In a 5-4 decision Tuesday, the Supreme Court held that families have a right to seek the best educational opportunities for their children, by preventing states from blocking the participation of religiously affiliated schools in state school choice programs. Continue reading
In “The Decadent Society,” Ross Douthat’s definition of decadence reaches more deeply into the underlying causes of our present rot. Is American society sick, sclerotic, sterile, and stagnant, as he suggests?
There is a chapter in Ross Douthat’s new book, The Decadent Society, called “Waiting for the Barbarians.” The book came out just before our present summer of discontent in which we’ve seen home-grown barbarians rampaging through our streets. Like the old-fashioned breed of barbarians, their ignorance blends mightily with their violence. The only difference being that they have added to their ignorance and violence a distasteful stench of self-righteousness.
Mr. Douthat analyzes the state of American society by first defining his terms. By “decadence” he does not simply mean moral depravity, the disgusting self-indulgence of a Caligula, or the insane violence of Nero or Idi Amin. He does not exclude these excesses, but his definition of decadence reaches more deeply into the underlying causes of our present rot. He does so with the symbolism of “four horsemen”: Stagnation, Sterility, Sclerosis, and Repetition. Continue reading
Roughly 60 years after the abolition of slavery, anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston made an incredible connection: She located the last surviving captive of the last slave ship to bring Africans to the United States. Continue reading
BARNYARD WITH SHEEP (AMERICAN SCHOOL, EARLY 20TH CENTURY)
By now you’ve probably heard of Harvard Professor Elizabeth Bartholet, whose name catapulted into the public’s view when she called for a “presumtive ban” on homeschooling. Ironically, her call for a homeschooling ban came right when the entire nation was forced to homeschool due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Continue reading
This famous depiction of the Boston Massacre was engraved by Paul Revere (copied from an engraving by Henry Pelham), colored by Christian Remick, and printed by Benjamin Edes. The Old State House is depicted in the background. / Library of Congress
Article by Samuel Adams in the Boston Gazette about the Boston Massacre
Following the the Boston Massacre in 1770, there were different ways in which both onlookers in the British government and the colonists ended up wondering, each one, if the other one was somehow engaged in a plot. Right? And I mentioned that the British were perhaps wondering if this had all been a plot to rob the customs house; the colonists were wondering about the possibility of this being some kind of ongoing plot to subdue and repress the American colonists. So clearly at the end of the lecture from last week you can really begin to sense a growing sense of mounting hostility, even among some people a sense of growing alienation.
And you can hear this on both sides coming from the accounts of the Boston Massacre by both Gage and Adams. And I did mention in class when I read from them that they were of course writing with a purpose in mind so they were interested in being particularly bold and dramatic in what they were saying. Gage really had to excuse what happened and Adams was trying to promote people to get upset about what had happened, but even so you can hear even just in the way that they framed their accounts some of what I’m talking about here with growing hostility, growing alienation. Continue reading
Charles Mason
Today, as it was a hundred and sixty years ago, America stands on the edge of an ever-widening chasm of cultural, ideological, political, racial and sectional divisions. In 1860, there was at least one prominent voice of reason that cried out to end the nation’s mad rush into the abyss, that of Charles Mason of Iowa. Mason was a Northern Democrat who not only understood the conflicting issues that were then pulling the nation apart, but reasonably viewed the rights and wrongs of both secession and slavery, as well as strongly opposing Lincoln’s invasion of the South to militarily force the departed States back into the Union. Like many others in both the North and South, Mason did not approve of secession, but felt that as there was nothing in the Constitution to bar a State from abrogating its contract with America and peacefully withdrawing from the Union, that it was solely a matter for the people of each State to decide on their own. His fervent hope though was that if secession did become a reality and a new Southern nation created, that the two countries could then begin to negotiate their differences in a peaceful manner, somehow resolve them and ultimately reunite. Continue reading
Unfortunately, most American public schools take the opposite approach.
Many people have long suspected that governments sometimes attempt to indoctrinate their people to increase the government’s own power and influence. Unfortunately, ambitious governments will not stop at merely controlling what their people can do; they must control their minds. Continue reading
A teacher for Hays CISD, south of Austin, Texas was arrested Friday afternoon after she beat the hell out of a 15-year-old girl in a classroom. Sadly, like most of these attacks, it will go unreported by the large corporate cable news networks because it doesn’t fit the agenda and it would be inconvenient to show what’s really going on in public schools throughout the United States.
The latest incident was caught on cell phone by students in the class, as CISD teacher Tiffani Shadell Lankford brutally attacked the girl.
Hate Crimes against White Students ignored & covered up by the Media and Public School Systems throughout the United States!
In schools throughout the United States, white students are being targeted in brutal hate crimes that go mostly unreported, and shockingly the terrorists thugs often go unpunished. In fact, schools throughout the United States have changed their disciplinary policies specifically to protect minority students from suspension and expulsion. Continue reading
When states closed American schools due to the coronavirus pandemic, state boards of education reacted quickly to ensure that students would continue to learn. Online technologies such as Zoom, for example, were implemented so teachers and students could meet in real time. On the surface, it seemed like the perfect solution. We’ve all seen videos or news clips of a computer screen filled with the faces of eager students hanging on the teacher’s every word. Parents walking into the kitchen were likely reassured to see their child staring into the laptop while the teacher explained the lesson in the background. But the reality paints a much less successful picture of the virtual schoolhouse.
For one, a significant number of students never show up for class — which makes sense, given how much easier it is now to hit the snooze button and grab another couple hours of sleep. Just email your teacher later and explain that your Internet was down. Continue reading
The Union’s financial success depended on military success. As presidential aide John Hay wrote in an anonymous newspaper article in January 1862 when any movement by the Union Army was stalled: “The Secretary of Finance has displayed wonderful zeal and ability in filling a bankrupt treasury and supplying the sinews of war. In this respect, Mr. Chase has accomplished a herculean task, but all his plans and efforts will end in ruin unless followed by wholesome legislative enactments and decided military movements. Already the treasury notes have commenced to depreciate, and a few months of Congressional and military inaction, they will sink to a level with the old Continental Scrip or the assignats of the French Revolution.” Continue reading
In 1840, the young Queen of England, Victoria, married her first cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, nephew of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, King of the Belgians. Victoria and Albert were of the same age, both born in 1819.
Victoria came to the throne in the nick of time; she turned 18 in 1837, and thus became heir to the throne of England just a few months before the decease of her uncle, King William IV of England. Her father, Prince Edward, son of King George III, and heir to the throne, had died when she was a baby. Thus, Queen Victoria was a grand-daughter of King George III. Continue reading
Since this article was first published in 2011, Juneteenth celebrations have attracted increased attention around the nation. According to the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation, 45 states and the District of Columbia had, by 2017, passed legislation officially recognizing the holiday. With the current unrest over the killing of another African American man at the hands of the police, the pervasive scars of the nation’s long history of enslavement and racism has again dominated the news. Protests across the country have brought renewed attention to the holiday, as has President Trump’s recent announcement of a campaign rally being held in Tulsa, itself the site of a horrific race massacre, on Juneteenth.
Amid all of this, not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic that is disproportionately affecting the country’s black population, Americans have even more reasons to continue learning about the roots of racism in American history. We must confront the great contradiction in our past—that a “nation conceived in liberty” was also born in shackles.
Continue reading
Portrait of Green as Aunt Jemima, by A. B. Frost
Nancy Green (November 17, 1834 – August 30, 1923 was a storyteller, cook, activist, and the first of several African-American models hired to promote a corporate trademark as “Aunt Jemima”.
Green was born into slavery on November 17, 1834, near Mount Sterling in Montgomery County, Kentucky. She was hired in 1890 by the R.T. Davis Milling Company in St. Joseph, Missouri, to represent “Aunt Jemima”, an advertising character named after a song from a minstrel show. Davis Milling had recently acquired the formula to a ready-mixed, self-rising pancake flour from St. Joseph Gazette editor Chris L. Rutt and Charles Underwood and were looking to employ an African-American woman as a Mammy archetype to promote their new product. In 1893, Green was introduced as Aunt Jemima at the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, where it was her job to operate a pancake-cooking display. Her amicable personality and talent as a cook for the Walker family, whose children grew up to become Chicago Circuit Judge Charles M. Walker and Dr. Samuel Walker helped establish a successful showing of the product, for which she received a medal and certificate from the Expo officials. Continue reading
State Sen. Jeanne Dietsch (D-Peterborough)
Working-class parents without college degrees aren’t capable of overseeing their own children’s education, according to comments State Sen. Jeanne Dietsch (D-Peterborough) made during a House Education Committee hearing on Tuesday.
Dietsch was speaking on behalf of a Senate bill that would repeal a law allowing the state Board of Education to create an alternative program for granting graduation credits, which became Learn Everywhere.
“This idea of parental choice, that’s great if the parent is well-educated. There are some families that’s perfect for. But to make it available to everyone? No. I think you’re asking for a huge amount of trouble,” Dietsch said. Continue reading
On October 17, 1978, President Jimmy Carter officially restored the full citizenship rights of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis, signing an act from Congress that ended a century-long dispute.
Davis is most remembered today as one of the leaders of the Confederacy, along with General Robert E. Lee. In 1976, Lee’s citizenship was restored by Congress, also about a century after Lee’s death after the Civil War. The restoration of Davis’ citizenship soon followed.
“In posthumously restoring the full rights of citizenship to Jefferson Davis, the Congress officially completes the long process of reconciliation that has reunited our people following the tragic conflict between the States,” the resolution read on October 17, 1978. Continue reading
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” ~ Albert Einstein
Erasing History ~ Image: Lance Page
~ Forewords ~
The following is based solely upon my understanding of what I have uncovered so far by a study of history. If any of my facts are incorrect I beg that those more knowledgeable than I please correct me, and I will issue a statement reflecting where I have erred. However, if you disagree with anything I say simply because it is not what you were taught in school, or because it offends you, then I also kindly ask that you keep your comments to yourself. ~ Neal Ross, author and historian Continue reading
In Memory of Dr. Neil Compton, Arkansas Hero, 1912-1999
Neil Compton of Bentonville, Arkansas, my beloved hometown, stands as a paragon of civic virtue. Born in Falling Springs, western Benton County, he lived with his family on Upper Coon Creek until the age of eleven, when he moved to Bentonville upon the election of his father, David, as Benton County Judge. After his undergraduate and medical education at the University of Arkansas, Compton served as a health officer with the State Board of Health, and later served in the Medical Corps of the United States Naval Reserve in the Fiji Islands during the Second World War. His former home, just off of the Bentonville Square, serves as the center of Compton Gardens, comprised of nearly seven acres of walking trails and native woodland plants. Compton Gardens now connects to our world-renowned Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, as well as the rest of the magnificent Bentonville trail system. I have many a fond memory there, and vividly remember my first visit in the fourth grade. Incidentally, it was this fourth-grade teacher that instilled in me my passion for the natural world. Continue reading
It was early March 1836; a sad little procession moved slowly down a south Texas road. A young mother rode a pony, holding her fifteen months old baby daughter, and a black man walked beside her, acting as escort. Just a few days earlier, this trio of weary travelers had witnessed the fall of the mission fortress, the Alamo. There, the Mexican forces of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna made the woman, Susannah Arabella Dickinson, a widow. Continue reading
With most public schools ending the school year in lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News reports that parents in several states want to homeschool now and perhaps in the future. But some school systems are resistant to that.
Schools in several states are telling parents they cannot withdraw their children from public schools to homeschool instead, but Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) attorney T.J. Schmidt says they do not have a legal leg to stand on. Continue reading
What you are about to review was written and published approximately 3 months before the Public Schools in America closed down for the year due Corona-19. Learn from the author’s graphic imagery. ~ Ed.
Homeschooling or a public school? What style of education to choose for your child? Learn more about pros and cons of both public schools and home education! Have you ever thought about homeschooling your child? If so, then you should definitely check out the information below.
For every parent choosing the right style of education for their child is an important decision. Some parents choose the nearest public school, while others decide to try homeschooling. According to U.S. law, children between 5 and 16 years of age must attend school. Continue reading