Free Republic

The Army has learned a great deal in Iraq and Afghanistan about the conduct of counterinsurgency operations, and we must continue to learn all that we can from our experiences in those countries. The insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan were not, in truth, the wars for which we were best prepared in 2001; however, they are the wars we are fighting and they clearly are the kind of wars we must master. America's overwhelming conventional military superiority makes it unlikely that future enemies will confront us head on. Rather, they will attack us asymmetrically, avoiding our strengths-firepower, maneuver, technology-and come...

Last month, 500 angry schoolteachers assembled outside my office. The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) was furious that "Stupid in America," a "20/20" show I did on education, suggested that some union teachers were lazy. They shouted that I didn't understand how difficult teaching was, and chanted, "Shame on you!" Randi Weingarten, head of New York City's union, took the microphone and hollered, "Just teach for a week!" She said I could select from many schools. "We got high schools, we got elementary schools, we got junior high schools!" I accepted. I even said I'd let the union pick the...

Thousands of Connecticut teachers, including some award-winning educators, could face new job reviews because they do not meet U.S. government standards as "highly qualified teachers," federal officials say. The U.S. Department of Education has issued a new monitoring report that throws into question the qualifications of more than 13,000 teachers, about 30 percent of the state's public school teaching force, state officials say. State education officials have vowed to challenge the report's conclusion that many teachers - especially older elementary teachers and those teaching social studies and special education classes - do not meet the criteria established under the federal...

On the Web site of an unofficial alumni organization at the University of California, Los Angeles, there are profiles "exposing" the university's "most radical professors" who "actively proselytize their extreme views in the classroom." These professors are described as "brainless" and are berated for never having left the "fantasy world of college." [snip] There are other disturbing examples today and throughout history. In Colorado and Indiana, as a result of widely publicized student allegations of left-wing bias in the classroom, several professors have received hate mail and at least one received a death threat. The number of organizations across America...

Posted on Sun, Feb. 26, 2006 Preschool reform measure won't close learning gap for poorBy Bruce Fuller Like every would-be savior in the annals of school reform, Reiner promises miraculous results from his plan to spend $23 billion in the coming decade for preschool. Just over 64 percent of California's half-million 4-year-olds already attend a preschool center... Reiner's ``universal'' program would boost the enrollment rate only to 70 percent......by just 6 percent, or 32,000 4-year-olds statewide, at a cost of $2.3 billion a year.We are learning empirically that gains experienced by poor children who attend preschool fade by third...

"The teachers united will never be defeated!" chanted thousands of public-school teachers at a union rally. They may be right -- unfortunately. Teachers unions in this country are very influential because they can assemble a crowd. Randi Weingarten, head of New York's teachers union, put out the word, and thousands of teachers filled Madison Square Garden to demand a new contract and more money. That clout brings timid politicians into line. The unions can pay for expensive rallies at "the world's most famous arena" because every teacher in a unionized district like New York must give up some of his...

I drove into New Haven on a recent morning with a burning question on my mind. How did my daughter do against the chimpanzees? A month before, I had found a letter in the cubby of my daughter Charlotte at her preschool. It was from a graduate student at Yale asking for volunteers for a psychological study. The student, Derek Lyons, wanted to observe how 3- and 4-year-olds learn. I was curious, so I got in touch. Mr. Lyons explained how his study might shed light on human evolution. His study would build on a paper published in the July...

The Network of College Conservatives (N.C.C.) is gaining prominence and recognition throughout the nation. Three weeks after its Internet launch, the N.C.C. has registered students from more than 60 schools across the nation including those from Ivy League, state and private institutions, as well as several community colleges.

CARSON CITY: "HE SAID/SHE SAID" School administrators in Carson City, Nevada, had a very...bad...day yesterday, thanks to y'all. By the time school administrators went home, over 6,500 online petitions in support of history teacher Joe Enge had been sent to the school superintendent, the Carson High principal and the 7 members of the school board. Alas, the volume of emailed petitions overwhelmed the district, and by lunchtime the petitions were being "bounced" by the school district's system. Then came the phone calls. At first, administration personnel tried fielding the flood of calls it was receiving, but by mid-afternoon most...

IS TEACHING TRADITIONAL “HISTORY” HISTORY IN CARSON CITY’S HIGH SCHOOL? Meet Joe Enge. Joe is an award-winning, 15-year veteran history teacher in Carson City who has, among other things, written two history textbooks and served on the 1997 task force which drew up Nevada’s history standards. But according to school district administrators, he’s a “bad” teacher. You see, Joe has this crazy idea that American history should include our colonial period, as well as the Revolutionary War period. You know, where the Founding Fathers fought for independence from England and wrote the greatest governing document the world has ever...

A relative of mine, immediately after graduating from college, went to work for a bank. Even though he had a university degree, he was assigned the job of repossessing cars. We kidded him a lot about that. He eventually ended up a vice president, but his entry into the banking industry was about as low as you can get, and we never let him forget it. In similar fashion, the Enterprise car-rental firm goes to college campuses to recruit management trainees, but among the first jobs these trainees handle is washing and cleaning cars coming off rental. When I moved...

LUCAS Haynes can't read or write because chronic dyslexia tumbles the letters and jumbles his words. But the gifted primary school student is a genius at taming his wild cat's jungle habits. A cross between an Asian leopard and a domestic moggie, Lucas's rare bengal cat, Simha, is genetically driven to drink only running water. Worried his family was wasting water by leaving a tap running for their cat, eight-year-old Lucas set about solving the problem. He invented and built an infra-red water saver – a device that detects Simha approaching the bath and turns on the tap for him....

Has anyone had any experience with Huntington Learning Center? I have a child who has been struggling in school for some time and our efforts have not improved the situation much. My wife suggested we take him to a learning center and we went to Huntington Learning Center, where, after a long discussion with the woman who owned it, we made an appointment to have him tested. The results of the test confirmed what we already knew ($170.00 for the test) and we were then subjected to a 2 hour conference where we were informed that my child's only hope...

FORT A.P. HILL, Va. -- About 43,000 Boy Scouts departed this Army installation Aug. 3 after 10 days of scouting, camping and learning. As part of the 2005 National Scout Jamboree, Boy Scouts nationwide gathered to make new friends, practice their scouting skills and earn "merit badges." Thanks to retired Lt. Col. Tom Sawner, a former pilot, about 1,000 of those young men left the Jamboree with a new merit badge and a greater appreciation and understanding of aviation. The aviation merit badge is particularly difficult to get, Colonel Sawner said, because the resources needed to complete the requirements for...

America held its breath Tuesday morning. Twice, it had seen what could happen when 4.5 million pounds is hurled skyward by 7.4 million pounds of thrust to achieve an orbit of the earth and then shed that energy for a safe, passenger-jet speed landing. Twice it had grieved. The Challenger lift off explosion in 1986 and the Columbia re-entry disaster of 2003 had taken 14 lives of men and women who had placed them in the hands of technology only to learn its implacable cruelty. Would the shuttle Discovery somehow redeem that trust? In a world where headlines are made...

America's elementary school students made solid gains in both reading and mathematics in the first years of this decade, while middle school students made less progress and older teenagers hardly any, according to federal test results released on Thursday. . . . 9-year-old minority students made the most gains. In particular, young black students significantly narrowed the longtime gap between their math and reading scores and those of higher-achieving white students, who also made strong gains. Older minority teenagers, however, scored about as far behind whites as in previous decades, and scores for all groups pointed to a deepening crisis...

CHICAGO - Too much TV-watching can harm children's ability to learn and even reduce their chances of getting a college degree, three new studies suggest in the latest effort to examine the effects of television on kids.... Previous research has linked television exposure in young children with attention problems and difficulty learning to read....

Generation to Generation: Nuturing the Faith in Our Homes    KIMBERLY HAHN From the moment we hold our child for the first time, we care for his physical needs. We feed him, clothe him, and clean him. Yet he has deeper needs than physical care — he has a soul that needs to be fed, clothed, and cleansed. "If I become a Catholic, will my children be believers?" That may sound like a strange question, but it was the agony of my heart as I considered accompanying Scott on his faith journey into the Catholic Church. I knew how to...

A textbook case of stupidity: Assembly's call for 200-page-limit on student reading matter is beyond folly By HUGH GLENN The Anaheim resident is an education consultant and online editor who lives in Anaheim. Efforts to dumb down California public schools continue unabated. The most recent action is the Assembly passing AB 756, a bill by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg that would prevent school districts from using any instructional material that exceeds 200 pages. Assemblyman Keith Richman calls it "ridiculous" and "the epitome of micromanagement." Jack O'Connell, state superintendent of public instruction, surprisingly, has remained silent. Astoundingly, 42 legislators (including Orange...

ANOTHER GEORGIA PUBLIK SKOOL STORY June 5, 2005 This one comes to us from Atlanta talk-show host Neal Boortz... + + + We talked about this one on the show yesterday (June 1), but it didn't make the Nuze. So here we go...the story of the Anita White Carson Middle School in Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia. Our cast of characters is as follows: * Matthew Lund, first year teacher * Ulrica Corbett, Principal. * Zach Richardson, Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. So .. here's the story, gleaned from the front page of the May 26th edition of Greensboro Herald-Journal. Matthew...