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According to M. J. Mcdermott, a meteorologist and Q13 Fox News (Seattle) weather reporter, the ongoing American mathematic illiteracy may be the result of misguided “reformed math” curriculum which fails to teach students the internationally recognized, efficient multiplication and division algorithms that older generations of Americans learned. Instead, children are encouraged to problem-solve without first developing efficient problem-solving techniques in multiplication and division. Math by CalculatorAs McDermott notes in her video, textbooks such as the 4th and 5th grade versions of Everyday Mathematics devote copious pages to non-germane topics such as a full-color 48-page world atlas to assist students in...

AUSTIN – Proposed math books for elementary school children and their teachers have resulted in one computation that publishers would just as soon erase – 109,263. That's the number of errors that were uncovered in proposed math textbooks that are under review by the State Board of Education for distribution to schools in the fall of 2008. The total number of errors was nearly five times the total for last year, thanks to one publisher whose books contained more than 86,000 errors – 79 percent of the total. Publishers will have until the spring to clean their books up. After...

Still not satisfied with the treatment of religions in her son's seventh-grade textbook, Korina Self aired her concerns Tuesday night at Lodi Unified's board meeting. Backed by nearly a dozen family members and friends, Self delivered a prepared statement asking the board to remove the book "History Alive!: The Medieval World and Beyond" from classrooms. "To know that a textbook was selected and put into use by our district that is blatantly one-sided, whitewashed, and that our children are being spoon-fed this information with sugar on top ... I feel is negligent and intolerable," Self said. Self stopped to gather...

TOKYO -- More than 100,000 people protested Saturday in southern Japan against the central government's order to modify school textbooks which say the country's army forced civilians to commit mass suicide at the end of World War II. Publishers of history textbooks were ordered in December to modify sections that said the Japanese army _ faced with an impending U.S. invasion in 1945 _ handed out grenades to residents in Okinawa and ordered them to kill themselves rather than surrender to the Americans.

As schools citywide open their doors today, a group critical of a new Arabic-language public school is stepping up its opposition efforts, broadening its campaign to target national school curricula.The group, a coalition of community members, parents, and organizations called Citizens for American Values in Public Education, is seeking to stop the national use of textbooks that address Middle Eastern studies in ways the group says are too narrowly focused on Islamic culture. The coalition is an outgrowth of the group Stop the Madrassa, which has strongly opposed the creation of an Arabic-language school in Brooklyn, the Khalil Gibran International...

Norma Gabler, who spent much of the past 46 years fighting for accuracy in textbooks, has died in Phoenix at the age of 84. Gabler and her husband, Mel, founded Educational Research Analysts, a nonprofit that describes itself as a conservation (sic) Christian organization. They began their crusade against textbook errors in 1961 after finding mistakes in their son's textbooks. Mel Gabler died in 2004. .... (A son) said his parents' work led to changes in the way textbooks were adopted. He said some publishers would submit their books to his parents before the approval process began so they could...

[snip] One book sold on the account, "Men, Women and Chainsaws," is an academic text about gender roles in horror films. The book advances the feminist theory of a "Final Woman" in modern slasher films, the idea that while many victims die at the hands of a killer, one plucky, independent woman always survives. Among the actresses cited in the book are Jamie Lee Curtis in "Halloween," Betsy Palmer in "Friday the 13th" and Jennifer Jason Leigh in "Eyes of A Stranger." ABCNews has learned the book was used in an academic course called "Contemporary Horror" which was taught at...

--snip--Sadly, my generation has spawned self-loathing Americans who actually believe that this country is evil. They have neither respect nor love for this nation. Rather they are being taught by today's academic community that America and its institutions should be held in contempt. --snip--

Just saw this on National live Japanese TV a few minutes ago. Our mouths dropped open in partial disbelief, but also with a cynical sense of "well, there they go again".The Japanese Government announced tonight that they are instructing all Japanese textbook publishing companies who produce history books for school children, to specifically take out an reference to "Japanese Imperial Army forcing Okinawa civilians to commit mass suicide during the Okinawa Campaign". This, however, is a historic truth, and well documented by the American military forces and Japanese/Okinawan survivors and eyewitnesses. It is history. But now the current Japanese...

Alert Abbas to PA textbooks [Palestinian 12th grade textbooks teach hating Israel, pursuing its destruction - religious duties.] By HAVIV RETTIG Talkbacks for this article: 11 "You can't have agreements while this kind of hatred is inculcated in the children," Knesset Education Committee Chairman Michael Melchior (Labor-Meimad) said on Tuesday after seeing new 12th-grade textbooks published by the Palestinian Authority late last year. "I intend to demand from Prime Minister [Ehud Olmert] that he present the findings [of a new report on the textbooks] to Abu Mazen [PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas] at their next meeting," Melchior said. Melchior's statements at...

Homosexuality 101 – Coming to a School Near You Last night a good friend of mine called me in a panic. During a recent trip to the local zoo with her two young daughters they saw two men sitting on a wall making out. Her older daughter – being an inquisitive seven year old – asked her what the men where doing. Naturally she was appalled at both the lack of discretion displayed by the men, and the prospect of explaining to her child what they were doing. I jokingly told her not to say anything because her daughter’s school...

Islam is being taught in the nation's public schools as a religion to be embraced because "organized Islamists have gained control of textbook content," according to an organization that analyzes textbooks. The American Textbook Council has concluded that the situation is the consequence of "the interplay of determined Islamic political activists, textbook editors, and multiculturally minded social studies curriculum planners." It has gone so far that correcting the situation now becomes a problem, because "educational publishers and educational organizations have bought into claims propounded by Islamists – and have themselves become agents of misinformation." That comes from Gilbert T. Sewall,...

Clemson Board Member Les McCraw of Greenville (“Tension Inevitable at Great Universities” August 30) is to be congratulated for entering the debate now raging over the freshman campus-wide reading, “Truth and Beauty.” The content of education is important and board members should be paying attention to it. McCraw’s approach to the controversy comes in the form of a response to Professor J. David Woodard’s article (Clemson reading assignment offers no moral standard, August 25). Alas, Mr. McCraw’s contribution to the debate does not do much to help us appreciate “Truth and Beauty” but only tells us why Woodard’s comments should...

Knight Moves University officials continue to demonstrate hostility towards Catholicism that borders on persecution. We have posted stories on the failure of college administrators to take action when student newspapers publish sacrilegious cartoons. Their declarations of support for freedom of the press would be more believable if they took the same approach towards sketches that offend Islamic and Gay Rights groups. Add to the mix the University of Wisconsin’s attempt to ban the Knights of Columbus. The Catholic fraternity is already invisible enough on cutting-edge campuses loosely affiliated with the Church, such as Georgetown’s. “Although the Knights have been a...

Two professors recently warned readers to beware of the Israeli Lobby in the United States. Although they admitted that this network has not been much in evidence on American campuses, they did note the efforts of Jewish philanthropists to redress the imbalance of so-called Middle East Studies Departments. As we pointed out, that fundraising effort is dwarfed by those with deep pockets who support the status quo in higher education. Meanwhile, The Jewish Week in New York is warning students that they could expect more conflict in the coming school year. Their concerns are probably well-founded. Middle East studies courses...

SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have barred textbooks from using language that would be discriminatory to gays, saying the state's education laws already prevent discrimination. The bill's author, state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, called the veto "inexplicable." Kuehl's bill initially would have required California's social science textbooks to include the historical contributions of homosexuals, but the state Assembly amended it at her request in an effort to avoid a veto from the Republican governor. The final version of SB 1437 would have prohibited any negative portrayal of homosexuals in textbooks and other instructional material, expanding current...

Not too long ago I wrote an article entitled Women’s MisStudies about a debate between Professor Mike Adams of University of North Carolina-Wilmington and Dean Gay L. Gullickson of University of Maryland College Park. The debate was over Women’s Studies programs and Women’s Resource Centers. Included in my article was this passage: “I was able to ask Gullickson how she can say that women’s studies is good for research when, as Carrie Lukas points out in her new book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex and Feminism, these texts have misinformation and missing information that women need to make...

In early American public schools, there was no separation between church and state. Tenets of Christianity were embedded in almost every lesson and book, including spelling, reading, history, grammar, arithmetic and science. A was for Adam, B was for the Bible and C was for Christ. In arithmetic, "How many days is it since the birth of Our Savior?" In geography, "Christianity is the prevailing religion of the leading nations of the world." In science, "All parts of the solar system are framed and adjusted to answer exactly the purpose intended by the Creator." In nature, "The more we examine...

A new policy by Internet trading behemoth eBay that bans homeschool teachers' texts from its auctions is prompting a tirade of complaints from the company's faithful customers. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51702

A new policy by Internet trading behemoth eBay that bans homeschool teachers' texts from its auctions is prompting a tirade of complaints from the company's faithful customers. "Really the homeschooling community is a huge participant in eBay when you get to thinking about it," said one customer who was identified as "Angelwings" on an eBay blog. "We buy textbooks naturally but we also purchase items like microscopes, slides, globes, maps, manipulatives, educational games, reading books, supplies for our classrooms … stickers, idea books, folders, sheet protectors, school supplies, software, educational movies, models, post cards … the list is enormous." The...