Elsewhere (249)
Katherine Kersten on leftist dogma versus educational standards:
For years, the Edina Public Schools have been one of the brightest stars of Minnesota public education… But today, test scores are sinking. One in five Edina High School students can’t read at grade level and one in three can’t do grade-level math. These test results dropped EHS’s ranking among Minnesota high schools from 5th to 29th in reading proficiency, and from 10th to 40th in math proficiency between 2014 and 2017… There’s been a profound shift in district leaders’ educational philosophy. In place of academic excellence for all, the district’s primary mission is now to ensure that students think correctly on social and political issues — most importantly, on race and “white privilege.” […] The school is pervaded by an obsession with race. Katie Mahoney, Highlands Elementary School’s “racially conscious” principal, was hired in 2016. This fall, she announced that the school’s “challenges” for 2017-18 are to teach children “how to embrace ancestry, genetic code and melanin,” and to how “to be change-makers.”
If that doesn’t sound sufficiently dogmatic and perverse, and just a little sinister, then do read the whole thing. There’s more.
Larry Sand on truant teachers:
A Fordham Institute study released in September demonstrates the full extent of the absentee problem… 28.3 percent of teachers in traditional public schools are chronically absent — defined as missing more than 10 days of school per year because of illness or personal reasons. In charter schools — most of which are not unionised — the corresponding rate is just 10.3 percent.
And Toni Airaksinen on underhanded educators:
Two Canadian professors have developed an approach they call “Trojan horse pedagogy” to peddle social justice to otherwise unassuming students. Sal Renshaw and Renee Valiquette, both of whom teach at Nipissing University in Ontario, detailed their extensive “ruse” in a recently published book, boasting that their “Introduction to Interdisciplinary Analysis” class is actually a “social justice” course in disguise… “Our goal in this class is to move both hearts and minds, in part by ‘forcing’ an encounter with at least some knowledges that students have already decided they are not interested in,” Renshaw and Valiquette explain, adding that the classes are “rooted in… post-structural feminist theory.”
According to Renshaw and Valiquette, being dishonest about course content, and about the subsequent likelihood of getting a job, is “a pathway to social justice education” and therefore, they insist, “the ruse is justified.” The lecturers in question admit that for many students “social justice” claptrap has a poor reputation and is actively avoided, which prompts the professors to sidestep that reputational challenge by simply lying to students about what it is they’re paying for. The two words you’re looking for are fire and immediately.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
Two Canadian professors have developed an approach they call “Trojan horse pedagogy” to peddle social justice to otherwise unassuming students.
Today’s word is ‘cult’.
Today’s word is ‘cult’.
There is, I think, some commonality. See also these determined ladies of the left, mentioned here.
“…adding that the classes are ‘rooted in… post-structural feminist theory.'”
Over the last 70 years, has there been a single idiotic idea that was NOT rooted in the ideas of French postmodernists and German “critical theorists”?
“The school’s youngest students (K-2) traced their hands, colored them with their skin color, and made a poster reading “Stop thinking your skin color is better than everyone elses [sic]. Everyone is Special!””
If everyone’s special, no-one is….
better than everyone elses [sic].
And expecting professional educators to have mastered rudimentary spelling and punctuation is clearly oppressive and unfair.
See also item 1.
Heather Mac Donald on selective law enforcement, or one law for thee:
Aren’t politicians the ones who bang on about the importance of sending signals…?
Are you white and working class, want a career in art and design but are struggling to get opportunities? Tough shit. Yet more evidence that you’re scum to your intellectual betters:
https://www.dezeen.com/2017/10/06/new-architecture-writers-free-writing-course-aspiring-design-journalists-racial-minorities/
Even more revealing, I think, are the responses to the quite moderate criticism of it in the comments below the line. Particularly “jon’s” sneering remark of, “Those poor white people! If only they had somewhere to turn! Who is going to listen to their plight! [?]” Erm, Donald Trump, perhaps? Nigel Farage? Either way I’m betting that anyone they do turn to won’t meet with your seal of approval, because they’re probably fascist, white supremacists (at least in your view). Who here would like to wager that that commentator was utter baffled as to why Trump won?
Something else that grabs me is just how very “White Man’s Burden” the idea behind the course is. They seem to believe BAME people just aren’t good enough to get there on their own merit, so they, the “Enlightened White People”, TM will show them the way. Patronising and neo-colonialist much?
Been going on for decades now. When pointing out that the groundwork was being laid decades ago for what we see today in our schools and media and such, it was suggested to me that I was in need of counseling. And yet even today, as the problem rears its ugly head repeatedly in our best, or more accurately what were once our best, institutions our political leaders, especially/even those on the supposed right, are silent. This cancer continues to grow and people are still too chicken shit to actively do anything about it in a public way. Granted, funds from alumni are drying up but what do you suppose will replace those funds if there is no viable political opposition to this problem?
I note that some Edina students complain about “intimidation” of those students who dissent from the new orthodoxy. Rest assured, the school district undoubtedly extends its wrath to parents, as well. Such “trouble-makers” are, at best, ignored. At worst, their children’s educational opportunities are being actively sabotaged as punishment for “wrong-think.” The counterrevolutionaries will be purged if it’s the last thing the district does.
According to Renshaw and Valiquette, being dishonest about course content, and about the subsequent likelihood of getting a job, is “a pathway to social justice education” and therefore, they insist, “the ruse is justified.”
Shameless.
They seem to believe BAME people just aren’t good enough to get there on their own merit,
We’ve been here before of course.
We’ve been here before of course.
Michigan State of course. Was it here or elsewhere I saw the link about their recent freakout over a “noose” that eventually was found to have simply been a dropped shoelace?
In light of the various freakouts over college mascot names and such, I keep waiting for calls for MSU, Michael Moore being their …uh…biggest fan and all, to drop the Spartans and adopt something more PC. Spartans being the Nazis of their day and alll. Helots perhaps? These people certainly lack any resemblance to Spartans and seem completely antithetical even to their stoicism.
Was it here or elsewhere I saw the link about their recent freakout over a “noose” that eventually was found to have simply been a dropped shoelace?
Here, via Darleen.
If everyone’s special, no-one is….
Our politicians certainly seem to be ‘special’. Remember Blair’s edict that there was to be Excellence For All? Sadly, it seems he wasn’t able simply to assert his fantasies into reality – but not to worry, our hard-nosed austerity-toting ‘Conservative’ overlords strive to continue his quest.
the classes are “rooted in… post-structural feminist theory.”
They’re taking the nipiss.
being dishonest about course content
… is nothing new. As part of my college courses in the early 1980s, I had to take a semester in “Organizational Psychology”. The instructor on that course (who was also a part-time prof at York) decided instead to teach what we’d now call a full SJW course instead. We covered all sorts of things that Occupy, BLM, Antifa and other more recent groups would recognize as their foundational texts. We did womens’ rights, poverty activism, the evils of pornography (with her collection of I’m sure at-the-time illegal violent porn passed around the class), racism, white privilege (not called that yet) in a class that was more than 50% Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.
In the final lecture before the exam, she gave us both barrels about how us evil business students needed to be educated about the real world of evil white capitalism and have our awareness raised about how to be good, socially active citizens. At that point, someone else in the class pointed out that we were all engineering students…
‘Knowingly exposing others to HIV will no longer be a felony in California’
http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-gov-brown-downgrades-from-felony-to-1507331544-htmlstory.html
#FuckedUp
Edina Public Schools, churning out the next generation of victims one child at a time.
Knowingly exposing others to HIV will no longer be a felony in California
We seem to be entering a phase of cultural decline in which it’s becoming necessary to explain, all over again, why encouraging sociopathy is, you know, a bad thing.
Two notes:
One, Nipissing University is literally a backwoods college that for most of its existence has only been able to grant degrees by being affiliated with bigger universities. It’s mostly known for pandering to the indigenous students in Northern Ontario who get free tuition by virtue of their status.
Second, I doubt anyone taking a course named “Introduction to Interdisciplinary Analysis” is expecting academic rigour in the first place.
I doubt anyone taking a course named “Introduction to Interdisciplinary Analysis” is expecting academic rigour in the first place.
I’m still processing the irony of being lectured on moral and political righteousness by people who openly boast of lying to their own students.
Instalanche!
Instalanche!
At last, some upmarket clientele.
What?
Katherine Kersten on leftist dogma versus educational standards
I knew better, but I looked anyway: the “reader comments” at the Minneapolis (Red)Star-Tribune are in full, shrieking SJW mode.
Whatever happened to good old-fashioned wrapping a note with a threat to ‘get out of town or else’ around a brick, and heaving it through a window in the middle of the night?
And here’s a link or snippet, which I feel free to share in the comments:
Teen Girls Perform In Halftime Stripper Show
Link to Facebook page with video:
Miami Northwestern High Golden Girls
Katie Mahoney, Highlands Elementary School’s “racially conscious” principal… announced that the school’s “challenges” for 2017-18 are to teach children “how to embrace ancestry, genetic code and melanin,”
Is she planning a 1000-year Reich?
Monty James: Good grief, you’re right, the news report is not exaggerated.
“Instalanche!
At last, some upmarket clientele.”
Pickled eggs? No thanks. Did Glenn Reynolds give you his smoothie recipe?
I used to think that, after the inevitable collapse of higher ed, the leftie professors would mostly find work as baristas, but now I think timeshare sales might be a better fit.
Did Glenn Reynolds give you his smoothie recipe?
[ Taps bar-top jar of dense grey liquid. A glass eye bobs briefly into view then disappears into the murk. ]
I doubt Mr Reynolds’ smoothies will loosen stains, or teeth, as quickly as this brine.
OOT…
http://thefederalist.com/2017/10/06/michelle-obama-2013-harvey-weinstein-wonderful-human/
Instalanche!
Should that have a link?
Katherine Kersten on leftist dogma versus educational standards:
That does sound awfully familiar; It’s definitely an equal to the right wing version—and given that mere faith is faith is faith, there’s a lot of that turning up all over.
And certainly the failure of faith has nothing to do with the success of an individual religious practice, considering ways in which scholars suggest that various religions have influenced education, especially the spread of literacy among laypeople. . . but whether a right wing failure in focusing on faith, or a left wing failure in focusing on identity, it’s all the same . . . .
Instalanche!
Should that have a link?
Yeah, that could be recommended . . . at least, up to a point.
Ah, the joys of diversity in education
As for the half-time stripper practice, at least those girls are learning a valuable skill which will serve them well when they leave High School.
Teen Girls Perform In Halftime Stripper Show
Miami Northwestern High Golden Girls
Those girls are obviously part of a marching band. I would like to see how their parts fit in with the overall band performance.
the joys of diversity in education
Ooh. An intellectual. You can tell because of the books about Napolean and such that just so happen to be in the book case that just so happens to be in the background of the video that just so happens to be angled in an awkward “random” kind of a way that it just so happens to frame said bookcase at the angle that just so happens to show off the books that just so happen to have, not their spines facing out but the covers such that it just so happens that you can more readily see what those books just so happen to be.
Of course I’m reading too much into it.
Of course I’m reading too much into it.
@WTP: You probably realize, but the video is a send-up of the standard disconnect in attitudes and actions by the Left. I believe the term is “taking the piss” (or should that be the nipiss in light of the Canadian story?).
but whether a right wing failure in focusing on faith, or a left wing failure in focusing on identity, it’s all the same . . . .
Of course, Hal.
Everything looks the same when you’re a toad.
According to Renshaw and Valiquette, being dishonest about course content, and about the subsequent likelihood of getting a job, is “a pathway to social justice education” and therefore, they insist, “the ruse is justified.”
SJWs always lie.
SJWs always lie.
The ladies, both of whom are lecturers in “gender equality and social justice,” claim they wish to “create ethical citizens” – and they plan to do this by being dishonest and manipulative, and then boasting about it to their “social justice” peers. Because that’s always a good footing for lectures in ethical behaviour.
And speaking of dishonesty dragged-up as piety, don’t forget this.
Ah, my bad jabrwok. Must admit I only got a minute or two into that before I gave up. The “Pleasant Valley” reference did trip my radar, but I checked and there is a Pleasant Valley somewhere in upstate NY. And that haircut combined with the annoying speach pattern/accent/pronunciation…sigh…basically, TL;DW
This kind of idiocy reminds me of the interview with Mr. Incredible at the beginning of The Incredibles which went something along the lines of, “I just cleaned this place up! Can’t you keep it clean for five minutes! (*chuckles ruefully*)”.
Does no one currently living in New York City remember the 80s? Or the 70s?
Doesn’t matter really, if they implement these policies they’ll all get a chance to relive those exciting, and occasionally death-defying, times. Whether they want to or not.
Chuckle heads.
It’s infuriating to watch a society enact policies that will make everyday living worse for the majority of its members when there is a clear and recent history of what those policies will do.
The two words you’re looking for are fire and immediately.
The two I am thinking of are “fraud” and “convict”.
Tar and feathers.
Don’t believe the schools about how often teachers are absent – many of the city schools play with the numbers. For example, take the frequent case where a teacher is not hired for an Open Position – sometimes, for the entire year (this is sadly common in urban districts).
That nonexistent “teacher” is counted as ABSENT, and the cost of the sub is billed to the school – as opposed to the district picking up the cost of a hired teacher.
Not only does this improve the district office’s budget, but – it artificially inflates the number of sub days.
That 10 days? It’s an average.
It might include a teacher planning to retire because of a major illness, but staying (and coming in as often as she can), because the district won’t hire someone so late in the school year.
Really – that’s the reason that an HR administrator gave to me for not hiring for an open position.
It will include the newbie teacher, who spends a lot of her first few years fighting off all the infections she gets from her kids.
It will include the teacher who gets head lice from her students, who has to take off to get her head treated.
It will include the teacher who gets assaulted by a student.
It will include the teacher who got every problem student the administration could throw at her assigned to her class, and sometimes, just has to take a mental health day to try to keep from flipping out.
Does no one currently living in New York City remember the 80s? Or the 70s?
Some on the left are openly nostalgic for those days.
At Ole Miss, a student discarded a banana peel by tossing it into a nearby tree. Someone complained about this clear racist insult and a Major Drama ensued on campus.
The perpetrator confessed to littering and apologized for causing anger. These days, no apology can be accepted, especially when one is demanded. Race anger is like a royal flush – nothing beats it.
“The lecturers in question admit that for many students “social justice” claptrap has a poor reputation and is actively avoided, which prompts the professors to sidestep that reputational challenge by simply lying to students about what it is they’re paying for. The two words you’re looking for are fire and immediately.”
The other word is “fraud”. Sue the school for fraud and watch the professors get fired.
UK to nullify biological sex.
Never ending stories from the crab bucket.