Exactly! Schools teach one thing: dependence. Since we would eventually like our children to be independent, I think we better continue to handle this ourselves. ~ DeeAnn Schank Standlee
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
Last week brought two special delights…
Though I had read and even taught Francis Gray Patton’s novel Good Morning, Miss Dove, I had never seen the movie. With forlorn hope, I went to YouTube, punched in the title, and there it was, a wonderful film released in 1955 starring Jennifer Jones as “The Terrible Miss Dove,” an elementary school teacher whose principles, stern classroom discipline, and general demeanor terrify her students but make her a beloved figure in the town of Liberty Hill. Continue reading
It’s funny how homeschooling – that once-upon-a-time fringe movement of education – has now become the norm. Everyone’s doing it out of sheer necessity.
For some, it’s going great! What was at first a stressful and uncertain task is now becoming routine. In fact, a recent poll conducted by EdChoice found that over half of respondents hold a more favorable view of homeschooling as a result of the coronavirus. Continue reading
Many know the Vietnam War as one of the bloodiest and most unpopular wars in U.S. history. Some even label it a mistake. During the 1960s, the spread of communism brought fear to the American people. For the U.S. government, communism posed a political threat as the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, and other countries started emerging as “red” states. They were afraid more dominoes would fall, so they placed themselves between them. American representatives were sent to Vietnam and neighboring countries to prevent the spread. This is where the story of my people begins. Continue reading
Developing an attractive, legible cursive handwriting style certainly has great aesthetic value, but it also has numerous mental, physical, social, and practical benefits. Continue reading
With most schools out across the country due to the coronavirus lockdown, science teachers have been getting creative when it comes to finding experiments to keeep their students entertained.
“My thing has been to get science into their homes and get them doing science… it’s about discovery,” said Lockhart, Texas science teacher Avri DiPietro, who’s assigned a “burping bag” experiment to her 160 or so students between the ages of 11 and 14. Continue reading
In some ancient cultures, the birth of a child was grieved.
It seems counter-intuitive to grieve life, but they believed the soul of the newborn child was wrenched from the spirit plane where truth and timelessness prevailed and forced into an existence of limitations and grief.
Maybe it’s true and maybe it’s not. But children are a precious asset to this world. Continue reading
Author Jack Cashill recently wrote an article entitled “Why Your Sons Refuse to Read”. It is a must-read for every parent with a son who has not learned to read or who has not learned to read well enough to succeed at his grade/age level. I hope to help parents understand what must be done in order for their sons (and daughters) learn to read well, to enjoy reading, and to begin catching up with all of the concepts and vocabulary that they missed during the years of not reading. Continue reading
Today’s high school students may yawn when they hear teachers describe what a world-changing document the United States Constitution was when it was ratified in 1788 and a new government was formed a year later in 1789.
But a deeper look behind the scenes reveals the three dramatic innovations the Founding Fathers introduced in just 4,400 words that changed the course of history for the better over the next 228 years, not just in the United States of America, but around the word: Continue reading
It’s ironic at a time when 56 million children in the U.S. are being homeschooled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that Harvard Magazine would publish an article calling for a ban on homeschooling.
The article by Erin O’Donnell, headlined The Risks of Homeschooling, sets up one straw man after another to make the case that the government must step in to protect children from their own parents – who are presumed guilty and ill-qualified to care for their own children. Continue reading
Editor’s NOTE: Consider that what you are about to read is a superb historical lesson on the subject of the title, but that it was written nearly eight and a half years ago. Look how far we have come with the arrogance of Governors and mayors all across America. What lies ahead for We the People and our children and grandchildren. What lies ahead for the future and the survival of the united States? … and yet ~ what if…. ~ Ed.
With all fifty states offering petitions to the central government to leave the Union, the legality of secession is now front page news in the United States. Can a state legally secede from the Union? Many, including Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, suggest no. In a 2006 letter, available here, Scalia argued that a the question was not in the realm of legal possibility because 1) the United States would not be party to a lawsuit on the issue 2) the “constitutional” basis of secession had been “resolved by the Civil War,” and 3) there is no right to secede, as the Pledge of Allegiance clearly illustrates through the line “one nation, indivisible.” Continue reading
Results from the latest international exam show U.S. high school students have made “no significant improvement” since the early 2000s and continue to trail students in Asian countries, despite billions of dollars invested in educational reform.
The exam, known as the Program for International Student Assessment, consists of testing exercises in math, reading, and science and is taken by 15-year-old students across the globe every three years. It seeks to measure how students apply knowledge to real-life scenarios and is considered to be a barometer of future economic success.
A report on the results, which were announced Tuesday, stated: Continue reading
One of the more significant social and political consequences of the coronavirus pandemic is the fact that countless American parents of public school-enrolled children suddenly find themselves faced with the daunting prospect of having to homeschool those kids for an indefinite period of time. When normalcy returns, most of those families, who for various reasons are unable or unwilling to continue homeschooling, will simply fall back into their old groove and schooling will resume as before. But many parents may find themselves enlightened and excited about homeschooling’s benefits and how it actually operates, as opposed to common misconceptions, which are usually pejorative. This is a possibility that the secular leftist elites in education will not tolerate. Continue reading
Critics blast back: ‘Parents have a fundamental constitutional right to raise and educate their children‘
Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order closing public school buildings also bans homeschooling, which is unconstitutional, contends a legal non-profit in the state.
“The Great Lakes Justice Center calls upon Gov. Whitmer to correct this unconstitutional action and assure parents in Michigan that they may continue to safely home school their own children while the EO is in effect,” the organization said in a statement Thursday.
The April 2 order states “in-person instruction for pupils in kindergarten through grade 12 … is suspended for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.” 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
If the PC police were an actual business, they’d be pulling down millions like Bernie Madoff.
The radical Left has infected public education like we’ve never seen before, and because of it, students in Tennessee are now being taught that ‘Allah is the only God.’
I wish I could say “Bazinga!” right about now. Continue reading
While certainly not one of the best-known presidents, John Tyler holds several incredible distinctions. He inherited the Presidency after being elected Vice-President under William Henry Harrison, who famously died only 32 days after taking office. Tyler’s presidency was full of the turmoil that would split the Union decades later, and while an ardent States’ Rights supporter, he did show a willingness to compromise. Continue reading