Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts

6/14/2023

Massachusetts Middle Schoolers Protest Pride Event


 June 14, 2023

Students at a Burlington, Massachusetts, middle school destroyed LGBTQ Pride decorations and chanted that their pronouns are "USA" in protest after being asked to wear rainbow-colored shirts to school earlier this month.

Clad in red, white and blue, the Marshall Simonds Middle School students tore down the decorations lining the hallways and ripped up Pride flag stickers, according to NBC10 Boston.

"I was shocked and horrified," Nila Almstrom, parent of an LGBT student, said during a town meeting about the protest.

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6/11/2023

Teach Your Children Well

 

June 11, 2023

We are heirs to a vast repository of wisdom about how to live, how to think, and how to become truly free.

How do you shake a modern college graduate out of his comfortable liberal assumptions? How do you suggest to your average 22-year-old, raised in a secular and materialist society, that faith and tradition might not be mere forms of oppression or facile superstitions? Or that freedom might mean more than personal autonomy? You don’t simply hand him a copy of Saint John Henry Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua, and wish him Godspeed. Instead, you lead him gently. You explain to him that the dissatisfaction and dislocation he senses among his peers is real, and that there is a better way to live. Above all, you tell your young listener that he is not alone—that indeed, he is surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

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6/08/2023

College student gets A in class after allegedly receiving zero on proposal for using term ‘biological women’

 

June 8, 2023

A University of Cincinnati student who allegedly received a zero on a college project proposal for using the term "biological women" has had her proposal re-graded by another professor and received an A in the class. 

Olivia Krolczyk posted a TikTok video last month detailing the feedback she received from her gender studies teacher, explaining that she received a zero on her project proposal about transgender athletes competing in women’s sports because she used the term "biological women." 

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6/07/2023

What does it mean to be a ‘good human’?

 

June 7, 2023

How to see the humanity in everyone and treat people with dignity


How do you condense the essentials of being a good human into a few hundred words? It’s a lot harder to quantify kindness than to explain how to change a tire. It’s also more important.

For me, the basics of being a “good human” boil down to this: see the humanity in everyone and treat everyone with dignity. That includes yourself. Love yourself, love your neighbor.

First, human connection is not just important — it’s critical. Neuroscience research is finding that we are literally hard-wired to connect with others. For example, mirror neurons, only identified in the early 1990s, are neurons that fire in our brains when we see someone else perform an action the same way they would if we performed the action ourselves. A simple example is the urge to yawn when we see someone else yawn, or smile when they smile. Mirror neurons help us connect to each other, and they most definitely help us have empathy. We simply cannot get through this life without others.

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Award-Winning Gay Teacher Suspended for Speaking Out Against Transgenderism

 

June 7, 2023

Award-Winning Gay Teacher Suspended for Speaking Out Against Transgenderism

A gay fifth grade teacher in Glendale, California, was placed on leave after complaining at a school board meeting that his school promotes transgenderism.

Ray Shelton, a 25-year veteran teacher, spoke at a recent meeting of the school board for the Glendale Unified School District wearing a T-shirt that read “Make Biology Great Again.” 

Shelton, who teaches at Mark Keppel Elementary School, has been named the Glendale school district’s “Teacher of the Year” twice and earlier this year won the PTA’s Golden Oak Award.

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College gender studies professor allegedly fails student for using banned term 'biological women'


June 7, 2023

Olivia Krolczyk's essay proposal was about transgender athletes competing in women’s sports

A University of Cincinnati student is speaking out after her professor allegedly failed her for using the term "biological women." 

Olivia Krolczyk says her gender studies teacher gave her a zero on her essay proposal about transgender athletes competing in women’s sports because she used the forbidden term "biological women." 

"Olivia, this is a solid proposal," the feedback read. "However, the terms "biological women" are exclusionary and are not allowed in this course as they further reinforce heteronormativity. Please reassess your topic and edit it to focus on women’s rights (not just "females") and I’ll regrade." 

6/04/2023

Parents and Students Protest After Kellogg High School Punishes and Excludes Senior from Graduation Ceremony for Saying, “Guys are Guys and Girls are Girls, There is No In-Between”

 

June 4, 2023

Over 100 parents and students gathered outside Kellogg High School in Shoshone County Idaho, protesting against the principal’s decision to punish a student for saying that “guys are guys and girls are girls. There is no in-between.”

The protest reflects a growing concern over the boundaries of free speech and silencing dissenting viewpoints within educational institutions.

The controversy began when High School senior Travis Lohr, 18, participated in a school activity in which seniors gave advice to students in lower classes, Idaho Tribune reported.

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5/29/2023

“I Am America!”


 May 29, 2023

By John R. Stoeffler

I lost my first child on the day I was born on April 19, 1775…I am America. He fell on the green at Lexington, his heart pierced by a British musket ball. Many more of my sons and daughters would fall on that day and in the years to come until the guns grew still and peace came to me on that glorious day at Yorktown.

Eighty-six years later my heart was nearly broken as my sons and daughters donned the blue and grey and took up arms against each other. At Manassas, Missionary Ridge and elsewhere my children fell. And I grieved. During this devastating time, my son Abraham Lincoln eloquently expressed my feelings at a place called Gettysburg when he pledged that those who had fallen “shall not have died in vain; and that Government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Fifty-two years had passed when I was called upon to aid my cousins in Europe. This time my children crossed the sea and “over there” at places like the Somme and the Meuse-Argonne many gave their last great measure of personal sacrifice to stem tyranny’s tide.

In the 1940s my children became embroiled in the biggest war the world has ever known. From a harbor called Pearl to Iwo Jima, Anzio, Bataan, and Bastogne they fought and died that the peal of freedom’s bell would not be stilled. And only then, when it was done, did Johnny comes marching home again.

In 1950, my loved ones were again off to stay tyranny’s iron hand in a faraway place called Korea. At places with names like Pork Chop Hill and Heartbreak Ridge did my children again fight and die for freedom, and again I wept for those who fell.

In the 60s and 70s my children took up arms in freedom’s name. From the Mekong to the DMZ to a valley called the Ia Drang many gave some and some gave all. The pride I have in them for the courage and the sacrifice each made has never faded.

Since Viet Nam, more of my sons and daughters have given their all on freedom’s behalf in places with equally strange sounding names like Mosul, Fallujah, the Korengal Valley and Helmand Province.

There are those who hate me and what I stand for. Given the chance they would snuff out the inseparable essentials of my existence, liberty and freedom. They have different names and faces, but their nefarious goal remains the same – to destroy my children and me. Nothing made this so clear as the attack on September 11, 2001 when those dark forces ended the lives of nearly 3,000 of my children for the sole reason that they are Americans.

For some, time passes and memories fade, but through all this I tell you that I remember each of these my children. The faces of those who fell at Bunker Hill are as fresh in my mind today as those who perished at Gettysburg, Chateau-Thierry, Normandy, Pusan, Baghdad, and, yes, on United Flight 93. I know of the dreams each had for their family, and those their family had for them. And where they now lie, be it in my bosom or in some distant land makes no difference as every name and face is forever etched in my mind and heart.

No, I can never forget these my children for I AM AMERICA, and I shall always remember.

5/25/2023

The Absence of Honor and Our Failed Governing Elites

 

May 25, 2023

In “To Lucasta, On Going to the Wars,” Richard Lovelace (1618–1657) writes of a soldier who laments leaving the “chaste breast and quiet mind” of his mistress to embrace “a sword, a horse, a shield.” But he concludes the poem with this thought:

“Yet this inconstancy is such

  As thou too shalt adore;

I could not love thee, Dear, so much,

  Loved I not Honour more.”

Over 200 years later, Karl Maeser (1828–1901), founder of Brigham Young Academy, precursor to Brigham Young University, also spoke of honor. This quote, which comes from Brett and Kate McKay’s The Art of Manliness: Manvotionals, is long but deserves to be rendered in full:

“I have been asked what I mean by ‘word of honor.’ I will tell you. Place me behind prison walls—walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground—there is a possibility that in some way or another I might be able to escape; but stand me on the floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I get out of that circle? No, never! I’d die first.”

Full Article

Every American Needs To Hear This Speech

5/10/2023

America’s Founders Didn’t Support Open Borders, And Neither Should We

 

May 10, 2023

‘The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common national sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits.’

There is little evidence that the founders advocated for a free-for-all, open-door immigration policy.  

From the very beginning, even in the absence of immigration law, the founders knew America had to set boundaries. Their top three concerns were the qualifications, assimilation, and allegiance of newcomers. The founders emphasized the moral character and contributions newcomers would bring. 

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5/09/2023

Federalism for Families

 

May 9, 2023

Red states should engineer policies to encourage higher birth rates and to attract large families.

ount me as one of those generally skeptical that tax breaks, tax credits, housing allowances, and other economic incentives for parents will decisively increase birth rates. In general, values like honor, pride, and shame affect how people behave more than any economic incentives. When family life—especially motherhood—is dishonored, birth rates decline; when honored, they rise.

South Korea has been throwing billions at families to encourage natality for more than a decade, only to see birth rates crater to historically unprecedented lows. Israel has the same family incentives it had two decades ago, but its total fertility rate has skyrocketed to more than 3.0, making it the only developed nation in the world whose population is growing exclusive of immigration. Family-friendly economic policies such as those in Hungary and Poland are not irrelevant, but not as important as other normative factors.

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In 1958 Communists Had 45 Goals to Take Over the U.S. Without Firing a Shot. Here Are the Ones They've Already Achieved

 

May 9, 2023

The 1958 book by Cleon Skousen, The Naked Communist, set forth 45 goals communists need to achieve to take over the United States without firing a shot. Some of them are outdated and immaterial. Some are debatable. Let’s see how many commie goals have been achieved.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N. 

DONE. The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 made Communist China a member of the U.N. Today, China is one of five permanent members.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States. 

DONE. Communists were once hunted in the U.S. Today, Democrats like Bernie, AOC, and the Squad, with ideas that are clearly socialist, if not communist, are re-elected with ease.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks

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The Ethicist

 

May 9, 2023

David W. Miller weighs right and wrong, creativity and courage

In a time when what’s right and wrong seem to depend on who’s asking, ethics is still a field where people look for timeless answers to what matters over time. David W. Miller, director of Princeton University’s Faith & Work Initiative and an ordained Presbyterian minister, argues that personal faith — in any form — can help us to figure that out. That’s why he takes his own spirituality to work, where he conducts research, lectures on business ethics and social responsibility, and consults with corporate clients.

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This is America’s surprising youth drug crisis

 

May 9, 2023

Legalized drug crisis is harming young people far more than most realize

The data is in and it’s becoming increasingly clear that the impacts of commercial marijuana industry are even worse than we thought, particularly for America’s young people. A new report released by Smart Approaches to Marijuana shows the reality in "pot-legal states" paints a vastly different picture than the common sales pitch of the industry and supporters of legalization. 

The marijuana industry, which spent billions to lobby elected officials and bankroll legalization referendum campaigns, is following the playbook pioneered by Big Tobacco. They recognize that the road to big profits runs through the heaviest users. As such, they have increased potency of the drug by more than four times since 1998, hoping to hook kids while they are young and vulnerable. The numbers show that it’s working. 

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"How the USA’s Public School Students Became the Sickest in the History of the USA


 May 9, 2023

1. President Carter established the National Department of Education in 1979.
The Amendment X of The Constitution of the United States: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The National Department of Education is illegal and should be abolished.
The way I heard it was:
2. Bill Gates wanted his computers in all the public schools, so he hired a staff to write Common Core. Bill then went to the Governor’s convention and sold all 50 of them on restructuring the school system and putting Common Core into all the schools Nationwide.
3. The Governors presented it to the State School Boards and the State School Boards approved it.
4. Then the Governors signed it into law.
We lost our schools without even knowing it. Now our little children are abused with long days and heavy schedules. These demands are way too heavy for many of them to bear.
The public cried out against Common Core. The State of SC just added a few more Standards and renamed them the SC Standards. To accommodate the excessive requirements an hour was added to the school day in the early morning. As a result, many children do not get enough sleep. The optional kindergarten naps were eliminated in Horry County, SC and many other counties. The brain repairs itself while sleeping. Many children develop mental illnesses from lack of enough sleep.
Recesses were eliminated except for 10 minutes of playtime after lunch. The District claims it is 20 minutes but it takes 10 minutes of it to go to the restroom.
The developmentally appropriate curricula were thrown out. Teachers are still not given a written curriculum to follow. They have the Standard written and they must come up with the rest. Planning is very difficult and time consuming.
Computers were given to kindergartners and their little hands are too little to learn keyboarding. Therefore, they hunt and peck developing bad habits, which are never completely broken later when properly taught.
A developmentally appropriate handwriting curriculum should be: Manuscript in k, 1, and 2. Cursive should be taught in 3rd grade requiring 62 fifteen-minute lessons to cover lower and upper case letters as well as connections and transitioning. Computers should be given to the children in 4th grade and keyboarding should be taught. This way they learn correctly, when their hands are large enough to keyboard correctly.
The teachers wrote the standards but had no say in where they were placed in the curriculum or how many would be required at each level.
The curriculum is not developmentally appropriate. Twenty percent of our children are only able to learn life skills to survive. Thirty percent of our children need life skills and trade skills to help us all survive. Only 50 % of our children have the ability to complete college level work. We do not have enough jobs for the college graduates that we graduate. We have the most educated taxi drivers and waiters in the world. Each child is different and God makes them perfect for the job that He has for them. Our children need to find the will of God for them in their lives and do it. That is success.
As a result of the takeover of our schools in the late 90’s, suicides have risen consistently since 1999. That was 20 years before Covid. Don’t blame it on Covid or the social media. Blame it on the abusive schools and fix it.
We can start by:
Shortening the day by 1 hour.
Start school no earlier than 8 AM.
Restrict formal instruction to 4 hours a day.
Art, PE, music, and library are not recesses.
Recesses should be fifteen minutes around 10 AM and 40 minutes in the PM.
Lunchtime should be 20 minutes at the table and 10 minutes for the restroom, giving a total of 30 minutes.
Kindergartners should have the option of a nap.
Teachers should control curricula.
Testing should only be done the first week of school and during the last two weeks of school.
All other testing should be at the teacher’s discretion. The teacher knows when her children are ready for a test. Success is healthy.
Teachers should have the option to take their children outdoors anytime that she believes that they need a break.
Teachers should all have bases and balls so that the children can be rewarded an incentive game on Friday afternoon for good behavior. "

Ant-Man Star Evangeline Lilly Laments Society That Villainizes Masculinity In Men

 

May 9, 2023

Ant-Man’s Evangeline Lilly laments society that villainizes masculinity in men Ant-Man Actress Evangeline Lilly shared a rant on masculinity and femininity on Instagram on Thursday.

Lilly gave her opinion seemingly unprompted while visiting the Siwa Oasis in Egypt. The 43-year-old actress is known for her roles in Lost and Ant-Man, with fan bases that have garnered her two million followers on the platform.

GOP SENATORS QUESTION NAVAL DRAG QUEEN AMBASSADOR EFFORT FOR SECURITY REASONS

“Why are we only applauding masculinity in women and villainizing it in men? And why are we only applauding femininity in men and debasing it in women? Why can’t we just allow for all of it?” Lilly wrote.

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5/08/2023

The one and only password tip you need

 

May 8, 2023

OK, it’s time for me to keep a promise.

Back in October 2022, I wrote an article called Why (almost) everything we told you about passwords was wrong. The article summarizes how a lot of what you’ve been told about passwords over the years was either wrong (change your passwords as often as your underwear), misguided (choose long, complicated passwords), or counterproductive (don’t reuse passwords).

Most damningly of all, the vast effort involved in dispensing this advice over decades has generated little discernible improvement in people’s password choices. If it hasn’t quite been a wasted effort, it has certainly represented a galactically inefficient use of resources.

We know that this advice isn’t what it’s cracked up to be thanks to intrepid researchers, such as the folks Microsoft Research, who made it their business to discover what actually makes a difference to password security in the real world, and what doesn’t.

If you want the full, three-course meal version of why all the password advice you've been told stacks up to much less than the sum of its parts you can read the original article. Here's the snack version:

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Later School Start Time Could Improve Mental Health

 

May 8, 2023

In the hours before he's due at Upper Darby High School, senior Khalid Doulat has time to say prayers, help his mother or prepare for track practice.

It's a welcome shift from last year for him and thousands of students at the school, which pushed its start time back by more than two hours — from a 7:30 a.m. start time to 9:45 a.m. One goal for the change: to ease strains on students that were more visible than ever coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ll be honest, I’ve been much happier in the mornings,” Doulat said. “I’ve been more positive, and I’ve come to school smiling more rather than, you know, grudging out of bed and stuff like that at 7:30.”

The idea of later school start times, pushed by many over the years as a way to help adolescents get more sleep, is getting a new look as a way to address the mental health crisis affecting teens across the U.S.

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I’m a doctor and my Black parents saw me break free of segregation. Now medical schools are bringing it back

 

May 8, 2023

Medical schools are returning to ‘separate but equal,’ but doctors know we’re all the same on the inside

My mother and father went to segregated schools, separated from Whites because they were Black. They told me, as a child, that they wanted better for me. They got their wish when I went to Stanford University and then the University of California at San Francisco’s medical school, both fully integrated and welcoming. Before they passed away, they firmly believed that the era of separating people by race was over forever.  

My parents were wrong. 

Higher education is deliberately re-segregating, driven by race-obsessed activists who, bizarrely, claim to oppose "systemic racism." Universities like Harvard and Chicago have held Black-only graduation ceremonies in recent years.

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