August 23, 2008 ~ Thousands of Dallas teachers are talking about the little boy with the big voice who wowed them earlier this week at a big beginning-of-school pep rally at American Airlines Center.
Who is this kid?, they wondered… Continue reading
Paige Gagerman spends most of her days during remote learning in her bed at home. Courtesy of Paige Gagerman / WBEZ
At the beginning of the school year, Paige Gagerman was highly motivated. The Deerfield High School junior got dressed each day and set herself up for a day of school at her desk, or the kitchen. But now in second semester, Paige sits in bed with her sweatshirt hood over her head. Remote learning has worn her down. Continue reading
My heart is so broken right now. As I sit here at Chick-Fil-A watching my kids play I almost feel guilty writing this post because I don’t want to take my eyes off my kids for a second. But as I am sitting here watching the kids, I notice a mom and a little girl come sit at the table next to me. Continue reading
In Chicago, sharp disagreements about when and how public schools should reopen brought the city to the edge of a strike.Photograph by Max Herman / NurPhoto / Getty
As tens of thousands of Americans continue to die of covid-19, a new debate has emerged over whether public-school students, their teachers, and all of the staff necessary to make schools function should return to school buildings. In the United States, forty-two per cent of students are exclusively attending “virtual” school, thirty-five per cent are attending in-person school, and twenty-two per cent have a combination of in-person and remote learning. But there is mounting pressure from elected officials and some—mostly white—parents to jettison remote learning and fully resume in-person schooling. Continue reading
An elementary school in Cupertino, California is asking students to rank themselves, literally by “power and privilege.”
The rankings include white, Christian, middle-class, cisgender, and more. Students were asked to “deconstruct” their identities in regards to race, family income, and yes, even sexuality.
Several families brought issues with this project to the school’s principal. Parents felt that their children were being taught racism and made to feel separated instead of unified by empowerment through education. Continue reading
PRONUNCIATION: [jok-uhnd] Continue reading
In his Commencement Address at Washington, D.C.’s Howard University in June 1924, almost six years after World War I ended, President Calvin Coolidge paid tribute to African Americans who had fought in it:
The colored people have repeatedly proved their devotion to the high ideals of our country. They gave their services in the war with the same patriotism and readiness that other citizens did. The records of the selective draft show that somewhat more than 2,250,000 colored men were registered. The records further prove that, far from seeking to avoid participation in the national defense, they showed that they wished to enlist before the selective service act was put into operation, and they did not attempt to evade that act afterwards.
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George Washington rose to prominence on the shoulders of his dynamic half-brother Lawrence, married wisely, and was enormously popular with the soldiers of Virginia and politicians of his day. Find out more about his life in this full documentary.
When I was a boy about 11, I committed a crime that changed my life.
I stole a book. I was a book thief.
I found it in another kid’s desk and began reading, hiding it behind some boring textbook, and couldn’t give it up…
And when the last bell rang, I hid it furtively under my jacket as if it were some rare, precious and struggling bird, and walked home.
It’s still with me. I’ll never give it up. Continue reading
The following has less to do with history or education, but a superb Profile of a very gifted actor. Do enjoy this – as I have. ~ Ed.
Behind the actor’s characters, you sensed something hard, immutable, and crystalline that belonged to him alone.
Sean Connery looking at the camera with a cigarette in his hand. Photograph by John Downing / Getty
With the passing of Sean Connery, who has died at the age of ninety, we have lost perhaps the very last movie star who was known and revered for playing himself. Continue reading
On December 12, 2017, one of America’s most prominent, yet forgotten, Founding Fathers would have turned 272 years old. John Jay, a native of New York City, had among the most impressive resumes in American history, especially among the Founding Fathers who never became president. Jay served in the Continental Congress, as a diplomat representing the United States in the Treaty of Paris, an author of the Federalist Papers, America’s first chief justice, acting secretary of state under George Washington, and governor of New York. Continue reading
On April 23, 1910, a year after leaving his presidential office, Theodore Roosevelt gave what would become one of his greatest rhetorical triumphs. The most famous section of his speech still resonates and inspires, even today.
It is not the critic who counts.
I am an old fashioned (‘Old School‘, that is) kind of teacher and as I was growing up – all we had to study this phenomenal work – was The Constitution of the united States of America (not a typo) itself – the WRITTEN word, BUT in these modern times we have the audio AND video variations of those words. Put your mind into this – and LEARN what the basis of our government was – and IS – meant to be. ~ Ed.Publisher’s Note: I awoke Friday morning to the news that one of my boyhood hero’s had passed on to the great Field in the Heavens. I spent most of my youth during the summers where I had been born – lees than an hour from Milwaukee – sitting on the lawn in front of my Grandfather’s home – with Uncle Charlie, where we would listen to Hank, Lew, Eddie, Warren and the rest of my favorite team “play ball.” Save me a seat in the Heavenly Bleachers and I will be along soon enough Mr. Aaron. RIP ~ Jeffrey Bennett
Hank Aaron was among the greatest all-around players in baseball history, earning his home run record in the face of hate mail and even death threats.Credit…Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics, via Getty Images
January 22, 2021 ~ Hank Aaron, who faced down racism as he eclipsed Babe Ruth as baseball’s home run king, hitting 755 homers and holding the most celebrated record in sports for more than 30 years, has died. He was 86.
Playing for 23 seasons, all but his final two years with the Braves in Milwaukee and then Atlanta, Aaron was among the greatest all-around players in baseball history and one of the last major league stars to have played in the Negro leagues. Continue reading
Walter once said he hoped that, on the day he died, he would have taught a class that day. And that is just the way it was, when he died on Wednesday, December 2, 2020. ~ Thomas Sowell
On the major social and political issues of our time, Walter Williams was one of America’s most important and provocative thinkers. He was black, yet he opposed affirmative action. He believed that the Civil Rights Act was a major error, that the minimum wage actually creates unemployment and that occupational and business licensure and industry regulation work against minorities and others in American business. Perhaps most importantly he had come to believe that it has been the welfare state that has done to black Americans what slavery could never do: destroy the black family. Walter Williams expressed all of these provocative ideas and more in this public television documentary produced by Free To Choose Network. Continue reading
She was a new bride in the fall of 1800. Immediately following her wedding in Philadelphia Margaret Bayard Smith and her husband traveled to Washington to make a new home. He had just started the Washington Intelligencer newspaper. Mr. Smith and his newspaper supported Thomas Jefferson in his bid for the presidency in the election of 1800. After his election and throughout his eight years as President, Jefferson often invited the Smith’s to the White House or visited their home on Capitol Hill. Continue reading
During a prank, a student stuck a paper on his classmate’s back that said “?’? ??????”, and asked the rest of the class not to tell the boy.
Thus the students began laughing on and off…
Came afternoon math class started and their teacher wrote a difficult question on the board.
No one was able to answer it except the boy with the sticker.
Amid the unexplained giggles, he walked toward the board and solved the problem.
The teacher asked the class to clap for him and remove the paper on his back. Continue reading
