American children are getting dumb and dumber under Common Core, according to the latest results from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). And according to the results of ACT standardized tests, college-bound students are doing worse than they have ever done in the examination’s history. Continue reading
Category Archives: Perspectives
Why Reading Is the Most Intelligent Thing You Can Do
Reading plays an integral role in developing our intelligence and problem-solving and analytical skills. Good reasons to do more of it.
We’ve all had it embedded within us since the day we were born: The only way to become smarter, no matter what you study or where you are, is to read. What few people tell us, however, is why reading plays such an integral role in developing our intelligence, problem-solving, and analytical skills, and our ability to understand others with alacrity. Continue reading
Remote Learning Isn’t Working
Keeping our kids out of school poses a greater threat to their health than COVID-19.
Earlier this year, fears over the coronavirus shuttered classrooms across the country as school systems opted for makeshift online learning. At the time, the stopgap measure seemed like the only way to keep our kids both safe and engaged with their schooling – BUT… Continue reading
XVII: Schools Using Fake ‘History’ to Kill America
Americans educated by government today are, for the most part, hopelessly ignorant of their own nation’s history – and that’s no accident. They’re beyond ignorant when it comes to civics, too. On the history of the rest of the world, or the history of communism, Americans are generally clueless as well. This was all by design, of course. Continue reading
Ross: Why Fahrenheit 451 Terrifies Me
“War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.” ~ George Orwell, 1984
There are a great many things that people take for granted. For instance, people flip a switch and expect the lights to come on, or turn on the tap and see water coming out of the spout. People also expect to go to the grocery store and see row after row of goods to purchase. There are a lot of things people take for granted, but if I were to ask people what it is that they take for granted I’m betting that I wouldn’t hear anyone say books. Continue reading
Continuing Education During COVID-19
Let’s use this opportunity to address some of the chronic ones we’re seeing in government-supplied K-12 schooling.
There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted childhood education. In many countries, kids have physically returned to school. In others, schools were never closed. Yet in the United States, many public schools have been closed since March, yielding disastrous results for millions of kids. While scientific data say it’s safe to bring them back, incentives in the school systems are such that many kids continue to be locked up at home rather than receiving a proper education.
A school’s main role is to educate children. They can feed low-income children and supply day care for working parents, but these benefits are secondary to providing a quality education to all enrolled children. Continue reading
Benson: America’s Education – From the Unitarians to the Chinese Communists
Over the years many have written about the Unitarian and socialist foundations of public education in this country. Authors such as theologian R. J. Rushdoony and author Samuel Blumenfeld have done yeoman duty in this area by exposing the dubious foundations of public education in America.
Now, Ashley Carnahan, writing in Campus Reform has noted that nowadays many of our universities have been undermining all efforts to resist the Chinese Communists. Carnahan has observed that “A new U.S. State Department report outlines how America can respond to China’s rise as a global superpower, and the communist country’s threat to ‘revise world order,’ and states that America’s institutions of higher education are being used to achieve China’s mission.” Is anyone really surprised at this? Had you followed our educational situation in this country you wouldn’t be. The State Department report is entitled The Elements of the China Challenge.
Continue reading
Back to School…
No my friends… contrary to what the image shows… this is NOT a rewrite of the old 1986 Rodney Dangerfield movie.
I have discovered manuscripts which I had begun to prepare some years ago for the publication of my third book of the series, AMERICA: The Grand Illusion. I chose to no longer publish the series of books, as I felt that what we had to share was greater used by those who I was privileged to serve here – at the Metropolis Café. Many of the new historical posts can be found in the category of Mr. Adair’s Classroom, but also you will find the links with brief introduction through Words & Deeds, within their respective date categories.
…and so we begin to add to our library once more.
My personal story from the collapse of the Soviet Union
When I was a kid growing up in the Soviet Union, it was essentially forbidden to make a better life for yourself.
You couldn’t just decide to go back to school, start a business, or switch careers to a thriving new industry, and it didn’t matter how hard you worked – you were most likely NEVER going to be promoted. All the top jobs in the Soviet Union were reserved for party loyalists. Continue reading
Woke Iconoclasts Expunge Founders From Schools
A DC-area school board votes to rename schools named for Thomas Jefferson and George Mason.
In the Washington, DC, suburb of Falls Church, Virginia, the local school board recently unanimously voted to rename Thomas Jefferson Elementary School and George Mason High School because of what have become all too frequent “woke” considerations. As one board member explained, “Our schools must be places where all students, staff, and community members feel safe, supported, and inspired.” The board member forgot to mention that such sentiments apply to everyone except those who hold conservative views on free speech and love this nation, but we digress. The names of two men whose incredible contributions to human history included crafting the founding documents of the greatest nation on earth but who also owned slaves clearly don’t comport with the sensibilities of modern social justice warriors. Continue reading
From Your friends at BIG Pharma
… creating mindless little drones who passively accept all infringements upon their rights and liberty without question.
Prozac-Discovered by Eli Lilly in 1972 and entered into use in 1986, I believe. Listed by the World Health Organization as an ‘Essential’ Medicine for its treatment of a wide range of disorders. The 31st most prescribed drug in the United States.
Now wonder the people can’t think these days; we’ve become a nation of doped up junkies. Continue reading
Crossed Signals: Dangers of Wifi
You can’t see it but it’s everywhere. WiFi connects computers to the internet, no cords required. Now kids are using it in wireless classrooms across the country. But is it an invisible danger? Carolyn Jarvis investigates why some parents say wifi in schools is making our kids sick…
…and yet with Homeschooling – forced (Corona-19) or otherwise – our children are all affected – as are we. ~ Ed.
‘Oxygen Deprivation Causes Permanent Neurological Damage’
Teacher’s, Parents and Students… WAKE UP!
The delusional madness of forcing children to wear face masks blatantly ignores expert warnings: “The child needs the brain to learn, and the brain needs oxygen to function. We don’t need a clinical study for that. This is simple, indisputable physiology.”
This well-known German neurologist and neurophysiologist, Dr. Margarite Griesz-Brisson, warns of a tsunami of dementia years down the road because of oxygen deprivation from wearing masks today. Are you willing to risk your brain to scientifically unfounded, politically-motivated mandates. ~ Editor
Dr. Margarite Griesz-Brisson MD, PhD is a Consultant Neurologist and Neurophysiologist with a PhD in Pharmacology, with special interest in neurotoxicology, environmental medicine, neuroregeneration and neuroplasticity. This is what she has to say about facemasks and their effects on our brains:
“The reinhalation of our exhaled air will without a doubt create oxygen deficiency and a flooding of carbon dioxide. We know that the human brain is very sensitive to oxygen deprivation. There are nerve cells for example in the hippocampus that can’t be longer than 3 minutes without oxygen – they cannot survive. Read full story…
For YOUR Consideration
Last Lines: After all, tomorrow is another day.
Sometimes we know what a novel’s last line will be from the beginning, we just don’t know that we knew. It’s a trick readers of Less – a recent comic novel of lost love and world travel by Andrew Sean Greer – will recall: Less’s last line is “Less!” Right Ho, Jeeves would end on the line, “Right ho, Jeeves,” if Jeeves didn’t then reply, “Very good, sir.” Trollope’s Can You Forgive Her? occupies its last lines with that titular concern—hoping that, all told, we can. And in the last line of Rabbit, Run Rabbit Angstrom (you guessed it) runs: “out of a kind of sweet panic growing lighter and quicker and quieter, he runs. Ah: runs. Runs.”
Last lines of novels may leave you with no idea of what’s next — or they may simply act as though there’s no end in sight. Some even seem to say something new with every rereading. Continue reading
The ACLU and College Professors are Encouraging Book Burnings
November 20, 2020 ~ Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.
ACLU and Professor Team Up to Encourage Book Burnings
Abigail Shrier has committed the ultimate sin: she has a different opinion than the woke mob. And that is an unforgivable transgression. Continue reading
Sagan on Schools
What American Schools Should Teach about Race, Racism and Slavery
Regarding race and much else, America’s students are not taught history. In fact, they are not taught; they are indoctrinated. With anti-Americanism.
The purpose of all teaching about race in American schools is to engender contempt for America. They are, therefore, “taught” the lies of The New York Times’ “1619 Project” — that the United States was founded to preserve and protect slavery — and of such works as Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility.
So, then, what should American schools teach about race? Continue reading
Concerns about decline in kindergarten students
With great dismay, I read the article on KTAR radio’s website by reporter Griselda Zetino on Oct. 26 entitled, “Drop in Arizona students enrolled in kindergarten raises concerns.”
As the superintendent of the Pendergast School District located in the West Valley cities of Avondale, Glendale and Phoenix, we, as educators, believe kindergarten is essential for our scholars to succeed. It is the foundation and lays the groundwork for a successful path to a quality educational experience for years to come.
Our school board and administration have provided full-day kindergarten in all of our 12 schools, paid for through our budget override. Since the state only funds half-day kindergarten, districts like ours need to find additional funding, and we are fortunate our community has supported this effort that has paid huge dividends. Continue reading
The Education System Isn’t Designed for Smart Kids
“…this education system doesn’t need to be reformed; it needs to be destroyed!”
Sometimes, something that’s right in front of you can escape your attention.
Over the past five years I’ve looked at countless student performance numbers, and almost always, my attention goes to the large percentages of students who are performing below grade level in reading, math, history, etc. I see these numbers as evidence of the failure of the current education system. Continue reading