MO Gov Parson gave a speech to MO education administrators recently, which has me feeling a tad ranty. In it, he spoke glowingly of his friend ‘Margie’, director of DESE (MO Dept of Elementary and Secondary Education), and encouraged MO’s poor public s…
Today is the 235th birthday of the United States Constitution. Peruse it or lose it… and the liberty it was written to preserve. What was signed as completed upon this day, two hundred and thirty-three years ago, September 17th, 1787, by thirty-nin…
Last year, prior to marking September 11th, 2001, I noted that what most unified Americans before and after 9/11, has been our opposition to each other, and a general ignorance of the history and ideas that made America possible 225 years before that a…
How we came to accomplish so much less, with so much more, involves several popular buy-ins, first and foremost being the ‘good intentions’ we still share with our Founding Reformers (i.e.’go to school to get a good job’), which fundamentally changed …
As noted previously, the good intentions that our Founding Reformers had in mind when they began the movement towards reforming education in the late 1790s, had a lot in common with our own good intentions today, but those good intentions are just abou…
Two points before getting to my annual reposting of Calvin Coolidge’s speech on the “Inspiration of our Declaration of Independence”, and to the Declaration itself- the first, which I went into a little bit of detail here, is that the Declaration of In…
We’ve already noted the abundance of good intentions that patriots like Noah Webster, Dr. Rush, and Ben Franklin had when urging a ‘New!’ system of education upon us as a means to improve people and fit them to secure their new Republic, much of which …
From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, Philadelphia August 11. 1777:I wish to turn your Thoughts early to such Studies, as will afford you the most solid Instruction and Improvement for the Part which may be allotted you to act on the Stage of…
American war dead, Flanders Field, BelgiumRemembering, once again… Memorial Day… it is enough to remember today those who have fallen in defense of our nation. But it’s not all we can do, for them or for us, and to leave it there, I think, dep…
Even if you haven’t paid close attention, you’ve heard about the issues surrounding education and school boards, locally and across the nation, concerning key issues, curriculum, and various excuses and evasions made for them. What triggered the contro…
What the establishment candidates running for FHSD school board are in agreement with each other upon, are why I’m voting for Adam Bertrand & Randy Cook in the Francis Howell School Board elections, on April 5th. If you watch our FHSD School Board …
The fact that even with twelve plus years of schooling, many of our students today can’t or won’t read, or write, or count, says all that should need to be said about the methods of modern schooling in general and of public education in particular. Wha…
The law is a subject that I find fascinating, how it developed, and developed into principles that could uphold justice, and particularly how its philosophical concepts are best applied to the often messy realities of life. Whatever your opinion of my …
A pause for a short post on the state of School Board elections and people’s (*cough *leftists* cough*) inability to tolerate opposing opinions. I made the short post below (absent the links) on our local ‘Nextdoor’ app, regarding our school board elec…
American’s changing understanding of what ‘education’ is and is for, has changed us from being a people who were literate enough for The Federalist Papers to be written for persuading the common farmer and ‘man in the street’ on adopting a constitution…
Jack Danforth’s recent suggestion that a center-right Republican should run as an independent in the 2022 Missouri senate race is ridiculous. At 85, Danforth has lost it.