Activism Farms
We seem to be living in an age of extinction-level stupidity:
There is no such thing as learning loss. Our kids didn’t lose anything [during the pandemic]. It’s okay that our babies may not have learned all their times tables. They learned resilience. They learned survival. They learned critical-thinking skills. They know the difference between a riot and a protest. They know the words insurrection and coup.
So says Cecily Myart-Cruz, president of the United Teachers Los Angeles union. A union representing 33,000 teachers and associated educational staff.
“Education is political,” says Ms Myart-Cruz, who boasts of her ability to act with near-impunity, and whose list of Intolerable Things includes cognitive testing, “structural racism,” border controls, policing, and the supposed “privilege” of parents who would like their children to actually learn things, including times tables. Our Mistress Of Higher Purpose struggles to comprehend why parents might object to their children’s education, even in basic skills, being supplanted by the nakedly self-serving and increasingly weird activism of the people paid to teach them those basic skills. Instead, she endorses claims that such objections must be driven by “white-supremacist thinking.”
Needless to say, the UTLA is vehemently opposed to voucher systems that would allow parents to spare their children a stay in what are not so much schools as activism farms. Where Ms Myart-Cruz and her “babies” can prioritise “fighting for… social justice.”
“We’re re-envisioning what the future of public schools will look like,” says she.
Via Darleen.
What? Are you implying ours aren’t?
Somewhat related.
they will be literate and numerate when they leave school
I’m not entirely convinced that will be so MC given the time that is to be devoted to the study of Mr Eleven Thought, the culling of competent teachers and the Mainland ban on private tutoring that will almost inevitably be introduced here.
As for not hating themselves, the ban on using the word “Hongkonger” doesn’t bode well. (That I found out today regarding some work I did for a publisher)
Is we is or is we isn’t
The teachers of these unions need to remember what the Khmer Rouge did to teachers. That’s where their insurrections and coups will take them.
I hate, hate, HATE when these women refer to any children over the age of 1 as their “babies.”
Speaking of extinction-level stupid:
Quebec’s government was forced to defend its vaccine passport system on Friday … The Health Department said in a statement it was aware of reports that people had managed to steal the QR codes of members of the Quebec legislature and said police complaints had been filed.
Next thing you know they’ll be accusing the public of stealing their images.
He’s a real radical you know.
Notice how these blowhards are always showing off in front of kids over whom they have power. If they’re confronted by actual adults they typically scurry away like the gutless little cowards they really are.
Notice how these blowhards are always showing off in front of kids over whom they have power.
As noted recently, it’s not just that the ideas are obnoxious or fatuous or morally deranged, or a blueprint for ruin; it’s that the kinds of people who find such things titillating tend to be… psychologically marginal. Which is to say, the kinds of people you wouldn’t generally want anywhere near your children.
the kinds of people you wouldn’t generally want anywhere near your children.
I’ve been in the teaching profession for decades and it’s scary how many deranged, intellectually vapid, overgrown children with daddy issues it continues to attract. The “radical” teachers are typically the absolute worst at conveying subject matter but use their posturing as a cover for their incompetence. All the while they are convinced they are the anointed world-changers in the building.
Thankfully I’ve found most of their students find them to be self-absorbed clowns and use every possible means to punk and troll them to burst their pretensions. And since these wannabe Professor Bakunins are always bullies and cowards (towards kids of course) inevitably a parents seeks them out to confront them and they’re always conveniently out of the building at the time.
I hate far lefty poseurs with every fiber of my soul. Drop them in the middle of Kandahar.
What Jack said. Was going to say that same thing about “Babis”. God how that gets under my skin. But also his second thing. This stuff.
“Next thing you know they’ll be accusing the public of stealing their images.“
I read another article about this in which an official was quoted as saying the QR codes “can’t be copied”. Of course they can be bloody copied.
As far as I can make out from scanning the examples, they represent what’s basically a form of URL, with a scheme of “shc:/” followed by a very (very) long number. Which can be copied. You might as well say you can’t copy this sentence. The only security measure I can think of that they might be using is including time and/or location data to generate the shc:/ code on the fly, so that a copy is useless.
But they aren’t doing that. (Quelle surprise.) You can print these things out, apparently. According to the SHC website, “You can also save a paper SMART Health Card and make copies for safe-keeping.” Those would be copies of the QR code that can’t be copied, then?
This damnpanic has gone from tragedy to scandal to farce. (And I wouldn’t discount the other two making a return before it all shakes out.)
We have a cultural rot on our hands that has so eaten through our society…
You too can enjoy The Collapse in style and comfort. Book early to avoid disappointment!
people had managed to steal the QR codes of members
What? I…what?
“It’s not like they hacked the system or there was a security breach in the actual technology or security of the QR code itself,”
This “digital analyst” needs to be fired. If it’s possible to brute-force the system simply by manually iterating over SIN numbers then the whole thing needs to be thrown out and rewritten. Or better yet, abandoned altogether.
deranged, intellectually vapid, overgrown children with daddy issues
My, that description sounds familiar.
According to a psychiatrist friend, people with BPD/CPTSD often go into professions that involve working with children or the elderly because of the inherent power it gives them over the people they’ll be interacting with every day. They’re deeply insecure and timorous, and can’t handle dealing with interpersonal situations where they aren’t in control.
Of course they can be bloody copied.
Given that they are no more secret than your face, and that you have to present them to be scanned Every. Single. Bloody. Time. You. Enter. A. Room. (I recently visited Scotland) Yes, of course they can be bloody copied 🙂
I’ve effectively given up on following tech stuff. It’s been three years since I worked with anything remotely close to the cutting edge and what has become of an industry that even when I greatly enjoyed it was full of tiresome blowhards. So all I know about NFT is what I read in the funny papers…literally…like what Scott Adams has said about them…but this authenticity problem…QR codes? Why wouldn’t they be using NFT for that? Isn’t that the point? QR code’s are just UPC codes that can identify every atom in the universe (or so the physicist tell us). WTSF?
You too can enjoy The Collapse in style and comfort. Book early to avoid disappointment!
But the ammo? There will be ammo, right? Tell us about the ammo, George.
My, that description sounds familiar.
There do seem to be some common, recurring features among such people. The juvenile self-flattery and sense of entitlement; the grandiose unrealism; and the emotional instability, for instance. Again, it’s not just a matter of people with terrible ideas. It’s often a case of dysfunctional and malevolent people with terrible ideas.
Oh no, it seems Gospodin Gipe’s tovariches are unhappy with him for spilling the beans.
Oh no, it seems Gospodin Gipe’s tovariches are unhappy with him for spilling the beans.
Or, “But if we’re honest about what we do and what we want, normal people will detest us and think that we’re creepy…”
It’s one way to live, I suppose.
While we are on the subject of school indoctrination, pre-school apparently looking to bring back the one drop rule.
Participation trophies for everyone!
pre-school apparently looking to bring back the one drop rule.
Corporate America ready to enable the new racist paradigm.
“QR codes? Why wouldn’t they be using NFT for that? Isn’t that the point? QR code’s are just UPC codes that can identify every atom in the universe (or so the physicist tell us). WTSF?”
I guess it’s not NFT because not every phone has it (but then, not everyone has a smartphone either).
But as to the underlying technology, you’ve got me. I’m no security expert, just some amateur schlub on the internet, and even I can see how this thing could be made more secure. Not that I’d want it to be, but …
Hey, maybe that’s it. Subversion:
“They want to create a giant surveillance database.”
“Again? Okay, we’ll make it leak like a sieve; they won’t know the difference. Use QR codes or something and tell them they can’t be copied. Don’t worry about accountability; they don’t know anything. By the time everyone’s glad to watch it collapse in a pile of dust and rubble, they’ll believe it’s just a totally unworkable idea and we were only doing our best. Then the whole stupid thing gets kicked into the long grass for another generation.”
Not implausible, I’d say.
Participation trophies for everyone!
“Our kids are strong enough to soldier their way through endless months of house arrest, and also don’t leave them off the hono(u)r roll or they’ll melt into puddles of low self-esteem!”
‘They learned resilience. They learned survival. They learned critical-thinking skills.’
One would be remiss if one did not point out, none of which they learned from the teaching at the hands of a union which as her as a spokesperson.
Thought the second. ‘The juvenile self-flattery and sense of entitlement; the grandiose unrealism; and the emotional instability, for instance. Again, it’s not just a matter of people with terrible ideas. It’s often a case of dysfunctional and malevolent people with terrible ideas.’ Erm, this sounds just a tad like every career politician, administrator and bureaucrat, ever. Officious, power-hungry, and less bright than priggish.
Third thought. It’s a bit odd that Quebec has embraced a vaccine passport, given the secessionist tendency, and the heavy presence of Parti Rhinoceros. Plus ca change, one supposes, by which I mostly mean Trudeau the elder, the naif, and the gist of my second thought.
Enjoying the comments. [Pours Yamazaki 18, neat, and watches the zombie apocalypse continue, cotton masks ubiquitous]
Or, “But if we’re honest about what we do and what we want, normal people will detest us and think that we’re creepy…”
It’s one way to live, I suppose.
LOL That.
LOL That.
I’m paraphrasing, of course. But not, I think, unfairly. I mean, if the way you get your kicks entails lying to the children’s parents and praying they don’t find out…
Enjoying the comments.
We give good thread. As they say.
[ raises eyebrow ]
We give good thread. As they say.
Tailor-made quality
It’s a bit odd that Quebec has embraced a vaccine passport
lolwut. La Smelle Provence has always been the most authoritarian of the bunch. This is a province that has long had (flagrantly illegal) laws about what language you can use on signs on your own property.
I guess it’s not NFT
The amusing thing is you’re both confusing Non-Fungible Tokens for Near Field Communication.
“What do you think will be the biggest problem in computing in the 90s?”
“There are only 17,000 three-letter acronyms.” (Paul Boutin)
The amusing thing is you’re both confusing Non-Fungible Tokens for Near Field Communication.
https://twitter.com/moltisantithots?lang=en
La Smelle Provence has always been the most authoritarian of the bunch.
LOL! If Maurice Duplessis were to suddenly rise from the dead he’d be elected Premier immediately. It really pisses off my Québécois friends when I say that–but they do loves them an autocratic patriarch in Québéc. They also like to tell you how it’s not illogical to vote for a separatist party while maintaining their desire to remain in Canada.
They also like to tell you how it’s not illogical to vote for a separatist party while maintaining their desire to remain in Canada
Well, it isn’t. They know, and the PQ knows, that the province is never going to separate even if the PQ gets an ironclad majority. The threat of separation serves to extort more concessions from the ROC, which is the actual desired outcome.
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5863/canadian-civil-war-la-guerre-de-la-secession-du-ca
Been goin’ on fer a while, eh?
According to a psychiatrist friend, people with BPD/CPTSD often go into professions that involve working with children or the elderly because of the inherent power it gives them over the people they’ll be interacting with every day. They’re deeply insecure and timorous, and can’t handle dealing with interpersonal situations where they aren’t in control.
I presume this is primary schools then, because not being secure in your own skin is absolute kiss of death for a high school teacher. If students see any weakness and don’t like you they will rip you apart.
My school is traditional, Catholic, and works hard at getting the boys to behave like adults. It often gets praise from strangers because the boys still do things like get out of their seats for old ladies. It is about as soft a public school can be to teach at. Boys will rat on other students to teachers for theft, cheating and racist taunts — they have been brought up to know good from evil. But in the last five years we have lost three staff members basically unable to cope so much that they quit mid-term. (One was previously a primary teacher, one had been teaching in Singapore, and the other was an asshole that the boys bullied out.)
“The amusing thing is you’re both confusing Non-Fungible Tokens for Near Field Communication.”
Argh. But yes.
I’m starting to think that Pol Pot was onto something when he rounded up teachers and professors and put them to work in the fields
No, rechill, but I strongly support the century-old aphorism that “experts should be on tap, not on top.”
Bleak
Been goin’ on fer a while, eh?
I actually own a copy of this. The amusing thing is that it’s not a wargame, it’s a political simulation. The designer intentionally designed the outbreak of armed conflict to be a “losing state” for the game.
I also have a copy of this, which has turned out to be disturbingly prescient.
Been goin’ on fer a while, eh? and I also have a copy of this, which has turned out to be disturbingly prescient.
SPI games! When were those two games released?
Never mind. Careless of me. I should have just checked Wikipedia and done an internet search, which reveal that they were from 1976 and 1977. I still subscribed to S&T at that time, but have no memory of those titles. 🙁
I remember Canadian Civil War, if only for the fun one gamer had when he took it with him into Quebec.