… give children the chance to form opinions
Young people need space to discuss and debate topics without worrying about marks or grades. Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images
If political headlines globally are anything to go by, it seems democracy is at risk. Totalitarian views are on the rise. Far-right parties and leaders have gained voters in many countries. And decisions are being made by law courts or by technical experts from international economic organisations. And people, particularly young people, feel they do not have a say. So it’s not surprising then that governments are turning their attention to schools as a potential cure. Continue reading
The library on campus of a small Catholic university in Illinois was largely empty. Since the administrators had replaced most of the bookshelves with plush furniture, conference tables, and chairs, it better resembled an airport terminal just before a redeye. A handful of students were staring intensely into computer screens, while another pair talked loudly – no more than 10 feet from the silent, visibly demoralized librarian – about the rap song that one of them had just played moments earlier. Not one student was near a book. There wasn’t a single newspaper or journal in sight. The university had canceled its subscriptions and removed the periodical section a few semesters earlier. 
In an essay published in The Washington Times titled “Coddling college campuses and a crippled culture,” Everett Piper accurately chronicles the current state of higher education in America. Tragically, what began on campus now has engulfed the entire society. Identity Politics, Political Correctness, Social Justice Ideology and the use of anything remotely sexual to eliminate men from both public and private life are everywhere and control most aspects of social and individual life. 
It is difficult to deny the truth of the matter and the fact that our nation continues to move closer to tyranny each day, as our people have become too weak to firmly stand for their God Given rights and more often they are far too willing to accept greater encroachments, infringement and outright violations, all in the name of “security and safety”. 
There is a silent tragedy developing right now, in our homes, and it concerns our most precious jewels – our children. Through my work with hundreds of children and families as an occupational therapist, I have witnessed this tragedy unfolding right in front of my eyes. Our children are in a devastating emotional state! 
Because I conduct research about reading, parents often ask me the same question: “What can I do to help my child become a better reader?”
Let me first say that my prayers and thoughts for healing are sent to all families who have lost family members due to a horrific killing. Losing a family member unexpectedly is something we should never have to experience. It is a sad time in America.
These days it’s hard to find any mention of Donald Trump and Russia in The New York Times. Of course, after the train wreck of Robert Mueller’s testimony, it’s no wonder they dropped that hot potato. But don’t underestimate the leftist zealots at the Times, nor their creativity in trying to ensure that a “racist” Trump doesn’t win a second term. 
People keep asking, especially those over 70, what the Hell happened to my country? How is it that America spawned the likes of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and some gay mayor from Indiana named “Boodugig,” or whatever, running for president? How did the idiot Bill de Blasio, ever become mayor of New York? 
It is our tradition that the first lecture of the year should be dedicated to our freshmen.* They have newly joined a community whose program of learning centers on the scheduled reading of a preset list of books and on the twice-weekly discussion that takes place in the seminar. They have come to us chiefly because that is what we do here. I have read each of their applications, and I can vouch for the fact. 
In a heartbreaking case of complete disregard for parental rights, four-year-old Drake Pardo was illegally taken from his parents by Child Protective Services (CPS) and uniformed police officers on June 20, 2019 in East Texas.
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.
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. 
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. 
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 
In his Age of Reason pamphlet (1807), Thomas Paine declared that “Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.“ Thomas Jefferson’s famed letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut mentions how the First Amendment effectively establishes a “wall of separation between church and state.” These men, plus the many others that influenced or participated in the founding of the United States, were very familiar with the dangers of state religions and wished to prevent establishing such a religion in America.