Category: Education & Schools

California Makes it Illegal for Students to Skip Anti-Racism Training

Two more Universities in the US are demanding that students enroll on ‘race and ethnicity’ courses, with the Governor of California signing a mandate for the classes into law.

Campus Reform reports that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 1460 on Monday, making it compulsory for all students in the California State University system to undertake a three-unit class in either Native American, African American, Asian American, or Latina/Latino studies.

Without the credits from the mandatory anti-racism training students will not be able to begin other studies.

New national survey finds a huge spike in support for homeschooling:

"Much More Favorable"
May: 26%
June: 25%
July: 43% pic.twitter.com/ozwSulbeZx

— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) August 6, 2020

Poll: 82% of U.S. Parents Are Considering Homeschooling Their Kids This Fall

As the school year begins around the country, a recent study has found a shocking 82% of parents are at least considering keeping their children home through 2021.

OnePoll surveyed 2,000 parents as to their choice between open or closed schools, and found that one in four said they would not be sending their children back to classrooms regardless.

Although 81% of those considering homeschooling point to worries over COVID-19 spread as the motivating factor, much of the concern seemed focused less on fears about the precautions taken by schools and more on the personal responsibility of their own children. Nearly 6 in 10 said they do not think their children would properly wash their hands while at school.

I’ve asked this before, and I’ll drive it home again;
PARENTS!
Do you know what your children are being taught in the school they’re attending, and if you don’t…why not?

---

Fourth Grade Teacher Details How Schools Push Ban History And Leftist Agendas
‘The parents don’t even know what’s going on because it’s all at school,’ says a fourth grade teacher in an interview. ‘The parents question very little and they just assume the teacher knows what they’re doing.’

A world without textbooks or homework and where getting the wrong answer is celebrated may sound like an elementary student’s dream, but if such a fantasy becomes a reality, it would damage a generation of young minds. That is, however, exactly what is happening in many public elementary schools.

Recently, I spoke with a fourth-grade teacher from the midwest, who shared her experience witnessing the shifting of curriculum from history and science towards overt political indoctrination, all to the detriment of students’ learning. To protect this person’s privacy, she will remain nameless.

In supervising fourth grade, she teaches a little bit of everything: math, reading, language arts, social studies, and science. Recently, her school district, like many others, switched to an “integrated curriculum.” On paper, an integrated curriculum sounds like a fair idea. Students learn subjects by exploring their intersections to deepen understanding. In practice, however, the curriculum all but eradicates history while working to push politics on impressionable children.

As the teacher reports, “It says ‘integrated curriculum,’ and some of its science, and some of its social studies but it really isn’t. It’s more of a push for the progressive movement.” Indeed, it’s a movement that has fundamentally altered her curriculum. As the school district’s new curricula are online, outsiders have the ability to dictate curriculum to teachers. The result? This teacher’s science and history classes were gutted. Continue reading “”

Silver lining of the bug: Getting more kids out of the Public schools indoctrination centers and into home schooling where the parents are in control is all for the good.

---

Back to School? “No Thanks” Say Millions of New Homeschooling Parents.

Next month marks the beginning of the 2020/2021 academic year in several US states, and pressure is mounting to reopen schools even as the COVID-19 pandemic persists. Florida, for example, is now considered the nation’s No. 1 hot spot for the virus; yet on Monday, the state’s education commissioner issued an executive order mandating that all Florida schools open in August with in-person learning and their full suite of student services.

Many parents are balking at back-to-school, choosing instead to homeschool their children this fall.

Gratefully, this virus seems to be sparing most children, and prominent medical organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics have urged schools to reopen this fall with in-person learning. For some parents, fear of the virus itself is a primary consideration in delaying a child’s return to school, especially if the child has direct contact with individuals who are most vulnerable to COVID-19’s worst effects.

But for many parents, it’s not the virus they are avoiding by keeping their children home—it’s the response to the virus.

In May, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued school reopening guidelines that called for:

• Strict social distancing tactics
• All-day mask wearing for most students and teachers
• Staggered attendance
• Daily health checks
• No gym or cafetaria use
• Restricted playground access and limited toy-sharing, and
• Tight controls on visitors to school buildings, including parents.

School districts across the country quickly adopted the CDC’s guidelines, devising their reopening plans accordingly. Once parents got wind of what the upcoming school-year would look like, including the real possibility that at any time schools could be shut down again due to virus spikes, they started exploring other options.

For Florida mother, Rachael Cohen, these social distancing expectations and pandemic response measures prompted her to commit to homeschooling her three children, ages 13, 8, and 5, this fall.

“Mandated masks, as well as rigid and arbitrary rules and requirements regarding the use and location of their bodies, will serve to dehumanize, disconnect, and intimidate students,” Cohen told me in a recent interview.

She is endeavoring to expand schooling alternatives in her area and is currently working to create a self-directed learning community for local homeschoolers that emphasizes nature-based, experiential education. “There is quite a lot of interest,” she says.

According to a recent USA Today/Ipsos poll, 60 percent of parents surveyed said they will likely choose at-home learning this fall rather than send their children to school even if the schools reopen for in-person learning. Thirty percent of parents surveyed said they were “very likely” to keep their children home.

While some of these parents may opt for an online version of school-at-home tied to their district, many states are seeing a surge in the number of parents withdrawing their children from school in favor of independent homeschooling. From coast to coast, and everywhere in between, more parents are opting out of conventional schooling this year, citing onerous social distancing requirements as a primary reason.

Indeed, so many parents submitted notices of intent to homeschool in North Carolina last week that it crashed the state’s nonpublic education website.

Other parents are choosing to delay their children’s school enrollment, with school districts across the country reporting lower than average kindergarten registration numbers this summer.

School officials are cracking down in response.

Concerned about declining enrollments and parents reassuming control over their children’s education, some school districts are reportedly trying to block parents from removing their children from school for homeschooling.

In England, it’s even worse. Government officials there are so worried about parents refusing to send their children back to school this fall that the education secretary just announced fines for all families who keep their children home in violation of compulsory schooling laws. “We do have to get back into compulsory education and obviously fines sit alongside as part of that,” English secretary Gavin Williamson announced.

When school officials resort to force in order to ensure compliance, it should prompt parents to look more closely at their child’s overall learning environment. Parents have the utmost interest in ensuring their children’s well-being, both physically and emotionally, and their concerns and choices should be respected and honored.

After several months of learning at home with their children, parents may not be so willing to comply with district directives and may prefer other, more individualized education options. Pushed into homeschooling this spring by the pandemic, many parents are now going willingly, and eagerly, down this increasingly popular educational path.

Now 59% of American Parents More Likely to Consider Homeschooling, Skyrocketing Past 40% Just Last Month

New polling indicates that a majority of American parents are more likely to consider homeschooling their children after the coronavirus recession.

A survey conducted by Ipsos/USA Today indicates that a majority of 59% of American parents are more likely to homeschool their children.

Nearly all public education systems have been shut down as a result of the coronavirus lockdowns, essentially placing the education of most American students on hold. Homeschooling could present an alternative that would enable students to continue learning in spite of the restrictions.

An earlier poll in April revealed that 40% of American parents are more willing to consider homeschooling.

REMARKABLE shift in homeschooling opinions the longer kids are out of school:

April: 40% of parents more likely to homeschool after lockdowns (626 parents; @RealClearNews/@SchoolChoiceNow)

TODAY: 59% of parents more likely after lockdowns (402 parents; @IpsosMORI/@USATODAY)

— Tommy Schultz (@Tommy_USA) May 27, 2020

The aftermath of the coronavirus epidemic may have lasting effects on public education systems, with more polling suggesting that 1 in 5 public school teachers don’t plan on returning to schools in light of the lockdowns. Such a development is likely to preclude broad consequences for public education, with far greater class sizes that lower the quality of individual education.

Some liberals have become increasingly hostile to the very concept of home education, with Harvard Law School recently planning a conference to question the very basis of its legality and level reaching insinuations against parents that decide to homeschool their children. But it appears in the wake of the epidemic that the concept of homeschooling is alive and well.