Parents rally as Fairfax school board punts controversial vote on changes to sex-ed classes

Despite the Fairfax County school board's decision to punt a controversial vote on changes to family life education (FLE) classes to June, parents showed up in full force at Luther Jackson Middle School at last Thursday's meeting.

The Fairfax school board is considering changing the FLE classes in the name of equity, including largely eliminating separate gender classes. The recommendation, from the school board sex-ed committee, would mix boys and girls in 4th through 8th grade for all discussions of puberty, sexually transmitted diseases, and the human reproductive system. The board will also consider increasing penalties against students for "malicious misgendering" "deadnaming" their peers. "Deadnaming" is a word used to describe the act of referring to someone by a name they used prior to transitioning.

"Too far, too much, too young," was Fairfax County parent Jeff's mantra. And his fellow parents in attendance roundly agreed.

"I asked my son this morning what he was going to learn," Jeff told Fox News Digital at a rally ahead of the school board meeting. "He said, ‘math, science, language arts, writing. And he said, ’oh, science.' That's what we want to hear, right? We don't want to hear, ‘I got punished today because I called somebody by the wrong pronoun. Or what this regulation identifies as 'malicious misgendering.’"

Elizabeth McCauley of the Virginia Mavens was concerned the administrators seemed to be prioritizing progressive agenda items at a time when Virginia schools are falling behind. Recent reports have found that, in the state of Virginia, only 33 percent of eighth graders and 38 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading.

"I think just the basic of saying what is falsehood is true," McCauley told Fox Digital."Boys are boys and girls are girls. And God has uniquely designed each individual the way they are. And starting at a very young age and preying upon young children. Grooming young children. Having pornographic, pedophilia literature in schools. That's very problematic. And also doing that and focusing so much effort on that, when kids are falling behind in academics."

McCauley blasted the materials she said children were being exposed to in classrooms.

"Also, I think the Family Life Education course, it's so important for parents to have to opt-in versus opt-out," she said. "That's absolutely key. Especially when they're expanding upon information that students are hearing here at school, but you would never even dream of mentioning in an adult working environment. Some of the things that kids are being told in school or even literature that they're receiving in school, is, if you sold it on the street, or you had it on the street, you'd be criminalized for it."

McCauley spared no hesitation when asked why she thought the Fairfax school board pushed the FLE vote to June.

"They're afraid because hey, I'm a mother bear," McCauley said, pointing to her t-shirt that read, "Beware the Mama Bear." "Beware the mother bears. Mother bears and Papa bears are coming out because we care about the future of our country. We care about our children."

https://www.foxnews.com/media/parents-rally-ahead-fairfax-county-school-board-vote-sex-ed-classes

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Poll: Majority of Americans in Favor of Teachers Being Armed

In the wake of the deadly Uvalde elementary school shooting, the heated topic of gun laws is once again a major forefront of people’s minds. Though a majority of Americans believe arming teaching will make schools more safe.

A recent poll conducted by The Trafalgar Group, surveyed 1,091 general election voters and found that 57.5 percent of voters believe schools are somewhat or much more dangerous without teachers who carry a legal firearm and are properly trained Ito use it. This leaves just over a mere 30 percent who oppose it.

While 67.5 percent of these voters are Republicans, almost half at 48.2 percent, are Democrats in favor of arming teachers.

The poll also suggests that a younger age group of 18 to 24 year olds support the idea that teachers who have access to guns will be able to protect themselves and students.

As violent crimes continues to sweep through the nation, it has become more common for Americans to view legal firearms as a "need."

Convention of State’s Action President Mark Meckler told the Daily Wire that “no shooting at a school is going to be stopped by gun control laws. They are going to be stopped by a variety of fairly simple on-site measures, including arming law-abiding citizens — in this case, specifically teachers — and empowering them to protect our children, schools, and communities,” adding “a majority of voters see this clearly, despite the relentless propaganda by people who want to confiscate the guns of law-abiding citizens.”

Meckler continued to say that self-defense is the “bedrock of this Republic and our Constitution,” and that being able to defend people is the responsibility as a citizen.

“So many deaths have been prevented by armed citizens so why would we question the voluntary training and arming of teachers to protect those we love and care for the most?”

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2022/06/01/poll-majority-say-having-armed-teachers-makes-schools-safer-n2608078

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‘Expert’ idiocy on teaching kids to read is beyond comprehension

Every teacher of struggling readers has experienced the moment when a student says, “I read it, but I didn’t get it.” It can be a bewildering experience. Why don’t they get it?

For several decades, elementary schools in New York City and across the country have turned to Columbia University education professor and acclaimed reading guru Lucy Calkins to answer that question. But in recent years, her influential and best-selling “Units of Study” curriculum has faced an intense barrage of criticism from experts who complain its “balanced literacy” approach is ineffective and gives short shrift to phonics — teaching children to look at pictures and guess words, for example, instead of sounding them out.

Schools Chancellor David Banks has announced plans to move literacy instruction in New York City away from Calkins’ curriculum in favor of approaches based on the “science of reading,” including phonics. Perhaps as a result, Calkins now appears to have conceded the argument, promising in a lengthy New York Times article to include “daily structured phonics lessons” in her program. That’s welcome news, but it’s not enough.

The South Bronx elementary school where I taught 5th grade for several years was a proponent of Calkins’ approach. We adopted her teaching methods and employed her literacy coaches for years, to very little effect. Her greatest sin against literacy comes after kids learn to “decode” the written word, whether or not they are taught with phonics, which is just the starting line for reading.

Calkins’ literacy philosophy is aimed at children developing a “lifelong love of reading” and discovering the intoxicating power of their own voices as writers. This mostly entails kids reading books they chose themselves and writing about their own experiences and interests. That may sound engaging and fun for kids (and it often is), but it can be fatal to sophisticated adult literacy, particularly for disadvantaged children.

Here’s why: Reading feels like riding a bike to good readers. Once you learn how to pedal and balance, you can ride nearly any bike. Reading may feel the same way; reading comprehension, however, is far more complicated. It depends on the reader and writer having in common a lot of background knowledge, vocabulary and context. Consider the common word “shot.” Phonics instruction can ensure children can read the word, but it means different things on a basketball court, in a doctor’s office and when the repairman uses it to describe your dishwasher.

Words and the ability to “decode” them are just the tip of the iceberg; comprehension lies beneath. The critical role of shared knowledge to language proficiency is the basic insight of another, less-heralded professor, the University of Virginia’s E.D. Hirsch Jr. Hirsch is something of the anti-Calkins and preaches a very different message: For education to work as an engine of equity and upward mobility, schools must do all in their power to expand children’s horizons, ensuring they get a well-rounded education in science, history, literature and the arts — access to the rich knowledge and vocabulary that undergird literacy.

Calkins’ work mostly disregards this fundamental insight, focusing students’ attention in the mirror instead of out the window. For low-income kids who are less likely to grow up in language-rich homes and don’t have the same opportunities for enrichment as affluent kids, the opportunity costs of Calkins’ “philosophy” are incalculable. Endless hours of class time that could be building knowledge and vocabulary are squandered.

I witnessed this daily in my South Bronx elementary school, where fewer than 20% of students passed state reading tests. I never had a single student unable to read words printed on a page. When they were reading and writing about topics they knew — the Calkins method — students did well. But when asked to read about unfamiliar topics on state tests, they often struggled. They read it, but they didn’t get. One principal I worked under attributed our low scores to “test anxiety,” but that wasn’t the problem. Their education was all mirrors and no windows.

It is well that Calkins has finally seen the light on phonics, however begrudgingly. But her approach commits even greater sins, particularly against low-income children, that phonics alone can’t fix.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/01/expert-idiocy-on-teaching-kids-to-read-is-beyond-comprehension/

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http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

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