Elsewhere (320)
Emil Kirkegaard on schooling and intelligence, and their limited relationship:
From a cost-benefit perspective, more forced school for children means more teacher salaries to be paid. Since the effects of this on children’s actual learning seem to be somewhere between non-existent and minor, I suggest that this isn’t worth the price.
A group of students at the University of Augsburg in Germany have called for “gloryholes” to be installed in lecture halls in order to contribute to the “diversification” of the campus. Gloryholes are holes in walls or partitions created with the intention of allowing people to engage in anonymous sex acts in public.
The specifications for said installation are quite detailed, including soundproofing, wall handles, and knee pads. For safety and comfort, one assumes.
Heather Mac Donald on progressive evasions and the consequent cultivation of anti-white sentiment:
So any standard that has what’s known as a “disparate impact” on blacks, whether it is a teacher licensing exam, a medical doctor licensing exam, enforcing the law – if any of those standards have a disparate impact, resulting in either the underrepresentation of blacks in meritocratic institutions, or overrepresentation in the criminal justice system, the only public explanation that is allowable is that the standards resulting in that disparate impact are racist, and the next step is that they must come down.
I argue that that assumption of racism as the explanation for disparity is wrong, that the far more plausible explanations for any disparities in representation are the vast academic skills gaps, on the one hand, when it comes to meritocratic institutions, and vast gaps in rates of criminal offending, when it comes to the criminal justice system.
But as long as racism remains the only allowable explanation, we are going to continue tearing down ideas of excellence, of merit, and moving towards, at best, a state of mediocrity, and at worst, one of risk to people’s lives, stunted scientific and medical progress, a mediocre judicial system, and the inability to push young people to reach their highest achievements.
We see gifted and talented programmes being torn down across the country – not because they’ve been shown to be unsuccessful in cultivating our best young math talent, but simply because they don’t have 13 per cent black students in them.
We’ve been here before, of course. More than once.
Helen Joyce on the perversity of wokeness:
And finally, a thread on what happens when, in the name fostering progress and sensitivity, the police start hiring the sexually dysmorphic.
Apparently, these be-wigged individuals are bringing tolerance and understanding by harassing people manically, and repeatedly lying, and stalking women and sending them headless birds, and strangling people, and attacking a woman with a hammer. Oh, and hoarding explosives, obviously.
If that isn’t sufficiently bizarre, I do have more.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
Ooh. I see three buttons. Do you see them too?
I laughed and I’m not sorry.
I did briefly consider People Of The Wig.
Somewhat related: “Banking and mental illness, together at last.“
One needs to argue that? It’s recursive bigotry.
Or Merkins even.
Well, there’s an industry of grifters, mediocrities and pernicious monomaniacs to consider. They won’t go quietly, if at all.
[ Straightens coasters, waits for lunchtime rush. ]
Birthday surprise.
Not just wrong. Actually insane.
Ms Broshi, the woman shrieking with ecstatic wokeness, does seem to be… unwell.
Happening beat combo.
I find myself thinking about the Hindenburg a lot lately.
I’ve been assured we’re the most intelligent species on the planet. The glory of all creation.
For those of us without X/Twitter accounts.
Thanks. Link updated.
Bowie did it better.
Ooh. I see three buttons. Do you see them too?
Missed those, but the Amazon US button reminded me that I had a baby shower gift to purchase, and while I was at it I got a few things for myself that have been on my list forever, it seems. Hope it helps clear my bar tab some.
Shop like the wind. And bless you. May your butter dish always be presentable.
Ah, yes. The old “fill balloons with hydrogen like the Hindenburg” trick. /maxwellsmart (x-posted from my tweet)
Time for art, Vienna has a new fountain, Bibendum could not be reached for comment. Turning off sound is highly advised.
Sanism in Early Childhood Education and Care: Cultivating Space for Madness and Mad Educators in ECEC (pdf)
There’s even a wiki article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanism
Birthday surprise
That’s odd unless, as Nate says, the balloons were actually filled with mixed hydrogen-oxygen. Helium would have put the fire out, pure hydrogen wouldn’t produce the massive flare.
Fun fact: the hydrogen wasn’t the issue in the Hindenburg disaster. It was the (ironically) fireproofing chemical sprayed on the canvas skin, which after long exposure to high-altitude UV broke down into very, very flammable constituent chemicals.
there is no easy way to boost learning. Everything has been tried
I’m going to dissent from this because we do actually know what works in terms of education – charter schools, standardized testing, single-sex schools, male teachers – but public education has been hollowed out and corrupted by teachers’ unions and ideologues who are not motivated to improve student academic ability.
Thinking back to my own state schooling, I’m actually struggling to think of many teachers who did appear motivated in that way. My German teacher seemed to care – or at least he got quite irritated when we, his A-stream class, didn’t know something that he thought we ought to know. Often, this shortcoming was a result of our never having been taught English grammar, which rather complicated the absorption of German grammar.
And I can’t say that my own schooling had much impact – much positive impact, at least – on how smart or dumb I am.
Disagree entirely – it’s the perfect accompaniment to the stunning and brave work on display.
Gubmint funded schooling outside the home was one of the first agendas of what is now called the Progressive Left. In hindsight we see why.
Indoctrination
Weakening the family and non-gubmint community
“Liberating” mothers, casting family as a burden
Social engineering/gatekeeping to ensure a perpetual sub-class and monopolize privilege
This is why homeschoolers – and Judeo-Christians in general – are portrayed as dangerous Neanderthals even though they are generally better educated and more successful than the general population.
That.
I watched that balloon explosion (deflagration, technically) a dozen times, and I can’t figure out what happened. My best guess is that the balloon bursting intensely aerated and disrupted the flare, plus adding the rubber membrane to the fuel. Anyway, where would these bozos get hydrogen?
tried everything in education…
With a few exceptions, every education innovation over my lifetime has been a step backward in terms of improving general literacy and numeracy across K-12 school.
the only thing that’s increased along the way has been the ratio of administrators / teachers, and administrators / students. There, there’s been a HUGE “improvement”.
Thinking back to my own state and parochial schooling, some of the more motivated teachers were part of the problem. They were far more motivated toward indoctrination than learning. They would likely deny it but there’s a difference.
I remember encountering quite a bit of what I’d call egalitarian motivation, which was often difficult to distinguish from petty malice. One head of year scolded me after class, passionately and at length, for daring to express dissatisfaction with the slow pace of a particular lesson. My education, I was told, was not about what might suit me, or what I might benefit from. The process, he said, was for the good of society. It was quite a speech, and seemingly sincere.
There’s also a conceit, a vanity – one especially common among leftist educators – that an IQ is something that a teacher can somehow bestow, pour into any child’s head, and therefore distribute fairly. And for which, presumably, they can subsequently take credit.
I remember primary school being very child focussed. My school was small enough that several grades were often in the same classroom though doing different work. The teachers seemed to realize who needed help and who was getting bored because things were too easy. In several subjects, the teachers would let kids work ahead even at higher grade levels if they showed the aptitude. I remember working with a friend at a countertop in the cloakroom on advance math, history and english. By the time I graduated grade 6, I had completed those courses at the grade 8 level.
Sadly, middle school and high school were one size fits all. Kids were streamed to different levels of course based on the teachers’ perception of aptitude. It didn’t serve anyone very well. A lot of very intelligent, capable kids became discipline problems because they were bored and the school structure had no way to challenge them appropriately.
“It’s worth noting that Ms Broshi’s super-woke shrieking session was supposedly triggered by the scene screen-grabbed below.” . . . . “And which resulted – days later – in a meltdown one might call hysterical and nakedly vindictive.”
Re-watching that classic makes me think Ms. Broshi was driven mad by her lack of having a “brown baby” or a friend who could hand off a brown baby. In her heart-of-hearts, she knew such an absence could only be explained by her raaaaacist ways.
Best to beat her fellow loons to the punch.
I imagine her head as a balloon full of angry bees.
It seems some trickster pulled the plug on the Autotune.
A bit hard on the bees.
Robert Weissberg and Laurence Auster on the subject of “Taj-Mahal” schools.
I laughed and I’m not sorry.
He likes to film himself.
He wasn’t ‘misgendered’. He was gendered correctly.
It does seem likely that his practised indignation is the goal of the exercise. The sweetest plum.
Imagine being such a colossal tosser that you spend your time harassing waiting staff and engineering situations so that you can complain to their managers and have them reprimanded. Because, while polite, the waiters relied on the evidence of their own eyes and failed to defer to, and participate in, your preposterous fantasy.
Because, apparently, this is a woman. And should always, instantly, be recognised as such.
Strange how these professions of victimhood look a lot like recreational bullying.
Because, apparently, this is a woman.
Misspelled or not, an accurate description.
Said the burly man with a deep voice, clown frock, and really bad perm.
Said the burly man with a deep voice, clown frock, and really bad perm.
A really bad perm the topknot of which will be gone in a couple years judging by what is already gone but the costumes are silly.
…his practised indignation is the goal of the exercise…
The same as all of this ilk – not committed enough to go full over the top drag queen or fully feminized (which would be a colossal work for this one) can actually pass, just a bad pantomime of what they think is “feminine”, and act “hurt” and/or outraged when people laugh.
Bogus “French” halter top outfit with kick dog in matching beret is teh hawt, just ask him.
Thing is, the waiters and waitresses are most likely saying ‘sir’ reflexively. They must say it hundreds of times a day. To take it as a provocation, something to make a fuss about, as if one might shatter into atoms on hearing a default honorific, seems just a little gratuitous. A little contrived.
It’s one thing to be civil with the dysmorphic (or autogynephile, or whatever this particular chap is), and I, for one, don’t usually go out of my way to create a scene in public. It wouldn’t occur to me to pick on a man because he’s wearing a terrible frock for which he’s much too old. Blogging aside, of course.
But likewise, I wouldn’t feel obliged to participate in whatever fetishistic drama is unfolding in his head. And any effort to compel me, to make me participate, would not be well received.
The celebrated ‘Dark Triad’* of Psychology in glorious action.
*Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, Narcissism. Perm any three from three.
LOL. Meow.
Did he ask the waiter was his pronouns are (before saying ‘he’)? Because it looks like the pronoun thing only goes one way…
[ Slides free cube of ice to EmC. ]
Well, in person, I’m not usually difficult to get along with. Frankly, I’m adorable.
At a big family gathering, one summer, a few years ago, a niece and her boyfriend brought along a schoolfriend, a rather delicate-looking chap wearing Doc Martin boots and a colourful summer dress. He was obviously expecting some kind of reaction from the assembled normies, being so immensely genderqueer or genderfluid or something. But aside from a few initial raised eyebrows, nobody much cared. People just got on with having a good time. At some point during the evening, he and I briefly discussed the high quality of the pie on offer.
Nobody got upset, and everyone was made to feel welcome. Though at no point did I hear any pronouns being stipulated, or any claims of violent misgendering.
“You just trying to accuse me of stealing”
It is uncertain if he was also”misgendered”.
Notice how ‘she’ arranges ‘her’ curls to hide the male pattern baldness.
He’s not a victim. It’s a power trip.
As noted here more than once:
And again, which player in this drama is actually doing the misgendering?
One feels like using that vulgar expression which is usually abbreviated to FFS on the internet.
That combination was popular among girls when I was a teenager, and to my teenage boy eyes it didn’t look fascinatingly androgynous but fascinatingly feminine, the chunky boots only emphasizing by contrast the delicacy of the girl wearing them. The femininity was just there and effortless. A skinny punk in a sundress is .. I don’t know what, but not feminine.
The important thing is the pies were really good.
♪♫ Men of
HarlechHarlem, march to glory ♪♫“We are in a transgenocide” says this chap because their marginalization is just like Nazi Germany, except for all the months and days of transness, all the other trans flaunting, and every time you turn around someone claiming to be one – which was just like everyone in Germany claiming to be a Jew.
The mental contortions make the Gordian Knot look straightforward.
This week we took a look at some crazy Halloween costumes that many people on the left were wearing. The scary part was that many people on the left wear Halloween costumes daily! Whether it’s in cross-dress, in baby diapers, as clowns, or freaks, the left seems to give me the creeps every day. (mrcCulture)
Our host has been onto this for aeons.
“We are in a transgenocide” says this chap
Isn’t “trans” really a suicidal cult (self-genocide?). If they all elect for surgery there can be no reproduction, not that reproduction is any guarantee of “continuing” the trans line.
…he and I briefly discussed the high quality of the pie on offer.
Comment overheard at a dance club circa 1982.
If they all elect for surgery there can be no reproduction…
In the GWONT and Full Luxury Communism is in place all the “trans” will have an AI powered robot uterus, testicles and prostate, or any combination thereof as they will all be plug and play.