Learning doesn’t have to stop when the school bell rings. Some of the best learning takes place outside of the classroom. So, if your child is struggling with a particular subject, or if you want to expand their knowledge beyond what they’re learning in class, you can do so without spending a lot of money or signing up for extracurricular activities. Continue reading
Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze
Tyranny will not topple America – not on my watch, and not on yours. We will stay together as George Washington and his worn-out soldiers did 246 years ago on Christmas Day in 1776 when they set out across the frozen Delaware River to fight for freedom. Victory or death were the options that lay ahead for them on that frigid winter day. Continue reading
It is very important that parents, grandparents, and teachers teach discipline, thinking skills, and motivation, plus help children get good grades in school. Today, we will continue on this very important critical motivation, learning skills, and educational journey. Continue reading
In March of 2021 writer Christopher F. Rufo did an article for Hillsdale Colleges’ publication Imprimis in which he dealt with Critical Race Theory and its origins. I can’t deal with it all here. It is long and informative and you may be able to find it on the internet–if it hasn’t been censored off by now. For my purposes here I will give you a brief quote. Mr. Rufo noted that: “Critical race theory is an academic discipline, formulated in the 1990s, built on the intellectual framework of identity-based Marxism. Relegated for many years to universities and obscure academic journals, over the past decade it has increasingly become the default ideology in our public institutions.”
One of those public institutions is the public school system and Critical Race Theory is, regardless of what some try to tell us, alive and unfortunately well in our public school systems in America. Continue reading
Everyone knows that the quality of education in our public schools is declining. We continue to fall behind the rest of the world, and this is particularly true in science and in math.
Personally, I am a product of the public schools. I attended public schools all the way through high school, and I earned three degrees at public universities. And I have to admit that the quality of the education that I received was terrible. If I had not spent a great deal of time and effort educating myself, I would not be able to do what I do today. Sadly, things have gotten even worse in recent decades. Today, a large proportion of our young people are not even equipped to function on a very basic level in our society once they graduate from high school, and that has huge implications for the future of our country. Continue reading
The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British Parliament. The act, which imposed a tax on all paper documents in the colonies, came at a time when the British Empire was deep in debt from the Seven Years’ War (1756-63) and looking to its North American colonies as a revenue source.
Arguing that only their own representative assemblies could tax them, the colonists insisted that the act was unconstitutional, and they resorted to mob violence to intimidate stamp collectors into resigning. Parliament passed the Stamp Act on March 22, 1765 and repealed it in 1766, but issued a Declaratory Act at the same time to reaffirm its authority to pass any colonial legislation it saw fit. The issues of taxation and representation raised by the Stamp Act strained relations with the colonies to the point that, 10 years later, the colonists rose in armed rebellion against the British. Continue reading
When Frances E. Anderson saw the latest math scores for America’s fourth- and eighth-graders, she was hardly surprised that they had dropped. Until recently – including the period of remote instruction during the pandemic – Anderson taught high school math to students at all levels.“ Now she is a researcher seeking to change how people understand children’s math ability. In the following Q&A, Anderson explains what makes some kids “good” at math and what it will take to catch up those who have fallen behind.
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I was once told, “You chase yourself in circles, searching for answers that are not to be found within, for if they were, you would have found them by now. Look elsewhere!“
I often think of that advice in relation to the ever-worsening problems of public schooling. If the answers were there…there in any one of the 51 Departments of Education, or in any one of the thousands of schools being directed, manipulated, and warped by federal directives — the educational gurus would have found them long ago. Instead, educators rush about, grabbing for brass rings; fishing for fads; pushing for progress…all the while refusing to honestly seek answers…elsewhere. Continue reading
A long long time ago, I can still remember…
And the three men I admire mostThe Father, Son, and the Holy GhostThey caught the last train for the coastThe day the music died…
Most fairy tales begin with the following words; ‘Once upon a time…’ or ‘A long, long time ago…’ Even Hollywood has followed in that tradition, with movies like Star Wars beginning with the screen crawl that reads, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far away…” Although this tale does not begin in the outer reaches of the galaxy, it does begin a long time ago; in 1776 to be exact. Continue reading
The Apostle Paul
The title of this essay, “Education as if Truth Mattered,” is taken from the subtitle of Christopher Derrick’s book, Escape from Scepticism: Liberal Education as if Truth Mattered, published in 1977. Derrick’s subtitle was itself borrowed and adapted from the subtitle of E. F. Schumacher’s international bestseller, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, published four years earlier. Derrick and Schumacher were friends, the former being instrumental in introducing the latter to the Church’s social teaching, and the two books have much more in common than their ostensibly different subjects would suggest. In both cases, the authors illustrate how modernity’s philosophical materialism has undermined the very foundations of civilized life and how the solution to the problem is a return to traditional concepts of the good, the true, and the beautiful. Continue reading
James Monroe (c. 1819) by Samuel Morse (1791-1872)
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 2, 1823 – In the greatest step to date by the United States, acting as a world power to assure the peace and security of those other nations in the Western Hemisphere which are our friendly neighbors, President Monroe today declared all of the Americas as “out of bounds” to would-be European conquerors.
A few paragraphs in a message to the newly assembled Congress, read on behalf of the President to a joint assembly of the Senate and the House of Representatives laid down a policy from which no avenue of retreat was left. In an eloquent silence after the reading, a formal motion to receive and to print the Message was adopted without debate.
One must reach back for precedent to the Pax Romana for as drastic a step taken to enclose a great portion of the world within a wall of freedom. Continue reading
“All the time – such is the tragi-comedy of our situationwe continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible… In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise.. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” ~ C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
There will come a time in the not-so-distant future when the very act of thinking for ourselves is not just outlawed but unthinkable. Continue reading
CHARLESTOWN, Massachusetts, June 20, 1676 – The American tradition of Thanksgiving, first celebrated by our Pilgrim Fathers more than half a century ago, was proclaimed today in formal statement for the first time from the steps of the Council House.
It was on December 20, 1620, that Governor John Carver gathered around him the small band at Plymouth, to thank God in the midst of overwhelming adversities for the great gift of life itself, in the wilderness of the first colony. Continue reading
Dear Mr. Bennett,
I am wishing you and all your family, a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving. May the holidays bring good health too. Continue reading
The following is a letter-to-the-editor of the Charleston, SC Post and Courier September 15, 2018 defending the crew of the Confederate submarine CSS Hunley against a letter-writer’s accusation that they were traitors. It applies to all Confederates. This letter was not published by the Post and Courier but has been published in the Abbeville Institute Blog (“Confederate Soldiers Were Not Traitors”, October 3, 2018) and other places.
Dear Editor of The Post and Courier,
A letter writer on September 12, 2018 is adamant that the proposed museum for the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley should not be incorporated into Patriot’s Point because Patriot’s Point honors the U.S. Navy and those “who defended the U.S. and its Constitution” whereas the CSS Hunley crew were traitors.
He is correct that the Hunley’s sinking of the USS Housatonic to become the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship in combat was an historic event, but he errs grievously when he says the Hunley should also be remembered “for their pardons for treason.” That is fake history.
The Hunley crew gave their lives for their country. They were not charged with treason and nobody associated with the Hunley sought a pardon. Continue reading
I wrote this article a couple of years ago. The Progressives continue fanning the flames of racism to further divide us. So, in response, I wanted to reissue this article to help expose their lies – the true source of the growing division. ~ Tom DeWeese
Webster’s Dictionary defines Racism as “The assumption that the characteristics and abilities of an individual are determined by race and that one race is biologically superior to another.” Another more direct way of saying it is “Blind hatred of another simply because of his/her race.”
On an historic summer day in 1963, standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King inspired a nation as he said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
That description of true freedom is the exact opposite of the definition of Racism. It describes various races living together in harmony through shared values, goals, and dreams. Continue reading
An even mix of proponents and opponents to teaching Critical Race Theory are in attendance as the Placentia Yorba Linda School Board discusses a proposed resolution to ban it from being taught in schools. November 2021 Robert Gauthier-Los Angeles Times
As kids return to school, the focus on math, science, and reading has been sidelined by campaigns mounted in the name of “parents’ rights.” Advocates are demanding that books be banned from curricula and school libraries, targeting teachers and administrators based on viewpoints, and fighting for control of education boards. There is no question that parents deserve a say in shaping their children’s educations; they have moral and legal responsibility for their children, and the freedom to make fundamental decisions for their families. But the rallying cry of “parents’ rights” is being wielded to do far more than give parents their rightful voice. It is turning public schools into political battlegrounds, fracturing communities, and diverting time and energy away from teaching and learning. Continue reading
Albert Einstein was very satisfied with his job at the Swiss patent office. There he had time to study, read, and think about his time/space theory and how electromagnetism, gravity, and space-time were related. One of his great abilities was being able to search past and present subjects related to the physic questions in his mind. The search for past and present subjects gave him insight into his time-space, gravity, electromagnetism, and other thoughts and ideas.
He was especially interested in ideas by Max Plank, Isaac Newton, Niels Bohr, James Maxwell, Michelson-Morley, Galileo, and many others. Albert was an avid reader and the past physics information was a valuable asset for Einstein. Continue reading
The average American child fell behind in math by six months due to COVID school closures, with students in the nation’s poorest areas behind two-and-a-half years. Continue reading
In Almost every article, book, and publication about Albert Einstein, the words describe him as one of the greatest scientists that ever lived. His theories and discoveries about time, space and other discoveries about electromagnetism, high-frequency radiation, quantum mechanics, gravity, and Brownian motion changed the world.
He was and still is one of the examples of a normal child who became a world-famous genius. He is a great example FOR CHILDREN of how a child can use curiosity, learning, and motivation to create great scientific or other achievements. He was also motivated by his parents, teachers, and many books, publications, and information written by other scientists. Continue reading