Free Republic

Incredible new post-apocalyptic novel based on conservative ideals and current events Hey folks, I’ve just finished a newly released novel titled “Ivy Moon Total Eclipse” and I have tell people about it. Trust me, it’s like nothing you’ve ever read. It’s by a guy named Bill Furney who lives in North Carolina where I live and the story takes place in the eastern part of the state. Technically, it’s a young adult novel, but in the vein of Hunger Games, which simply means there’s no sex, drugs, or profanity. But the story revolves around adult themes and conservative principles that...

College students don't work very hard these days, write Rick Hess and Greg Fournier of the Manhattan Institute. Full-time students say they average 20 to 25 hours of class time and studying each week, and some estimates are even lower. Thirty-five hours a week would be a reasonable amount of time, according to traditional measures. They're not more likely to have paying jobs than earlier generations, research shows. In 2024, the average first-year student reported spending 5.3 hours per week in campus activities and clubs, 9.3 hours working for pay and 11.9 hours relaxing and socializing. Yet most think they're...

There’s nothing like the magic of getting lost in a good book. Who doesn’t love being dazzled by a fantastical world, riveted by a twisty murder-mystery plot, or emotionally destroyed by an epic ending from the comfort of their couch? But if it’s been months or years since you’ve devoured a book, you might be wondering where that spark went—and if you can ever get it back. First off, there’s no shame in losing your bibliophilic gusto at some point. Thanks to the little dopamine dispensers glued to our palms and endless TV shows competing for our attention, it’s a...

With 'near time' identified as a problem, parents urged to boosting outdoor timeNew research shows the rate of myopia among children and teens worldwide has tripled over the past three decades, with a particularly steep increase noted since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A paper in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, which reviewed 276 studies published to June 2023 from around the world, concluded that more than one in three of all children and teens are nearsighted, triple what it was in 1990. "Emerging evidence suggests a potential association between the pandemic and accelerated vision deterioration among...

A New Jersey law that removes a requirement for teachers to pass a reading, writing and mathematics test for certification will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025. The law, Act 1669, was passed by Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy as part of the state’s 2025 budget in June in an effort to address a shortage of teachers in the state... Individuals seeking an instructional certificate will no longer need to pass a “basic skills” test ... Just months earlier, Murphy signed a similar bill into law that created an alternative pathway for teachers to sidestep the testing requirement....

Kids aren’t reading anymore. That’s the conclusion of a recent article by The Associated Press noting that children are not only reading less for fun — only 14% say they do so daily compared to 27% in 2012 — but they are also not getting assigned actual books much in class either. Per the AP, “In many English classrooms across America, assignments to read full-length novels are becoming less common. Some teachers focus instead on selected passages — a concession to perceptions of shorter attention spans, pressure to prepare for standardized tests and a sense that short-form content will prepare...

We don't know the exact details of Kamala Harris' visit just yet, but we know it will be somewhere in Allentown and likely in the afternoon. Trump supporters, meantime, will take over the Santander Arena for a rally set for 2 p.m.

Students at prestigious colleges are finding it increasingly difficult to finish entire books because they do not have the attention span. Some professors claim they have been forced to reduce reading assignments and lower their expectations to stop students becoming overwhelmed - even though the workload is often less intense than in previous years. It is not that students are illiterate, they say, but rather that youngsters are not used to ploughing through lengthy texts and struggle to focus for long periods of time - often due to the distraction of social media. UC Berkeley literature professor Victoria Kahn told...

City leaders, along with law enforcement officials gathered to announce the launch of a program that will install 100 license plate reading cameras in the San Fernando Valley that authorities believe will help police track criminals down. Officials said that some neighborhoods north of Rinaldi Street in Porter Ranch have some of the highest crime rates in the city, which is why several cameras have already been installed in the area. “Last year, the Devonshire District reported that homes north of this very street experienced a 103% jump in home burglaries,” District 12 Councilman Jon Lee said at the event....

Former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci said Friday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that former President Donald Trump “has a problem reading and probably various learning disabilities.” Guest host Alex Marquardt said, “Speaking of that interview that our colleague Dana Bash did with Kamala Harris yesterday, Trump has responded. He called Harris low-energy but he said not too much about the substance of the interview. What does that tell you?” Scaramucci said, “He’s a perception guy. He’s a very aesthetic person because you know, he has a problem reading and probably various learning disabilities so he’s working off the aesthetics...

In Minnesota, 50% of students cannot read at grade level. If we were to apply the traditional academic grading scale to that outcome, the public education system in the state would get a solid F.. That abysmal performance was the topic of much debate during this term of the Minnesota legislature, prompting the Democrat trifecta to pass “the READ Act,” an effort to replace the failed “whole language” method of literacy training with traditional phonics education. “Whole language” is an absolute joke, recognized even by many on the Left as a toxic methodology that fails students. In essence, “whole language”...

I've got some mild macular degeneration (early 70s) that is making it hard to read. I've got a "pucker" on my right retina that causes some mild distortion which makes it hard to read. The images from the left and right eye don't line up perfectly anymore. My retina specialist doctor says he can operate on the retina to improve the problem, but he can't say for certain what the outcome would be. There's always a risk of any surgery and in this case it could be losing the affected eye. Also, recurrence of the problem in a few years...

Illiteracy is a serious and growing problem in the United States: 21% of adults were illiterate in 2022, and 54% of adults have a literacy below sixth-grade level. Illiteracy traps people (and nations) in poverty. This, despite the fact that the United States spends more money on primary and secondary education than any other industrial nation. One of the main reasons our literacy skills are so abysmal is the rejection of traditional phonics-based pedagogy in favor of trendier, "ground-breaking" or "leading edge" methodologies pushed by prominent schools of education at prestigious universities. Educational fads pushed by highly credentialed advocates and...

Reading for fun sharply declines around age nine in an alarming trend that coincides with years of learning loss since the pandemic, data shows. Only 35% of nine-year-olds are reading at least five days a week compared to 57% of eight-year-olds, according to the latest Scholastic survey on the issue. “The number of kids who say they love reading drops significantly from 40% among eight-year-olds to 28% among nine-year-olds,” the Scholastic report notes. The trend, dubbed the “decline by nine” has concerned researchers, who note that reaching reading proficiency by third grade is a good predictor of academic success. [snip]...

Sometimes you can feel like you can get more out of reading a single book then you have an entire semester of college. Some of these books might be surprisingly simple to read. Which three books made you feel much more educated and enriched after reading them?

Back in January, I posted a thread about Reading Any Good Books and it got over 200 responses. It's been two months. What have you been reading?

Not all those who wander are lostJust like the otherworldly maps which often grace the inner covers of these wondrous books, the realm of fantasy novels is surprisingly wide-ranging, with numerous sub and hybrid genres existing within. From full-blown fantasy featuring witches, dragons, magic and mayhem, to dystopian takes that offer an almost satirical commentary on contemporary reality – the choices are endless and rather daunting, making it difficult to know where to start. An enduring genre nonetheless, it’s particularly fascinating that so much of our adoration for fantasy novels comes from our experience of them as children. When reread...

Recent years have seen successive waves of book bans in Republican-controlled states, aimed at pulling any text with “woke” themes from classrooms and library shelves. But at the same time, the appropriate response is, in principle, simple... and we can replace those individuals with people who want to reverse those policies. Defeating the open conspiracy to deprive students of physical access to books will do little to counteract the more diffuse confluence of forces that are depriving students of the skills needed to meaningfully engage with those books in the first place. As a college educator, I am confronted daily...

A long time ago, there was a Free Republic Book Club ... mostly because I opened my mouth and a bunch of people told me to organize one. I haven't pinged it in a long time. (Actually, another book club started, so I stopped.) Any way, has anyone read any good books lately. Fiction, non-fiction, genre, mainstream. Anything you want to share? Has anyone WRITTEN any good books that the rest of us should check out?

Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) signed legislation repealing the basic skills test that had been previously required for college graduates to be certified as teachers in the state's public schools. "Forcing people to prove they are proficient in reading, writing and math in order to be accepted as teachers is out-dated," Murphy said. "In today's world these are no longer essential skills. Tik Tok videos and texting are the main methods of communication used by today's youngsters. This is what our teachers need to be using." Angela Morabito, a spokesperson for the Defense of Freedom Institute and former press secretary for...