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Massive Study Finds Pre-School and Early Child Education Initiatives Show No Benefit
Tiller's Attorneys Try Second Approach in Illegal Abortion Case
West Virginia Man Indicted for Killing Pregnant Girlfriend, Unborn Child
New Film Investigates Crushing of Dissent from Darwinian Orthodoxy...
MASSIVE STUDY FINDS PRE-SCHOOL & EARLY CHILD EDUCATION INITIATIVES SHOW NO BENEFIT. Other studies found marked negative effects from preschool including brain chemistry damage, aggression, negative social and emotional development, illness. A six year comparison of almost 35,000 children has shown that there has been no change in developmental levels of pupils entering primary school in this period, despite the introduction of several new early years' initiatives over the past decade, new research from Durham University's Curriculum, Evaluation and Management (CEM) Centre reveals.
The research, presented Tuesday at the biennial European Association for Learning and Instruction (EARLI) conference, shows that although there have been massive changes in early years education in the last few years, children's development and skills at the start of school are no different now than they were before the introduction of the early childhood curriculum, the Sure Start programme, free nursery education for all three year olds and the more recent introduction of the Children's Act 2002 and the Every Child Matters initiative.
The research used the CEM Centre's Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) assessment to measure the cognitive development of almost 35,000 children on entry into primary school between 2001 and 2006 and the authors believe it reveals potential policy implications for how future early years initiatives are introduced and monitored.
Dr Christine Merrell, PIPS Projects Manager at Durham University's CEM Centre explains: "Our aim with this study is to provide a single perspective on the changing profiles of children starting school in England during a time of rapid change. While the PIPS assessments, used in the study do not measure how many children were involved in national initiatives, one would have expected that the major government programmes would have resulted in some measurable changes in our sample of almost 35,000 children. It is possible, however, that it is just still too early to measure the effects of these programmes particularly those of the Children's Act and Every Child Matters, which were only introduced in the past few years."
The significance of the findings is devastating for the Labour government currently headed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown as it has invested heavily in preschool, early childhood daycare schemes.
Other studies have found marked negative effects from preschool including brain chemistry damage, aggression, negative social and emotional development, and illness.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Study Finds Daycare Damages Babies Brain Chemistry
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/mar/06032903.html
Study Links Child Aggression to Time in Day Care
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/aug/03082108.html
Preschool Damages Children's Social Skills and Emotional Development
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/nov/05111001.html
Study Shows Canada's Universal Daycare Plan Has "Strikingly Negative" Consequences
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/feb/06020205.html
[31August2007, By John-Henry Westen, London, LifeSiteNews.com]
TILLER'S ATTORNEYS TRY 2nd APPROACH IN ILLEGAL ABORTION CASE. Attorneys for embattled late-term abortionist George Tiller are trying their new approach in their fight to clear him of 19 charges of doing illegal late-term abortions. They hope to challenge a law limiting the jury size in misdemeanor cases. A 1981 state law limits the size of a jury in a misdemeanor case to 6 people, whereas 12 people are required to sit on a jury in a felony case. Tiller is challenging the constitutionality of that law, according to his attorney Dan Monnat: "At the time the Kansas Constitution was enacted, that's what the convention had in mind". Monnat said he thinks the legislature overstepped its bounds when it approved allowing a lower number of jurors in misdemeanor cases like Tiller's.
Mary Kay Culp, the head of Kansans for Life, spoke with LifeNews.com about the latest action. "Dr. Tiller has paid good money, up to a million dollars in the last election, to get out of being treated like any other citizen accused of breaking the law," she said. "The courts need to nip this in the bud and treat him like the spoiled child that he is by saying no unequivocally and as soon as possible." [Wichita Eagle; 31Aug07, Wichita, KS, LifeNews.com]
WEST VIRGINIA MAN INDICTED FOR KILLING PREGNANT GIRLFRIEND, UNBORN CHILD. A West Virginia man is the second person to be indicted under a law that provides protection and justice for pregnant women and their unborn children. The state's unborn victims law, one of three dozen across the nation, allows prosecutors to hold criminals accountable for killing or injuring both mother and child.
James Louis DeGasperin, a 35 year-old teacher from Preston, is charged with killing his 25 year-old girlfriend Lori Casteel and her unborn child. Casteel, her son Collin, and her unborn baby, were all killed when DeGasperin hit her with a baseball bat and then killed Collin with a shotgun blast.
In addition to his indictment on first degree murder in the deaths of Casteel and Collin, DeGasperin was indicted for first degree murder in the death of the baby as well because Casteel was six months pregnant at the time. That can happen because the West Virginia legislature, in 2005, approved Senate Bill 146 and it became law that May when Gov. Joe Manchin signed it. Under the statute, "a pregnant woman and the embryo or fetus she is carrying in the womb constitute separate and distinct victims" for purposes of the state laws governing murder, manslaughter, and certain other crimes of violence. [31Aug07, Charleston, WV, LifeNews.com]
NEW FILM INVESTIGATES CRUSHING OF DISSENT FROM DARWINIAN ORTHODOXY
"If you have questioned Darwinism, that's it, your career is over."
"I was viewed as an intellectual terrorist."
"I have been told to shut up."
The quotes come from interviews with research scientists featured in a new film, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," starring the New York writer and intellectual Ben Stein. The film, set for release in February 2008, documents the crushing of any investigation or questioning of materialist Darwinism that is the orthodox position of most of the scientific establishment.
In the trailer for "Expelled", Stein is seen addressing an audience saying, "There are people out there who want to keep science in a little box, where it can't possibly touch God…Scientists are not allowed to even think thoughts that involve an intelligent creator."
A PRNewswire release says that Stein, a lawyer, economist, former presidential speechwriter, author and social commentator, was "stunned" when he investigated the debate surrounding Intelligent Design theory and Darwinism. Stein uncovers what he says is an elitist scientific establishment that actively suppresses any research that may lead to questioning of the "accepted" Darwinian theory.
The film features interviews with scientists and thinkers including biologists, astronomers, chemists and philosophers who have had their ideas suppressed for questioning adherence to the materialist theory.
"Big Science in this area of biology has lost its way," says Stein. "Scientists are supposed to be allowed to follow the evidence wherever it may lead, no matter what the implications are. Freedom of inquiry has been greatly compromised, and this is not only anti-American, it's anti-science. Its anti-the whole concept of learning."
Stein writes that the Darwinian orthodoxy in science is as dangerous politically as it is antithetical to free scientific inquiry.
"America is not America without freedom," he writes. "Human beings are supposed to live in a state of freedom. Freedom is not conferred by the state: as our founders said, and as Martin Luther King repeated, freedom is God-given."
"A huge part of this freedom is freedom of inquiry."
Expelled was produced by Premise Media and marketed by Motive Entertainment, the company that has spearheaded The Passion of the Christ, Polar Express and The Chronicles of Narnia.
View the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxGyMn_-J3c
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Over 400 Eminent Scientists Sign "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism"
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05072204.html
Over 500 PhD Scientists Proclaim Their Doubts About Darwin's Theory
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/feb/06022204.html
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