Category: Education (K-12)
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Governor Youngkin Can Restore Parental Rights in the Treatment of Transgender Children in Schools with the Stroke of a Pen
by James C. Sherlock “Gov. Youngkin criticized after calling on teachers with LGBTQ students to tell parents” is a headline in The Virginian-Pilot. Apparently, “Gov. Youngkin calls on teachers with LGBTQ students to tell parents” did not make the cut. Narrative shaping 101. Now consider these statements of government opinion: “If she has to tell…
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Time to Throw the Spotlight on Virginia’s Education Schools
by James A. Bacon My Bacon’s Rebellion colleague Jim Sherlock has brought much-needed attention to the link between the Wokeness revolution in Virginia’s education schools and the collapse of learning at the state’s public schools. Virginia’s education schools increasingly see their role as less about teaching teachers to teach and more about bringing about the…
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Hallelujah! Cellphones Banned In Virginia Beach Schools
by Kerry Dougherty Quietly and without fanfare the Virginia Beach School Board on Tuesday night decided to ban cellphones in schools. Even powering up a phone on school property will now be against school board policy. Hallelujah! No longer will teachers have to patrol the aisles, reminding kids to put their phones away. No longer…
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Can Teaching Be Fixed to Transform It From a Burnout Job? – A Professional Approach
by James C. Sherlock K-12 teachers all over the state and country report burnout. There are lengthy discussions — OK, arguments — about the reasons for that situation. But no one denies it is happening. One of the attractions of teaching when I was a kid and a young man was that teachers, largely then…
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Teacher Shortages Aren’t the Only Manpower Problem in Schools
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s teacher shortage has become so acute that it has ignited widespread inquiries into what’s causing it. The explanations proffered by establishment media fall into two buckets: (1) teachers aren’t paid enough; and (2) teachers are quitting because conservative parents are meddling in their jobs. The latest example is an article…
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Equal Time: American Federation of Teachers on Teacher Retention and Discipline in Schools
by James C. Sherlock To balance my reporting on discipline in schools and teacher retention, it is only fair to go to the best progressive source of ideas. To give them equal time. It is a close call, but the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the most progressive and militant of America’s major teachers’…
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Partisan Explanations for Teacher Shortage Are Inadequate
by James A. Bacon Governor Glenn Youngkin and state senator Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, have given WLJA-TV alternative explanations for Virginia’s teacher shortage. Youngkin’s is partisan and incomplete, and Surovell’s is partisan and disconnected from reality. In an interview with the Washington television station, Youngkin blamed Democrats for holding up negotiations on the biennial budget that…
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Newport News School Officials Should Be In Trouble
by Kerry Dougherty Sue them. Sue them all. This is my unsolicited advice to the parents of two Newport News high school students who were shot last September by a violent criminal who should never have been allowed in their school in the first place. Sue the school. Sue the superintendent. Sue the school board.…
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School Discipline Issues Meet Unshakeable Progressive Dogma
by James C. Sherlock Moral panic has been defined as a: …widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. Virginia’s progressive community is in moral panic over the refusal of school discipline outcomes to bend to their prescriptions…
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Why are Teachers Quitting? In Virginia Beach, It May Not Be “Mean Parents”
by James C. Sherlock In the latest installment of “Why are Teachers Quitting,” I have come in possession of a summary copy of the 2020 responses of Virginia Beach teachers to a survey conducted by the Virginia Beach Public Schools (VBPS) administration relating to school discipline. Survey results were forwarded by Dr. Donald Robertson, Chief…
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A Teacher Safety Perspective on Teacher Shortages
by James C. Sherlock We have discussed here teachers shortages in Richmond and some of the other larger school divisions in Virginia. When the issues of teachers being physically afraid to continue teaching because of behavioral chaos in the schools is brought up, it is ignored or dismissed by the left in favor of its…
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Alexandria Schools’ Tentative Return to Sanity
by James A. Bacon Yesterday I wrote about a move by the Alexandria public school system to designate 30 minutes each day to “social-emotional learning” — a therapeutic approach involving counseling and community circles to teach students how to behave themselves in school. This initiative follows a previous decision to restore School Resource Officers (SROs)…
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A Broader Perspective on Teacher Shortages
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There have been several articles recently on this blog related to the looming shortage of teachers in Virginia. This is a legitimate, and serious, concern. The tone of many of those articles has been that one of the primary factors behind so many teachers leaving has been the breakdown in discipline resulting…
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Alexandria Schools to Devote 10% of Instructional Time to Social-Emotional Learning
by James A. Bacon Beginning in the new school year, Alexandria City Public Schools will designate 30 minutes every day to “social-emotional learning,” according to the school system’s website. In addition, Student Support Teams will provide more “targeted and intensive” interventions for individual students identified through the school’s Multi Tiered System of Support process. In…
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Virginia Needs Better Information Sharing to Provide Mandated Public Services to Illegals Efficiently and Effectively
by James C. Sherlock I am on record as a persistent advocate of improving the quality of both schools and medical services for poor and minority citizens. It has been the main focus of my work for years. In a directly related matter, we read, with different reactions depending upon our politics, of the struggles…