Gone are the days of memorizing a word list and taking weekly spelling tests. Recently, an emerging trend has been observed across schools nationwide, moving away from traditional spelling tests. This shift in approach raises questions about the value these tests and how they actually work. Teachers are recognizing the limitations of spelling tests and exploring alternatives. Continue reading
Category Archives: Village of the Damned
Benson: Exercises In Futility
Almost half a century ago now, when the textbook protest in Kanawha County was going on, at one of the school board meetings there, one of the school board members was caught in a blatant lie in some of his remarks and someone attending the meeting called him on it. The school board member, caught in the act, just laughed and continued on with his remarks.
He was not there to shine the light of truth on anything. He was there to lie to the parents about what the public schools in Kanawha County were doing to their kids. At that point, the Kanawha County School Board had one honest member on it – Alice Moore – who tried to do what was right for both parents and children. The rest of the school board wasn’t, to put it bluntly, worth spit! Continue reading
Gallup Poll Reveals Americans’ Plummeting Confidence in Public Schools
Americans have soured on public schools. That’s the takeaway from Gallup polling results released earlier this month showing that Americans’ confidence in public schools is at a low point, with only 26 percent of respondents indicating a “Great deal/Fair amount” of confidence in that institution.
Indeed, public schools join three other institutions that are also at or tied with their record lows, including the police, large technology companies, and big business. Along with the presidency, public schools are now among the most politically polarizing institutions in the US. Continue reading
Millions of Kids Are Missing Weeks of School as Attendance Tanks Across the US
When in-person school resumed after pandemic closures, Rousmery Negrón and her 11-year-old son both noticed a change: School seemed less welcoming.
Parents were no longer allowed in the building without appointments, she said, and punishments were more severe. Everyone seemed less tolerant, more angry. Negrón’s son told her he overheard a teacher mocking his learning disabilities, calling him an ugly name
Her son didn’t want to go to school anymore. And she didn’t feel he was safe there.
He would end up missing more than five months of sixth grade. Continue reading
Carl Sagan Warned Us about Government Schools Decades Ago
Despite the extravagant spending, US schools are failing children. Carl Sagan saw it. John Taylor Gatto saw it. And we all see it today.
My wife and I recently met with the principal of the school our daughter attends to discuss her education future.
My daughter, who turns 12 in a few days, wants to go to a different school in the fall, largely because many of her friends – who are a year ahead of her – are graduating to new schools. (And also because her teacher, whom she adored, took a job in a different district.)
When we stepped into the principal’s office, she offered us chairs. She was warm, knowledgeable, and helpful, and I got the feeling she knows my daughter and wants what is best for her. I suspect my daughter will return to the school for one more year, but it’s a conversation we’ll have together. Continue reading
Benson: The Planned Public School Perversion Of Our Children
An article on The Gateway Pundit for May 28th provided some information worth noting on what goes on in public schools and who is doing some of it. If you’ve had problems with Target over their “gay” pride merchandise you may find that is only the tip of the iceberg. The Gateway Pundit article tells us: “Retail giant Target has partnered with GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) for years… GLSEN is a group that provides sexually explicit books to schools, pushes gender identity throughout public school curricula, and advocates policies that keep parents unaware of their child’s in-school gender transition… It was Barack Obama who first pushed sex education to kindergartners back in 2007 – he even pushed sex education to kiddies legislation… the media mostly hid this from the American public.” Sounds like King Barack the first really did have a plan to “fundamentally transform the United States” but he didn’t want the public to grasp just what it was! Continue reading
May 9, 2023: Village of the Damned
History and civics scores drop for U.S. eighth-graders on national test
Scores in U.S. history and civics for eighth-graders are down across the U.S., according to recent results from the assessment known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” This year’s history scores are the lowest recorded since the assessment began in 1994, and the new data mark the first-ever drop in civics.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement that the results, from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, further underscore the “profound impact the pandemic had on student learning.”
The results follow recent national declines in reading and math among students in grades four and eight… (Continue to full article)
7th-grade student fights back after school told him to change his ‘There are only two genders’ T-shirt
However, he says the response from his fellow classmates was overwhelmingly positive. “Everyone in my homeroom and everyone in my gym class had supported what I had done,” he told Fox News Digital. Morrison, 12, added that no fellow student directly confronted him about the shirt or said it offended them or made them feel unsafe.
However, he was pulled out of gym class on March 21 and told to remove the shirt because several students and staff had reportedly complained. When he respectfully declined to take the shirt off, school officials called his father to come and pick him up
‘I have a right to have a voice,’ Liam Morrison said… (Continue to full article)
Chicago Public Schools – A Microcosm of Our National Problem
Watching Fox News last evening (4/13) Tucker Carlson commented on the sorry situation in Chicago Public Schools. Tucker noted that lots of Chicago public school students can’t read, or can barely read, yet you can’t fail them. Why think of what they would do to their self-esteem! Lots of us have been saying for years now that public school students across the country have been taught almost nothing worthwhile, yet have been conditioned to think they are brilliant. Why any parent in Chicago, or anywhere else, would trust their children’s education to the public schools is beyond me. Continue reading
Benson: Parents Majoring In The Minors
Articles about the horrible quality (on purpose) of what passes for education in public schools have become so prevalent that people now tend to take this inferior education for granted and so are tempted to just ignore it.
We recently were informed that some schools are now ending their honors programs so they can promote “equity” (racism). It seems that lots of the white kids do well in the honors programs so that now must cease and we must begin to enforce a stultifying conformity, a “one size fits all” program they have mislabeled as “equity,” The concept of “equity” has trumped any idea of real education–but, then, real education has not existed in public schools for generations anyway. Continue reading
What Can Parents Do When School Isn’t Working for Their Child?
Now is often the time of year when parents begin looking into other learning options and schooling alternatives for their kids. The new school year has been in session for several weeks and some parents may be finding that bubbling issues may have reached a boiling point.
Perhaps their child isn’t a good match with his or her assigned teacher. Perhaps parent-child battles over homework have emerged. Perhaps parents see certain elements of their child’s curriculum that they dislike, or hear about various classroom practices that they find unsettling. Perhaps their child is bored or withdrawn, frustrated or irritable, anxious or depressed. Perhaps the bullying has started or worsened. Continue reading
Benson: The Theology Of “Woke”
According to a lady interviewed on Fox News recently, many parents are beginning to get fed up with “woke” indoctrination being perpetrated on their children. One place this occurs is in public schools across the country. One way to combat this satanic (and it is satanic) indoctrination is to get your kids out of public schools. While you may not get rid of all of it that way, as you will get some of it on television and in the movies, you will get rid of a large portion of it by getting the kids out of public school. Continue reading
Snyder: How Extreme Has The Dumbing-Down Of America Become?
You Might Want To Brace Yourself For This One…
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
Parents Should Have a Voice in Their Kids’ Education But We’ve Gone Too Far
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
It Takes a Village to Take Your Child!
Time to sharpen the pitchforks.
Hillary Clinton’s 1996 groomer handbook It Takes a Village made the case that parents can’t do it alone; you need an active and involved community to raise your children for with you. “We all depend on other adults whom we know – from teachers to doctors to neighbors to pastors – and on those whom we may not – from police to firefighters to employers to media producers [!] to political leaders – to help us inform, support, or protect our children.”
Increasingly, however, the only danger the Village wants to protect your own kids from is YOU. Continue reading
ACT test scores drop to lowest in 30 years
PHOENIX — Scores on the ACT college admissions test by this year’s high school graduates hit their lowest point in more than 30 years.
The class of 2022’s average ACT composite score was 19.8 out of 36, marking the first time since 1991 that the average score was below 20. What’s more, an increasing number of high school students failed to meet any of the subject-area benchmarks set by the ACT — showing a decline in preparedness for college-level coursework. Continue reading
School District Charges Parents $1200 to See Curriculum Book List
Americans might assume that requesting public records would be free. Worst case scenario, the charge would be a modest fee to handle the paperwork. But when it comes to making certain requests to see documents, progressive bureaucrats have jacked up the price… Continue reading
Public School Parents Are Voting With Their Feet
In the post-COVID era, parents are increasingly taking their kids out of the school systems that damaged them.
It will take many years to understand the scope and unwind the damage that COVID wrought on our youngest generation, today’s schoolchildren. No, not the damage caused by the disease itself. Kids have proven remarkably resilient to it — far more so than adults. No, the damage we’re talking about is that which was done to our children by the educational bureaucracy that supposedly has their best interests at heart. Continue reading
Who Is This Kid? Middle Schooler Caused Teacher to Have a Mini-Freak Out Over Pronouns
Our schools are a wreck. There was already an issue with American students falling woefully behind in the fields of math and science, a lingering issue made worse by the burgeoning education bureaucracy that spawned from this crisis. Continue reading
The Funniest Test Answers That Only Kids Could Write
Most people remember elementary school fondly. Playing in the playground with your friends, dominating at kickball, or gossiping and giggling on the monkey bars are all memories we cherish. Some children attend school to study and develop new skills, and others are content to daydream through class until the beautiful bell tolls to signal their sweet departure. In any case, everyone who has gone through 12 years of school is sure to learn something.
Because their exam answers are so far out there, these youngsters must have had some intriguing instructors! One thing is sure: These kids have a great sense of humor. Whatever the case may be, the professors who created these assessments could not have anticipated such responses, and we are thrilled at such brilliancy.
NOTE: What you have just seen and read is the first of 76 entries on this post. You might be offended by some of them – but in some respects – many of the posts contained in this lengthy post – will show you the insanity of the education system in America today – BUT – some examples will show you that there are students who are much brighter than their teachers. Do enjoy… ~ Editor Continue reading
Bill Gates’ Influence Over The US Education System
I find it rather ironic that one of the world’s richest men, who got rich by making computer software developed using advance algorithms is trying to indoctrinate children against capitalism and against advanced math. All this is supposed to be about racial equity – it is insulting to racial minorities for schools to lower standards so that minorities won’t fall behind. That is assuming that: 1. There are no smart minority children and that 2. that minority children want to remain uneducated and poor. That is racism in its most repugnant guise -supposed help that is actually designed to cripple those it is supposed to help. All done to further the agenda of a very few crazy fanatical white folks who in truth feel very superior to said minorities and are virtue signaling to try to defend their own self-righteous B.S. ~ Mary
Across the United States, public schools seem to be in a race to see who can destroy their student’s futures the fastest. In the name of “racial equity,” many school districts are now pushing the idea of de-tracking their advanced math curriculum to keep all students at the same level from grades K through 10. The programs silently at work behind the scenes declare their goal is to “challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views.” Continue reading