[Guest post by DRJ]

A blogger at the Houston Chronicle’s MomHouston blog is appalled at a letter an elementary school principal wrote and sent to parents of second-graders. The principal claims it was a joke letter sent in error in which he labeled some students lazy or stupid, and complained about accommodations for allergic and other impaired children.

Here’s the letter that I will always remember as the Dead Puppy Letter.

Are you appalled?

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Atlas Shrugs reports an Ohio high school — Perry Local in Massillon, Ohio — is allowing Organizing for America to offer internships [and, based on my reading of the materials posted at the link, the internships could be] for credit as a part of or to supplement the school’s curriculum. Go there for the details.

Assuming this story is true, it’s up to the local school board to decide if this is what they want for their schools. If it is, then local Republicans should copy the OfA attachments and demand that its internships be given equal time …

… except the GOP internships should start 2 hours later in the morning and end at the same time.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Some parents at a Crosby, Texas, school objected to a discussion of sex with their 6th, 7th, and 8th grade daughters at a school assembly in which the speaker was scheduled to deliver a motivational talk. They may have good reasons — apparently the discussion was unplanned, unannounced, and graphic:

“At least two parents complained that [Shirley] Price discussed sex, said Randy Dowdy, director of school sports services. “They said it was graphic,” Dowdy recalled. News reports said the discussion included descriptions of how to perform oral and anal sex. Price, speaking through her pastor, declined to comment, but Pastor S.D. Siverand of the Galilee Missionary Baptist Church denied that she told students how to perform sex acts.

The school sent a letter from Superintendent Mike Bergman home with middle-school children Friday apologizing for the talk, which it described as containing “very sensitive and sexually specific information.”

In an ironic twist, it seems the speaker’s message was that the girls should abstain from sex:

“Dowdy acknowledged that sex was discussed, but said that much of the discussion was initiated by students.

Price, who is a trained counselor, learned that girls were being pressured to have sex and she took the opportunity afforded by the Jan. 15 meeting to exhort the children to abstain from sex, Siverand said.

“Someone took it out of that room and took it out of context,” he said. “It was twisted the wrong way.”

Price told the students oral sex is dangerous, he said. When several students said they did not know what it was, Price declined to explain it, Siverand said.

Other children in the room volunteered explanations, he said.

“Anal sex was never mentioned,” Siverand said.”

Parting thoughts: Modern media and culture tell us today’s sixth graders are as knowledgeable about sex as adults, but not all of them are … and doesn’t it seem odd that the school district spokesman is the “director of school sports services,” especially for a topic like this?

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

“C and L ran off”:

“A spelling prank in a class photo for more than 600 seniors at Cypress Ridge High School led to the suspension of three students.

Some students wore T-shirts spelling out “CLASS” as part of “Class of 2010” in a formal shot.

But in a later informal shot, students representing “C” and “L” moved from the front row, leaving behind a different three-letter word.”

Three students were suspended and five were fined $135 each, presumably the five wearing the letters. I’m not sure whether the “A”, the “S”, the second “S”, or someone else was the third suspended student. Apparently “C” and “L” could not be reached for comment.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Berkeley High School will consider a proposal to eliminate science labs and teachers in order to free up funds for minorities. Why? Because the labs primarily benefit white students and eliminating them will free up resources to help more struggling minority students:

“The proposal to put the science-lab cuts on the table was approved recently by Berkeley High’s School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students who oversee a plan to change the structure of the high school to address Berkeley’s dismal racial achievement gap, where white students are doing far better than the state average while black and Latino students are doing worse.

Paul Gibson, an alternate parent representative on the School Governance Council, said that information presented at council meetings suggests that the science labs were largely classes for white students. He said the decision to consider cutting the labs in order to redirect resources to underperforming students was virtually unanimous.”

Joanne Jacobs explains the targeted science labs are scheduled before and after the regular science classes. Eliminating them would “cut science instruction time by 21 percent in most science classes, 30 percent in AP classes.” In an update, Jacobs notes an education group’s argument that “extra lab time is most important for struggling students.”

Apparently this is part of Berkeley High School’s answer to reduce a performance gap between white and minority students. It seems to me struggling students of every race would be better served by more science labs, not fewer ones, but this will be especially hard on any minority student currently benefiting from a science lab. I guess they and their white counterparts must sacrifice so more Berkeley High students score the same.

In other words, Berkeley may be leveling the educational playing field down.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Breitbart co-founder Scott Baker and GatewayPundit have taken a closer look at a reading list endorsed by President Obama’s “Safe Schools” Czar Kevin Jennings:

“Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings was the founder, and for many years, Executive Director of an organization called the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). GLSEN started essentially as Jennings’ personal project and grew to become the culmination of his life’s work. And he was chosen by President Obama to be the nation’s Safe Schools Czar primarily because he had founded and led GLSEN (scroll for bio).

GLSEN’s stated mission is to empower gay youth in the schools and to stop harassment by other students. It encourages the formation of Gay Student Alliances and condemns the use of hateful words. GLSEN also strives to influence the educational curriculum to include materials which the group believes will increase tolerance of gay students and decrease bullying. To that end, GLSEN maintains a recommended reading list of books that it claims “furthers our mission to ensure safe schools for all students.” In other words, these are the books that GLSEN’s directors think all kids should be reading: gay kids should read them to raise their self-esteem, and straight kids should read them in order to become more aware and tolerant and stop bullying gay kids.”

What did they find in 11 of the books GLSEN recommended for 7th-12th graders?

“What we discovered shocked us. We were flabbergasted. Rendered speechless.

We were unprepared for what we encountered. Book after book after book contained stories and anecdotes that weren’t merely X-rated and pornographic, but which featured explicit descriptions of sex acts between pre-schoolers; stories that seemed to promote and recommend child-adult sexual relationships; stories of public masturbation, anal sex in restrooms, affairs between students and teachers, five-year-olds playing sex games, semen flying through the air. One memoir even praised becoming a prostitute as a way to increase one’s self-esteem. Above all, the books seemed to have less to do with promoting tolerance than with an unabashed attempt to indoctrinate students into a hyper-sexualized worldview.”

Excerpts from the 11 GLSEN-recommended books are at the first link (here) and continued here.

In addition, GatewayPundit notes that, after posting the “Safe Schools” Czar reading list post, his website suffered two cyberattacks that temporarily shut down the server.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

A Santa Barbara CA school administrator, principal and teacher have apologized to parents after a middle school class was provided controversial sexual content without following school district screening protocols:

“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 program was treated as a health curriculum for which no screening was required, rather than a sex ed class that requires pre-screening. The article suggests a teacher unilaterally scheduled the program and sent out a vague notice to parents, and the principal and administration were unaware of the content. There were also political overtones:

“[A parent] said it was ironic that an organization that was billed as teaching tolerance uses what she described as “intimidation” in the workshop, including criticizing parents who voted for Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that passed in California in November 2008 that read: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

“One kid asked this authority figure from Just Communities, what about Proposition 8?” Cleary said. “And apparently it was asked, well, whose parents voted for yes or no? And those who voted yes, [they are] prejudiced and discriminatory.”

As a parent, I know how hard it is to stay on top of everything our children are taught in school. There isn’t time to hear everything that happens during the day, and not all children are comfortable sharing stories about topics like this. Parents have a role to play but so do teachers and school administrators. Based on this article, the school — and possibly just the teacher — was the problem here.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

What is the point of public education? Is it to learn basic skills like the old-fashioned “3 R’s” — reading, writing, arithmetic — or is it to learn how to get along with people, to be tolerant of different backgrounds and cultures, and open to other beliefs?

That seems to be the issue in a New Hampshire case involving Amanda, a 10-year-old girl who is being home-schooled by her mother and is described as “well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising and intellectually at or superior to grade level.”

However, Amanda’s divorced father and a local judge think she needs a public education — and the judge seems to think Amanda is being brainwashed by religion:

“In a court order issued in the case, the local court reasoned that the girl’s “vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view.”

Got that? It sounds like the more articulate and vigorous Amanda is in expressing her opinions, the more the judge believes she needs public education. However, the father’s attorney says the case is about Amanda getting along with other people and not about her religion:

“Kurowski’s attorney, Elizabeth Donovan, said the ruling was based on the girl’s isolated learning environment, not on her mother’s religion. She said the girl’s home schooling consists of “sitting in the corner of her mother’s bedroom,” where she receives her lessons on a computer screen.

Kurowski “is concerned because of the isolation that is borne of that and the lack of exposure to the broader culture at large,” Donovan said. “People of different heritage, people of different culture, tolerance, group problem-solving, making friends, losing friends — all of the things that come with a public school education.”

The New Hampshire Supreme Court has agreed to hear Amanda’s case but it’s hard to view it as an anomaly given a recent story about the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities College of Education and Human Development. Through its “Race, Culture, Class, and Gender Task Group,” the College plans to enforce what F.I.R.E. calls a “political litmus test for future teachers” and students based on their predispositions, beliefs, and “cultural competence.” The educators at U-Minn believe “both academic preparation and particular dispositions or professional commitments are needed for effective teaching.”

That sounds a lot like what the New Hampshire judge thinks Amanda should be learning in school.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

The way things used to be — We celebrated Columbus Day by making models of his ships, the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, and reciting poems about discovery. We were the kids at Art Linkletter’s House Party:

Here’s another Kids Say the Darndest Things video if you want a trip down memory lane.

The way things are today — Columbus Day is when some kids learn about genocide and schools teach the darker side of Christopher Columbus, because one man’s hero is another man’s villain:

“[Kindergarten teacher Jeffrey] Kolowith’s students learn about the explorer’s significance — though they also come away with a more nuanced picture of Columbus than the noble discoverer often portrayed in pop culture and legend.

I talk about the situation where he didn’t even realize where he was,” Kolowith said. “And we talked about how he was very, very mean, very bossy.” Columbus’ stature in U.S. classrooms has declined somewhat through the years, and many districts will not observe his namesake holiday on Monday. Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations.”

A bossy ship’s captain? Imagine that.

I’m glad I live in today’s nuanced world but it’s nice to visit Art Linkletter’s world, especially on Columbus Day.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

President Obama and his Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, have a plan to fix K-12 education — more school:

“Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?

Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.

“Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,” Duncan told the AP. “I want to just level the playing field.”

While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it’s not true they all spend more time in school.

Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).”

The article suggests this may be aimed at poorer kids:

“Summer is a crucial time for kids, especially poorer kids, because poverty is linked to problems that interfere with learning, such as hunger and less involvement by their parents.

That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school, said Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University, home of the National Center for Summer Learning.

Disadvantaged kids, on the whole, make no progress in the summer, Alexander said. Some studies suggest they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.”

Who needs parents when you have government?

“Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago’s schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city’s South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.

“Those hours from 3 o’clock to 7 o’clock are times of high anxiety for parents,” Duncan said. “They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table.”

Never let a crisis go to waste.

– DRJ

UPDATE — David Frum gets this one right:

“If President Obama wishes to play school superintendent, here’s an issue that will make much more of a difference to the academic performance of America’s schoolchildren: heed the scientific research about teenagers’ sleep patterns and reverse the crazy trend towards an earlier and earlier start of the school day. The adolescent brain is not operating at 7:20 am, much less at the 6 am wakeup call for 7:20 arrival. It’s not enough for the kids to do their homework. They also have to remember to bring it back to school the following day!”

[Guest post by DRJ]

I didn’t realize the New Jersey schoolchildren who sang praises to President Obama performed two pro-Obama songs at a school assembly:

“The root of the controversy was in February, back when gripes about freshly inaugurated President Barack Obama were still mostly hushed.

That month, a group of smiley and fidgety students at B. Bernice Young School sang a medley of two short songs at an assembly praising the president. The first song begins, “Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama/He said that all must lend a hand/To make this country strong again.”

The second one was set to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and included the refrain, “Hooray, Mr. President.”

While the performance is seven months old, the widespread outrage is new and came about because of the discovery of a YouTube video of the performance.”

I thought this was a classroom activity but apparently what’s been posted was a rehearsal for a school-wide performance.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

You’ve probably already seen this video of a Burlington, New Jersey, second grade class singing praises to Barack Obama: Click here for video.

Fox News reports the Commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Education has ordered the superintendent to review this incident. However, Christopher Manno, identified in reports as the school superintendent, has already said taping the class was out of order but he did not comment on whether the lesson was approved:

“The recording and distribution of the class activity were unauthorized,” he wrote in a note to parents and the media.

Nevertheless, I hope the parents at this school and the citizens of Burlington get answers to these and other questions:

Why a schoolteacher or school administrators would permit political messages to be taught to second graders, and what are the guidelines for doing so?

Whether Charisse Carney-Nunes, an activist and author of the children’s book “I Am Barack Obama,” was present when this was taped and, if so, was she involved in this song and/or in presenting other material from her book?

Did this occur in February during Black History Month as the school apparently claims, or in June as part of a Father’s Day tribute to President Obama as Carney-Nunes said?

Has Carney-Nunes given other presentations about Obama at this or other schools?

The article notes tensions are high at the elementary school and it was temporarily placed on lockdown after the principal received death threats.

– DRJ