The Front Page Cover
The Events of the Week -- Featuring:
Education at a Crossroads: Part II
by Thomas Sowell
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Patriots Win, Moralizing Advertisers Lose
Super Bowl LI (that's 51 for you non-NFL/Roman numeral fans) featured all the elements of a public attention-grabber: a flashy young Atlanta Falcons team facing the New England Patriots' dynasty, a seemingly insurmountable halftime lead blown and the first overtime Super Bowl in NFL history. Oh, and politics. Yeah, in 2017 America nothing is unsullied by our true national pastime — political bickering.
First, we back up to last Friday before the game, when the Boston Globe found some Patriots fans to be feeling suddenly un-Patriot-ic. The Globe reported, "The 'Make America Great Again' hat that [quarterback Tom] Brady kept stationed in his locker for a time put some on edge, as did the letter of support [head coach Bill] Belichick wrote to Trump prior to the election. [Team owner Robert] Kraft, a longtime friend who credits the president with supporting him after the 2011 death of his wife, Myra, attended last month's inauguration. The willingness of three prominent members of the organization to associate themselves with Trump — particularly in a state as blue as Massachusetts — has left some scratching their heads." Conservatives, of course, are used to hearing public figures disagree and even viciously slam us. For those sheltered souls in the deep-blue Bay State, however, these are uncharted waters. Maybe they'll cheer to know that tight end Martellus Bennett will boycott the White House ceremony celebrating the Patriots' win.
Second, we'll note just what conservatives usually have to put up with: leftist lecturing. Many Americans watch the game for the ads. Audi hectored us about the phony gender wage gap. But immigration was the dominant theme, with not one but two and three ads moralizing about the issue. We suspect most Americans vastly prefer to be entertained by humorous and silly commercials than ads designed to shame half the population. The same goes for the sport itself. We watch to see the clash of combatants on the gridiron, not the pouty nonsense of kneeling social justice warriors. Let's make sports (and commercials) great again.
~The Patriot Post
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Germany's Muslim Demographic Future
by Soeren Kern
by Soeren Kern
Out with the old, in with the new...
{gatestoneinstitute.org } ~ Germany will need to take in 300,000 migrants annually for the next 40 years to stop population decline, according to a leaked government report... The document, parts of which were published by the Rheinische Post on February 1, reveals that the German government is counting on permanent mass migration — presumably from Africa, Asia and the Middle East — to keep the current size of the German population (82.8 million) stable through 2060. The report implies that Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow into the country some 1.5 million mostly Muslim migrants between 2015 and 2016 was not primarily a humanitarian gesture, but a calculated effort to stave off Germany's demographic decline and to preserve the future viability of the German welfare state... https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9892/germany-muslims-demographic
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Radical left NGOs: Regulation Law is a war crime
by Tal Polon
{israelnationalnews.com} ~ Extreme-left anti-Israel legal organizations took action on Wednesday against Israel with a petition to the Supreme Court calling for the court to strike down the Regulation Law, passed this past Monday in the Knesset... The Regulation Law legalizes and protects thousands of Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria which were built in the past with government backing and were without absentee land claims, but against which there are now property claims. It allows for 125% compensation or alternate land to be offered claimants who prove ownership. The group Adalah said that it and the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center would file the request on Wednesday afternoon to overturn what it called the "dangerous" Law...
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Congress Moves to Cut Immigration to U.S. By Half
by Adam Kredo
Syria refugee camp in Lebanon
{freebeacon.com} ~ Leading senators on Tuesday unveiled landmark immigration reform legislation that would limit the number of refugees permitted into the United States each year and eventually cut total immigration to America by 50 percent... according to a preview of the legislation viewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Sens. David Perdue (R., Ga.) and Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) revealed the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act, or RAISE Act, which aims to boost wages for Americans by slicing immigration levels and recalibrating the system to accommodate those seeking employment in the American workforce. The legislation seeks to build upon President Donald Trump’s immigration vision and his recent executive order placing a temporary hold on immigration for individuals coming from several countries designated as primary terrorism hotspots... http://freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-moves-cut-immigration-u-s-half/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=5e5ace325d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_08&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-5e5ace325d-45611665
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Trump Admin Eyes Opportunity to Squash
Iran, China, N. Korea Missile Threats
by Adam Kredo
U.S. Army soldiers power-up a MIM-104 Patriot
surface-to-air missile system
surface-to-air missile system
{freebeacon.com} ~ The newly installed Trump administration is eyeing an opportunity to revamp the U.S. domestic missile defense system to combat evolving threats posed by Iran, China, North Korea, and other rogue regimes... according to senior White House officials and new congressional communication disclosing how nations across the globe are "working diligently to exploit the many gaps and seams" in America's current defenses. Congressional allies of the Trump administration's national security vision recently petitioned the White House to allocate funds needed to rebuild and update the country's missile defense systems, which have been beset by problems and can no longer defend against the latest missile technology. Iran's latest test of ballistic missile technology has only reinforced the belief in Congress that something must be done to secure the American homeland, according to a team of nearly 30 leading lawmakers led by Rep. Trent Franks (R., Ariz.), co-chair of the House's missile defense caucus... http://freebeacon.com/national-security/trump-admin-eyes-opportunity-squash-iran-china-n-korea-missile-threat/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=5e5ace325d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_08&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-5e5ace325d-45611665
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Spanish Flu Pandemic & American Samoa
Provide Lessons For Controlling Our Border
by Tony Oliva
{lidblog.com} ~ Spanish Flu was the one of the worst global biological pandemics of all time, though it is often overshadowed by the end of WWI. A quick rundown of the impact of Spanish Flu on the world... Spanish Flu ran its course between January of 1918 and December of 1920. In those two years it infected around 500 Million people killing around 20% of them. The impact of Spanish Flu was so great that the life expectancy age during for 1918 dropped 12 years because of so much death. So basically, in 1918 expectations of how long you would live topped out at 36 years old. That’s a Dark Ages type number right there. Spanish Flu has been described as “the greatest medical holocaust in history” and killed more people than the black death. It is also said that Spanish flu killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 years, that it has killed more in one year than the black death did in a century. Not only was it’s effect damning but it’s range was so widespread... http://lidblog.com/spanish-flu-american-samoa/
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Education at a Crossroads: Part II
by Thomas Sowell
{townhall.com} ~ One of the painful realities of our time is that most public schools in most low-income, inner-city neighborhoods produce educational outcomes that are far below the outcomes in other neighborhoods, and especially in more affluent neighborhoods.
Attempts to assign blame are too numerous to name, much less explore. But as someone who has, for more than 40 years, been researching those particular minority schools that have been successful, I am struck both by their success and by how varied are the ways that success has been achieved.
In doing research for a 1976 article, "Patterns of Black Excellence," I discovered that the educational methods used to educate low-income, minority children in successful schools ranged from very traditional and strict methods in some parochial schools to very different approaches in other schools.
One of the most successful schools I visited was in an aging building in a rundown ghetto neighborhood in New York, where a friend told me that I was "brave" -- he meant foolhardy -- to park a car.
Instead of being given a guided tour of the school, as happens in too many other places, the principal simply walked with me down the corridors on each floor, and let me decide which classroom door I wanted to open and go in.
Wherever we went in, the class in progress was clearly one where children were learning, were well-behaved, and were saying intelligent things in plain English. They were doing work that was either at their grade level or somewhat above their grade level.
Yet most of these kids were looked like kids you can see in any ghetto across the country. Most were from families whose incomes were low enough for their children to qualify for free or subsidized lunches in school.
After a day spent observing the classes, and later examining the statistics on their outstanding performances on various tests, I was moved to the verge of tears as I left. Why couldn't this be done in many other schools?
One reason was that this principal did not follow the rigid dogmas imposed by the educational establishment, but used whatever ways of teaching produced good results. That makes waves. There were attempts to get him removed as principal.
Nor was he the only successful educator to come under fire from the educational establishment.
In California, high school teacher Jaime Escalante taught calculus so successfully in a predominantly Latino school that, at one time, something like one-fourth of all Latino students who passed the AP Calculus test -- in the entire country -- came from the school where he taught.
Like other highly successful educators, especially in places where failure is the norm, Escalante was controversial within the education establishment. The teachers' union demanded that his large math class be reduced in size. He ended up leaving that high school to go teach elsewhere.
When Marva Collins was a public school teacher who came to work early to help some of her students, and who used teaching methods that differed from what education schools and education bureaucrats prescribed, she likewise came under fire.
She left and created her own school in a Chicago black neighborhood. This was done with little money and initially with old textbooks discarded by the public school system. Her success was striking enough for her to be offered an opportunity to be nominated to be Secretary of Education.
After much soul-searching, Marva Collins declined the offer. It was probably just as well. She could run her own school in Chicago as she wished. In Washington, the political jungle was another story.
Against this background, it is hardly surprising that Betsy DeVos, who has for more than 20 years been promoting parental choice in the schools their children attend, has come under heavy fire from the educational establishment.
If she becomes Secretary of Education, the stranglehold of the teachers' unions and the educational bureaucracy on the education of millions of students will be in jeopardy. If her nomination is rejected, millions of children from low-income, inner-city families will lose a chance to escape a painfully failing system.
Attempts to assign blame are too numerous to name, much less explore. But as someone who has, for more than 40 years, been researching those particular minority schools that have been successful, I am struck both by their success and by how varied are the ways that success has been achieved.
In doing research for a 1976 article, "Patterns of Black Excellence," I discovered that the educational methods used to educate low-income, minority children in successful schools ranged from very traditional and strict methods in some parochial schools to very different approaches in other schools.
One of the most successful schools I visited was in an aging building in a rundown ghetto neighborhood in New York, where a friend told me that I was "brave" -- he meant foolhardy -- to park a car.
Instead of being given a guided tour of the school, as happens in too many other places, the principal simply walked with me down the corridors on each floor, and let me decide which classroom door I wanted to open and go in.
Wherever we went in, the class in progress was clearly one where children were learning, were well-behaved, and were saying intelligent things in plain English. They were doing work that was either at their grade level or somewhat above their grade level.
Yet most of these kids were looked like kids you can see in any ghetto across the country. Most were from families whose incomes were low enough for their children to qualify for free or subsidized lunches in school.
After a day spent observing the classes, and later examining the statistics on their outstanding performances on various tests, I was moved to the verge of tears as I left. Why couldn't this be done in many other schools?
One reason was that this principal did not follow the rigid dogmas imposed by the educational establishment, but used whatever ways of teaching produced good results. That makes waves. There were attempts to get him removed as principal.
Nor was he the only successful educator to come under fire from the educational establishment.
In California, high school teacher Jaime Escalante taught calculus so successfully in a predominantly Latino school that, at one time, something like one-fourth of all Latino students who passed the AP Calculus test -- in the entire country -- came from the school where he taught.
Like other highly successful educators, especially in places where failure is the norm, Escalante was controversial within the education establishment. The teachers' union demanded that his large math class be reduced in size. He ended up leaving that high school to go teach elsewhere.
When Marva Collins was a public school teacher who came to work early to help some of her students, and who used teaching methods that differed from what education schools and education bureaucrats prescribed, she likewise came under fire.
She left and created her own school in a Chicago black neighborhood. This was done with little money and initially with old textbooks discarded by the public school system. Her success was striking enough for her to be offered an opportunity to be nominated to be Secretary of Education.
After much soul-searching, Marva Collins declined the offer. It was probably just as well. She could run her own school in Chicago as she wished. In Washington, the political jungle was another story.
Against this background, it is hardly surprising that Betsy DeVos, who has for more than 20 years been promoting parental choice in the schools their children attend, has come under heavy fire from the educational establishment.
If she becomes Secretary of Education, the stranglehold of the teachers' unions and the educational bureaucracy on the education of millions of students will be in jeopardy. If her nomination is rejected, millions of children from low-income, inner-city families will lose a chance to escape a painfully failing system.
Comments
Thanks Steve...more to come.
Good info! I like it.