Free Republic

Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s wife has moved to Chicago so the couple’s two daughters can attend the University of Chicago Lab School, arguably the most elite private school in Chicago — and certainly among the most expensive. Duncan has led the Department of Education since the outset of President Barack Obama’s administration. He will shuttle between Washington and Chicago for the remainder of Obama’s second term, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. The former chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools has been a forceful cheerleader for the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a set of K-12 math and language arts curriculum...

With all of the ridiculous new regulations, coddling, and societal mores that seem to be the norm these days, it’s a miracle those of us over 30 survived our childhoods. Here’s the problem with all of this babying: it creates a society of weenies. There won’t be more more rebels because this generation has been frightened into submission and apathy through a deliberately orchestrated culture of fear. No one will have faced adventure and lived to greatly embroider the story. Kids are brainwashed – yes, brainwashed – into believing that the mere thought of a gun means you’re a psychotic...

With all of the ridiculous new regulations, coddling, and societal mores that seem to be the norm these days, it’s a miracle those of us over 30 survived our childhoods. Teach your children to be independent this summer. We didn’t get trophies just for showing up. We were forced, yes, forced – to do actual work and no one called protective services. And we gained something from all of this. Our independence. Do you really think that children who are terrified by someone pointing his finger and saying “bang” are going to lead the revolution against tyranny? No, they will...

I'm not sure who came up with the name "free range children." The only thing I ever knew that was "free range" until recently was chicken, not children. Now it's the term used for children who are allowed to have a degree of independence by their parents. When I was a child, we were all "free range." Our parents allowed us more and more independence the older we got based on how well we handled the responsibility. I was "free range" by the time I was three years old – not exactly my parents' choice, though.

If you love your child, and I know you do, it’s time to say “bye bye” to the social pacifier that is free universal preschool. I understand. It’s tempting. Whether you’re a destitute single mother or an affluent married father, you’re a parent. And parents often feel wiped out. Especially in this economy. Sure, Michelle Obama has christened this the era of a “huge recovery,” but she’s not in the trenches like you—juggling the stress of being a provider and a caregiver for a 4-year-old. No matter how vulnerable you feel when you hear a certain Disney sing-a-long on repeat,...

Faced with an increasingly segregated education system, Dutch immigrant children have taken to the streets of their ethnically mixed Amsterdam neighbourhood seeking "white" pupils to attend their schools and help their integration. Around 100 schoolchildren -- Arabs, Turks, Africans, Moroccans -- accompanied by their parents and teachers, wore provocative dazzling white T-shirts emblazoned with "Is this white enough for you?". Dutch native Annelies, 10, and immigrants' daughter Aminata, 11, have been friends since kindergarten and are also wearing the shirts, which have "All children have the right to integrate" written on the back. They "want more white children in the...

Chris Rock was interviewed by Hadley Freeman at The Guardian last week, where he spoke on everything from his divorce, to new Daily Show host Trevor Noah, and of course, racism. Rock seems to think that police violence is just a part of everyday life for young black men, and that “white kids” are never victims of police brutality: “It’s not that it’s gotten worse, it’s just that it’s part of the 24-hour news cycle. What’s weird is that it never happens to white kids. There’s no evidence that white youngsters are any less belligerent, you know? We can go

Parenting can be tough. Really tough, actually. Kids are constant time and money sucks, but hey, you try your best. Unless, of course, you're one of these parents. Maybe these are the result of negligence. Maybe they're lifehacks that went too far. Maybe they're the result of sleep deprivation and caffeine deficiency. I don't know. Regardless, here's to every parent who's ever said "ah, screw it!"

A growing body of research highlights the importance of how kids feel and how they manage those feelings, or not. Emotions drive attention, learning, memory, and decision-making. They affect relationships and psychological well-being. Learning to handle emotions well is especially important in adolescence, a time when neural networks are being sculpted that will influence behavior patterns for life.

Some things in life are just too good to handle. Quincy Kroner had that exact feeling on March 13 when he met his local heroes -- the neighborhood garbage men, Mark Davis and Eddie Washington. The Cincinnati 2-year-old has been fascinated by the garbage truck “since about the age he could walk,” the toddler’s father, Ollie Kroner, told The Huffington Post in an email. But this was the first time he met the garbage men in person, and it was all too much for him -- resulting in the adorably priceless photo above. “He was all smiles as the garbage...

RANT OF THE DAY ! The link consist of two Facebook videos: Kathleen Smith's experience with unruly toddler(2 or 3) in a Tomball, Texas HEB supermarket. She took some heat on Facebook. Then issued her unapology.

People receiving food stamps have to pass drug tests or meet work requirements to receive taxpayer dollars, Sanchez reasoned, so it’s only fair that those “lucky” enough to inherit wealth should have to do something to earn it or, in this case, pay a tax.

UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State’s THON made a statement. Again. The 2015 Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, affectionately known as THON, was held this past weekend at the Bryce Jordan Center on the campus of Penn State University. After 46 hours of dancing, it was revealed that the organization raised $13,026,653.23 during the past year. THON is a year-long fundraising campaign for the fight against pediatric cancer. Money raised is donated to the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey. This marks the first time since 2004 that THON raised less money than the previous year. Last...

the Islamic State group also uses children as a terror-funding mechanism by selling them into slavery. Those who are turned into child soldiers are deemed “cubs of the caliphate.” “Children of minorities have been captured in places where the so-called ISIL has its strength, have been sold in market with tags, price tags on them, have been sold as slaves,”

Earlier this week, Matt Molinari and his friend Eric Schnepf, both seniors in High School, were going door-to-door advertising their snow shoveling services in advance of the storm. School was out, and instead of sitting inside and playing XBOX, these two young entrepreneurs felt the fire of enterprise and decided to turn their down time into an actual dime. However, Molinari and Schnepf apparently didn’t realize that in order to make a dime you have to pay a quarter — to the state. When the two boys were out trying to rustle up some business during what they saw as...

Teacher pensions are a huge and growing crisis waiting to explode without major reforms, warns a new report released Tuesday by an educational think tank.“Do the math on teacher pensions and it just doesn’t add up,” argues the National Council on Teacher Quality in its report, Doing the Math on Teacher Pensions. Total unfunded teacher pension liabilities in 2014 were a whopping $499 billion dollars, the group found. That amount is surging rapidly; in 2012, the total was just $394 billion, meaning that pension debt is growing by over $50 billion a year.Some states are in a particularly huge hole....

On a recent Saturday afternoon, a 10-year old Maryland boy named Rafi and his 6-year old sister, Dvora, walked home by themselves from a playground about a mile away from their suburban house. They made it about halfway home when the police picked them up. You’ve heard these stories before, about what happens when kids in paranoid, hyperprotective America go to and from playgrounds alone. I bet you can guess the sequence of events preceding and after: Someone saw the kids walking without an adult and called the police. The police tracked down the kids and drove them home. The...

That children have a right to grow up with their biological mother and father should be uncontroversial, but unfortunately it isn’t. The International Children’s Rights Institute was recently founded in order to defend this important right. Below are three practices which it thinks often involve gross and depressingly-common violations of children’s rights.

A 13-year-old boy who had been missing for four years was found by police hidden behind a false wall in a home in Jonesboro, Georgia.... Five people at the home were arrested, including the boy's father and stepmother. They have been charged with false imprisonment, cruelty to children and obstruction, the Journal-Constitution reported. The boy's mother, who lives out of state, was traveling to Georgia to be reunited with her son, police said.

(CNN) -- Witnesses are crediting a family's German shepherd with shielding its owners from gunfire in an Atlanta road-rage incident (video also)