Free Republic

Several months ago, the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) initiative announced $600,000 in grant money to five organizations for K-5 Pilot Projects in civics education. EAD is a national civics advocacy project that has lots of money and prestige. When it went public in 2021, six former U.S. secretaries of education, three of them appointed by Republicans, signed a letter of endorsement in The Wall Street Journal. One of the recipients of this hefty grant was the Georgia Council for the Social Studies in partnership with the Georgia Center for Civic Engagement and the state Department of Education. The grant,...

Scholastic Inc. is a nearly century-old educational publishing company that distributes books, magazines, and other teaching materials through the schools. If you have kids (or remember from your own grade-school days), Scholastic puts out news bulletins that get sent home weekly or monthly. One of those items is Scholastic News, which bills itself as “America’s Leading News Source for kids.” Reader Edward has a daughter in fourth grade who brought home the December issue of Scholastic News — and he wasn’t too happy when he saw the publication’s coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Read for yourself (click for...

Milwaukee Public Schools' health officials want to make condoms freely available to students in many of the district's high schools, as part of an effort to combat the health risks that sexually transmitted infections and other communicable diseases pose to young people. If the proposal wins the support of the School Board, the new policy could take effect as early as next school year, making MPS one of a few districts in the nation that provide contraception to students. Kathleen Murphy, the district's health coordinator, said that data continues to show that middle and high school students are engaging in...

(AgapePress) - The United States Supreme Court may hear a case involving a school district's censorship of an art poster that a kindergartener drew for a school assignment -- a drawing that was partly suppressed by school officials because it contained the child's depiction of Jesus.The case involves Antonio Peck, who was a kindergarten student in the late 1990s at Baldwinsville Elementary School in Syracuse, New York. The boy's teacher told members of the class to draw posters illustrating their understanding of the environment. Antonio's poster featured children holding hands and encircling the globe and people picking up trash and...

A high school research assignment on Internet pornography was canceled after parents in this Cleveland suburb complained. Superintendent Jeff Lampert said that although the teacher's apparent goal _ to discuss the harmful effects of pornography _ was well- intentioned, he agreed with parents that the assignment was inappropriate for 14- and 15-year-old freshmen at Brooklyn High. The assignment asked students to research pornography on the Internet and list eight facts about pornography. Students also were asked to write their personal views of pornography and any experience they had with it. Lampert said he doubted the teacher would face any punishment.

Circle time in Laura Gelderloos' kindergarten class at Harper Elementary School in Wilmette is a little bit different this year. The 5-year-olds, chins poking up as they follow her animated expressions, are singing in Spanish. Hola, buenos dias. Como estas? Yo estoy bien. Gracias. The class is part of a foreign-language initiative to bring Spanish instruction to every kindergarten, 1st- and 2nd-grade class in the district's four schools. On the first day of the 20-minute class, there was an English explanation. On day two, "we'll only speak Spanish," Gelderloos tells her charges. "You'll see. It'll be easy." The Wilmette foreign-language...

Re-Segregating the ClassroomBy Lowell PonteFrontPageMagazine.com | July 30, 2003                                       PONTEFICATIONSTWO MORE SCHOOLS HAVE JUST BECOME BATTLEGROUNDS in America’s culture war, both over issues of segregation and separatism. In Oberlin, Ohio, southwest of Cleveland, activists are outraged that scheduling requirements assigned a white teacher to lead local high school classes in black history.“The message is that we are not concerned about the importance of your historical background,” says A.G. Miller, an associate professor of American and “African religious history” – voodoo history? – at Leftily-trendy nearby Oberlin College, racially integrated from its opening day in 1833.“When you talk about slavery,...