Category: Education (Page 1 of 8)

“Equitable” grading is another sham that nobody voted for.

August 24, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

The College Fix: Survey shows teachers despise ‘equitable’ grading policies

‘Equitable’ grading is a policy that was being implemented prior to the Covid lock-down. It is designed to never fail a student, regardless of the student’s lack of aptitude or effort. During and after the Covid lock-down, principals embraced the policy to hide their failure.

‘Equitable’ grading was encouraged by the federal Department of Education and implemented by school districts without anyone ever talking to teachers.

Shop class is fun and dangerous.

August 16, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

Sparks in the Schoolyard: What We Lost When Shop Class Disappeared

There are two ways to look at the approach my parents took to academics.

“We trust your judgement” or, “so long as the school isn’t calling with problems, everything is fine.”

Either way, I could choose my own classes and graduation requirements weren’t as stringent. I took every shop class that North Olmsted High School offered, and avoided academic classes.

FAFO Parenting

July 26, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

NY Post: What is FAFO parenting? This latest trend encourages ‘natural consequences’

WSJ: Goodbye Gentle Parenting, Hello ‘F—Around and Find Out’

Gen Z has a clever approach that might work.

Rediscover the old knowledge.
Rename and rebrand the idea.
Flog it on social media until it’s trending.
The idea becomes common knowledge.

These two articles explain FAFO parenting. It used to just be called parenting.

Rahm Emanuel may run for president.

July 22, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 3 Comments

Rahm Emanuel was on Megyn Kelly’s show last night. He is an old-school Democrat who doesn’t sound crazy. He used to be in Congress and was the mayor of Chicago.

Emanuel was talking about education, and was listing his four policies. “T is for technology…A is for attendance…..R is for reading…”

Rahm talks a lot, but he had my attention. Where is he going with this? If the fourth item is “D is for discipline”, he might get my vote.

Rahm Emanuel’s Technology, Attendance, Reading and Discipline policy.

Do more than enjoy the holiday.

July 4, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 1 Comment

When I worked at Caterpillar, my division had a facility in Leicester, England. Working internationally, there is the time difference to accommodate, but also a holiday difference.

Teacher unions ran the Democratic Party.

June 21, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

Why Didn’t We Know Randi Weingarten Was a DNC Member?

Teacher unions are practically a wing of the Democratic Party. No, it’s worse. Teacher unions are actually a wing of the Democratic Party. The heads of both national teacher unions, the AFT and the NEA, were actual members of the Democratic National Committee. It’s news that Randi Weingarten, the head of the AFT, resigned from the DNC because nobody knew she was a member.

Mississippi schools are doing a great job.

April 26, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

‘Mississippi miracle’: Kids’ reading scores have soared in Deep South states

Education snobs like making fun of Alabama, Mississippi and the South in general. They hate that Mississippi is leading the nation on the NAEP. The numbers have been jiggered.

Harvard wants to be free.

April 24, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

Harvard’s president says the school will ‘not compromise’ on its rights with the Trump admin

That’s fine, if I were Harvard, I wouldn’t want the government pushing me around. Money comes with strings attached, so if Harvard wants to be independent, don’t accept a half-billion dollars from the government each year.

About half of Americans pay income tax. That means that I pay Harvard $3 per year. I get nothing from that, and don’t want to do it.

Harvard has $50 billion in the bank, and is tax-exempt. That should be enough.

Ohio doesn’t have serious people in charge.

March 28, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

Ohio Senator, Al Cutrona’s new bill would create a model curriculum based on the success sequence.

Our feckless state legislature is goofing around, rather than doing real work. The “Success Sequence” is graduate high school, get a job, get married and have kids. If a person does those things in that order, life will probably work out. Continue reading

What good is the Department of Education?

February 16, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

I taught Physics for 25 years at two nicer school districts and was an instructor for 15 years at an academic summer camp for genius children. There is objective evidence that I was an excellent teacher. Also, I can discuss education forever, so an effort will be made to keep this post limited to the federal Department of Education.

The budget for the federal Department of Education (DoED), is 268 billion dollars. There are 54 million students in k-12 schools. The DoED spends $5000 per student, but doesn’t have any students.