no kidding!…

Oh, man. Ft. Collins has really sunk over the last few years. And it used to be a pretty nice little down-home town.

What changed? The only thing I can see is a big influx of secular intellectuals who can’t afford to live in Boulder anymore.

Why can’t they live in Boulder anymore? Probably because they raised the taxes so high and cost of living is so outrageous that even the secular intelligencia can’t afford it anymore.

Lawrence on November 16, 2007 at 1:56 PM

Time for Dan and Rush to have another bake sale there huh?

And that story only goes to show just how moronic those people are working in government that is bent on regulating religious expression.

Kokonut on November 16, 2007 at 1:18 PM

WorldNetDaily had an article about HUD sending a letter to a housing center in Florida banning angels or other religious Christmas items from public view in their facility.

The public outcry caused HUD to scramble and rescind the memo.

D@mn fools. The people living there should have forced the issue. It would have made for some interesting evening news to see Grandma hauled out of her home in handcuffs for displaying an angel on her Christmas tree.

You can’t even find “small” cups of coffee any more

That’s because we are all above-average.

progressoverpeace,

The 4.75 GPA is weighted. The student probably received either an AP or IB diploma. So that diploma would be compared to other AP or IB diplomas when the student applies for college.

serpentineshel on November 16, 2007 at 7:29 PM

Yes, I know. But I took AP classes and actual college courses while in high school and still counted an A as a 4.0.

Look, colleges are far worse with their grade inflation. And companies are worse with their titles than the high schools are with their “valedictorians”. Anti-competitive inflation affects the society as a whole, from the sublime to the stupid. You can’t even find “small” cups of coffee any more …

calbear on November 16, 2007 at 7:42 PM

I’m talking about the National Education Association. Through a protest, they once put concrete on my history teacher’s door in Jr high because he wouldn’t walk out with them.

calbear on November 16, 2007 at 7:34 PM

I was actually surprised by the lack of evidence of anti-Christian bias in my search. I thought I’d find many more (and more solid) examples. But, a little goes a long way. No school wants to spend scarce dollars on a lawsuit.

sift through the NEA crap in public schools

Arts, let alone NEA arts, are lacking in schools, from what I understand. Are you thinking of something specific when you say that?

As for 4.75s, at least when I was a student, high school GPAs didn’t account for honors and AP courses, so that wasn’t factored into who was a valedictorian and who wasn’t. 4.0 was the max, and many achieved it.

NTWR on November 16, 2007 at 5:51 PM

Most of the links you give don’t address independent actions by students, though the 1998 lawsuit seemed to be apply. It would be good to see an independent recounting of this, as important details are often lost in even unbiased sources, let alone advocacy-based ones. It doesn’t prove that the ACLU usually takes this role, but it does seem to show that they have in the past. I’ll give you (NTWR) that, although it would be interesting to see whether there’s any real evidence for Bryan’s assertion that fear of the ACLU – or of any lawsuits – is what motivated the punishment in this case.

It’s hard stressful work, but the GPA’s reflect it when the students succeed, and at my daughter’s school, there will be multiple Valedictorians, hopefully mine as one of them.

progressoverpeace,

The 4.75 GPA is weighted. The student probably received either an AP or IB diploma. So that diploma would be compared to other AP or IB diplomas when the student applies for college.

Nah, I went to a college prep private school for high school and graduated with a 4.25 GPA because of AP courses. I wasn’t even in the top 10 of my class. There were lots of kids with 4.75 GPAs.

NTWR on November 16, 2007 at 6:33 PM

I’m not sure what’s worse, 4.75 GPA’s or 10 valedictorians.

Inflation kills everything.

That’s another reason to choose private schools. Plus, since it was a Catholic school, we had prayers daily, the Pledge of Allegiance daily, Mass often, and could always sing a Christmas carol during the season. As a non-Catholic, I loved it.

sweeper on November 16, 2007 at 6:03 PM

Thanks. At our school the real difficulty is that there are these kids at the top who are really fine students, but then the bottom group is seriously deficient. I have no love for the teachers unions or the politicization that I see (and I see a lot of it), but I have great sympathy for the school in managing the diversity of abilities.

Jaibones on November 16, 2007 at 5:36 PM

Well said, and congrats to your daughter on her academics achievements.

I thinks adults here jump too quickly into the “their doing away with competion”. If you look at what kids are learning in schools today, it is head and shoulders above what was taught twenty years ago.

“Terms like Jesus Christ, heavenly father, I talked about the fact I was Muslim and the prayers in the past were offensive to me,” the 17-year-old said.
Saiyed claimed that almost immediately after objecting to the prayer, she was harassed by a group of students. One student told her he wanted her out of the country, she related to WHAS.
Principal Gary Kidwell, who noted a prayer of some sort has been offered at graduation for years, said he will not tolerate further harassment.
“I’m aware of one isolated incident there was inappropriate conduct I was aware of, and we dealt with those,” he said.
The ACLU won’t comment specifically on the case, WHAS reported, but a spokeswoman said schools must be careful with graduation speeches.
“The closer it looks like school sponsored, the more likely it’s found to be school sponsored,” said the ACLU’s Lili Lutgens.
Saiyed said she would favor a moment of silence but not a religious prayer.
“We should be able to do that on our own and not at a state-sponsored public school,” she said.
Kidwell said he is talking to students and a number of groups to make sure the graduation ceremony is appropriate and legal.
The ACLU contends schools are on safe legal ground if religious prayers or speeches take place in private, voluntary ceremonies outside of graduation.

Even though a school board decided not to have an official prayer at its high-school graduation ceremony – to avoid a “five-figure” financial penalty – the American Civil Liberties Union has sued the district anyway, claiming community members were hoping the prayer would take place despite the ban.

Last month, the ACLU threatened the Keystone School Board of Clarion County, Pa., saying it had to stop prayers both at board meetings and at graduation, which is slated for today. After school officials agreed to the demands, the ACLU sued anyway, resulting in Superintendent Henry Sinopoli signing a consent decree.

Once again, a federal judge in Florida has decided students in Duval County schools can choose to give a religious message during graduation speeches.

U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges ruled today that Duval County guidelines permitting student speech—religious or secular—at graduation ceremonies do not subvert the First Amendment’s establishment clause. Terrell ruled in 1994 that the county’s guidelines were constitutional and subsequently his decision was upheld by the 11th U.S. Circuit.

Today’s ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed last week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. The lawsuit asked Hodges to declare the county’s guidelines unconstitutional and issue an order preventing students graduating next week from the county’s 17 schools from inserting religious messages into any graduation speeches.

Hodges concluded that the suit was similar to the one he decided in 1994.

Want more links?
Try here, here, here, and here.

Many schools have committed significant resources to the Advanced Placement program, which raises the academic level in which a class is taught to college level. Comparison studies have supported the fact that these students are, indeed, learning at the college level, and many colleges offer broad credit for the classes.

In a competetive environment, students might have little incentive to take the most rigorous schedule if the risk is a lower gpa and class rank. So schools are honoring the top group of students equally.

But to suggest that this creates an “equality of outcome” scenario isn’t logical. My daughter achieved 54 credit hours toward college during high school, and was “ranked” 6th in her class of over 800. The top (I think) 10 were given the honor of Valedictorian. Some of those students above her class rank took a schedule that would pale in comparison, but had a 4.0.

The task is to somehow evaluate wildly diverse curricula in an evenhanded way. I think our general contempt for that effort is seriously misplaced, or even misinformed.

Wrong. The ACLU tends to side with complaints about separation of church and state, even though the kid isn’t an officer of the state and is just speaking his or her mind. They have been taking such stands in similar cases for years. It’s de rigeur.

Factoid (above) provides links of the ACLU supporting students inserting God into school. You provide only a general idea of what you think is de rigeur for the ACLU. If it’s de rigeur, it should be easy for you to point to a case of the ACLU trying to shut down a student. I’m not going to believe that I’m wrong if I see no evidence presented to even hint that I might me.

What I was wrong about was the number of valedictorians and their races – two dozen, and some were even non-Asian!

calbear on November 16, 2007 at 2:56 PM

Wrong. The ACLU tends to side with complaints about separation of church and state, even though the kid isn’t an officer of the state and is just speaking his or her mind. They have been taking such stands in similar cases for years. It’s de rigeur.