Category: Education

One of the little Bookworms is required to do a book report.

I can never figure out if the extraordinary number of errors in the written materials the schools send me result from ignorance or carelessness.

Kevin directed me to the first part of Charles Murray’s three part article about the effect the Bell Curve has on classrooms and resources. It’s extremely un-PC, but to anyone with an iota of logic (or a history of passing through the public school system, as I did), it’s absolutely

My kids have been back in school a mere two days following winter break, and I’m already completely dismayed. My son brought home a project where he earned high praise for concluding that 16 + 16 + 16 +16 = 63. My son is really good at math, and this

Since I whine constantly about the kids’ school, fairness demands that I let you know when I see good things.  I just returned from a little science fair at the school where the elementary kids displayed their projects about plants and animals. Montessorian that I am I found it boring,

There is no doubt that the poor live in bad neighborhoods. If they weren’t poor, they’d move someplace nicer. Neighborhoods that smell bad, are unsafe, have falling down houses and are near industry are invariably going to be more affordable than some nice suburban green stretch. This isn’t some evil

I was doing my usual “I find public school distressing” rant to a neighbor, when she caught me up short. I had acknowledged, as I have done here, that my children’s teachers are very good at going through the curriculum, and my children are definitely learning. I complained, though, as

No one who has visited this blog recently can have missed my grumbling about public school teachers who, when cut adrift from their rigid curriculum, show that they do not understand either grammar or spelling — nor does their ignorance seem to bother them. Although I find their intellectual ignorance

Apropos those report cards that came home the other day, I’m happy to announce that, if Little Bookworm were to take the standardized test that drives modern public education, she would score in the 70% to 94% range. In other words, her work quality floats somewhere between barely passing and

“Today, your child is bringing home their report card to go over with you.” ‘Nuff said. del.icio.us | digg it

I consider myself a beneficiary of the saner side of Women’s Lib. (For the insane side, amuse yourself reading Christina Hoff Sommers’ Who Stole Feminism : How Women Have Betrayed Women.) After all, I was effortlessly able to launch myself into the traditionally male preserve of law. Over the years,