An EdTech Tragedy
Posted By: Judy W., 3/24/2025 7:53:20 AM
In The Anxious Generation, we focused on the emergence of the adolescent mental health crisis that began in the early 2010s. However, since the book’s publication one year ago, we have learned even more about worrisome trends in education that closely mirror those in mental health: after decades of stability or gradual improvement, test scores in the U.S. and around the world began declining notably in the 2010s. (Snip) One plausible explanation is the arrival of the phone-based childhood. However, there is a related hypothesis that is more proximal to the educational decline: the sudden appearance of a laptop or tablet on every student’s desk.
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Purpose vs Passivity
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Setting aside any "national security" concerns arising from letting The Atlantic's Russia-hoaxer Jeffrey Goldberg in on the Administration's Houthi-bombing call, I doubt that any creature more sentient than an amoeba can have been surprised to learn that US cabinet members "loathe" European "freeloading". (Snip) Are you shocked by Hegseth dismissing the Continent as "pathetic"? Well, you should have been around in the Obama era, when Victoria Nuland, She-Wolf of the Donbass, was rather pithier: F*** the EU!
Chief Justice Roberts, the designated non-binary voter on the Supreme Court, has demanded, re the ongoing judicial coup, that Trump allow the lethargic appellate process to play itself out.
An EdTech Tragedy
4 replies
In The Anxious Generation, we focused on the emergence of the adolescent mental health crisis that began in the early 2010s. However, since the book’s publication one year ago, we have learned even more about worrisome trends in education that closely mirror those in mental health: after decades of stability or gradual improvement, test scores in the U.S. and around the world began declining notably in the 2010s. (Snip) One plausible explanation is the arrival of the phone-based childhood. However, there is a related hypothesis that is more proximal to the educational decline: the sudden appearance of a laptop or tablet on every student’s desk.
Micromanaging Microschools
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In 2020, the concept of home-based “pandemic pods” went viral. (Snip) A microschool is the reimagining of the one-room schoolhouse, where class sizes are usually fewer than 15 students of varying ages, and the schedule and curriculum are tailored to fit the needs of each class. Most microschools are independently parent-led, but some are affiliated with a formal network that offers paid, in-person instructors. Lessons are taught in various environments, such as homes, libraries, and other community centers.
The government, however, is very intrusive in this area. (Snip) According to the National Microschooling Center, even with the stringent government mandates, there are now about 1,000,000 microschooled students in 44 states.
Few federal agencies warrant dissolution as much as the Department of Education. A bill in Congress to achieve just that has been introduced, the “States’ Education Reclamation Act.”
Jeffrey A. Tucker explains that the Act won’t just save taxpayers $70 billion.
More importantly, it will return education to the states completely, which is an essential first step to fixing the whole system. The target is to return education to families and communities in both financing and control. That is the American system. Nothing else will substitute.
However, returning education to the states is not the same thing as returning it to families and communities.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum outlined the Trump administration’s aggressive strategy to restore American energy leadership through what he called the “four babies” approach: drill, baby, drill; map, baby, map; mine, baby, mine; and build baby build.
In a wide-ranging interview Wednesday with Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle, Burgum said he’s committed to drilling for oil and gas, mapping America’s natural resources, mining them responsibly, and building more power generation. (Snip)
In addition to drilling, Burgum emphasized the importance of mapping America’s resources through the U.S. Geological Survey. He celebrated “The Map That Changed the World,” describing how geological mapping of Britain led to a century of industrial dominance.
Do We Have 677 Unelected Presidents?
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There are almost 700 federal district court judges. I say “almost,” because while officially there are 677 of them, some retired judges have taken senior status and may sit from time to time on cases, so the figure is inexact on any given day. Since President Trump was sworn in for a second term, there have been an avalanche of cases seeking relief from executive actions. Last month alone district court judges issued 15 temporary restraining orders. “That’s more nationwide injunctions than there were issued for the first three YEARS of the Biden Administration. District court judges are out of control.“
I don’t know whether you caught Howard Lutnik, Trump’s Commerce Secretary on CBS Thursday, but it thrilled Absurdistan to bits. Trump’s plan, he says, is to eliminate income tax on those making less than $150,000. To me, that and regulatory reform accompanied by cutting the admin state by 30%, will change not just the States but the entire world. I see towns and counties across America lit with sun and life.The energy and creativity that will unleash, the happy family formation, the independence of people, will soar. With that, engaged citizens will reform their own politics, slipped of the iron ring of servitude to the state most of us experience.
JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania -- Alex Bambino, 21, is the son of two educators. He's busy working, welding a piece of material that will be used on a heavily armored military vehicle when finished. Despite two college-educated parents, who teach at the local Cambrian County schools, he wanted nothing to do with college following high school.
"I like working with my hands, being part of making something that is important, and I had no interest in starting my adult life in debt," he said.
So he went to Greater Johnstown Career and Technology Center. (Snip) And he became part of something bigger than himself in the machines he helped make.
Much of the world has chosen to dismiss or denounce Trump’s proposal for the Gaza Strip. (Snip)Not all Gazans appear determined to remain in the Strip; some — especially among the young — are eager to leave. These are the people who find Trump’s proposal neither laughable nor offensive, and who hope it can be achieved. Now the IDF has found Hamas documents revealing the terror group’s great worry: that the young people in Gaza don’t want to remain where they are; they are sick of being used as human shields, sick of the war begun by Hamas on October 7, sick of being forced to remain among the rubble
We hear a lot of talk about how Trump has “upset norms,” and “abandoned our allies” to “side with a dictator,” but so far as I can tell, while Trump is “siding” with Putin, nobody has ever accused him of “wooing” Putin. “Wooing” isn’t even my word. It’s the Washington Post’s and it’s not about Trump. It’s about Obama. In May 2012, having watched Obama debase himself for the better part of four years, the Post had had enough and called it “wooing.” Trump’s been accused of pretty much everything as it relates to Putin, but never “wooing.”
ActBlue is one more brick in the “Blue Wall” giving way under scandal.
The warm-fuzzy marketing appeal of ActBlue to attract Democratic “small donors” has turned into the party’s worst nightmare: It is now being accused of operating a “money-laundering operation” as the Democratic party’s main fundraising platform, according to Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee.
Suspicions surfaced when small donor funds reached billions with the math failing to add up.
“We are investigating potentially fraudulent and illicit financial activity” in connection with ActBlue’s network of on-line platforms, read a letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen by Republican lawmakers Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY).
There has been some argument in my house about Trump’s tariffs on Canada, and indeed the rest of the world. I’m on the American side; why on earth should the Americans pay for everything? Because they do. They pay for Europe’s defence, they allow every single country to tariff American products while allowing their goods in for pennies. When anyone, anywhere is in trouble, who do they call? The Yanks. Where do the pleas of all the desperate people all over the world land? America. Who did the Israeli captives hope for? Trump and the Americans. (Actually just Trump. They didn’t think that the Biden people would lift a finger.
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“We’re not going to allow this mass deportation,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said during an appearance on The David Pakman Show, making it clear that state police will not cooperate.
“We’re not going to allow this mass deportation,” Hochul said, explaining that they will cooperate only when there is a warrant or someone is on the terrorism watch list.
“Where we will cooperate — and I did this even under the Biden administration — if you have a warrant, or you know, someone’s on a terrorism watch list or committing crimes in their home country, or committing crimes here, that’s a different category,
Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters suggested President Donald Trump should investigate and potentially deport first lady Melania Trump during an anti-DOGE protest in Los Angeles over the weekend. "When he [Trump] talks about birthright, and he's going to undo the fact that the Constitution allows those who are born here, even if the parents are undocumented, they have a right to stay in America. If he wants to start looking so closely to find those who were born here and their parents were undocumented, maybe he ought to first look at Melania,"
Trump Revokes Secret Service Protection
for Disgraced Former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas 21 replies
for Disgraced Former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas 21 replies
President Trump has just removed secret service protection from one the most noxious members of the Biden regime.
As the Washington Post reported, The Secret Service announced on Monday that they had terminated the security detail of former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas several months before it was set to expire.
The Post also reported that Secret Service protection for Hunter and Ashley Biden officially ended on Monday.
During portions of an interview with NPR aired on Monday’s broadcast of “All Things Considered,” Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) declared that Democrats “better shape up and put together a plan for progress, starting in the places that have fallen behind where people are voting for change simply because the economy is not working for them.” And that those voters voted for Donald Trump because they knew where they live isn’t great.
Kaptur said, “They heard President Trump say, Make America Great Again. That was something they want to do, and they know where they live isn’t. They’ve seen factories
Wait, The Bidens Want to Return to Politics?
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I’m not sure Jill Biden gets it, and this is a political initiative by Mrs. Biden because the Democrats are done with this man. The elderly crust of the Democratic Party has yet to figure out that the base wants to turn the page on the Clintons and the Bidens—which have become two loser organizations. Hillary Clinton couldn’t do it, and Joe Biden is half brain-dead. Lady MacBeth wants back in on public life, and the family is reportedly offering services to rebuild the party. It’s not been well-received (via NBC News): Former President Joe Biden has told some Democratic leaders he’ll raise funds, campaign and do anything else necessary
Townhall covered how Texas Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett shamelessly mocked Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for being paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. She did so in public remarks she gave at an event for the left-wing Human Rights Campaign. “We in these hot a** Texas streets, honey,” she said at an event for the left-wing Human Rights Campaign. “Y’all know we got governor hot wheels down there, c’mon now! And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot a** mess, honey!”
In a ruling that should outrage every parent, taxpayer, and conservative voter in Texas, a federal judge has stomped all over the authority of the Texas A&M University Board of Regents—greenlighting a sexually charged, ideologically driven drag show to proceed on campus despite a commonsense ban.
Senior U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal, appointed by George H. W. Bush, issued a sweeping preliminary injunction Monday that forces Texas A&M to allow the so-called “Draggieland” event—a campus drag show hosted by the “Queer
Pam Bondi threatens prosecution amid DOGE's
findings about fraud: 'We're coming after you' 17 replies
findings about fraud: 'We're coming after you' 17 replies
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a stern warning to those engaged in government fraud at the most recent Cabinet meeting on Monday. ...Bondi thanked Tesla CEO Elon Musk for uncovering "fraud, waste and abuse" through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative. [Snip] "We will prosecute you," the attorney general warned. "We have an internal task force now working with every agency sitting here at this table. And if you've committed fraud, we're coming after you. Thank you, Elon." Bondi also mentioned that, under Trump's directive, the Department of Justice (DOJ) will begin seeking the death penalty for those convicted of violent crimes.
Former Senator Kelly Loeffler, the head of the Small Business Administration under President Donald Trump, announced on Friday that the government body she presides over will cut 43% of its staff and end Joe Biden’s wasteful and expansive social policy agenda.
The former US Senator made the announcement Friday on X. Joe Biden left the SBA bleeding money and desperately mismanaged like every other agency he touched.
But the fraud discovered at the Small Business Association is OFF THE CHARTS! (X Video)
Sparks flew during a closely-watched federal appeals court hearing Monday afternoon — with a Barack Obama-appointed judge tearing into the Trump administration’s plans to mass-deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Judge Patricia Millett, a member of the bench since 2013, dominated much of the questioning — grilling a Justice Department lawyer over due process concerns for the 260 purported illegal migrants shipped to a notorious El Salvador prison earlier this month under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
“There were planeloads of people. There were no procedures in place to notify people,” Millett exclaimed at one point. “Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act
Gay Nightclub Bans All MAGA-Related Attire
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A popular LGBTQ nightclub in Sacramento, California, is prohibiting patrons who wear MAGA-related attire from entering the establishment.
Badlands, in the city’s Lavender Heights district, announced the policy on social media. Management claimed they were motivated to impose the ban after a patron wore a MAGA hat while in the bar, leading some patrons to complain that they were made to feel uncomfortable and unsafe.
“At Badlands Sacramento, we are committed to creating a space where the LGBTQ+ community and our allies feel safe, welcomed, and respected,” TJ Bruce, the bar’s owner, wrote in a social media post. “Recently, a guest entered the bar wearing MAGA attire,
Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) lived up to her reputation as a loose-lipped leftist congresswoman, making waves at the 2025 Human Rights Campaign (HRC) dinner by calling paralyzed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott “Governor Hot Wheels.”
Crockett began her speech by going through a list of thank yous, including thanking HRC’s Morgan Cox, [snip]
“Y’all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there,” she said of Gov. Abbott, who is paralyzed, generating laughter and cheers.
“Come on now. And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot-ass mess, Honey,
Comments:
This is a brilliant piece that all educators and parents should read. I learned of the destructive consequences of phones and computers on kids in 2018, when a community college teacher friend and my granddaughter (who hadn't been allowed to own a cell phone) told me that students had turned into zombies. In particular, my teacher friend said the kids showed no interest in anything and never made eye contact. My granddaughter said that she was the only student in her classes who answered the teachers' questions and sometimes disagreed with the teacher. Some of her classmates were awed by her bravery.