|
The words are written in crayon, in the haphazard bumpiness of a child's scrawl. "I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure." They're the words that Florida father Aaron Harvey was stunned to find his fourth-grade son had written, after a lesson in school about the Constitution.
Dad Furious After Finding This Crayon-Written Paper in Florida 4th-Grader’s Backpack: ‘I Am Willing to Give Up Some of My Constitutional Rights…to Be Safer’, 4/12/13
College education has become expensive and nearly useless. Got that? Price up, quality down. No surprise, when government gets involved. Even WSJ seems to get this (partially). In a recent article, they write: By some measures, nearly half of employed college graduates are in jobs that don't traditionally require a college degree.
Collapse of the Value of a College Education, 3/27/13
Books aside, if you asked a college freshman today who the Greatest Generation is, they might respond by pointing in a mirror. Young people's unprecedented level of self-infatuation was revealed in a new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has been asking students to rate themselves compared to their peers since 1966.
How college students think they are more special than EVER: Study reveals rocketing sense of entitlement on U.S. campuses, 1/7/13
Many Americans are speaking about removing their children from government run schools and finding alternatives to an increasingly failing system. In lieu of the recent rash of school shootings, many parents feel that moving their children to another educational venue will help to protect them from crazed, lone gunman who are on psychotropic medications and are seeking to do harm to our children while attending school in gun free zones with no protection. In a few isolated incidences, this may be true. However, school shootings are such an isolated event, I am not sure how to protect against students other than by having armed guards on every campus in America. Aside from school violence, there are some other very compelling reasons that parents may want to consider when deciding where and how to educate their child. This is the first in a multi-part series which will clearly delineate the reasons why those in the know will never let their child darken the doors of the nation’s government schools.
Take Your Children Out of Government Schools, 12/23/12
In October of 2005, the Neubronner family (pictured) decided to homeschool. In America, that would have been the end of the story. The Neubronners, however, lived in Germany, where government has taken an extreme hardline stance with the aim of eradicating home education altogether. The loving German parents applied for permission to educate their two young sons, Morris and Thomas, at home. Unsurprisingly, their application was rejected.
Homeschoolers Worldwide Join Forces, 12/3/12
A new global league table, produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit for Pearson, has found Finland to be the best education system in the world.
Why Finland's Unorthodox Education System is the Best in the World, 11/27/12
Ray Kurzweill invented the technology that reads text and converts it into spoken language. His article on the revolution in online college education points to the future.
Free Harvard and MIT Education - Private Colleges Will Die, 11/9/12
The Moraga School District in Moraga, California alleged that a 12-year-old girl, who suffered prolonged sexual abuse at the hands of two different middle school teachers in the 1990s, was “negligent,” “careless” and “was herself responsible for the acts and damages of which she claims.”
School district calls 12-year-old rape victim ‘negligent’ and ‘careless’ in her own abuse, 11/3/12
I have just read the best article in National Review that I can remember in the last 40 years. Of course, this is not saying a great deal, because I stopped reading National Review about 40 years ago. I used to write for it occasionally. My introduction to the magazine was in the fall of 1959, when I was a freshman at Pomona College. I read it faithfully for about five years, and intermittently until the early 1970s. After that, my interests shifted.
Homeschooling: Most Radical Social Movement in America, 10/18/12
For those hoping to better understand how and why we arrived at this dismal point in our nation’s history, where individual freedoms, privacy and human dignity have been sacrificed to the gods of security, expediency and corpocracy, look no farther than America’s public schools.
America’s Schools: Breeding Grounds for Compliant Citizens, 10/16/12
Students and parents at two San Antonio schools are in revolt over a program that forces kids to wear RFID tracking name tags which are used to pinpoint their location on campus as well as outside school premises.
Texas Students Revolt Against Mandatory RFID Tracking Chips, 8/30/12
Parents are pulling their children out of the government schools. This is happening across the USA. In city after city, enrollment is declining. This is not a recent development. It has been going on for a half a decade. It has taken place in half of the nation’s largest districts. The trend looks irreversible.
Parents Are Yanking Their Kids Out of Government Schools, 7/26/12
The research grows out of exciting existing evidence that suggests that memories can be reactivated during sleep and storage of them can be strengthened in the process.
Learn that tune while fast asleep, 6/24/12
NaturalNews salutes Wellesley High School English teacher David McCullough, Jr., now made famous by his uncensored, brilliantly-stated, totally politically incorrect graduation speech entitled, "You are not special!"
Among all the high school graduation speeches being given this time of year, only David McCullough Jr. dares to tell students the sobering, impolite words they so desperately need to hear: You are NOT special! His full speech is shown below.
Brilliant English teacher dares tell high school grads the truth: You are NOT special!, 6/9/12
It didn’t occur to me that the six-foot fence around the perimeter was meant to keep me in. That is, until the day I decided to leave.
5 Ways Public Schools Prepare Us For Prison Life, 5/25/12
Members of the Class of 2012,
As a former secretary of labor and current professor, I feel I owe it to you to tell you the truth about the pieces of parchment you’re picking up today.
You’re f*cked.
Robert Reich to New College Grads: 'You're F*cked', 5/19/12
For those hoping to better understand how and why we arrived at this dismal point in our nation’s history, where individual freedoms, privacy and human dignity have been sacrificed to the gods of security, expediency and corpocracy, look no farther than America’s public schools.
Arrested Development: Criminalization of America's Schoolchildren, 5/9/12
I wonder what purpose the public schools serve, other than to warehouse children while their parents work or watch television. They certainly don’t teach much, as survey after survey shows. Is there any particular reason for having them? Apart from their baby-sitting function, I mean.
Truth About the Public 'Schools', 5/2/12
In recent months, the US Department of Labor has documented official jobless benefit claims as finally on the decline after years of figures teetering close to 10 percent. For recent college grads, however, that slump is still there and worse than you might imagine. According to recent data studied by The Associated Press, more than half of the country’s recent college graduates are either without a job or grossly underemployed.
Half of recent grads can’t get full-time work, 4/23/12
As an unschooling parent, I often struggle with the thoughts of what happens to all the other children that are still in the public school system. While we believe very strongly in the benefits of having our children at home and following an unschooling lifestyle, I know that it is simply not possible for everyone. What can be done to help those children?
How To Improve the Public School Experience From an Unschooler's Perspective, 4/23/12
These drills are just another reason why many parents have decided that it is time to pull their kids out of the government schools entirely.
Our public schools more closely resemble prison camps than they do institutions of learning. Millions of our kids are leaving high school dumb as a rock, but they do know what to do when the alarm goes off.
Kids All Over America Are Being Put on Buses and Sent to Alternate Locations During School Terror Drills, 3/29/12
John Taylor Gatto, one of the outstanding scholars and writers in the history of American education, is not only a truth-teller about the corrupting and dangerous American compulsory school system. He is also an extraordinary teacher, once being named as Teacher of the Year for New York State. This seminar is riveting. You will find out all that the warden and guards of the local prison school want to keep from you. You will be outraged, educated, and inspired. Just as important, you'll have fun. Gatto is great.
John Taylor Gatto: Origin and Evil of Public Schools, 3/15/12
Sadly, "destructive" is not too hard a word to use for the environment in these public schools. I went to public schools all my life, and they were absolutely horrible. Unfortunately, they have gotten even worse since the time that I left them.
11 Reasons To Get Your Kids Out of the Government Schools, 2/29/12
In the end we all need to do what works best for our families. But if you're considering homeschooling, be sure to research it well to clear away any of the common myths before deciding. Or, better yet, try it for a year, the worst case scenario is that they go back to school if it is not working. If you go into it with flexibility, love, and encouragement then it will be a success.
5 Biggest Misconceptions About Unschooling, 2/21/12
Public education, in its current state, is based on the idea that government is the "parent" best equipped to provide children with the values and wisdom required to grow into intelligent, functional adults. To echo what former first lady Hillary Clinton professed, these public school champions believe "it takes a village" to cultivate a society of competent human beings.
How the Public Schools Keep Your Child a Prisoner of the State, 1/31/12
Just before Christmas the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced a small improvement to its 2,100 free online courses: The free online service will now grant, for a modest affordable fee, credentials for those online students who gain mastery of the subject. Instead of calling it MIT 2.0, they named it MITx, and it is likely to challenge and change the higher education paradigm and the cartel that runs it.
MIT’s Online Threat to the Higher Education Cartel, 1/26/12
The federal schools are taking Americas' children prisoner one step at a time under myriad federal "guidelines" designed to shape and mold them into propagandized, mindless, collectivist soldiers who will worship the conventional wisdom that will dictate every aspect of their lives. Nowadays, almost any act of tyranny in the schools can be justified by "concerns" about obesity and health (or now, bullying). In the modern American totalitarian tradition, serfdom is sold as the ideal freedom in order to "protect" the sheeple and keep them all safe and healthy.
Public School Surveillance of Inmates, 1/15/12
Are we raising the stupidest generation in American history? The statistics that you are about to read below are incredibly shocking. They indicate that U.S. high school students are basically as dumb as a rock. As you read the rest of this article, you will be absolutely amazed at the things that U.S. high school students do not know. At this point, it is really hard to argue that the U.S. education system is a success. Our children are spoiled and lazy, our schools do not challenge them and students in Europe and in Asia routinely outperform our students very badly on standardized tests. In particular, schools in America do an incredibly poor job of teaching our students subjects such as history, economics and geography that are necessary for understanding the things that are taking place in our world today. For example, according to a survey conducted by the National Geographic Society, only 37 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 can find Iraq on a map of the world. According to that same survey, 50 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 can't even find the state of New York on a map. If our students cannot even find Iraq and New York on a map, what hope is there that they will be able to think critically about the important world events of our day?
Dumb as a Rock: You Will Be Absolutely Amazed at the Things That US High School Students Do Not Know, 1/13/12
One could understand the naivete of such responses from elementary or high school students, but we’re talking about adults of legal voting age, the majority of who have no concept of individual liberty and personal responsibility.
These young adults are the future of our nation and in the nearly twenty years they have attended school they have learned only one way to achieve the American dream: to plunder it from others.
Plundering the American Dream: College Students Demonstrate the Idiocy Of Our Education System, 1/5/12
It has been said that children are our future, and right now the vast majority of our children are being "educated" in public schools that are rapidly being turned into indoctrination centers and prison camps. Our children desperately need to focus on the basics such as reading, writing and math, but instead a whole host of politicians, "education officials" and teachers are constantly injecting as much propaganda as they possibly can into classroom instruction. Instead of learning how to think, our children are continually being told what to think. Not only that, our children are also being trained how to live as subservient slaves in a Big Brother police state. Today, nearly everything that children do in public schools is watched, monitored, recorded and tracked. Independent thought and free expression are greatly discouraged and are often cracked down upon harshly. If students get "out of line", instead of being sent to see the principal they are often handcuffed, arrested and taken to the police station. In addition, law enforcement authorities are using weapons such as pepper spray and tasers against young students in our public schools more than ever before. Children in U.S. public schools are not learning how to live as strong individuals in the "land of the free and the home of the brave". Rather, they are being trained how to serve a Big Brother police state where control freaks run their entire lives. If we continue to allow all of the liberty and freedom to be systematically drained out of our school children, then there is not going to be much hope for the future of this nation.
28 Signs That U.S. Public Schools Are Rapidly Being Turned Into Indoctrination Centers And Prison Camps, 12/30/11
College education in America is a bad joke. Instead of preparing the next generation of leaders for the jobs of tomorrow, the college education "industry" has become a giant money making scam. We constantly preach to our high school students that they "need" to go to college and we tell them to not even worry about how much it is going to cost because a college education is "always" worth the money. Then we lend them outrageous amounts of money so that they can pay the gigantic bills for the "education" that they are receiving. But the truth is that the quality of education at America's colleges and universities is absolutely abysmal these days. I spent 8 years at U.S. universities, and most of the courses that I took could have been passed by the family dog. Sadly, once our young people graduate they quickly discover that there are way too many college graduates and not nearly enough good jobs. Today, we have millions upon millions of young Americans that are enslaved to student loan debt for the rest of their lives. They were promised a bright future, but instead most of them are discovering that they are going to be working really hard to pay off financial predators for decades to come. Unfortunately, for most college graduates a diploma is simply a ticket to a crappy job and a lifetime of debt slavery.
35 Shocking Facts that Prove that College Education has become a Giant Money Making Scam, 12/13/11
We've written for years (see Debtucation) about the scourge of schooling. For decades, governments have been promoting school as being necessary. Celebrities, probably thinking they are doing the "right thing" often promote the message, "stay in school". Here are some Public "Service" Accouncements from people like Mr. T. and NBA players and rappers.
No one ever thinks to ask, hey, Mr. T., did you learn to be an actor and how to work-out and grow a mohawk in school? Nor do they ask the same questions of a bunch of multi-millionaire basketball players and rappers. Did Michael Jordan learn to play basketball "in school"? For the rappers, I don't remember there being Hip Hop 101 in college.
All public school is, in the US today, is indoctrination for jail or to train you to be a cubicle rat for the rest of your life.
Education Trap, 11/14/11
Gwen Weil of Aseltine School in San Diego, CA recently informed me of a potential crisis in public education. Experienced teachers seem to be vanishing due to lack of job satisfaction. Gwen revealed the following:
A recent study by the Department of Education shows a startling trend in education: although 20 years earlier the average level of classroom experience for public school teachers was 14 years, by 2007-'08 that level had dropped dramatically to just 1 to 2 years of experience (US Department of Education). While a lack of experience does not necessarily indicate a teacher's ability, student achievement scores reveal that the average first-year teacher is less effective than the average third-year teacher (Omer, Seville; "Classroom 'crisis': Many teachers have little or no experience").
The most common reasons teachers give for leaving reflect their dissatisfaction with their work environment, not with their pupils: little or no support from school administrators; lack of clarity in the school's mission; inadequate cooperation and communication between staff; frustration at having to "teach to a test."
Where have all the teachers gone?, 11/12/11
There are over 2 million home-educated children in this country, and this number is growing at 2% to 8% per year. This is not surprising, given the dismal track record of the public school system. If you have ever considered homeschooling your children (or even if you have not), here are six reasons to do it.
Six reasons to homeschool your children, 11/10/11
It is just a matter of time before the cushy, over-rich education industry meets destruction at the hands of new technology and new entrepreneurs. But don’t expect it to go gently into that good night. It has lobbyists by the score. It has money by the billions. It has its men and women in Washington…who will continue rewarding the failed, zombie schools, while regulating, squeezing out and crushing start-up competition.
That’s why, sometimes, it takes a revolution.
Misguided by Higher Education, 10/31/11
Higher education is in a bubble. A college degree is seen as insurance for the future, and parents and students are evidently prepared to pay whatever it takes (either up front or by taking out loans) for a degree, regardless of the return on investment for their purchase.
Higher Education Bubble, 10/15/11
Roll call is going high-tech in Washington County, Fla. Rather than the usual name calling and response, students are now checking into class with finger scanning devices. And to keep better track of students from the minute they come under district supervision until they are delivered safely home again, the scanners are now moving from the school building to the school bus.
Florida School District is Taking Attendance by Scanning Students’ Fingers, 10/7/11
I recently received my 1st grade students back-to-school paperwork. Going through the packet I found a letter serving notification that my son is now required by law to participate in monthly anti-terrorism drills.
In fact, after doing more research, I learned that all NJ schools which provide services to children from Kindergarten and up are now required by law to participate in monthly drills.
Terror Drills for New Jersey's Child Prisoners, 9/18/11
So why are we sending our kids to school and forcing them to learn things they don't need, and quite possibly what they don't care to learn? I believe that unschooling, from birth until death, is the education model of the 21st century and beyond. The Internet has grown to unthinkable heights. People no longer need traditional schools, public or private, to teach them someone's version of History, or Social Studies, Geography, and any other practically useless-in-our-everyday-lives subject. If we need to know something, we can find it in a matter of minutes. Let's instead help our children discover their talents and passions, and to develop them in a non-compulsory, safe environment.
It's a new day. Times have indeed changed. Don't be left behind, and don't be left with a bad education and the unnecessary stress that K-12 education creates for both parent and child. Enter the 21st Century, the century of unschooling and free education.
The (Present and) Future of Education, 9/5/11
The family of a first grade Chicago Public Schools student who was reportedly handcuffed and told he was going to prison for talking during class filed a lawsuit against the school district this week, and an attorney for the family says he wasn't the only child disciplined in such a way.
The Chicago Tribune reports that LaShanda Smith filed the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of her son, who she claims was one of several 6 and-7-year olds excessively punished by a security guard at Carver Primary School on the South Side.
The school allegedly authorized on-campus security to discipline disruptive first graders, Fox Chicago reports. The children who were considered disruptive were then allegedly handcuffed for an hour and sent to an office, where they were told "they were going to prison and would never see their parents again," attorney Michael Carin told the Tribune.
First Graders Handcuffed At Chicago School, Told They Were Going To Prison: Lawsuit, 9/1/11
...Vaccines. Do not allow yourself to be pressured into giving vaccines to your child. Make an informed choice rather than just conceding to the pressure of school requirements. Consider the likelihood of exposure, seriousness of the disease, and side effects of the vaccine. Vaccines being forced on school age children these days include pertussis in DTaP (whooping cough), measles (MMR), and HPV (cervical cancer). Read about the vaccines in my book, The Vaccine Guide, or search the NaturalNews website for information about each vaccine before you comply with routine vaccination. Remember, an exemption from vaccination is always available to you.
Exercise. Schoolwork can be demanding, and homework time consuming. Many schools have limited the amount of time devoted to PE. Make sure that your kids are getting some form of exercise every day, either in an organized sport or bike riding or just running around at the park. Staying fit is important for mental function as well as physical health.
Back to school health checklist, 8/27/11
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.
Steve Jobs: I'm Glad I Dropped Out of College, 8/26/11
Students and their parents are investing in the higher-order good of a college degree, in the mistaken belief that plenty of jobs await college graduates at the end of four or six or seven years. However, time preferences haven't changed. The demand for consumer goods remains, and that's where the jobs are. The boom in demand for bankers, barristers, and bureaucrats is over.
Higher-Education Bubble Has Popped, 8/13/11
For undergraduate degrees, take the total cost of your education, and divide it by five. That is the five years you will take to pay it back. Figure that you must make enough money that your monthly payment during that 5 years is not more than half of your disposable income. If you have children in your plan, figure those in. Figure that half of most people’s disposable income is probably less than $500. It may be closer to $100. That means your bachelors degree shouldn’t cost you more than $30,000, at the high end, and $6,000 at the low end.
But you say: “After I get a degree, I will make more money!”
That’s not necessarily true. With a deflating economy and an inflating currency, you may actually come out worse. Your education is a potential risk, not just an investment.
A Prepper Goes to College, 7/14/11
Is college worth it? Is a college education really worth the investment of time, money and energy? Is a college degree really worth becoming enslaved to student loan debt that will haunt you for decades? The truth is that a college education is a massive gamble. For millions of Americans it works out well, but millions of other college graduates have found themselves completely unable to get a quality job in this economy and yet they are still trapped in a nightmare of student loan debt from which there is no escape. Millions of young Americans have discovered that they have become "indentured servants" the moment they graduate. The entire system encourages our young people to take out whatever college loans they "need" without worrying how they will pay them back because a college education is such a good "investment". Once upon a time, a college education was actually an almost automatic ticket to the middle class. Today, a college education does not guarantee you anything, but for millions of Americans it does turn out to be an automatic ticket to student loan hell.
Is College Worth It?, 6/24/11
The system of higher education in the United States is economically irrational. It survives only because of government regulation through the nominally private accreditation system. But there are still ways around the system.
#2 Port in the Academic Storm Is About to Close, 6/23/11
The median starting salary for students graduating from four-year colleges in 2009 and 2010 was $27,000, down from $30,000 for those who entered the work force in 2006 to 2008, according to a study released on Wednesday by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. That is a decline of 10 percent, even before taking inflation into account.
Of course, these are the lucky ones — the graduates who found a job. Among the members of the class of 2010, just 56 percent had held at least one job by this spring, when the survey was conducted. That compares with 90 percent of graduates from the classes of 2006 and 2007. (Some have gone for further education or opted out of the labor force, while many are still pounding the pavement.)
Another Nasty Statistic Regarding College, 6/16/11
In the past year, the number of Establishment media reports on the high cost of college or even a supposed bubble has increased. The subject has always been on the back burners of the intelligentsia, but the decline of jobs for new college graduates has finally caught the attention of the media. The story sells, because parents are finding that their children have returned home, degrees in hand, along with a pile of IOUs to Sallie Mae and other student loan bureaucracies.
These is a hint of revolution. I don't think much will come of this for years. Parents are still enamored by the myth of the college degree as the ticket to a successful life. Faculties have been marketing their wares on that basis ever since 1088. But the cold winds of economic reality are sending a chill in the halls of ivy.
If parents ever figure out that their kids can earn an economic useless degree for $11,000 instead of $111,000, they may decide to let their kids earn their degrees "North's way." But probably not. The lure of the conventional is always great. "It's just not done that way." "Why not?" "Because it just isn't."
Home school families are the ideal candidates, because they have long since made the break from conventional education. They have larger families. They cannot afford to send all the kids to college. So, they look for alternatives.
There is something else. Their children have learned how to learn outside of the classroom. They are more confident in self-education. This is the cheapest way to earn a degree: outside a classroom.
So, while the children of the besieged middle class send their children off to the delights of campus tomfoolery, the anti-government-schools home school families will take advantage of the academic loopholes.
I left the students with this message: never pay retail for college. I hope they take my advice. I think their parents will agree.
College for Dummies... and Non-Dummies, 6/6/11
In the United States today, our public schools are not very good at educating our students, but they sure are great training grounds for learning how to live in a Big Brother police state control grid. Sadly, life in many U.S. public schools is now essentially equivalent to life in U.S. prisons. Most parents don't realize this, but our students have very few rights when they are in school. Our public school students are being watched, tracked, recorded, searched and controlled like never before. Back when I was in high school, it was unheard of for a police officer to come to school, but today our public school students are being handcuffed and arrested in staggering numbers. When I was young we would joke that going to school was like going to prison, but today that is actually true.
18 Signs That Life In U.S. Public Schools Is Now Essentially Equivalent to Life In U.S. Prisons, 6/2/11
"There is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children, either independent of their right to direct the upbringing and education of their children or encompassed by it. We also hold that parents have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students." ~ Fields v. Palmdale School District PSD, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (2005)
Do Parents’ Rights End at the Schoolhouse Gate?, 5/20/11
College education is big business, and with easy Federal loans, prices for everything from tuition to text books is going through the roof. Once degreed, the majority of college grads are ill-equipped to handle the current marketplace. Many of those who entered college just five years ago simply can’t find work in a 21st century economy that’s imploding on all sides. What college grads are left with are massive loans that can’t be repaid and a room in mom and dad’s basement.
College Education: Largest Scam in U.S. History, 5/17/11
Said the NIA, “… If you believe college is such a great thing for our nation, with enrollments at a record high of 70.1%, you really need to ask yourself how it is possible our nation is in the dire shape it’s in today. We are a nation of unhealthy junk food eating prescription drug addicts who have elected the most incompetent group of representatives to Congress in history. If college education was working, then why is it that our ivy league educated Congressmen have been trying to fix our problems that were created by having too much debt, by increasing our budget deficits and getting us trillions of dollars deeper into debt? Colleges have brainwashed students with dangerous Keynesian economic principles that have put our nation on the brink of hyperinflation. Ironically, hyperinflation is quite possibly the only way for Americans with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans to ever escape their debts!
NIA releases "College Conspiracy" - the value of a college degree in relation to the cost of college
The National Inflation Association (NIA) is pleased to officially announce that it will soon be releasing its hour long documentary 'College Conspiracy', which will expose the U.S. college education system as the largest scam in U.S. history. NIA has been producing 'College Conspiracy' for the past six months and plans to release the movie on May 15th. NIA members will be given the first opportunity to watch this must see documentary, which we hope will change the college education industry for the better.
Why America's College Bubble Is Next To Burst, 5/8/11
Is going to college a worthwhile investment? Is the education that our young people are receiving at our colleges and universities really worth all of the time, money and effort that is required? Decades ago, a college education was quite inexpensive and it was almost an automatic ticket to the middle class. But today all of that has changed.
Student Loan Debt Hell: 21 Statistics That Will Make You Think Twice About Going To College, 4/30/11
Students and parents, wake up: your only salvation lies in political engagement and action.
Of all the exploitative systems in the U.S., none is more rapacious than the Education Cartel. Like the proverbial frog that is unaware that it's being boiled because the water temperature rises so gradually, college students and their parents are unable to recall what higher education was like before students were herded into debt-serfdom.
Students: You Are Exploited Debt-Serfs, 4/12/11
Why do we make B students sit through the same classes as their brainy peers? That's like trying to train your cat to do your taxes—a waste of time and money. Wouldn't it make sense to teach them something useful instead?
How to Get a Real Education, 4/9/11
Where curfews and fines have failed, Anaheim officials say GPS devices help keep students in class.
Five times a day — when he wakes up, when he gets to school, after lunch, after school and at 8 p.m. — Ramos is required to enter his code into the machine. If he's not where he's supposed to be, the GPS provides a way to find him.
For chronic truants, a GPS program can help them make the grade, 2/23/11
What we are witnessing, thanks in large part to zero tolerance policies that were intended to make schools safer by discouraging the use of actual drugs and weapons by students, is the inhumane treatment of young people and the criminalization of childish behavior.
Zero Tolerance Policies: Are the Schools Becoming Police States?, 2/17/11
Whenever I suggest “don’t send your kids to college” a lot of vey smart people invariably come back with the response, “well what else should they do.” And this amazes me. I guess its really hard to figure out what people of the ages 18-23 should do during the most vibrant, healthy years of their lives when they grow from being a child to an adult.
So I figure I will help people out by coming up with a list and try to handle the critcisms that will certainly arise even before they arise. I can do this because I have a college degree. So I’ve learned how to think and engage in repartee with other intelligent people.
8 Alternatives to College, 1/30/11
Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling. Watch Video here.
Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling , 1/29/11
The hottest commentary of the year appeared in the Wall Street Journal: Why Chinese Mothers are Superior by Amy Chua. The story has 7,200 comments and counting, and every other outlet including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and everyone else, including tens of thousands of bloggers. The author’s name yields more than one million Google hits.
The thesis was simple. American moms coddle their kids and protect their self-esteem; Chinese mothers, in contrast, work their kids hard, accept nothing less then excellence, and help the kid accomplish real things so that self-esteem is rooted in reality. The response was beyond belief, with mobs of angry mothers claiming that the author was essentially advocating child abuse.
Tiger Moms and the Central Plan
, 1/28/11
A new study provides disturbing answers to questions about how much students actually learn in college — for many, not much — and has inflamed a debate about the value of an American higher education.
Student tracking finds limited learning in college, 1/18/11
I am working with a young man who turned 18 in December. You know what he got for his birthday? A B.A. degree from an accredited college.
His parents paid for tuition: under $15,000. The college awarded him his degree for work performed. He did the whole thing at home.
Is this a better way to go to college? You bet it is.
Are more parents going to figure this out? I hope to persuade them.
Public Education Is Going Down, 1/6/11
In a unanimous vote, the board decided yesterday to allow "corporate brand identity" proliferation throughout the facilities of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The district's policy would allow corporate donors to earmark what programs they'd like their money to support, be they sports, arts or academic
Los Angeles public schools open doors to ‘corporate brand identity’
, 12/16/10
If you’re reading this and under 30, let me be absolutely clear about one indubitable point: your government is going to sacrifice your future in order to pay for its own mistakes from the past.
To give you an example, students in London came out to the streets in droves last Friday to protest the British parliament’s most recent austerity measures which tripled the cap on their university tuition to $15,000.
Young people: get ready to grab your ankles, 12/16/10
The Genocide of the American Mind. Video on the deliberate dumbing down of the American mind.
The Genocide of the American Mind, 12/16/10
In its last session, the Arizona Legislature passed Arizona Revised Statute 15-208, which requires school districts to conduct public meetings to consider the adoption of "structured recess" for students in grades K-5. Running around after lunch wouldn’t count; that’s "unstructured" activity. No, the kiddies must be marched onto the parade ground and made to do jumping jacks, run laps, or some other sweat-breaking activity under the supervision of a teacher. That makes it "structured."
In consulting my copy of the American Heritage Dictionary, I found no definition for the word "recess" that referred to an activity engaged in by children, whether structured or unstructured, during the course of a school day. The most applicable definition I could find was "a temporary cessation of the customary activities of an engagement, occupation, or pursuit."
Leave Them Kids Alone, 11/19/10
Ed Dante is a pseudonym for a writer who lives on the East Coast. Through a literary agent, he approached The Chronicle wanting to tell the story of how he makes a living writing papers for a custom-essay company and to describe the extent of student cheating he has observed. In the course of editing his article, The Chronicle reviewed correspondence Dante had with clients and some of the papers he had been paid to write. In the article published here, some details of the assignment he describes have been altered to protect the identity of the student.
The Shadow Scholar
The man who writes your students' papers tells his story, 11/12/10
Webbrain: A Comprehensive Ontology of Cognitive Liberty. Critical Thinking Removed From Teaching
Webbrain: A Comprehensive Ontology of Cognitive Liberty, 10/31/10
Waiting for Superman focuses on admission lotteries held every year by several popular charter schools in different parts of the country. The movie’s central figures are low-income students seeking to escape badly performing inner city schools in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere. The makers of Waiting for Superman weave the students’ heartbreaking personal dramas into an overall presentation of the flaws of American public education.
When the documentary reaches its conclusion, the cameras are fixed on the faces of the students and their parents as they wait in quiet desperation at the lotteries. More and more numbers are called, and the odds against them grow longer and longer. It feels incredibly wrong to have the future hopes and dreams of children decided in such a fashion.
Hollywood film asks the right questions about what’s wrong with public education, 10/7/10
Ask any kid what Facebook is for and he'll tell you it's there to help him make friends. What else could he think? It's how he *does* make friends. He has no idea the real purpose of the software, and the people coding it, is to monetize his relationships. He isn't even aware of those people, the program, or their purpose.
The kids I celebrated in my early books as "digital natives" capable of seeing through all efforts of big media and marketing have actually proven *less* capable of discerning the integrity of the sources they read and the intentions of the programs they use. If they don't know what the programs they are using are even for, they don't stand a chance to use them effectively. They are less likely to become power users than the used.
Why Johnny Can't Program: A New Medium Requires A New Literacy, 9/30/10
In 1992 Maurice Strong was the Secretary General of the historic United Nations Earth Summit in Rio. In order to ensure the success of the Summit, Strong’s wife, Hanne, held a vigil with the Wisdom-keepers, a group of “global transformationalists.” Through round-the-clock sacred fire, drumbeat, and meditation, the group “held the energy pattern” for the duration of the gathering. As described in an article called Agenda 21 was the primary output of the Summit. It was stated at the time that this ‘blueprint for the 21st century’ would lay the necessary foundation for a subsequent “new global covenant between humanity and the Earth.” [1]
In many areas, government RFID tracker chips will now be monitoring what you throw away, how much you throw away and if you are recycling properly. Rather than spending money on things that will actually get the U.S. economy headed in the right direction, government officials across America seem obsessed with forcing the ”green agenda” down the throats of the American people – even if it means chasing factories, jobs and economic activity out of their communities.
Government Sponsored Terrorism and The Brainwashing of your Children, 9/25/10
Education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education -- the best teachers and schools don't exist where they're needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching.
Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education, 7/3/10
You must understand that school is simply a social-engineering center that wants to dictate the beliefs of young children. Creativity must be halted to ensure that popular belief maintains and that people cannot see through the false facade of bankers, politicians, and many other severe issues
The Shocking Truth About Public Schools
There has been and continues to be an effort by some of the worlds most elite families to establish a global community, with a global government, some call it the new world order.The plan always benefits them at our expense, and they beleive as long as we show no opposition they can retain control. The massive goal is to bring the global populace into harm-ony, but it is an impossibility unless family loyalty is dissolved and individuality is eradicated.
Weaponized Education: Controlling Tomorrow With The Youth of Today 6/4/09
Public education is not meant to be a win-lose, us-versus-them system, nor is it meant to be a recruitment system for the military -- and yet this, it seems, is at the heart of Duncan's legacy in Chicago, and so a reasonable indication of the kind of "reform" he's likely to bring to the country as education secretary.
Tomgram: Andy Kroll, Will Public Education Be Militarized?, 1/18/09
|
