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
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
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 returning from my trip to the West in February, I received a request from The New York Times to write a piece answering the following questions:
* What is a fascist?
* How many fascists have we?
* How dangerous are they?
A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party. Continue reading
As I have examined the phenomenon of government controlled schooling, it has been a continuing mystery to me why this type of totalitarian enterprise could have been imposed on a country that was ostensibly founded on the primacy of individual liberty and freedom of conscience. I can understand why today’s citizens are generally oblivious to freedom of conscience issues due to the indoctrination and psychological conditioning that are essential components of government schooling – but why would such a system be accepted by citizens who had not been programmed to accept it? As noted in my previous posts, that system was imposed through propaganda and false promises and was often met with resistance, but due to the police power of the state it was ultimately imposed top-down by special interests. However, even considering political manipulation and the raw power of the state, there still seemed to be something missing. Continue reading
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted critics of homeschooling and accused radical-left academics of imposing their values on American children.
Harvard Magazine, an independently edited magazine affiliated with Harvard University, recently published an article warning of the risks of homeschooling as part of their May/June edition. It quotes Elizzabeth Batholet, Wasserstein public interest professor of law and faculty director of the Law School’s Child Advocacy Program, in saying that homeschooling violates children’s rights to a “meaningful education” while also limiting them from contributing to a democratic society. Additionally, Bartholet argues that homeschool is inadequately unregulated across the U.S. and can isolate children from others. Continue reading
With 4.2 million students absent from their physical classrooms, the state is looking to take a tech-focused approach to learning
Elin Eaton, 11, studies during home schooling in New Rochelle, New York, in March shortly after schools were closed. Nola’s mother, Farrah Eaton, is a former high school administrator, and holds sessions with her three children during weekday mornings. – Getty Images
Though the coronavirus pandemic is a “devastating and costly moment in history,” Cuomo said, there are lessons to be learned and opportunities for betterment across many sectors.
New York should “take this experience and really learn how we can do differently and better with our education system in terms of technology and virtual education,” Cuomo said. “It’s not about just reopening schools. When we reopen schools, let’s open a better school and let’s open a smarter education system.”
Early America had widespread literacy and a vibrant culture of learning.
Detail of Girl Reading by Edmund Charles Tarbell (Public Domain)
Parents the world over are dealing with massive adjustments in their children’s education that they could not have anticipated just three months ago. To one degree or another, pandemic-induced school closures are creating the “mass homeschooling” that FEE’s senior education fellow Kerry McDonald predicted two months ago. Who knows, with millions of youngsters absent from government school classrooms, maybe education will become as good as it was before the government ever got involved. Continue reading
In the fall of 2018, the trustees of Washington and Lee University voted to paper over parts of the university’s history…
On the recommendations of Washington and Lee’s “Commission on Institutional History and Community,” the board voted to close off the Recumbent Statue of Robert E. Lee in the university chapel that bears his name and to remove the name of John Robinson from an important campus building. Continue reading
~ Foreword ~
The following is posted in tribute to the wisdom of Neal Ross, Michael Gaddy and Al Benson Jr.. They have seen and written about what many have refused to recognize. ~ Ed.
That “goddamnedpieceofpaper”- again
What the Antifederalists predicted would be the results of the Constitution turned out to be true in most every respect.
Most school kids are left with the impression that the US Constitution was the inevitable follow-up to the Declaration of Independence and the war with King George. What they miss out on is the exciting debate that took place after the war and before the Constitution, a debate that concerned the dangers of creating a federal government at all. Continue reading
We have collectively become so programmed to believe that education and schooling are synonymous that we can’t imagine learning without schooling and become frazzled and fearful when schools are shuttered.
As the global coronavirus outbreak closes more schools for weeks, and sometimes months – some 300 million children are currently missing class – parents, educators, and policymakers are panicking.
Mass compulsory schooling has become such a cornerstone of contemporary culture that we forget it’s a relatively recent social construct. Responding to the pandemic, the United Nations declared that “the global scale and speed of current educational disruption is unparalleled and, if prolonged, could threaten the right to education.” Continue reading
A student letter to his teacher – during this “quarantined” period of our lives.
As the world scrambles to curtail COVID-19 with social distancing, millions of parents are facing the prospect of involuntarily homeschooling their children for the foreseeable future.
As of Monday, 45 states have ordered all schools to be closed. At least 54.8 million school students are now home. Though initial school closures have ranged from a few days to a month, many speculate it could be a lot longer before schools reopen, if they do at all for the rest of the academic year.
While it is disruptive to the economy, as well as public school children and parents, a whole lot of good will come out of school closings — beyond the obvious benefit of slowing the spread of the disease.
Here is what parents and the public as a whole should take away from the school closings. Continue reading
My son wants to attend vocational school in high school and I am all for it. (Twenty20 @Amandafisher)
I’m going to be completely transparent: When I attended high school in the ‘90s, if you were a student who took vocational classes, everyone thought it meant you couldn’t cut it in regular school. Continue reading
A group of prominent conservative black scholars, pastors and activists has unveiled an alternative to the New York Times’ controversial and highly criticized “1619 Project” with a history initiative of their own dubbed “1776.”
“I’m here for two reasons, I believe in America and I believe in black people,” said Glenn Loury, a professor of economics at Brown University, one of many to speak at a news conference at the National Press Club on Friday to announce the effort.
Loury said the authors behind the 1619 Project “don’t believe in black people.” Continue reading