Andrew Schlafly

Andrew Layton Schlafly (1961–), also known as "Aschlafly", is an American lawyer and homeschool teacher in his home state of New Jersey, where he has taught at least 250 homeschooled teenagers since 2002.[1][2]

Andrew L. Schlafly, son of prominent Phyllis.
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More about CP

He is the founder of a fundamentalist Christian wiki called Conservapedia, which promotes extremist versions of conservative, Republican, and American-exceptionalist values, and a strictly young Earth creationist view of the history of our universe, planet, and life. Intended as an educational resource and promoted as "The Trusworthy Trustworthy Encyclopedia," Conservapedia has caused great controversy in print,[3][4][5] on the radio,[6][7] and online, primarily over the (lack of) accuracy of the information that it provides.

Background

Personal life

Born in Alton, Illinois, Andrew Schlafly is the son of John Fred Schlafly Jr. (1909–1993), a conservative lawyer, and Phyllis Schlafly (née Stewart, 1924–2016), a conservative activist and founder of the Eagle Forum. Their six children were homeschooled until the age of seven.[8] Andrew Schlafly graduated from Saint Louis Priory School, a private Catholic boys' school, in 1978.[9]

He graduated from Princeton University in 1981 with a B.S.E. cum laude in electrical engineering.[10][11] He went on to study law and earn a J.D. from Harvard Law School (1991), where he graduated magna cum laude.[11] He was a member of the editorial board of the Harvard Law Review (at the same time as former US President Barack Obama, who was Editor-In-Chief of the journal), and he clerked for a federal appellate judge in Washington, D.C.

He married Catherine Agneta Kosarek at a Roman Catholic ceremony in 1984. Ms. Kosarek was a fourth-year medical student at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and also a Princeton graduate.[10] They have two children.

After earning his engineering degree, Schlafly worked as a device physicist for Intel, an electrical engineer at the applied physics laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, and finally at Bell Labs.[10][11] Schlafly became a member of the New York State Bar in 1993[12] and served as an adjunct professor of administrative law at Seton Hall Law School in 1995.[13][2][14] He first worked as an attorney at New York City law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, & Katz.[15]

He is currently General Counsel for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons,[16] and has filed three civil matters on their behalf in Connecticut and Texas District Courts. He is their head counsel for their ongoing legal challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, arguing that the government has no business regulating the medical establishment at all, or demanding "evidence-based methodology" in research of new treatments. Aside from his work for AAPS, records reflect that Schlafly has filed one appearance in federal court since his departure from Wachtell, Lipton.[17] Schlafly has appeared on television[18] as a voice for the anti-vaccination movement. According to his recent political campaign contribution declarations he is currently a self-employed attorney.[19]

For several years, he has taught classes in world history, U.S. history, and economics to homeschooled high school age children for a per-student fee. As a volunteer, he teaches eight online courses at the Eagle Forum University,[20] largely from the same course material that he provides for his homeschooling program. In June 2009, Schlafly wrote an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Eagle Forum for a U.S. Supreme Court case, supporting California's law banning sales of violent video games to minors.[21] In the brief, he accused such games of being the cause of high dropout rates and lack of academic readiness of college freshmen.[22]

He was lead counsel for the committees to recall US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ)[23] and US Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND).[24] In both cases, Schlafly argued that although recall for Senators was never provided for in the Constitution of the United States, a letter George Washington had written to his nephew indicated his "sincere" personal support for the idea, and therefore recall should have been considered implicit. In both cases, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling on November 18, 2010 and the North Dakota Supreme Court on December 21, 2010[25] dismissed the petitions before them.

As of May, 2013 Andrew Schlafly is litigating against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (colloquially known as "Obamacare") on behalf of the AAPS in the state of Texas. The thrust of his argument is that the Act violates the Fifth Amendment.[26]

Political career and current affiliation

In 1992, Schlafly made a bid for the Republican Party nomination for a seat in the United States House of Representatives, but was defeated in the primary, garnering 11% of the vote and finishing in fifth and last place[27][28] after spending $85,000 of his own money.

In the 2008 presidential primaries, Schlafly contributed $1500 to the campaign of Republican candidate Mike Huckabee.[29] In 2010, he donated $500 to Art Robinson (R-Oregon) for Congress[30], and in 2012, he donated $700 to the campaign of Wayne Iverson (R - California) for Congress.[31]. Public records do not indicate him supporting a candidate in the 2012 Presidential Election, and he repeatedly indicated his lack of support for Mitt Romney in his contributions at Conservapedia, primarily due to "RomneyCare".[32]

Political activism

Schlafly has sat on the Board of Directors of Students for Life, a pro-life movement which aims to "end abortion by educating students about the issues of abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide".[33] He is a regular participant in the annual March for Life event that takes place in Washington, D.C.

In 2010 he "chartered two large buses for his trip to the March for Life, and hope(d) to have 94 participants, the largest single contingent from New Jersey."[34] He claims to have filled three buses for the 2011 march.[35]

Schlafly has written a political opinion column for WorldNetDaily since around 2017. Quite predictably, these columns largely consist of the same old unhinged, reality-divorced ramblings that are typically seen on webshites like Conservapedia and WorldNetDaily, such as falsely crediting Trump for releasing files about the assassination of John F. Kennedy- when in reality, that had actually been authorized all the way back in 1992, long before Trump even seriously considered wanting to run for president.[36] In 2018, Schlafly whined about how Major League Baseball had "too many foreign born players".[note 1][37] Schlafly has also had meltdowns over mask mandates, disputing the well-established scientific fact that masks protect against the spread of COVID-19.[38]

Religious beliefs

Schlafly was raised as a Roman Catholic, attended a Catholic boys school, and was married in a Catholic church.[10] He interprets the Bible and the events that occur within it literally, believing the Global Flood to have happened approximately 5,300 years ago,[39] as well as holding Young Earth Creationist views. He also seems to believe the God of the Bible to be highly interventionist in present day life, suggesting His or Its direct involvement with everyday occurrences such as the American sporting market and dreams.[40][41]

Andrew Schlafly, homeschool teacher

When considering whether to employ Schlafly as an educator of your children, we feel there are a few issues which should be brought to the attention of potential students, parents and their families. We list some of these, with links to his own statements on the issues, mostly from Conservapedia.

Although the State of New Jersey requires no type of teacher certification for homeschool teachers, nor the use of standardized texts, instruction academically “equivalent” to that in the public schools is required.[42] If legal action is initiated, parents must carry the burden of providing the local superintendent with evidence that the child is in fact receiving equivalent instruction. However, ultimately it is the state that must prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the parents failed to provide their child with equivalent education.[43] The law as it relates to homeschooling varies from state to state.[44]

Qualifications as an educator


There is currently no evidence in the public domain for his credentials or training in the fields of education or childhood/pre-college development,[2] nor did he declare any training or certification in education in his March 2009 application to the State of New Jersey to establish an education program.[45]

AP certification and his courses

Schlafly's class is not AP-certified,[46] but he does suggest "Students seeking to earn college credit can take the CLEP or AP exams upon successful completion of this course."[47] Schlafly has said he will not seek certification for his course as he feels the board would "censor" him.[48] An apparently experienced homeschooling parent has publicly discussed at length with Schlafly that his course is not at AP level and may poorly prepare students for the exam.[49]

A student taking the AP test upon completion of Mr. Schlafly's class should not expect to be adequately prepared, and without additional preparation, it would be difficult to qualify for college credit. This is rather ironic since his user page has a loud and proud list of college acceptances. The list includes mostly Christian schools like Biola University and Liberty University.

The book Schlafly uses in his course is apparently a review book,[50] and not a proper textbook.[51] AP courses use college-level textbooks. A comparison between Schlafly's course and the AP course can be seen here.

Oddly enough, Schlafly admits that he is not convinced of his own ability to qualify the children he teaches for college,[52] as he does not follow the expected curricula. He had consequentially sought "suggestions" from his community of students and editors as to how he might do so.

Sexism

Schlafly believes that girls are less intelligent than boys and has said "Think girls can excel in math as well as boys can? Liberals teach they can, which is teaching a falsehood."[53] He also derided the findings of a report which showed no difference in educational ability between genders as "politically correct." His attitude is further apparent on the examinations for his American History course, in which girls are given 15% fewer questions than boys but the same amount of time to finish it.[54] Furthermore, he disapproves of inter-gender competition[55][56][57] and his course curriculum reflects this. He has argued that gender differences are clear in mathematical ability in universities,[58] saying that there's no reason God would have created men and women the same, and that they have very different physical appearances.[59] The AP exam, SAT-II, and college exams make no such distinction for female students.

This opinion contrasts with most educational studies. An American Psychological Association (APA) study found no difference in achievement across the gender gap in 7.2 million students nationwide, and the National Science Foundation found that "girls perform as well as boys on standardized math tests".[60] And while there are indeed fewer women working today in science and mathematical fields than men, many studies[61] show that the reason for the imbalance is because women are in the minority and societal norms are being perpetuated.[62][63] The outstanding achievements of women scientists,[64] mathematicians[65] and astronauts[66] are well documented, and most teachers encourage their female students, but Schlafly actively discourages his from attempting to compete with boys. There have even been public protests from his female students,[67] but nevertheless he continues to pursue his agenda.

Schlafly's view on gender roles extends into adulthood — he has mocked the idea of a woman wanting to become a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, suggesting that a woman wanting to "act like businessman and aspire to run a restaurant is feminist."[68] In a news posting about the death of a female politician who had tried to pass an Equal Rights Bill "which would have required identical treatment of men and women, and boys and girls," he referred to such a goal as "feminist."'

Conservapedia's own article on sexual discrimination, which intentionally includes only instances of sexism against men, has a paragraph deriding women who want equal pay for similar jobs that men hold. It ends with the ironically sexist statement: "The fact that women pursue family life and other non-monetary activities contributes to a false sense of inequality when equity is determined by average earnings. Women are often fulfilled and fully equal when performing their traditional duties within the home."[69]

Class size

Conventional educational wisdom dictates that smaller class sizes are preferable because of the individual attention a teacher can give each student, but Schlafly believes the opposite is true - that in fact larger class sizes are better. This notion is particularly strange given his overwhelming support for homeschooling, which would be expected to have a very small class size. He defended his ideas in an essay at Conservapedia.[70] Our own defense of smaller classes, and a rebuttal to the individual points made by Mr. Schlafly, can be seen here.

The notion that smaller class sizes are preferable for a child's education is so universally acknowledged that class size is an important factor in official college rankings (smaller average class size yielding a higher rank on the listings).[71] If you intend to enroll your child in one of Mr. Schlafly's classes under the impression that your child will be in a smaller, more intimate environment, and will receive more personal attention than in a public school classroom, you are likely mistaken.

Inflated sense of expertise

Schlafly frequently claims expertise in whatever subject he is debating, and has repeatedly attacked and denied opinion, evidence, and references by qualified editors, making unsubstantiated claims that are opinion, assertion, or uneducated guesses, and of which he brooks no criticism. He has declared himself supremely knowledgeable in the fields of anthropology,[72] astronomy, biblical scholarship and translation,[73] the entertainment industry,[74][75][76][77][78][79] microbiology,[80] nutrition,[81] oncology,[74] psychiatry,[82][83] mathematics, relativity,[84] statistics,[85][86] and world history.[87][88][89] (For a detailed list of claims, see here.)

Schlafly is openly contemptuous of credentialed experts,[90] particularly so when they conflict with his uncited assertions. His slogan "Don't read a book to learn, write a book to learn"[91] underlines this stance, and while this statement may seem impressively philosophical at first glance, it becomes less so after one gives more than one second's thought as to what it actually means. Schlafly proposes that editing Conservapedia is a better way to learn than "reading a book, attending a seminar, ... discussing with people [sic]"[92] and that "In merely a few spare minutes or hours, the participants in The Conservative Bible Project have learned more than they could have after spending 10x or 100x many hours in any other medium."[92] He considers Conservapedia to be one of the greatest achievements throughout history.[93]

Despite his claims of expertise in numerous fields, Schlafly often makes distinctive errors both in his online lectures and when posting on Conservapedia. Some of his more blatant factual errors are listed below.

  • Confusing England with the United Kingdom in the run up to the UK General Election, 2010.
  • Mistaking the British Labour Party for the Liberal Party.
  • Arguing, against all evidence to the contrary, that Fidel Castro died sometime before December 2009,[94] going so far as to suggest that the Pope was duped by a Castro double following their meeting in March 2012.[95]
  • Arguing, with no supporting evidence and against the fact that the monarch is officially the head of the Church of England, that Great Britain is "atheistic."
  • Arguing that British people are poor at maths and spelling despite having no statistics to support this and frequently displaying a lack of skill in grammar and spelling himself.
  • Claiming that a correlation exists between atheism and obesity.

Lack of emphasis on grammar and spelling

Schlafly spends little time if any providing students with writing guidance.[note 2] He is a native English speaker, but his own contributions are rife with poor grammar, punctuation, and spelling, which remain uncorrected and unacknowledged. Examples include:

  • "See if you can learn out to spell 'superior'"[96]
  • "You're 'sources' for that ungrammatical claim are interesting..."[97]
  • "You'll be fine if you're hear to teach and learn"[98]

In spite of these mistakes, Schlafly often claims expertise in spelling, grammar and punctuation, and usually comments negatively when his students make spelling mistakes. These responses typically have no bearing on the suggestions put to him,[99][100] such as when Schlafly deflects attention from his unsubstantiated encyclopedia entries concerning Barack Obama as a Muslim.[101] By criticizing the contributors' spelling instead, and with an unrelenting emphasis on what he regards to be liberal,[102] the British English spelling of the word "honor/honour" for example is, on its own terms, taken as being not only non-American, but "liberal," because it is non-American.

Ignoring and twisting facts to suit his agenda

Despite claiming to have taught a "World History" class,[note 3] Schlafly is not above ignoring history altogether, in order to support his own assertions.

Having previously decided that atheists do not support underdogs,[103] and thus by implication the "atheistic" British do not support underdogs, Schlafly went on to say firstly that "the Brits did not support the underdog in WWII, until they became one themselves,"[104] which he later clarified by saying, "Britain was just fine with Hitler running over neighboring underdog countries. Didn't Neville Chamberlain even receive a hero's reception for siding with Germany?"[105] This shows either complete ignorance of a topic he is supposed to have taught to school children, or willful twisting of the facts to suit his current agenda.

Either trait is unbecoming behaviour in somebody with aspirations to be a teacher.

Public grading of homework

Mr. Schlafly grades his students' homework publicly, online. The students' answers are posted, and Mr. Schlafly provides notes, commentary, corrections and gradings for all to see- not just other students, but anyone who happens to be reading Conservapedia, including people who are not supportive of the students. Some educators would argue this is neither fair nor appropriate, and that a private teacher-student relationship when grading allows greater mutual understanding and a less judgmental educational environment. Recent examples of public grading can be seen on Conservapedia.[106][107][108][109]

Grade inflation

Schlafly derides grade inflation in liberal schools. However, when grading his students' homework, Mr. Schlafly has yet to give less than 8 out of 10 correct marks on any question (except under exceptional circumstances; see below), even if the answer is clearly wrong.[110] Additionally, a typical score for a homework assignment containing various errors and the most cursory of answers is 98%.[111][112] The reasons for this inflation remain unclear, although it may just be because Schlafly himself lacks the proper knowledge to assess his students' performance. Whatever the reasoning, it should be obvious that a student who is used to receiving 98% on poorly performed tests will not be sufficiently prepared for real-life grading, if they subsequently attend College or University.

Poor communication with students

Schlafly's guidance as to how his American History course students should focus their studying time left many scratching their heads as to his intent:

“”You will spend a certain amount of time preparing for the midterm exam. Call that amount of time "x". How you allocate that time to different areas of 1500-1877 will make a difference on how well you do on the exam. If you spend 90% of x on the period between 1500 and 1700, then you will do poorly on 90% of the questions, because they will be from the period 1700 to 1877. You would have done far better to spend the 90% of x on the time period that will have 90% of the questions.[113]

This kind of poor communication with his students perhaps explains the basic nature of many of his students' examination answers.

Disdain for other students

Schlafly has a very poor opinion of public schools in the US, and repeatedly disparages them in comments, articles and on the Conservapedia "News feed,"[114] but he has also personalized this issue and mocked the students of such schools themselves.[115] It provides an interesting insight into this educator's mindset to see him publicly mock young students, even if he does not agree with their beliefs.

Attitude towards criticism

Schlafly will brook no criticism of his educational practices and standards — even when confronted by students with well-supported and thought-out critiques of his work. A student named RexBanner, who claimed to represent a group of students taking Schlafly's World History course in October 2011, pointed to a number of inconsistencies in grading and wrong answers being given full marks.[116] Schlafly called the criticism "nitpicky."[117] Banner further queried Schlafly, questioning his competency and professionalism.[118] After a second user asked about RexBanner's concerns, and another message from Banner, Schlafly promised to look into the matter,[119] but subsequently "trimmed" the conversation from his talk page, leaving the criticisms unanswered.[120] Schlafly has also almost consistently incorporated his personal opinion into comments, especially when the student is (more) factually accurate than he is. In one example, a student doubted the idea that Adam and Eve are only six thousand years old because of cave paintings, and Schlafly said, "The cave paintings lack any corroborating evidence, and there are good questions to ask about whether the paintings were dated or simply some sediment nearby (probably the latter). If mankind were as old as 20,000 B.C., then I would expect writings or civilizations, which are much older than what has been discovered, to be found,"[121] which suggests that he either a) doesn't know what "nomadic" means, or b) is completely ignorant of the fact that humans were nomadic during the Paleolithic age.

Disdain for books

In a country where adolescents are struggling to maintain high literacy, Schlafly has voiced an unusual (for an educator) disdain for the printed word, approving of the anticipated closing of a city's only bookstore as follows: "Nearly 250,000 people will soon be without a single bookstore. Most books (other than the Bible) are liberal claptrap anyway, so this is probably good news." He has also celebrated the liquidation sales of some Borders bookstores, saying that "Liberal claptrap is available at record-low prices!"[122]

Disrespect for academic qualifications

Schlafly is highly dismissive of academia and academics in general,[123][124] and believes that "the process of inducing people to rely on 'the perceived view of experts' is a misleading one." Schlafly's view is that learning is best achieved by ignoring experienced, qualified researchers in any given field and instead "thinking for oneself."[124][125] Throughout Conservapedia, many other examples of this philosophy exist.

Additionally, the Conservapedia article Professor values, created and written mostly by Schlafly, is clear in its disregard for academics.

In a March 2008 appearance on CBC's late-night show The Hour, Schlafly stated about Conservapedia: "I don't have to live with what's printed in the newspaper, I don't have to take what's put out by Wikipedia. We've got our own way to express knowledge and the more that we can clear out the liberal bias that erodes our faith, the better."[126]

Politicization of curriculum

Andrew Schlafly politicizes most topics he teaches. He believes that movies, books and music have underlying political messages that are either liberal or conservative, and in particular has refused to watch any movie featuring Tom Hanks (a well known liberal) in the belief that his films push a liberal agenda.[127] He furthermore claims that the dictionary has become affected by liberal bias as it contains an entry on CE (common era).[128]

In October 2008, in order to justify teaching a very large homeschool class, Schlafly claimed that all teachers' unions were liberal, and seek smaller classes in order to enhance liberal mind control.[129] He also contended that small homeschool groups are often liberal public school teachers teaching outside their class who are thoroughly indoctrinated in the small-class mind control.[129]

Seemingly innocuous words such as "efficiency," "phonics," or "radar" also fall under Schlafly's dichotomy of liberal/conservative.[130]

Hygiene

Schlafly has unusual beliefs about hygiene, believing that hand-washing is an "irrational phobia"[131] ("catching disease by having unclean hands at a meal is a grossly exaggerated risk, like other phobias"[132]). His basis for this theory is that Jesus did not think that it was necessary.[133][134] This may not be an ideal approach in a classroom environment, as 'school bugs' tend to pass rapidly amongst groups of children, and vigilant hand-washing has been seen by the CDC to reduce transmission of infections by between 30 and 70%.[135]

School shootings

Andy Schlafly blamed the Sandy Hook massacre on video games, and said that it wouldn't have happened "if laws banning guns for self defense in public school were repealed."[136]

Biblical skepticism

Perhaps most concerning of all to Christian parents, Schlafly has conflicting views on the Bible. On the one hand, as a very conservative Christian with a literalist interpretation of the Bible (he prefers the NIV, although he believes it is too liberal and is "written at only the 7th Grade level"[137][138]), he views it as the authoritative work of history and science and thus believes that Genesis is a true description of the beginning of time. As a result, he holds, along with other Conservapedia administrators, Young Earth Creationist views, believing that the Earth is 6,000 - 10,000 years old and that dinosaurs and humans co-existed until recent times.

On the other hand, Schlafly also believes that certain passages of the Bible are "suspect" and have been modified since the original passages were written. In the case of the "adultress parable" (John 7:53-8:11[139]) in which Jesus invited those without sin to cast the first stone at an adulteress, he believes that these passages were inserted later in order to support a liberal worldview in which sinners are forgiven.[140] Schlafly views this behavior of Jesus to be the beginning of so-called "Moral Relativism," of which he disapproves; for this reason, he argues that this passage of the Bible is actually a hoax.[141]

Throughout Conservapedia, Schlafly uses examples from the Bible to prove his points, believing as he does that it is the infallible Word of God. Yet his conflicting beliefs that certain passages of the Bible are hoaxes complicate that belief enormously. His desire to revise the texts of the Bible and remove what he describes as "vandalism" to the Bible[142] to fit his own views disturbed many of even his closest peers at Conservapedia, as did his evident desire to disavow Christian forgiveness[141] of the adulteress in the story.

Conservative Bible Project

On Christmas Day 2008, he became a false prophet by starting the 'Bible Retranslation Project', wherein he proposed a rewriting of the Bible to, for example, replace all instances of the term "The Word of God" with his own translation, "The Truth of God," and the rewording of The Ten Commandments with the wording "Thou Shalt Not Murder" replacing "Thou Shalt Not Kill."[143] Schlafly went on to write that "no fully conservative translation of the Bible exists as of 2009."img

Realizing that he did not have the knowledge necessary to translate the Bible from Greek, he began a less ambitious project, The Conservative Bible Projectimg, wherein English passages were re-written, as a campaign for a widescale rewrite of the Bible to match his own values, making references to the fact that all current versions of the Bible are "dumbed down," contain passages of doubtful authenticity, are not gender-specific enough, and "improperly encourage the 'social justice' movement among Christians,"[144] among other claims. He also suggested the complete removal of Luke 23:34, where Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

He estimates the entire retranslation of the New Testament into a proper, conservative version could be achieved within three months by five translators starting from scratch. However, he has admitted he's ignorant of Greek, Hebrew and even Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke.[145]

Schlafly's project has attracted the aggressive condemnation of one of the most well-known Christian conservative web sites, World Net Daily. In October 2009, the owner and editor of the publication, Joseph Farah, wrote an article strongly castigating the entire Conservative Bible Project, labeling it "incredibly stupid" and "profoundly dangerous."[146] Other reactions from pundits and bloggers from all sides of the political and religious spectrum have ranged from outrage to ridicule. A selection of blogs and articles on the subject are listed here.

In 2009, Schlafly was interviewed on The Colbert Report regarding his conservative bible project.[147]

Conservapedia

Typically part of his homeschooled courses will take place on his online encyclopedia, Conservapedia. When considering whether to have Schlafly as a teacher of your students/children, please be aware of the environment they will be exposed to on Conservapedia.

History

Schlafly founded Conservapedia on November 21, 2006, with the help of his homeschooled history students, to counter what he perceived as a "liberal and atheist bias" in the highly popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia. He felt the need to start the project after reading a student's assignment written using Common Era (C.E.), a type of dating notation the student found on Wikipedia, rather than the Anno Domini ("In the year of the Lord") (A.D.) system that he preferred.

Schlafly strongly maintains his positions throughout the site. He keeps a watchful eye on the content posted, and he and his administrators never allow suggestive, racy or obscene material, offensive language or terminology to remain on the site. Unfortunately they do not allow anything on the site that questions their preconceived notions even when presented with credible evidence. The articles on the Theory of Relativity and evolution are probably the best examples of this mindset. He is clearly dedicated to the success of his site, and routinely makes 30-plus edits a day to the content.

Initially, it was an interesting attempt to build a conservative, Christian-friendly, pro-American encyclopedia, with his students helping write short articles on various topics (in "American History", for example) as part of their coursework in his class. Internet commentators picked up on his project in early 2007 and created a rush of traffic to the site, and there has continued to be some interest in the site ever since. Many editors from across the political spectrum were concerned about the site's content and some of Schlafly's assertions, and created accounts in order to contribute to the articles and join the discussions. As a result, instead of a group of children building an encyclopedia and having fun while learning, the site has become the battlefield of a series of power struggles in the "Culture Wars" between adults.

Einstein's Theory of General Relativity

Schlafly made a fool of himself by claiming that Albert Einstein's theory of relativity is a "liberal hoax",[148] that it's "false", "confuses people", and "misleads people into stop reading the Bible".[149] He went on to create a page on his website called "counterexamples to relativity". Schlafly's opposition to Einstein's Theory of Relativity is due in part to Laurence H. Tribe's thanking Barack Obama in the footnote of a Harvard Law paper, and because Obama also assisted Tribe with his book entitled 'Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes',[150] Andrew Schlafly conflated the Theory of Relativity with moral relativism, and because Schlafly believes that liberals have no positive morals, he determined that the Theory of Relativity is a "liberal hoax".

"Gravity" (gravitational) waves

In 2012, Schlafly also created a Conservapedia page, incorrectly titled "gravity waves", in which he initially stated, "Gravity waves are predicted by the Theory of Relativity but, despite wasting millions of dollars looking for them, they have never been found."[151] Gravitational waves were a necessary component predicted by Albert Einstein for the Theory of Relativity to be proven correct, which is why Schlafly feels compelled to deny them. He was corrected by User:20percent,[152] who provided an update on gravitational waves, who was then banned for the given reason of "inserting false information", despite the information having been correct.[153][154] Instead, Schlafly prefers to make the generic and unbacked assertion that a "closer reading" of a 1993 paper reporting measurements of change in pulsars instead matched the data to the Theory.[155] On 11 February 2016, the day of a conference in Washington, D.C., announcing the successful discovery of gravitational waves,[156] Andrew Schlafly (User:Aschlafly), himself, commented on the discovery on his own "gravity waves" page, removing the point that User:20percent previous made: "this discovery strikes a blow to the anti-relavity argument", and replaced it with an assertion that it's all still a hoax,[157] based upon a 2010 prank that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory colleagues used to teach a lesson to always double-check their work. Additionally, Schlafly makes the claim that "Gravity waves have never been directly observed",[157] as if he expects gravitational waves to be seen with the naked eye, instead of recognizing that instruments must, inherently, be used to detect that which is invisible. Based upon Michio Kaku's suggestion that the landmark discovery deserves a Nobel Prize, Schlafly claimed that "demands immediately rang out for a Nobel Prize", dismissing the importance of the discovery, and portraying those who appreciate scientific discoveries as aggressive "demanders".[157]

Publications

Schlafly has published a handful of technical papers in the fields of engineering and law. The following is a list of his publications that appear in journals of note.

Engineering
  • Lee, D.J.; Becker, N.J.; Schlafly, A.L.; Skupnjak, J.A.; Dham, V.K. (1983). Control logic and cell design for a 4K NVRAM. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, 18(5), 525-532. doi:10.1109/JSSC.1983.1051988
  • Becker, N.J.; Dham, V.K.; Lee, D.J.; Schlafly, A.L.; Skupnjak, J.A.; Winner, L. (1983). A 5V-only 4K nonvolatile static RAM. 1983 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers, 170-171. doi:10.1109/ISSCC.1983.1156438
  • Schlafly, A. (1984). Compact test vectors for gate arrays. VLSI Design, 5(10), 89-104.

Law

Opinion pieces
gollark: 1GB in 3 seconds, apparently.
gollark: Ugh, stupid ABR bugs.
gollark: ++remind "" ask quintopia
gollark: Doing so.
gollark: Sure!

See also
For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about Andrew Schlafly.
  • Lenski Affair (our own moderately satirical, but mostly fact-based, take on Mr. Schlafly's failed attempt to discredit Dr. Richard Lenski)
  • Schlafly; our fork page for Schlafly and eponymous articles.
  • Fun:Schlafly Quote Generator

Notes
  1. What was that about free market economics again, Andy?
  2. Notice the lack of lectures/instructions given in the Writing Course compared to other subjects
  3. For a taste of Schlafly’s history woo fu, see RationalWiki’s commented versions of his history lectures entitled American History and World History from Conservapedia

References
  1. Andrew Schlafly ("Aschlafly")'s user pageimg at Conservapedia, accessed 5 August 2008.
  2. Conservapedia: Essay:Draft Conservapedia Application to Become SES Providerimg diff from 18 February 2009
  3. New Jersey Star Ledger, "New Jersey home schooling: The Wild West of education", 10 July 2011.
  4. The Guardian: Is Wikipedia too liberal for you? Try Conservapedia 6 June 2007
  5. The Guardian: Conservapedia has a little hangup over evolution 1 July 2008
  6. NPR: Conservapedia: Data for Birds of a Political Feather? 13 March 2007
  7. NPR: Letters: Conservapedia, Torture and 'Someday' 15 March 2007
  8. New York Times: A Feminine Mystique All Her Own (pp. 2) 30 March 2006
  9. Andy Schlafly LinkedIn page
  10. Catherine Kosarek, Medical Student, Marries Andrew L. Schlafly, Engineer. The New York Times: November 25, 1984.
  11. Eagle Forum University: Andy Schlafly biography
  12. New York State Unified Court System: Attorney Search
  13. Dynamic Chiropractic: AMA's Secret Pact with HCFA (8 October 2001) — reprinted with permission from the Medical Sentinel
  14. Conservapedia: User:Aschlaflyimg revision from 20 September 2009: "Previously I taught a course in Administrative Law in law school as an adjunct professor."
  15. U.S. Party Index records available through the Judicial Conference of the United States Public Access to Court Electronic Records ("PACER") service, a fee-based electronic database of documents filed in federal trial court level cases, identify eight civil and two criminal matters in which Schlafly filed appearances in various United States District Courts while an attorney while at Wachtell, Lipton.
  16. Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
  17. PACER
  18. YouTube: Andy Schlafly — HPV (Feb 9, 2007) YouTube.
  19. HuffPost Fundrace: Andrew Schlafly
  20. The Eagle Forum: Classes instructed by Andrew Schlafly: Supreme Court 101, American Government 101, American History 101, Evolution and Politics, Evolution Fallacies, Principles of Microeconomics, Supreme Court & Current Events, The Constitution and Current Events
  21. The brief as a PDF file
  22. Good, Owen. Right-Wingers Cite 1982 Arcade Death in Legal Brief. Kotaku: June 27, 2009
  23. Burton, Cynthia. Attempt to recall senator moves to N.J. high court." The Philadelphia Inquirer: May 25, 2010.
  24. Televised coverage of Schlafly's appearance before the NDSC
  25. Scribd: RECALLND v. Jaeger
  26. Andrew Schlafly of the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons Discusses Obamacare Lawsuit
  27. Our Campaigns: VA District 11- R Primary
  28. The New York Times: THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: Primaries; DEMOCRAT LOSES ARKANSAS RUNOFF 10 June 1992
  29. HuffPost Fundrace: Andrew Schlafly
  30. HuffPost Fundrace: Andrew Schlafly
  31. HuffPost Fundrace: Andrew Schlafly
  32. Difference between revisions of "Mitt Romney" 12:25, 22 February 2012 and 18:17, 25 February 2012 Conservapedia (archived from 2 Dec 2015 04:02:36 UTC).
  33. Students for Life: About
  34. Examiner: NJ conservative activists will attend March for Life 28 December 2009
  35. Conservapedia: Template:Mainpageleftimg diff from 16-17 January 2011: "Our large March for Life buses -- 3 in total -- are now completely full!"
  36. Krepel, Terry. "WND Columnist Gives Trump Credit for Something He Didn't Do." Conwebwatch. October 30, 2017. Accessed January 15, 2021.
  37. Krepel, Terry. "WND Columnist Seems To Think Only Americans Should Be Allowed To Play Baseball." Conwebwatch. May 9, 2018. Accessed January 15, 2021.
  38. Krepel, Terry. "Andy Schlafly's Mask Meltdown." Conwebwatch. August 8, 2020. Accessed January 15, 2021.
  39. Conservapedia: Great Flood diff from 5-12 November 2011
  40. Conservapedia: Mystery:Did God cause the unlikely result of Tim Tebow ending up in the New York media market?
  41. Conservapedia: Mystery:Does God Have a Sense of Humor? diff from 27-28 March 2012
  42. In addition to language arts, math and science, public schools are required to teach 1) in the last 4 years of high school 2 years of U.S. history, including New Jersey history (civics counts as history per N.J. Stat. Ann. § 18A:35-2.1); 2) a one-year elementary school course in community civics, citizenship, and New Jersey civics, geography and history; 3) 2.5 hours per week in health, safety and physito 35-5.4."
  43. 231 A.2d at 257. An overview of the laws relating to homeschooling in the State of New Jersey, Home School Legal Defense Association, 2009.
  44. For example, in California, Article §48224 of the Education code requires homeschool teachers to hold a teaching credential. In a 2008 case, a state appeals court found "...parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children."]"Homeschoolers' setback sends shock waves through state, San Francisco Chronicle, March 7, 2008. However, this ruling was reversed a few months later, by the same court.Court reverses home-school ruling, Los Angeles Times, August 9, 2008
  45. RationalWiki file on his qualifications
  46. AP is an acronym for the Advanced Placement Program, a program of college-level courses at high schools around the US. The AP examinations for college entry have been administered by the non-profit College Board since 1955 and are one of a number of widely recognized examination standards commonly used to determine a student's scholastic ability.
  47. Conservapedia: American Government Fall 2007img
  48. Conservapedia: Talk:Essay:Proposed Homeschool Constitutionimg diff from 2 October 2008
  49. Conservapedia: Talk:Essay:Proposed Homeschool Constitutionimg diff from 27 September-2 October 2008
  50. Kaplan SAT II: U.S. History 2002-2003 Edition (Amazon)
  51. See his reference to Kaplan under "Tips in learning history on this pageimg
  52. Conservapedia: American History Strategyimg
  53. Conservapedia: Talk:Mystery:Do Liberal Teachings Cause Mental Illness?img diff from 10 August 2008
  54. RationalWiki WIGO file of a Conservapedia diff
  55. Conservapedia: User talk:Aschlaflyimg
  56. Conservapedia: Chivalryimg diff from 20 August 2008
  57. Conservapedia: Essay:Proposed Homeschool Constitutionimg
  58. Conservapedia: Talk:Majoring in Mathematics diff from 26 February 2012
  59. Conservapedia: Talk:Majoring in Mathematics diff from 26 February 2012 (follow up)
  60. The New York Times: Math Scores Show No Gap for Girls, Study Finds 25 July 2008
  61. Stanford News Service: Women in math and science uncomfortable in minority 17 October 2007
  62. The Los Angeles Times: Female teachers may pass on math anxiety to girls, study finds 26 January 2010
  63. Futurity: Girls subtracted from math equation 21 March 2011
  64. Wikipedia: Women in science
  65. Wikipedia: List of female mathematicians
  66. Wikipedia: Women astronauts
  67. Screenshots of comments are here, here, and here — the original edits have been deleted.
  68. Conservapedia: Talk:Essay:Greatest Conservative Movies diff from 26 March 2011
  69. See the Conservapedia page on Sexual discrimination.
  70. See Conservapedia's Essay:Advantages of Large Classes (as well as the associated talk page)
  71. For example, the rankings of US News and World Report
  72. Conservapedia: American Indianimg diff from 16 January 2009
  73. Conservapedia: Bible Retranslation Projectimg revision from 25 December 2008. See also, Conservapedia:Bible rewriting project
  74. Conservapedia: Mystery:Young Hollywood Breast Cancer Victimsimg diff from 4 May 2008
  75. Conservapedia: The Daily Showimg 1 February 2009
  76. Conservapedia: Talk:Essay:Born Outside the U.S.A.!img diff from 3 February 2009
  77. Conservapedia: Revision history of "The Daily Show"img Schlalfly only occasionally edited CP's article on The Daily Show
  78. Conservapedia: Talk:Main Page/archive66img See the "Evangelist Values" section
  79. Conservapedia: Talk:Essay:Greatest Conservative Moviesimg diff from 22 July 2007
  80. Conservapedia: Richard Lenskiimg
  81. Conservapedia: Talk:Mystery:Do Liberal Teachings Cause Mental Illness?img diff from 10 August 2008
  82. Conservapedia: Talk:Essay:Greatest Conservative Moviesimg 22 July 2007
  83. Conservapedia: Mystery:Do Liberal Teachings Cause Mental Illness?img
  84. Conservapedia: Talk:Theory of Relativityimg
  85. Conservapedia: Talk:PNAS Response to Letterimg diff from 16 September 2008
  86. Conservapedia: Talk:Mystery:Young Hollywood Breast Cancer Victimsimg 4 May 2008
  87. Conservapedia: Examples of Bias in Wikipediaimg diff from 13-15 March 2009
  88. Muslim Heritage: Christopher Wren
  89. Conservapedia: Essay:Greatest Mysteries of World Historyimg diff from 2-8 February 2009
  90. Conservapedia: Talk:Bible Retranslation Projectimg diff from 26-27 December 2008
  91. Conservapedia: User talk:Aschlafly/Archive24img ("I have a question") Archiving has broken the difflinks, but the phrase is mentioned in ASchlafly's response to user 'Greg'
  92. Conservapedia: Talk:Bible Retranslation Projectimg diff from 28 December 2008
  93. Conservapedia: Great Achievements by Teenagersimg diff from 30-31 December 2008
  94. Conservapedia: Talk:Fidel Castroimg revision from 12 July 2010
  95. Conservapedia: Mystery:Did a Fake Fidel Castro Meet the Pope?
  96. Conservapedia: Talk:Homeschoolingimg diff from 23 May 2008
  97. Conservapedia: Talk:Liberals and friendshipimg diff from 26 February 2008
  98. Conservapedia: User talk:Aschlafly/Archive45img ("Can you help me?")
  99. Conservapedia: Talk:Barack Hussein Obamaimg diff from 15 December 2008
  100. Conservapedia: Talk:Barack Hussein Obamaimg diff from 15 December 2008
  101. Conservapedia: Barack Hussein Obama
  102. Conservapedia: Talk:Barack Hussein Obamaimg diff from 29 January 2009
  103. Conservapedia: Mystery:Why Do Atheists Dislike Underdogs?
  104. Conservapedia: Talk:Main Page diff from 10 February 2012
  105. Conservapedia: Talk:Main Page diff from 11 February 2012
  106. Conservapedia: American History Homework One Answers - Student 30img
  107. Conservapedia: American History Homework One Answers - Student 32img
  108. Conservapedia: American History Homework One Answers - Student 31img
  109. Conservapedia: American History Homework Twelve Answers - Student 25img
  110. Examples include:
  111. Conservapedia: American History Homework Twelve Answers - Student 25img
  112. Conservapedia: Economics Homework Eleven Answers - Student Tenimg 3 "Minus 1"s for incorrect answers on a test with 5 questions yields 48/50 (96%)
  113. Conservapedia: American History Lecture Eight diff from 25 October 2008
  114. Conservapedia: Public schools
  115. Conservapedia: Talk:Essay:Born Outside the U.S.A.!img diff from 3 February 2009
  116. Conservapedia: User talk:Aschlaflyimg diff from 14-15 October 2011
  117. Conservapedia: User talk:Aschlaflyimg diff from 16 October 2011
  118. Conservapedia: User talk:Aschlaflyimg diff from 16-17 October 2011
  119. RationalWiki file
  120. Conservapedia: User talk:Aschlaflyimg diff from 18 October 2011
  121. World History Homework One Answers - Student 9 Conservapedia
  122. Previous Conservapedia Breaking News (March 2011) Conservapedia.
  123. Conservapedia: Talk:Bible Retranslation Projectimg diff from 26 December 2008
  124. Conservapedia: Talk:Bible Retranslation Projectimg diff from 26 December 2008
  125. Conservapedia: Talk:Bible Retranslation Projectimg diff from 26-27 December 2008
  126. Conservapedia on The Hour. CBC. May 21, 2008.
  127. Conservapedia: Talk:Essay:Greatest Conservative Moviesimg
  128. Conservapedia: Talk:Ann Coulterimg diff from 11 March 2007
  129. Conservapedia: Talk:Essay:Advantages of Large Classesimg diff from 18 October 2008
  130. Conservapedia: Essay:Best New Conservative Wordsimg revision from 10 January 2009
  131. Conservapedia: Talk:Biblical scientific foreknowledge by Aschlafly (11 July 2010) Conservapedia (archived from May 22, 2019).
  132. Conservapedia: Talk:Biblical scientific foreknowledge by Aschlafly (11 July 2010) Conservapedia (archived from May 22, 2019).
  133. Conservapedia: Talk:Biblical scientific foreknowledge by Aschlafly (11 July 2010) Conservapedia (archived from May 22, 2019).
  134. Conservapedia: Biblical scientific foreknowledge by Aschlafly (11 July 2010) Conservapedia (archived from May 22, 2019).
  135. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Effects of Hand Hygiene Campaigns on Incidence of Laboratory-confirmed Influenza and Absenteeism in Schoolchildren, Cairo, Egypt April 2011
  136. diffimg
  137. Conservapedia: Conservapedia Bible Projectimg
  138. Conservapedia: Disputed Biblical Translationsimg revision from 20 December 2008
  139. John 8 (NIV)
  140. Conservapedia: Essay:Adultress Storyimg
  141. Conservapedia: Talk:Essay:Adulteress Storyimg diff from 10 April 2008
  142. Conservapedia: Talk:Essay:Adulteress Storyimg diff from 9 April 2008
  143. Conservapedia: Bible Retranslation Projectimg
  144. Conservapedia: Conservative Bible Projectimg diff from 14 August 2009
  145. Conservapedia: Bible Retranslation Projectimg diff from 26 December 2008
  146. WND: Now 'Conservatives' are Twisting Scripture 22 October 2009
  147. Andy Schlafly (12/8/2009) The Colbert Report.
  148. Conservapedia: E=mc2 Is A Liberal Conspiracy by Megan Carpentier (August 9, 2010, 9:01 PM EDT) Talking Points Memo.
  149. Why does Conservapedia seek to discredit Relativity Talk:Theory of relativity (Conservapedia)
  150. Obama Made A Strong First Impression At Harvard by Ari Shapiro (May 22, 201212:01 AM ET) NPR.
  151. Gravitational waves 01:03, 12 May 2012 revision by Aschlafly (Conservapedia).
  152. Revision history of "Gravity waves" Conservapedia.
  153. Rapid Orbital Decay in the 12.75-minute WD+WD Binary J0651+2844 by J. J. Hermes et al. (2012) arXiv.org DOI:10.1088/2041-8205/757/2/L21
  154. Gravitational waves spotted from white-dwarf pair by Jason Palmer (29 August 2012) BBC News.
  155. Political aspects of relativity Theory of relativity (Conservapedia).
  156. Gravitational Waves Detected, Confirming Einstein’s Theory by Dennis Overbye (Feb. 11, 2016) The New York Times.
  157. Gravitational waves 23:51, 11 February 2016 revision by Aschlafly (Conservapedia).
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