February 11, 2026

IT ISN’T JUST THE KIDS GETTING PARTICIPATION TROPHIES: I won ‘Teacher of the Year’ for enthusiasm, but kids weren’t learning.

Luke Morin won “teacher of the year” when he was a young, energetic, engaging — and ineffective — teacher, he writes on Holly Korbey’s BellRinger. He got flowers from the superintendent and his picture in the paper. But his sixth-grade English students weren’t learning very much.

Years later, after visiting effective schools and studying what make them work, he was “the highest-performing teacher in Colorado.” Nobody noticed.

In her “Learning from Greatness newsletter, Korbey asked why school leaders don’t investigate and emulate what’s working elsewhere. Why is there so little curiosity about success?

Maybe because there’s little interest in promoting it.

Posted at 8:36 am by Stephen Green

ACADEMIC ‘FREEDOM’ ON LEFT CAMPUS: Powerline’s John Hinderaker points to a special ed teacher in a California school who lost her job after expressing support for the deportation of illegal aliens. And asks the next logical questions:

“How did we get to this pass? And what is the path forward? Honestly, I think it is hard to see how those of us who support the rule of law can continue to share a country with those who do not–a group that now numbers close to half of our population. What possible basis for a common citizenship is there, between us and them? I don’t think there is one.”

Posted at 8:34 am by Mark Tapscott

DATA SAYS GOING TO CHURCH KEY TO MARITAL BLISS: In fact, according to the joint analysis of the Institute for Family Studies and UVA and the Wheatley Institute at BYU, men are 3x as likely to be happily married if they regularly attend worship services with their wives and kids. So, if healthy families are the key building block for civilization …

Posted at 8:22 am by Mark Tapscott

SADLY, THIS IS PROBABLY CORRECT:

They’ve had their fill of Islamic rule in Iran, but London is just really getting going.

Posted at 8:19 am by Stephen Green

WWII AND THE COLD WAR: “Our Germans are better than their Germans.”

21st Century: Our Chinese are better than their Chinese.

Posted at 7:50 am by Glenn Reynolds

HMM:

Developing…

Posted at 7:49 am by Stephen Green

THANKS, ELON: Ukrainian assault troops go on the attack — with help from Elon Musk.

On Feb. 4, billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communications company throttled the thousands of terminals across Ukraine. At the behest of the Ukrainian government, the firm shut down all terminals moving at 75 km/hr or faster. That effectively grounded thousands of satellite-guided drones on both sides of Russia’s 48-month wider war on Ukraine.

The Ukrainians quickly submitted a list of their own Starlink terminals, which Musk’s company reauthorized for high-speed use. The effect of the related moves was that Ukraine retained Starlink access; Russia, which has been using smuggled and stolen Starlink systems, lost it. “Looks like the steps we took to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked,” Musk wrote.

For the Ukrainian armed forces, the sudden Starlink gap was an opportunity. A few days after Russia’s terminals went down, Ukrainian forces counterattacked in several sectors along the 1,200-km front line—especially in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts in southeastern Ukraine.

Late last year, the Ukrainians concentrated some of their best-resourced assault battalions and regiments in the southeast in a desperate bid to slow Russia’s ongoing offensive around Huliaipole, a key logistics hub that fell to the Russian 127th Motor Rifle Brigade in late December.

But it remains a cat-and-mouse game: Russia circumvents Starlink shutdown to control UAVs.

Posted at 7:34 am by Stephen Green