The Washington State Legislature, under the control of Democrats for the past 40 years, has chosen, in their infinite wisdom, to allow a number of healthcare procedures that do NOT require parental notice nor permission. This article shares details from State websites. There are districts who have rolled out and/or are in the process of rolling out, dental and medical services on campus. You may want to be aware of this in case you have thoughts you want to share with your legislators and school district leadership. Let's start out with a snapshot of services and notice (or lack of) to parents: The chart on the left: Emergency services - No parental notice … [Read more...]
Vancouver School District – Jr Pride Club email – Feb 10 2023: Update 4:06pm
Update: Just before 4pm the VPS Superintendent, Jeff Snell, responded to the questions posed to him and the principal of Felida Elementary. You determine whether the answers he provides satisfy you: Jeff Snell 3:46 PM (19 minutes ago) to Kris.Janati, me Thank you for reaching out about your concerns. As stated in the email distribution, Vancouver Public Schools does not sponsor or endorse the advertised programs or events. Flyer distribution is a community service available to 501(c)3 and civic organizations. We have policies that guide the process and can be viewed at … [Read more...]
Battle Ground School District proposed Sex Ed Curriculum review
The Battle Ground School District, like all districts across Washington State, is starting the process of choosing curriculum to meet the State mandated Comprehensive Sex Ed signed into law by Gov. Inslee as passed by the State Legislature. (It's worth noting that this was a partyline vote. Democrats all voted yes). As such BGSD created a team of 20 people from about 100 applicants to review selected curriculum. The Directors of Curriculum gave an online presentation. You may want to view it before proceeding with the rest of this article so you understand what they shared: https://youtu.be/sjev3ZACGlA It's worth a couple of minutes to delve into the composition of the public group that … [Read more...]
What can parents expect for the Fall 2021/22 Washington State K-12 school year rules? – Update June 26th from the WA DoH
What can you expect for the beginning of the Fall 2021/22 public school requirements regarding vaccination; masks; in person learning and other topics of interest if you have a student in the K-12 public school system in Washington State? We would love to hear your thoughts after doing your own investigation and research and arriving at a position. We reached out to: Governors Office OSPI (Officer of Superintendent of Public Schools) WA Department of Health We received responses from each. You be the judge as to whether they actually answered the questions or not. This information may be helpful as you determine whether to use public schools or not for the 2021/22 school … [Read more...]
More screen time = lower IQ?
We've been sharing our concerns about the growth in screen time. We've pointed out that as screen time increases social problems increase; suicide risk increases and we lose personal interactions. Today we add to that list of concerns...dropping IQ. The following article from Intellectual Takeout walks us through a new study covering 700,000+ men from Norway over 29 years. Schools continue to push more and more screen time on top of what happens outside school. Perhaps schools should focus on handwritten and reading basics? Some of our articles on-screen time: https://swweducation.org?cat=947&paged=2 Jeff Minik shares his thoughts with us today... Are we getting … [Read more...]
But what if schools, not kids, are the problem?
John Stossel...do you recognize the name? He wrote an article for Reason.com recently that caught our attention. Give it a read and share if you think it's worth other people reading. 3 million kids (mostly boys) are given medication that's supposed to make them sit still and focus. But what if schools, not kids, are the problem? One former public school student, Cade Summers, tells John Stossel that he hated the effect of the drugs--that it was like he had been "lobotomized." Cade's parents took him off the "attention deficit" drugs and sent him to other schools. But Cade hated them all. "I would come home and I would sometimes just cry," Cade tells Stossel. Then he … [Read more...]
The New Standardized Morality Test. Really.
You've seen our articles on S.E.L. (Social Emotional Learning) and our concerns. Then we saw this new article at Forbes by Peter Greene. When will it be coming to a school near you? Stop laughing...this is serious! I'm not really sure how to start this, because -- well, I'll just let the lede on this press release speak for itself: IOWA CITY, Iowa—ACT, the nonprofit developer of the ACT® test and other assessments taken by millions of individuals worldwide, announced today that it was selected by the Crown Prince Court in Abu Dhabi to provide the Moral Education Standardized Assessment (MESA) for the Moral Education program in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). That's right. The … [Read more...]
Fifth Graders at Arizona School Provided Shocking Adult Transgender and Gay Curriculum – Is this coming to your school district?
Did you think that schools were supposed to educate children in math, reading, writing, communication, history and similar topics? Or do you subscribe to schools teaching social mores, genderism, providing health services and not informing parents of medical activity, providing mental services and other social-emotional aspects? Our own OSPI (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction) under the leadership of Chris Reykdal (who has claimed, on his personal Twitter account, to be a "social warrior") wants gender to be part of the public education process starting in...kindergarten. So, you ask if this story out of Arizona could happen in Washington State...the answer is YES!. As a … [Read more...]
How disconnecting from digital pressures can boost learning
If you've been following us you've seen articles we've shared about the negative impact "electronics" can have on learning. Test scores drop. Anti-social behaviors increase. Retention drops. All for the sake of "learning for the 21st century". Cell phones and social media distract. As screen times increases suicide risk rises. Is this ok with parents? Today we bring you another article that supports the theme...more screen time is bad for children. Take note that this article discusses France...the country of France and their efforts to stem (pun intended) the negative aspects of the digital age. If you have concerns please contact your local school district and take a stand. This article … [Read more...]
Should cell phone use during school be banned?
Distractions. Games. Texting. Surfing the web. How much time do students with smart phones spend using them during the school day? Does the use of cell phones detract from the educational experience? Does learning suffer? From an article at: https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/when-smartphones-go-school In the United States, 73 percent of teens own or have access to a smart phone. A mere 12 percent have no cell phone. Those numbers come from a 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. Some 90 percent of teens with cell phones send texts. The typical number is 30 texts per day. That’s the median number from the Pew data. Additionally, the Pew report … [Read more...]