Jessica Smith

Lover of Jesus, my husband, and my children.

[Jen @jenteach13]

You want to fix education?

Close the Chromebook. Confiscate the phone. Hand them a pencil.

[Jen @jenteach13]

Nobody talks about flagging a kid in August, being overruled, and watching him fail in April exactly the way you said he would. Thirty years of being right about this.

[Sassafrass84 @Sassafrass_84]

Asking for sane and logical Americans. 👀

[Josh Howerton @howertonjosh]

Coming to believe ~90% of the political differences among Christians boil down to a failure to distinguish between the Biblical roles of the individual, the church, and the State.

No, God did not command governments to forcibly redistribute wealth.

Yes, God commanded Christians as individuals to practice charity.

Individual Christians in Acts “gave willingly and not under compulsion.”

Christians in Acts did not vote for the Emperor to increase the marginal tax rate and call that “generosity.”

[Jessica Smith @smithja74]

@Xx8xBatmomx3xX @FixingEducation https://t.co/d7D4DwF1C7

[Kelley Owens @kelleylowens]

Every educator needs to keep this Flannery O'Connor gem in a back pocket for the next time a student complains about the relevance or boringness of an older book...

“And if the student finds that this is not to his taste? Well, that is regrettable. Most regrettable. His taste should not be consulted; it is being formed.”

[ZUBY: @ZubyMusic]

When a culture prioritises protecting feelings over telling the truth, civilisational decline becomes inevitable.

[James A. Furey @JamesAFurey]

Explicit instruction will sometimes get called “teacher-centered” like it’s an insult.

But yes: The teacher knows things; the student doesn't.

That’s kind of key to the whole arrangement.

[Paul David Tripp @PaulTripp]

Salvation, in its broadest terms, means deliverance from evil. Even though it seems as if the bad guys are winning, the Bible declares that evil will not succeed. There will be a day when we’re all invited to the funeral of sin and death.

[James A. Furey @JamesAFurey]

One of the strongest arguments for teaching classic literature is simply this:

If students are never asked to inhabit minds from other times and cultures, they will confuse their own narrow historical moment with universal truth.

The canon is an antidote to chronological snobbery.

[Fixing Education @FixingEducation]

When a state addresses its teacher shortage by lowering the standards to become a teacher, rather than focusing on making teaching a more sustainable and respected career, it signals a HUGE problem!

[Abby Heugel @AbbyHasIssues]

Friend’s holiday card: Jon got a promotion! I ran a marathon! Kids are on the honor roll!

Me: I finished a bottle of shampoo and conditioner at the same time, so it was a pretty big year over here for me as well.

[Dissident Teacher @educatedandfree]

It is done. Here are clickable links of over 400 books in the western canon, separated by age group. It's meant for all of you who want the best for your child's education and for your own as well.

The good news? Emily Dickinson was right when she said of books: "How frugal is the chariot that bears the human soul."

Link to the library below: ⬇️

[Jonathan Haidt @JonHaidt]

Surprisingly large correlations between fine motor skills and academic outcomes. Biggest correlate is ability using a pencil/pen. True for adults too.

Humans are embodied creatures. Our hands help our brains to learn.

[James A. Furey @JamesAFurey]

“Credit recovery” is extra credit for neglect.

[Paul David Tripp @PaulTripp]

Don’t let the darkness of this fallen world cause you to forget that the Light has come and will come again.

[James A. Furey @JamesAFurey]

Special education was supposed to protect kids with genuine disabilities.

Instead, it’s become where schools hide every failure of curriculum, parenting, and discipline.

We pathologize normal struggle, hand out accommodations like candy, and call it equity.

Instead of rescuing these kids, we’re quietly telling them they’re broken and lowering the ceiling on who they’re allowed to become.

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

.@MarcDunkelman tells @JohnAvlon that Mississippi’s reading “miracle” wasn’t magic; it was ditching a failed progressive curriculum and embracing phonics. The state jumped from 49th to 3rd in reading.

[Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurley]

...I do not look to corporations to tell me how to be a better person, whether it is the NFL, Disney, or Grammarly. People are fully capable of judging the merits for themselves without corporate nudges in their morning lattes or edits.

[Adam Boxer @adamboxer1]

You can't teach children to use smartphones safely, because they are designed in a way that makes safe use unbelievably hard.

You can't teach children to use AI to learn effectively, because they are designed in a way that makes effective learning unbelievably hard.