Education

Historians Oppose APUSH Revised Standards of US History

Respected Historians Oppose APUSH Revised Standards

In the you-tube audio clip below, Professor Daniel Robinson of Oxford explained that Oxford does NOT give much merit for APUSH scores, but highly values the US History credits awarded through the International Baccalaureate program. He also stresses the harm our regressive bias in American History educational standards over the last few decades is causing in our society.

Audio segment of Professor Daniel Robinson, signatory on Historians’ Statement Opposing APUSH Standards:
http://youtu.be/9sEHuFf1pFg

APUSH Letter and links for audio of Professor Daniel Robinson:
http://www.nas.org/images/documents/Historians_Statement.pdf

Stanley Kurtz Post on this APUSH Letter:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/419192/55-scholars-protest-ap-us-history-changes-stanley-kurtz

Michelle Malkin on the APUSH Opposition Letter:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419226/few-courageous-academics-fight-rewriting-ap-american-history-michelle-malkin

Mark Levin 6/3/15 Rerun Podcast:
http://www.stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=2591&c=10771&f=4453153
Starts at 54:43 to 55:56, but the main portion can be found from 57:47 through 1:03:59

The Undermining of the American Mind and Experiment

The Undermining of the American Mind and Experiment

–a commentary by Robin Lennon

The very foundation of the American experiment is to provide the People with a just and free society that grants every citizen due process under law. We hear the term “rule of law” so often most Americans no longer know what it means and why it is liberal and progressive in the truest senses of those words’ meanings. Rule of law does NOT mean that Congress can pass laws for the people, but exempt themselves from it, whether it is Obamacare or insider trading.

Throughout the history of the world after mankind grew beyond the family/tribal/clan models, with just a few notable exceptions, men were ruled by the mightiest who prosper and make laws that perpetuate their rule over the masses. Whether the rulers were monarchs, oligarchies, or tyrants, matter not. The power was always distributed from the top down to the lowliest of the low.

The most ancient exception was the Israelites who were brought out of slavery by a man inspired by their God who gave them rules to live by and a system by which to live. The Ten Commandments and their self-government instituted in Exodus 18 are found in the Jewish Torah. Though the People eventually chose a monarchy instead of self-rule according to God’s principles, Western Civilization eventually found itself clawing a way back toward its roots with a model of government in which all men and women have natural rights which are theirs by birth, not given to them by others at whim.

Time and time again through history, we see the failings of men and women in power. As long as rulers of character and virtue seek the good of the people, all is well. Too often, however, the frailties and vices of the human condition come into play, until it was argued by Hobbes in Leviathan , that the people, ruled by their passions and subject to natures that are all too often plagued with selfishness, greed, and self-interest, cannot rule themselves.

Our Founders argued that given a good education, Americans who understand that freedom depends on the willing fulfillment of duties and responsibilities by virtuous citizens, could maintain a Republic which recognized the right of individuals to govern themselves.

Classical education evolved from the methods used for millennia by the civilizations that developed from Judeo-Christian roots. It focused on teaching virtuous behavior, reading, writing, history, arithmetic, and rhetoric as well as rational thinking over the instinctive emotive responses we humans are prone to. This is the education the American Founders had, and which they repeatedly warned Americans our children must have if our Republican experiment were to survive.

Within the last hundred years, however, the educational methods have evolved from those which empower individuals to those which prepare individuals to take their places in an industrial society. Instead of encouraging every individual to become the best they can be by developing whatever God-given talents they have, we have seen a one-size fits all educational method implemented which has undermined the progress of those most in need of individual instruction in order to equalize the outcomes of education. This not only impedes the steady progress and creativity of society, it harms a majority of our individual students.

Instead of educating our students to work hard to better themselves, our current government educational system teaches them they are perfect as they are. Instead of encouraging reasonable thought, they are asked to consider how they feel about any given topic.

Most parents know how cruel children can be, know that this is simply not true. Being kind to one another and seeking everyone’s best interests are not inherent in every individual. The proof can be seen in the society we now have where a majority of children are born to single parents, instead of in stable families, which are civilization’s way of ensuring that the next generation is taught the virtues, duties, and responsibilities needed for the culture and society to continue.

Instead of business deals sealed with a handshake based upon one’s honor, we now have contracts that set out all the ramifications of someone’s broken deal. Instead of children in homes with two parents, we now have too many children in single-parent homes with government money replacing the time and mentorship of a loving father. We have politicians that lie during campaigns, and vote another way once elected.

The results are plain to see: lowered literacy rates, high school dropouts, gangs, crime, murders, drug addiction, and riots.

We no longer train our children to think rationally, behave virtuously, and protect them from the consequences of lying, cheating, and fighting. We are no longer capable of having a Republic.

What are we going to do about it?

Will we hand over our children at ever-younger ages to the government-sponsored educational experts and continue to march towards socialism and serfdom?

Or will we demand that our government get out of the business of de-educating our children and accept our parental responsibility for ensuring their education?

If the United States is to remain a constitutional republic, it is up to us, We the People to ensure that our Nation stops undermining the American mind and the roots of our Republic.

Sowell & Williams: 2 Issues that Unite the Races

Reaching out to Blacks does not mean offering them the same programs that have destroyed their families and blighted their hope for achieving the American Dream. Studies show that the Way of the American Dream is paved by Faith, Stable two-parent families, Education, and Hard Work.  These three things seem to make avoidance of having children out of wedlock before graduating high school, gang-related activity, crime, and violence more likely.

In Thomas Sowell’s JWR column of March 25, 2014, Republicans and Blacks , Mr. Sowell cites School Choice and Minimum Wage Results as two topics Republicans should publicize and shout out about in order to reach out to Blacks. In the article, Sowell further cites the book, Race and Economics by Walt Williams, as a definitive study of government programs which have hurt Blacks.

Walt Williams on School Choice:

“Though many black politicians mouth that we should fix, not abandon, public schools, they themselves have abandoned public schools. They see their children as too precious to be sacrificed in the name of public education. While living in Chicago, Barack Obama sent his daughters to the prestigious University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When he moved to Washington, President Obama enrolled his daughters in the prestigious Sidwell Friends School. According to a report by The Heritage Foundation, “exactly 52 percent of Congressional Black Caucus members and 38 percent of Congressional Hispanic Caucus members sent at least one child to private school.” Overall, only 6 percent of black students attend private school.” …

“According to a 2004 Thomas B. Fordham Institute study, more than 1 in 5 public school teachers sent their children to private schools. In some cities, the figure is much higher. In Philadelphia, 44 percent of the teachers put their children in private schools; in Cincinnati, it’s 41 percent, and Chicago (39 percent) and Rochester, N.Y. (38 percent), also have high figures. In the San Francisco-Oakland area, 34 percent of public school teachers enroll their children in private schools, and in New York City, it’s 33 percent.”

“Only 11 percent of all parents enroll their children in private schools. The fact that so many public school teachers enroll their own children in private schools ought to raise questions. After all, what would you think, after having accepted a dinner invitation, if you discovered that the owner, chef, waiters and busboys at the restaurant to which you were being taken don’t eat there? That would suggest they have some inside information from which you might benefit.”
Williams’ JWR column, Racial Trade-offs, of Oct. 9, 2013

Thomas Sowell on Minimum Wage:

“Minimum-wage laws are classic examples. The last year in which the black unemployment rate was lower than the white unemployment rate was 1930. That was also the last year in which there was no federal minimum-wage law.”

“The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 was in part a result of a series of incidents in which non-union black construction workers enabled various contractors from the South to underbid northern contractors who used white, unionized construction labor.

“The Davis-Bacon Act required that “prevailing wages” be paid on government construction projects — “prevailing wages” almost always meant in practice union wages. Since blacks were kept out of construction unions then and for decades thereafter, many black construction workers lost their jobs.”

“Minimum wages were required more broadly under the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 and under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, with negative consequences for black employment across a much wider range of industries.

“In recent times, we have gotten so used to young blacks having sky-high unemployment rates that it will be a shock to many readers of Walter Williams’s Race and Economics to discover that the unemployment rate of young blacks was once only a fraction of what it has been in recent decades. And, in earlier times, it was not very different from the unemployment rate of young whites.”

From Thomas Sowell’s article of April. 27, 2011 in National Review,  Race and Economics

TX HB300: Independent School District Bill

From Corie C. Whalen:

Hey everyone, I’m working hard to promote an important school choice bill that has recently been filed as HB300. The press release with details about the legislation is here: http://www.tffeducation.org/bill_press_release. This legislation would gives districts that opt into the new code greater freedom to set goals, curriculum, testing, schedule, calendar, and staffing policies of their schools. Unsurprisingly, the usual suspects who elevate bureucracy over quality education are organizing against this bill. So please check it out and contact your state representative to encourage them to support HB300. http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/find-your-representative/

HB300 Press Release

The “Independent School District Bill” proposes an alternative education code that empowers families to make education decisions and hold schools accountable, and provides the support they need to embrace the best public school for their children. The plan gives districts that opt into the new code greater freedom to set goals, curriculum, testing, schedule, calendar, and staffing policies of their schools.

Grade Expectations: Brockton HS Brings Success Out of Failure

MUST READ ARTICLE: Grade Expectations

NOTE: Kingwood TEA Party supports Teachers in the Classrooms who really teach our students American values, history, and how to think. We seek local control so that OUR values inculcate the curriculum rather than progressive’s. We are working to tighten educational budgets by getting rid of as many bureaucrats alas possible and by paying bureaucrats less than teachers.

Failing inner city Boston, MA High School turns around without expensive curriculum materials, additional bureaucrats to teach the teachers, changing student population through redistributing, additional funding, etc.

They did this IN SPITE OF onerous MA regulations. This can be done anywhere committed and knowledgeable teachers are hired and given free rein.

VIDEO: How Teachers Unions Hurt Schools

From Prager University

The Surprising Moral Case For Free Enterprise

Free Enterprise is based on those needing jobs, goods, or services freely contracting with others to purchase those items or services at a mutually agreeable price. It is a win – win situation for both parties. Not so when the government gets involved and burdens some participants with arduous regulations dictating which products or services must be utilized, and/or placing taxes or minimum wage regulations into the mix.

A good video summary of Arthur Brooks’ book, The Road to Freedom, with five two-minute segments.

Policies based on the Moral Case for Freedom:

Tax Reform:

In 2011 46% of households had zero or negative federal income tax liability.

In 2010, 60% of families received more from the government than they paid in taxes.

Individual and corporate tax compliance costs $163 billion, more than $500 per person.

The U.S. top combined corporate tax rate is the highest in the industrialized world.

“Tax reform is a great opportunity to make a fairer system that will encourage economic growth and unleash the creative power of the American people. ”— Chad Hill, AEI

Entitlements:

Most seniors have withdrawn more from Social Security and Medicare than they paid in.

The Medicare hospital care fund has been running a deficit since 2008.

Social Security will be insolvent in 2036.

The U.S. currently spends 9.9% of its GDP on entitlements.

The Social Security system still leaves almost 10% of seniors in poverty.

“People need a hand up, not a hand out. All policy direction should be to empower individuals to run their own lives.”— Rupert Murdoch, founder, chairman and CEO, News Corporation

Job Creation

We are experiencing the longest high-unemployment streak since the Great Depression.

The real unemployment rate is 10.4% when discouraged workers are counted.

18% of young Americans said they delayed marriage due to job worries or unemployment, and 23% delayed starting a family.

“We can spark an economic recovery by unleashing the job-creating power of business, especially small entrepreneurial businesses, which fuel economic and job growth quickly and efficiently.”— Charles Schwab, founder and chairman, Charles Schwab Corporation

Economic Growth

While average economic growth from 1950-2000 was 3.6%, from 2000 to 2010, economic growth fell to 1.7%.

To lower our deficit to 5% of GDP, we need to achieve a year-on-year 4% growth rate.

Every 1% of additional growth today will double real incomes 72 years from now.

“I grew up with great values and tremendous opportunities … I want my three kids and other’s people’s children to have the same opportunities that I had.”— Joe Ricketts, founder and former CEO, TD Ameritrade

National Debt

U.S. debt is 100% of annual GDP, which most economists characterize as an unsustainable level.

In 2011, the U.S. borrowed about $4,152 for every person in America, totaling $1.3 trillion.

Servicing the national debt will cost $1 trillion per year by 2023 under current policy.

Closing the spending gap through increased revenues over 25 years would require a 56% tax hike.

“For far too long, short-sighted politicians have paid for today’s promises with tomorrow’s prosperity. If Congress doesn’t take serious action to reign in federal spending, our generation will be heirs to a legacy of higher taxes, more debt, and fewer opportunities.”— Fara Klein, Brown University

Here is Arthur Brooks’ video on the Surprising Case for the Morality of Free Markets.