More schools are nixing homework because parents say it's annoying.  For Liat Tamam, the daily, tearful battles over homework started soon after her daughter entered kindergarten.  "It just became this huge drama," the Bushwick-based mother of two tells The Post of the heated fights between her and her 6-year-old daughter, Rosa.  "It was very challenging for me personally to get her to sit down and do homework," she says, "but I also didn't want her to be behind her class."  The 42-year-old says that Rosa was so resistant to doing her assigned math and writing worksheets that she was "having anxiety and stress and crying every day."

San Francisco School Board Votes to Return Elite High School to Merit-Based Admissions.  The San Francisco school board voted 4-3 Wednesday night to return Lowell High School to a merit-based admissions system, two years after it first switched to a lottery-based system.  Beginning with freshman entering in fall 2023, test scores and grades will be used to admit students to Lowell, barring any other changes by the board, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.  The board first voted in favor of a switch to the lottery system in October 2020 because they said remote learning created a lack of academic data on which to base admissions decisions.

More states [are] requiring financial literacy courses in high schools.  Many states are taking steps to make financial literacy an increased part of children's education.  Florida became the 11th state to require a financial skills course as a high school graduation requirement last month, joining Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia, according to Fox Business.  More states are beginning to address the issue — 37 states and Washington, D.C., have discussed bills about financial literacy in 2022, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Texas is Bringing Cursive Back to Schools.  There was a time when every American student was expected to learn how to write in cursive.  It's a skill that's fallen out of favor in recent decades, but one Southern state is looking to bring it back.  Texas has announced its plan to reintroduce cursive writing to the state curriculum for elementary students beginning in the 2019-2020 school year.

The Time Has Come:  Higher Ed-a-geddon.  Higher education as we know it is indefensible.  It presumes a false model of human development.  People between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two cannot be trusted moving to a campus away from their parents, protected from any real consequences for stupid decisions, and taught random concepts by a professoriate anesthetized by the tenure system.  In reality, these four years of human development should be spent in conditions closer to basic combat training:  they need physical regimentation.  Swift punishments must impress upon them the costs of behaving foolishly.

Wanted: Male teachers in U.S. schools.  According to the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, only about 24 percent of all teachers were male in 2012, with just one in 10 men teaching elementary school students.  Ethan Zagore, director of the University of Notre Dame's TRiO program, a federally funded initiative aimed at helping disadvantaged youngsters obtain an education, says a number of factors contribute to the shortage, but a big one is that many people just fundamentally — consciously or subconsciously — believe the role of an elementary teacher is better suited for women.

Why We Must Abolish the U.S. Department of Education.  In this video, The New American's correspondent Alex Newman, an educator and the co-author of a book on education, explains why it is essential that the unconstitutional and highly damaging U.S. Department of Education be shut down.  [Video clip]

A Plan to Reform Our Failing Universities.  America has reached a critical point where the contaminants will soon have sunk too deep to be flushed out.  A healthy civic life, cultural and economic resilience, innovation and invention, and a sense of national purpose all begin and end with education.  In the last analysis, nothing less than the 241-year republican experiment is at stake.  It is not a question of party policy; the Democrats are not Republicans and neither, on the whole, are the Republicans.  The responsibility for instituting real change in the vast education apparatus falls to those who still hold to Constitutional loyalties.  It may take a two-term Trump presidency and Betsy DeVos at her most determined to accomplish the feat.

Texas School Triples Recess Time, Solving Attention Deficit Disorder.  Public education is more stressful than ever for our children, as standardized testing requirements increase and programs like art, music and physical education are being phased out.  The result of this type of environment is predictable, and the medical establishment and big pharma are making a killing by drugging active children with ADHD medications and other psychotropic drugs in order to ensure conformity.  There are better solutions. [...] The most common sense, natural solution to inattentive behavior in school children, however, may be the basic idea of giving children more time to free play and to engage their bodies in physical activity.

A Brief and Appalling History of the Department of Education.  It is time to resuscitate the Constitution of the United States vis-à-vis the responsibility for education.  There has never been a constitutional basis for any federal control over education in the states.  National government control of education is a constitutional travesty, a regulatory nightmare, a burden on the states' and the people's budgets, and a burden on the state and local education systems and institutions over which it has made itself the overseer.  Secretary DeVos is the right person to work toward the goal of removing the federal government from the educational process.

Harvard's minimum wage protests was [sic] caused by its own professors.  The social-justice warriors of Harvard are on the march again, this time in solidarity with the university's dining-hall workers.  Students and faculty have spent the past few days protesting low wages and an increase in health-care premiums for the people serving their grilled cheese, french fries and occasional lobster dinners.  On Oct. 5, about 750 workers went on strike.  It was Harvard's first such revolt in 33 years, and strikes are becoming more common at colleges across the country.  In Pennsylvania, thousands of faculty went on strike at 14 colleges and universities on Wednesday [10/19/2016] alone.

Texas school puts up sign warning teachers may be armed 'and use whatever force necessary'.  Teachers at a Texas school have decided to take matters into their own hands when it comes to any potential outside threats their students could face — and many of them may be armed and dangerous.  A new sign posted outside a school in Medina[,] outside San Antonio, notes that some of the faculty may be carrying firearms, and they are ready to fight if need be.  "Attention," the sign reads.  "Please be aware that the staff at Medina ISD may be armed and will use whatever force is necessary to protect our students."

Oregon school district scrutinized after memo ordered bus drivers to stop playing rap music.  An Oregon school district has discussed reversing its ban on rap music on buses after allegations of racism.  The Oregonian reported Wednesday [8/24/2016] that Portland Public Schools had ordered its bus drivers to stop playing hip-hop music after it deemed rap "inappropriate."  Teri Brady, the senior director of transportation in the district, sent a memo to bus drivers in March ordering them to stop playing "religious, rap music or talk show programs."  The only acceptable music to play was pop, country and jazz, according to The Oregonian.

The Editor says...
What about classical music?  Is that not an option?  And why are school bus drivers listening to the radio at all?  Isn't that distracted driving?

Republican Platform:  The Constitution Gives Federal Government 'No Role in Education.  The official 2016 platform of the Republican Party asserts that since the Constitution gives the federal government "no role in education," it should not join with "centralizing forces" that have attempted to reform education and have subsequently done "immense damage."  The platform affirms the primary role of parents as educators in a child's life, and supports a constitutional amendment to protect the right of parents to direct their children's education from the overreach of federal and state governments and from potential international intruders such as the United Nations.

The Editor says...
There was nothing in the Constitution about federal involvement in education when President Carter created the Department of Education in 1979, as a spin-off product of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.  The wording of the Constitution didn't change while Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 held the office of president, and none of them dismantled Carter's creation.  One can easily surmise that the Republican Party platform is a mass of lofty but toothless rhetoric that will never be converted into meaningful action.

Do All Students Need to Master High-Level Math?.  The U.S. education system uses mathematics as a bar for students to jump over to get admitted into an exclusive college or to make a particular profession appear sophisticated, even if the training is unnecessary.  The field has been dominated by teachers more interested in impressing us with their importance than in offering useful skills, and the terrible, one-size-fits-all Common Core education standards being adopted across the nation are compounding the problem.  One of the greatest errors made by Common Core proponents and others who advocate for greater federal control of the nation's education system is the push for and reform of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum.  So-called education experts say the nation needs its entire school population to be highly trained in mathematics for the country to survive, and that without a greater emphasis on math and science, American students will fall even further behind the rest of the world.  Coming forward to refute this claim and show its deleterious effects on our high school and college students is Andrew Hacker and his book The Math Myth.  Hacker documents the problems with requiring all students, even those with no interest or aptitude for it, to take high-level math courses, and he demonstrates the importance of promoting a more beneficial type of math standard.

Harvard Law activists demand free tuition as a matter of racial justice.  A group of Harvard Law School activists are demanding the graduate school do away with tuition fees, which they argue are "racially biased.  Members of the group Reclaim Harvard Law School published an open letter Sunday [4/17/2016] addressed to Law School Dean Martha L. Minow and members of the Harvard Corporation — the University's highest governing body — demanding an end to tuition costs that they argue impose an unfair financial burden on students of color, The Harvard Crimson reported.  Tuition at the law school will rise to $59,550 for the 2016-2017 academic year, and students are graduating with an average of $149,754 in debt, according to the law school's website.  Reclaim Harvard Law called the trend "outrageous" and asserted, "as a matter of justice, education should be free."

The Editor says...
These misguided individuals don't seem to understand that they cannot reclaim that which was never theirs.  They also don't seem to understand that an education (or any other product or service) that costs nothing is worth nothing.

Thank Liberals for Today's Chaotic and Dangerous World.  Liberals have led the way to destroy all sense of moral clarity in our nation, all objective sense of right and wrong and all sense of authority.  What's the common ground of these distant and seemingly totally disconnected worlds — American college campuses and a chaotic Islamic Middle East?  In both places, those who claim to have all the answers are the very ones who should be humbly asking questions and seeking knowledge.  Aren't universities allegedly where youths go to learn?  The students causing problems do not arrive on campus to seek knowledge.  They arrive already knowing it all, looking to instruct professors rather than to learn from them.  And the weak-kneed liberal faculties and administrators at universities agree!

Attack on Teachers.  The ongoing and escalating assault on primary- and secondary-school teachers is not a pretty sight.  Holly Houston is a post-traumatic stress specialist.  She counsels teachers in Chicago public schools and reported, "Of the teachers that I have counseled over the years who have been assaulted, 100 percent of them have satisfied diagnostic criteria for PTSD."  It's not just big-city schoolteachers traumatized.  Dr. Darlyne Nemeth, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said last year, "I have treated many teachers with PTSD, and I am currently following a few of them." [...] School violence is going to get worse.  Last year, the Obama administration sent all the school districts in the country a letter warning them to avoid racial bias when suspending or expelling students.

Class size revisited.  Florida taxpayers have spent close to $30 billion to implement the class-size amendment, which voters adopted in 2002.  The results, as research by Florida TaxWatch found, are less than overwhelming.  There is little doubt that having fewer students per class, particularly in lower grades, is generally beneficial, but it is hardly the key to educational excellence.  The quality of teachers, course material, parental support and other factors can have far greater impact.

School replaces 'hall of heroes' murals honoring Mother Teresa, others with Oprah, J.K. Rowling.  For years, boys and girls at South Arbor Charter Academy have been inspired by Heroes Hall — a corridor featuring murals that honored the Space Shuttle Columbia astronauts, Mother Teresa, Betsy Ross and Albert Einstein.  But many parents are furious after the principal had the murals replaced with paintings honoring President Obama, J.K. Rowling and Oprah.  "This is no longer a hall of heroes," parent Craig Bergman told me.  "Now we have a hall of celebrities."

Deep racial divide in Oakland schools' attendance rates.  The first detailed look at attendance in Oakland schools shows a deep racial divide between students in class and habitual no-shows, a pattern reflected in grades, test scores and graduation rates.  That big difference between who's in class and who isn't helps explain much of the achievement gap between white and Asian students and their African American peers.  Nearly 1 of 5 African American students in Oakland is chronically absent from school, missing at least 10 percent of the 180-day school year.  Just 1 in 20 white and Asian students miss that much school.

The Inside Scoop — One Teacher's Experience.  This story is important, partly because it's typical.  As a veteran of almost 30 years in the public schools, I have seen this scenario played out dozens of times.  In fact I still have an August nightmare that I get to school and find that I've been assigned to teach calculus or chemistry (I'm a typical English teacher so that is truly a nightmare).  And the story is important also because it clearly illustrates much of what is wrong in public education — the bureaucratic mindset.  Let me enumerate the problems: [...]

Public School Education — There is Bad News and Good News.  The bad news is that John Dewey's "progressives" are winning big.  They mobilized every educational front group and every pedagogical gimmick to achieve the goal of controlling what goes on in the schools, as a way of achieving a fundamental transformation of America, to coin a phrase.  The educational front groups include the National Council of Teachers of Math, the Common Core Consortium, National Education Association, International Reading Association, National Science Foundation, the Department of Education, and many more.  Their favorite pedagogical gimmicks include Whole Language, Reform Math, Balanced Literacy, Constructivism, Project-Based Learning, Cooperative Learning, 21st-Century Skills, and many more.  So it's clearly a far-flung, intricately coordinated attack, like Hitler's military roaring into Russia during the summer of 1941.

Teacher resignations up significantly in Wake County.  More than 600 teachers have walked out of Wake County Schools since the start of the school year.  The school district says people are leaving for many reasons.  Some for jobs in other states.  Others are getting out of the profession entirely.  However, many have a common reason — not enough pay.

Miami-Dade Schools & Education Data Fraud.  The story begins with the ways to magically lower crime stats.  1. Maximize control.  Expand your "school police" — expanding your control over what happens within schools, including the crimes, also expands your ability to commit and cover up fraud.  The key:  make everyone within a school, including the police, report to you.  Now that you've expanded your control, you can proceed with the cover-ups.  2. Don't report the crimes.  For anything less than murder, it simply doesn't get reported, doesn't get reported correctly, or doesn't get reported with a student name attached.  No name, no details, no crime.  Just a crime-free occurrence, stolen property without a perpetrator, accident without incident.  3. Manipulate the law.  Transform police documents into "student records." [...]

School forces half-naked, sopping wet student to stand outside, frostbite results.  A Minnesota public high school was so committed to obeying its fire drill policy to the exact letter of the law that it forced a female student — dressed only in a swimsuit, and sopping wet — to stand outside in the freezing cold for ten minutes.  As a result, she suffered frostbite.  Administrators wouldn't let the student retrieve her clothes, sit in a car or wait inside another building, according to WCCO.  The trouble began when a small science experiment triggered the fire alarm at Como Park Senior High School in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Fourteen-year-old Kayona Hagen-Tietz was swimming in the school pool for health class at the time.  Her clothes were in her locker, and a teacher told her that there was no time for her to change.  Hagen-Tietz was rushed outside — still wet and dressed in only [a] swimsuit.  It was 5 degrees below zero in St. Paul that day.  With the windchill, it was 25 degrees below zero.

The Editor says...
Yes, I can hear you saying, "That's just an isolated incident."  Sure it is — just as all the ridiculous zero tolerance cases are isolated and unrelated — only they're not.  In every public school I've ever seen, the rules are the rules and the "teachers" and administration never depart from the rules, for two reasons:  (1)  they can never be perceived as showing favoritism, because of the civil rights activists, and (2)  every departure from the rules opens up the threat of civil litigation.  The schools are in the condition they're in because of left-wing liberalism.

I Quit Teach for America.  [Scroll down]  During my training, I taught a group of nine well-behaved third-graders who had failed the state reading test and hoped to make it to fourth grade. [...] That classroom training was completely unlike the situation I now faced in Atlanta: teaching math and science to two 20-person groups of rotating, difficult fifth-graders — fifth-graders so difficult that multiple substitute teachers would vow never to teach fifth grade at our school again.  I had few insights or resources to draw on when preteen boys decided recess would be the perfect opportunity to beat each other bloody, or when parents all but accused me of being racist during meetings.  Or when a student told me that his habit of doing nothing during class stemmed from his (admittedly sound) logic that "I did the same thing last year and I passed."

The Other Dropout Problem in Urban Schools.  Across America, many urban school districts are on life support, and in some places, the plug is ready to be pulled.  This dire reality is routinely discussed, but missing from the conversation is the ever-growing dropout rate in urban schools.  No, not the student dropout rate, but that of teachers.  The teachers' dropout rate is a result of burnout after their ambition is crushed by a climate of cultural adversity.  In other words, their 'save the kids' optimism dissolved into a 'run from the kids' reality.  These teachers anticipated teaching life-changing lessons to the kids but ended up learning life-changing lessons from the kids.

The Most Interesting School District in America?  The Douglas County School District is trying to do something truly new.  An all-Republican school board has created the nation's first suburban school-voucher program, introduced market-based pay, allowed its teachers' union contract to expire, and developed a regimen of home-crafted standards and assessments in lieu of the Common Core (which superintendent Liz Celania-Fagen dismisses as the "Common Floor").  Former Reagan secretary of education William Bennett has opined that Douglas County is "trying to do all the good reforms at once."

Would Thomas Jefferson Approve of Today's Public Education?  Jefferson — as well as most of the other Founding Fathers — couldn't ever imagine that public education would be controlled by the federal, much less a state, government.  He believed that it should be run and funded by parents and those in local communities or wards.

A brave Baltimore teacher speaks the truth about schools, students.  Dave Miceli doesn't know me from a hole in the ground, but he's my new hero.  Anyone that can dredge up the guts to teach in Baltimore's public schools automatically becomes a candidate for hero status in my book, especially if said anyone has taught in these schools for 20 years, as Miceli has.  But it was his bold, insightful, no-punches-pulled letter to the editors of the July 15 edition of the Baltimore Sun that put Miceli on my hero's list.

Study: Black students suspended more often than others.  Black students are suspended more than three times as often as their white classmates, twice as often as their Latino classmates and more than 10 times as often as their Asian classmates in middle and high schools nationwide, a new study shows.  The average American secondary student has an 11% chance of being suspended in a single school year, according to the study from the University of California-Los Angeles Civil Rights project.  However, if that student is black, the odds of suspension jump to 24%.

The Editor says...
These statistics are not surprising at all.  Asian students are taught at home in their two parent households to behave themselves.  If teachers weren't afraid to discipline black students, the percentage of black students suspended would be a lot higher.  Statistics like these are intended to portray blacks as victims, but the main cause of this problem is fatherlessness, not irrational prejudice.  It also doesn't help to have racial opportinists like Jesse Jackson drumming up self-pity by having crowds of young people chant, "I am somebody! when in most cases that's not true.  Many of the same people who get suspended in school go on to prison later in life — for the same reasons:  Fatherlessness, godlessness, peer pressure, and years of faulty decision making.

Yes, It's Time For Bus Control.
February 28, 1958:  Twenty-six children killed in a school bus crash in Kentucky.
May 21, 1967:  Twenty-eight children killed in a school bus crash in California.
September 22, 1989:  Nineteen children killed in a school bus crash in Texas.
[...] I do not mean to minimize the many individual tragedies these school bus deaths represent, nor do I wish to downplay the tragedies of school shootings.  I am simply pointing out that many things in this world are dangerous, but we accept these risks because they come paired with utility.

F in attendance for city schools.  A Tribune investigation has found that nearly 32,000 Chicago students in public elementary schools — or roughly 1 in 8 — missed four weeks or more of class during the 2010-11 year, as the cash-strapped district does little to stem a devastating problem.  For the Chicago Public Schools, the empty seats undermine efforts to boost achievement and cost the district millions in attendance-based funding.

The Editor says...
There is no reason to attend classes, and no motivation to get a job, when welfare checks are guaranteed.