Links to interesting postings - 8 Dec 05

Thomas Sowell has another list of books today. The theme this time is on books that changed or influenced him. If you haven't read his biography, A Personal Odyssey, I encourage you to at least skim it some time. I highly recommend it. It is amazing to me that he changed so much over the years, from being poor, to being a Marxist, to being a highly respected conservative. He has shown great integrity.

The EdWonk has a post reflecting the sad state of education in regards to history. He is a school teacher and was surprised to find that not only did his 12 and 13 old students not know who attacked whom on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, he found that they had little knowledge of what had happened on Stepember 11, 2001.

The United States of America was founded as a Christian nation. Many of the founding fathers felt education was important so that people could read the Bible. At the time our nation was formed several of the states directly supported various religions. (It was the federal government that was to be kept out of religion.) For over a hundred and fifty years religion to some level was involved in education. Joanne Jacobs has a post to how the ACLU is so aggressive against religion that schools hesitate to have a Christmas tree with ornaments and a star. She links to an article on how school officials struggle with what kind of decorations to have and what kind of music can be played. I’m glad we homeschool and our children can hear Christmas music.

Joanne Jacobs also has some interesting news about Glen Reynolds who does Instapundit. Glen complained on Michael Silence's blog about how Glen's daughter had to carrying a 19 pound pack of books back and forth to school. It would be fun if Glen and Helen decide to homeschool their daughter. Having read Instapundit for over a year my guess is he won't change soon, but if he has more trouble with the public school he would do something like homeschool or private school.

For anyone who happens to be in Silicon Valley at the time, I do plan to attend Joanne Jacobs' book party next week, 7:00 PM on December 14. This is to kick off a push for her book, Our School: The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea and the School That Beat the Odds. Click here for more details on the book party.

This is the second day in a row that I've pulled a sad item from Daryl Cobranchi. He links to an article about a young girl who was sexually assault on a school bus, and the school officials appear to have broken their own rules and done very little about it. The news reporter's investigation finds that there is a pattern of the school officials often not following proper procedure. This is not for the faint of heart.