The world is changing at a dramatic pace. It’s shifting so fast, in fact, that the childhood you remember is vastly different than the one your own kids will experience. This is largely due to the development and saturation of technology in modern society.
While there are perks to being hyper-connected, allowing children access to their own smartphone could produce detrimental effects long-term. Continue reading
During her daily live show yesterday, Mother Miriam challenged parents to uphold their duty as primary educators of their children. She alerted parents to the fact that today’s schools are filled with evil and that it is the first and foremost duty of parents to protect their kids.
“It has to do with you being a proper mom and dad to your children…You, no matter what the situation is, are responsible for the growth of your children in faith,” she said. Continue reading
Editor’s NOTE: “But we’re not a Democracy – we are a Republic.” Hundreds of times over the past quarter century I have heard this. Well, Yes – we ARE a Republic, which functions under a Democratic form of government. Go find an old Black’s Law Dictionary (1823 I believe) and you will discover that there is no way to separate those two words. They are intertwined like peanut butter and jelly. ~ Ed.
What is American democracy, and why is it worth defending? The current political climate, in which democracy is increasingly (and troublingly) equated with populism, compels us to reflect on this question. Democracy is an ancient form of government, but historically, democracies that rise above mere mob rule and reflect genuine self-governance, while respecting basic rights, are rare. Although the Declaration of Independence asserts the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are self-evident, they’ve been embodied and respected in few societies throughout human history. By comparison, the US government does a reasonably good job at protecting those rights. Continue reading
In 1912 Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate for president, promised fairness and justice for blacks if elected. In a letter to a black church official, Wilson wrote, “Should I become President of the United States they may count upon me for absolute fair dealing for everything by which I could assist in advancing their interests of the race.” Continue reading
Every parent knows the difference a year makes in the development and maturity of a young child. A one-year-old is barely walking while a two-year-old gleefully sprints away from you. A four-year-old is always moving, always imagining, always asking why, while a five-year-old may start to sit and listen for longer stretches. Continue reading
What is the governing dynamic causing both student loans and healthcare burdens to run away from us?
As a health economist, I spend my days working with incredibly innovative medical device and biotechnology companies who are commercializing into the healthcare space. By consequence, I’m obligated and prone to think about the financial and economic troubles facing the field of medicine. For seven years I worked for an integrated delivery network and had a seat on both the payer and hospital side of the table and was thereby privy to how all the sausage was made. During those same years, I was laden with a student loan burden that I’d heaped on myself during college and two master’s programs. The consequence of which was 1) a fantastic education in neuroscience, bioimaging, and business and 2) a four-figure monthly payment to student loan servicers that, but for the grace of God, almost torpedoed my wife and me monthly. Continue reading
As we enter the school year, this. Only this.
What you see above is a post on my Facebook page, Growing Children.
In 3.5 days it has reached more than 251,000 people. My page has only about 3,500 followers, so I think this amounts to going viral. And it’s still going.
It’s going viral because people know that it’s totally unnecessary to sacrifice a healthy childhood on the altar of test-oriented schooling. And they are fed up with academics in preschool, lost recesses and testing, testing, testing. And teaching to tests. And the mindset that learning is about performing for a reward like a trained seal. Continue reading
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is opening an investigation into whether female high school athletes were discriminated against when the state of Connecticut allowed males who identify as females to compete with them.
The three high school girls pursuing the complaint include Selina Soule, who earlier this year missed qualifying for the 55-meter dash in the New England regionals. Continue reading
Last month, researchers from Johns Hopkins University published a heartbreaking study describing the conditions of public schools in Providence, R.I. The report contained a laundry list of problems that plague America’s public schools, such as the inability to fire bad teachers and discipline unruly students, and the need for massive reams of bureaucratic paperwork to get anything done at all.
Here’s what wasn’t a problem: lack of funding. Providence spends $17,192 per pupil every year. Continue reading
What is “public” about “public education”? The only role the public plays in it is to get stuck with the tab.
In many school districts, “teachers” earn much higher salaries than the taxpayers who pay the school tax—to say nothing of fabulous pensions which the rest of us can only fantasize about. Oh, we get to elect the school board members; but they don’t represent us. They’re only there to carry out the state’s dictates.
The “pro-choice” leftists who own public education do nothing for us but take away our choices. We don’t have a say in what is taught, or who teaches it. All those choices are made for us by government. Continue reading
For several years now, certain groups and websites like Worldnewsstand have advocated an argument that the “federal” government was created as a municipal corporation via an act of February 21, 1871. The truth is otherwise.
There is a history regarding the formation of Washington, D.C. The Constitution specifically provides for the formation of a district, 10 miles square, to be the seat of the federal government; see Art. 1, § 8, cl. 17. When the Constitution was ratified, the defacto seat of that government was in Philadelphia. The Residence Act of 1790 (1 Stat. 130, July 16, 1790), started the process of establishing the District of Columbia; in the interim, the government continued to meet in Philadelphia. On December 19, 1791, Maryland adopted “An Act concerning the territory of Columbia, and the City of Washington,” which ceded lands and jurisdiction for the Maryland part of the District. Continue reading
Six months ago we shared a a frightening observation from Patrick Deneen, a political science professor at Notre Dame who has also taught at Princeton and Georgetown. He described his students as “know-nothings… devoid of any substantial knowledge.”
More recently, a respected author and English professor at Providence College in Rhode Island has echoed Deneen’s concerns. Continue reading
…let’s celebrate Milton Friedman’s vision of enabling parents, not government, to be in control of a child’s education.
Libertarians and others are often torn about school choice. They may wish to see the government schooling monopoly weakened, but they may resist supporting choice mechanisms, like vouchers and education savings accounts, because they don’t go far enough. Indeed, most current choice programs continue to rely on taxpayer funding of education and don’t address the underlying compulsory nature of elementary and secondary schooling. Continue reading
As I type, the secession movement in California is picking up steam. Polling shows that one in three Californians support leaving the Union following Donald Trump’s victorious presidential campaign, and an organization–YesCalifornia.org–is circulating a petition calling for a special election that would allow Californians to vote for or against independence.
The movement is unlikely to succeed, at least for now. Still, the secession question would seem to present an opportunity to look back on causes and conditions that led to America’s Civil War.
Obviously, it’s difficult to separate slavery from any discussion on the Civil War. The peculiar institution hovers over the conflict specter-like. Indeed, it’s an apparition that still haunts modern American politics. But to say that slavery was the sole cause of the Civil War overlooks other stark differences that divided the North and South in the lead-up to it. Historians have speculated that even had the slavery question been resolved peacefully, war or secession still might have occurred during the westward expansion. Continue reading
Back-to-school time is upon us. My Instagram feed is starting to fill with first-day photos as a new school year begins this week in some parts of the country. For those of us who homeschool, we often get asked, “So, why did you decide to homeschool?” We respond with various personal and educational reasons, including the top motivator for homeschoolers on national surveys: “concern about the school environment.” What always strikes me, though, is that parents who send their kids to school never get asked this question. When was the last time someone asked a parent, “So, why did you decide to send your child to school?” Continue reading
“Renowned Harvard Psychologist Jerome Kagan Says ADHD is Largely a Fraud”, says the headline.
I’ve been saying this since 1996 or so. Glad that Harvard is finally on board.
What’s the problem with ADHD? It’s such a vague diagnostic category that it could apply to almost anybody – especially any child – at any given point in time. Continue reading