme had a catchy name (Open Classroom, Life Adjustment, Multiculturalism, Constructivism, Common Core) and a phalanx of resistance-is-futile jargon. Somehow the proposals didn’t translate into gains. One might cynically conclude that the jargon was a goal in itself (to get a grant, to build a career, to impress ordinary citizens). You may even suspect that the larger purpose of all these schemes is...

Feeding knowledge directly into your brain, just like in sci-fi classic The Matrix, could soon take as much effort as falling asleep, scientists believe. Researchers claim to have developed a simulator which can feed information directly into a person’s brain and teach them new skills in a shorter amount of time, comparing it to “life imitating art”. They believe it could be the first steps in developing advanced software that will make Matrix-style instant learning a reality. In the neo-noir sci-fi classic, protagonist Neo is able to learn kung fu in seconds after the martial art is ‘uploaded’ straight to...

Paraprosdokians are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected and is frequently humorous. (Winston Churchill loved them). 1. Where there's a will, I want to be in it. 2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you … but it's still on my list 3. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak 4. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong. 5. We never really grow up -- we only learn how to act in public. 6. War does...

...snip... When I grew up, all my male classmates were out shooting guns when they were seven. My father, of an urban liberal persuasion, wouldn’t let me near a firearm until I was 17. Still, I strongly believe that one of the most important skills a parent can teach their children is self defense. Dogs do it. Cats do it, tigers do it. Only domesticated animals like cows, sheep, chickens, turkeys, and domesticated pigs don’t. (I guess that is why we farm them for food. They don’t fight back.) Yes. Humans tend NOT to EAT animals that fight back. I...

“I have had enough bullshit,” wrote Notre Dame sociology professor Christian Smith in a recent piece about the systemic problems of American Higher Education. “The manure has piled up so deep in the hallways, classrooms, and administration buildings of American higher education that I am not sure how much longer I can wade through it and retain my sanity and integrity.” This forward, in-your-face commentary on the state of today’s higher education caught the attention of many in the realm of the Ivory bell tower, but should also serve as a wake-up call to those who don’t follow higher ed...

Rudolf Flesch, in his 1955 book, noted that "things have changed in the last 10, 20 years. For the first time in history, American parents see their children getting less education than they got themselves. Their sons and daughters come home from school and they can't read the newspaper; they can't spell simple words like February or Wednesday; they don't know the difference between Austria and Australia. The fathers and mothers don't know the reason for this, but they know that something terrible has happened to their most precious dreams and aspirations[.]" Isn't it beautiful – the way Flesch perceives...

Outspoken feminist Camille Paglia says the current generation of hyper-sensitive, safety-seeking college students was gradually created by the downward spiral of public education that has left them ignorant of history and geography and focused, instead, on viewing America as an evil nation. (snip) Paglia said: What has happened is these young people now getting to college have no sense of history of any kind. No sense of history. No world geography. No sense of the violence and the barbarities of history. So, they think that the whole world has always been like this, a kind of nice, comfortable world where...

Full Title: The headband that makes you smarter: US military reveals a bizarre device that increases learning by 40% - and it could be commonly used by 2022 The idea of a headband you can wear to make you smarter may sound like a device from the latest science fiction blockbuster. But experts have revealed such a device in reality – and claim it could increase learning by 40 per cent. And it may not be long before you can get your hands on one, with the designers predicting its use will be common in just five to ten years....

I’ll admit it. I’m addicted to learning. There’s nothing quite like the thrill that comes with finding out something new.It’s no surprise I ended up this way. My parents were public school teachers. They instilled in me the belief that education not only opens up new opportunities but also is enjoyable in itself. My parents regularly took my siblings and me to museums, encouraged us to read widely and entertained our incessant “whys?” and “hows?” And though neither of my parents taught science, I remember studying constellations at night and experimenting with chemistry at the dining table. (My parents passed...

The fourth-grade tradition of building a California mission out of Popsicle sticks and sugar cubes is being pushed aside by the state as history lessons change to reflect all cultures and more accurately depict the past. A new framework for the curriculum at K-12 public schools means less research into the floor plans of the mission at say San Juan Capistrano, and more time looking at what life was like for both the missionaries and the native people of California.

Wife unit and I just completed painting our childrens rooms. Theme should be between K-3 , boy and girl. What posters/themes centered on education and religion would you put in their room? Below is a small list I have brainstormed, and I am interested in things that just ARENT taught as much anymore or not emphasized enough. When I was growing up my room was filled with posters to keep my mind going......most were hand made by mom. I'm sure there are nice ones that homeschoolers and teachers use that maybe I'm not thinking of. Thanks! FReegards!

Hundreds of websites broadcast the same misguided message: children must memorize Sight-Words. This message is false. Probably the most aggressive falsehood is that such memorization is easy to do. One popular site proclaims this malarkey: “Because many Sight-Words are phonetically irregular, tend to be abstract, have limited visual correspondence, or even easily understood definitions, students must memorize them to read quickly and fluently.” Note the casual tone: “Students must memorize them.” The school certainly wouldn’t ask children to do something difficult or impossible, would it? Yes, it would! And therein lies the essence of the hoax. In the context of...

A teacher at a public high school in Alabama sent his students home with a summer reading list chock full of conservative authors from which to choose, including Ann Coulter, Ronald Reagan, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, and libertarian John Stossel. But parents became concerned that it leaned too far right and so now, the kids don’t have to read anything over the summer.

Earlier in the month, my high-school alma mater in the prosperous Montgomery County suburbs of Philadelphia went viral. A video of a student brawl injuring four security officers and eight teachers appeared on YouTube, bolstering long-whispered rumors of the district’s decline. Four students were taken into custody; one of them, 18 and charged as an adult for four counts of aggravated assault, is still in jail as I write. All four of the students were black females.

Think grade inflation has made grades less meaningful? A consortium of 100 elite prep schools agrees. But rather than impose stricter grading curves, these schools plan to eliminate grades altogether. “People are nonstandard,” says D. Scott Looney, head of Cleveland’s Hawken School and founder and board chair of the new Mastery Transcript Consortium. “They grow and evolve in the world in nonstandard ways. Distilling that down to a simple common number like a GPA shaves off a lot of humanity in that journey.” These are not artsy-fartsy alternative schools; the consortium includes some of the most famous pressure-cooker private institutions...

Are we "doing" high school right these days? Is it enough to say we have improved our schools by offering more electives, more AP courses, IB classes, and STEM programs? Is that impactful enough, or at all? These are inputs, not outputs, and they are no guarantee to students that they will get a job or get into the college they want to attend when they graduate. So, again, are we doing high schools right, today? As the issue of school choice heats up, this is a question that needs an answer. If the choice is between two schools that...

"This is our mission, in the U.S. and everywhere. We make a difference in the world because we practice professional journalism that is both intrepid and unbiased," explained Reuters Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler to his pool of reporters this morning in a message to staff about covering Trump the Reuters way. But, in a strange twist, it appears the mainstream media is waking up to reality as Adler says: "Get out into the country and learn more about how people live, what they think, what helps and hurts them, and how the government and its actions appear to them, not to...

My 7 yr old daughter came home from school with a practice study test for her Social Study's test two days prior to the test date. The first night my husband helped her study, asking the questions and my daughter answering from multiple choice answers. The second night, I helped her study and she seemed to struggle with about 6 questions. I asked her if her teacher went over the test or if anything was taught to her about the test at all and my daughter simply said "We just went over the test today." I asked her why and...

We Urge Members to Hear Our Voices. However painful 2016 was, a new year offers a fresh start.  This year, we will take nothing for granted.  The challenges we will inevitably face may mean that we can see new strategies and new solutions that would have eluded us in the past.  2017 marks the start of the 115th Congress, and we’re reaching out to members of Congress to encourage them to approach the unfolding year with a different perspective, too. We’re asking them to put families ahead of partisan politics and renew America’s commitment to public education so that all students, regardless...