Tag Archives: Educational Freedom

Edmonton teacher who gave 0s for unsubmitted work fired

open quoteAn Edmonton teacher who refused to go along with his school’s “no-zero” policy has been fired.

Lynden Dorval, a physics teacher at Ross Sheppard High School, was suspended in May for awarding zeros for work that wasn’t handed in or tests not taken, even though it went against the school’s policy of not awarding zeros.

Dorval found out Friday afternoon that he’s been fired.

“I’m not bitter, a little bit angry,” he said. “I was particularly upset with the language in the termination letter.”

In the letter, superintendent Edgar Schmidt described Dorval’s behaviour leading up to his suspension as “repeatedly insubordinate, unprofessional, and in disregard of lawful orders made by the principal.”

“I expected that you would promise to reform your behaviour and apologize to the principal,” he wrote.close quote (Read more)

School Board Denies Military Veteran Counter-Recruiters

open quoteDespite appeals court decisions that make it clear that schools must allow counter-recruiters in if they allow military recruiters, the Keene school board decided not to allow veterans to set up a counter-recruiting table at Keene high school. Their excuse is that representatives from colleges and workplaces are able to also reach out to students and therefore they are exposed to other post-high-school options.close quote (Read more)

9-Year-Old Who Changed School Lunches Silenced By Politicians

Another demonstration of what public schools really are: prisons run by goons.

open quoteFor the past two months, one of my favorite reads has been Never Seconds, a blog started by 9-year-old Martha Payne of western Scotland to document the unappealing, non-nutritious lunches she was being served in her public primary school. Payne, whose mother is a doctor and father has a small farming property, started blogging in early May and went viral in days. She had a million viewers within a few weeks and 2 million this morning; was written up in Time, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, and a number of food blogs; and got support from TV cheflebrity Jamie Oliver, whose series “Jamie’s School Dinners” kicked off school-food reform in England.

Well, goodbye to all that.

This afternoon, Martha (who goes by “Veg” on the blog) posted that she will have to shut down her blog, because she has been forbidden to take a camera into school. She said:

This morning in maths I got taken out of class by my head teacher and taken to her office. I was told that I could not take any more photos of my school dinners because of a headline in a newspaper today.
I only write my blog not newspapers and I am sad I am no longer allowed to take photos. I will miss sharing and rating my school dinners and I’ll miss seeing the dinners you send me too.

close quote (Read more)

Taxpayers Fund $454,000 Pay for Collector Chasing Student Loans

open quoteJoshua Mandelman made $454,000 in a single year as a student-loan debt collector — more than twice the pay of the U.S. secretary of education.

His boss, Richard Boyle, chief executive officer of Educational Credit Management Corp., received $1.1 million in 2010, including commuting expenses from his ranch in New Mexico. Five other managers each took home more than $400,000. close quote (Read more)

Texas honor student jailed for missing too much school

open quoteAn honor student in Texas was thrown in jail after she missed too many classes at her high school.

A judge issued Diane Tran, 17, a summons Wednesday for her excessive truancy after she missed class. She was arrested in open court.

Last month, Tran was issued a warning by the judge for missing school.

Tran said she works both full-time and part-time jobs, in addition to taking advanced and college level courses.

But the judge said Tran’s case was bigger than the individual situation of one student.

“If you let one run loose, what are you gonna’ do with the rest of ’em?,” said Judge Lanny Moriarty. “Let them go too? A little stay in the jail for one night is not a death sentence.”

But Tran’s classmates said she had a lot more to juggle than the average teen.

“She goes from job to job from school. She stays up until 7 a.m. in the morning doing her homework,” said Devin Hill, a classmate and co-worker.close quote (Read more)

Lew Rockwell attends publich high school graduation

Lew Rockwell open quoteAt the local public high school graduation last night, there was no valedictorian or salutatorian speaking or even announced. I guess, just as that government institution abolished its honors classes in the name of egalitarianism, it has gotten rid of recognition for individual achievement. So, there were no prizes, either. Instead, the class president gave an interminable talk full of chants. Then he lead the chorus, the band, and the students in a rendition of “Lean on Me.” Oh, and there were also idiot speeches by the head of the board of education, the superintendent of schools, and the principal. The kids did finally escape their warden and guards, so that was good news.close quote

10 Disgusting Examples of Very Young School Children Being Arrested, Handcuffed and Brutalized By Police

open quote#1 At an elementary school in Baltimore recently, three nine-year-old girls and an eight-year-old boy were arrested for fighting and marched out of their elementary school in handcuffs. The police department is defending handcuffing these kids….

“It’s our policy, regardless of the age, when a suspect is arrested by police, they’re handcuffed. And the reason is just not for the suspect’s safety but also for officers’ safety,” Det. Jeremy Silbert of the Baltimore City Police Department said.

#2 In New Haven, Connecticut a 10-year-old boy was actually arrested by police for giving another student “a wedgie” on a school bus.

#3 Just last year, a 5-year-old boy at a public school in Stockton, California was arrested by police and handcuffed with zip ties because he was committing “battery on a police officer”.

Really?

How much damage can a 5-year-old kid really do to a police officer?

The boy was ultimately sent to a hospital and forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

#4 A 6-year-old girl down in Florida was “throwing objects, hitting administration personnel and screaming uncontrollably” so police handcuffed the 40 pound little girl and shipped her off to a mental institution for evaluation.

#5 In San Mateo, California a few months ago a 7-year-old special education student was blasted in the face with pepper spray because he would not quit climbing on the furniture. Police were then able to subdue the boy and he was “committed for a psychiatric evaluation”.

#6 Down in Florida, an 11-year-old student was arrested by police, thrown in jail and charged with a third-degree felony for bringing a plastic butter knife to school.

#7 In Texas, a 12-year-old girl was recently arrested by police for spraying two bursts of perfume on her neck. She was formally charged with a misdemeanor.

#8 A 13-year-old boy at a public school in Albuquerque, New Mexico was recently arrested by police for burping in class. The police marched him out of school and hauled him over to a juvenile detention center.

#9 Back in 2010, a 12-year-old girl at a school in Forest Hills, New York wrote “I love my friends Abby and Faith” on her desk. The police were called out and she was marched out of her school in handcuffs in front of all her friends.

#10 A teenage couple down in Houston, Texas poured milk on each other during a squabble while they were breaking up a while back. Instead of being sent to see the principal, they were arrested by police and sent to court.close quote (Read more)

Cops Take School Kids’ DNA in Murder Case

open quoteSamples of DNA were collected without parental consent from students at a Sacramento, Calif., middle school in connection with the murder of an 8 th grade student who was found stabbed, strangled and beaten to death near the dugout of a local park.

The Sacramento Sheriff’s Department, which has been spearheading the investigation into the murder of Jessica Funk-Haslam, 13, said parental consent was not required in the DNA collection and interview of minors, several of whom were taken out of class during the day last week at Albert Einstein Middle School.

“These are interviews, not interrogations,” Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Ramos told ABCNews.com. “They are all consensual. Once it’s done, there is a mechanism in place for school administrators to notify parents.”

Ramos said the DNA collection was done at the time of the interview so efforts didn’t have to be “duplicated.” Ramos cautioned that the collection did not necessarily mean authorities had a DNA profile of the suspect.close quote (Read more)

Sweden’s New Gender-Neutral Pronoun: Hen

open quoteIn 2010, the World Economic Forum designated Sweden as the most gender-equal country in the world.

But for many Swedes, gender equality is not enough. Many are pushing for the Nordic nation to be not simply gender-equal but gender-neutral. The idea is that the government and society should tolerate no distinctions at all between the sexes. This means on the narrow level that society should show sensitivity to people who don’t identify themselves as either male or female, including allowing any type of couple to marry. But that’s the least radical part of the project. What many gender-neutral activists are after is a society that entirely erases traditional gender roles and stereotypes at even the most mundane levels.

Activists are lobbying for parents to be able to choose any name for their children (there are currently just 170 legally recognized unisex names in Sweden). The idea is that names should not be at all tied to gender, so it would be acceptable for parents to, say, name a girl Jack or a boy Lisa. A Swedish children’s clothes company has removed the “boys” and “girls” sections in its stores, and the idea of dressing children in a gender-neutral manner has been widely discussed on parenting blogs. This Swedish toy catalog recently decided to switch things around, showing a boy in a Spider-Man costume pushing a pink pram, while a girl in denim rides a yellow tractor.

The Swedish Bowling Association has announced plans to merge male and female bowling tournaments in order to make the sport gender-neutral. Social Democrat politicians have proposed installing gender-neutral restrooms so that members of the public will not be compelled to categorize themselves as either ladies or gents. Several preschools have banished references to pupils’ genders, instead referring to children by their first names or as “buddies.” So, a teacher would say “good morning, buddies” or “good morning, Lisa, Tom, and Jack” rather than, “good morning, boys and girls.” They believe this fulfills the national curriculum’s guideline that preschools should “counteract traditional gender patterns and gender roles” and give girls and boys “the same opportunities to test and develop abilities and interests without being limited by stereotypical gender roles.”

Earlier this month, the movement for gender neutrality reached a milestone: Just days after International Women’s Day a new pronoun, hen (pronounced like the bird in English), was added to the online version of the country’s National Encyclopedia. The entry defines hen as a “proposed gender-neutral personal pronoun instead of he [han in Swedish] and she [hon].”The National Encyclopedia announcement came amid a heated debate about gender neutrality that has been raging in Swedish newspaper columns and TV studios and on parenting blogs and feminist websites.close quote (Read more)

Frederiksberg Council to wake up school children

open quoteFrederiksberg Council is set to introduce a new ‘wake up’ programme in order to combat truancy, Berlingske newspaper has reported. The move comes after the success of Nyborg Council’s wake-up system, which was implemented last year and has resulted in a significant decrease in absenteeism.

Similar to Nyborg, Frederiksberg will hire an employee whose job will be to ensure that school children attend school regularly and on time.close quote (Read more)

NAACP & Teachers’ Union VS. Educating Kids

open quote“The teachers union in New York City got together with the NAACP and sued to essentially kick charter schools out of buildings,” says Bob Bowdon, founder of education reform homepage Choice Media TV.

Bowdon talks about the implications of this lawsuit and also about other education stories that his team has covered. He discusses one report addressing the racial achievement gap in Seattle, in which black kids from Africa performed better academically than black kids from America.

“This kind of data was shocking to see,” Bowdon says.close quote