Theory of Education

…The journalism department at Leeds Trinity University has cautioned its instructors against writing in capital letters on classroom paperwork such as syllabi and exam instructions because capital letters can trigger certain students.

Instructors in the department received a memo that stated that uppercase lettering can “scare [students] into failure.”…

…Direct instruction (DI), also described as “clear teaching,” refers to a curricula that systematically teaches discrete concepts step by step towards a clearly established academic goal. Students are required to master foundational concepts before moving on. This kind of teaching lends itself to subjects that can be broken down into concrete steps and systematically taught, such as reading, math, grammar, and spelling, so is a strongest fit overall for grade-schooling. …

…Yes, ideas do have consequences, and the lousy ideas we have been teaching in our colleges and universities for the past several decades are bearing themselves out daily before our eyes.

But there is an answer to this absurdity. It is found in the historical liberal arts and the premise that there are certain moral and intellectual laws tested by time, defended by reason, validated by experience and endowed to us by our Creator.…

A student has requested that his university (The University of Michigan) call him "His Majesty" to protest against a new policy that respects students’ pronouns of choice, including “they” and “ze”.…

A public school in California ordered a 7-year-old boy to stop handing out Bible verses during lunch – and they dispatched a deputy sheriff to the child’s home to enforce the directive.…

A school has reportedly banned whistles from being blown at the end of playtime over fears the sound they make is "too aggressive". … worried children would be "afraid of the noise". … Instead… staff… must instead raise a hand in the air to get the attention of pupils. …

…second-grade teacher forced the boy and others in his class to stick their head in a toy bucket with urine.… teacher, Pamela Franklin, remains in the classroom, though officials claim “appropriate action has been taken to ensure that such conduct does not repeat itself.”

…I always found Jay Leno’s “Jay Walking” segment depressing. He would wander around Los Angeles, conducting man on the street interviews with passers by, most of whom showed complete ignorance about very basic American history questions. I never found it humorous, I found it disheartening, but also context for why things are the way they are.

This video is no different. Who fought in World War II? Who was Hitler?…

…Kindergarten students from PS75, a public school in New York City, recently took part in a class project in which the children were made to create an American flag with the flags of other 22 other nations superimposed over the stripes. Below the flag read the words "We pledge allegiance to an International Flag."…

A Maryland high school punished a student for refusing to profess faith in Islam, gave her failing grades for a series of assignments that violated her Christian beliefs then threatened her father with arrest for complaining, a federal lawsuit charges.… Plaintiffs are Marine Corps veteran John Kevin Wood and his wife, Melissa, who “refuse[d] to allow their teenage daughter to be subjected to Islamic indoctrination and propaganda in her high school world history class.” The lawsuit charges that the defendants’ “curriculum, practices, policies, actions, procedures, and customs promote the Islamic faith by requiring students to profess the five pillars if Islam.” …lawsuit charges that school officials concealed the curriculum by using two separate history textbooks, one of which contained the Islamic teachings and which students were required to leave at school. The other, which did not contain the teachings, was allowed to be taken home… John Kevin Wood discovered the teachings and called to voice his objections, the lawsuit says, but the school imposed a “no trespass” order against him, threatening him with arrest if he came onto school property.…

…Kim Koerber, a former Pearson executive who now works as a sales consultant for National Geographic – another Gates Foundation-funded Common Core publisher – tells the Project Veritas undercover journalist that “conservative voters are afraid of everything,” and proceeds to say why Common Core is important in her view.

She explains that those behind Common Core and the new AP U.S. History framework have attempted to minimize the Constitution and remove Christianity from the core concepts, while they also stress the importance of teaching about Islam… “People who say they want to teach the Constitution, only want to teach the part of the Constitution that they like,” she tells the journalist, who then asks her about the Second Amendment.

“But yet they don’t want to teach all of it,” she replies. “Damn the Second Amendment.”…

…In 2014, however, the DOE issued new guidelines requiring the accommodation of transgendered students. With this ruling it became law that, among other outcomes, any biological male who feels that he is female can avail himself of women’s athletic teams, locker rooms, showers, and/or restrooms, and live in a women’s dorm if he wishes. Oklahoma Wesleyan University and several other Christian colleges therefore sought relief under the existing religious exemption provided in Title IX. Thus the demand from the HRC that the DOE now require Christian schools to “publish comprehensive information about the scope of the exemption they [requested and] received.”

My response in short —I gladly comply and here’s my report…

Greenville, Virginia’s Riverheads High School… Classroom teacher, Cheri Laporte, asked students to practice “calligraphy” by copying the Muslim statement of faith, also known as the shahada, which translates as: “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Recitation of the shahada is a fundamental step in conversion to Islam. … students were not informed of the translation or of the specific meaning… female students were invited to don Muslim apparel and subsequently were photographed in costume by the teacher.… Teacher Laporte was aware of the translation of the text assigned and was unapologetic… previously had circulated a Koran in the classroom, but had intentionally declined to make a Bible available…

Santa Claus is banned. The Pledge of Allegiance is no longer recited. “Harvest festival” has replaced Thanksgiving, and “winter celebrations” substitute for Christmas parties.

New principal Eujin Jaela Kim has given PS 169 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a politically correct scrub-down, to the dismay of teachers and parents.…