We were warned.

Almost seventy years ago, reading expert Rudolph Flesch’s bestselling book, Why Johnny Can’t Read, and What You Can Do About It warned Americans of the dangers of using the ‘look-say’ method to teach reading rather than phonics. Flesch argued that because look-say teaches students to memorize whole words by sight, rather than phonics, it was ineffective. He also said the simple stories typical of the look-say readers (e.g., Dick & Jane) did not help students develop a broad enough vocabulary to prepare them for reading increasingly complex material as they progressed through school. Rather than heed his warning, we doubled down on whole word reading instruction, and by the year 2000, most American schools, led by the New York City Schools, and Columbia Teacher’s College, had implemented Lucy Calkins’ Balanced Literacy Units of Study For Teaching Reading curriculum. Calkins’ program took the look-say method, and expanded on it, teaching children to guess words they didn’t know using “context clues” like pictures, rather than phonics.

Balanced literacy limited the vocabulary students could learn just as much as look-say, but added an element of frustration for the children. Since they were expected to fill in their own gaps using “context clues,” students would interpret their lack of progress as evidence they were “no good at reading.” If they didn’t improve at school, teachers would advise parents to encourage students to read more outside of school, and if that failed, teachers would simply blame parents.There were always those exceptions, those students who learned to read at home, before entering school, or whose parents filled in gaps with things like Hooked on Phonics, or tutoring, and plenty of private schools still taught reading using phonics for a while, but eventually, even private schools adopted the Calkins method, and for decades, America’s children learned to read in a way that took what ought to have resulted in hours of cognitive growth, and enjoyment, into self-esteem-crushing drudgery that few students voluntarily pursued outside of school.The groundswell of anger and frustration that had been building amongst parents and teachers over the years finally caught up with Calkins in the form of a podcast. Sold a Story, produced by award-winning journalist Emily Hanford in 2022, had more people sharing it than any other show in 2023, and finally, in October of the same year, Columbia Teacher’s College finally parted ways with the Calkins curriculum.

Did we take too long to listen?

Just this week, The Atlantic published a piece entitled The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books, by Rose Horowitch, in which she tells readers something I’ve known for a long time: starting in middle school America’s teachers have stopped asking students to read books. Yes, you read that correctly. Students in the vast majority of middle and high schools are never assigned a book. That is not to say they don’t read at all, or that they aren’t told to select a book to read on their own; they’re just never required to read a book with the class, or asked to read it closely enough to learn new vocabulary, or analyze the text along with a teacher who knows it well, and can help the student think about the themes, characters, or problems more deeply than they possibly could with their limited life experience and cultural knowledge. Most students today read passages, and most of those are non-fiction as well. As a result, even elite college students today lack the stamina to read the sheer amount of material they would (should) be expected to read at the college level. Compounding the problem is the fact that their lack of reading has resulted in a limited vocabulary, and lack of writing skill. These are students who have not been exposed to great writing at all in some cases, never mind often enough, and with enough study or understanding (never mind grammar instruction) to write coherently, never mind well.

This isn’t just a description of what most students are capable of doing, it’s also indicative of what they are inclined to do. Factor in competition for their attention from technology, and their anxieties about everything from their job prospects (made more limited by their lack of reading and writing skill) to climate change, and we have a huge challenge on our hands in this country.Most professors have simply decided not to assign challenging books at all because they know the students won’t read them. After all, at many elite schools, thanks to grade inflation, the students know they don’t have to complete their assignments at all, and they won’t “flunk out.” If their schools are anything like Harvard, as many as 79% of them could still have an A average.So did we wait too long? I suppose time will tell, but the simple fact is, this is where we are: even elite college students don’t read, and their employers, and possibly the rest of us, to the extent we need them to do things that require reading (teaching included), will have to deal with whatever that means.

To hear me tell a story about my own experience trying to teach a group of middle-school students who refused to read, watch this:

To listen to a conversation about the important life lessons our children miss when they don’t read books, watch this:

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I want to dig into the topic of “socialization” brought up today on X (see post below from Homeschool_LLC) because I truly believe the enduring myth he describes is likely the primary reason most people who could and would be inclined to homeschool their children, choose not to. “What about Socialization” was, and still is, the most common question I get, often followed by “but aren’t you afraid they’ll be weird?”

The following details what I now say to people who ask this question. Feel free to use it yourself or, if you’re one of the people inclined to ask the question, please read this with an open mind.

Define “weird?”

Hey, this is me. If you don’t know already, you soon will; I am a person who insists that people define their terms before I will engage in any discussion, least of all one aimed at (unsolicited) denigration or judgement of my life choices.

Here’s what the dictionary says:

Well look at that: “Of strange or extraordinary character: ODD, FANTASTIC.” That would only be a bad thing if the opposite of weird is universally desirable, right? Well what are the antonyms for “weird?”

Hmmm…I don’t know about y’all, but I’m not aiming to raise a “typical” adult, or an “ordinary” one either. I’m not saying I’ll be disappointed in my kids if they aren’t stand-outs in some way, but I want them to be individuals, not conformists, especially if I don’t approve of the “commonplace” “standards” that are “usual” in today’s society.Still, I doubt most people using the term mean “weird” exclusively the way it’s defined above. My guess is they mean “Won’t know how to get along or interact with people,” or “Won’t know how to make friends.” So that brings me to my next point:

What does “getting along with” others look like?

There are two interpretations of the phrase “getting along with.” I’m not using the dictionary now, I’m defining these based on my own experience, and answers given to me by anti-homeschoolers when I’ve asked them:

* Able to interact with people who disagree, or are not like them, without experiencing unmanageable distress or conflict, and while still maintaining their own personal boundaries (that is, behaving in polite, respectful, situationally-appropriate ways, without sacrificing their own needs, or abandoning their own values).

* Conforming to the behavior of the dominant personalities in any given space, or subjugating their own needs and values to the demands and desires of the collective.

OK, to be fair, no one actually gave me that second definition as-written, I’m extrapolating from comments like “C’mon, you know what I mean!” and “Not standing out, not being a creepy loner…Doing what the other kids are doing, you know, having an active social life with friends!”

Most people would probably agree that answer number one makes sense, and is probably what most parents think “getting along with” others ought to look like, so then the question is, are homeschoolers really hobbled in their ability to “get along” with others by that definition? No, they are not, and research backs me up on this. Kerry McDonald reported in February of this year that research done by the Harvard Human Flourishing Program found:

“…home-schooled children generally develop into well-adjusted, responsible and socially engaged young adults,”

So then the next logical question should be,

How are kids “socialized” at school?

Homeschoolers like me don’t dispute the fact that schools do “socialize” kids, we just dispute that they do it better than homeschooling. We say that because our definition of “good” includes “getting along with others” as described above. Therefore to be objectively “better” at socialization, schools would have to produce people who get along “better” by those standards than people who are homeschooled.

Look around; Is it your experience that the average public school kid “gets along better” with people? Are they more respectful towards their teachers, parents, and strangers in public? Do they get into fewer fights with their peers, or express less rage or extreme disappointment when they don’t get what they want? When they meet new people, are they more comfortable making eye-contact, introducing themselves, and starting conversations than their homeschooled peers?

Evidence would strongly suggest they don’t. One in six school-aged children is suffering with some form of mental illness. School attendance alone is strongly correlated with youth suicide, and especially since the lockdowns, school violence has gone up steadily year after year. Are these statistics that argue for school-based socialization? Even if you don’t blame the school, or its approach to setting and enforcing standards of behavior, for all that dysfunction, you can’t deny that telling families their kids will be “weird” if they don’t go to school isn’t a compelling argument against homeschooling. Even if “weird” did mean friendless and awkward, is that really worse than suicidally depressed and violent, or in classes all day with kids who are?Now unlike some homeschooling parents, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that all homeschoolers are better socialized than all school kids. Personality, parenting, and other factors influence how children get along with other people. I’m just making the case that “socialization” at school isn’t automatically better, and might actually be worse.

Socialization vs. Socializing

Socializing and socialization often get confused, but as much as the latter may be part of the former, they are different in important ways.

School may provide more opportunities to children for “social interaction” with other children, but if the state told you tomorrow that your social circle would be defined by your age and zip code, would you be grateful, or looking for a way out? Also remember your child isn’t going to school to socialize, but to learn all the things they’ll need to know to make some pretty major decisions about the rest of their lives. Should they go to college, or pursue a trade? Should they become an entrepreneur, or be an employee? What kind of person do they want to be when they grow up? We expect our kids to make choices by the end of their senior year in High School that will shape the rest of their lives, but we often forget that “socialization” will play a major role in how they make those choices.

Sure, it’s nice to be able to make some friends along the way, especially if you’re stuck in a building all day for nine months, but why do we even accept that arrangement as a “normal” childhood?” If socialization is supposed to teach children the “values, habits, and attitudes” of a society, wouldn’t it be more realistic to expose children to a wider variety of people and experiences, as homeschooling families do? After all, “homeschooling” doesn’t literally mean “confined to home” the way “schooling” means “confined to school.”

Not all “values, habits, and attitudes” are equal

Finally, my answer to the “What about socialization” question would be incomplete without reference to the nature of the “values, habits, and attitudes” schools today want to “socialize” into our children. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs most (if not all) American schools use today teach that “Social Justice” the highest value. To achieve it, they teach kids to develop a habit of “identifying” themselves and others by immutable characteristics like race, ethnicity, sex, religion, and socioeconomic class, and encourage them to adopt the attitude that the society, in America especially, is so unjust, it must be completely “deconstructed.”What that means is, far from teaching our children how to “get along with others,” it’s teaching them how to identify what’s wrong with themselves, or others, so they can become “change agents.” Gone are the days when Americans could count on schools reenforcing the values, habits, and attitudes of a shared culture. Now the mere mention of a “shared culture” can spark outrage in an SEL educator, who will tell you it’s more important for our children to be socially aware, and culturally-responsive, so they can avoid cultural-appropriation, or micro-aggressing against others. As a consequence, school-based socialization makes social interaction more like navigating an interpersonal minefield of potential hurt-feelings and perceived injustice. Is it any wonder anxiety levels are so high?

Socialization is WHY we homeschool

Socialization is important, there’s no question about it, but the perception that it doesn’t happen, or can’t happen, or can’t happen “properly” outside of schools, is false. Socialization happens whether we like it or not. Human beings who aren’t living as hermits in the woods, literally tucked away from all other humans, interact with other humans inside their own homes, and every time they go out, no matter where they go. Children watch the people around them, how they start and end conversations, how they speak to each other, how they handle disappointment and conflict involving other people, and how they make friends. Homeschooling families know all this, and it’s one of the main reasons we homeschool. Why shouldn’t we be the ones to teach our children values, habits, and attitudes they’ll need to succeed in society? If you think about it, if we’re not qualified to do that, we’re not qualified to parent them in the first place.

Learn more

More about socialization:

SEL Defined below, and here’s my playlist of my own work about SEL.

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This post is not the first I’ve ever seen on social media from someone insisting we’re not “qualified” to homeschool our own children. I’ve addressed this before on my YouTube channel many times, within the context of other videos, but here I’m trying to give you some responses you can use to push back on people who say you’re not qualified (because you are).

1. Define Qualified?

The first thing you should always do when someone says you’re not qualified is to insist they define their terms. Don’t assume you know, and start defending yourself. If they throw something at you like “You don’t have a certification,” or “You haven’t been properly trained,” or “Where did you get your teaching degree?” simply follow that with the following:

* What does “certification” do for the teacher, or the student, do you know?

* Define “properly trained,” to do what exactly?

* What do people with teaching degrees have that makes them more qualified to teach my individual child (whom you do not know) than I am?

You could keep going with this all day if need be. The point is not to convince them you are qualified, the point is to challenge the validity of their claim. Unless and until they can define what qualified is, what teachers do that you could not do, and what teacher training delivers that you could not get on your own (if you don’t already have it), they have no point, and should be made aware of that.

There is no specific class a parent takes to learn to teach their child to walk, talk, and go to the toilet, and yet most parents figure out it, often by asking other parents, their own parents, or even the Internet what to do, and those who have a child who struggles with these milestones — if they love their children — tend to start looking for help from people who are trained to find out why. Why would you not be able to do the same thing with teaching your child how to read, write, and do math?

2. How Do You Know Teachers Are Qualified?

It cracks me up how many people assume teachers are qualified to teach, just because the government, or some college or university said so! There’s a teacher shortage, first of all, so many sates have relaxed their standards to make it easier, not harder, for people to “qualify” to teach. Additionally, “qualified” and “certified” are not the same thing (see question above — make sure your interlocutor knows that). Certification has as much (if not more) to do with professional standards, and the laws and liabilities associated with teaching within the government system as it has to to with knowledge of pedagogy or praxis.

3. My House is Not a School.

Why would you need to be qualified to do what a teacher does when your house is not a school? Teachers, by definition, are professionals whose job is to work with many children at one time in a standardized way, covering required material, or material “aligned to state standards,” not to your individual child’s cognitive abilities, or interests. So the school might teach reading at a rate faster or slower than your child’s optimal speed, and there really is no way for the teacher to “individuate” the instruction without discriminating against other students. As the parent, you are not limited by such concerns. You can spend as much, or as little time as you like, and what’s more, you can tailor every hour, not just every day, to your child’s specific needs.

4. What if the Teacher is Not Qualified to Teach MY Child?

You’d think, especially given the abysmal results we’re seeing nationwide on aptitude and achievement tests, at all levels of education, that more people would be questioning the teachers’ qualifications, not the parents’! It defies common sense to assume such a high percentage of students are performing so poorly purely because they are intellectually impaired, lazy, or have terrible home environments. It’s also unlikely that all these students would perform better if the schools just had more money. As a nation, we have been spending more every year, and the results have remained flat, or worsened year-after-year. So it’s perfectly fair to wonder whether parents can’t do any worse than teachers are doing, and might in fact do better if only because they know their children better, and can provide more consistent, individual attention at home.

5. I Have Skin in the Game, Literally.

The anti-homeschoolers can argue all they want FOR school if they like, but they cannot argue that anyone has more to lose (or gain) than you and your family from you taking charge of your own child’s education. They can also say your children “belong” to the community, but they don’t, they belong to themselves, and until they’re 18, legally, to you, not as property, but from a responsibility standpoint, it’s all on you. The school, and every allegedly “qualified” teacher there, won’t have to live with the guilt (or legal liability) if your child fails to learn what he or she needs to learn to graduate, never mind to be happy, well-adjusted, and successful. You will. More importantly, your love and investment in your child will pay huge dividends, even if you don’t do everything perfectly. The fact that you took it on, that you care, that you want to put in the time and energy to help them get the best education they can get, sends a powerful message to your child that they are a priority, and no one is more qualified to tell them that than you are!

For more information on homeschooling specifically, check out my playlist here. Here’s the first in the series.

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I saw this post on X implying that giftedness should correlate with material success in life, and had to respond. Myths like this are neither rare, nor benign, so they deserve to be challenged.

As tempting as it is sometimes to knee-jerk reject posts like the one Seamus reacted to because they use woke sounding words like “neurodivergencies,” don’t. There is usually a kernel of truth to woke claims, and when you react by rejecting them out of hand, you inevitably substantiate one of their truly false premises.Take the original image, for example. It’s factually correct about most gifted kids — they do tend to be what is called “twice exceptional” in that they have underlying neurological issues, or a learning disability like dyslexia to go with their high IQ (Winston Churchill is an example). Think how frustrating it would be to have a better vocabulary and grasp of subject matter complexity, while being unable to easily decode the written word. That’s just one of many examples, and yes, if the child’s needs go unmet for long enough, it can be traumatic.The sunk premise you could legitimately react to is the last bit about the “world that was not designed to meet their needs.” That’s the world for everyone, not just gifted kids. NO world is “designed” to meet anyone’s needs for the simple reason that humans don’t design the world, only respond to it, and even the institutions and spaces we do design in response to the world can’t, and don’t, meet everyone’s needs, ever. It has nothing to do with whether the people are gifted or not. It should say the kids may be traumatized by years of frustration and neglect in schools that were not designed to meet their needs, or that went out of their way to deny their needs, or misrepresent their needs to their parents. Any one of those could produce an adult with residual “trauma” from childhood, but most gifted children experience more than one of the situations on that list.What frustrates me about the X-post’s knee-jerk reaction though is it doubles-down on the false premise that the “world” should be designed around individual special needs (and if it’s not, individuals will be traumatized), and promotes a myth about giftedness that is at least as traumatizing as coping with schools designed around average and below-average cognitive abilities: that gifted kids should be more materially successful than those without intellectual gifts, and if they’re not, they were never gifted to begin with.Think of all the things that go into being “successful” in life, whether materially, or personally! From talent, to personality, to being in the right place at the right time, there are so many contributing factors that have nothing to do with cognitive ability, most of which are beyond even the gifted child’s control. Personality traits alone can make a huge difference, as can support from the adults around you growing up, so it defies logic and reason to assume the cognitively gifted would automatically be successful, never mind more successful than their non-gifted peers.

What’s more, this assumption — that gifted kids will be “fine” or successful without extra help or support — is likely the thing that prevents gifted kids from getting their needs met in a school setting, which in turn contributes to unresolved trauma that may contribute to their lack of success in adulthood.Look, I kind of “get” why people like Seamus react as they do. We’re all sick to death of hearing the word “trauma,” and we’re especially sick of trauma being used as an excuse for all kind of human failings and poor behavior, but we have to be very careful not to react to every use of the word without thinking. Trauma is a real thing, and gifted kids suffer plenty of it.

If we genuinely want to improve education, and help kids grow up happy, healthy, well-adjusted, and yes, even successful, we need to stop thoughtlessly responding to flawed or false narratives about children. If you want to learn more about how the “world” within the public school setting is not designed to meet the gifted child’s needs, please watch this video with my friend Lisa Johnson of BrightLinks, an organization that is designed to meet their needs.

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Imagine growing up and not knowing your parents were Holocaust survivors…That was childhood for my guest today, Anna Salton Eisen. Anna is the author of The 23rd Psalm: A Holocaust Memoir, The Twentieth Anniversary Edition (A National Jewish Book Awards Finalist in 2022) and Pillar of Salt: A Daughter’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust. She is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors and executive producer of the upcoming documentary film In My Father’s Words based on both of her books. Her writing has been published in The Jerusalem Post and The Forward, among other publications. As the founder of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, site of the antisemitic synagogue hostage crisis in January 2022, Anna has been featured in numerous major news outlets, including CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Fox News. A social worker, Salton Eisen formerly practiced as a therapist, specializing in mental health and trauma.

Today, Anna works to bring Holocaust education to everyone who wants and needs it. In this show, we will discuss why and how she’s doing it.
Find Anna:
Facebook: Anna Salton Eisen, Author
X: @AnnaSaltonEisen
Instagram: @annasaltoneisen
Website, where you can buy the books:
https://annasaltoneisen.com/

TIMESTAMPS
01:38 Intro
03:55 Anna's story
09:09 Why we need Holocaust education
17:14 What has changed in education to make so many students hostile to Holocaust education?
26:53 What works WELL for Holocaust education?
44:02 Connecting Jewish history to American history
49:10 Looking ahead, wrapping up

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College Counseling and Essay Coaching: https://thereasonwelearn.com/consulting/ Education Consulting & School Search: https://thereasonwelearn.com/1942-2/
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#teachingtheholocaust #holocaustsurvivor #holocausteducation #holocaustsurvivors #publiceducation #k12education #antisemitism

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You may have noticed that Mental Health, sometimes referred to as “wellness” or wellbeing, has, both in terms of funding, and staffing, become job 1 for most schools, and you may even have heard that students “can’t learn” until they’ve been seen, heard, and assessed psychologically.
Earlier, I sat down to talk with Jake Wiskerchen, marriage and family therapist, national certified counselor, and founder of Nevada based Zephyr Wellness, to get an update on what’s going on in counseling, especially in schools. I asked Jake because of his broad and deep experience in the field. He has given consultations, talks, seminars, continuing education classes, and staff trainings, to many agencies, groups, organizations, and individuals, including the Nevada Bar Association, Northern Nevada Law Enforcement Academy (POST), Nevada State Civil Attorneys Association, Reno + Sparks Chamber of Commerce, University of Nevada, Washoe County School District, Nevada School Counselors Association, Nevada Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, Lyon County School District, Pershing County School District, Sixth Judicial District Court, VanNess Group Homes, and CSA/Head Start, and he’s the host of not one, but TWO podcasts: noggin notes and guns and mental health.In this show, you’ll learn why mental health is front and center in education, and why that may be much too much of an otherwise good thing.
Follow Jake @jakewisk
Podcast host: Guns & Mental Health, Noggin Notes
YouTube  @ZephyrWellness 

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They provide Socratic discussions of classic texts with a commitment to rationality while supporting students in entrepreneurial and creative projects.
My listeners can now get a 10% discount by using the link below!
https://socraticexperience.com/parent-guide/?utm_source=thereasonwelearn

#schoolcounseling #mentalhealthandwellbeing #mentalhealthatschool #schoolcounselors #sel #mtss

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If you haven't yet watched the Hulu miniseries Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence, I highly recommend that you do. I watched it, and invited Josh Slocum, from  @DisaffectedPodcast  here to discuss coercive control -- what it is, and how it works -- because he's a graduate of Sarah Lawrence, and because he is an expert in cluster-B personality disorders, and while not all who are cluster-B engage in coercive control, all those who coercively control are cluster-B.

Follow Josh on X @DisaffectedPod
Subscribe to his Substack at https://disaffectedpod.substack.com/
Watch the Hulu series: https://press.hulu.com/shows/stolen-youth-inside-the-cult-at-sarah-lawrence/

SUPPORT MY WORK:

// Donate:
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PayPal: paypal.me/deborahfillman

// Join:
If you want to join weekly calls with me and my audience, and get access to my curated lists of education enrichment and homeschooling resources, join one or both of my private communities:
TRWL @Wokescreen: https://wokescreen.com/thereasonwelearn/
TRWP Parent Support Group: https://wokescreen.com/the-reason-we-parent/

//Work With Me:
I offer a wide range of consulting services to parents and parent advocacy organizations. Learn more about my services, and book my time using these links
Tutoring & Homeschool Teaching: https://thereasonwelearn.com/online-tutoring-and-homeschool-teaching/
College Counseling and Essay Coaching: https://thereasonwelearn.com/consulting/ Education Consulting & School Search: https://thereasonwelearn.com/1942-2/
Public Speaking: https://thereasonwelearn.com/speaking/
Writing: https://thereasonwelearn.com/writing-2/

//Do Business With My Affiliates
Purchase books from Heroes of Liberty with my referral link and get 10% off! https://heroesofliberty.com/?ref=Zqpq...

Enroll your child in The Socratic Experience, a virtual school grades 3-12.
They provide Socratic discussions of classic texts with a commitment to rationality while supporting students in entrepreneurial and creative projects.
My listeners can now get a 10% discount by using the link below!
https://socraticexperience.com/parent-guide/?utm_source=thereasonwelearn

#sarahlawrence #hulu #coercivecontrol #clusterb #narcissism #narcissiticabuse #humantrafficking

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Jon England is the Education Policy Analyst at Libertas Institute. He is a fourteen-year veteran public schools who became frustrated with the lack of innovation, transparency and accountability in the system, and decided to leave the system and join Libertas to work on empowering parents, and defending parental rights.

Find Jon on X @Principal_Jon
Website: https://libertas.org

TIMESTAMPS
03:16 - Welcome Jon!
04:47 - COVID: The Final Straw
09:01 - School vs. Parents
13:12 - The School Trap
20:00 - The Push to College
32:32 - New Models for K12
44:15 - Government Roadblocks to Alternatives
48:55 - Let's Talk About School Choice...
1:00:00 - How to Get More Involved in Making Education Better

SUPPORT MY WORK:
// Donate:
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PayPal: paypal.me/deborahfillman

// Join:
If you want to join weekly calls with me and my audience, and get access to my curated lists of education enrichment and homeschooling resources, join one or both of my private communities:
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Enroll your child in The Socratic Experience, a virtual school grades 3-12.
They provide Socratic discussions of classic texts with a commitment to rationality while supporting students in entrepreneurial and creative projects.
My listeners can now get a 10% discount by using the link below!
https://socraticexperience.com/parent-guide/?utm_source=thereasonwelearn

#publicschoolsystem #walkaway #publicschool #education #microschool #homeschooling #schoolchoice

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Professor William B. Allen is the Emeritus Dean of James Madison College, and Professor Emeritus of Political Philosophy at Michigan State University. I had the privilege of hearing Professor Allen speak at the Alumni Summit on Free Expression hosted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, also known as ACTA, and the Alumni Free Speech Alliance, also known as AFSA.

The title of his talk was Criminals Think, but Thinking is not Criminal, and I felt strongly then, as I do today, that my audience, parents and teachers in particular, needed to hear from him directly.

Professor Allen's Talk:
https://youtu.be/P1nLRW_hXC4?si=PETMTDS6mfqOC_HW

Transcript as an Article at The Journal of Free Black Thought:
https://freeblackthought.substack.com/p/criminals-think-but-thinking-is-not

Professor Allen's book:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001IZ0ZS8/allbooks

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#philosophyofeducation #educationreform #highereducationreform #academicfreedom #raisingreaders

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Wilfred Reilly and I look back on the 70 years since Brown v Board of Education to ask if we are trying to re-segregate American Education, if so why, and what does "segregation" post Brown vs Board?

We also take a look at recent statistics concerning the racial achievement gap, and Wil gives his take on new questions to ask about achievement gaps in general.

Wilfred Reilly is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University, and the author of the books "Taboo: 10 Facts You Can't Talk About,' "Hate Crime Hoax," and "The $50,000,000 Question." He is currently working on the upcoming project "Alt-Wrongs: an American Case against Racial Nationalism," as well as sketching out a book looking at the transgender, gender-fluid, and Otherkin communities and the idea of flexible identity. Reilly has published pieces in Academic Questions, Commentary, Quillette, and a number of other journals and magazines. His research interests include international relations and the prevention of war, contemporary American race relations, and the use of modern quantitative methods to test "sacred cow" theories such as the existence of widespread white privilege. Off work, he enjoys dogs, archery, basketball, Asian cooking, and beer. Reilly has been described, by himself, as "the greatest mind of a generation."

Follow him on X @wil_da_beast630
Buy his books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/...

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#race #segregation #brownvboard #education #k12 #desegregation #publicschools #teaching #achievementgap #blackachievementgap #blackexcellence

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