Screens In Schools Are a $60 Billion Hoax (TIME)

Screens In Schools Are a $60 Billion Hoax:

The screen revolution has seen pedagogy undergo a seismic shift as technology now dominates the educational landscape. In almost every classroom in America today, you will find some type of screen—smartboards, Chromebooks, tablets, smartphones. From inner-city schools to those in rural and remote towns, we have accepted tech in the classroom as a necessary and beneficial evolution in education.

This is a lie.

Tech in the classroom not only leads to worse educational outcomes for kids, which I will explain shortly, it can also clinically hurt them. I’ve worked with over a thousand teens in the past 15 years and have observed that students who have been raised on a high-tech diet not only appear to struggle more with attention and focus, but also seem to suffer from an adolescent malaise that appears to be a direct byproduct of their digital immersion. Indeed, over two hundred peer-reviewed studies point to screen time correlating to increased ADHD, screen addiction, increased aggression, depression, anxiety and even psychosis.

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World News (May 22, 2018 Edition): “It’s Ridiculous”: Parents Furious As Australia Seeks To Ban Use Of “Boy” Or “Girl” In Books – Cartoonist Fired From German Newspaper Over Netanyahu Drawing – Rep. Eric Swalwell Pushes ‘Assault Weapons’ Buyback, Criminal Prosecution of Those Who Refuse – Syrian army liberates the last ISIS foothold in the vicinity of the Syrian capital – Germany: High Regional Court rejects detention. Carles Puigdemont remains free – Ramadan Rage: Jihadists Kill 41, Injure 102 in First 4 Days

https://twitter.com/EmbassyofRussia/status/998855217826451457

Read moreWorld News (May 22, 2018 Edition): “It’s Ridiculous”: Parents Furious As Australia Seeks To Ban Use Of “Boy” Or “Girl” In Books – Cartoonist Fired From German Newspaper Over Netanyahu Drawing – Rep. Eric Swalwell Pushes ‘Assault Weapons’ Buyback, Criminal Prosecution of Those Who Refuse – Syrian army liberates the last ISIS foothold in the vicinity of the Syrian capital – Germany: High Regional Court rejects detention. Carles Puigdemont remains free – Ramadan Rage: Jihadists Kill 41, Injure 102 in First 4 Days

Schools are removing analogue clocks from exam halls as teenagers ‘cannot tell the time’

NOT the Onion!

Schools are removing analogue clocks from exam halls as teenagers ‘cannot tell the time’:

Schools are removing analogue clocks from examination halls because teenagers are unable to tell the time, a head teachers’ union has said.

Teachers are now installing digital devices after pupils sitting their GCSE and A-level exams complained that they were struggling to read the correct time on an analogue clock.

Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said youngsters have become accustomed to using digital devices.

“The current generation aren’t as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations,” he told The Telegraph.

Read moreSchools are removing analogue clocks from exam halls as teenagers ‘cannot tell the time’

Emmanuel Macron to lower school age to THREE in bid to stamp out terror in France

Emmanuel Macron to lower school age to THREE in bid to stamp out terror in France:

EMMANUEL Macron will reduce the compulsory school age to three-years-old in a bid to stop the spread of terror. The French President said schooling from a younger age would better integrate youngsters into society, avoiding alienation and the risk of radicalisation.

Families in poorer areas of France and in overseas territories are less likely to enrol their children in nursery, instead waiting until the current compulsory age of six.

Read moreEmmanuel Macron to lower school age to THREE in bid to stamp out terror in France

New Zealand: University employee fired for trying to shake hands with a Muslim student

University employee fired for trying to shake hands with a Muslim student:

A UNIVERSITY of Auckland staff member was fired for “serious misconduct” after trying to shake hands with a female Muslim student.

A UNIVERSITY of Auckland senior staff member has been fired after trying to shake hands with a female Muslim student.

The ousted staff member then filed a complaint of sexual discrimination against her after she refused to shake his hand, the New Zealand Herald reports.

A newsletter from vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon directed to all university staff said the academic had tried to shake her hand with the knowledge that it would be inappropriate.

H/t reader kevin a.

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Doctors SHOCKED as children no longer able to hold pencils due to endless use of mobile devices

Doctors SHOCKED as children no longer able to hold pencils due to endless use of mobile devices:

Today’s children have more technology at their disposal than any generation before them, and it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. Some parents might marvel at the wide range of educational apps available that claim to help children boost academic skills, but that won’t count for much if they can’t even master the basic skill of writing.

A study carried out by the Heart of England Foundation NHS Trust found that young children are entering school without the hand strength and dexterity needed to hold their pencils due to the widespread overuse of touchscreen tablets and phones. The ability to grip and move a pencil requires a strong control over the fine muscles in the fingers, and children who are constantly using touchscreens don’t get the opportunity to develop these essential skills.

Parents have no one to blame but themselves, according to British pediatricians. Many parents find it easier to park their kids in front of an iPad than to encourage them to build with blocks or participate in other activities that build hand muscles such as coloring.

Read moreDoctors SHOCKED as children no longer able to hold pencils due to endless use of mobile devices

Germany: Berlin’s third graders can’t write. 75% out of 24.000 elementary school students failed in the field of spelling set by the Conference of Ministers of Education.

Mission accomplished!

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Germany- Berlin is now teaching Turkish to first graders, especially for families with a Turkish background. This is what integration looks like under Sandra Scheeres(SPD).

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Experts warn of a literacy crisis among Aussie kids – here are the eight signs that show how your child could be lagging behind

Experts warn of a literacy crisis among Aussie kids – here are the eight signs that show how your child could be lagging behind:

  • Australia is facing an illiteracy ‘crisis’, education experts have warned  
  • Parents are not equipping their children with reading and speaking skills 
  • Teachers are reporting students are struggling with basic literacy

Australia is facing an illiteracy ‘crisis’ with children starting kindergarten less prepared than ever, experts have warned.

Education experts say distracted parents are not equipping their children with reading and speaking skills and are relying too heavily on teachers.

Teachers are reporting more and more of their students are struggling with basic literacy, Warwick Daily News reported.

H/t reader kevin a.

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As Women March, Ohio State Course Reprimands “White Heterosexual Masculinity”

As Women March, Ohio State Course Reprimands “White Heterosexual Masculinity”:

As 1000s of Women’s March protesters gather in cities across America on the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration, a class taught this spring at Ohio State University will review a parade of reasons why white heterosexual masculinity is allegedly problematic, tackling the topic from the constructs of racial issues, bullying, pop culture, societal expectations and much more, according to its syllabus.

As The College Fix’s Amanda Tidwell reports,  the syallbus states that masculinity simultaneously harms yet privileges men.

The course, “Be a Man! Masculinities, Race and Nation,” includes a variety of readings to that end, including its required textbook “Dude, You’re a Fag!” by C.J. Pascoe, which analyzes masculinity as not only a gendered process, but sexual one, its Amazon description states.

Read moreAs Women March, Ohio State Course Reprimands “White Heterosexual Masculinity”

It’s Time to Rethink Education – Part 3 (The Future of College)

It’s Time to Rethink Education – Part 3 (The Future of College):

Over the next ten years, I suspect the concept of a college education will be questioned to such an extent, and by so many people, that all assumptions we currently hold dear will be discarded. The spark for this momentous shift will start, as is so often the case, with simple economics. Too many young people have taken on too much debt to get jobs that didn’t require this education they were told they needed. We quite literally have an entire generation that understands this intimately, and this understanding will shape the way they see college, and education in general, as they raise kids of their own.

As I write this, I’m excited to say we live in one of the most extraordinary times in human history. The old way of doing things in virtually every aspect of human civilization has either broken down, or is breaking down as I write this. Communications, media, finance, money itself, etc. The list is seemingly endless, and education is no exception. In fact, I think education is an example of extremely low-hanging fruit and will be disrupted and decentralized in unimaginable ways in the years ahead.

Read moreIt’s Time to Rethink Education – Part 3 (The Future of College)

It’s Time to Rethink Education – Part 2 (Unschooling)

It’s Time to Rethink Education – Part 2 (Unschooling):

There are several components, but the real shocker is that more of us aren’t embracing the current age of access to mastery of any topic. But that may not be so surprising—most of us were taught to be passive learners, to just “get through” school. It’s easy to be lazy. The rewards of becoming an autodidact, though, include igniting inner fires, making new connections to knowledge atnd skills you already have, advancing in your career, meeting kindred spirits, and cultivating an overall zest for life and its riches.

One good reason to dive head first into self-initiated learning is that much of what you were taught is already obsolete. “Knowledge workers succeed not based on what they know, but rather how they learn,” writes James Marcus Bach in his book, Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar. He dropped out of school when he was 14 and, in the early days of home computing, taught himself enough to become a software tester for Apple. He’s now an independent consultant.

Bach’s philosophy is rebellious yet inclusive: “Intellectual buccaneering is about self-education, but schools are OK, too. I’ve learned in schools, and I’ve learned from people who were trained in schools. I happily plunder knowledge wherever I find it. I don’t seek the destruction of schools. I am out to dismantle something else—the popular belief that schooling is the only route to a great education and that the best students are those who passively accept the education their schools offer.”

– From the Psychology Today article: The Golden Age of Teaching Yourself Anything

While some of you will be familiar with the educational concept of unschooling, it’ll probably be new to most of you. Personally, I never looked into the concept until I became a parent a couple of years ago, and it was my wife who first became fascinated with the idea and bought a bunch of books on the topic. I’m really glad she did.

The book we’re currently reading is by a fascinating individual named Ben Hewitt, titled Home Grown. Back in 2014, Ben wrote an excellent article for Outside Magazine in which he provided a concise description of what unschooling is. It’s quite distinct from home-schooling, which most people are already familiar with.

In the piece, We Don’t Need No Education, he explains:

Read moreIt’s Time to Rethink Education – Part 2 (Unschooling)

Vampires, Zombies And ‘Hooking Up’: 37 Examples Of Real College Courses That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

Vampires, Zombies And ‘Hooking Up’: 37 Examples Of Real College Courses That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe:

You just can’t make this stuff up. 

All over America we push our young people to get good grades so that they can get “a college education”, but then once they get through college many of our young people are completely unequipped to deal with the real world.  Personally, I spent eight years at public universities, and I can tell you that the quality of education that our college students are receiving is a complete joke.  Especially on the undergraduate level, almost all testing consists of either true/false, multiple choice or fill in the blank questions.  Students learn very few useful skills at our “institutions of higher learning”, and many of them leave school barely even able to function in society.

I am about to share with you a list of 37 of the most ridiculous courses that are currently being offered at major U.S. colleges and universities today.  This information comes from a brand new report that was just put out by Young America’s Foundation, and it is tempting to chuckle as you read through what they have compiled, but the truth is that what is happening to our system of higher learning is not a laughing matter.  The following is a short excerpt from the report

Read moreVampires, Zombies And ‘Hooking Up’: 37 Examples Of Real College Courses That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

It’s Time to Rethink Education – Part 1 (Indoctrination)

It’s Time to Rethink Education – Part 1 (Indoctrination):

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.
– Mark Twain

As a father of two young children, my thoughts have increasingly started to center around their young lives and the future world they’ll inhabit. Such considerations quickly lead to stressful questions such as, what are the best schools in the area? Which option can provide the best environment in which to thrive? If the best options aren’t public, can we afford them? Is it worth the money? All these questions and more have filled the minds of my wife and I over the past couple of years, but lately we’ve started to ask even bigger questions; such as whether the compulsory education system as it exists in the U.S. in 2017 makes any sense in the first place. I’m increasingly starting to conclude that it doesn’t.

Read moreIt’s Time to Rethink Education – Part 1 (Indoctrination)

Goodbye Goldilocks? Calls for parents to ditch traditional fairy tales in favour of gender-neutral books showing ‘men in caring roles and women as scientists’

Goodbye Goldilocks? Calls for parents to ditch traditional fairy tales in favour of gender-neutral books showing ‘men in caring roles and women as scientists’:

  • Elizabeth Broderick says it could help stop violence towards women later in life
  • Gender champion wants children at preschool to read about men as nurturers 
  • Supports literature which shows children ‘that boys and girls can do anything’
  • Critics have slammed Ms Broderick’s call as ‘political correctness gone mad’

Children should be read gender-equal books instead of fairy tales of knights and princesses.

That’s the view of former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, who believes exposing children to gender-neutrality at preschool could help solve issues of pay disparity and violence towards women later in life.

‘A lot of what our children see and are taught is subconscious gender stereotyping and what we have to do is really shift that, and we won’t shift that until the social norms change,’ she told The Sunday Telegraph.

Read moreGoodbye Goldilocks? Calls for parents to ditch traditional fairy tales in favour of gender-neutral books showing ‘men in caring roles and women as scientists’