I remember how it was -- JR
After 2 Years Homeschooling Using High School Curriculum, Boy, 13, Graduates College With 3.78 GPA
After two years of homeschooling using high school curriculum, 13-year-old Elliott Tanner graduated college with a bachelor’s degree and a 3.78 GPA. Now, he’s a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota with ambitions to become a professor.
“It doesn’t really faze us that he is young, because this is just our life,” Elliott’s mom, 45-year-old Michelle Tanner, told The Epoch Times. “He has put in his time, and has proved himself to everyone that he is capable of being successful in college.”
Michelle, who lives with her family in St. Louis, always knew her son had big academic ambitions.
Elliott, who is the only child of his parents, loved being read to as a baby and taught himself to read at 2 years old, without any formal instruction. He started writing a year later, and became interested in math, moving quickly past basic sums into 3- and 4-digit addition, multiplication, and division.
The teen officially started homeschooling at the age of 6, after Spanish immersion in kindergarten. His parents provided him with “a ton of books,” mentors and tutors, and even industry tours to cater to his burgeoning love of math, physics, chemistry, and computer coding.
He finished high-school algebra and geometry at 7, took trigonometry at 8, and enrolled at college three weeks after his ninth birthday for calculus classes and beyond, earning an associate’s degree in mathematics at the tender age of 11 during the pandemic.
“He didn’t have a typical graduation ceremony, it was online,” Michelle lamented. “It was bittersweet; we were incredibly proud of him, but wished he could have celebrated by walking across the stage.”
While studying for his bachelor’s of science in physics, with a minor in math, at the Univesity of Minessota, Elliott contributed to research for the International Short-Baseline Neutrino Program at Fermilab in Chicago, Illinois. His research was determining the effects of Rayleigh scattering in the SBND.
Michelle recalled her son’s college experience.
“Before he was 13, I would take him to school and stay on campus while he was in his classes; I would find a coffee shop,” she said. “Once he turned 13, we felt good about being able to just drop him off and pick him up.
“Elliott took full days of classes and was also involved in the Physics Club … loved being able to hang out in the physics student lounge, attended Math Club. The workload of college isn’t too much for Elliott.”
She explained that he doesn’t spend long hours studying at night and usually gets his homework done in between classes, so that when the other junior high-school kids are getting off the bus, he can already be home and get ready to play.
Another of Elliott’s favorite pastimes was virtual reality gaming with his close friend, the actor Iain Armitage, who plays Sheldon on the TV show, “Young Sheldon.”
Elliott, who loves Minecraft, Dungeons and Dragons, board games, and hanging out at the amusement park with friends, used to “stick out” and prompt double-takes among his college peers when he was little. Some even assumed he was a student’s child in class. But since growing taller, he fits in, said Michelle, and the “shock value” of his age wears off quickly.
Apart from having great executive skills and maturity, Elliott also brings in a little fun at school, Michelle said.
Due to his academic achievements, many think he “doesn’t get to be a kid,” or that his childhood was taken away from him, Michelle revealed. However, she assures that is not the case at all.
“Not only does he regularly play with age-similar peers, but he also has his academic needs met,” Michelle said. “So he is able to hang with other teenagers as well as speak to other physics students and professors about high-level physics concepts. It’s been a perfect match to be able to stimulate all areas of his life, both socially and academically.”
Michelle, a freelance photographer and social media manager, and her music-producer husband, 56-year-old Patrik Tanner, advocate for their son as best they can, despite it being difficult for Elliot to be accepted in the industry.
“His age has drawbacks, such as not being offered a teaching assistant position at the university for his PhD program,” Michelle explained. “This means he is one of only 3 percent of physics PhD students in the U.S. that do not have a tuition waiver or stipend, so we have to try to raise funds for his tuition.
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Betsy DeVos calls for the Department of Education to be abolished
Former education Secretary Betsy DeVos said the former department she led should be abolished.
Speaking at a "Moms For Liberty" summit in Tampa, Florida, DeVos said on Saturday that the Department of Education that she once led should be abolished in order to leave education decisions to state and local boards.
"I personally think the Department of Education should not exist,"DeVos said during her a keynote speech at the summit.
The Moms For Liberty group is a parental-rights group that advocates for parental rights at all levels of government, according to their website. The group was founded in Florida, by parents who opposed mask mandates for children in school due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The co-founder of Moms For LIberty Tiffany Justice who interviewed DeVos during the summit are vocal opponents of government-backed mask mandates and teachers unions. She recently blasted teachers unions for their "radical agenda" and not fully representing parents and students.
The summit was a three-day event to equip members from 30 states on how to elect more conservative candidates to school boards. The event featured DeVos as one of the prominent Republicans to speak along with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Throughout her time in the Trump administration, DeVos was a frequent target of teacher unions and Democrats because of her advocacy for school choice and vouchers. The former education secretary recently called the Biden administration's new parents council a "laughable" attempt to fix "a very glaring issue" in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
"Parents across the country are upset for a variety of reasons with how the system has handled the last two years. And they remain upset and they… want to have control of their children's education," she said.
The Department of Education announced the National Parents and Families Engagement Council earlier this month as a means of finding "constructive ways to help families engage at the local level." The committee, the department said, will conduct "listening sessions" to explore what schools can do to help students recover from the pandemic. The formation of the council followed a wave of criticism aimed at the Biden administration and Democrats for downplaying parents' roles in their children's education.
Parents all over the country have been speaking out against coronavirus related mandates in schools and progressive curriculums that have been associated with critical race theory or gender theory.
The Biden administration specifically drew the ire of parents when the National School Board Association (NSBA) sent a letter to the Justice Department that requested parents' actions at school board meetings be examined under the Patriot Act as "domestic terrorists." Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a task group to investigate threats of violence against school boards after the NSBA letter. Critics called the move an attack on parents.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/betsy-devos-calls-department-education-abolished
*****************************************************Labour-run council becomes first in UK to stop excluding pupils for behaving badly unless they are risk to other children's safety
Students in a Labour-run council will no longer be excluded from school for their bad behaviour, it has been revealed.
In what is believed to be a UK first, secondary schools in Southwark, south London, will allow misbehaving pupils to remain as long as they do not put another child's safety at risk.
Teachers will instead be encouraged to understand the reasons behind the bad behaviour by using a 'trauma-informed response' and to not take it at 'face value.'
The schools have all signed up to the agreement after a 2020 report found the council had a higher than average exclusion rate.
The same report, conducted by the council, also found that academies excluded more children than other schools.
Meanwhile, a separate investigation by the council found that black students in the borough were 1.5 times more likely to be excluded than their white counterparts.
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), councillors want the borough to be the first in England to exclude no pupils in the coming years.
Schools in Southwark reported zero exclusions in the 2021 autumn term.
Southwark police will also be asked to sign up to the agreement, which reads: 'Our aspiration is for 100 per cent inclusion of children in education that keeps them safe and enables them to flourish.
'Where appropriate, we will implement a trauma-informed response to behaviour of concern in children.
'By this, we mean not taking concerning behaviour at face value, but striving to understand what is driving that behaviour. […]
'We will strive for best practice across our policies and processes and towards 100 per cent inclusion approaches to behaviour in education settings.'
Councillor Jasmine Ali, cabinet member for children, young people and education, told a meeting on July 18 that 'even one child excluded' was too much.
She added: 'We're absolutely delighted to bring this charter.
'In 2018 we were rightly concerned that 49 pupils were excluded from education in this borough and they were disproportionately represented by children and young people of black and minority ethnic backgrounds, special education need or disability and many of them had care experience.'
It comes after a report in April suggested there be no exclusions in primary schools from 2026 onwards.
The paper from former Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield also highlighted the 'adultification' of black students who are treated with less care and protection because of perceived maturity.
Those children seen as older are more likely to be punished or excluded, the report claimed.
Longfield's report came a month after the Metropolitan Police was heavily criticised for strip-searching 'Child Q' - a black 15-year-old girl - without an appropriate adult present on suspicion of possessing cannabis.
Ms Longfield said: '[Adultification is] very real and it has a huge impact on children's lives,' she said. 'Essentially, it's young people being viewed as older.
'That means that we look after them slightly less and they don't get the protections and safeguarding they should.'
The report from the Commission for Young Lives also included a suggestion to ban exclusions at the primary school level from 2026.
Ms Longfield said the report is not about ignoring behavioural problems in schools but is about bringing in 'a new era of inclusivity'.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'This isn't trying to ignore the problems that are clearly being displayed with the child, nor is it about reducing expectations around academic achievement, but it is about taking that responsibility for all children within the classroom.
'And what we know is if we intervene early and offer that support to those children, often who will have special educational needs, they will be able to thrive in school.
'But schools really often find themselves wanting to do that, but between a rock and a hard place.
'They don't have often that specialist support on hand, and to some, sadly, they say exclusion is the only option for them.
'That's why we want to see a new era of inclusivity that can support those children to thrive.'
The report said the kind of treatment Child Q and other black children have been subjected to is damaging to their confidence in schools and the police.
It also said that race-equality training should be a core part of teacher training while the school curriculum should be reformed to make it more inclusive.
Jahnine Davis, director of child-protection company Listen Up, told BBC News: 'Black children are at a greater risk of experiencing this form of bias, due to preconceived ideas about black children being aggressive, deviant, and almost needing to be safeguarded from rather then safeguarded.
'Black girls tend to be met with suspicion. They tend to be perceived as being loud, as being aggressive and being hyper-resilient.
'If you want to explore the adultification of black girls, we have to look at the history, which is rooted in slavery and colonialism.'
In the past three years, 5,279 children were searched in London, with 3,939 (75 per cent) from ethnically-diverse backgrounds according to disclosures made under Freedom of Information laws.
Some 16 of those searched were aged between 10 and 12.
The Met has launched a review of its strip-search policy after the widespread backlash at the revelations about Child Q.
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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