Not That Kind Of Diversity
Robby Soave on achieving “equity”:
The Vancouver School Board in British Columbia, Canada, is eliminating honours courses as part of a push to foster inclusivity and equity in the classroom. The board had previously eliminated the high school honours English programme, and maths and science will now get the axe as well. “By phasing out these courses, all students will have access to an inclusive model of education, and all students will be able to participate in the curriculum fulsomely,” said the school board in a statement.
By denying access, they are granting access, obviously. How terribly inclusive.
This is a spectacularly frank declaration: Education officials don’t like that some higher-achieving students are sorted into environments where they are more likely to succeed than their less-gifted peers, and would prefer to keep everyone officially at the same level to the greatest extent possible. The plan closely mirrors California’s recent efforts to discourage students who are proficient at math from taking calculus any earlier than their classmates; Canadian educators seem no less excited than their U.S. counterparts about naively pursuing equality of outcome at all costs.
Inevitably, the objections of students and parents were dismissed by educators, including Jennifer Katz, a professor of education at the University of British Columbia, as “nonsense” and perpetuating “systemic racism.” And so, the needs and prospects of gifted children will be sacrificed in the name of progressive piety. A piety that just happens to look like something else.
Maybe when it turned into a verb; don’t axe me.
I see what you did there. I may be misremembering recent American history, but I could have sworn there was talk back in the 80s? 90s? to make Ebonics a valid language in schools. I don’t remember it getting much traction, unlike this equity manure, or CRT, or antiracism, which are all taking off like wildfire.
I may be misremembering recent American history, but I could have sworn there was talk back in the 80s? 90s? to make Ebonics a valid language in schools.
You are not misremembering.
Reflexively linking to a dictionary definition when logic or theory is being discussed is not very persuasive, in my inestimably humble opinion.
“make Ebonics a valid language”
Oh Stewardess…
I understand that the original, medieval, pronunciation of “plough” matched that spelling.
Things ought not be that tough though.
Ou, I see what you did there…
“Heinlein had an almost throw-away line in one of his novels, where, because those with Bachelor’s degrees earned more, everybody in California got a Bachelor’s degree.”
That was, quite literally, the Blair government’s education policy, praised to the rafters and still celebrated by All the Right People. And anyone who dares to suggest that it might be a bad idea because that’s not really how it w… YOU HATE THE POOR AND WANT THEM TO DIE, YOU TORY MONSTER!!!111!!1!!!
there were also a significant number of kids who were smart… but were just bored to tears with the curriculum,
The pace at which learning happens is important. If a lesson is unfolding much too slowly for someone, if new information is barely trickling out, with endless delays and interruptions, boredom and frustration can be hard to avoid. If someone needs to work at a certain speed, anything less can be demoralising.
the teachers… resented it
I remember, as a teenager, talking to my form teacher and head of year about the phenomenon above. I was told, with a certain air of triumph, that my education wasn’t about what I wanted. It was, I was told, for the benefit of society, and therefore, by implication, I should shut the hell up. Much as educators often like to think of themselves as saintly creatures, this is not always the case.
Given the routine unrealism of many educational conceits, and given the dogmatic and quite ludicrous assumptions of many leftist educators and educational administrators, and leftist academics, and leftist politicians responsible for schools, it seems to me that the parents of bright children, and the children themselves, should be wary of institutions where such people exert leverage.
OT, but speaking of diverse things, in this case Covid. The headline in the local rag this afternoon tells us “What we know about Sydney’s ‘long jumping’ Delta variant. This has, of course, lead to the Dear Leader of WA closing the border to anyone from NSW.
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/nsw/what-we-know-about-sydney-s-long-jumping-delta-variant-20210623-p583jb.html?utm_content=TOP_STORIES&list_name=04591311-40EF-4941-9DE3-3E4B743D8CF8&promote_channel=edmail&utm_campaign=pm-news-watoday&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=2021-06-23&mbnr=MjAzNDgxOTA&instance=2021-06-23-15-41-AWST&jobid=29315037
Well given that you live in a “free” country where you can be fined for leaving your car unlocked with the windows open, can anything surprise you?
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/nsw/lawyer-has-charge-of-leaving-car-unlocked-and-windows-down-dismissed-20210621-p582uy.html
Sydney’s ‘long jumping’ Delta variant
That whole article is just fucking depressing. From the ovine commenters (“Caught a train to the city 4 person in my carriage were wearing no masks.”), to the thickies (“A virus that can be transmitted “fleetingly” just by walking past the infected person ? Sounds like science fiction…”) and then the strangely obtuse article itself.
What is a Delta variant. Is that the one that came from India? Why not call it the fucking Indian variant then? So we’d all know what it meant.
But then what to make of this statement:
“Evidence suggests it is substantially more transmissible than the Alpha variant, which was already more transmissible than the virus that came originally out of Wuhan.”
Surely the “Alpha” variant is the Wuhan virus? Is that subtly different than the “virus that originally came out of Wuhan”?
And we’re apparently already up to a Kappa variant. It’s almost as if they don’t want anyone to be able to figure out what the fuck is going on!
Almost.
the teachers (in which the student knew more than the teacher and the teacher resented it).
If only teachers were hired based on their knowledge of the subjects to be taught, rather than the degree of their indoctrination in Education School Dogma.
Her guidance counsellor (the most useless position in the school)
Did anybody on this thread have a guidance counselor who gave very good advice?
“Long Jumping”, “jabs”, “Fauchi Ouchi”. If they get anymore infantile with this nonsense they’ll have to use coloring books, if they aren’t already.
What utter bullshit, unless you tracked every single movement of all those people, and those of everyone they might have passed, for the last 10 days there is no way in hell you could prove that. Indeed, later that same article…
Oh. Sometimes not “long jumping”, only playing hopscotch with a single square. Damn clever that virus, maybe it was its day off.
Meanwhile, according to the same site, there have been a whopping [rereads gobsmacked] 31 whole cases in NSW out of 8 million.
Someone needs a dictionary. From the hair-on-fire article comments, it is hard to tell whether the reporters or “authorities” are more irresponsible in getting facts out, but well done with the fear mongering.
Reply to David’s comment –
The pandemic has produced a interesting result – home schooling. My neighbour’s sister has three kids – 9, 11, and 15 – which she had to home school with the ‘guidance’ of the school. She was very worried, because in her words, her kids ‘on their best days were just average’. Initially the kids got through their assigned work by noon and she was harassing them that they must of missed stuff – they didn’t. As the 9 year old noted, most of her day was spent drawing because the teacher covered the work so slowly so that that dumb kids could keep up. Her mother remanded her not to refer to her classmates as dumb. The 9 year old reply was straight to the point – ‘That’s nice mummy, but they are dumb” That family is now seriously considering home schooling the kids – the mum works as a admin assistant and summarizes her job as taking care of men who can’t seem to get where they need to be and her view is why is she doing this job when she could be doing the same job for her family and get a lot more happiness from it. Last I heard, she was going to home school the two younger kids while the 15 year old was going to a pretty good high school which he enjoyed and was doing well.
I went through the k-12 system during the 1960s when it was common to have students grouped by ability – yes there were groups for the slow learners (I was in one because I changed schools too often in the early years and I missed that reading part – caught up by the end of grade 3 and was moved into the regular reading group). In grade 12 I ‘helped’ my deskmate pass algebra by letting him read my answers to the test questions – all he wanted to do was be a heavy equipment mechanic, but the curriculum said he must complete two of the three maths. He passed and 30 years later at a school reunion I found out that he owned three heavy equipment shops and was wealthy beyond belief. He needed more steamlined learning rather than be pigeon holed into a standard curriculum as if he was going to university.
I suspect many more parents are reconsidering their school options.
It has been widely noted that 60%of college students in the US are female. The reason I think is that men do a mental cost-benefit calculation and figure out that college is not worth it. For girls it is less of an economic decision.
I pushed in school to try to test out of subjects or skip a grade, and was always discouraged from it. For example, in 5th grade I was reading at 12th grade level (US terminology) but I couldn’t go further. It turned out that I was a lot smarter than my teachers assumed and I was honors in college and got a phd. Teachers want the things that make their life easier.
What is a Delta variant. Is that the one that came from India? Why not call it the fucking Indian variant then? So we’d all know what it meant.
I gather genomic sequences has been able to identify various types of the virus, and both the Delta and Kappa variant came from India – though the Delta variant is the one at the centre of the Indian pandemic, so a cause of more concern.
Because case numbers are so low in Australia our chaps in genomic testing are able to identify individual variants quickly and the media is able to whip up hysteria every time a new variant is announced. Fun times!
What is a Delta variant. Is that the one that came from India? Why not call it the fucking Indian variant then? So we’d all know what it meant.
You’re confused. If it came from Indiana it would be the Indiana variant. But this came from India. Thus it’s the Delta variant. Understand how this works now? It’s really not that hard, once you get your mind right.
What is a Delta variant. Is that the one that came from India? Why not call it the fucking Indian variant then? So we’d all know what it meant.
Yes. The India variant was entirely predictably trotted out to propagandise keeping the useless restrictions (in the UK) because OMG INDIA VARIANT BIG NUMBERS AIEEEEE! However, India didn’t play ball and the cases and deaths plummeted, partly due to widespread use of Ivermectin. Even normies might notice the variant a) was no big deal and b) was halted by a cheap and highly effective treatment (the latter demonstrating there is no need for any restrictions or not-vaccines). So it was renamed to obfuscate.
Vonnegut was terrific at naming his characters, but never better than when he came up with Diana Moon Glampers.
Her guidance counsellor (the most useless position in the school) recommended against it because the homework would cut into her social life.
Wait, what?! Why would her guidance counselor care about a teenager’s social life?
And yes, although it was the most useless position, you should see how many more useless administrative positions there are nowadays . . .
Professor Katz.
Because of course.