Education, though it is emphatically not a proper function of government, is an area in which governments are appallingly active. State education departments mandate specific aspects of school curricula. Elected school boards negotiate with “educators’” unions and set tax rates for their school district. Taxpayers foot the bills willy-nilly. The parents of school-age children …
Category: education
Mar 03 2023
A Must-Read
Mike at Cold Fury has excerpted a fascinating story that must be read in its entirety. It’s about an incident in an American “public” grammar school. The resolution of the real-life conflict it depicts will have you howling with laughter. Hie thee hence!
Feb 28 2023
Educational Necrosis
In his classic study Systemantics, author John Gall presents a compelling case for the proposition that human systems of all kinds, no matter their origins or aims, will operate in failure mode –— the overwhelmingly greater part of the time. System failure in Gall’s analysis is determined by the comparison of the system’s ostensible …
Feb 18 2023
A Safe Place?
One of the reasons the C.S.O. wants us to stay on Eastern Long Island is that it’s relatively safe. That is: the crime rate here is fairly low, the public services are no worse than average, the above-average affluence means that we’ll be more reliably supplied with the necessities of life than a less …
Feb 17 2023
The State Giveth And The State Taketh Away
The battle for educational freedom is ongoing. One of the drivers on the pro-freedom side is the desire to keep kids away from all the “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” poison that’s infused “public” education. (Another is a desire to keep kids away from this sort of thing, which threatens to become widespread.) And in …
Feb 15 2023
Following Up On “…but outrage is mandatory.”
This began as a comment to Surprise Is Optional…, about the revelations of the zero mark given baltimore students. But I feel I owe Fran a more thorough effort, to make clearer whatever worth what follows may have. I cannot imagine that anyone who is a regular at Liberty’s Torch has not read 1984 at …
Feb 15 2023
Surprise Is Optional…
…but “outrage” is mandatory: Days after Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., declared education a top priority for his tenure, Baltimore reported that zero students in 23 different public schools are proficient in math. Also, 93% of third through eighth graders tested below grade level in the same subject. Baltimore residents responded by blasting …
Feb 06 2023
Had Enough Yet?
I have: Josh Alexander, 16, is not allowed to attend school for the rest of the year after saying he would continue to express his belief that God created only two genders. The school told him his presence would be “detrimental to the physical and mental well-being” of transgender students, Alexander told The …
Jan 18 2023
Sadly, The Other Shoe Will Drop
I’m sure you’ve read about the handful of schools in Virginia – government-run schools, of course – that suppressed announcements that several of their inmates students had won National Merit Scholarships. These days, it would hardly seem out of the ordinary. “Equal Outcomes For Every Student!” shrieks the mission statement of the Fairfax County …
Jan 12 2023
Tales From The Bearded Spock Universe
There’s no point to writing satire any longer. As soon as a satirist produces a fresh item, our crazies decide to make it happen in real life: “The world is facing a looming existential threat caused by exploitative habits and intentional human negligence.” That is how Brandon Edwards-Schuth and Marco Cerqueira, a …
Nov 19 2022
A Seed Of Rebellion
Too many are talking about rebellion as if it were exclusively a political act. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rebellion may end in arms, but it begins in the mind: When the liberal arts seemed destined for shipwreck, three men stood up and decided to do something radical at a state …
Sep 13 2022
Twenty-One Years
A few Gentle Readers have written to ask “Why no 9/11 post, Fran?” Honestly, I thought about it for a while, and decided that I had nothing sufficiently fresh to say on the subject. Anyone who’s been following my screeds will know how the event affected me, and frankly, I can no longer afford …
Jun 22 2022
A Useful Observation
As I’ve written before, some of our most urgent problems are “connectedness problems.” Andrea “Bookworm” Widburg comments on one in her latest American Thinker essay: [The Senate compromise ‘gun safety’ bill] promises to expand mental health services, including in schools; open juvenile records for gun customers under 21; stop illegal trafficking in firearms; …
Jun 07 2022
No Competition!
A couple of weeks ago, Daniel Greenfield posted an article on a trend in education that has the educrats wringing their hands: As the New York Times recently noted, “America’s public schools have lost at least 1.2 million students since 2020.” School systems in woke states were hardest hit. “New York City, the …
Jun 03 2022
The Need to Defeat Those Exploiting Insanity to Achieve Total Power — UPDATED
RESISTANCE PRESERVES LIBERTY AND DEFENDS SANITY IN THE PROCESS. Only then does social cohesion stand a chance of returning, and the advance of civilization with it — real progress and not the regression sought by Progs. • Screams for diverse goals are identified by social engineers. • Owning the means to amplify screams, they persuade …
May 30 2022
A Vignette About Government Subsidies
There are a whole lot of people, organizations, and industries fighting for a place at government’s feed-trough. In the main, governments are happy to have them there, for a simple reason: Money Is More Addictive than Heroin. That addiction can be used to control the behavior of nominally independent actors and organizations. Charles …
Apr 24 2022
The Touch-Off
It doesn’t take much to get the Left shrieking as if it were being castrated without anesthesia. But you may be sure that the screams and howls will erupt at maximum volume whenever any executive or legislator dares to “infringe” upon their “academic freedom.” Consider this spate of lunacies from Randi Weingarten of …
Apr 22 2022
The Educracy’s Pincers Are Closing
Only the day before yesterday, I wrote: The escalation in the cost of living, which includes rapidly rising levels of taxation, is making it ever more difficult for families with minor children to forgo public schooling. Just to maintain a decent suburban standard of living practically requires two incomes. There are exceptions; certain …
Apr 21 2022
Concerning Yesterday’s Emission
Make that “mentally disturbed and / or utterly evil adults” and you’ve got the whole of the Left’s educational “project” in a sentence. Once again, applause to Mike Miles at 90 Miles from Tyranny.
Apr 20 2022
I Thought We’d Hit Peak Insanity Already
Ragin’ Dave provides evidence to the contrary: Families that may have turned to homeschooling as an alternative to hastily assembled remote learning plans have stuck with it — reasons include health concerns, disagreement with school policies and a desire to keep what has worked for their children. Maybe it’s because parents actually …
- 1
- 2
June is Fidelity Month!
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
