Tell Me Why

Ken AshfordCrime, EducationLeave a Comment

And nobody’s going to go to school today…. Reports of armed teen sparks school lockdowns in Las Vegas Number of people dead in Amish school shooting Yeah, I don’t like Mondays either, but….

Boo Hoo

Ken AshfordEducation1 Comment

Looks like UNC denied full professorship to "Prof" Michael Adams. Gee, I can’t imagine why.

Student Wins First Amendment Case

Ken AshfordConstitution, EducationLeave a Comment

I don’t know why, but I’m always drawn to First Amendment cases involving public schools.  This story warmed my heart: Court Sides With Student In Bush T-Shirt Flap (AP) Vermont schoolboy was within his rights to wear a T-shirt depicting George W. Bush as a chicken and accusing him of being a former alcohol and cocaine abuser, an appeals court … Read More

Sanity Returns To Kansas

Ken AshfordEducation, GodstuffLeave a Comment

Less than a year ago, a conservative majority on Kansas’ State Board of Education adopted state science standards on how to teach modern biology. Or in Kansas’ case, how to avoid it — the standards adopted by the state board represented the broadest challenge to evolution in the country. Democrats and moderate Republicans organized a fierce fight to take back … Read More

The Christian Pogrom

Ken AshfordEducation, Godstuff1 Comment

Back in 2004, the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ (based at Dr D. James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Ministries) praised the efforts of a school board in Delaware to promote Christianity among the children under its care: Despite threats of litigation from the ACLU, one Delaware school district has made it abundantly clear that they will not surrender America’s Christian … Read More

Are Our Children Learning?

Ken AshfordEducation1 Comment

Not geography, apparently.  A survey of young Americans aged 18 to 24 found out that: Thirty-three percent of respondents couldn’t pinpoint Louisiana on a map. Fewer than three in 10 think it important to know the locations of countries in the news and just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill. Two-thirds didn’t know that the earthquake … Read More

If It Ain’t Broke….

Ken AshfordEducationLeave a Comment

Via Mom, comes news of a push in New Hampshire to scrap the traditional bar exam for a two-year clinic-like program: Yesterday, officials of the state legal system and the Franklin Pierce Law Center gathered at the state Supreme Court to celebrate an alternative: a new program of classes, clinics and externships at Franklin Pierce that will focus on practical … Read More

Yeah, Whatever

Ken AshfordEducation, GodstuffLeave a Comment

Pseudo-science from a creationist website: "There is no evidence in the fossil record of one kind of creature becoming another kind. No transitional links or intermediate forms between various kinds of creatures have ever been found." For example, "the evolutionist claims that it took perhaps fifty million years for a fish to evolve into an amphibian. But, again, there are … Read More

Red State Education

Ken AshfordEducation, GodstuffLeave a Comment

In this article, a public high school teacher in Arkansas reports that teachers are not allowed to use the "e" word (meaning "evolution").  He also says: “I am instructed NOT to use hard numbers when telling kids how old rocks are. I am supposed to say that these rocks are VERY VERY OLD … but I am NOT to say … Read More

What’s That Basketball Thing On The Right?

Ken AshfordEducationLeave a Comment

Click it (or click this) and find out. Meanwhile, here’s some fun facts to ruin your March Madness: Percentage of the 4,000+ students who play Division 1 men’s basketball who will go on to professional sports careers: 0.8 Percentage of NCAA men’s basketball players who entered college in 1997 and had graduated by 2003: 44 Number of the teams in … Read More

The Results Are In

Ken AshfordEducation, Right Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

Conservative blogger (and Penn U. cultural studies professor) Michael Berube constantly rails against supposed "liberal bias" on college campuses.  Here’s his post from yesterday, for example. Conservative online mag Frontpagemag.com picks up Michael Berube’s meme, and asks readers to vote for the "worst professor in America".  Berube has encouraged his blog readers to vote. Here are the top five results … Read More