This is a clarion call for parents to rally 'round a superintendent willing to take on the State Education Department over this testing madness. This is, at long last, a superintendent unafraid to challenge this maniacal testing ... and the curriculum-driven preparation that has soured so many. The Rye schools pride themselves on their academic … Continue reading Clarion Call To Parents – NY State Testing
About refusing these tests ... a mom writes ... "Although I am 100% against it, and I have made my feelings clearly known to my husband, my son specifically asked that he be allowed to [take the] test … and my husband feels like we should allow him to do it. I am beyond frustrated … Continue reading Helping Your Children Refuse
“Why do we protest one meaningless test and ignore the real harm being done day after day for years now? Opting out changed nothing for the children.” A Patchogue-Medford, NY, mom And she’s right. Fighting today’s education reform battles with yesterday’s tactics is a feel-good waste of time. “Nostalgia is a seductive liar.” Remember that. … Continue reading Spring Testing – Time For Hardball – An OptOut/WalkOut
There’s a reason why “Animal Farm” endures … It seems that student walk-outs are very excellent displays of teenage wisdom and activism … IF the cause meets certain liberal standards. High school history teacher Julianne Benzel wondered … out loud … to her students … during class … "if protests of a different sort would receive … Continue reading Gulag High School -Animal Farm Endures
So, your schools are a splendid mess ... go ahead ... act shocked ... it won’t change a thing. It's not a complicated story at all. This is your mess … and mine. It’s on all of us. “Where’d these imbeciles come from?” Here's a hint … Their mind-bending began on Day One … of … Continue reading You Cannot Be Shocked – Schools Are A Splendid Mess
No one is a bigger fan of teenagers than I am. I taught that age group for thirty years. They have fat hearts, kind souls, lots of decency ... and some own genuine sincerity ... most of the time. But they're young .... and easily herded ... and not as wise to the world as … Continue reading ALERT! Teen Brains Under Construction
This is a school. It has no secret powers over you ... or your child. A mother was threatened by school officials because she expressed her opinion on Facebook. She was "warned" that she might be banned from the campus ... and perhaps barred from school activities ... if she didn't smother her opinions. … Continue reading If Not You, Who? This Is A School, Not China
This is a perfect example of how far the left has gone. I was raised that mathematics was the single unifying study across all disciplines. Math was the language of computers, musicians, architects, historians, astronomers, physicists, chemists, doctors…. For everyone, in euclidean plane, 2+2=4. You could be anywhere. You could be anyone. Math is the … Continue reading Math Is Racist
Check your child for neck bolts … the educational Frankensteins are at it again. Forget geography, composition, and math … school is now all about feelings. And emotions. And attitudes. It’s the hot-rage in education … the creepy premise that schools can instill acceptable human emotions and reactions in your child because … I guess … Continue reading Cardboard Children
Please make it stop. Has everyone in education gone mad? “Academic kindergarten”? It’s worse than it sounds. Is anyone else stunned-numb at this? This edu-speak? This academic newspeak that oozes out of these clinical dissections of how children learn? It never stops. Another day, another brain-bruising study … and another tried-and-true bit of educational common … Continue reading “Academic Kindergarten”
Missives Worth Reading 