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A Christian teacher fears she may never work again after she was sacked for offering to pray for a sick pupil. Olive Jones, 54, said she had been made to feel like a criminal, and claimed that Christians were being persecuted due to 'political correctness'. Mrs Jones, who taught children not well enough to attend school, said that after she raised the topic of prayer during a visit to a 12-year-old's house, the girl's mother lodged a complaint. Just hours later, said Mrs Jones, her boss told her she would no longer be working for Oak Hill Short Stay School...

Found this on a web site I frequent.

One eight-year-old in Taunton just learned a valuable lesson in political correctness, and a school district may wind up learning a little something about free speech, religious expression, and not asking questions to which one does not want to hear the answers. An elementary school student was asked to draw something that reminded him of Christmas. When he drew a picture of Jesus on a crucifix, the teacher and the administration recoiled in horror at the “violent image.” No, really: An eight year old elementary school student in Taunton was sent home from school and required to undergo a psychological...

They go out of their way to not mention Jesus or any reference to Christmas being a Christian holiday and then they want the kids to sing "Allah is god." The height of liberal PC insanity..... A battle over religion is brewing in central Indiana after a public school wanted second graders to sing a song declaring, “Allah is God.” The phrase was removed just before the performance after a national conservative group launched a protest. The principal of Lantern Road Elementary School in Fishers, IN, said they were trying to teach inclusiveness through their holiday production. It included references...

An elementary school in Indiana reportedly removed a mention of Allah in its holiday show after protests from a national conservative Christian group. Lantern Road Elementary Principal Danielle Thompson told IndyStar.com that school officials in Fishers, Ind., attempted to teach inclusiveness through the second-grade program that included portions on Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Las Posadas and Kwanzaa. "It went off last night without a hitch," Thompson told the Web site. "Several families thought it was a nice program."

Hollywood celebrities and education gurus have teamed together to distribute to schools across the country a dramatic new curriculum that casts American history as an epic march of victims seeking to shrug off the shackles of the warmongering, racist, capitalist, imperialist United States. Celebs to kids: America stinks! '55 rich white men drafted Constitution to protect their class – slaveholders'Hollywood celebrities and education gurus have teamed together to distribute to schools across the country a dramatic new curriculum that casts American history as an epic march of victims seeking to shrug off the shackles of the warmongering, racist, capitalist,...

Phonics Makes a Cameo Malcolm A. Kline, December 14, 2009 A surprisingly positive development in the textbook publishing world leads us to believe that hoped-for change may actually arrive some day. “In four major publishers’ new 1st grade Reading programs for Cali­fornia and Texas, a long-overdue national pro-phonics rout of anti-phonics pedagogy is at last in full cry,” Educational Analysts of Longview, Texas, report in the group’s latest newsletter. “Our reviews of these two submis­sions find the Texas editions clearly stronger on decoda­bility than their Cali­fornia analogs, with some flaws remaining in each.”...

You won't believe how 'gross' topics got for teenage students Jennings was co-chairman of committee that set up statewide program A pro-family organization is accusing President Obama's Office of Safe Schools chief, Kevin Jennings, of knowing in advance the "gross and disgusting" subjects that would be covered at a seminar on sex for teenagers. There have been multiple reports about a Massachusetts school seminar 10 years ago sponsored by the group Jennings founded, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, that included instructors providing explicit direction on homosexual activities, such as "fisting." The subject has been raised as a direct challenge...

AP - Following months of heated debate, the Alameda Board of Education has voted to phase out the elementary school curriculum it adopted in May to prevent anti-gay bullying. Under the duress of a lawsuit and threats of recall, the Alameda Board of Education has voted to phase out an elementary school curriculum it adopted in May to prevent anti-gay bullying. The so-called Lesson 9, which had become an opposition centerpiece in a national anti-gay marriage campaign, will be replaced by a more generic anti-bullying message. But the board's action Tuesday night did little to ease the tension between gay...

Sean Hannity & Michelle Malkin Break Media Silence on Fistgate & Obama’s Dangerous Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings (Video) Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 8:58 PM Jim Hoft Sean Hannity and Michelle Malkin broke the media silence on Fistgate, GLSEN and Obama’s deranged Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings. Hannity says he won’t stop talking about Kevin Jennings until he is fired.

Children are uniquely malleable beings, readily convinced of magically colorful tales – Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are the first that come to mind. This innocence is beautiful, but it is a quality that can easily fall victim to radically foreign ideas if taught consistently and pervasively at an early age. One need only look at the birth of fascism or socialism to see a recipe for how radical ideas become ubiquitous among a nation’s youth. Enter Howard Zinn – an author, professor and American historian – who, with the help of Hollywood and the History Channel, intends to...

A judge has attacked parents, suggesting they are bigots for seeking to opt-out their elementary-age children from a mandatory controversial pro-homosexual curriculum, according to a non-profit law firm.

Almost all of us agree that it's important to teach students the history of the American Revolution, and the basic principles that guided it. Yet the vast majority of Americans flunked a test on the basic facts surrounding that time period, and the liberties it spawned, a new survey finds. The results were unveiled in a poll conducted by the American Revolution Center, a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote public understanding of those historical events and their legacy. The organization conducted a nationwide poll of adults 18 and older, which had a four percent margin of error. The survey...

Scott Baker from Breitbart-TV.com and Co-Host of ‘The B-Cast‘ submitted this shocking report today on Obama’s deviant Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings. —-Warning on Content—– I was recently approached by a team of independent researchers that I have known for some time and have come to trust. They prepared this report involving ‘Safe Schools Czar’ Kevin Jennings and the organization he founded, GLSEN, and asked that I find a way to help draw attention to what they uncovered. Knowing that Gateway Pundit has followed Kevin Jennings since his appointment, as we have on The B-Cast (here, here, and here), and...

A judge today slammed parents as “bigots” for seeking to excuse their elementary-age children from controversial pro-homosexual curriculum. The parents are being represented in court by Pacific Justice Institute. PJI Chief Counsel Kevin Snider argued in Alameda Superior Court today on behalf of parents seeking to enforce a provision of the California Education Code that gives parents the right to opt their kids out of health education. Alameda Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch lambasted the parents, repeatedly insinuating that they are bigots and insisting there can be no homosexual indoctrination because people are born that way. The judge equated a...

The principal and a teacher at Goleta Valley Junior High School in Santa Barbara County, California are apologizing to parents for not following school district policy relating to a pro-homosexual workshop given to 8th grade students in a leadership class at the school. The controversial workshop was presented by “Just Communities Central Coast” in three, 45-minute sessions over three days. It included handouts defining homosexual terminology, including queer and transgender, and listed “heterosexism” as “oppression that ‘pushes down’ people who are LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and questioning) and ‘pushes up’ people who are straight.” The handout defines sexual orientation...

Milwaukee Public Schools' health officials want to make condoms freely available to students in many of the district's high schools, as part of an effort to combat the health risks that sexually transmitted infections and other communicable diseases pose to young people. If the proposal wins the support of the School Board, the new policy could take effect as early as next school year, making MPS one of a few districts in the nation that provide contraception to students. Kathleen Murphy, the district's health coordinator, said that data continues to show that middle and high school students are engaging in...

Redefining Public Education Bethany Stotts, December 2, 2009 In the November Education Outlook issued by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), senior fellow Frederick Hess issues an ambitious set of K-12 educational reforms which, he argues, would modernize teacher hiring practices and public education. “Ultimately, the goal is to rethink the teacher challenges of the 21st century,” writes Hess. “While we should recognize that institutions change slowly and celebrate incremental advances, we should not allow that to obscure the goal: to recruit the most promising talent and then foster a more flexible, rewarding, and performance-focused profession,” he later adds. In the...

FOX News Reporting investigated the $10 billion dollar-a-year textbook industry and how the drive to be politically correct might be taking over American schools. Host Tucker Carlson, asked experts, teachers, publishers and parents the same question: "Do you know what is inside your children's textbooks?" From kindergarten through college, we found staggering errors and omissions which may be pushing agendas, hidden and otherwise. We spoke to the author of “The Language Police,” education historian Diane Ravitch, who said textbook publishers censor images or words they deem to be controversial in children’s textbooks. She told us that publishers pander to special...

Whether sex education for teenagers should focus on abstinence from sexual activity or fully address the use of contraceptives has emerged as a topic in the debate in Congress over a health-care overhaul. Advocates of differing approaches to sex education are watching whether Congress will come down on the side of paying for what are widely called “abstinence-only programs,” which President Barack Obama proposed eliminating in his fiscal 2010 budget, or of financing only what are known as “comprehensive” programs. [snip] The health-care bill the U.S. House of Representatives passed this month doesn’t authorize any funding for abstinence-only programs. Rather,...

Condoms may make for safe sex, but a city teacher says they made for unsafe conditions at a Manhattan high school. Karen Hollander is suing the Department of Education over injuries she says she suffered following a nasty spill on garbage and "slippery foreign substances" that included condoms discarded by students at the High School of Art & Design.

LEWISTON — A national Muslim civil rights organization has filed a formal request with the Lewiston School Department to allow a middle school student to pray on school property. The group also wants Lewiston to modify existing policy and provide "constitutionally protected religious accommodation," such as a designated prayer room. The group has also requested the school department institute diversity training for school staff, and to ensure the middle-schooler won't face retaliation because of her request to pray at the Lewiston Middle School. According to the Washington, D.C.,-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, seventh-grader Nasra Aden had been routinely "praying discreetly...

Three years ago, the Washington state association that regulates fair play in high school athletics faced an unusual query from administrators: what should they do about four boys who wanted to participate on girls' teams. One had his eye on volleyball, two wanted to be cheerleaders and a fourth did not specify his area of interest. After consultation, it developed a novel policy that says all students should be able to participate in sports "in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student's records." Upon a student's request, the idea is...

High school student Chad Farnan, 17, speaks at a campaign fundraiser for Shawn Black, a GOP candidate for the 70th Assembly District, earlier this month. The legal group that represents Farnan, Advocates for Faith & Freedom, has been ordered to pay $19,688 in legal fees. SANTA ANA – In a legal twist that challenges the notion of what a prevailing party is, a federal court clerk on Friday awarded $19,688 in court-related fees to the attorneys who represented high school teacher James Corbett, sued two years ago for making anti-Christian comments in class. Milli Borgarding, the deputy in charge of...

The Obama administration’s safe schools czar, Kevin Jennings, has accused the Baptists, the Boy Scouts and sports fans of anti-gay bias, and he has advocated a special high school for gay teens as well as gay-straight alliance clubs for every high school in America. Jennings, who was a prominent homosexual activist before being named director of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education, also has called for kindergarteners to be taught to respect all sexual orientations, while insisting that “ex-gay messages” and “Christian values” are ‘misused to isolate or denigrate lesbian, gay, bisexual...

Fifty-three Republican congressmen yesterday demanded that President Obama fire his embattled "safe schools czar," Kevin Jennings. Mr. Jennings' bizarre sexual agenda for American grade schools is one reason the president should dump this dangerous radical. Mr. Jennings wrote the foreword to a 1998 book titled, "Queering Elementary Education." The book he endorsed was a collection of essays by different authors who supported teaching young children about homosexuality. Mr. Jennings' foreword explains why he thinks it is important to start educating children about homosexuality as early as activist-educators can get away with doing so. "Ask any elementary-school teachers you know and...

Administrative Overload by: Allie Winegar Duzett, October 01, 2009 William Ouchi, Eric Nadelstern, and Chester E. Finn, Jr. were the panelists at an American Enterprise Institute event on September 23, 2009. The event, entitled Total Student Load: The Secret to Boosting School Performance?, and William Ouchi’s recent book, The Secret of TSL, both pose solutions to the challenges currently faced by the nation’s public school systems. To William Ouchi, the first speaker, the answer lies in what he terms “TSL,” or “Total Student Load.” This term refers to the number of students each teacher must know and interact with. Ouchi...

Despite the odds, I've been selected for the local middle school's "school improvement council." What approach to take?

Did Ed post this one already? I’m honestly starting to lose count of how many of these there are. No “mmm mmm mmm” in this one or creepy substitutions of The One for Jesus, but kudos to the teacher who came up with the “change has come” drone. Reminds me of “one of us, one of us.” I already said everything I had to say on this subject in this post, so check that out if you missed it the first time. Fun fact: According to the YouTube description, this was taped at a PTA meeting. Presumably the parents were...

It began last year in earnest. But, like a virus far worse than H1N1, it is beginning to spread like wildfire amongst the public school indoctrinators formerly known as "teachers." The Obama power grab — supported by his adoring adherents — has just about reached the most monumental proportion of all time. And Dictator-in-Chief Obama may have finally reached the apex of his desires; that of replacing God with himself. Recently, at New Jersey's B. Bernice Youngs Elementary School, not only were second grade students forced to sing a song of praise to Obama (the parents were not notified that...

First published in 1930 in the second and third editions of V. I. Lenin’s Collected Works, Vol. XVI. Published according to the manuscript. Our Ministry of Public (forgive the expression) “Education” boasts inordinately of the particularly rapid growth of its expenditure. In the explanatory note to the 1913 budget by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance we find a summary of the estimates of the Ministry of Public (so-called) Education for the post-revolutionary years. These estimates have increased from 46,000,000 rubles in 1907 to 137,000,000 in 1913. A tremendous growth—almost trebled in something like six years! But our...

Elusive PreK Successes by: Bethany Stotts, September 16, 2009 Some have offered up universal pre-kindgergarten as a solution for America’s educational woes, but CATO scholar Adam Schaeffer argues that the educational “benefits” of government-sponsored pre-k would be transitory at best. “The evidence suggests that the benefits of preschool are limited primarily to low-income children and are likely transitory,” argued Schaeffer in an August CATO Policy Analysis entitled, “The Poverty of Preschool Promises.” In the analysis, Schaeffer examined the three main studies which pre-k supporters cite as evidence that pre-kindergarten provides long-term academic benefits: “the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project, the Carolina...

A federal education grant will soon be used to introduce Arabic language and culture into Missoula high schools. The five-year, $764,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education comes to Missoula schools with the help of University of Montana.

The friendship between teacher and student blossomed into an infatuation on a European high school trip in March 2006. But Leslie Merlino, then 36, knew she was headed for career-ending danger. Later, she stroked the girl's hair and began sending emails. That would lead to an assault charge and a court order to stay away from the student. From January to September 2007, they exchanged sexually explicit emails and talked frequently on the phone and in person. They held hands during strolls and met secretly in coffee shops. They kissed and fondled each other in their more private moments. By...

Muslims groups here are pressing city officials to close public schools on two of the faith's holiest days, just as schools do for major Jewish and Christian holidays. But the groups have yet to persuade the man in charge of New York City schools, Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Muslim groups have asked the city to cancel classes on Eid Ul-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and Eid Ul-Adha, which marks the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. New York is one of many public-school systems now struggling with appropriate ways to recognize religious holidays for a diverse population. An...

President Obama's choice to monitor school safety once boasted that he introduced homosexual advocacy into the school system in Massachusetts by manipulating the message presented to lawmakers. The revelations about Kevin Jennings, who was named assistant deputy secretary for the office of Safe & Drug Free Schools in the U.S. Department of Education, come just as several of Obama's "czars" have come under scrutiny for their actions, opinions and affiliations. Environmental adviser Van Jones resigned last weekend after revelations of his links to communism and his advocacy for the movement that contends the U.S. government conspired to allow or cause...

Three-quarters of teachers in Britain's schools believe they should warn pupils about the dangers of patriotism - which some regard as a form of 'brainwashing', researchers have found. A nationwide study found the majority of teachers felt they should not be promoting the subject at all in the classroom, with some preferring to instruct their pupils in the benefits of 'universal brotherhood'. And even those who felt positively about patriotism felt the need to qualify and tone down their support, stressing that they disliked 'jingoistic flag-waving'. The findings are a blow for the Government after Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke...

A new school year is under way, but we already can grade the condition of American education. Let's just say no ``honor student'' bumper stickers will be necessary. The typical child entering first grade this year can expect taxpayers to spend more than $100,000 on his or her education through high school. (The Department of Education reports the average annual per-pupil expenditure in U.S. public schools is now more than $10,000.) But the data show that, all too often, our six-figure investment in every child's future doesn't guarantee a quality education. A recent national test of eighth-grade students found that...

Bluegrass Blues by: Sarah Carlsruh, September 10, 2009 It turns out that not many parents in the Bluegrass state want their children to attend public school. Paul DiPerna, author of School Choice Survey in the State: Kentucky’s Opinion on K-12 Education and School Choice, found that people are not happy with the current public school system. This August 2009 study is of Kentucky voters’ opinions on their state’s school system. Strategic Vision, a public relations agency, conducted this survey by making live phone calls to a random sample of 1,200 likely Kentucky voters. Its screening questions were such as to...

Holly Hackett (name changed to protect her privacy), a member of HSLDA in northern West Virginia, homeschooled her daughter several years ago. Although her daughter made enough progress to satisfy state law, a local official pressured her into putting her daughter back into public school. After several years in public school, and with middle school looming, Holly decided to homeschool her daughter again. She filed a proper notice of intent. But she received a letter from the local superintendent saying: “As you will recall, I denied your homeschooling request for the 2005–2006 school year due to the fact that your...

Prior to his nationally broadcast speech to students on Tuesday, President Barack Obama made a pitch for health care reform in a discussion with 40 freshmen at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va. Although the president avoided controversial topics in his speech, he did promote health care reform in a face-to-face discussion at Wakefield High School. Asked by a student how he stays motivated to do his job, Obama replied that his staff gives him 10 letters every day from “ordinary folks.” “Some of the stories are really depressing,” Obama told the 40 freshman, who were chosen to meet with...

With states across the country facing huge budget deficits and potential devastating cuts to services, the time has come to start charging parents tuition for their children’s public school education. If parents of the 47 million students in the United States who attend kindergarten through 12th grade were billed $360 per child per year — that’s $2 a day for each of the 180 days of instruction — nearly $17 billion would be generated. Can half of America’s parents afford $360 per year for each of their children? For the price of a cup of coffee, a child can get...

Note: Videos included. THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3RD, 2009 AT 3:37 PM "My Education, My Future" Posted by Jesse Lee At noon on Tuesday, September 8th the President will be welcoming America’s students back to school – after all, sometimes they need a little extra motivation after a glorious summer. The President has spoken often about the responsibility parents have for their children and their education, but in this message he’ll urge students to take personal responsibility for their own education, to set goals, and to not only stay in school but make the most of...

Mother upset after 8-year-old daughter is left at wrong bus stop LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- What would you do if your child was forced to get off a school bus at the wrong stop? That is the situation one Las Cruces mother had to grapple with Wednesday, when her 8-year-old daughter was let off on a busy street nearly half a mile from her usual stop. Eight-year-old Destiny Maciel got off the bus at Valley and Tashiro, a busy intersection where there is no place to stop and ask for directions. Destiny's mother Amanda said that didn't stop a bus...

In a move suggestive of the Pyongyang public school system, the U.S. Department of Education recommended that before the speech students collectively brainstorm questions like, "Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us?" Classrooms are to be festooned with "notable quotes excerpted (and posted in large print on board) from President Obama's speeches about education," presumably alongside benevolent-looking images of the dear leader.

A groundswell of parent opposition to President Barack Obama's speech next week to students on the importance of education has forced many North Texas school districts to question whether to air it live in classrooms. Obama announced the speech weeks ago, but opposition and concerns spread rapidly Wednesday morning through conservative social networking Web sites and radio talk shows. By midday, local school districts say, they were inundated with hundreds of phone calls from parents urging them to not show Obama's speech at school. Some parents threatened to keep their children home from school if the video was aired. "We...

What more can be said

The White House has announced that on September 8, President Obama is going to address the nation’s schoolchildren on the importance of education. As explained in an open letter by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, “The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.”Presumably, the president is going to advocate for self-discipline and reject excuses, a message that Mr. Obama, as the nation’s first black president, can deliver powerfully and well—especially to black youths—as he has demonstrated repeatedly in the past few years.So far, so good. Things get a bit dicier if we contemplate the president addressing what will be a...

Compared with other students, homeschoolers scored higher than the national average on this year’s ACT, a national standardized test used to gauge educational development and college readiness. Like the SAT, ACT scores are used in the college admissions process to evaluate applicants. Virtually all colleges accept either test, Ed Colby, spokesman for the ACT, told CNSNews.com. Scores are based on the 1.48 million students who graduated in 2009, Colby said. Among those students were 11,535 homeschoolers, he said. Homeschoolers are further prepared for college because they must take initiative to accomplish projects, Slatter said.