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In 1974 Solzhenitsyn wrote an essay bearing this title. Solzhenitsyn, a Russian novelist, philosopher, and historian, was also an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and Communism.  He helped raise global awareness of the Soviet Gulag forced-labor camp system. He, himself, had spent time in the gulag for writing a single letter that was critical…

The word is out among public schools. According to one study, the average student could begin the new school year having lost a third of reading progress and up to as much as half a year of math progress. How will they know? They won’t unless they do some baseline testing. Establishing a baseline means…

Have you noticed the change in the season yet? It’s August, and here in the Northwest the crickets are beginning to make themselves heard each evening. In spite of some very warm days yet to come, the nights are becoming increasingly cooler. The sun is setting a minute or two earlier each day. School is…

Last week, the Oregon Department of Education decided to extend the deadline to comply with the testing rule to November 1, 2020. Previously, the deadline was August 15. The original rule reads: “Children in grades 3, 5, 8, and 10, being taught as provided in section (4) of this rule, shall be examined no later…

Earlier this week, I shared a meme I thought was funny: “All these kids been learning Common Core math, ’bout to learn how to “Carry the One” from their new homeschool teachers…” I suggested in my post that we tend to teach how we were taught. We ourselves weren’t taught with Common Core methodology.  The meme illustrates something…

If you start a question with one of these words,             appraise             compare             contrast              criticize             discriminate             judge             justify             support you’re asking questions at the highest level of thinking, Evaluation.  Questions on this level contain elements of all the other types of questions. Evaluation, the sixth and highest level of thinking, requires making judgments when there is no one…

You could reschedule testing, but do you want to? Do you have to? Why would you? The reason for asking seems obvious. The coronavirus! One suggested option circulating among home schoolers is, if your examiner has canceled your exam, simply ask your examiner to reschedule. The problem with this suggestion is that any rescheduled date…

Weeks ago, President Trump decided to suspend requirements for end-of-the-year standardized testing for public school students.  The question surfacing immediately in home schooling communities was, “Does this apply to us?” Basic Skills reached out to the Oregon Department of Education for clarification. We requested, in light of the Coronavirus, that there be some modification of the…

Why would someone say that  frisbees, microwave ovens, and Velcro are “strange bedfellows”? To answer this, you’d have to know their origins, the stories behind the inventions.   In the 1940’s Yale students sailed pie tins through the air and played catch.  Ten years later, Walter Frederick Morrison, a flying-saucer enthusiast, improved on the idea. Morrison and…