Elsewhere (316)
Ashlynn Warta on “diversity” versus competence:
NCACTE recently explained its concerns about standardised tests, stating, “Entry and licensure exams serve as barriers to placing more teachers, particularly more diverse teachers, in classrooms.” In other words, NCACTE doesn’t believe that its “diverse” teacher candidates can succeed when faced with objective measures of preparedness.
Somewhat related, the third item here:
There is a category tag – Problematic Competence – via which you can find many similar items.
Also related, Heather Mac Donald on the stupefying effects of “disparate impact” ideology:
And in other educational excellence news:
Update, via the comments, where ccscientist adds,
Well, an inability to comprehend safety instructions would seem to be a perverse qualification. But here we are.
As we’ve seen many times, the perversity and doublethink of “equity” devotees is hard to overstate. Theirs is a world in which inversions abound, such that, for instance, punishing gifted students for being precocious, and shutting down advanced courses, gleefully, triumphantly, all in the name of “inclusion,” is framed as granting access. By taking it away.
It’s a world in which vindictive bedlamites, such as Ms Alison Collins, disdain pupils of Chinese or Korean ancestry as “white” or white-adjacent, and therefore suspect, and who insist that a parental preference for academic rigour is “racist,” and that the way to fight for “high-quality schools” is to abandon expectations of competence.
And in which “suspending proficiency requirements” – and denouncing diligence and politeness as “white supremacy,” a wickedness to be shunned – will somehow “benefit” the children on whom these things are imposed. It’s a world in which objecting to being assaulted in class – say, being punched by students or having one’s hair set on fire – is itself framed as “white supremacist violence.”
This is “equity.” This is “social justice.”
Update 2:
Regarding the last item linked above, NashB adds,
I suppose it’s what Jordan Peterson describes as ideological possession. It would, I think, be foolish to assume that such creatures are amenable to evidence, realism, or rational argument. Or even belated feelings of shame. Clearly, these are not things that motivate them.
An example that comes to mind, one of several, is the Minnesota school superintendent Valeria Silva, a mediocrity promoted far beyond her abilities, and who, when faced with the predictable and catastrophic consequences of her own “equity” policies – including nosediving literacy scores, brain-damaged staff, and actual riots – simply doubled down and smeared complaining parents, of every hue, as obviously being racists. While injured and terrified teachers were consoled with “white privilege” training and free emergency whistles.
I very much doubt that one could reason these bedlamites out of their weird compulsions.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
BIGOTS!
The Heather Mac Donald interview is worth hearing in full. It does get quite eye-widening.
Lowering standards, or removing obstacles was invented for the Feminists when equal opportunity didn’t work out. It’s called ” empowerment ” and it means giving credit where none is due.
on the stupefying effects of “disparate impact” ideology:
Stupefying, dangerous and racist.
The Heather Mac Donald interview is worth hearing in full.
She is usually worth reading. Check out her books The Diversity Delusion, The Burden of Bad Ideas, Are Cops Racist?, and The War on Cops.
The Pervs win a battle: Spain decriminalizes sex with animals.
Eventually it will be hate crime to say “screwed the pooch” when someone effs up.
And we mustn’t forget this related item.
Or indeed this one.
The second one made me laugh. I’m not even sorry.
If a firefighter cannot understand chemical labels people will die. Sure, spray water on an oil fire or chemical fire. Boom! Same with the physical demands for firefighters. NYC I believe just tells female firefighters to drag people out by their feet. Bang bang bang your head on the stairs. The only thing that keeps the body count down is that few women want the job.
If you send a single female cop into a call, the chance of it escalating is higher, lots higher, because a criminal or drunk or crazy person does not believe the cop is a threat.
The educators do not want to admit that a big part of the problem is them. That is why they hate charter schools: same kids but vastly better outcomes. It shows their incompetence.
At my friend’s manufacturing job, they had two AA hires, M and F. They spent most of their time hiding in the storage area and flirting. When the company finally figured out to sit one down on the lab bench next to his supervisor (no reprimand, no order to do work) they both stopped coming in. Didn’t even quit.
Had a problem with my Social Security account getting hacked (no money taken…yet). Went in to the SS office and a black woman tried to help but had no F-ing clue. Called in and got a white woman who fixed it immediately.
I know, small sample.
There was an old Gallagher bit from back in the late 1980’s where he mocked this saying, “Now teachers don’t want to take tests because they don’t think it’s a fair way of judging people.” 1980’s. Decades ago. It was very apparent where we were headed. People laughed. Here we are.
My experiences are similar. I have a formula, I haven’t worked it all out yet but current approximation in these matters is if the person is a black woman, there’s a 20-25% chance my issue will be handled properly. A white woman increases the probability to about 40-45%. Hispanic around 35-40%. Maybe. Body mass index weighs heavily* here as well. As does age.
Though I have noticed that when the woman is black and my issue is handled appropriately, the woman is more likely to also be more pleasant and effective than a white or hispanic.
*yes, pun intended
I recall an essay by Theodore Dalrymple about one of the newly liberated African countries where the dictator du jour insisted the university award a certain number of graduate degrees in mathematics; as the desired outcome wasn’t possible with the then current requirements, the solution to the quandary was to reduce the requirements.
Well, yes. But for devotees of “equity” and “diversity,” it’s evidently more important that an arbitrarily chosen percentage of teachers have brown skin than it is that those triumphantly brown teachers are actually capable of teaching – even by the routinely low standards of people who use the words equity and diversity unironically.
As noted in the earlier post on underwhelming maths teachers:
But hey, colour scheme trumps competence. It’s the way of the woke.
Lowering standards, or removing obstacles was invented for the Feminists…
Simultaneously invented by black racists.
I recall an essay by Theodore Dalrymple about one of the newly liberated African countries where the dictator du jour insisted the university award a certain number of graduate degrees in mathematics; as the desired outcome wasn’t possible with the then current requirements, the solution to the quandary was to reduce the requirements.
And so America’s feminists, black liberationists, and leftists in general are turning America into a dysfunctional African tribalist kleptocracy.
And so America’s feminists, black liberationists, and leftists in general are turning America into a dysfunctional African tribalist kleptocracy.
The premise is that there is just all this wealth sitting around and we can just divide it up and give the “oppressed” their “fair share”. The fact that all this stuff needs to be maintained and even enhanced, daily, is elided. The fact that a business that ignores its mission will quickly fail…they don’t understand (or choose not to). They have not heard the fable of the goose who lays golden eggs.
Oddly quiet today. Is everyone recovering from some all-night super-glamorous party that I didn’t hear about?
Nor ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’, ‘Chicken Little’. Nor 1984, Fahrenheit 451, A Brave New World, Harrison Bergeron. Etc.
Nor ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’, ‘Chicken Little’. Nor 1984, Fahrenheit 451, A Brave New World, Harrison Bergeron. Etc.
Anything not written in year zero by an oppressed person is obviously racist sexist ist ist. You hater. Wisdom of the ancients? hahaha no.
This sort of thing could be solved with sufficiently strict laws: “Drug addiction assistance is available. But if you don’t stay off drugs and stop committing crimes the court will order your permanent removal from society.”
I wonder when the day comes whether I’ll step foot on any airplane again.
[ Dons Font Police hat, changes Darleen’s weird blockquote font. ]
[ Aligns pencils, coasters. ]
The fact that all this stuff needs to be maintained and even enhanced, daily, is elided.
One doesn’t have to look very far either to see that played out in real time–see South Africa and Venezuela. As for dysfunctional African tribalist kleptocracy, how about Liberia; wasn’t it supposed to be Wakanda?
Oddly quiet today. Is everyone recovering from some all-night super-glamorous party that I didn’t hear about?
Here in Canuckistan we’re back to work after a long weekend celebrating Family Day. You know how exhausting and not-super-glamorous family can be.
I wish. It’s collecting tax records and some important HOA projects.
And still I forget, one of my favorites ‘For Want of a Nail’.
To Darleen’s point, I too doubt I will fly on an airplane again for those and other reasons as well.
I’m currently reading Bad Blood regarding Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos fraud. What strikes me isn’t so much the people who were fooled, not that I would totally excuse them, but those who figured out what was going on, or at least a few of the many big red flags, and apparently did nothing or were not listened to. As this fraud was perpetrated over a dozen years many people were let go as they caught on, yet it could not be stopped. This organization had nothing viable. They failed many trial runs fairly early on. Many prominent people (I’m only at the point where Walgreens, Safeway, and General Mattis have been made aware) got suckered by a woman and her boyfriend who were just total bullshitters. But why were the ones who did know unable to put an end to it? And why were (some of) the suckers not shamed by their failure? Well, at least so far as page 133.
Well we had Presidents’ Day here yesterday in the US so we sent our president to a war zone. He’ll likely be back though so… I guess that’s no help to y’all.
Oddly quiet today
Well, yesterday was National Muffin Day and National Cherry Pie Day.
Tomorrow is National Be Humble Day, which may require a great deal of preparation in some circles.
Tomorrow is National Be Humble Day
They think it is National HumBug day, and they have that covered.
But why were the ones who did know unable to put an end to it?
I’ve worked for multiple small businesses where coverups and the skunk doctrine were deployed to cover unethical or in cases outright illegal behaviour. I recall my Grade 13[1] English teacher, in a candid moment, telling me that a teacher would have to rape a student on the (school board) director’s desk in front of the trustees before anything would be done about a teacher abusing a student.
All organizations, big and small, public and private, have subtle and not-so-subtle ways of reinforcing the status quo. I’ve worked in heavily regulated industries (engineering, financial, medical tech) where the behaviour engaged in would have led not just to economic consequences but legal and criminal ones had it been possible to get anyone in a position of authority to do anything at all. One organization was openly transparent internally about the fact that they bribed auditors to pass safety and compliance audits.
Readers of Kate’s blog Small Dead Animals will be familiar with the story of P.S. Knight Co., where a small electrical contractor was, literally, hounded out of the country by laughably trumped up criminal charges brought by the Canadian Standards Association with the full witting support and collusion of the Crown.
The rot goes deep and wide, and has for a very long time.
[1] That was a thing in Canada once
The wise liberals of Evanston Illinois wanted less policing (BLM, baby!) but the “diverse” people they hired to clean things up proved to be violently undisciplined.
…hounded out of the country by laughably trumped up criminal charges brought by the Canadian Standards Association with the full witting support and collusion of the Crown.
Said charges were for, literally, reproducing and publishing the electrical code requirements (the regulatory law requirements) in Canada. In days of yore, one might expect these judges and regulatory agents to be hanging from sign posts (like Mussolini) in every town one entered.
Well, an inability to comprehend safety instructions would seem to be a perverse qualification. But here we are.
As we’ve seen many times, the perversity and doublethink of “equity” devotees is hard to overstate. Theirs is a world in which inversions abound, such that, for instance, punishing gifted students for being precocious, and shutting down advanced courses, gleefully, triumphantly, all in the name of “inclusion,” is framed as granting access. By taking it away.
It’s a world in which vindictive bedlamites, such as Ms Alison Collins, disdain pupils of Chinese or Korean ancestry as “white” or white-adjacent, and therefore suspect, and who insist that a parental preference for academic rigour is “racist,” and that the way to fight for “high-quality schools” is to abandon expectations of competence.
And in which “suspending proficiency requirements” – and denouncing diligence and politeness as “white supremacy,” a wickedness to be shunned – will somehow “benefit” the children on whom these things are imposed. It’s a world in which objecting to being assaulted in class – say, being punched by students or having one’s hair set on fire – is itself framed as “white supremacist violence.”
Everything – from expectations of competence and punctuality to basic logical coherence – must be jettisoned in favour of weird racial fixations and an increasingly neurotic denial of certain obvious facts. And if test scores reveal the facts that one mustn’t mention, then those tests will have to go. This is “equity.” This is “social justice.”
That link doesn’t work. Is this about the StreetPlus Clean Team?
That link doesn’t work. Is this about the StreetPlus Clean Team?
Yes. Sorry about carelessly screwing up that link.
And in which “suspending proficiency requirements” … as “white supremacy,” a wickedness to be shunned
Did you know that the United States Navy is lowering recruiting standards? Anyone who remembers the disastrous results of McNamara’s Morons will know where this will lead. But “diversity” is more important than having a military that can win wars.
Everything – from expectations of competence and punctuality to basic logical coherence – must be jettisoned in favour of weird racial fixations and an increasingly neurotic denial of certain obvious facts.
Apropos, The Spectator is once again offering a free bottle of gin to new subscribers.
It’s quiet today for me because it’s Ash Wednesday. Yes, I will go to Mass. Yes, I will have ashes imposed on me. Yes, I will put up with “Hey, did you change the toner in the copier machine today?” jokes.
Yes, I will reflect on my own mortality.
I would like to know the college majors of those failing the teacher tests in North Carolina. I am willing to bet that a good number of them were Education majors.
NYC I believe just tells female firefighters to drag people out by their feet. Bang bang bang your head on the stairs. The only thing that keeps the body count down is that few women want the job.
I’ve lost track of the number of liberal women who have insisted to me that recruiting standards don’t matter: Firefighters don’t need to be strong enough to handle heavy equipment and carry people out of burning buildings. Police officers don’t need to be strong enough to wrestle suspects–or intimidate them so they don’t fight in the first place. Soldiers and sailors don’t need to be strong enough to do all the things they must do daily and especially in combat and in disaster situations. Fight a fire or hull breach in combat? Carry wounded down narrow companionways? Or out of a firefight?? Unload ammo and crates from a truck? Operate heavy artillery all day? Fight all day with a heavy load of ammo and equipment? And then there are the morale problems of mixing young men and women in close quarters in situations that shift back and forth between stress and boredom. None of these things matter comparison to achieving “equity”.
Education majors, along with Angry Studies, attract students with some of the lowest SAT scores, while indulging those same students with by far the most generous grading.
Source.
“the solution to the quandary was to reduce the requirements.”
Ah. The end of every “civilization”.
I wonder – will residents of, say, Colorado, circa 2525 look around and wonder as did many in southern Europe did in 535 AD?
It’s a world in which objecting to being assaulted in class – say, being punched by students or having one’s hair set on fire – is itself framed as “white supremacist violence.”
I clicked the link and couldn’t believe what I was reading. These people are insane.
I grew up in Evanston. A town populated entirely by well-meaning classic liberals who all put those “here we believe” signs in their yard, where a church in all seriousness has a “no nukes allowed” sign out front, and where they proposed reparations for housing costs for locals (as if they had the $). No sympathies.
Navy: 3 yrs ago I believe a navy ship ran into a civilian ship because the two female officers on duty were not speaking to each other.
The Woke/Left live in a world entirely of concepts with women being more prone to this. If you impose rent control or min wage to “help” people, then by God you have helped them and do not bother talking about unintended consequences because they have fingers in their ears. If you let Antifa run riot, it is a noble protest, even if black businesses are burned down and those neighborhoods never recover. In the case of trans athletes and men in women’s restrooms, again it is a concept of equity not the reality that they cling to.
During the Iraq war, a female truck driver jessica something was captured and essentially the US was held hostage and we had to send a special forces team to rescue her (successfully) because female prisoners of war are NOT the same as male prisoners. Was any lesson learned? No.
Accurate.
I suppose it’s what Jordan Peterson describes as ideological possession. It would, I think, be foolish to assume that such creatures are amenable to evidence, realism, or rational argument. Or even belated feelings of shame. Clearly, these are not things that motivate them.
An example that comes to mind, one of several, is the Minnesota school superintendent Valeria Silva, a mediocrity promoted far beyond her abilities, and who, when faced with the predictable and catastrophic consequences of her own “equity” policies – including nosediving literacy scores, brain-damaged staff, and actual riots – simply doubled down and smeared complaining parents, of every hue, as obviously being racists. While injured and terrified teachers were consoled with “white privilege” training and free emergency whistles.
I very much doubt that one could reason these bedlamites out of their weird compulsions.
I’m not saying it, but I am thinking it.
The soi disant elites are much too sophisticated to take any heed of such evidently white supremacist propaganda.
The results of public policy, often deleterious, having been demonstrated numerous times, the presumption of ignorance on the part of those pushing for a repetition is no longer warranted.
Post updated.
In a world of small farms, incompetence merely causes that farmer and his family to starve. In our modern world, however, things fall apart. Due to covid and woke policies, we can see in the US a deterioration of just about everything. Supply chains screwed up so there are always big gaps on the shelves. Recent airline near-misses and several shutdowns of all air traffic on top of Southwest truly screwing the pooch (not that that is a bad thing…). I have found increasing problems of websites not working, phone systems unable to route you to option 3, bank personnel bonking up my account, and mail vanishing. For many jobs there are truly only a small % of the pop capable of doing the job.
Nosey Joe?
I saw him just the other day
Tried to steal my gal away
He offered her money
He offered her love
She said thank you sir, but please don’t shove
Your big nose in my business
Your big nose in my business
That’s Nosey Joe, the nosiest guy I know
Old Nosey finally lost his life
Messin’ with my buddy’s wife
My buddy caught him with his chick
Chopped off his nose, now he can’t stick
His big nose in my business
His big nose in my business
That’s Nosey Joe, the nosiest guy I know
The Woke/Left live in a world entirely of concepts with women being more prone to this
Sooner or later, everyone comes around to the idea of patriarchy.
A very apt expression. It is indeed as if they are possessed.
weird compulsions.
That.
Well, it seems to me that’s exactly what it is. A near-monomaniacal fixation with racialising pretty much everything and then blaming the imagined, seemingly inexhaustible pathology of “whiteness,” as if this “whiteness” were the root of all human misery and infinitely corrupting. Pick almost any end-of-year review for plenty of illustrations. And these weird compulsions are apparently unshiftable by logic or contrary evidence, or reciprocation, or basic decency.
Leftist sociologists: “Those two men like each other. They must be gay.”
This reminded me of something from the sixties and seventies: Gay activists who would point at any sign of male bonding in boys and young men and say they were gay. It made many young men uneasy about any physical expressions such as arms around shoulders.
Speaking of a mediocrity promoted far beyond
herhiszer abilities, “A perfect choice for kids who love learning and teachers who want to bring inspiring women into their curriculum.”Complete with an introduction by Chelsea Clinton, speaking of mediocrities.
As has been noted, repeatedly, and I believe by yourself as well, you cannot reason people out of a belief that they were not reasoned into in the first place. As for basic decency, therein lies the solution to the problem. Abandoning basic decency. First by language and if that does not work, by kinetic energy. They will not/do not hesitate to use such with others.
who want to bring inspiring women into their curriculum
Just another in the series of “The Best Women are Men” Trans Minstrel shows.
racialising pretty much everything and then blaming the imagined, seemingly inexhaustible pathology of “whiteness,” as if this “whiteness” were the root of all human misery and infinitely corrupting
They will never look at cultures that are entirely non-white to learn that human misery, crime, inhumanity, and violence are universal. Oh, yes, I know, they will blame it on past colonialism since they are entirely unacquainted with history (which was perfect before Euros came along).
We have reached Peak Florida Man.
This has been pointed out here before.
Have finally started Clarkson’s Farm. Interesting and enjoyable.But I suspect that some of Clarkson’s poor decisions were not innocent, but were made in order to make the show more interesting by giving us all more screw-ups to marvel at.
Remember when former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said that anybody could learn to farm? That it didn’t take much skill?
This sources says it is a hoax. Sorry.