Elsewhere (211)
Heather Mac Donald on race hustlers and riots:
For the last two years, President Barack Obama has seized every opportunity to advise blacks that they are the victims of a racist criminal justice system. We should not be surprised when that belief, so constantly inflamed, erupts into violence. Even in his remarks at the memorial service for the five murdered Dallas cops, Obama had the gall to trot out his usual racial vendetta against the police, even though he was fully on notice that cops were being killed because of it… Obama’s indictment ignored, as usual, the astronomically higher rates of black crime that fully explain racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Meanwhile, Obama hasn’t uttered a word in condemnation of the lawless behaviour in Milwaukee, two days into the events. […]
And as important as the political stoking of that hatred is the academic race industry that keeps black victimology at a fever pitch. The 2015–2016 school year saw an outbreak of delusional self-pity among black college students across the country. They claimed to be discriminated against by faculty, administrators, fellow students, and academic standards. Never mind that many allegedly disparaged students were attending the colleges in question only because of racial preferences, despite having test scores that would automatically disqualify white or Asian applicants. Never mind that nearly every waking hour of a college administrator is devoted to the cultivation of a separatist racial consciousness among black students and to dreaming up new racial sinecures for faculty and other administrators.
For an example of that victimology, and the behaviour being excused by faculty and staff, see this surreal episode. Note the impunity and inversion of reality. And note the description, by the university’s vice provost for student affairs, of blatant racial thuggery as “a wonderful, beautiful thing.”
Thomas Sowell on charter schools and their opponents:
What makes [their success] all the more amazing is that these charter schools are typically located in the same ghettos or barrios where other blacks or Hispanics are failing miserably on the same tests. More than that, successful charter schools are often physically housed in the very same buildings as the unsuccessful public schools. In other words, minority kids from the same neighbourhood, going to school in classes across the hall from each other, or on different floors, are scoring far above average and far below average on the same tests. More than 43,000 families are on waiting lists to get their children into charter schools. But admission is by lottery, and far more have to be turned away than can be admitted. Why? Because the teachers’ unions are opposed to charter schools – and they give big bucks to politicians, who in turn put obstacles and restrictions on the expansion of charter schools. These include politicians like New York’s “progressive” mayor Bill de Blasio, who poses as a friend of blacks by denigrating the police, while standing alongside Al Sharpton.
And Anthony Gockowski on the thrilling world of radical librarians:
At this year’s National Diversity in Libraries Conference… many of the nation’s most inclusive librarians gathered to discuss how they can “contend with the oppressors within.” This year’s conference lasted four days and featured more than 50 different lectures on the relationship between libraries and diversity, including “Library Diversification and Transgender Bodies: A Metaspatial Approach” and “Macro Impact of Microaggression: Exploring Microaggressions in Librarianship.”
50 lectures on “diversity.” I bet the time just flew.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments. It’s what these posts are for.
Note the impunity and inversion of reality. And note the description, by the university’s vice provost for student affairs, of blatant racial thuggery as “a wonderful, beautiful thing.”
A lot of academia is beyond saving.
‘We Want Blood…We Cannot Cohabitate With White People Anymore’
http://www.dailywire.com/news/8360/video-milwaukee-rioters-police-we-want-bloodwe-chase-stephens
Why? Because the teachers’ unions are opposed to charter schools — and they give big bucks to politicians, who in turn put obstacles and restrictions on the expansion of charter schools.
Same as the opposition to Grammar Schools in the UK – the little darlings might escape the
clutchestender embrace offar-left activiststeachers who are instructing them how to beanti-white, anti-capitalist shock troopsmodel citizens.Sorry David, I need a cup of tea. And possibly a chocolate digestive.
And as important as the political stoking of that hatred is the academic race industry that keeps black victimology at a fever pitch.
See, e.g. this article, where the author begins by telling us that she grew up in a mixed race neighborhood where parents insisted upon rearing their children to be color blind and where she had mostly white friends who all loved each other deeply.
Then, cut to college:
When we finally went to college and left our diverse homes for private white institutions (though we didn’t yet know the phrase) we were blinded suddenly by whiteness and the culture shock set in. We woke up. Being completely surrounded by white people in a way we’d never been before forced us to realize that we’d been wrong about everything.
Facilitated no doubt by helpful race hustlers in academe.
As much as I admire Thomas Sowell, and I do, I am always skeptical of any claims made by anyone in favour of a new educational system, approach or methodology especially when it’s described in seemingly miraculous terms.
There are usually a multitude of factors that contribute to making one school achieve more success than another one with the actual teaching system, methodology and staff being just one component of many.
So I’ve just done a quick Google search to see if I could find some criticisms of Charter Schools and the KIPP programme. It’s not exactly scientific as I’ve picked a few links almost at random, but nevertheless it does seem that Sowell has a point to make when he says:
Black success is a threat to political empires and to a whole social vision behind those empires.
Why is that?
Because here is just one example of one of the criticisms of KIPP:
“KIPP is just a lot of white people telling black people what to do,”
This article helps suggest why that notion is a myth.
But then I found another one, this time written by a former KIPP programme teacher who in her own words says that: “it had become very, very difficult for me to hide my disdain for the way the school was managed.” Her other comments are more than a little enlightening as to her problems with KIPP:
How did I survive [as a KIPP teacher] as long as I did? [By reading] as much as I could about how teaching can and should be. Critical pedagogy, liberatory education, anti-bias curriculum—you name it, I was reading it.
I also channeled my energy into working with teachers, families, students and community groups to resist corporate school reform in all of its machinations.
Critical pedagogy. Oh, dear. oh dear. Whenever you see the word ‘Critical’ placed in front of something you know trouble is not long in coming. And sure enough in the very next sentence she is fighting the power of “corporate school reform in all of its machinations.”
KIPP eventually fired her because – according to her – she spoke truth to power by talking “about things like poverty and trauma and brain development” and this, she says, “made me a threat”. I just bet it did.
Happily for her, she is now “teaching 3rd grade English at one of the few remaining traditional public schools in New Orleans”, where (my italics):
every night my students answer an open-ended question in their journals for homework. When they come to class the next day, a few of them share what they wrote and get feedback from their peers. Their courageous honesty leads to incredible discussions about bullying, and gender roles, racism and deep dark fears of all sorts. But I recognize that my strictness makes those conversations possible … I’ve discovered that it’s actually very easy to be strict when you deeply believe that what you’re requiring kids to do is for their own good and for the good of the community.
More in a very similar vein here (NB:Don’t be put off by the name of the website – it is not a spoof, much as you might wish it was, I checked)
Now, what was that Sowell was saying again? Ah yes, that’s right:
Black success is a threat to political empires and to a whole social vision behind those empires.
For the last two years, President Barack Obama has seized every opportunity to advise blacks that they are the victims of a racist criminal justice system.
Latausha Nedd, or the Eye Empress Sekhmet as she was sometimes known online, would probably agree.
No wonder she was surprised last year when the FBI arrested her for making a video in which she brandished a gun and a machete while declaring:
”It’s open season on a motherf–king cracker. All you motherf–king crackers y’all need to watch your motherf–king heads.”
Breitbart article on this here.
Jen
A lot of academia is beyond saving.
Absolutely. But I simply cannot envisage any scenario where this change will be allowed to happen, save technological supercedence, i.e. standing education being replaced by MOOCs and Khan Academy style on-line learning.
While solving the ‘educating’ part of the problem, it won’t get rid of the blob. The idea that they are going to allow their privilege to be removed is ludicrous. They will SCREAM!
‘We Want Blood…We Cannot Cohabitate With White People Anymore’
For those into counting, Milwaukee city is majority black, so I guess they already have their wish. Also interesting, according to the innerwebs, except for a Republican-democrat fusion mayor (whatever the hell that is), there hasn’t been a Republican mayor since 1908, speaking of social visions that don’t work.
Black success is a threat to political empires and to a whole social vision behind those empires.
I believe the term is vote farm.
On the subject of teachers’ unions and their malign effects, here’s a short explanatory film by Evan Coyne Maloney.
Further to the discussion on education, recall David’s post of some years back,–(Have I really been visiting these pages for that long?)–in which non-public educational options are deemed to be iniquity, i.e. sin.
Indeed, here in the U.S., the NEA published a platform some years ago calling for legislation ending private, parochial and home-based education. The idea was/is that every student removed from the traditional public school system constitutes a drain of money, talent and “diversity” from said system.
As one might surmise, the scrutiny which followed caused the union to surreptitiously remove that plank from the platform. Rest assured, however, the desire is still there.
Rest assured. U.S. public education is not about students. It is about maintaining cushy sinecures for the mediocre and keeping qualified teachers out of the system at all costs.
Not entirely unrelated to some of the above, Frank Dikötter on the realities of Maoism:
And so when leftist students hold signs like this, proudly and while grinning, a little history lesson seems in order.
(Have I really been visiting these pages for that long?)
No refunds, credit note only.
in which non-public educational options are deemed to be iniquity, i.e. sin.
See also this one here. And note the charming comments from all those caring and compassionate readers of the Guardian.
I’ve discovered that it’s actually very easy to be strict when you deeply believe that what you’re requiring kids to do is for their own good and for the good of the community.
Reminds me of something…”Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – C.S. Lewis.
And this one, ‘We Cannot Cohabitate With White People Anymore’, is also familiar. Hmmm, maybe this? “In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny . . . and I say . . . segregation today . . . segregation tomorrow . . . segregation forever.” – George Wallace (D).
As for the wacky librarians, yes, my field is a magnet for nutcases, alas. I try, in my humble way, to subvert the paradigm a bit by ordering titles for my library which approach the zeitgeist from a rightward direction (Sowell is well-represented in the collection), though I fear it’s pointless. The students here rarely read books:-(. We do have Indoctrinate U and PCU in the video collection though, so I have some hope that they’ll stumble across contrary perspectives at some point.
Meanwhile, Julie Bindel has a problem with the presumption of innocence thing… No juries on rape trials, because the potential jury just hasn’t been educated properly, you see. She justifies this with some spurious reasoning to assume that 94% of rapes go unpunished, so we Must Do Something. In fairness, she’ll settle (generously) for better education of the populace as a whole (mandatory rape school?) because what are needed here are rape expert citizens that won’t leave that whole question of innocence thing to those who might be “misinformed”.
Odious.
Sporkatus – reminds me of this gem from February:
http://archive.is/dPMb7
With the charming closing sentence: “And to all the dissenters who want a woman to prove she was raped, the burden of proof should be with you to prove she wasn’t.”
Re: Julie Bindel on men.
@Charlie: Well, if claims are all it takes now, Emma “Mattress Girl” Sulkowicz claimed that anybody who viewed her fatuous drama project in the wrong frame of mind was (re)raping her. That’s got to be a new record for rape convictions coming up soon – at least thousands?
Black success is a threat to political empires and to a whole social vision behind those empires.
Seems like a good time to wheel out that old John Ellis quote:
I’ve mentioned it before, several times, but it really can’t be aired often enough.
@ Sporkatus
Meanwhile, Julie Bindel has a problem…
Or, “Otiose Columnist Pens Odious Op-Ed.”
David:
And so when leftist students hold signs like this [advocating for a cultural revolution], proudly and while grinning, a little history lesson seems in order.
and, on the other hand:
And note the charming comments from all those caring and compassionate readers of the Guardian.
Which makes it pretty clear that a history lesson about the crimes of the left would not dissuade leftists in the least. They know they are better than the rest of us, and if it takes killing us then so be it. Not only will they feel no compunction about the killing, it will actually be hugely satisfying to them. Because to them we are vermin that stands in the way of their utopia.
In every leftist there is a totalitarian, and in every totalitarian there is a sadist.
Thomas Sowell – More than 43,000 families are on waiting lists to get their children into charter schools.
Yes. And yet I will bet dollars to donuts that most of the voting-age members of these 43,000 families either do not vote or vote for the Democrats who are supporting the teachers unions that keep their children uneducated. Because Republicans are racists.
In every leftist there is a totalitarian, and in every totalitarian there is a sadist.
The charmingly hand-painted matryoshka doll of self-satisfied evil.
When a boy stole a handful of grain in a Hunan village, local boss Xiong Dechang forced his father to bury him alive… The case of Wang Ziyou was reported to the central leadership: one of his ears was chopped off, his legs were tied with iron wire, a ten kilogramme stone was dropped on his back and then he was branded with a sizzling tool – punishment for digging up a potato.
Ran across this in Wikipedia in regard to the cultural revolution. Like something out of Monty Python, but a tad more realistic…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong#.22Mango_fever.22
Checked out the original source for [227]…The full paragraph states:
Well, only 18 months then. No big deal. Kind of a Moore’s Law of stupidity.
From the same Mao article:
It’s quite extraordinary that Wikipedia has passages like this. Just amazing.
As much as I admire Thomas Sowell, and I do, I am always skeptical of any claims made by anyone in favour of a new educational system, approach or methodology especially when it’s described in seemingly miraculous terms.
Yes, such descriptions can be suspect, but the existing educational system is so dreadful that ANY improved system is likely to seem miraculous.
I’ve mentioned it before, several times, but it really can’t be aired often enough.
It really, really, really can’t.
From David’s A Great Big Socialist Heart:
The ultimate iniquity, though, is that independent, fee-paying schools are allowed to exist at all.
A couple of months back, I was introduced to a sociologist of education from a renowned university.
During the conversation, this person lamented the fact that it would not be possible to not only completely outlaw all forms of private paid education, but that it would also not be practical to have schools in which pupils were bussed in from miles around to guarantee that every class was representative of a diversity of both social classes and ethnicities in order to avoid what was described as ‘private schools by default’ (i.e. schools located in mostly middle class districts in which the majority of pupils are therefore middle class).
This person accepted that it was nothing more than a fantasy and would never happen, but nevertheless seemed quite convinced that a more true form of equality in society would not be achievable otherwise and it would therefore be a shame that this plan would never be implemented, or certainly not in our lifetime at least.
I want to stress that this was presented as a hypothetical only and not proposal for future policy, but, as I tried to argue with this person at the time, there seemed to me to be so many flaws in this concept, even as a hypothetical, that it seemed absurdly provocative to even raise it at all let alone believe in it.
From David’s When Scolding is the Payoff for All That Piety and Angst:
Guardian reader SanityRestored:
I’m prepared to judge you. Sorry if you don’t like it. But for the damage you are inflicting firstly on your own kids, and secondly on society in general, don’t I have the right to judge you?
Heavens. And the Great Moral Horror that has these righteous souls so indignant and a-twitch? The Guardian’s education journalist Janet Murray has – oh my – sent her daughter to a fee-paying school
You know, I don’t know if anyone else here has ever read Ralph Ellison’s superlative Invisible Man novel, but how these modern descendants of the Trotskyists who uphold it (rightly) as a great work of fiction fail to see themselves reflected in The Brotherhood of that novel must involve a lack of self-awareness on such an epic scale that it cannot possibly be the result of accident, but must actually require conscious and concerted effort.
It really, really, really can’t.
As I’m sure I’ve said before, education is one of the areas in which the dishonesty and malice of leftist psychology become quite hard to conceal.
I’m prepared to judge you. Sorry if you don’t like it. But for the damage you are inflicting firstly on your own kids, and secondly on society in general,,b> don’t I have the right to judge you?,/b>
Umm, a) no, and b) bugger off.
Having sent my three children to private parochial schools in the U.S. where, quelle horreur!, they had chapel services twice a week followed by 30+ ACT scores, full academic scholarship to university and actual jobs paying real money which allow them to support me in my dotage, I fail to see what damage I inflicted upon them.
“I don’t know if anyone else here has ever read Ralph Ellison’s superlative Invisible Man novel”
Yes, I have. As for “how these modern descendants of the Trotskyists who uphold it (rightly) as a great work of fiction fail to see themselves reflected” doesn’t surprise me in the least. I took it upon myself, well actually at the wife’s recommendation of one of many books she thought I might like, to read Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Without the “help” of proper academic instruction, I came away with the impression that the Anna in the story was a pathetic woman, one not to be admired. I was at first taken aback to see that to so many people, feminist leaning women especially, view her as heroic. Upon further study, I found that such was not Tolstoy’s intent. Tolstoy was rejecting the idea of romantic love conquering duty to family/society/God/whatevs, can’t recall the specifics but that was the gist of it. How could I, a quasi-ignorant literature reader techy type have understood the author’s intent better than these oh so many academics and such. Then I saw that my copy had a blurb from one Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Well, makes sense then.
Healthcare was free…
Yeah, boy howdy. Those barefoot doctors were the shiznitz.
…and living standards in the countryside continued to improve.
Then:
Now:
The whole country is a Potemkin village.
education is one of the areas in which the dishonesty and malice of leftist psychology become quite hard to conceal.
I wish I could disagree with this statement, but don’t really feel that I can.
One of the signal tragedies of this is that while of course it is possible to find examples of actual psychopaths – i.e. those who are aware of the malice they are helping to perpetrate, but who simply couldn’t care less – far more common in my experience is that it results from the terrible earnestness of people who really think they are doing good and are completely oblivious to any harm they might be causing.
Usually, this seems to be a result of wanting to be and feel good so much, that they forget that the point is to do good. As any authentic altruist ought to know, doing good may not always leave one feeling as if you have done good. In fact if anything, doing actual good successfully often involves doing something which is counterintuitive and consequently it may come with ambiguous and conflicted feelings. Not always, obviously, but certainly some of the time. (jabrwok’s quote from C.S. Lewis is very apt in that regard)
…and most of the least socially and emotionally capable people I know went to posh schools.
That bit really leapt out at me – I have a friend whose parents were diplomats and who was privately educated at boarding school who recently made an almost identical remark to that and who is a fierce advocate of every kind of social justice cause it’s possible to advocate for.
Our conversations usually consist of her amazement at the kind of views that I tend to hold on issues of “social justice” because it seems to trouble and/or mildly disappoint her that someone who was educated at a state-funded comprehensive should hold them (I should point out I wasn’t dragged up by a single mother on the mean streets of the inner city or anything like that, but nevertheless I went to the local comprehensive because it was local if you catch my drift).
But what struck me on that occasion, when she made that remark similar Weir’s, was that it was entirely possible that she didn’t realise those boys she was talking about were being, well, boys … in other words, they were teasing her because that’s basically what boys tend to do to girls, especially very earnest and devout high school girls. They’re just so easy to tease.
The thought that not only my friend, but Arabella Weir and every other woman holding a similar outlook – Zoe Williams, Laurie Penny etc., might well be basing the foundations of all their politics on a long-ago-but-never-corrected misunderstanding caused by taking at face value the blatantly cheeky comments of some teasing sixth-form boy is, to say the least, more than a little unnerving.
I mean, just imagine if whenever Zoe Williams hits the keyboard of her computer, in her mind’s eye she’s still carrying on an argument with a phantom of some cocksure university student from a Formal Hall dinner at Oxford c. 1993 who was trying (and apparently succeeding) to get a rise out of her for being a vegan/an environmentalist/a socialist/ a … etc.
@wtp
Then I saw that my copy had a blurb from one Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
He he he ; – ))
And the Great Moral Horror that has these righteous souls so indignant and a-twitch? The Guardian’s education journalist Janet Murray has – oh my – sent her daughter to a fee-paying school
To be fair, though, shouldn’t the Guardian’s education journalist live by the principles she undoubtedly preaches? As you point out, education is one of the areas in which the dishonesty and malice of leftist psychology become quite hard to conceal, but I find it much easier to accept that a leftist nitwit would send her offspring to a poor school in order to show solidarity with the masses, than to countenance the (much more widespread) hypocrisy of leftists who do everything they can to keep their own kids out of failing public schools while resisting any attempts to improve these public schools by, for example, curtailing the power of the teachers’ unions (see Thomas Sowell). While the former attitude is merely misguided (and evil only in the particular inasmuch as it affects the offspring in question), the latter attitude is evil on a large scale and affects all of society. And, not incidentally, allows the leftist nomenklatura to continue to arrogate to itself the trappings of “leadership” by ensuring that the led are kept ignorant.
To be fair, though, shouldn’t the Guardian’s education journalist live by the principles she undoubtedly preaches?
To be fairer still, shouldn’t her public preaching be less dishonest? By which I mean, shouldn’t she be professing her actual principles, the ones she actually lives by and deems most beneficial for her own child? Rather than the ones she feels will win approval from people who piously wish misery on her family.
To be fairer still, shouldn’t her public preaching be less dishonest?
You’ve got me there. Dead to rights, guv’nor. But I don’t think leftists are too much burdened by principles. At least this one recognizes that there is an inherent contradiction between what she says and what she does. In my experience leftists are rather impervious to cognitive dissonance.
To expand on that a bit, I think a leftist’s principles are pretty much these two:
(1) I do what is best for myself (and my offspring), and
(2) Everybody else should do what is best for me (and my offspring).
On the subject of black victimology, this seems apposite.
Yes, such descriptions can be suspect, but the existing educational system is so dreadful that ANY improved system is likely to seem miraculous.
Strong evidence on the actual value of charter schools remains hard to find. They have their boosters, but many also fail — and unlike a public school they can close, so the “success” is at least in part due to that. If charter schools really outperformed public schools, the evidence should be overwhelming. Add in pupil selection and the “magic” isn’t hard to explain.
The thing is that the current education system is hard to reform in part because it isn’t “dreadful”. There are large parts of the US that have an excellent public system — there are states that compete with the supposedly superior Finland and Japan.
The big issue in the US is the funding system, which builds in the inequality, because the poor areas have less money. So poor areas also get the worst teachers. Compare that to NZ where the poorer areas get the most money, so even poor areas get good teachers.
That’s not to say that the victim mentality of many US blacks isn’t a major problem, but that isn’t caused by the schools, and can’t really be cured by the schools.
Sorry, but ideas that the schools “contaminate” them are just bull. Teachers try to get their students to absorb some of their ideals, sure, but they rarely succeed. Decades of Soviet indoctrination were useless against Polish children, just as decades of preaching drug and sex abstinence in the West has failed. Where the teachers sympathise on the race front it is more a symptom of society rather than a cause.
US schools have been “failing” for many decades. Yet the actual achievement has risen — albeit slowly. That’s a story people don’t want to hear though. Remember that the very people being railed against here also believe that schooling is broken.
https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2016/08/07/americas-not-so-broken-education-system-jack-schneider/
There is no correlation, except perhaps a negative one, between per-capita spending in the US and educational outcomes. If there were, then Washington DC would be turning out paragons of pedagogy. It isn’t. It is a stupid and myopic idea to think that the problems that afflict education in the US are ameliorable by having money thrown at them. If the bottom 5% of teachers in the US could be fired tomorrow, something that needn’t cost a penny*, things would get better so fast it would make your head spin.
* absent the unions; destroying them is a necessary and possibly sufficient condition in solving the problem
They (charter schools) have their boosters, but many also fail — and unlike a public school they can close, so the “success” is at least in part due to that.
Hmm… That isn’t exactly nothing, is it? Sort of the virtue of competition, isn’t it? What Schumpeter calls creative destruction? The kids who have been badly taught in a failing charter school can move on to, hopefully, a better school. The problem with public schools is that they never close, even when they fail abysmally, and so the kids who are badly taught in one remain trapped.
There is no correlation, except perhaps a negative one, between per-capita spending in the US and educational outcomes.
From the U.S. Department of Education itself:
Please note that the flat line in test scores is an artifact. Given that the tests have been dumbed down and scores inflated, the trend would indeed be negative if 1970 standards had been applied every year.
Here’s the link to the 2014 Cato study showing that there is no correlation between spending and academic outcomes.
http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa746.pdf
absent the unions; destroying them is a necessary and possibly sufficient condition in solving the problem
Necessary, but not sufficient. It is also necessary to destroy the “schools” of education that grind out the mediocrities that pass for teachers but who have no expertise in any field they might be expected to teach, and in particular the graduate schools of “education” that keep ginning up crackpot education theories.
Also necessary is to destroy the administration industry, there is no need for any school to have as many, if not more, staff than teachers. One each principal, assistant principal, secretary, guidance counselor, nurse, was the basic load of admin pukes for most large city schools up to grade 12 until at least 1970, now there is a platoon(-) of counselors, therapists, and other clots whose sole function appears to mollycoddle students.
If you could bust up the admin racket, you could actually afford to hire teachers with degrees in subjects they were expected to teach – Normal school grads were fine up to grade 6, but after that you need a bit of in depth knowledge.
Muldoon, I would add destroying the state education bureaucracies which have long suffered from regulatory capture and exist not to guarantee that qualified people are teaching but to keep qualified people out in favor of the mediocrities you mention.
Herr Sherman – true enough. I was thinking that as the various Departments of Education are driven by and infested with the products of the graduates “schools” of education, that they would eventually wither away if the “schools” were destroyed, but you are right; sometimes it is so bad you just have to roll a metaphorical hand grenade into the room, sweep up the debris, and start over.
Muldoon, for grins, I decided to poke around my state’s reports on education spending and outcomes. Fascinating stuff which proves the point regarding absence of positive correlation between more dollars and student performance. One district, which has been unaccredited for the last four years spends a mere $300 per student less per year than the cost I incur for sending my kid to a private school of about the same size. There were 168 graduates in 2015, of whom all of 6 scored at or above national or state levels on various tests. The average ACT score is 15, a result obtained by correctly filling out the “name” portion of the test.
In other news today:
“The Constellations are Sexist”
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/08/sexism-in-the-stars/496037/
“Today, the skies are still filtered through this tradition of mythic misogyny. Naming conventions for spacecraft and constellations are a subtle but significant way that the discipline of astronomy perpetuates a male-dominated culture. Simply giving more celestial bodies female names is not the solution. Rather, change must begin with the recognition that astronomy’s self-image is built upon an age-old habit of telling stories about the abuse of women.”
The average ACT score is 15, a result obtained by correctly filling out the “name” portion of the test.
Equally damning, though of the entire educational system, out of a max score of 36 on the ACT, the national average is a whopping 21 (not even a gentleman’s D) and that hasn’t budged since the new scoring in 1990.
Nikw211 notes: this person lamented the fact that it would not be possible to not only completely outlaw all forms of private paid education
If I heard the such a statement I hope I would have the quickness to say “and of course we should ban all books in private homes, and educational conversations between parents and children” just to see the reaction.
Of course, wasn’t it just last year that some academic spewed an opinion to the effect that reading to ones own kids was an oppressive act against the children of parents who didn’t read to their kids?
Leftist thought moves so fast and chaotically that it is impossible to parody.
I took it upon myself, well actually at the wife’s recommendation of one of many books she thought I might like, to read Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Without the “help” of proper academic instruction, I came away with the impression that the Anna in the story was a pathetic woman, one not to be admired. I was at first taken aback to see that to so many people, feminist leaning women especially, view her as heroic.
I’m so glad to hear you say that, I had a similar experience. I read the book at my own volition a few years ago (when I used to measure my self-worth by the fancy books I would try to read) and also found Anna to be at best tragically naive (so much that she was not sympathetic, especially given her savvy-ness in other areas) or at worst, self-indulgent and willfully ignorant of consequences. Upon hearing the ‘right’ interpretation, I assumed I misunderstood the book…
Wasn’t it just last year that some academic spewed an opinion to the effect that reading to one’s own kids was an oppressive act against the children of parents who didn’t read to their kids?
Yes.
The feminist interpretation of ‘Anna Karenina’ is risible. Tolstoy’s clear intention was to portray Anna’s moral and mental disintegration, following her adultery and desertion of her husband, as an avoidable tragedy. He contrasts her immorality and imprudence with the wholesome courtship of Levin and Princess Kitty.
Anna Karenina is one of a number of similar novels which have been given a feminist makeover in recent years. See, e.g. Effi Briest. In all of them, a woman makes a complete hash out of her life, but is somehow viewed as a heroine. If the novels were to be written today, the protagonists would be playing out their neuroses on Tumblr.
Yes.
From your link …people bedeviled by totalitarian fantasies and insatiable spite…
Of all the helpless electrons whose lives have been spent by people trying concisely to explain the main malfunction of the left, that is a proverbial mic drop.
Meanwhile, the New York Times shows why they are a titan of journalism.
Twitter readers rebut.
David, the clause in your link which jumped out at me is, “If the family is this source of unfairness in society…” This where the premise is that healthy, stable, loving families lead to greater success for offspring. (Well, duh.) With a deft sleight of hand, that success–wholly the product of individual responsibility, mind you–is declared to be unfair with no proof, philosophical or otherwise, to back it up. Insatiable spite and envy, indeed.
race hustlers and riots
“Calling for peace”
http://kaching.tumblr.com/post/149054690833/therevenantrising-calling-for-peace-get
“Calling for peace”
Imagine my surprise.
Via Milo,
http://www.autostraddle.com/we-messed-up-348709/
I couldn’t workout what a lesbian taco was, the realised its about an animated movie where the characters are items of food. I imagine they also hate Speedy Gonzales (the fastest mouse in all of Mehico!)
“For those into counting, Milwaukee city is majority black”
Not quite, according to the 2010 Census, which reports 40% black and 36% white. But that’s about twice what it was when I last lived there and helps explain the serious and obvious social decay.
/I denounce myself for noticing Politically Incorrect facts.
Regarding I Sneeze’s link, let me post the following excerpt. (I suggest reading it in the voice of Sir Laurence Olivier to get the full effect.)
We heard from readers who were upset that we labeled the taco a lesbian when it seems more likely that she was bisexual. We heard from readers who questioned the consent of the sexual encounter between the taco and the hot dog bun. We heard from readers who found the taco to be a damaging portrayal of a predatory queer woman.
We heard from readers who found the taco to be a damaging portrayal of a predatory queer woman.
This isn’t how, as a child, I imagined the twenty-first century.
This isn’t how, as a child, I imagined the twenty-first century.
But it’s a lesbian taco and a bloody hot dog bun, dammit! Grab the swagger stick and have the batman tell the bugler to call “stand to!” It’s time to man the parapets!
…our Trans Editor Mey Rude…
OK, I know what and editor is, so is a trans editor someone who takes good copy and screws it up, an editor who is confused about the contents of his or her (as the case may be) shorts, an editor who just edits about “trans” nonsense (isomers excepted), or all three ?
Honest question – having read the article and googled Mey Rude [take this as a warning – do not] it is unclear in the extreme.
Ben Shapiro on the nexus between riots and the left.
Ben Shapiro on the nexus between riots and the left.
The word shakedown comes to mind.
The word shakedown comes to mind.
A problem identified long ago.
A problem identified long ago.
For the more deranged wing of the left, it’s practically a tradition, and a credential. What’s remarkable is how explicit the threats can be.
re Booker T…given the number of misattributed quotes that float around the ‘net, I had to look that up as it sounded almost too spot-on. Well if we can trust Wikiquote, it is accurate. On that very page where that quote is found, a few more sentences had been excerpted from the original source that I thought were spot-on as well:
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington#My_Larger_Education.2C_Being_Chapters_from_My_Experience_.281911.29
I found this rather a good aphorism:
‘Speech the Left Hates is Violence. Violence the Left Likes is Speech’
via: John Rivers
wtp,
That Booker T Washington meme has been passed around on Facebook, Twitter and right-leaning blogs for quite some time, and I had doubted its authenticity myself. Curiously, for something so widely disseminated, there’s not a peep about it at Snopes.
Maybe not so curiously, considering Snopes’ generally left-wing bias when it comes to political matters.
“Booker T. Washington”
Showing why the Left has denigrated him for so long.
This isn’t how, as a child, I imagined the twenty-first century.
Let me guess: you imagined everybody in the 21st century wearing Martin Landau and Barbara Bain-style jumpsuits.
wearing Martin Landau and Barbara Bain-style jumpsuits.
Heh. Actually, I remember making one of those ‘n’-shaped stun guns out of Lego.
Let me guess: you imagined everybody in the 21st century wearing Martin Landau and Barbara Bain-style jumpsuits.
Speaking of space, the learned sciency types at The Atlantic have determined that the Constellations are sexist.
The authoress of this insightful piece runs a web site called Lady Science which you will be surprised to learn is staffed with wxymxn of great sciency learnings. The authoress, one Miss Lelia McNeil,
I am sure the world is a better place for her research into women’s ways of knowing in Imperial Germany – we had the Wiemar Republic all doped out, but Imperial Germany – whoa, I thought that was unfathomable.
Of course she is.
Curiously, for something so widely disseminated, there’s not a peep about it at Snopes.
Yes, it is amusing what appears and disappears and never appears at Snopes. I got curious after having to repeatedly explain to people what EXACTLY was presented at trial in the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case, given the tremendous amount of misinformation as to what occurred, who did what, what the evidence clearly showed. With considerable searching, I could find muchmuchmuch about George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin that either occurred years/months before or years/months after that event that was tangential to the main issue, I could not find anything addressing the facts as presented in court. As urban legends and misinformation go, seems like something right up their alley. Pity.
I was a snopes email discussion list member for many years (this was before their current web-based discussion forums) and left when they seemed to fall for all the ClimateChange™ hype and alarmism and started ridiculing people who had questions.
This isn’t how, as a child, I imagined the twenty-first century.
This is how I imagined hell
From Instapundit … I got about one third in and realized this is NOT parody.
for bonus points in masochism, give the comments a whirl.
[holy mary, mother of god]
…and realized this is NOT parody.
Comedy gold.
Someone commented somewhere else, didn’t find this one on m’own . . .
10 Things White People Already Know But Will Never Tell Us
. . . . . Distant memory??!?!?! I’ve been to a number of powwows at one time or another. Pretty awfully loud and complicated and busy for a “distant memory” . . .
To this day, astronomy remains one of the only scientific fields that relies so heavily on ancient Greek and Roman mythology for its naming conventions.
Yeah, I remember being SHOCKED to my BONES when I heard that the first quasar ever identified bore the nasty name “3C 273”.
3C 273 = the 273rd object (ordered by right ascension) of the Third Cambridge Catalog of Radio Sources (3C), published in 1959.
Of course, Cambridge, the notorious hotbed of misogynistic science, could not conceal its evil intent, which rings out loud and clear in that quasar’s evil name!
(Increases afternoon dosage by 6.8 percent…)
@Darleen – The apology is more than 2,500 words long! The comments make me fear for Western Civilisation. Luckily, Autostraddle probably has an audience of a couple of thousand of the US’s most PC-crippled idiots.
@Hal – that list is the work of a deranged, deeply paranoid mind. But not the only such mind judging by the comments…
I saw a morbid point the other day that’s been nagging at me.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russians didn’t restore the House of Romanov, nor did they have experiments in innovating new forms of government. No, they turned to copying the West, and it seems not unreasonable to say that the West was an obvious schelling point: everyone knew about it, it had long been presented as The Alternative.
Similarly, if the US implodes, the Americans don’t seem likely to restore either the Stuarts, the Hanovers or the Windsors. No, what gets presented as The Alternative in America is that if you’re not on board with the latest and greatest progressive plan, you must be Hitler! Trump is Hitler! Romney was Hitler! Bush was Hitler! Everyone to the right of Mao is a HIT LURE KNOT SEA!! There’s no external rival like the Soviets that America can surrender to. You will not find a serious alternative to americanist democracy advertised anywhere from Singapore to South Africa, only minor tweaks like count of parliamentary representation. And the progs keep burning the legitimacy of this form of government…
Wouldn’t it be cartoonishly absurd if future neo-Nazis wound up having America fall into their hands by default, since so few can envision an alternative other than a few secessionist splinter states?
I wonder if this might count as a feel-good story of the day.
off topic: this is comedy gold:
https://reason.com/blog/2016/08/17/autostraddles-apologizes-for-favorably-r
Oops, sorry, please delete my comment up there, the article in question had already been posted by Darleen…
Oh, I think we’ll leave it there as a cautionary tale. 🙂
Oh, I think we’ll leave it there as a cautionary tale. 🙂
Fair enough.
Actually, I remember making one of those ‘n’-shaped stun guns out of Lego.
My embarrassing 70s memory was trying to color people in coloring books as wearing plaid pants.
My embarrassing 70s memory was trying to colour people in colouring books as wearing plaid pants.
As a wee seedling, I used to enjoy colouring in my collection of Mighty World of Marvel comics, which were basically monochrome reprints of Marvel’s American titles, with colour used very sparingly. (I remember an awful lot of pale green.) However, while felt tip pens added some much-needed vibrancy, they tended to soak through the cheap paper and ruin the other side, rendering it all but illegible.
Such were the dilemmas of childhood.
After the manner of Saturn, the revolution always devours its own children:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/sheridanwatson/people-are-calling-ellen-degeneres-racist?utm_term=.ifzZq7wgY#.vqRr2kJLn
Consider Hal’s post from Negressomethingorother…
So that’s…let’s see…items 1, 5, 6, 8, and 10 seem to count. Throw in a half point for item 9 and we’re over 50%. Not bad for a deranged, deeply paranoid mind.
Yeah, I remember being SHOCKED to my BONES when I heard that the first quasar ever identified bore the nasty name “3C 273”.
It seems you don’t have the proper keys in your Shitlord Decoder Ring. It is clear that if read that upside down and swap the letters and numerals into Greek you get εζΖϚε, which transliterated into English is Eze Zuse, who, as everyone who has a passing knowledge of mythology knows, was a minor diety of chamberpots which, of course, had no lids to put down, thus causing patriarchal oppression of ancient women.
…a minor diety of chamberpots which, of course, had no lids to put down…
If I recall my Edith Hamilton correctly, said minor deity was ultimately vanquished by the simple expedient of adding a second chamber pot. This, of course, led us to today where there is a separate WC & shower attached to the well-appointed man cave in the basement, tastefully equipped with several years worth of Maxim, Sports Illustrated and Motor Trend magazines.
Memo to self: For the love of god, will you please stop doing HTML before you’ve finished your second cup of coffee.
Meanwhile, at the Smith College School for Social Work, noticing the alarmingly low standard of student work can result in you being accused of using “violent, racist rhetoric” and being a “white supremacist.”
If police pull back, those neighborhoods will essentially become reservations.
More like free-fire zones. If cops really wanted blacks to die in job lots, they’d just stop patrolling black neighborhoods (the Ferguson Effect) and let culture take its course.