Free Republic

A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING POVERTY by Ruby K. Payne, Ph.D. INTRODUCTION I do not remember why I bought this book, but I am glad I did. This book took a week to write, but it sold over 1,000,000 copies. While popular, the book must be unacceptable to mainstream, academic educators. There are no formal book reviews; there are no Wikipedia entries. In spite of neglect and criticism, the book is surely popular. Why, is easy to understand. Dr. Payne discusses what is not supposed to be discussed-- social class. She believes that misunderstanding between social classes results in problems for...

Thinking about home schooling your kids? ... Establish a vision for your family. Why are you doing this? What are your goals? You need to have this before you start. This will sustain you during rough times. If you believe you have God's direction in it, this establishes faith to make things happen when, at times, it seems impossible. Raising relaxed, well-adjusted children is one goal you might want to consider... Classroom education must address the learning style and pace of the majority. This creates stress in a child that learns differently... For such children, classroom education can be destructive......

The National Education Association (NEA), which gathers this week for its annual meeting in Philadelphia, has just been brought up short by an Ohio court ruling that an individual teacher’s union dues may not be used to fund pro-abortion activities, if that teacher objects for religious reasons.  But many teachers may not be aware that NEA and its state affiliates also fund pro-homosexual activities, including groups advocating the full expression of homosexuality and “transgendered” behaviors by children and teachers at school.The teachers’ union also sponsors training on “GLBT issues.” Its NEA-GLBT Caucus will hold a workshop on June 29 for...

Some teachers in the Albemarle School District in Virginia are rebelling against their managers' orders to hand out to students as young as kindergarten a promotion for a summer camp that advocates for "Atheists, Freethinkers, Humanists, Brights, or whatever..." A representative of the teachers talked to WND only on condition that a name and school not be used, and said such advertisements provided by the district to hand out to children violate the teachers' religious beliefs. It was the same school district that WND earlier reported was distributing publicity about a "Pagan Christmas ritual" being held in the community.

The atheist philanthropist who gave the New York Archdiocese $22.5 million for Catholic school scholarships yesterday blasted the city's public school system as "lousy." Robert Wilson laid the blame for the state of the public schools on the United Federation of Teachers, the union that represents teachers at city schools. Wilson, 80, told Bloomberg News that his huge donation "was a chance for a very modest amount of money to get kids out of a lousy school system, and into a good school system." Wilson's remarks came as the renowned former Wall Street investor and the archdiocese announced his donation...

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2007 – Elementary school students in Missouri are building their character through activities designed to salute the troops. A non-profit group called “Salute the Troops” aims to support servicemembers and veterans through character education and school and community events, Carrie Fain, the group’s executive director, said. “We believe in the importance of our kids looking up to real role models of character,” she said, referring to servicemembers. “They are the true examples of honor, respect, responsibility, self-discipline and integrity -- (qualities) that we are hoping to instill in future generations.” With the cooperation of school counselors...

Capt. Thaddeus Janicki helps Afghan Capts. Mohammed Azam, left, and Amanullah Bakhshi, right, while teaching a computer fundamentals course to Afghan National Army soldiers at the Kabul Military Training Center, April 2, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Cecilio M. Ricardo Jr. Air Force Captain Teaches Classes, Experiences By Staff Sgt. Carlos Diaz U.S. Central Command Air Forces Public Affairs Camp Eggers, Afghanistan, April 6, 2007 — There was no school bell, but class was definitely in session inside of a cement building where Capt. Ted Janicki teaches “The Introduction to Computers” course to Afghan National Army...

Who, on average, is better paid—public school teachers or architects? How about teachers or economists? You might be surprised to learn that public school teachers are better paid than these and many other professionals. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public school teachers earned $34.06 per hour in 2005, 36% more than the hourly wage of the average white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty or technical worker

When the Najaf Teaching Hospital opens in 2007, it will accommodate 200 medical and 50 pharmaceutical students. Courtesy photo. NAJAF -- The Najaf Teaching Hospital, a project worth more than $10 million, will open in early 2007 featuring a seven-story building capable of housing 420 patients and containing 13 operating rooms. The hospital development, which has survived gun battles, the termination of its primary contractor and serious security issues, first came to the attention of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office (IRMO) in September 2004. During that month, the flooded basement, containing debris and human remains, was cleaned and repaired, as...

Iraqi workers prepare to place concrete at the Academy of Health and Science in Baghdad. Department of Defense photo by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Learning, Teaching and Growing in Iraq Capacity building and community involvement define reconstruction efforts By Norris JonesGulf Region Central DistrictU.S. Army Corps of Engineers BAGHDAD, Dec. 7, 2006 -- Projects under the U.S.-led reconstruction program in Iraq were initiated in the understanding that in an asymmetric war, progress is most clearly witnessed at the local level. For both the Iraqi people and the Coalition engineers and soldiers involved, reconstruction efforts to restore essential services...

Nachum Shifren is an ordained rabbi in Los Angeles who spent 18 years of his life as a secondary school teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He was also known as the "Surfing Rabbi" because of his abilities as a former professional surfer. He is quite familiar with youth culture and can be a pretty hip fellow -- despite his long beard, yarmulke and phylacteries that hang from his waistband. His level of coolness, however, never prepared him for a public school system where he received a death threat in class by a student and, on another day,...

“My daughter is now 20 years old,” one mother wrote to me recently. “After graduating from high school in June 2005, she enrolled at the local community college. It was necessary for her to take a placement test and it was determined she needed to take Basic Skills Math and English before she could take [college level courses.] After failing both classes twice, she will not be returning. It breaks my heart to see that she can’t pass basic math or English class. How did she graduate high school?” The answer is that her parents were heavily levied with property...

Many who admit that homework is probably academically worthless in the elementary grades and not very helpful in high school still think kids should have it because: 1. It gets parents involved in their kids' education.This implies that the homework isn't for the kids, it's for the parents. In other words, the school feels they have a right to assign parents to spend time doing worthless assignments with their children. But what exactly are we doing when we're "involved" in our kids' homework? Either we're not needed, because the kids can do it fine without us, or we are needed,...

THERE is no more pivotal issue in the values debate than the school curriculum, and the corruption of the humanities agenda waits to be made into a front-line political issue. ... Sawyer is explicit: the purpose of English is to produce children who have the mind and ethics to vote against John Howard. His diatribe is pompous and devoid of the qualities of reflection and balance expected of an education professional. The website of the Australian Association for the Teaching of English carries a message from president Paul Sommer noting that while Sawyer's views are his own he "writes with...

Schools of education have gotten bad grades before. Yet there are some truly shocking statistics about teacher training in this week's report from the Education Schools Project. According to "Educating School Teachers," three-quarters of the country's 1,206 university-level schools of education don't have the capacity to produce excellent teachers. More than half of teachers are educated in programs with the lowest admission standards (often accepting 100% of applicants) and with "the least accomplished professors." When school principals were asked to rate the skills and preparedness of new teachers, only 40% on average thought education schools were doing even a moderately...

This week's back-to-school ads offer amazing bargains on lightweight backpacks and nifty school supplies. All those businesses scramble to offer us good stuff at low prices. It's amazing what competition does for consumers. The power to say no to one business and yes to another is awesome. Too bad we don't apply that idea to schools themselves. Education bureaucrats and teachers unions are against it. They insist they must dictate where kids go to school, what they study, and when. When I went on TV to say that it's a myth that a government monopoly can educate kids effectively, hundreds...

The Ed Schools’ Latest—and Worst—Humbug Sol Stern Teaching for “social justice” is a cruel hoax on disadvantaged kids. In 1980, Bill Ayers and his partner Bernardine Dohrn came up from the underground—the Weather Underground, that is. It had been a wild ride for the Bonnie and Clyde of the sixties New Left. They first went into combat during the 1969 “Days of Rage” in Chicago, smashing storefront windows and assaulting police officers and city officials in the fantasy that they were aiding their Vietnamese allies by “bringing the war back home.” They spent the next few years planting bombs at...

Some parents have objected to specific teaching materials that their children have brought home from school. The two environmental books most often objected to are, "Heather Has Too Much Stuff", and "Help! Mom! There's a Polluter Under My Bed!". One local Woodland parent, who declined to be identified for fear of retribution toward his child, told us, "These kids shouldn't be taught this controversial stuff at such a young age. What ever happened to reading, writing, and arithmetic? My kids come home knowing their 'carbon footprint', how much sea levels are supposed to rise, and Al Gore's middle name, but...

A national group is asking Arizona's public universities to require at least one United States history course of every student before graduation. American History currently isn't a required course at any of the state's major public universities. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni has written letters to Gov. Janet Napolitano and 20 state lawmakers, asking them to pressure college regents and administrators to make the change. "The flag doesn't mean all that much if you don't know how it got there," trustees member Charles Mitchell said. "What use is the Constitution if you don't know how it was written?"...

The smart young are, of course, already trending conservative -- they've grown up with the hash my generation has made of love and marriage, and they have soldiered their way through the nonsense we have made of education. But way-left boomers turning right in middle age? Come on. But it's true. A woman around my age, a stalwart, a pillar, a lodestone of the ultra left-wing literary world on Canada's West Coast told me last week, that this year she was going to embrace her Inner Republican. An adorable new friend, Howie Siegel who spent the '70s naked and stoned...