NHEG EDGuide-March-April 2023

ISSUE 3-4 

“When one flower blooms, 

spring awakens everywhere.” 

-John O’Donohue 

2023 

MARCH - APRIL

NHEG EDGUIDE 2 

EDITOR IN CHIEF 

PRODUCTION MANAGER 

EDITORIAL TEAM 

PROOFREADERS/EDITORS 

PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THIS ISSUE 

Pamela Clark 

NewHeightsEducation@yahoo.com 

Nina Le 

Ninal@NewHeightsEducation.org 

Marina Klimi 

MarinaKlimi@NewHeightsEducation.org 

Laura Casanova 

Laura Casanova 

Brendan Kelly 

Frani Wyner 

Contents 

EDITORIAL TEAM 

4 

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH 

8-9 

LETTER FROM OUR 

DIRECTOR PAMELA CLARK 

10-19 

NHEG MEDIA PACK 

24-25 

MISSING CHILDREN 

30-31 

NHEG GROUP NAMED 

BEST CHILDREN & ADULTS 

LITERACY GROUP 

46-47 

VOLUNTEERS PAGES 

48-53 

NHEG INTERNET RADIO 

PROGRAM 

56-61 

NHEG FREE BOOK 

PROMOTIONS 

62-65 

NHEG BIRTHDAYS AND 

ANNIVERSARIES 

68-69 

EARN BOX TOPS 

74-100 

FEE ARTICLES 

102 

HSLDA ARTICLES 

106-107 

GREAT COMPANIES 

108-113 

RECIPES 

114-115 

NHEG PARTNERS & 

AFFILIATES

March-April 2023 

NHEG EDGUIDE March-April 2023 

Thought for the Month 

Welcome to the official 

New Heights Educational Group store. 

As NHEG faces challenges due to lack 

of funding, we see ourselves morph into 

something else: making everything that 

we’ve created available for free in the 

hopes of reaching people and honoring 

our current and past volunteers. It 

certainly feels right, and we ask that you 

share this magazine everywhere you can 

and with family and friends. 

Pamela Clark 

Founder/ Executive Director of 

The New Heights Educational 

Group, Inc. 

Resource and Literacy Center 

NewHeightsEducation@yahoo.com 

http://www.NewHeightsEducation.org 

https://NHEG.memberhub.com/store 

NHEG Store | New Heights Educational Group, Inc. 

Learning Annex 

https://School.NewHeightsEducation.org/ 

A Public Charity 501(c)(3) 

Nonprofit Organization 

New Heights Educational Group 

Inc. 

14735 Power Dam Road, Defiance, Ohio 

43512 

+1.419.786.0247 

4 

5


6 

7


Letter from our Director Pamela Clark 

Dear Readers, Supporters, Families, and Wonderful Volunteers, 

This has been one of the most challenging years I’ve ever faced personally and professionally, and it’s been hard on our organization 

as well. We are still struggling but fighting to survive the year. I want to say thank you to all of you. We would not have survived this 

year without our incredible volunteers, and it reconfirms that this is the people’s organization and not just mine. 

NHEG is for anyone looking for a more successful life through education—real education, lifelong education—and a deep love for it. 

It’s for everyone, and I believe it is a human right. 

I have been through a lot in my life, but surviving a serious car accident along with my husband is up there with the top challenges. 

It’s a miracle that we both walked away from a semi-truck trailer accident, yet due to the injuries we sustained the incident has 

dragged on and on. We are thankful, but continually deal with the repercussions. This has brought us to a point in our history when 

we require immediate funding so I can hire local and remote staff to help continue our work and cement our legacy in history. 

Most importantly, though, I’m writing this to thank those of you who have been behind the scenes making a difference this year. I’m 

in awe and so appreciate you and your belief in my dream to make education affordable and accessible to everyone through our a la 

carte learning programs. 

THANK YOU. 

8 

9

NHEG EDGUIDE 


NHEG MEDIA PACK 

10 

11



12 

13



14 

15



16 

17



18 

19



20 

21



22 

23


24 

25

NHEG EDGUIDE March-April 2023


https://www.readandspell.com/home-course 

Discount: NHE10


New Heights Educational Group Named Best Children & Adults Literacy Group 

New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) has been named a U.S. winner in Acquisition International’s 2022 Non-Profit Organisation 

Awards. NHEG was awarded Best Children & Adults Literacy Group – Ohio. 

This is the second win for NHEG from Acquisition International, a monthly digital business magazine with global circulation 

published by AI Global Media Ltd, a publishing house based in the United Kingdom. 

Pamela Clark, Founder/Executive Director of NHEG stated, “We extend a warm thank you to Acquisition International for 

recognizing the work of our organization and its many volunteers. We are thankful for and appreciate your continued support.” 

More information about the NHEG award and other award winners is available via the links below: 

• Directory listing - https://www.acquisition-international.com/winners-list/?award=98329-2022 

• The official press release - https://www.acquisition-international.com/acquisition-international-is-proud-to-announce-thewinners-of-the-2022-non-profit-organisation-awards/ 

• New Heights Educational Group - New Heights Educational Group 2022 (acquisition-international.com) 

30 

31



https://NewHeightsEducation.org/NHEG-news/heroes-of-liberty-partnership/ 

32 

https://www.collegexpress.com/reg/signup?campaign=10k&utm_campaign=NHEG&utm_ 

medium=link&utm_source=NHEG 

More Scholarship opportunities: 

-https://School.NewHeightsEducation.org/students/scholarship-opportunities/scholarship-search/ 

- https://School.NewHeightsEducation.org/students/scholarship-opportunities/ 

33

https://NHEG.memberhub.gives/NHEG/Campaign/ 

Details

https://nheg.memberhub.gives/nheg/Campaign/Details 

https://careasy.org/nonprofit/NewHeightsEducationalGroup 

Call: 

855-550-4483




online-courses/animation-course/ 

38 

39


https://School.NewHeightsEducation. 

org/about/NHEG-groups/ 


membership/national-csi-classes/ 

https://School.NewHeightsEducation. 

https://NewHeightsEducation.org/ 

org/online-courses/discounted-andfree-online-classes/ 

NHEG-educational-programs/virtualreading-program/ 

40 

41


42 

43


VOLUNTEER PAGES 

NEW VOLUNTEERS 

VOLUNTEERS OF THE MONTH 

RACHEL LISA MATHURIN 1/22/23 

FUNDRAISER AND GRANT WRITER 

LAURA CASANOVA 

PADMAPRIYA (PRIYA) 

BENJAMIN MERCURY 

BENJAMIN MERCURY PARSONS 1/29/23 

CARTOONIST/GRAPHIC DESIGNER 

CAROLINE CHEN 

KRISTEN CONGEDO 

JAVIER CORTÉS 

KEDHARNATH 

MARINA KLIMI 

JULIA LANDY 

PARSONS 

Bruno Moses Patrick 

Victor Rodriguez 

Chloe Gebers 2/16/23 

HR Coordinator 

SARIKA GAUBA 

JAVIER CORTÉS 

JACKSON HOCHSTETTLER 

JULIA LANDY 

NINA LE 

YICHEN LIU 

Rachel Lisa Mathurin 

Sheila Wright 

RHONE-ANN HUANG 

CHLOE GEBERS 

46 

47

THE INTERNET RADIO PROGRAM 

FROM NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP


56 

57


58 

59


60 

61


NHEG March Birthday 

NHEG February Birthday 

MAR 08 

Tyler Maxey-Billings 

APR 02 

Arianna Penzo 

MAR 09 

Rachel Lisa Mathurin 

APR 04 

Emily Stagg 

MAR 10 Kailyn Spangler 

MAR 17 Leigha Scott and Hailey Clark 

MAR 19 Satya Vedula and Kristen Congedo 

MAR 30 

Willow Sharpe 

APR 07 

APR 09 

APR 12 

APR 16 

APR 19 

Allene Yue 

Erika Hanson and Greg Clark 

Benjamin Clark 

Sapna Shukla 

Katie Bucchop 

APR 24 

Jyoti Aggarwal 

APR 29 

Sarika Gauba 

62 

63


NHEG March Anniversaries 

NHEG April Anniversaries 

MAR 18 Emily Stagg 

APR 21 

Ramya Arva 

MAR 21 

Vivien Dinh and William Atkinson 

APR 30 

Allen Yue 

MAR 23 

Jody Bowden, Nayana Mogre and HSLDA 

MAR 31 

Janene Kling 

64 

65


HOW TO EARN 

BOX TOPS MAKES IT EASY 

All you need is your phone! Download the Box Tops app, shop as you normally 

would, then use the app to scan your store receipt within 14 days of purchase. The 

app will identify Box Tops products on your receipt and 

automatically credit your school’s earnings online. 

Twice a year, your school will receive a check and can use that cash to buy 

whatever it needs! 

DO YOU NEED TO ENROLL YOUR SCHOOL? FIND OUT HOW HERE. 

https://www.boxtops4education.com/enroll 

68 

69



PRESS RELEASE 

NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP WINS SILVER AND BRONZE 

STEVIE® AWARDS IN 

2022 STEVIE AWARDS FOR SALES & CUSTOMER SERVICE 

STEVIE WINNER PROVIDES LITERACY AND EDUCATIONAL 

SUPPORT TO ADULTS AND CHILDREN 

Defiance, Ohio – March 2, 2022 – New Heights Educational Group (NHEG)was presented with a 

Silver Stevie® Award in the Best Use of Thought Leadership in Customer Service category and a 

Their Mission: Stevie Award winner New Heights Educational Group, Inc. promotes literacy for children and 

adults by offering a range of educational support services. Such services include assisting families in the 

selection of schools, organization of educational activities, and acquisition of materials. They promote a 

healthy learning environment and enrichment programs for families of preschool and school-age children, 

including children with special needs. 

Award-winning organization New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) was formed in 2006 by Mrs. Pamela 

Clark. Mrs. Clark discovered that families needed to cooperate, especially in educating children with learning 

difficulties such as ADHD, bipolar disorder, autism, and neurological disorders. NHEG has served over 

350,000 students via online services and courses. Mrs. Clark leads a team of 92 volunteers who research 

advancements and provide training to teachers and tutors exploring different learning styles. 

Bronze Stevie® Award in the Best Use of Thought Leadership in Business Development category 

in the 16th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. 

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world’s top honors for customer service, contact 

center, business development and sales professionals. The Stevie Awards organizes eight of the world’s leading 

business awards programs, also including the prestigious American Business Awards® and International 

Business Awards®. 

Winners will be recognized during a virtual awards ceremony on May 11. 

More than 2,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry, in 51 nations, 

were considered in this year’s competition. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 

150 professionals worldwide on eight specialized judging committees. Entries were considered in more than 

90 categories for customer service and contact center achievements, including Contact Center of the Year, 

Award for Innovation in Customer Service, and Customer Service Department of the Year; more than 60 

categories for sales and business development achievements, ranging from Senior Sales Executive of the 

Year to Sales Training or Business Development Executive of the Year to Sales Department of the Year; and 

categories to recognize new products and services, solution providers, and organizations’ and individuals’ 

response to the COVID-19 pandemic. New categories this year honor excellence in thought leadership in 

customer service and sales. 

Judges’ Comments 

--Congratulations on an incredible and amazingly profound mission. Well done. 

--Awesome to see enablement through education, developing support around kids for a better future 

--Interesting method to meet the requirements and needs of the business 

--Congratulations on your successful thought leadership focus on family education and those with special needs! 

--Excellent initiative taken by the company. The company seems to have benefitted tremendously under Mrs. Pamela 

Clark’s leadership. Well done on promoting literacy through various educational programs.Worthy of acclaim! 

--Supporting your clients every step along the way is the key to building trust. And since people do business 

with people they know, like, and trust, you can see how essential this is. You can also see how it’s the opposite 

of trying to SELL. It’s about guiding them to find the best solution for their problem …based on where 

they are in their Decision Journey. 

70 

71



--True general leadership growth opportunities in an equitable social application. This will impact and assist in true across 

the board growth in thought leadership 

--Overall a good and innovative solution to a time tested problem. 

--Congratulations NHEG on your valuable contributions to children’s education during the Covid crisis! 

--New Heights Educational Group has a very fulfilling goal, which is to provide education to the children with learning 

difficulties. The increase in the number of course offerings is commendable. Their partnerships with various online course 

providers is a clear indication of their interest in the growth of the children. 

Pamela Clark, Executive Director of NHEG, stated, “we are proud of our team of volunteers that work so hard to 

bring opportunities to families in need. We are honored by these awards.” 

“The nominations we received for the 2022 competition illustrate that business development, customer service, 

and sales professionals worldwide, in all sorts of organizations, have continued to innovate, thrive, and meet 

customer expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Stevie Awards president Maggie Gallagher Miller. 

“The judges have recognized and rewarded their achievements, and we join them in applauding this year’s winners 

for their continued success. We look forward to recognizing them on May 11.” 

Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service and the list of Stevie winners in all categories are 

available at www.StevieAwards.com/Sales. 

About NHEG 

New Heights Educational Group, Inc., promotes literacy for children and adults by offering a range of educational 

support services. Such services include the following: assisting families in the selection of schools; organization 

of educational activities; and acquisition of materials. We promote a healthy learning environment and 

various enrichment programs for families of preschool and school-age children, including children with special 

needs. 

About The Stevie Awards 

Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, 

the Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business 

Awards®, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie 

Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year 

from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind 

them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie 

Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com. 

72 

73



This month, Fellman, along with two colleagues, launched The Harkness House, a private 

microschool and schooling alternative in Nashua, New Hampshire that emphasizes 

personalized, self-directed learning for middle school-age students. Middle schoolers 

have long been a neglected group of learners, says Fellman. Just as they enter 

adolescence and confront enormous physical and emotional change, they get thrust into 

larger buildings and more impersonal classes, which can leave many of them feeling 

unmoored. 

During his public school’s prolonged remote learning and hybrid schedule, where his 

middle schoolers attended much smaller classes than usual, Fellman saw his students 

come alive. In a more intimate, personalized setting, they were talkative, engaged, and 

enthusiastic about learning. Once schooling returned to its pre-pandemic “normal,” 

Fellman’s students again withdrew. 

WED, SEPTEMBER 28, 2022 

KERRY MCDONALD 

What Can Parents Do When School Isn’t Working for 

Their Child? 

Now is often the time of year when parents begin looking 

into other learning options and schooling alternatives 

for their kids. The new school year has been in session 

for several weeks and some parents may be finding that 

bubbling issues may have reached a boiling point. 

Perhaps their child isn’t a good match with his or her 

assigned teacher. Perhaps parent-child battles over 

homework have emerged. Perhaps parents see certain 

elements of their child’s curriculum that they dislike, or 

hear about various classroom practices that they find 

unsettling. Perhaps their child is bored or withdrawn, 

frustrated or irritable, anxious or depressed. Perhaps the 

bullying has started or worsened. 

Whatever the reason, some parents may be searching 

for other educational possibilities for their children. 

Fortunately, they now have an abundance of options to 

explore. From high-quality virtual learning programs to 

low-cost microschools, learning pods, and homeschooling 

collaboratives, exiting an assigned district school for a 

different, better learning environment has never been 

easier. 

Over the past 30 months, both parents and educators 

have been empowered to seek or build new K-12 learning 

solutions. Education entrepreneurship, which was 

At this time of year, many parents may be starting to look for other education options for 

their children. 

74 

gaining traction before 2020, has soared since then, 

driven by broad parent demand for more educational 

options and accelerated by the growth of education 

choice programs in many states that make opting out of 

a district school more feasible for more families. 

Many of these entrepreneurial educators have had the 

desire to create a new learning offering for years, but 

they lacked the catalyst to take the leap and launch their 

organization. Similarly, many parents have long been 

dissatisfied by their children’s default educational option, 

but weren’t sure how to make a change. The disruption 

caused by prolonged school closures and related policies 

provided that necessary nudge for educators and parents 

alike. 

One such education entrepreneur is Nathan Fellman. 

He had been a public middle school teacher in New 

Hampshire for nearly 20 years before leaving the 

profession to launch his own middle school program this 

fall. “I’ve had the core concept for a dedicated middle 

school with small classes engaged in collaborative 

learning for a while,” he told me recently. “I don’t know 

if I’d ever have really tried to build that thought into an 

actual reality if our whole society hadn’t been sideswiped 

by COVID-19. The final push to leave public schools and 

try to start something different came with the disruption 

to the status quo that the pandemic brought.” 

He decided to finally do what he had long been dreaming about and create a middle 

school where young people can thrive. “If we give adolescent learners the respect, 

autonomy, and attention that they crave and deserve, we can make middle school the 

most important educational years,” said Fellman. 

The Harkness House offers a full-time, private school option that is accessible to 

more families thanks to New Hampshire’s new Education Freedom Accounts that 

enable education funding to follow students. It also provides customizable learning 

opportunities for homeschooled adolescents who are looking for an affordable schooling 

alternative, with 2-day and 4-day a week programming options. 

“As we’ve built our full-time program at The Harkness House, we’ve found a shared 

excitement for student autonomy and self-directed learning among families who are 

pursuing non-traditional educational pathways and who are not necessarily seeking 

full-time options,” said Fellman. “We know that we can give those students the ability to 

explore their interests and develop their passions in ways that just aren’t available in 

traditional schools.” 

Prompted by the pandemic response, more parents and teachers are imagining and 

introducing new K-12 learning models and schooling alternatives. They are reshaping 

the landscape of available education options, leveraging new and expanded school 

choice policies where possible, and creating decentralized, individualized learning 

environments where young people can flourish. 

At this time of year, many parents may be starting to look for other education options 

for their children. Thanks to entrepreneurial educators like Fellman, they are now more 

likely to find what they are looking for. 

Source: The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) 

75 

https://fee.org/



If a chain of private restaurants served bad food at high prices, it would be history in a 

hurry. Better eateries would spring up in their place, and customers would welcome such 

“creative destruction” as perfectly natural and beneficial. 

Even in education, we can find excellence. Private schools and home schools are generally 

flourishing. These are the schools in which no parent or child is trapped by zip code. 

No unhappy customers are forced to patronize these options year after year. Distant 

bureaucracies and self-serving unions cannot bully their way into the classroom. Teachers 

are freer to get the job done. Fractious, distracting, intractable controversies are 

avoided because everybody pays for what they get and gets what they pay for—or they 

take a walk. 

Public schools are government schools. Their common denominator is politics. Who in 

their right mind would even think to suggest that to improve restaurants, we should 

assign people to eat at restaurants by geography or zip code? Would a bad restaurant 

improve if we threw more money at it, rewarded its staff according to seniority instead 

of merit, or put politicians in charge of its menu? The reality in Israeli schools proves that 

politics can take even an impressive cultural heritage and trash it in just a few generations. 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2022 BY 

LAWRENCE W. REED 

The Root of Today’s Worldwide Education Problem Is 

Staring Us in the Face 

ur schools,” reports a knowledgeable observer, “are producing 

ignoramuses.” The average graduate, he explains, 

“does not know how to read critically, write expressively, 

or debate intelligently and politely.” Meantime, the 

unions are opposing huge, proposed increases in beginner-teacher 

salaries because, instead, they want higher 

pay for teachers with seniority, regardless of individual 

performance. 

Are we talking about America here? No, though Americans 

can sadly and credibly claim similar circumstances. 

What you just read comes from writer Amotz Asa-El in 

the July 29-August 4 issue of The Jerusalem Post. In his 

article titled “How can Jewish Schools be Bad?”, the country 

whose schools he excoriates is Israel. 

For more than 2,000 years, a thirst for learning has been 

a core element of Jewish culture. Asa-El writes, 

So obsessed with education were the Jews that Jewish 

law decreed that a town that did not give its children a 

teacher must be excommunicated. And so unique did 

education make the Jews that a French monk noted in 

the 12th Century that “a Jew, however poor, if he had 10 

sons would put them all to letters…and not only his sons, 

but his daughters” [too]. 

From Israel to America and lots of places in between, government schools are failing. This 

should not surprise us. 

Europe’s shtetls [Jewish enclaves] to the Lower East Side’s 

sweatshops produced by 1937 half of New York’s doctors 

and two-thirds of its lawyers. 

One could reasonably assume that such a deeply rooted 

heritage would produce good public schools in a country 

defined by its Jewishness. But instead, says Asa-El, they 

are a “disgrace.” Not only are they academically bad, they 

also “nurture indiscipline.” He points out that it “is most 

commonly reflected in students’ total disregard for their 

teacher’s very presence in the classroom.” Moreover, 

In worse cases, this indiscipline breeds vandalism during 

field trips, not only in Israeli parks, but even in places like 

Birkenau [a notorious Nazi concentration camp], where 

Israeli students carved their names into barracks’ walls. 

The performance of American public schools, on average, 

is nothing to write home about either. Their disgraceful 

shortcomings are well-known and hardly need to be 

recounted here. You can check the Education section of 

Just Facts for the details. But guess what? I’ve heard the 

same complaints in almost all the 87 countries I’ve visited 

over the years. Even people who think their local public 

school is OK will decry the lousy and expensive outcomes 

in everybody else’s public school. 

From Israel to America and lots of places in between, government is not the answer to 

problems in education. It is the paramount problem itself. Government politicizes education. 

It foists compulsory unionism on teachers. It rewards mediocrity and frustrates 

innovation and success. It stifles the very forces of choice, incentive and accountability 

that produce progress in every other walk of life where they are employed. The answer 

is more freedom, not more politics and coercion. Why is such common sense so infuriatingly 

uncommon? 

Perhaps government conveniently forgot to teach it to us. 

Education was a legacy, a quest, and a supreme value 

that went with the Jews wherever they wandered. That’s 

how the penniless immigrants who proceeded from 


https://fee.org/ 

76 

77



reducing choice for students. At the same time, the private institutions that survive would have to occupy a different 

position in the market. That position would most likely shift to serve the “elite.” Private institutions would become less 

diverse and more elitist as price-sensitive students shifted to public competitors. 

Destruction of Quality 

“Free college” makes public institutions reliant on local and federal governments. Once the argument is won for “free 

college” and political capital is gained, there is little incentive to continue to invest. The resulting increase in demand 

will have to be met with higher levels of funding. That means more investment in housing and more investment in 

facilities. 

Government has a track record of underfunding. Its services are unable to efficiently allocate supply to demand. As 

a result, colleges will become heavily underfunded and crowded. This is demonstrated in France, which runs a “free” 

system. Its universities are heavily underfunded and unable to satisfy student enrollment. 

“The effect, however, is that education will be of lower quality.” 

There are even cases where students have been sent home due to overcrowded lecture halls. Students often protest, 

citing a lack of facilities and poor lecturer-to-pupil ratios. This is not limited to France. 

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2019 

BY PAUL BOYCE 

“Free” College Would Depreciate the Value of College 

Degrees Even More 

or US citizens aged between 18 and 24 years, college 

enrollment rates reached more than 40 percent in 2017. 

Of those, nearly one in three (31 percent) drop out 

entirely. Why should the average taxpayer subsidize this? 

There is no conclusive evidence to prove that societal 

gains are worth the cost to the taxpayer. Going to college 

is, in effect, a risk. Students may come out and make 

big money but are equally likely to end up on minimum 

wage. When government pays for this education, it is 

effectively risking the money of the average taxpayer— 

money that would have a more effective use when 

directed by natural market forces. 

“Higher enrollment is not necessarily a good thing.” 

Proponents such as Bernie Sanders cite Germany as an 

example of how colleges can, in fact, be free. However, 

the impact of increasing the enrollment rate is not given 

much attention. Germany has an enrollment rate of 57 

percent—a full 17 percent above the US. The US may not 

see enrollment go that high. However, Georgetown University 

did a study on the “free college” plan proposed by 

Hillary Clinton. It concluded that her plan would increase 

enrollment rates at public colleges by 9 and 22 percent. 

Higher enrollment is not necessarily a good thing. Onethird 

of students drop out completely in the US. If college 

is free, it is likely that this rate will increase further. 

Students won’t have any skin in the game because they 

won’t be picking the tab up at the end. This effects 

When government pays for free college, it is risking the money of the average taxpayer— 

money that would have a more effective use when directed by natural market forces. 

78 

efficient decisionmaking. In France, for example, the 

dropout rate is as high as 50 percent. Nevertheless, as 

demand increases, so too will the number of students 

who drop out. This is a waste of resources. The cost 

should, therefore, be borne by those who make the 

incorrect decision. If Mr. Jones buys shares in Company A 

but the price tanks, he pays the cost. Free college would 

be like getting the average taxpayer to subsidize Mr. 

Jones when his shares decrease in value. 

Destruction of Choice 

“Free” public colleges would all but kill the competitive 

environment, and private colleges are already raising 

their concerns. The impact could be profound. Over 5.2 

million students attended private institutions in 2016, 

making up 26 percent of total enrollment. 

“Private institutions would become less diverse and more 

elitist.” 

Many will be incentivized to attend free public colleges to 

the detriment of private institutions. Hillary Clinton proposed 

a similar “free college” plan in 2016, but it was only 

offered to those with household income below $125,000. 

A study by Georgetown University concluded that it 

would reduce private enrollment by up to 15 percent. 

Extending an entirely free college plan to all would 

reduce private enrollment by an even greater amount. 

That would destroy many small private colleges, thereby 

In Germany, private universities have superior facilities. Photographers may have their own darkrooms, and journalists 

may have their own studios. The opportunities to obtain practical experience are enhanced. As a result, students 

come out more prepared for the workforce. Students may be able to obtain a degree from public institutions. The 

effect, however, is that it will be of lower quality. The skills they have obtained will be inferior and leave them unprepared 

for the workforce. 

Falling Standards 

Nine in 10 American families believe college is an investment, and 66 percent believe it’s a good value. This belief 

has developed over the years, evidenced by the growing enrollment rate. More students are attending college in the 

hopes of guaranteeing higher future earnings. Enrollment has surged in recent decades: In 1990, 14.2 million students 

enrolled in degree-granting institutions. By 2010, this figure reached 21 million. 

As the number of applicants has increased, standards have declined to accommodate them. Augsburg University, for 

example, is trialing a “test-optional” admissions policy. The University of Chicago has also followed suit and no longer 

requires applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores. Furthermore, research from the American Enterprise Institute found 

that standards have fallen, with students studying significantly less than they used to. 

College Degrees Are Losing Value 

As college enrollment has increased, standards have fallen to accommodate for this. A college education used to be for 

the academic elite. It is for this very reason that it was such a worthwhile investment. If you received a degree, it was 

confirmation that you had academic abilities. 

“More importantly, it dilutes the importance and value of a degree.” 

Now, the qualification has lost its value somewhat. It is becoming more difficult for businesses to differentiate the 

bright from the not-so-bright. 

Elizabeth Warren’s proposal does not resolve this issue. In fact, her proposal is only likely to make matters worse. 

“Free college” will attract even more students, putting pressure on public colleges to take them on. The talk of lowering 

standards further is deeply worrying. By making college available to the masses, it defeats the goal of creating a 

well-educated workforce. It attracts students who would perhaps be more suited to apprenticeships or other forms of 

on-the-job training. 

Perhaps more importantly, it dilutes the importance and value of a degree. As more and more students graduate, businesses 

will find it harder to differentiate. Undergraduate degrees will become the norm, and the financial return will 

become negligible. 



79



The Institute for Women’s Policy Research study fails to account for these differences. Indeed, its authors are airily dismissive of 

analysis that takes into account “occupational differences or so-called ‘women’s choices.’” 

Its headline claim is that the 80 cents figure is wrong; in fact, women earn more like 49 cents for each dollar a man earns. The 

authors, Stephen J. Rose and Heidi I. Hartmann—listed in that order because that is how it is presented on the cover of their 

report, not because of sexism—arrive at this conclusion by taking a longitudinal dataset from 2001-2015 and measuring average 

annual earnings across the period for people who worked any amount during any of these years, and then comparing the 

overall averages for male and female workers, as well as for different subsets of men and women. Workers who were employed 

full-time for the entire 15-year period are lumped in with those who worked only part-time or occasionally. 

Rather than starting with an observation (that 80-cent statistic) and examining possible causes, Hartmann and Rose have simply 

assumed a cause (rampant sexism) and carried out a slightly grander version of the back-of-a-cigarette-box calculation to support 

it. This isn’t how social science research should be done. It is exactly the wrong way round. 

A New Study Out of Harvard 

Remember, if we truly want to measure the impact of sexism on male and female relative earnings, we want to look at men and 

women doing exactly the same job at exactly the same place. Fortunately, a new study by Valentin Bolotnyy and Natalia Emanuel 

of Harvard University—again, listed in that order because that is how they are presented in their paper—does just this. 

MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2018 

BY JOHN PHELAN 

Harvard Study: “Gender Wage Gap” Explained Entirely 

by Work Choices of Men and Women 

“Gender pay gap is worse than thought: Study shows women 

actually earn half the income of men,” NBC announced 

recently in reference to a report titled “Still a Man’s Labor 

Market” by the Washington-based Institute for Women’s 

Policy Research, which found that women’s income was 51 

percent less than men’s earnings. 

The “Gender Pay Gap” Isn’t What You Think It Is 

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “gender pay 

gap”? Perhaps you think of a man and woman who work 

exactly the same job at exactly the same place, but he gets 

paid more than she does. This sort of discrimination has 

been illegal in the United States since the passage of the 

Equal Pay Act in 1963. 

“This methodology takes no account whatsoever of a whole 

host of factors that might explain this discrepancy.” 

But that is not what is generally meant by the phrase “gender 

wage gap.” Instead, the commonly reported figure—that 

a woman earns 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man— 

is derived by taking the total annual earnings of men in the 

American economy in a given year and dividing that by the 

number of male workers. This gives you the average annual 

earnings of an American man. Then you do the same thing 

but for women. The average annual women’s earnings come 

in at about 80 percent of the average annual man’s earnings. 

Presto, you have a gender wage gap. 

That’s it, honestly. It isn’t much above back-of-a-cigarettebox 

stuff. This methodology takes no account whatsoever of 

The “gender wage gap” is as real as unicorns and has been killed more times than Michael 

Myers. 

80 

a whole host of factors that might explain this discrepancy. 

It ignores the fact that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 

(BLS), in 2017, men worked an average of 8.05 hours in 

an average day compared to 7.24 hours for women. 

True, women are more likely to be raising children, taking 

care of elderly family members, or doing housework, leaving 

them with fewer hours in the day for paid employment. But 

this does not alter the essential fact: that people working 

fewer hours, on average, can be expected to earn lower 

incomes, on average. 

Not Exactly Apples-to-Apples 

And there are differences in the type of work men and 

women do, which bears on their earnings. BLS data shows 

that, in 2017, 94 percent of child day care services workers 

were female, the highest percentage of any category, 

and that the mean annual wage of childcare workers was 

$23,760. By contrast, just 2.9 percent of workers in logging 

were women, the lowest share of any category, and the 

mean annual wage here was $42,310. 

“They have simply assumed a cause and carried out a slightly 

grander version of the back-of-a-cigarette-box calculation to 

support it.” 

They have simply assumed a cause and carried out a slightly 

grander version of the back-of-a-cigarette-box calculation to 

support it. 

“And yet, even here, Emanuel and Bolotnyy find that female train and bus operators earn less than their male counterparts.” 

They look at data from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). This is a union shop with uniform hourly wages 

where men and women adhere to the same rules and receive the same benefits. Workers are promoted on the basis of seniority 

rather than performance, and male and female workers of the same seniority have the same choices for scheduling, routes, 

vacation, and overtime. There is almost no scope here for a sexist boss to favor men over women. 

And yet, even here, Emanuel and Bolotnyy find that female train and bus operators earn less than their male counterparts. 

From this observation, they go looking for possible causes, examining time cards and scheduling from 2011 to 2017 and factoring 

in sex, age, date of hire, tenure, and whether an employee was married or had dependents. 

They find that male train and bus drivers worked about 83 percent more overtime than their female colleagues and were twice 

as likely to accept an overtime shift—which pays time-and-a-half—on short notice and that around twice as many women as 

men never took overtime. The male workers took 48 percent fewer unpaid hours off under the Family Medical Leave Act each 

year. Female workers were more likely to take less desirable routes if it meant working fewer nights, weekends, and holidays. 

Parenthood turns out to be an important factor. Fathers were more likely than childless men to want the extra cash from overtime, 

and mothers were more likely to want time off than childless women. 

“The gap can be explained entirely by the fact that, while having the same choice sets in the workplace, women and men make 

different choices.” 

In other words, the difference in male and female earnings at the MBTA was explained by those “so-called ‘women’s choices,’” 

which Hartmann and Rose so easily dismissed. 

“The gap of $0.89 in our setting,” the authors concluded, “can be explained entirely by the fact that, while having the same 

choice sets in the workplace, women and men make different choices.” 

The “gender wage gap” is as real as unicorns and has been killed more times than Michael Myers. Yet politicians feel the need to 

genuflect before this phantom figure. President Obama’s White House was obsessed with that ridiculous 80-cent number. Let us 

substitute the quest for phantoms with serious research into the causes of relative incomes. 

Josh Pickel agrees. As a teacher, he has found renewed passion for the profession he loves by helping his students explore their 

passions and pursue their goals. He believes smaller, more personalized learning communities like his will continue to expand 

and flourish. “I think this sort of thing will become a large percentage of the way we educate kids over the next 20 years,” said 

Pickel, “and I’m excited to be bringing it to my community.” 



81



Instead of recognizing that schooling is the problem, we blame the kids. Today, children who are 

not reading by a contrived endpoint are regularly labeled with a reading delay and prescribed 

various interventions to help them catch up to the pack. In school, all must be the same. If they 

are not listening to the teacher, and are spending too much time daydreaming or squirming in 

their seats, young children often earn an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) label 

and, with striking frequency, are administered potent psychotropic medications. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that approximately 11 percent 

of children ages four to seventeen have been diagnosed with ADHD, and that number increased 

42 percent from 2003-2004 to 2011-2012, with a majority of those diagnosed placed on medication. 

Perhaps more troubling, one-third of these diagnoses occur in children under age six. 

“Children who start school as the youngest in their grade have a greater likelihood of getting an 

ADHD diagnosis than older children in their grade.” 

It should be no surprise that as we place young children in artificial learning environments, separated 

from their family for long lengths of time, and expect them to comply with a standardized, 

test-driven curriculum, it will be too much for many of them. 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2018 

BY KERRY MCDONALD 

Are ADHD rates rising because we send children to school at younger ages? 

Harvard Study Shows the Dangers of Early School 

Enrollment 

New findings by Harvard Medical School researchers confirm that it’s not the children who are 

failing, it’s the schools we place them in too early. These researchers discovered that children 

who start school as among the youngest in their grade have a much greater likelihood of getting 

an ADHD diagnosis than older children in their grade. In fact, for the U.S. states studied with a 

September 1st enrollment cut-off date, children born in August were 30 percent more likely to be 

diagnosed with ADHD than their older peers. 

Every parent knows the difference a year makes in the 

development and maturity of a young child. A one-yearold 

is barely walking while a two-year-old gleefully sprints 

away from you. A four-year-old is always moving, always 

imagining, always asking why, while a five-year-old may 

start to sit and listen for longer stretches. 

While it is true that 2020 was an extremely difficult year 

for these taxpayer-funded institutions, those who blame 

the Covid-19 pandemic are using it as a scapegoat. Before 

the extensive government pandemic response, the nation 

was experiencing a teacher shortage and a political 

takeover of public schools — the likes of which had never 

been experienced — which has only increased during the 

political battle over public health issues. 

Growing Expectations vs. Human Behavior 

Children haven’t changed, but our expectations of their 

behavior have. In just one generation, children are going 

to school at younger and younger ages, and are spending 

more time in school than ever before. They are increasingly 

required to learn academic content at an early age 

that may be well above their developmental capability. 

In 1998, 31 percent of teachers expected children to learn 

to read in kindergarten. In 2010, 80 percent of teachers 

expected this. Now, children are expected to read in 

kindergarten and to become proficient readers soon after, 

despite research showing that pushing early literacy can 

do more harm than good. 

In their report Reading in Kindergarten: Little to Gain and 

Much to Lose education professor Nancy Carlsson-Paige 

and her colleagues warn about the hazards of early reading 

instruction. They write, 

“When children have educational experiences that are 

not geared to their developmental level or in tune with 

their learning needs and cultures, it can cause them great 

harm, including feelings of inadequacy, anxiety and confusion.” 

Hate The Player, Love the Game 

Instead of recognizing that schooling is the problem, we 

blame the kids. Today, children who are not reading by a 

contrived endpoint are regularly labeled with a reading 

delay and prescribed various interventions to help them 

catch up to the pack. In school, all must be the same. If 

they are not listening to the teacher, and are spending 

too much time daydreaming or squirming in their seats, 

young children often earn an attention-deficit/hyperactivity 

disorder (ADHD) label and, with striking frequency, are 

administered potent psychotropic medications. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 

reports that approximately 11 percent of children ages 

four to seventeen have been diagnosed with ADHD, and 

that number increased 42 percent from 2003-2004 to 

2011-2012, with a majority of those diagnosed placed on 

medication. Perhaps more troubling, one-third of these 

diagnoses occur in children under age six. 

The study’s lead researcher at Harvard, Timothy Layton, concludes: “Our findings suggest the 

possibility that large numbers of kids are being overdiagnosed and overtreated for ADHD 

because they happen to be relatively immature compared to their older classmates in the early 

years of elementary school.” 

This Should Come as No Surprise 

Parents don’t need Harvard researchers to tell them that a child who just turned five is quite different 

developmentally from a child who is about to turn six. Instead, parents need to be empowered 

to challenge government schooling motives and mandates, and to opt-out. 

As universal government preschool programs gain traction, delaying schooling or opting out 

entirely can be increasingly difficult for parents. Iowa, for example, recently lowered its compulsory 

schooling age to four-year-olds enrolled in a government preschool program. 

As New York City expands its universal pre-K program to all of the city’s three-year-olds, will 

compulsory schooling laws for preschoolers follow? On Monday, the New York City Department 

of Education issued a white paper detailing a “birth-to-five system of early care and education,” 

granting more power to government officials to direct early childhood learning and development. 

As schooling becomes more rigid and consumes more of childhood, it is causing increasing harm 

to children. Many of them are unable to meet unrealistic academic and behavioral expectations 

at such a young age, and they are being labeled with and medicated for delays and disorders that 

often only exist within a schooled context. Parents should push back against this alarming trend 

by holding onto their kids longer or opting out of forced schooling altogether. 



82 

83



6. Ask For a Raise. As another student pointed out, there’s some evidence that women 

don’t get raises and other workplace perks because they don’t ask for them. You can 

probably get more than you think. 

7. Give Generously. As a colleague once pointed out in a lecture on “How to Be Rich,” it’s 

not so much about what the money does once you’ve given it, but about a regular test of 

your trust in God. Giving is centering: it is, in some ways, a sermon you preach to yourself 

about the nature of faith, hope, and love. 

8. Consume less. Moderate your tastes. Pay for quality and convenience, but recognize 

that a lot of things you buy just add clutter to your closet or calendar. Preemptively Kon- 

Mari your clutter by not buying half that junk in the first place. 

TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2023 

BY ART CARDEN 

Take ownership of your finances. Nobody is going to do it for you 

Dear Students: Here Are 10 Ways To Get Your 

Financial House In Order 

9. Other People Are Making Their Choices With Very Different Information, Goals, 

Beliefs, and Preferences, So Give Them the Benefit of the Doubt. “Consume less” mileage 

varies. Maybe that brand-new car your roommate just bought is an investment in not 

having to worry about anything other than routine maintenance for the next few years. 

You can rationalize anything, though, so listen carefully to the people who love you. 

If someone asks you whether or not you really need a supercharged sports car so you 

can try to break the record for the Cannonball Run, you should listen carefully as you’re 

probably not making an especially prudent decision. 

10. Say “no” more often. Just because the world would be a better place if something 

were done doesn’t mean you’re the one to do it; moreover, a lot of our charitable efforts 

probably don’t help as much as we think they do. 

Recently, a student asked me for some tips on what 

road in some combination of higher earnings and more 

to say about personal finance to her sorority. Here’s a 

peace of mind. That tension you’re feeling right now is 

slightly-edited version of my reply. 

probably what the economist James M. Buchanan called 

“The Samaritan’s Dilemma”: jerks obviously need help, 

1. Count the Cost Accurately. You might think you’re 

but the more you put up with and indulge jerks, the 

saving money when you’re not. Unless you really enjoy 

weaker are their incentives to shape up. It is hardly clear, 

cooking, you should probably have a meal plan and 

therefore, that putting up with jerks helps the jerks 

devote the time and energy you save on shopping and 

meal prep to studying. Look at the BLS Occupational 

themselves. How to proceed, I think, varies from case 

to case, and here is where consultation and coffee with 



Outlook Handbook for the job you want, look at the 

friends and mentors becomes super-important. 

hourly wage, and use that as a proxy for what your time 

is worth right now. 

4. Open a Roth IRA. There are a lot of low-cost mutual 

fund providers out there; Fidelity handles my employ- 

2. Treat Every Action as an Investment. Choose to do 

er’s retirement accounts, and my family also has some 

more things that have a positive rate of return (studying, 

money with Vanguard. With a Roth IRA, you invest 

reading, getting better at math, exercising) and fewer 

post-tax income and then never pay taxes again. That’s a 

things that have a negative rate of return (social media, 

great deal right now, while you face a very low marginal 

most things that seem URGENT URGENT URGENT NOW 

tax rate, and you have a lot of time to enjoy the benefits 

NOW NOW but that won’t matter in twenty years). 

of compound interest. There is a credible commitment 

problem here: it will be hard for the federal government 

3. Spend Less Time Around Jerks. which means that yes, 

to resist the urge to go back on its promises and dou- 

you might need to dump your significant other. It has 

ble-tax accumulated Roth wealth. 

been said you are the average of the five people with 

whom you spend the most time. You should love and 

5.Once you Have a Job, Enroll in Your Employer’s Retire- 

pray for jerks, of course, but recognize that the opportu- 

ment Program. Save somewhere between 15% of your 

nity cost of indulging them is the help and service you’re 

salary and the maximum contribution. 

not providing for others. This will likely pay off down the 

84 

85



SUNDAY, JANUARY 5, 2020 

BY KATHLEEN STEIN-SMITH 

7 reasons to learn a foreign language 

Half of the world population is bilingual, but only 25% of 

Americans can hold a conversation in another language. 

Changing that is one of the goals of language advocacy 

efforts, such as the Lead with Languages campaign. As 

the author of a book on what I refer to as America’s 

language deficit, here are what I see as seven of the best 

reasons for America’s young to speak a language besides 

English. 

1. Makes You Smarter 

Research has shown that knowledge of more than one 

language is associated with better reasoning, problem-solving 

skills, and creativity. It also helps people deal 

with unknown and unfamiliar situations. Use of another 

language tends to delay the onset of dementia. 

2. Boosts Academic Achievement 

Language learning supports academic achievement. This 

is true for English-speaking students studying a foreign 

language, as well as English language learners in bilingual 

and immersion programs. It also boosts academic 

outcomes at the college level. 

Being bilingual has also been shown to especially benefit 

low-income children in terms of “their ability to direct 

Half of the world population is bilingual, but only 25% of Americans can hold a conversation 

in another language. 

86 

and focus their attention when distractions were present.” 

Another study found that kids whose families spoke 

a second language at home scored better on cognitive 

tests than those whose family only spoke one language. 

3. Provides Professional and Career Advantages 

Foreign language skills are associated with increased 

job opportunities. Research has shown that demand for 

bilingual workers in the United States doubled from 2010 

to 2015. About 11 million U.S. jobs are related to exports, 

and most of the top trading partners of the U.S. use 

languages other than English. While not all positions in 

export necessarily require a second language, it is important 

to remember that 6.8 million American workers 

are employed by international companies operating in 

the United States. Nine out of 10 U.S. employers rely on 

employees with language skills other than English, and 

one in four U.S. employers lost business due to a lack of 

language skills. 

4. Provides Broader Access to Education and Information 

If you speak another language, you could earn a degree 

in another country, which could end up being a less 

expensive way to get a college education. If nothing else, 

it at least enables you to better enjoy studying abroad 

and to learn more than you would if you only spoke 

English. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016 

The Year Was 2081 and Everyone Was Finally Above Average 

BY GEORGE C. LEEF 

Grade Inflation Eats Away at the Meaning of College 

Every so often, the issue of grade inflation makes the headlines, ville has had comparatively little. 

and we are reminded that grades are being debased continuously. 

But why have American colleges and universities allowed, or perhaps 

That happened in late March when the two academics who have 

even encouraged grade inflation? Why, as professor Clarence 

most assiduously studied grade inflation — Stuart Rojstaczer and Deitsch and Norman Van Cott put it in this Pope Center piece five 

Christopher Healy — provided fresh evidence on their site GradeInflation.com 

years ago, do we have “too many rhinestones masquerading as 

that grade inflation continues. 

diamonds?” 

The authors state, “After 30 years of making incremental changes Part of the answer, wrote Deitsch and Van Cott, is the fact that 

(in grading), the amount of rise has become so large that what’s money is at stake. “Professors don’t have to be rocket scientists 

happening becomes clear: mediocre students are getting higher 

to figure out that low grades can delay student graduation, 

and higher grades.” 

thereby undermining state funding and faculty salaries,” they 

observed. 

In their database of over 400 colleges and universities covering 

the whole range of our higher education system, from large It might surprise Americans who believe that non-profit entities 

and prestigious universities to small, non-selective colleges, the like colleges are not motivated by money and would allow honest 

researchers found not one where grades had remained level over academic assessment to be affected by concerns over revenue 

the last 50 years. The overall rise in grades nationally has brought maximization, but they do. 

about a tripling of the percentage of A grades, although some 

schools have been much more “generous” than others. 

But it is not just money that explains grade inflation. At least as 

important and probably more so is the pressure on faculty members 

Or, to look at it the other way, some schools have been much better 

to keep students happy. 

than others in maintaining academic standards. For instance, 

Miami of Ohio, the University of Missouri, and Brigham Young History professor Chuck Chalberg put his finger on the problem in 

have had low grade inflation. Why that has been the case would this article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. 

be worth investigating. 

Chalberg writes about a friend of his who had completed her 

In North Carolina, Duke leads in grade inflation, followed closely 

Ph.D. in psychology and was working as a teaching assistant to a 

by UNC. Wake Forest is in the middle of the pack, while UNC-Ashe- 

professor and graded the papers submitted by the undergraduates 

“with what she thought was an appropriate 

87


March-April 




The same is true when it comes to the news media. Those who only speak English cannot directly access news and 

level of rigor.” But it was not appropriate, she soon learned. The thirds as much time as they did some fifty years ago. That’s hardly 

perspectives in parts of the world where other languages are predominant. 

professor “revised nearly all of the grades upward so that were left consistent with the notion that students today are really earning all 

no failures, few C’s, and mostly A’s and B’s.” 

those A grades. 

5. Gives You More Social and Global Skills 

As more than 60 million people in the U.S. speak a language other than English at home, those who only speak English 

miss out on being able to directly communicate in the mother tongue of many friends and neighbors. Language learners 

also tend to develop a more positive attitude toward both the language and the culture of the country where it is 

spoken. 

In the case where a language may be part of our own cultural heritage and identity, building on the knowledge of that 

language makes it possible for us to reconnect with the experience of past generations of family. 

Speaking another language also opens up opportunities to do business and work in other parts of the world. Overall, 

75% of the world population does not speak English. Those who only speak English may also be limited and less 

inclined to collaborate with others around the world to address global issues. 

6. Increases National Security 

On the national security front, various federal agencies and departments concerned with national security, including 

the FBI, CIA, and the Departments of State, Homeland Security, and Defense, need more agents and employees who 

can speak and understand another language. This need was underscored in the wake of the 9/11 attacks when it surfaced 

that lack of Arabic linguists led the U.S. to miss critical messages sent by al–Qaida about the 9/11 attacks a day 

before they occurred. 

7. Life Is More Interesting 

Think of all the people here in the U.S. (well over 60 million), around the world (75% of the world population), and 

online whom we are able to talk to if we speak their languages. 

Had she underappreciated the real quality of the work of the 

students? No, but, Chalberg continues, “the students thought that 

they were really, really, smart, and would have been quite angry 

and thrown some major tantrums if they got what they actually 

deserved.” 

Thus, giving out high but undeserved grades is a way of avoiding 

trouble. That trouble could come from students who have an elevated 

and unrealistic view of their abilities and will complain about 

any low grade to school officials. 

It could also come from their parents, who have been known to 

helicopter in and gripe to the administrators that young Emma or 

Zachary just can’t have a C and if it isn’t changed immediately, there 

will be serious repercussions. 

Another possibility is that faculty will give out inflated grades to 

avoid conflict with those school administrators. 

Low grades affect student retention and at many colleges the most 

important thing is to keep students enrolled. Back in 2008, Norfolk 

State University biology professor Stephen Aird lost his job because 

the administration was upset with him for having the nerve to grade 

students according to their actual learning rather than giving out 

undeserved grades just to keep them content. (I wrote about that 

pathetic case here.) 

Could it be that students are getting better and deserve the higher 

grades they’re receiving? 

You’d get an argument if you ran that explanation by Professor Ron 

Srigley, who teaches at the University of Prince Edward Island. In 

this thoroughly iconoclastic essay published in March, he stated, 

“Over the past fourteen years of teaching, my students’ grade-point 

averages have steadily gone up while real student achievement has 

dropped. Papers I would have failed ten years ago on the grounds 

that they were unintelligible … I now routinely assign grades of C or 

higher.” 

Professor Srigley points to one factor that many other professors 

have observed — students simply won’t read. They aren’t in 

the habit of reading (due to falling K-12 standards) and rarely do 

assigned readings in college. “They will tell you that they don’t read 

because they don’t have to. They can get an A without ever opening 

a book,” he writes. 

We also have good evidence that on average, today’s college students 

spend much less time in studying in homework than students 

used to. In this 2010 study, Professor Philip Babcock and Mindy 

Marks found that college students today spend only about two 

On the whole, today’s students are receiving substantially higher 

grades for substantially lower academic gains than in the past. 

Grade inflation is consistent with the customer friendly, “college 

experience” model that has mushroomed alongside the old, “you’ve 

come here to learn” college model. For students who merely want 

the degree to which many believe themselves entitled, rigorous 

grading is as unwelcome as cold showers and spartan meals would 

be at a luxury resort. Leaders at most colleges know that if they 

don’t satisfy their student-customers, they will find another school 

that will. 

Exactly what is the problem, though? 

Grade inflation could be seen as harmful to the downstream parties, 

the future employers of students who coast through college with 

high grades but little intellectual benefit. Doesn’t grade inflation 

trick them into over-estimating the capabilities of students? 

That is a very minor concern. For one thing, it seems to be the case 

that employers don’t really pay much attention to college transcripts. 

Inthis NAS piece, Academically Adrift author Richard Arum 

writes, “Examining post-college transitions of recent graduates, 

Josipa Roksa and I have found that course transcripts are seldom 

considered by employers in the hiring process.” 

That’s predictable. People in business have come to expect grade 

inflation just as they have come to expect monetary inflation. Naturally, 

they take measures to avoid bad hiring decisions just as they 

take measures to avoid bad investment decisions. They have better 

means of evaluating applicants than merely looking at GPAs. 

Instead, the real harm of grade inflation is that it is a fraud on students 

who are misled into thinking that they are more competent 

than they really are. 

It makes students believe they are good writers when in fact they 

are poor writers. It makes them believe they can comprehend books 

and documents when they can barely do so. It makes them think 

they can treat college as a Five Year Party or a Beer and Circus bacchanalia 

because they seem to be doing fine, when they’re actually 

wasting a lot of time and money. 

Dishonest grading from professors is as bad as dishonest health 

reports from doctors who just want their patients to feel happy 

would be. The truth may be unpleasant, but it’s better to know it 

than to live in blissful ignorance. 





88 

89



TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2019 


School Security Is Now a $3 Billion Dollar Annual Industry. Is There a 

Better Way to Protect Kids?A Bad Idea 

US taxpayers spend nearly $700 billion each year on K-12 public 

schooling, and that eye-popping sum shows no sign of slowing. 

In fact, as more non-academic programs are adopted in schools 

across the country, the price tag for mass schooling continues 

to swell even as achievement lags. 

Over the past couple of decades, credentialing of intangible 

employment value has become 

It’s this high-quality drafting that has many school administrators 

and education thought leaders in a panic. Officials in the 

New York City public school district blocked student ChatGPT 

access last month. Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, and Baltimore 

school districts created a similar ban, as have districts in 

Alabama and Virginia. Other schools are considering related 

restrictions. 

A main concern about ChatGPT is that students will use One 

ballooning school expenditure is the vast amount of money 

allocated to school safety. US schools now spend an estimated 

$2.7 billion on security features, from automatically locking 

doors to video surveillance and facial recognition software. 

That amount doesn’t include the additional billions of dollars 

spent on armed guards at schools. Federal spending on school 

security is also rising, with the US Department of Homeland 

Security recently awarding a $2.3 million grant to train high 

school students how to act like first responders in the event of 

a mass casualty, like a school shooting. 

These enhanced security and training mechanisms may seem 

justified, particularly in the wake of deadly mass school shootings 

like the massacre in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people 

dead. But school shootings are exceedingly rare. As Harvard 

University instructor David Ropeik writes in The Washington 

Post: 

“The chance of a child being shot and killed in a public school 

is extraordinarily low. Not zero — no risk is. But it’s far 

lower than many people assume, especially in the glare of 

heart-wrenching news coverage after an event like Parkland. 

And it’s far lower than almost any other mortality risk a kid 

faces, including traveling to and from school, catching a potentially 

deadly disease while in school or suffering a life-threatening 

injury playing interscholastic sports.” 


It’s natural for us to want to protect children from harm, but are these costly measures 

working? 

90 

Still, it’s natural for us to want to protect children from harm— 

and to get angry when our preferred method of protection 

doesn’t gain traction. Advocating for increased gun control 

measures, reporter Nestor Ramos writes in the Boston Globe: 

“In a nation unwilling to take even modest steps to prevent 

the next Columbine or Parkland massacre, schools have 

begun training students to patch up their classmates’ gunshot 

wounds.” 

Gun control is only one possible policy prescription—and even 

respected researchers doubt that it would do much good in 

halting gun deaths. There are other “modest steps” we could 

take, aside from increased regulations and restrictions, that 

may more effectively reduce gun-related mortality in children—and 

they cost much less than current school security 

measures.Advancement through the system, and eventual 

freedom from it, depends upon grades. 

A Simple Solution 

In states with generous school choice options, like charter 

schools and vouchers, the teen suicide rate was lower than in 

states without these options. 

A simple but powerful step in saving young lives is to expand 

school choice options for families. If children feel trapped in 

an assigned district school and are subjected to daily bullying 

or humiliation with no escape, it can lead to severe depression 

and suicidal tendencies. Let’s remember that mass shootings 

and suicide are intertwined. Compelling research by 

Corey DeAngelis and Angela Dills shows a striking correlation 

between more school choice and better mental health. They 

found that in states with generous school choice options, like 

charter schools and vouchers, the teen suicide rate was lower 

than in states without these options. 

When parents have greater access to education choices beyond 

their assigned public school, their children are happier. This is 

good news for those children—and for the rest of us who don’t 

need to worry that their depression may turn deadly. 


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2023 


More School Districts Ban ChatGPT. Here’s Why That’s 

Humans have a complicated relationship with new 

technologies. We generally appreciate the ways in which 

they improve our lives in the long run but tend to be 

wary of them in the near-term. In my Unschooled book, 

I describe an example of a new technology that many 

people thought would be the downfall of society. One 

journalist warned: “We shall soon be nothing but transparent 

heaps of jelly to each other.” 

What was that new technology that caused such worry? 

The telephone. 

Today, new technologies often elicit similar worries. For 

example, there have been mounting calls to ban youth 

social media usage over fears of its impact on children’s 

mental health. More recently, several school districts 

have blocked student access to ChatGPT, the new artificial 

intelligence bot from OpenAI that within seconds can 

draft eloquent essays on any topic. 

It’s this high-quality drafting that has many school 

administrators and education thought leaders in a 

panic. Officials in the New York City public school district 

blocked student ChatGPT access last month. Los Angeles, 

Oakland, Seattle, and Baltimore school districts created 

a similar ban, as have districts in Alabama and Virginia. 

Other schools are considering related restrictions. 

A main concern about ChatGPT is that students will use 

it to cheat. The speculation is that students will ask the 

tool to draft content for them that they can then incorporate 

into essay assignments, taking the words as their 

A main concern about ChatGPT is that students will use it to cheat. But the root question 

is: Why do students cheat? 

91 

own. This is, of course, cheating and has long been a 

problem in schools and colleges worldwide. 

While some are defending ChatGPT in classrooms, others 

are deeply concerned about this new technology and its 

impact on student learning. One education commentator 

recently quipped that ChatGPT could be the catalyst to 

bring back penmanship and avoid type-written essays 

altogether. Another suggested that ChatGPT could mean 

the end of the “flipped classroom,” with essay writing 

returning to the classroom, rather than the student’s 

home, as students write under the watchful eye of a 

teacher. 

As with social media bans that fail to look more deeply at 

why young people are anxious and depressed, blocking 

ChatGPT also doesn’t address the root problem: Why do 

kids cheat? 

Students generally cheat because they are uninterested 

in the topic or assignment and therefore find no motivation 

to produce authentic work tied to real learning. 

They may also cheat if they think the stakes are so high 

that their own efforts wouldn’t be good enough, as is the 

case with students who pay others to write their college 

entrance essays. 

If a student is producing work for a class that she has voluntarily 

selected, tied to a genuine passion for the topic, 

and in pursuit of her own self-directed goals, cheating 

isn’t an issue. When individuals are intrinsically motivated 

to pursue knowledge and produce content, cheating 

isn’t advantageous.



Just as our system of forced schooling may be contributing much more to the youth mental health crisis than are new 

technologies, forced schooling is also the primary reason why students cheat. 

As Boston College psychologist Peter Gray writes: “Our system of compulsory (forced) schooling is almost perfectly 

designed to promote cheating. That is even truer today than in times past. Students are required to spend way more 

time than they wish doing work that they did not choose, that bores them, that seems purposeless to them. They are 

constantly told about the value of high grades. Grades are used as essentially the sole motivator. Everything is done for 

grades. Advancement through the system, and eventual freedom from it, depends upon grades.” 

Rather than blocking young people from using new technologies, and surveilling them even more, let’s instead err 

on the side of freedom. This includes granting young people the freedom to use the new technologies that shape our 

world, as well as granting them the freedom to learn in more non-coercive, self-directed ways, in pursuit of their own 

joyful interests. 

Perhaps we will become “nothing but transparent heaps of jelly to each other,” as the 19th century journalist warned, 

but I’m betting against it. Humans thrive with freedom and the technological progress that freedom spawns. 



SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2023 

BY LAWRENCE W. REED 

Slavery cannot be justified or excused by enlightened people, but it can be studied, explained, 

put in context, and understood—if all the facts of it are in the equation. 

The History of Slavery You Probably Weren’t Taught in School 

92 

In “Recognizing Hard Truths About America’s History With 

Slavery,” published by FEE on February 11, 2023, I urged 

an assessment of slavery that includes its full “historical 

and cultural contexts” and that does not neglect “uncomfortable 

facts that too often are swept under the rug.” 

The central notion of both that previous essay and this 

follow-up is that slavery was a global norm for centuries, 

not a peculiar American institution. America is not exceptional 

because of slavery in our past; we may, however, 

be exceptional because of the lengths to which we went 

to get rid of it. In any event, it is an age-old tragedy abolished 

in most places only recently (in the past two centuries 

or so). As British historian Dan Jones notes in Powers 

and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages, 

Slavery was a fact of life throughout the ancient world. 

Slaves—people defined as property, forced to work, 

stripped of their rights, and socially ‘dead,’ could be 

found in every significant realm of the age. In China, the 

Qin, Han, and Xin dynasties enforced various forms of 

slavery; so too did ancient rulers of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, 

and India. 

Milton Meltzer’s Slavery: A World History is both comprehensive 

and riveting in its presentation. He too recognizes 

the ubiquity of human bondage: 

The institution of slavery was universal throughout much 

of history. It was a tradition everyone grew up with. It 

seemed essential to the social and economic life of the 

community, and man’s conscience was seldom troubled 

by it. Both master and slave looked upon it as inevita- 

93 

ble…A slave might be of any color—white, black, brown, 

yellow. The physical differences did not matter. Warriors, 

pirates, and slave dealers were not concerned with the 

color of a man’s skin or the shape of his nose. 

The indigenous populations of both North and South 

America, pre-European settlement, also practiced slavery. 

Meltzer writes, 

The Aztecs also made certain crimes punishable by 

enslavement. An offender against the state—a traitor, 

say—was auctioned off into slavery, with the proceeds 

going into the state treasury…Among the Mayans, a man 

could sell himself or his children into slavery…The comparatively 

rich Nootkas of Cape Flattery (in what is now 

northwestern Washington state) were notorious promoters 

of slaving. They spurred Vancouver tribes to attack 

one another so that they could buy the survivors. 

Perhaps because it conflicts with race-based political 

agendas, slavery of Africans by fellow Africans is one of 

those uncomfortable truths that often flies under the 

radar. Likewise, industrial-scale slavery of Africans by 

nearby Arabs as well as Arab slavery of Europeans are 

historical facts that are frequently ignored. Both subjects 

are explored in The Forgotten Slave Trade: The White 

European Slaves of Islam by Simon Webb and Slavery and 

Slaving in African History by Sean Stilwell.






Slavery cannot be justified or excused by enlightened people, but it can be studied, explained, put in context, and understood—if The horrors of the Atlantic voyage in packed and suffocating slave ships, together with exposure to new diseases from Europeans 

all the facts of it are in the equation. It’s a painful topic, to be sure, which is even more reason to leave nothing out and to prevent 

and other African tribes, as well as the general dangers of the Atlantic crossing in that era, took a toll in lives amounting to about 

political agendas from getting in the way. 

10 percent of all slaves shipped to the Western Hemisphere in British vessels in the eighteenth century—the British being the 

leading slave traders of that era. However, the death toll among slaves imported by the Islamic countries, many of these slaves 

The widespread sin of “presentism” poisons our understanding of such hot-button topics as slavery. As I wrote in August 2020, being forced to walk across the vast, burning sands of the Sahara, was twice as high. Thousands of human skeletons were strewn 

along one Saharan slave route alone—mostly the skeletons of young women and girls…In 1849, a letter from an Ottoman official 

Terms for this way of looking at the past range from intertemporal bigotry to chronological snobbery to cultural bias to historical referred to 1,600 black slaves dying of thirst on their way to Libya. 

quackery. The more clinical label is 

“presentism.” It’s a fallacious perspective that distorts historical realities by removing them from their context. In sports, we call The prime destination of the African slave trade to the Islamic world was Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire, where the largest 

it “Monday morning quarterbacking.” 

and busiest slave market flourished. There women were paraded, examined, questioned, and bid on in a public display often 

witnessed by visiting foreigners, until it was finally closed down in 1847 and the slave trade in Istanbul moved underground. In 

Presentism is fraught with arrogance. It presumes that present-day attitudes didn’t evolve from earlier ones but popped fully other Islamic countries, however, the slave markets remained open and public, both to natives and foreigners…This market functioned 

formed from nowhere into our superior heads. To a presentist, our forebears constantly fail to measure up so they must be disdained 

until 1873, when two British cruisers appeared off shore, followed by an ultimatum from Britain that the Zanzibar slave 

or expunged. As one writer put it, “They feel that their light will shine brighter if they blow out the candles of others.” trade must cease or the island would face a full naval blockade. 

Our ancestors were each a part of the era in which they lived, not ours. History should be something we learn from, not run 

from; if we analyze it through a presentist prism, we will miss much of the nuanced milieu in which our ancestors thought and 

acted. 

The answer may simply be that the facts it lays out are politically incorrect, which means they are inconvenient for the conventional 

wisdom. They don’t fit the “presentist” narrative. 

From as early as the seventeenth century, most Negroes in the American colonies were born on American soil. This was the only 

plantation society in the Western Hemisphere in which the African population consistently maintained its numbers without 

continual, large-scale importations of slaves from Africa, and in which this population grew by natural increase. By contrast, 

Brazil over the centuries imported six times as many slaves as the United States, even though the U.S. had a larger resident slave 

population than Brazil—36 percent of all the slaves in the Western Hemisphere, as compared to 31 percent for Brazil. Even such 

Caribbean islands as Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba each imported more slaves than the United States. 

What I personally find most fascinating about slavery is the emergence in recent centuries of ideas that would transform the 

world’s view of it from acceptance to rejection. Eighteenth Century Enlightenment ideals that questioned authority and sought to 

elevate human rights, liberty, happiness, and toleration played a role. So did a Christian reawakening late in the 18th and early 

19th Centuries that produced the likes of abolitionists William Wilberforce and others. 

The Declaration of Independence pricked the consciences of millions who came to understand that its stirring words were at 

odds with the reality many black Americans experienced on a daily basis. And as capitalism and free markets spread in the 19th 

Century, slavery faced a competition with free labor that it ultimately could not win. Exploring the potency of those important— 

indeed, radical—forces would seem to me to be more fruitful and less divisive than playing the race card, cherry-picking evidence 

to support political agendas, or promoting perpetual victimhood. 

The prolific economist and historian Thomas Sowell has written about slavery in many of his voluminous articles and books. For 

Conquests and Cultures: An International History, he devoted fifteen years of research and travel (around the world twice, no 

less). Though the book is about much more than slavery, the author reveals a great deal about the institution that few people 

know. 

I close out this essay with excerpts from this Sowell classic, and I strongly urge interested readers to check out the suggestions 

for additional information, below: 

Inland tribes [in Africa] such as the Ibo were regularly raided by their more power coastal neighbors and the captives led away 

to be sold as slaves. European merchants who came to buy slaves in West Africa were confined by rulers in these countries to a 

few coastal ports, where Africans could bring slaves and trade as a cartel, in order to get higher prices. Hundreds of miles farther 

south, in the Portuguese colony of Angola, hundreds of thousands of Africans likewise carried out the initial captures, enslavement 

and slave-trading processes, funneling the slaves into the major marketplaces, where the Portuguese took charge of them 

and shipped them off to Brazil. Most of the slaves shipped across the Atlantic were purchased, rather than captured, by Europeans. 

Arabs, however, captured their own slaves and penetrated far deeper into Africa than Europeans dared venture…. 

Over the centuries, untold millions of human beings from sub-Saharan Africa were transported in captivity to other parts of the 

world. No exact statistics exist covering all the sources and all the destinations, and scholarly estimates vary. However, over the 

centuries, somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 million people were shipped across the Atlantic as slaves, and another 14 million 

African slaves were sent to the Islamic nations of the Middle East and North Africa. On both routes, many died in transit. 





94 

95



Today, nearly 40 percent of all Americans hold a 4-year degree. Considering the vast increase in college 

attendance and completion, it’s fair to question if a college degree has retained its “purchasing power” on 

the job market. Much of the evidence seems to suggest that it has not. 

What is Credential Inflation? 

The signaling function of college degrees may have been distorted by the phenomenon known as credential 

inflation. Credential inflation is nothing more than “… an increase in the education credentials 

required for a job.” 

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2021 

BY Peter Clark 

Why College Degrees Are Losing Their Value 

he concept of inflation (the depreciation of purchasing 

power of a specific currency) applies to other goods 

besides money. Inflation is related to the Law of Supply 

and Demand. As the supply of a commodity increases, 

the value decreases. Conversely, as the good becomes 

more scarce, the value of the commodity increases. This 

same concept is also applicable to tangible items such 

as vintage baseball cards and rare art. These are rare 

commodities that cannot be authentically replicated and 

therefore command a high value on the market. On the 

other hand, mass-produced rookie cards and replications 

of Monet’s work are plentiful. As a result, they yield little 

value on the market. 

Inflation and the opposite principle of deflation can also 

apply to intangible goods. When looking at the job market, 

this becomes quite evident. Jobs that require skills 

that are rare or exceptional tend to pay higher wages. 

However, there are also compensating differentials 

that arise because of the risky or unattractive nature of 

undesirable jobs. The higher wages are due to a lack of 

workers willing to accept the position rather than the 

possession of skills that are in demand. 

The Signaling Function of College Degrees 

Over the past couple of decades, credentialing of intangible 

employment value has become more prevalent. Credentials 

can range from college degrees to professional 

The signaling function of college degrees may have been distorted by the phenomenon 

known as credential inflation. 

96 

certifications. One of the most common forms of credentialing 

has become a 4-year college degree. This category 

of human capital documentation has evolved to take on 

an alternate function. 

Outside of a few notable exceptions, a bachelor’s degree 

serves a signaling function. As George Mason economics 

professor Bryan Caplan argues, the function of a college 

degree is primarily to signal to potential employers that 

a job applicant has desirable characteristics. Earning 

a college degree is more of a validation process than a 

skill-building process. Employers desire workers that are 

not only intelligent but also compliant and punctual. The 

premise of the signaling model seems to be validated by 

the fact that many graduates are not using their degrees. 

In fact, in 2013; only 27 percent of graduates had a job 

related to their major. 

Since bachelor’s degrees carry a significant signaling 

function, there have been substantial increases in the 

number of job seekers possessing a 4-year degree. Retention 

rates for 4-year institutions reached an all-time high 

of 81 percent in 2017. In 1940, 4.2 million Americans were 

4-year college graduates. Today, 99.5 million Americans 

have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. These numbers 

demonstrate the sharp increase in the number of 

Americans earning college degrees. 

Many jobs that previously required no more than a high school diploma are now only accepting applicants 

with bachelor’s degrees. This shift in credential preferences among employers has now made the 4-year 

degree the unofficial minimum standard for educational requirements. This fact is embodied in the high 

rates of underemployment among college graduates. Approximately 41 percent of all recent graduates 

are working jobs that do not require a college degree. It is shocking when you consider that 17 percent of 

hotel clerks and 23.5 percent of amusement park attendants hold 4-year degrees. None of these jobs have 

traditionally required a college degree. But due to a competitive job market where most applicants have 

degrees, many recent graduates have no means of distinguishing themselves from other potential employees. 

Thus, many recent graduates have no other option but to accept low-paying jobs. 

The value of a college degree has gone down due to the vast increase in the number of workers who possess 

degrees. This form of debasement mimics the effect of printing more money. Following the Law of 

Supply and Demand, the greater the quantity of a commodity, the lower the value. The hordes of guidance 

counselors and parents urging kids to attend college have certainly contributed to the problem. However, 

public policy has served to amplify this issue. 

Various kinds of loan programs, government scholarships, and other programs have incentivized more students 

to pursue college degrees. Policies that make college more accessible—proposals for “free college,” 

for example—also devalue degrees. More people attending college makes degrees even more common and 

further depreciated. 

Of course, this not to say brilliant students with aspirations of a career in STEM fields should avoid college. 

But for the average student, a college degree may very well be a malinvestment and hinder their future. 

Incurring large amounts of debt to work for minimum wage is not a wise decision. When faced with policies 

and social pressure that have made college the norm, students should recognize that a college degree 

isn’t everything. If students focused more on obtaining marketable skills than on credentials, they might 

find a way to stand out in a job market flooded with degrees. 



97



Capitalism Advances Private Property 

Considering the shortages created by the government-controlled economy of my birth country, I came to understand 

and appreciate capitalism, the one system that had the most dramatic effect in elevating human civilization. 

Private property and private property rights are at the core of capitalism. 

The layman definition of capitalism is the economic system in which people and businesses engage in manufacturing, 

trading, and exchanging products and services without government interference. A free-market capitalist system 

works in a more efficient manner when not tampered with by government or central bank intervention in the credit 

markets, monetary policy, and interest rate fixing. 

Private property and private property rights are at the core of capitalism. When in school, we learned that private 

property makes people greedy and is considered detrimental to society. Private property was associated with capitalism, 

the system that our textbooks claimed failed. 

Allocation of Resources 

Romania was rich in natural resources, yet the difference between our standard of living and those from the West 

was quite dramatic. It was indicative of a flawed economic system that most countries in Eastern Europe adhered to 

during the Soviet Era. But one may ask why was there so much poverty when natural resources are so abundant? 

The free market, however, directs the allocation of resources via the amazing process of supply and demand. 

Economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources which have alternative uses. Efficiency is thus of primary 

concern when the goal is economic progress. 

FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2018 

BY Carmen Alexe 

I Grew Up in a Communist System. Here’s What Americans Don’t 

Understand About Freedom 

Individual freedom can only exist in the context of 

free-market capitalism. Personal freedom thrives in capitalism, 

declines in government-regulated economies, and 

vanishes in communism. Aside from better economic and 

legislative policies, what America needs is a more intense 

appreciation for individual freedom and capitalism. 

I was born and raised in communist Romania during the 

Cold War, a country in which the government owned all 

the resources and means of production. The state controlled 

almost every aspect of our lives: our education, our 

job placement, the time of day we could have hot water, 

and what we were allowed to say. 

Like the rest of the Eastern European countries, Romania 

was often referred to as a communist country. In school, 

we were taught it was a socialist country. Its name prior to 

the 1989 Revolution to overthrow the Ceausescu regime 

was the Socialist Republic of Romania. 

From an economic standpoint, a petty fraction of property 

was still privately owned. In a communist system, all property 

is owned by the state. So if it wasn’t a true communist 

economy, its heavy central planning and the application 

of a totalitarian control over the Romanian citizenry made 

this nation rightfully gain its title of a communist country. 

Socialism Creates Shortages 

Despite the fact that Romania was a country rich in 

resources, there were shortages everywhere. Food, electricity, 

water, and just about every one of life’s necessities 

were in short supply. The apartment building in which 

we lived provided hot water for showers two hours in the 

morning and two hours at night. We had to be quick and 

on time so we didn’t miss the opportunity. 

I get it, maybe we didn’t need to be fashionable. But we 

needed to eat. 

Wrigley’s chewing gum and Swiss chocolate were a rare 

delight for us. I remember how happy I was when I’d have 

a pack of foreign bubblegum or a bar of delicious milk 

chocolate. I’d usually save them for special occasions. 

Fruity lip gloss, French perfume, and jeans were but a few 

Only in a free-market system can we truly achieve individual liberty and human flourishing. 

of the popular items available only on the black market 

and with the right connections. God bless our black-market 

entrepreneurs! They made our lives better. They gave 

us the opportunity to buy things we very much desired, 

things we couldn’t get from the government-owned retail 

stores which were either half-empty or full of products 

that were ugly and of poor quality. 

The grocery stores were not any better. I get it, maybe we 

didn’t need to be fashionable. But we needed to eat. So, 

the old Romanian adage “Conscience goes through the 

stomach” made a lot of sense. 

During the late 1970s, life in Romania started to deteriorate 

even more. Meat was hardly a consumer staple for 

the average Romanian. Instead, our parents learned to 

become good at preparing the liver, the brain, the tongue, 

and other giblets that most people in the West would not 

even consider trying. 

For a family of four like us, our rationed quota was 1 kilogram 

of flour and 1 kilogram of sugar per month. 

When milk, butter, eggs, and yogurt were temporarily 

available, my mom—like so many others of our neighbors—would 

wake up at 2:00 a.m. to go stand in line so 

she’d have the chance to get us these goodies. The store 

would open at 6:00 a.m., so if she wasn’t early enough in 

line she’d miss the opportunity. 

In 1982, the state sent their disciples to people’s homes 

to do the census. Along with that, food rationing was 

implemented. For a family of four like us, our rationed 

quota was 1 kilogram of flour and 1 kilogram of sugar per 

month. That is, if they were available and if we were lucky 

enough to be in the right place at the right time when they 

were being distributed. 

98 

The one television channel our government provided for 

us often focused on programs related to crime and poverty 

in the western world. After all, people were poor and 

suffering because of capitalism, so we were told, so we 

needed socialism and communism to solve the inequalities 

of humanity. 

In a centrally-planned environment, the various government individuals who are assigned the task of planning the 

economy could not possibly know how to properly allocate the scarce resources of an entire nation, no matter how 

smart or educated they are. Shortages are one of the consequences of improper allocation of the scarce resources. 

The free market, however, through the multiple spontaneous interactions of businesses and consumers, directs 

the allocation of resources via the amazing process of supply and demand. It is precisely due to the profit and loss 

events that economic efficiency is stimulated. 

Free Markets Attract Capital 

Due to its profit incentives, capitalism encourages innovation. Innovation leads to progress and an increase in the 

standard of living. But progress and the climate which offers humans a high standard of living cannot be created 

without the capital to transform and turn resources into the final products that give us the—relatively—cheap 

energy and food, smartphones, fitness gyms, and overall the life we currently afford. Capital moves in the direction 

of less regulation, less government intervention, and less taxation. In short, capital moves to where there’s more 

economic freedom. 

Capital is chased away due to the high risk associated with governments who engage in high levels of controlling 

their economies. 

In contrast, communism, socialism, fascism, or just about any government-controlled system lacks the profit incentive. 

The people, who are the human resources, have no desire to engage in a business where the reward is not 

attainable (unless it’s done in the black markets). They accept the state and its bureaucratic cronies to dictate their 

faith. 

Capital is chased away due to the high risk associated with governments who engage in high levels of controlling 

their economies and, often, corruption. The overall standard of living is dramatically lower than in most capitalist 

places, and the poverty is higher. Consequently, the collectivist country falls into an economic and social trap from 

which it is hard to escape. Only capitalism can save a nation from the failure of its central economic planning. 

Capitalism Helps Us Be Better Individuals 

Similar to the old Soviet lifestyle, let’s remember what the typical Venezuelan family of our times worries about on 

a daily basis. Food to put on the table and the safety of their children. They wake up in the morning wondering how 

many meals they can afford that day, where to get them from, and how to pay for them. 

Capitalism makes it possible for us to challenge ourselves, to have goals, and to put forth the sweat in order to 

achieve them. 

We, the lucky ones to live in a relatively free-market system, don’t have these kinds of worries. We go to work, get 

leisure time to be on Facebook, watch TV, be with our families, read books, and enjoy a hobby or two. In short, we 

have the personal freedom to engage in and enjoy a variety of life events because of capitalism. 

But there’s another important motive to desire to live in a capitalist society. We are free to create and come up with 

all kinds of business ideas, no matter how crazy some might be. Because we don’t have to worry about tomorrow, we 

have—or make—the time to read, explore, and innovate. 

Capitalism makes it possible for us to challenge ourselves, to have goals, and to put forth the sweat to achieve them. 

It gives us the freedom to try new things and explore new opportunities. It gives us the chance to create more opportunities. 

It helps us build strong character because when we try, we also fail, and without failure, how do we know 

we’ve made mistakes? Without failure, how do we know we must make changes? 

99


Individual Freedom Can Only Exist in the Context of Free Markets 

Before immigrating to the U.S., I had to go through a rigorous process. One of the events was 

the immigration interview with the American counselor who, among many other questions, 

asked why I escaped Romania and why I wanted to come to America. My short answer was 

freedom. Then he posed the interesting question: “If America was to go through a period of 

economic devastation with shortages similar to Romania, would you still feel the same way?” I 

didn’t think too much about it, and I said, “Yes, of course, as long as I have freedom.” 


Capitalism is the path to the individual rights and liberty that build the solid foundation of a 

free society. 

In retrospect, that was a dumb answer on my part. After several decades, I came to believe 

that the human condition of individual freedom can only exist in the context of free markets. 

Shortages are created by the intrusion of the state into the complex activity of the markets, 

whether it’s price controls or poor allocation of resources. 

When shortages are powerful and long enough to dramatically affect lives, people resort to 

revolt. Large revolts call for serious governmental actions including, but not limited to, eroding 

or completely eliminating individual rights (the right to free speech and to bear arms), the 

institution of a police state, and the enacting of a powerful state propaganda system. Capitalism 

is the path to the individual rights and liberty that build the solid foundation of a free 

society. 

Is America a True Capitalist Economy? 

The short answer is no. Most of the world refers to the American system as being a capitalist 

one. Based on my short definition of capitalism, it is obvious that it is not quite a pure one, 

and I wish to clarify that the U.S. is not a truly free-market capitalist system. 

We still maintain stronger capitalist traits than most, however a few other nations who lead 

the way in economic freedom have surpassed us. 

The economic policy of the 19th Century with limited regulations and minimal taxation 

attracted the needed capital to our country. The Industrial Revolution made spectacular 

advancements in human conditions due to the capital concentrated in the region. America 

lost its number one place due to legislating higher regulations, taxation, and protectionist 

policies. 

But we are still enjoying some of the fruits today. Compared to many countries in the world, 

we still maintain stronger capitalist traits than most, however Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, 

New Zealand, and a few other nations who lead the way in economic freedom have 

surpassed us (see the latest statistics). 

What America Needs 

It starts in our own backyard, in our home, in our small group, in our community. 

Aside from better economic and legislative policies, what America needs is a more intense 

appreciation of individual freedom and capitalism. Such a crazy idea is not acquired through 

public schools or becoming a public servant. Young people don’t need more years of schooling 

with more worthless college degrees and student loans in default. America needs more entrepreneurs 

and businessmen. It needs more people with drive and ambition, more self-starters, 

more innovators, more people who are willing to take chances. 

It starts in our own backyard, in our home, in our small group, in our community. It starts 

with loving, involved, and dedicated parents who’d instill the values of personal responsibility 

and delayed gratification in their children. It continues with an education that entails 

both theory and hands-on practice in environments conducive to learning how to think independently 

and how to acquire life- and work-skills. It evolves into a purpose-driven life rich 

in learning and experiences. And this may be just the beginning of attaining the intellectual 

maturity to perceive the value that free markets and individual freedom afford most of us. 



101



Thomas J. Schmidt, Esq. 

September 14, 2022 

Scott Woodruff, Esq. 


Dave Dentel 

NEW YORK DISTRICT CHARGES FAMILY WITH NEGLECT—A YEAR AFTER 

THEY MOVED 

https://hslda.org/post/new-york-district-charges-family-with-neglect-a-year-after-they-moved?utm_ 

source=WU&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9-14-2022&utm_id=HSLDA 

MISSOURI COMPANY RENEWS JOB OFFER AFTER GRADUATE PROVES VALID 

DIPLOMA 

https://hslda.org/post/missouri-company-renews-job-offer-after-graduate-proves-valid-diploma?utm_ 


November 08, 2022 

EMPLOYER’S OBJECTION TO HOMESCHOOL DIPLOMA RESOLVED IN 7 

MINUTES 

https://hslda.org/post/employer-s-objection-to-homeschool-diploma-resolved-in-7-minutes?utm_ 


Michael Donnelly, JD, LLM 


PARIS SUMMIT ENCOURAGES HARD-PRESSED EUROPEAN 

HOMESCHOOLERS 

https://hslda.org/post/paris-summit-encourages-hard-pressed-european-homeschoolers?utm_ 


Thomas J. Schmidt, Esq. 

December 07, 2022 

WHY DID THIS SCHOOL THREATEN TO REPORT ALL HOMESCHOOLERS TO 

COUNTY ATTORNEY? 

https://hslda.org/post/why-did-this-school-threaten-to-report-all-homeschoolers-to-county-attorney?utm_source=WU&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12-7-2022&utm_id=HSLDA 

102 

103



other articles 

MAINE’S RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS’ ‘HANDS ARE TIED’ EVEN AFTER SUPREME COURT RULING OPENING 

DOOR TO STATE TUITION FUNDING 

The Lion - Perspectives and News for the American Family, Educators, and Leaders (readlion.com) 

NEW STYLE OF COLLEGE ENVISIONED BY MIT PROFESSORS 

Five professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are proposing a new style of college that incorporates the new 

technology used during the pandemic with an emphasis on work skills. The new model also would rely less on a big campus 

and make use of curriculum from other schools. 

N.Y. UPS AGE LIMIT FOR SPECIAL-EDUCATION SERVICES 

As schools gear up to help students bridge learning gaps that resulted from pandemic-related education interruptions, 

lawmakers in New York have passed state legislation to help students with disabilities access much-needed services. 

Under the measure, students who would have aged out of services at 21 can now access those services until age 23. Full 

Story: WRGB-TV (Albany, N.Y.) (9/10) 

EPA DOUBLES MONEY FOR ELECTRIC SCHOOL BUSES AS DEMAND SOARS 

By Carl Weinschenk 

STATE AND LOCAL EDUCATION NEWS 

School report cards out Thursday; change from letter grade to star system 

DAYTON DAILY NEWS 

For the first time in two years, school districts will receive a rating when state report cards are released Thursday, but it 

will look different than years past — the Ohio legislature changed the school report card rating system from A-F grades 

to a 1-5 stars system. The last time schools were given a grade was the 2018-2019 school year. The state said it would be 

unfair to schools to grade them in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years amid COVID disruptions. Schools still will be 

evaluated on how well their students are doing on state tests, reading proficiency in kindergarten through third grade, 

graduation rates, how students are progressing year over year, how well schools are able to close gaps for underprivileged 

students such as English language learners or disabled students, and how ready a student is to enter the workforce, college 

or the military after graduation. 

97 MILLION TIKTOK VIEWS = 1 YEAR OF PAY FROM YOUR DAY JOB 

By Carl Weinschenk 

https://apnews.com/article/business-education-pollution-air-quality-climate-and-environment-ad9dc72b1ad662dfb618fcc317728f27 

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/97-million-tiktok-views-1-year-of-pay-from-your-day-job?utm_term=61627431- 

9B44-4420-8791-699678DD7F98&utm_campaign=AC59823B-4C3C-4F57-8D2A-7EDD2B31AA42&utm_medium=email&utm_ 

content=A482D203-3A35-4433-8A2B-31F83D79A148&utm_source=SmartBrief 

MIT PROFESSORS PROPOSE A NEW KIND OF UNIVERSITY FOR POST-COVID ERA 

By Jeffrey R. Young Sep 28, 2022 

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-09-28-mit-professors-propose-a-new-kind-of-university-for-post-covid-era 

https://www.dea.gov/stories/2022/2022-02/2022-02-16/fentanyl-deaths-climbing-dea-washington-continues-fight 

HURRICANE IAN CAUSES 2.5M STUDENTS TO MISS SCHOOL 

About 2.5 million students across Florida have missed at least one day of 

school due to Hurricane Ian, with 1.7 million missing three days or more. 

Officials say they are concerned about lost instructional time and ask for 

patience as they prepare to reopen as soon as possible. Full Story: Tampa 

Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.) (tiered subscription model) (9/29), National 

Public Radio (9/29) 

104 

105



PAMELA CLARK, FOUNDER/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT 

NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP 

GREAT COMPANIES: HOW DID YOU GET YOUR IDEA OR CONCEPT FOR THE BUSINESS? CONCEPT FOR THE BUSINESS? 

Pamela Clark: Originally, I was a home school mom and other moms would come to me for advice. Then after homeschooling 

for about four years, I learned about charter schools. I became a parent leader for a charter school for some time. During 

that time, I helped many families from all school backgrounds. I 

advocated for families to receive a fair education. Once I discovered 

that families needed to cooperate, especially in educating children 

with learning difficulties such as ADHD, bipolar disorder, autism, 

and neurological disorders. When I left the charter school I had a 

meeting with a few moms I had served. One of the first things I told 

them was that I wanted to create a group that helps all families. I 

had served so many families from multiple school backgrounds at 

this time, I didn’t understand the strict lines drawn by those in the 

education system. Everyone pays taxes whether they have children 

in public school, yet there was minimal, or no support offered to the 

homeschoolers asking for access to the art, music, and other programs. 

Charter school students receive help only from the charter 

they belong too, and traditional schools only care about the students 

in their classrooms. I didn’t want to combine them into one 

school but truly believe that everyone willing to work for it deserves a fair and equal education. NHEG wants families to 

reach their dreams and goals. When a family and student reach their full potential, we all benefit as a society. 

GREAT COMPANIES: WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS SERVICES PROVIDED BY NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP? 

Pamela Clark: New Heights Educational Group is the first one-stop-shop in education. 

NHEG has served over 550,000 students via online services and courses via its site and affiliate and partner sites. I lead 

a team of 73 volunteers who research advancements, provide training to teachers and tutors, create courses and tutor 

students. The organization has many internal departments including education, research, graphics, photography, HR, 

social media and marketing, proofreading/editing, authors/writers/script writers, comic book, production management for 

magazine, content builders, internet radio show/podcast, accounting and more. 

NHEG provides fill-in-the-gap tutoring to reach students who have been left behind by traditional schools. It offers classes, 

an educational magazine called the NHEG EDGuide and the E.A.S.YToons comic books that has over 100,540 Views. 

The organization has published two books: Unraveling Reading and Unraveling Science. Both books are part of the Unraveling 

series, which provides strategies to parents, teachers and tutors to help them support children’s learning processes. 

The series will include a book for each subject. One Nonprofit’s Journey to Success, written by an NHEG volunteer, was 

released worldwide in March 2015 and tells the organization’s story. NHEG’s internet radio show, New Heights Show on 

Education, has had over 357,841 listens and is on 29 networks and became a syndicated show in 2019. 

NHEG and its partners/affiliates offer over 1,200 low-cost and high-quality courses on its website, and it makes national 

and international leadership opportunities available to its students. 

In 2020, NHEG grew its reach by over 90,000 people. In 2021, through new partnerships with Stack Social, Skillwise, 

National CSI Camp, Citizen Goods and The Hip Hop Healthy Heart Program for Children and Natural Born Leaders, it has 

more than tripled its previous course offerings with the over 1,280 free and discounted unique courses mentioned above 

and another 284 classroom resources for all subject matters. The in-person reading program switched to an online reading 

program with the help of one of NHEG’s partners (The 2nd & 7 Foundation), and it went from a 2-tier to a 5-tier reading 

program within the last year. 

GREAT COMPANIES: WHAT MAKES NEW HEIGHTS EDUCATIONAL GROUP DIFFERENT FROM HUNDREDS OF OTHER SIMILAR 

SERVICE PROVIDERS? 

Pamela Clark: NHEG is the only organization that offers a range of educational services and resources under one business. 

We excel at it; we are the best in the world at it. This is proven by the many awards and recognition the organization has 

won since its creation and the many families that have benefited from this dream. 

GREAT COMPANIES: WHAT ARE THE STRUGGLES AND CHALLENGES YOU FACE? 

Pamela Clark: Every step of the way there has been struggles and challenges. It is a struggle to reach those in the educational 

system that see us as a threat instead of what the organization can do for the community. Many in power have 

biased thinking and keep us a secret from the families in need of our services. Instead, they send families to for-profit 

businesses that they can’t afford and, in turn, cause more difficulties for these very families; it’s a vicious cycle. 

Funding is our biggest roadblock; everything NHEG has built, all the work it has done is yet to be fully funded. It would cost 

$457,567.00 to fund the first year of the organization’s entire dream. That amount is less than is spent on two school dropouts 

over a lifetime of receiving public assistance, and yet NHEG struggles to receive funding. It is very frustrating. 

Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What do 5 years down the line look like for New Heights Educational 

Group? 

Pamela Clark: NHEG envisions building a computer lab and learning center 

Purpose: The lab and learning center will provide a space for academic research, academic studies, school assignments, 

educational planning, testing and tutoring services and other educational options. The lab can be used by families with 

students enrolled in any type of school or afterschool programs, for homeschool resources and as a teaching space for 

themed co-op/enrichment classes. The facilities will enable NHEG to teach, assist and provide technology resources to 

families for self-learning. 

Genealogy program - NHEG is looking to create a genealogy program with the goal of building students’ self-esteem and 

further connecting them to their community and country. 

NHEG GED Program / Testing Site and implementing a sensory room for those with disabilities and creating a daycare for 

young mothers and fathers. 

Creation of a sensory room in the hopes of reaching students with disabilities/special needs. This is very important for 

those with special needs and can open a new world for these students and their families. 

Support for Teenage Parents 

NHEG works with many teen parents that are struggling with the traditional education settings. Those that have children 

while still in high school or college, can still have a successful life if they have access to a support system. They are encouraged 

and treated with fairness and respect. NHEG recognizes the value of self-esteem and works towards building theirs 

by listening to their dreams and helping them achieve them. The organization provides a support system with affordable 

child-care, fun activities and learning opportunities, promotes student leadership, and teaches them to value themselves, 

so they can continue their educational endeavors. NHEG excels at providing this support that helps them reach their goals 

and this must be done if we want to effect change in society. 

GREAT COMPANIES: IF YOU HAD ONE PIECE OF ADVICE TO SOMEONE JUST STARTING OUT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? 

Pamela Clark: Don’t just start a business, start a passion. If starting a charity, find someone in your community doing 

something similar and volunteer for a while. Never think of any job as beneath you; do everything and learn everything, so 

you can mentor others. 

106 

107

TUYO (DRIED FISH) RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• 1 kilo Tunsoy Fish (small) 

• 1 kilo rock salt 

• 1 gallon fresh water 

Directions 

1. Clean up the fresh fish with fresh water and drain for 20 minutes. 

2. All fishes are gutted, salted liberally and brined for 3 hours. 

3. Brine solution : mix 1gallon of water with 1kilo of salt. 

4. Wash off the excess salt and line them up in a wire screen mesh to sun dry and air dry for two to three days. 

5. Turn the fish over every hour or two for even drying. 

6. Once all dried, we keep them in an air tight storage to keep the salty-smell lingering in the house 

7. To COOK: 

8. Heat a shallow pan and add canola oil. 

9. Once hot, put the tuyo fish and fry until desired crispness. 

10. 2 minutes on each side will give the right crisp. 

11. Serve with fried rice with garlic and sinamak for dip. 

12. *I usually like to dip in cane vinegar with crushed garlic and chili. 

109

CROCKPOT MEATBALL PARM RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• 1 POUNDS GROUND BEEF 

• 1 1/2 CUP ITALIAN SEASONED BREAD CRUMBS 

• 2 EGGS 

• GARLIC (4 CLOVES-2 GRATED/MINCED FOR MEATBALLS - 2 MINCED FOR SAUCE) 

• 2 28OZ CANS OF CRUSHED TOMATOES 

• 2 CUPS RED WINE 

• 1 1/2 TBS SUGAR (TO REDUCE ACIDITY IN THE SAUCE FROM TOMATOES AND WINE) 

• SUBMARINE ROLLS 

• GARLIC POWDER 

• OLIVE OIL 

• FRESH MOZZERELLA 

PEPPERONI PIZZA CHICKEN BAKE RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• 1 jar (14 ounce) low carb pizza sauce 

• 4 large boneless-skinless chicken breasts (6-8 oz. each) 

• 1 tablespoon olive oil 

• 1 teaspoon oregano 

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder 

• 6 ounces Mozzarella cheese (not fresh), sliced ¼ inch thick 

• 2 ounces sliced pepperoni (regular or turkey) 

Directions 

Directions 

1. PREPARE MEATBALLS; GROUND BEEF, EGGS, 2 GARLIC CLOVES, BREADCRUMBS - MIX TOGETHER WITH HANDS, FORM 

MEATBALLS PLACE IN CROCK POT. 

2. PREPARE SAUCE; SQUEEZE TOMATOES FROM CAN OVER MEATBALLS, ADD WINE, GARLIC, SUGAR. 

3. LET COOK ON LOW FOR 7-9 HOURS. 

4. WHEN YOU’RE READY TO EAT; TURN OFF SLOW COOKER, GIVE A FEW STIRS. 

5. SLICE ROLLS, BRUSH WITH OLIVE OIL, SPRINKLE WITH GARLIC POWDER, PLACE IN A 325 DEGREE PREHEATED OVEN, 

TOAST FOR 5 MIN. 

6. TAKE ROLLS OUT, PLACE MEATBALLS ON EACH SUB, PLACE MOZZERELLA ON TOP 

7. PUT BACK IN OVEN FOR AN ADDITONA 5-10 MIN (OR UNTIL CHEESE HAS MELTED) 

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Pour the pizza sauce in a saucepan and simmer over low heat until it’s reduced to one cup, 

about 20 minutes. 

2. While the sauce reduces, cut the chicken breasts in half horizontally to make two same size pieces. Place the 

chicken in a heavy plastic bag and use a meat mallet (or pan) to pound the chicken until it’s as thin as you can 

get it without it breaking apart. 

3. Mix the Greek oregano and garlic powder in a small bowl and sprinkle both sides of each chicken piece with mixture. 

4. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large non-stick frying pan. Add the chicken pieces and cook 1-2 minutes 

on each side, just long enough to brown the chicken but not long enough to cook it through. You may have 

to do 2 batches to get this part done. 

5. Place the browned chicken in a single layer in a casserole dish. 

6. Spread the sauce over the top of each chicken breast. Layer each piece with sliced Mozzarella and pepperoni 

slices. 

7. Bake uncovered about 25-30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starting to brown and the pepperoni is 

slightly crisped. Serve immediately. 

110 

111


BAKED PORK CHOPS AND APPLES RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• Non-Stick cooking spray 

• 1 (6 oz) box stuffing mix for pork, 

• NOTE: (If you can’t find stuffing mix for pork, 

• chicken stuffing mix will also work.) 

• 1 can (21 oz) apple pie filling 

• 6 boneless pork chops (1-1/2 lb total), 3/4 inch thick 

• Salt, black pepper, poultry seasoning, optional (season 

to taste.) 

FIESTA CHICKEN ENCHILADAS RECIPE 

Ingredients 

• 1 onion, chopped 

• 1 red pepper, chopped 

• 1 garlic clove, minced 

• 4 cooked small chicken breasts, shredded using 2 forks to 

pull chicken into long shreds 

• 1 cup (250 ml) salsa, divided 

• 125 g (1/2 of 250 g pkg) Light cream cheese spread, cubed 

• 1 tbsp (15 ml) chopped cilantro 

• 1 tsp ground cumin 

• 1/2 cup (125 ml) Kraft Tex Mex cheese, shredded, divided 

• 8 flour tortillas (6 inches) 

Directions 

1. 1.Preheat oven to 375º F. 

2. 2. Prepare stuffing mix as directed on package. 

3. 3+. Spread the pie filling onto bottom of 13 x 9 inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Season chops 

if desired. Place chops and stuffing over apple filling. Cover. 

4. 4. Place in oven and cook for 35 minutes or until chops are done (145º F.), uncovering for the last 5 minutes. 

5. 5. Remove baking dish from oven; let stand for 3 minutes before serving. 

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (180 C) 

2. Heat large skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium heat. 

3. Add onions, peppers and garlic; cook and sitr 2 minutes. 

4. Add chicken, 1/4 cup (50 ml) of the salsa, the cream cheese, cilantro and cumin; mix well. Cook until heated 

through, stirring occasionally. 

5. Add 1/4 cup (50 ml) of the shredded cheese; mix well. 

6. Spoon about 1/3 cup (75 ml) of the chicken mixture onto each tortilla; roll up. Place, seam side down in a 13 X 9 inch 

baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; top with remaining 3/4 cup (175 ml) of salsa and remaining 1/4 cup (50 

ml) shredded cheese. 

7. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until heated through. 

8. Makes 4 servings, 2 enchiladas each. 

9. For a spicier flavour, add 1 can (127 ml) chopped green chilies, drained to the chicken misture and prepare as 

directed 

https://cookeatshare.com 

112 

113


114

NHEG EDGuide-March-April 2023

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?