Got a busy day today...
...but here's a lot of good readin' for you.
Santa Monica High School senior Steve Miller kicks some ass - respectfully and politely - as he describes his efforts to get just one libertarian and one conservative speaker to appear at his high school.
Courtesy of Instapundit, we discover Stanley Fish arguing for stronger sanctions against professors who violate academic standards. Don't miss Instapundit's previous FoxNews article on academics and accountability.
Glenn Sacks has a theory about why college enrollment for males is dropping.
Homeschoolers in Northeastern Illinois are receiving visits from the police. A local superintendent has made the outrageous (and illegal) demand that a group of 28 homeschooling families must appear for a "pre-trial hearing" to prove they are in compliance with the law - which doesn't require them to have district approval before they teach their children - and he's sending police to their homes to convey the demand. Intimidation, anyone?
Another textbook war in Texas - the books most preferred by districts might be the books most likely to have a "sanitized content" that "avoid words or concepts that might offend 'a score of heavy-duty, aggressive special-interest groups'". The proposed solution of taking textbook choice out of the hands of the district and giving teachers the freedom to choose their own books might improve the textbook quality, except for one tiny little point mentioned in the article - "4 in 5 of the nation's middle and high school social studies teachers neither majored nor minored in history".
Jeff Jacoby covers the campus diversity fraud, and Joanne Jacobs pokes fun at highly-ambitious mothers who are placing their infants "on the tummy track". Both articles are in today's Jewish World Review.
And, finally, a battle over standardized testing in taking place - in Ontario, Canada, where there is no long history of standardized testing in schools. The teachers' unions are - surprise! - against the testing, which means that Canada isn't so different from us after all.
Posted by kswygert at November 18, 2002 11:44 AM