9/8/2010 – Robert Weissberg –
Judged by all the billions of dollars now flowing into “education reform,” it appears that Washington, and especially the Obama administration, is obsessed with improving academic achievement (see, for example, here). The billions are certainly real enough, but the intent is just the opposite. Rhetoric aside, the Obama administration, like Bush II’s before it, is profoundly opposed to brainpower. Our “commitment” to academic excellence is a cruel joke — we love stupidity and hate smart kids. Tellingly, not even “conservatives” who bemoan America’s educational decline will admit this awkward reality — they, too, are passengers on this reform gravy train heading to the bottom. [Read more...]
The War on Academic Achievement
September 8, 2010
Queering Education
September 3, 2010
9/3/2010 – Mary Grabar –
The recent court rulings against students Jennifer Keeton in Georgia and Julea Ward in Michigan reveal the power amassed by the cabal of radicals in academia who have pushed the gay agenda into education. In both cases, judges upheld the right of counseling departments at public universities to expel Christian students who refused to counsel homosexuals in a manner that affirmed their homosexuality.
In Keeton’s case, Augusta State University mandated that all students completing the master’s program adhere to professional standards that require counselors to counsel all clients in ways that do not criticize their sexuality or attempt to change it. According to affidavits, Keeton, whose attitudes towards homosexuality are rooted in her Christian faith, had stated a desire to refer gay clients to other counselors or to inform them about conversion therapies. [Read more...]
Teachers Unions and Civil Rights Groups Block School Choice for Black Students
August 25, 2010
8/25/2010 – Anthony B. Bradley –
Teachers unions, like the National Education Association (NEA), and many civil-rights organizations inadvertently sabotage the potential of black males by perpetuating failed educational visions. Black males will never achieve academic success until black parents are financially empowered to opt out of failed public school systems.
The American public education system is failing many groups, but none more miserably than black males. The numbers are shocking. The Schott Foundation recently reported that only 47 percent of black males graduate from high school on time, compared to 78 percent of white male students. This revelation is beyond disturbing because it exposes the fact that many public schools serve as major catalysts for the desolation of unemployment and incarceration that lies in many black boys’ future. [Read more...]
Manufacturing Liberals
August 12, 2010
8/12/2010 – Larrey Anderson -
Liberals are not insane, as many conservatives believe. Most liberals (I am not speaking here of the political or intellectual class) are ordinary human beings pursuing everyday human lives — just like the rest of us. Here is a brief summary of why most liberals are liberal and what we can do to help at least some of them understand conservative thought:
1) Indoctrination, not education
Polls consistently find that over 70% of college professors identify themselves as liberal. The percentage of liberal faculty members is even higher if one removes responses from those teaching the “hard” sciences. In our prestigious universities, the figure approaches 90%. Both of these reported percentages are probably lower than the real figures [i]. [Read more...]
Christian Academics Cite Hostility On Campus
August 11, 2010
8/3/2010 – Barbara Bradley Hagerty -
One of the hot debates in academia is now reaching the courts. The question: Do universities discriminate against religious conservatives? Some professors and students say they do, but it’s not an easy charge to pin down.
When Elaine Howard Ecklund began asking top scientists whether they believe in God, she got a surprise. Ecklund, an assistant professor at Rice University and author of the book Science Vs. Religion, polled 1,700 scientists at elite universities. Contrary to the stereotype that most scientists are atheists, she says, nearly half of them say they are religious. But when she did follow up interviews, she found they practice a “closeted faith.” [Read more...]
Cheering Immaturity
August 10, 2010
8/10/2010 – Thomas Sowell -
A graduating senior at Hunter College High School in New York gave a speech that brought a standing ovation from his teachers and got his picture in the New York Times. I hope it doesn’t go to his head, because what he said was so illogical that it was an indictment of the mush that is being taught at even our elite educational institutions.
Young Justin Hudson, described as “black and Hispanic,” opened by saying how much he appreciated reaching his graduation day at this very select public high school. Then he said, “I don’t deserve any of this. And neither do you.” The reason? He and his classmates were there because of “luck and circumstances.” [Read more...]
New York Public School Teaches Children that ‘Religion is a Disease’
June 28, 2010
6/24/2010 – Andrea Peyser -
God is dead? At a top Brooklyn middle school, He is.
Just when you thought the separation of church and state was more than an option, like paper or plastic, the matter has been settled at MS 51 in Park Slope. And the lesson falls on the side of atheism.
“RELIGION,” a sheet from English class, handed out to eighth-graders, is provocatively titled. The typewritten paper presents some 20 quotes that can be described as anti-God, coming from philosophers from Kierkegaard to Schopenhauer. Even a “Yiddish proverb.”
“Religion is a disease, but a noble disease,” reads the first quote, attributed to Heraclitus.
“Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they will think,” reads one by Schopenhauer. [Read more...]
America’s Death by Professor
May 21, 2010
5/20/2010 – Stuart Schwartz -
Where professors rule, life is cruel.
That is the bottom line for the average American in this, the transformative age of the president the New York Times and Washington Post has called “Professor” Obama, who “schools” the ignorant at home and abroad. Never before have so many with so little humility gathered together in our government, each believing he “is the smartest guy in the room.”
This is an administration stuffed with academics. And not just any academic: These are educators from elite universities, the kind of experts prized by a political and media elite seeking confirmation of a worldview that expects, notes the Washington Examiner, “the rest of us … to shut up and do as we are told.” [Read more...]
Cultural Marxism in Education: The Gathering Revolt
April 18, 2010
American Thinker | by Chuck Rogér | 4/18/2010
For decades now, American schools corrupted by cultural Marxism have been eroding the moral fiber and judgment skills of schoolchildren. Unless sensible parents and teachers put a stop to the indoctrination, today’s free speech-crippling political correctness, tolerance of immorality, and lack of knowledge of our country’s birth will continue to grow until America is no more. To stop the indoctrination, parents and teachers must understand how cultural Marxism came to permeate school curricula. [Read more...]
Teacher wins major victory for God in school
March 1, 2010
Judge scolds district for trying to scrub America’s Christian heritage
Bradley Johnson and one of the two banners he was ordered to take down
WorldNetDaily | by Drew Zahn | Mar. 1, 2010
A federal judge in California has handed down a scathing ruling against a school that required one of its teachers to remove signs celebrating the role of God in American history from his classroom walls.
As WND reported, math teacher Bradley Johnson had banners hanging in his classroom at Westview High School in San Diego, Calif., for more than 17 years with phrases like “In God We Trust” and “All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed by Their Creator,” only to have the principal order them torn down during the 2007 school year.
But Johnson filed a lawsuit alleging the order a violation of his constitutional rights, and the teacher has now been rewarded with a court victory and a powerfully-worded ruling. [Read more...]
Why Tenure Harms Education
February 14, 2010
American Thinker | by Bernie Reeves | Feb. 13, 2010
As Ohio State University President Gordon Gee realizes in his recent call to study whether or not tenure should be modified or abolished, a guaranteed job for life for academics annoys most people. This negative feeling has been exacerbated in the last thirty years during the rise of the radical scholars in liberal arts departments in most colleges and universities. Once ensconced in their ivory towers, tenured activists are granted a free ride to propagandize students and make public pronouncements behind the skirts of the university. The Ward Churchill scandal at the University of Colorado is a sadly common example of professors politicizing and poisoning the commonweal. [Read more...]
Liberals Sabotage Minority DC School Kids
December 21, 2009
Joy Tiz | by Joy Tiz | Dec. 21, 2009
Finally finding one government program they could do without, liberals passed the omnibus spending bill which included express language killing the successful Washington, DC school vouchers program.
Proposed by former President Bush in 2003, the DC Opportunity Scholarship (OSP) provides school choice to parents of the most disadvantaged students. Passed into law by Congress in 2004, the program provides up to $7500 in scholarship funds to approximately 1700 children who would otherwise be doomed to gang and drug infested academically deficient public schools run by incompetent union protected bureaucrats. [Read more...]
Democrats Kill Successful DC Voucher Progam
December 21, 2009
American Thinker | by Aaron Gee | Dec. 21, 2009
The Democrats have consistently cultivated a public image as the party of the little guy, the party that stands up against big interests and protects the rights of minorities. You would think that a program that helps minority students, lowers costs, and increases funds for public schools would be right up their alley. You would be wrong. [Read more...]
Welcome to the School of Social Engineering
October 19, 2009
Center for a Just Society | by Ken Connor | Oct. 16, 2009
In the wake of the controversial dismissal of Green Jobs Czar Van Jones, another of the President’s men has been attracting negative attention.
The President has chosen teacher and GLBT activist Kevin Jennings for advice and guidance on how best to foster a safe and drug-free environment for America’s school children. Much has already been written about Jennings’s controversial background, his troubling associations, his questionable ethics, and his obvious lack of qualification and suitability for the job of Safe Schools Czar. Given Obama’s need to stay in the public’s good graces in order to advance the cause of health care reform, it would hardly be surprising to see Kevin Jennings gently shoved off the President’s roster of advisors if this criticism continues. [Read more...]
Education Normal
September 30, 2009
Touchstone Magazine | by Mark T. Mitchell | September 2009
“Are you ever afraid that homeschooling your kids will make them, um, oddballs?” We were staring into the campfire. The kids had all been tucked more or less comfortably into their sleeping bags, and we parents were savoring the opportunity to talk. With the cool night crowding us closer to the fire, the conversation was lively, though tinged by a reflective mood.
As anyone who is the parent of small children will know, the conversation eventually turned to kids. Soon we were talking about how to raise godly children in a culture that, in many ways, seems intent on undermining their faith. And not only their faith. Many of today’s cultural forces create impediments to a sound education as well as a solid faith. These must be resisted. But that persistent question remains. [Read more...]
