Headline News
Middle School Reading Lists 100 Years Ago Vs. Today
One of the striking features of the Edina list is how recent the titles are. Many of the selections were published in the 21st century. In fact, only four of the selections are more than 20 years old.
And you wonder why people were so much smarter a hundred years ago?
“I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.” Job 36:3
I recently dug up a 1908 curriculum manual in the Minnesota Historical Society archives. It provided instructions on everything from teacher deportment to recommended literature lists for various grades. As a book lover, I was especially interested in the latter!
With the exception of a few textbook-like anthologies, the chart below lists the recommended reading material for Minnesota 7th and 8th graders in 1908:
With such a list in hand, I decided to examine if the common accusation that today’s education standards have been dumbed down is really true. To make sure I wasn’t unfairly weighting this survey in favor of the past, I went to one of the Twin Cities metro area’s finest districts, namely, Edina Public Schools. Again, with the exception of a few textbook anthologies, the list below offers the reading options for their 7th and 8th grade students:
In examining these lists, I noticed three important differences between the reading content of these two eras:
1. Time Period
One of the striking features of the Edina list is how recent the titles are. Many of the selections were published in the 21st century. In fact, only four of the selections are more than 20 years old.
In comparison, over half of the titles on the first list were at least 20 years old in 1908, with many of them averaging between 50 to 100 years old.
Older is not necessarily better, but the books on the first list suggest that schools of the past were more likely to give their students time-tested, classic literature, rather than books whose popularity may happen to be a passing fad.
2. Thematic Elements
A second striking difference between the two book lists are the themes they explore. The first is full of historical references and settings which stretch from ancient Greece (Tanglewood Tales) to the Middle Ages (Harold, Last of Saxon Kings) to the founding of America (Courtship of Miles Standish). Through highly recognized authors such as Longfellow, Stevenson, Kipling, and Dickens, these titles introduce children to a vast array of themes crucial to understanding the foundations upon which America and western civilization were built.
The Edina list, however, largely deals with modern history, particularly hitting on many current political and cultural themes such as the Taliban (The Breadwinner), cloning, illegal immigrants, the drug war (The House of the Scorpion), and deeply troubled youth (Touching Spirit Bear). In terms of longstanding, classic authors, Mark Twain and Ray Bradbury are the only ones who stand out.
It’s good for children to understand the world in which they live, but as with any area in life, you can have too much of a good thing. A continual focus on modern literature narrows the lens through which children can view and interpret the world. Would it not be better to broaden their horizons and expose them to a balance of both old and new literature?
3. Reading Level
Many of the books on the Edina list use fairly simple, understandable language and vocabulary familiar to the modern reader. Consider the first paragraph of Nothing But the Truth:
“Coach Jamison saw me in the hall and said he wanted to make sure I’m trying out for the track team!!!! Said my middle school gym teacher told him I was really good!!!! Then he said that with me on the Harrison High team we have a real shot at being county champs. Fantastic!!!!!! He wouldn’t say that unless he meant it. Have to ask folks about helping me get new shoes. Newspaper route won’t do it all. But Dad was so excited when I told him what Coach said that I’m sure he’ll help.”
On the other hand, consider the first paragraph of Longfellow’s Evangeline:
“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.”
The first example uses simple words and a casual sentence structure, while the second uses a rich vocabulary and a complex writing format. Naturally, some might look at the second selection and say, “Good grief! How do you expect a child to understand that?!?”
But that’s the whole point. Unless we give our students challenging material to dissect, process, and study, how can we expect them to break out of the current poor proficiency ratings and advance beyond a basic reading level?
My takeaway from this comparison? It’s great that schools today have students read contemporary literature. But we still need to make sure that students also read good literature from the past and are sufficiently challenged.
Headline News
Shocked Airline Passenger Sees UFO Flying Outside Her Plane And Snaps What Just May Be The Clearest Image Yet Of An Unidentified Flying Object
An airplane passenger took flying saucer speculation to new heights when she spotted a possible UFO soaring above the Big Apple — baffling experts and sending federal aviation officials on a fact-finding mission Thursday.
Back in March, airline passenger Michelle Reyes was coming home from a trip, and she started filming the impressive panoramic view outside her window when she was stunned to see a UFO hurtling past her. She immediately contacted the FAA who had no response, and then she posted it to her Facebook page. Now weeks later, people are talking about the UFO outside her window, and not coming up with any other explanation for what she saw that day.
“Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.” Zechariah 5:1 (KJB)
The UFO flies in and out of frame very quickly, taking up a mere 5 frames of camera time. But when those frames were analyzed, they revealed one of the clearest UFO images ever captured. Are we on the cusp of making contact with the beings driving these ships? I say not only yes, but we are overdue for this type of activity. The US government switched positions back in 2019 when they acknowledged UFOs are in the skies with Navy pilots on a regular basis. They are coming down as we prepare to go up on Flight #777!
Possible UFO over NYC baffles passenger flying into LaGuardia
FROM THE NY POST: Michelle Reyes was on a commercial airline flight above LaGuardia Airport on March 25 when she captured video footage of a mysterious “flying cylinder” out of her plane window, she said on Facebook.
“The first thing I did was email the FAA to let them know what I saw,” she told NewsNation Wednesday. “Maybe it was a safety hazard, but unfortunately I haven’t heard back from them, they didn’t acknowledge my email.”
Michelle Reyes caught a video of a mysterious “flying cylinder.”
She said another person on the flight saw the out-of-this-world object and was stunned.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking that someone else saw what I saw,” she said.
Thomas Wertman, the state director of the Mutual UFO Network in Ohio, reviewed the footage for The Post and said the dark object was traveling at roughly 2,500 feet and was “relatively close” to the plane as it prepared for landing. The object’s altitude, shape and location — near a major commercial flight path — appears to rule out that it could be a news helicopter, a drone or a military-operated aircraft, Wertman said.
The unusual round shape of the object struck him as “intriguing” because it debunks the theory that it was a second plane filmed at an odd angle.
“It does not appear to be a commercial aircraft because I don’t see features like wings or a tail,” he said.
The plane Reyes was aboard was roughly 15 minutes away from LaGuardia Airport likely traveling 230 mph when the video was shot, he said. READ MORE
Caught on camera: Possible UFO reported over New York’s LaGuardia Airport
Michelle Reyes caught an image of a mysterious “flying cylinder,” possibly a UFO, from her airplane window above LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Reyes joins “Banfield” to discuss. Ben Hansen, UFO investigator, also weighs in.
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church
- HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page
When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.
But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
antisemitism
The Pro-Hamas And Anti-Israel Protest Groups Roiling College Campuses Across America Right Now Are Funded By George Soros And His Far-Left BDS Buddies
Far left BDS groups supporting the Columbia students’ sit-in include a group that supported the Hamas attack of October 7 and a George Soros fund.
It’s an amazing thing to see how all these college campuses across America are now hosting massive anti-Israel, pro-Hamas demonstrations that feature professionally designed and printed signage, pop-up tents, and an endless bevy of transportational vehicles to ferry people to and from the protests. Why, it’s almost as if these ‘organic student-led protests’ had professional backers feeding them money and materials. As it turns out, they do and George Soros is leading the pack.
“The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people, and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.” Esther 8:13 (KJB)
You might not have heard of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions Movement, BDS for short, but it is a very powerful group of people working to put pressure on Wall Street, Fortune 500 companies and colleges and universities to pull investments and endowments connected with Israel to cripple them financially. George Soros and his Leftist buddies are funding all of what you are watching unfold on the news with the college protests happening right now, just like they funded the furor surrounding the George Floyd event in 2020. George Soros might be biologically Jewish, but he is very much against the state of Israel and the Zionist Movement. You remember he started his career as a teenager in WWII, ratting out his Jewish friends and neighbors to the Nazis who then seized their property and took them away to the camps. In 2024, nothing has changed, Soros is just doing his dirty work globally instead of locally.
The far-left groups funding Columbia’s student sit-in including a group that supported Hamas Oct 7 attack and a George Soros fund
FROM THE DAILY MAIL UK: Tensions continue to escalate at the Ivy League school where hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters are demanding that the institution divest from companies with ties to Israel. So far, more than 100 demonstrators have been arrested at the ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’, which is comprised of a coalition of 116 groups under the umbrella organization Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
Now it has emerged that several of the groups in the coalition have received backing from left wing donors, including one group currently under investigation for allegedly fundraising for terrorist organizations.
One of the key players in the coalition is Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which the Gazette reports came out in support of the October 7 attack which killed 1,200 Israelis. SJP receives funding from American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), according to the Anti Defamation League, which describes AMP as holding ‘extreme anti-Israel views’.
Pro-Hamas protests at the University of Texas spiraling out of control, George Soros money has been very well spent. #Protests #Texas pic.twitter.com/ZyvFGinWH6
— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) April 25, 2024
Last year, Virginia’s Attorney General Jason Miyares announced his office was investigating AMP over allegations they may have been fundraising for terrorist organizations. SJP is also an offshoot of the Westchester People’s Action Coalition which supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, the Green New Deal, and other left-wing initiatives. WESPAC is named as a ‘fiscal sponsor’ of SJP, according to NGO Watch and has assets over $1,000,000. Several of the groups members are among those who have been barred for participating in the sit in.
Another central player in the encampment is Jewish Voice for Peace, which has received millions from various donors including George Soros’s Open Society Network. Since 2016 the group has netted at least $650,000 from Soros-backed organizations.
Other donors have included the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, whose director, Nicholas Burns, resigned in 2017 over its support for JVP. Both JVP and SJP have been involved in solidarity protests across other universities including NYU, Yale, MIT and Harvard.
Columbia canceled in-person classes, dozens of protesters were arrested at New York University and Yale, and the gates to Harvard Yard were closed to the public Monday as some of the most prestigious U.S. universities sought to defuse campus tensions over Israel’s war with Hamas.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest states on its website that it represents thousands of students across nine schools.
Other groups which make up the coalition include Young Democratic Socialists of America, Columbia Queer and Asian, the African Students Association, Columbia University Students for Human Rights and the Teachers College Abolition Collective.
The coalition began the sit in following Columbia president Minouche Shafik’s testimony before Congress about anti-Semitism on campus. The stunt entered its seventh day today and has already seen billionaire donors including Robert Kraft pull their funding and earned condemnation from the White House.
The coalition’s three demands center around divestment all of Columbia’s finances, including that profit from ‘Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine’, severing all ties with Israeli universities and an opposition to ‘to land grabs, whether in Harlem, Lenapehoking, or Palestine’. The group is seeking a ceasefire on Gaza, where more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in retaliatory strikes by Israel. READ MORE
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church
- HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page
When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.
But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
Free Bible Program
We Just Sent One Bible For Every Detainee At The 1,400 Bed Karnes County Facility As Chaplain Segunda Tells Us 53 People Just Got Saved
This month we have sent out nearly 5,000 pounds of Bibles, New Testaments and scripture portions to jails, prisons and detention centers across America
Chaplain Segunda wrote to tell us two things the other day. The first was that she was very grateful to have received the 1,400 Bibles we sent to the Karnes County Detention Center last week, the second thing she wrote to tell us was that 53 people had prayed to get saved, and they were overjoyed to receive those Bibles from us. An equal amount of Bibles went out to the South Texas Immigration Detention Center, and 750 King James Bibles were sent to the Floyd County Jail in Georgia.
“But the word of God grew and multiplied.” Acts 12:24 (KJB)
I got a letter yesterday Mark & Margie Beamer who attend the Wooster Bible Church in Ohio, they were writing to send a donation for Bibles Behind Bars and to tell us that the Bibles we sent to that church last year for their jail ministry at the Richland County Jail are still being given out, and that they were excited to help give them out. What a blessing that is for the giver and the receiver!
- HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page
Christian, your prayers and donations are fueling an amazing boots-on-the-ground offensive to put the word of God into as many jails and prisons as the Lord will allow. New requests come in on a daily basis, please keep us in your prayers. And if God has prospered you, please take a moment to click on the donate button to send is a generous financial contribution to keep the supply line of King James Bibles, News Testaments, scripture portions and gospel tracts wide open. Thank you so much…TO THE FIGHT!!!
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church
- HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page
When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.
But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
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END TIMES
CHRISLAM
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