This article claims there are 15 definable reasons why public education is in decline in the USA. Do you agree (we don't believe this is an accurate list but it's a place to start. Here's a link to the original article: 15 Failures of U.S. Public Education in 2025 Introduction American public education is at a crossroads. Once hailed as a global standard, the system today faces deep, structural problems that undermine its ability to deliver on its promise of equity and opportunity. From worsening academic performance to chronic underfunding, the failures of the American public education system are not isolated issues but interconnected challenges. In 2025, the stakes have never been … [Read more...]
Do lower school suspensions lead to increases in violence?
We asked Gemini the question and here is the response. Do you agree or disagree? The weight of current educational and sociological research suggests that suspensions in lower school (elementary and middle school) do not reduce violence; instead, they are strongly linked to increased aggression, future misconduct, and long-term involvement in the justice system. This phenomenon is often described as the "School-to-Prison Pipeline." Rather than acting as a deterrent, early exclusionary discipline frequently serves as a "turning point" that sets a child on a path toward further antisocial behavior. 📈 The Link Between Suspension and Violence Longitudinal studies indicate that … [Read more...]
Social emotional learning is harmful to children – ChatGPT says….
We've run a number of articles on Social Emotional Learning (S.E.L.) and the concerns about it. Here is a link to articles we've published in the past: Search Results for “sel” So, given all the hype of AI and it's potential influence on education we decided to ask one of the Ai services (ChatGPT) what it thinks. Here's the initial exchange for your consideration. Remember that whoever inputs the data influences the conclusions and observations...you can take the chat from here and if you find something of interest please share it with us at: swweducation dot org at gmail dot com Question: It is the role of schools to teach children how to deal with these issues or is it a parental … [Read more...]
Homeschoolers May Need Less Instructional Time than Traditional School Students
HSLDA - Steven Duvall Summary A recent study by HSLDA’s Director of Research, Stephen Duvall, PhD, found that the efficiency of the homeschool environment can allow for more learning in less time. His findings suggest that 3rd and 4th grade homeschool students can spend as little as 2–3 hours daily in academic pursuits and make the same progress as public school students do in a full school day. Of course, every child is different, and some states have minimum hour requirements for homeschoolers. Many parents find homeschooling appealing because it gives them flexibility when designing their children’s learning experiences.[1] This often results in shortened school days, but … [Read more...]
Social-Emotional Learning: The Dark Side
At the risk of running two articles on Social Emotional Learning back-to-back we are sharing a blog story from Nancy Bailey's Website. Give this a read and consider whether you need to intervene in your local school district. Why would parents and teachers, tired of high-stakes testing in their public schools, wish to sign onto more assessment that tests, tracks, and profiles their child’s behavior online? States are setting up SEL standards about what children should think and feel. How does one standardize such things? Here are the concerns. SEL is ill-defined, unproven and still connected to Common Core. There’s a mish-mash of psycho-social, neuroscience talk, and … [Read more...]
“PBIS”: Behind the Feds’ Wacky Scheme to Modify Children’s Behavior
We've raised the red flag about PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Support). Today we bring you another article by Karen R. Effrem, MD. Dr. Karen Effrem is trained as a pediatrician and serves as president of Education Liberty Watch and the executive director of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. Please take the time to read her article and share it. The time, effort and money being wasted could be redirected to helping fund classrooms instead of trying to control our children Jane Robbins recently did an excellent job of describing the “government-sponsored personality manipulation” likely coming to a school near you. It is now time to look at the details of the … [Read more...]
Teacher to Parent – Positive reinforcement doesn’t work in the long run
A parent in one of the Facebook groups shared this story from Moultrie News. The author is Jody Stallings We offer this because the PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Systems) and Social/Emotional Programs being run by school districts across America may be doing their own form of harm in trying to protect children from real life. Indeed, some parents shield and protect their children so much that when the child has to deal with the real world they are unable to cope. Give this story a read and see what you think.... Q. My third grade son recently came home in tears saying he didn’t want to go to school anymore because he was punished for talking during silent reading. The … [Read more...]
Well-being programs in schools might be doing children more harm than good
From an article at Phys.org - author is Kathryn Ecclestone Editors note: This one of our ongoing explorations of programs that are being instituted in schools that move beyond what many think of as normal education. In this case the topic is: Social Emotional Health and has become a hot topic for those who think that parents are either not capable of handling raising their children. Give it a read and share your thoughts.... Apocryphal depictions of an unprecedented crisis in young people's mental ill-health and their general vulnerability have been accompanied by increasingly alarmist claims that only schools can address this social "ticking time bomb". There have … [Read more...]
Former Teacher: 7 Ways Schools are Creating ‘Empty’ Children
Original posted at Intellectual Takeout .... In the early 1990s, New York Teacher of the Year, John Taylor Gatto, threw in the towel on teaching with his famous I Quit, I Think letter to the Wall Street Journal. Gatto’s reason for quitting was simple. He could no longer justify teaching “a curriculum of confusion, class position, arbitrary justice, vulgarity, rudeness, disrespect for privacy, indifference to quality, and utter dependency.” Such a system, Gatto opined, was turning our children into mindless robots. In his book, The Underground History of American Education, Gatto lists fifteen ways the education system can create “empty children.” Seven of them are below. Would you agree … [Read more...]