Free Republic

A teacher at a public high school in Alabama sent his students home with a summer reading list chock full of conservative authors from which to choose, including Ann Coulter, Ronald Reagan, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, and libertarian John Stossel. But parents became concerned that it leaned too far right and so now, the kids don’t have to read anything over the summer.

Research published today in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General has shown that learning to read by sounding out words (a teaching method known as phonics) has a dramatic impact on the accuracy of reading aloud and comprehension. There has been intense debate concerning how children should be taught to read. Researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London and the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit tested whether learning to read by sounding out words is more effective than focusing on whole-word meanings. In order to assess the effectiveness of using phonics the researchers trained adults to read in a...

A Perth woman was caught on video reading a book while driving.

If you look at how reading is taught in the U.S., children are taught stupidly and then some. Every technique that will make reading difficult and unpleasant is employed. To start with, Sight-words are the worst way to start. Instead of learning letters and the sounds they represent, children memorize graphic designs. Rudolf Flesch said that eleven studies had been conducted; all found that phonics is superior. (So the Education Establishment has always known that if you want a society to have low literacy, you will promote Sight-words. And that is what they relentlessly do.) Children who rely entirely on...

Hollywood will survive but it will not do well if it continues to alienate millions of its paying customers with ideologically-driven drivel. Or with warmed over, unoriginal super hero sequels. #OscarsSoIncompetent I blame the Russians for blackmailing the PriceWaterhouse accountant and forcing him to give the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty, who was then clearly drugged by the Commies to award the Oscar for Best Actor to Donald Trump. Okay, I obviously meant how Beatty/Dunaway originally screwed up by awarding Best Picture to “La La Land” and then had to reverse themselves and re-award the Oscar to the producers of...

I was wondering if there were any freepers here who are fans of the Red Gambit novel series, by Colin Gee. It's a series dealing with World War III, but set shortly after the end of World War II. In it, Stalin basically decides to stab the Western Allies in the back and restart the war with a eye to taking over all of Germany, and perhaps Western Europe as well.To stop this new enemy, the Allies must seek the help of their former German adversaries.

Most of you will probably remember Kathleen Donohoe, an Irish-American writer and New Yorker-and full disclosure, my cousin-from previous posts on this website. This year saw the publication of her debut novel, Ashes Of Fiery Weather. The title is taken from a poem by Wallace Stevens, Our Stars Come From Ireland, which celebrates the importance of place as a facet of memory. It’s a fitting entry point to this book, which explores how geography-both in New York City and Ireland-contours our worldview. Ashes also recognizes the importance of history, both on a collective and individual level, which-as the son of...

"By the People" by Charles Murray is a book looking at the rise of the unelected bureaucracy that has gained power over the years and ways of fighting back against it.

This Business of Exploring, by Roy Chapman Andrews,1935 Putnam's Sons, 288 pages. I first read This Business of Exploring about fifty years ago, when I was attending high school in Hayward, Wisconsin.  The book is a classic and deserves far more attention than it now receives. Libraries are discarding older books for newer ones. My brother found the copy we both had read at a library book sale. He picked it up for a dollar or two. It is in an honored place in his collection. The book covers Roy Chapman Andrews explorations in central Asia and outer Mongolia...

After surgery, I'll be in the hospital for about five days. Not sure how much lucid time I'll have, but I want to take a good book. I like Nonfiction, History, Autobiographies, and of course, America.

In this collection of potential reading, Mark Yon suggests books that you may appreciate whilst considering your vote. It may have escaped your attention that during this week there are elections in the US. Whilst we do not endorse any particular candidate or party at SFFWorld (and the person mainly writing this is non-US anyway!)  but on behalf of SFFWorld we thought we would compile a list of ten SF books that use politics as an important part of their world. Be warned – not all of these are future visions you may like…

Parents with children in elementary school should take a look at this short video. At this moment, tens of thousands of public schools are making millions of little children memorize sight-words. This malpractice will retard their education and cripple their reading ability. This four-minute video explains why. Sight-words are, of course, the problem that Rudolf Flesch wrote about in 1955 in his famous book "Why Johnny can't read." Our Education Establishment is relentless in pretending that phonics is no good and must be replaced by various "modern" methods. These methods had many names over the last 80+ years. But it...

As a writer, editor, mother, and book lover for as long as I can remember, every time I stepped foot in the room called "Library Media Center" at Greenville High School, a little bit of my heart was broken. I began to think of the space as a giant metaphor for everything wrong with education. As a former educator, it gave me insight into where students in rural America are often coming from in terms of literacy. It has always been part of my teaching philosophy that you meet the student where he or she is and you build from...

Herewith, a simple way to understand the destructive failure of most reading instruction in the United States. Consider our eyes. Their purpose is to grasp quickly what objects are: food or predator, useful or irrelevant? This is often a matter of life and death. How do eyes do their job? Eyes twitch, jerk, and flick rapidly from detail to detail in order to identify an object. There are no built-in sequences, no shortcuts. The eyes must twitch – perhaps dozens of times – until a positive identification is made. The technical term for these twitches is a saccade (which rhymes...

Public schools are expert at creating illiteracy. Our K-12 system can usually guarantee that students don't become fluent readers. The system is nearly foolproof. Parents and teachers can make children illiterate or semi-literate simply by following this well-tested seven-step formula: 1) FORGET ABOUT THE ALPHABET. Do not teach the alphabet, the sounds, or the blends. Reading maestro Frank Smith maintained in Reading Without Nonsense (1973): "I have said that children should not be taught the alphabet[.] ... Until children have a good idea of what reading is about, learning the names of letters is largely a nonsense activity."

Good bad or ugly----what are FReepers reading? I always get a lot of good ideas from these threads.

Since the revolt by parents against New York State’s reading and math tests last year, education officials at the state level have been bending over backward to try to show that they are listening to parents’ and educators’ concerns. The tests, which are given to third through eighth graders and will begin this year on April 5, were shortened, time limits were removed, and the results will not be a factor in teacher evaluations, among other changes.

Whether or not a student can read in the early grades is a clear indicator of future success. Schools should not keep sending kids onto the next grade if they lack basic reading skills. This “social promotion” often does more harm than good. As the state Legislature debates House Bill 4822 and strategies to advance early literacy, the Battle Creek Enquirer’s editors have laid down a strong claim. Their March 10 editorial argued against any use of the strategy of third-grade retention (holding back students) — presumably out of a desire to protect kids. To follow their recommended course, though,...

A Reading, MA, man with dozens of prior arrests stood bloodied today before a district court judge facing charges that he held his girlfriend against her will, beat her, cut her hair with a knife, and threatened to “slit her throat” if she altered authorities. Woburn District Court Judge Stacey Fortes ordered Brian English, 30, held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing after prospectors described a harrowing ordeal during which they say English kept his on-again, off-again girlfriend hostage in his home for more than two hours early Saturday morning. English struck her across the face with an open hand,...

Bill Gates is one of Americas greatest business geniuses. But when he turned to education, his magic touch vanished. He is now known as the man who squandered several billion dollars trying to foist Common Core on a combattive public. Indeed, Common Core is so unpopular that its very mention quickly doomed Jeb Bushs presidential campaign. Today, Donald Trump casually promises that he will get rid of it forever; and audiences cheer. Why Bill Gates felt he should promote this thing is a major mystery. Here is a possible theory. When a tycoon decides he wants to help public schools,...