The blogspot version of this blog is HERE. The Blogroll. My Home Page. Email John Ray here. Other mirror sites: Greenie Watch, Political Correctness Watch, Dissecting Leftism, Immigration Watch, Food & Health Skeptic, Tongue Tied and Australian Politics. See here or here for the archives of this site
****************************************************************************************



30 June, 2022

Expect the Title IX Inquisition

Last week, on the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX—the federal law banning sex-based discrimination in education—the Biden administration announced sweeping proposed regulations to address how colleges and universities adjudicate sexual misconduct allegations. The move wasn’t very surprising: During the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden had sharply criticized the existing regulations developed by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, which require colleges to conduct live hearings with cross-examination in campus Title IX cases.

Thursday’s announcement did, however, represent a further escalation in a policy and legal debate that has spanned more than a decade. Beginning in 2011, the Obama administration had expressed concern that far too many students, especially female undergraduates, were sexually assaulted while in college—which was undeniably true, though specific numbers remain a point of contention. It then argued that universities too often swept these allegations under the rug—which was sometimes true, especially when cases involved allegations against powerful university employees and high-profile athletes. In response, the administration issued guidance documents threatening to withhold federal funds unless universities changed their adjudication procedures by lowering the standard of proof for sexual misconduct allegations and by allowing accusers to appeal not-guilty findings.

Catherine Lhamon, who headed the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) from 2013 through 2016 (and is back in that role now), praised the Obama administration as the “first administration to call sexual violence a civil rights issue.” This vision of civil rights prioritized the rights of the accusers—who, it was feared, would not engage with the Title IX process at all if their university provided the accused with too many layers of procedural protection. As a 2014 guidance document from Lhamon explained, the administration wanted schools to “ensure that steps to accord any due process rights [to accused students] do not restrict or unnecessarily delay the protections provided by Title IX to the complainant.”

Universities around the country followed the new orders from Washington, expanding their Title IX bureaucracies and constraining the rights of accused students. Activists supplied additional pressure: Several newly formed groups championed the interests of campus accusers, and some, such as Know Your IX, had considerable influence on the overall debate. The number of allegations surged; so, too, did guilty findings. Moral panics have swept up the innocent as well as the guilty throughout American history, and this one was no different. Hundreds of students, many of whom presented strong claims of innocence, have since sued—and received a surprisingly sympathetic response in the courts.

A 2020 decision from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals best captured the general judicial concern with how the Obama administration’s Title IX policy had played out in practice. “Any number of federal constitutional and statutory provisions,” Judge Raymond Kethledge wrote, “reflect the proposition that, in this country, we determine guilt or innocence individually—rather than collectively, based on one’s identification with some demographic group. That principle has not always been perfectly realized in our Nation’s history, but as judges it is one that we take an oath to enforce.”

A well-intentioned policy initiative designed to ensure that survivors of sexual assault would not lose their access to education had wound up producing an entirely separate class of victims—students who were punished after dubious or false findings of guilt—amid procedures that one federal judge recently noted had been compared unfavorably to those of the “infamous English Star Chamber.”

This was the situation that DeVos inherited when she took over as education secretary. While she remains among the most polarizing of Donald Trump’s cabinet members, her handling of Title IX was an exception to the Trump administration’s more general pattern of sloppy, evidence-free rule-making. DeVos took nearly three years to develop new guidelines, which closely hued to existing court opinions. The resulting regulations, which have been in place since August 2020, survived five court challenges—from blue states, from professional and campus activist organizations, and even, disappointingly, from the ACLU.

After surveying the previous decade’s record, DeVos issued regulations that reimposed basic procedural fairness on colleges, which under the Obama administration’s policies had not been required to presume the innocence of accused students. Both the accused and accusing students received access to “any evidence obtained as part of the investigation that is directly related to the allegations raised in a formal complaint, including the evidence upon which the [college] does not intend to rely.” This was followed by an adjudication through live hearings with unbiased panelists, and in which each student would have the right, through a lawyer or advocate, to cross-examine adverse witnesses.

These procedural protections, it’s important to note, apply to both sides, and thus make it harder for colleges to sweep a survivor’s allegations under the rug. But in practice, given how far the Obama-era Title IX process had tilted the playing field in favor of the student filing the complaint, the imposition of fairer procedures has disproportionately benefited accused students. Clarifying the departure from Obama-era principles, the DeVos regulations reminded colleges that their mistreatment of either the accuser or the accused student could “constitute discrimination on the basis of sex under Title IX.”

Some legal academics, such as Harvard law professors Janet Halley and Jeannie Suk Gersen and University of San Francisco law professor Lara Bazelon, praised DeVos’ work in this area. All had previously expressed particular concern about how the procedural unfairness associated with Obama-era Title IX proceedings disproportionately harmed Black and other students of color. For the most part, however, the existing regulations generated strong pushback from liberal activists and unanimous condemnation from congressional Democrats. Few were more impassioned than former (and current) OCR head Lhamon, who charged that the DeVos regulations would take colleges “back to the bad old days, that predate my birth, when it was permissible to rape and sexually harass students with impunity.” Last year, after Biden nominated her to return to her OCR post and assume responsibility for developing new guidelines, Lhamon stood by her words.

The provision reminding colleges to respect the rights of accused students was removed ‘in its entirety,’ on grounds of redundancy.

Most of the 700 pages of proposed regulations that Lhamon’s office released last week address matters tangential to procedural concerns. Some deal with the scope and definition of harassment under Title IX—an interesting legal debate, but one with minimal practical consequences, since nearly every college voluntarily retained the broader definitions associated with Obama-era guidance. Still other sections deal with safeguarding LGBTQI+ students—a critical issue, although most colleges already have robust anti-discrimination protections. And still others discuss allegations against K-12 students—something of a Wild West in this area, but also a topic that involves minors and therefore different legal standards.

But the sections on campus sexual assault adjudications target the procedural protections from the DeVos regulations with almost surgical precision. Under the proposed Biden rules, accused students would lose the right to cross-examination entirely, unless their college is in a state where a court ruling requires otherwise. They would even lose the right to a live hearing; colleges can satisfy Title IX, according to the proposed guidelines, merely by providing at least two “meetings” between the accused student and an investigator. And instead of a mandate that colleges share evidence from the investigation, the regulations would permit schools to have the investigator initially provide only a “written investigative report that accurately summarizes” the “relevant” evidence. The regulations cite a variety of rationales—making the process easier for accusers, for example, and reducing the financial burden on colleges—for introducing these changes. The provision reminding colleges to respect the rights of accused students was removed “in its entirety,” on grounds of redundancy.

The proposed regulations thus pave the way for the return of the “single-investigator” model, pointing to comments from some college officials looking to increase the number of complaints filed by campus accusers. The Obama administration had encouraged this structure, in which a single person affiliated with the Title IX office serves the combined roles of investigator, prosecutor, judge, and jury in a criminal case. The existing regulations, however, forbid its use on grounds that a system in which accused students can’t see or hear the testimony of witnesses against them is fundamentally unfair. The absence of checks and balances is especially problematic in campus sexual assault adjudications, where colleges are often under enormous scrutiny and pressure—from student activists, the media, elements of the faculty, the federal government, and even occasionally powerful donors—to reach a particular result.

The regulations dubiously cite a handful of academic studies to maintain that an “inquisitorial” approach “is more likely to produce the truth than adversarial methods like cross-examination.” U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor reached a contrary view after handling a lawsuit from a former Brandeis University student who had been found guilty under the single-investigator system. During a hearing on the case, he considered the procedures then used by the university as “closer to Salem 1792 than Boston 2015.” “If we had a time machine,” Saylor continued, “I would be interested in Justice Brandeis’ view of that procedure.”

Over the last several years, the protection of civil liberties has become an even more prominent platform for the Democratic Party. Progressive prosecutors have crusaded for procedural justice; activists and legislators have opposed the judicial revocation of rights (most recently in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization) at the hands of conservative courts. Yet here are proposed regulations that make wrongful findings more likely by revoking procedural rights that students in all 50 states currently enjoy—and the reaction from Democratic legislators has been universal praise. A representative response came from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who rejoiced, “On the #TitleIX anniversary, I can’t think of a more fitting tribute than the Biden Admin today announcing they’ll replace the Trump-DeVos rule that led to survivors being silenced & campus sexual assault being brushed under the rug. The new rule will help make campuses safer.”

Murray’s statement did not explain why taking away the right of accused students to see the evidence against them, or to be found guilty only after a hearing in which their lawyer could cross-examine adverse witnesses, would make campuses “safer.” In American politics, the rhetoric of prioritizing “victims’ rights” before a determination could be made about whether an accuser actually was a victim has long been associated with the extreme right, usually around racial issues. A decade ago, the Obama administration surprisingly embraced it as a means of encouraging more Title IX reports on campuses. The resurrection of this core hostility to civil liberties under a still more progressive administration remains one of the great ironies of the Title IX debate.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/expect-the-title-ix-inquisition

************************************************

University That Employs Clarence Thomas Shuts Down Students' Attempt to Remove Him from Teaching Position

The college at which Justice Clarence Thomas teaches law will not cave into a petition calling for his removal as an adjunct professor.

George Washington University on Tuesday said it will not boot Thomas, who last week concurred in the Supreme Court opinion that overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling, according to The Hill.

“Because we steadfastly support the robust exchange of ideas and deliberation and because debate is an essential part of our university’s academic and educational mission to train future leaders who are prepared to address the world’s most urgent problems, the university will neither terminate Justices Thomas’ employment nor cancel his class in response to his legal opinions,” the college said in a letter sent to students.

“Just as we affirm our commitment to academic freedom, we affirm the right of all members of our community to voice their opinions and contribute to the critical discussion that are foundational to our academic mission,” the letter said.

The letter did note that the opinions Thomas expressed do not represent those of the college.

The petition objected to Thomas’s concurrence and his comment within his concurring opinion that the court should revisit the 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, a 2003 ruling concerning anti-sodomy laws and a 1965 ruling concerning government regulation of contraception.

“With the recent Supreme Court decision that has stripped the right to bodily autonomy of people with wombs and with his explicit intention to further strip the rights of queer people and remove the ability for people to practice safe sex without fear of pregnancy, it is evident that the employment of Clarence Thomas at George Washington University is completely unacceptable,” said the petition, which has gained more than 7,000 signatures.

“Judge Thomas is actively making life unsafe for thousands of students on our campus (not to mention thousands of campuses across the country). Make your voice heard and help us kick Clarence Thomas out of Foggy Bottom,” the petition said.

Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar at George Washington University, said the college did the right thing.

“For many of us in teaching at various schools, these cancel campaigns have become a constant, looming threat,” he said, according to the Washington Examiner.

“The GW petition reflects a growing intolerance and orthodoxy that is sweeping across universities. It is gratifying to see GW standing firm on free speech and academic freedom. Yet the rising intolerance on America’s campuses will not be halted until faculty and students affirmatively fight for greater diversity of viewpoints and values,” he said.

Although Thomas did not issue any public comments about the student petition, he addressed the cancel culture in a March speech, according to the Desert News. Thomas said then that debate and disagreement, upon which democracy is based, are now considered wrong.

Thomas noted that colleges have evolved into places stocked with “people who actually seem quite full of themselves. Now it’s sort of this animus develops if you disagree.”

“If you can’t do it on a university campus, where do you learn civility? Where do you learn to disagree without being disagreeable?” he said.

“I’m afraid, particularly in this world of cancel culture attack, I don’t know where you’re going to learn to engage as we did when I grew up,” he said then, according to the Washington Examiner.

“If you don’t learn at that level in high school, in grammar school, in your neighborhood or in civic organizations, then how do you have it when you’re making decisions in government, in the legislature or in the courts?

https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/university-employs-clarence-thomas-shuts-students-attempt-remove-teaching-position

*******************************************************

Australia: A huge Marxist influence pervades education today

The NSW Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes gave a speech to the Sydney Institute identifying why the Scott Morrison government was defeated in the recent election. In doing so, she suggested that many young voters have been influenced by ‘an education system basically run by Marxists’.

There’s no doubt the popularity of the Greens Party and the so-called Teal independents was especially strong among voters under the age of 24 and with higher levels of education. There’s also no doubt since the late 60s and early 70s Australia’s education system has been infiltrated and dominated by the neo-Marxist inspired cultural-Left.

Despite the ALP’s education minister Jason Clare describing Senator Hughes’ comment as ‘just crazy’, the reality is those in control of Australia’s schools and universities have given up any pretence of being impartial, balanced, and objective.

As detailed in the chapters on school and tertiary education published in Cancel Culture and the Left’s Long March, Australia’s education system has long been captured by neo-Marxist inspired Critical Theory and cultural-Left ideology dedicated to overthrowing the status quo.

A commitment to a liberal education dealing with what TS Eliot describes as ‘the preservation of learning, for the pursuit of Truth, and in so far as men are capable of it, the attainment of wisdom’ has long been jettisoned in favour of using education to overthrow capitalism and undermine Western societies denounced as Eurocentric, racist, and misogynistic.

The school curriculum, in areas like Climate Change, gender and sexuality, multiculturalism, and Indigenous studies, is dominated by the cultural-Left. Generations of students have left school convinced about the impending apocalypse caused by man-made global warming, that gender and sexuality are social constructs and Western Civilisation is riven with structural sexism, racism, and xenophobia.

In her 1983 speech to the Fabian Society Joan Kirner, one-time Education Minister and Premier of Victoria, argues education has must be reshaped as ‘part of the socialist struggle for equality, participation and social change, rather than an instrument of the capitalist system’.

University faculties preach a rainbow alliance of liberating ideologies ranging from deconstructionism and postmodernism to radical gender, feminist, queer, and post-colonial theories. Trigger warnings, safe spaces, and diversity guidelines based on identity politics and victimhood abound.

Such is the destructive impact of cultural-Left ideology on universities, the ANU’s Pierre Ryckmans in his 1996 Boyer Lectures argues universities have long since been deprived of their ‘spiritual means of operation’. Ryckmans concludes the ‘main problem is not so much that the University as Western civilisation knew it, is now virtually dead, but that its death has hardly registered’.

For those who have read the Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, it should not surprise the cultural-Left has long since targeted education as a key institution in its long march to overthrow capitalism.

Central to the Manifesto is the conviction, ‘The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.’ Capitalist society subjugates and exploits workers and the aim of the communist party is to overthrow capitalism and achieve a socialist utopia where conflict disappears and all are free.

Marxists argue that instead of education and culture being inherently beneficial or worthwhile, capitalist society and the bourgeoisie use both as instruments to enforce their domination and control. Given its impact on workers, culture is condemned as ‘a mere training to act as a machine’.

Marx and Engels argue concepts like culture, freedom and the law are ‘but the outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production and your bourgeois property’ and communism’s goal is ‘to rescue education from the influence of the ruling class’.

While published in 1848, the Manifesto continues to have a profound impact on schools and universities in Western societies like Australia. Drawing on Louis Althusser’s concept of the ideological state apparatus, where education is employed to impose capitalist hegemony, the argument is curriculum must be radically reshaped.

Instead of being objective and impartial and dealing with wisdom and truth, knowledge is seen as a social construct employed by the elites to indoctrinate students and future citizens to accept as normal what is inherently unjust and inequitable.

Since the late 70s, the Australian Education Union has argued students must be taught Australian society is characterised by inequality and injustice and teachers must decide whose side they are on in the battle against oppression.

The Australian Association for the Teaching of English, instead of formal grammar and syntax and enduring literary works, champions critical literacy based on the works of the Brazilian Marxist Paulo Freire. An approach where literary works are deconstructed and critiqued in terms of power relationships and students are conditioned to be new-age, cultural warriors.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/06/marxist-education-senator-hughes-might-be-right/

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

29 June, 2022

NYC introduces new school superintendents to mixed reactions

New York City public schools announced more than a dozen new superintendents in the system’s 45 districts Monday — a major shake-up of the upper ranks that was met with mixed reactions from parents, teachers and advocates.

All 45 district bosses were asked to reapply for their positions under the contentious process to expand the role, giving superintendents more authority in overseeing city schools.

“I have heard repeatedly from parents that they feel unheard, unwelcome and under-appreciated by those in leadership,” said Schools Chancellor David Banks.

“To address these challenges and implement bold solutions, we set out to build a team of superintendents who are empowered in ways that they have not been in years.”

The slate included at least 12 newly assigned superintendents, as well as two who swapped districts and about 30 familiar faces who retained their positions.

About 130 internal and external candidates applied for superintendent roles, according to the Department of Education.

“I want a one-stop shop,” Banks said of the reimagined job. “I want to make this New York City public schools, a more parent-friendly experience. And a parent knows when in doubt, all I have to do is go to my superintendent’s office, I should be able to get all my questions answered there.”

“The superintendent’s job is a different job — it’s a much bigger job,” he added.

The hiring process was supposed to involve parent and teacher engagement, though The Post reported not all candidates made it to that round — including a popular incumbent and 40-year veteran Superintendent Philip Composto from District 30 in Queens.

After outcry from thousands of parents and teachers, the DOE reversed course, inviting all incumbents to participate in the community engagement stage of the interview. Those town halls ran throughout the spring as parents and teachers asked questions of the district finalists.

Composto was ultimately re-selected for his position.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/27/nyc-introduces-new-school-superintendents-to-mixed-reactions/

****************************************************

Arizona Extends School Choice to All K-12 Students

Arizona Gov Doug Ducey—seen here talking to reporters after meeting with then-President Donald Trump at the White House on April 3, 2019—told Arizona lawmakers earlier this year: "Send me the [school choice] bills, and I’ll sign them.” On Friday, they heeded his call. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“This session, let’s expand school choice any way we can,” declared Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in his State of the State address on Jan. 10, “Let’s think big and find more ways to get kids into the school of their parents’ choice. Send me the bills, and I’ll sign them.”

The Arizona Legislature on Friday night answered Ducey’s call, passing a bill to expand eligibility for the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (also known as education savings accounts or ESAs) to all K-12 students.

Once signed into law, Arizona will reclaim its title as the state with the “most expansive ESA” policy in the nation.

Empowerment Scholarship Accounts empower families with the freedom and flexibility to customize their child’s education. Arizona families can currently use ESAs to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, homeschool curriculums, online courses, educational therapy, and more.

The ESAs are funded with 90% of the state portion of Arizona’s per-pupil funding, including the additional funds for students with special needs.

Currently, about a quarter of elementary and secondary students in Arizona are eligible for an ESA, including students with special needs, students assigned to low-performing district schools, the children of active-duty military personnel, and a few other categories of students.

The Arizona Senate passed HB 2853 on Friday night on a vote of 16 to 10. Earlier in the week, the Arizona House of Representatives passed it by a margin of 31 to 26.

In 2011, Arizona became the first state to enact an ESA policy. Originally, the ESAs were limited only to students with special needs, but state lawmakers have repeatedly expanded the policy over the past decade.

There are now more than 10,000 students benefiting from the ESA policy in Arizona and about 31,000 ESA students in 10 states nationwide.

Last year, West Virginia wrested the “most expansive ESA” title away from Arizona with the enactment of its Hope Scholarship policy, which provides ESAs to all students either switching out of a public school or entering kindergarten.

Once Ducey, a Republican, signs the ESA expansion into law, Arizona will regain its “most expansive ESA” distinction, because the accounts will be available to all students, regardless of what type of school they had been attending.

As a Goldwater Institute report demonstrated, the ESA policy especially benefits students from low-income families. The typical (non-special education) award of about $6,600 covers the median elementary private school tuition and about two-thirds of the median private high school tuition.

Although Arizona does not collect data about the income levels of participating families, the Goldwater Institute looked at data on the geographic distribution of participants and found that “ESA students come from school districts with above-average and below-average poverty rates at broadly equal rates and in virtually identical proportions as traditional public school students overall.”

Additionally, the report found that “the highest concentrations of ESA usage actually occur in the most severely economically disadvantaged communities in Arizona.” Eight out of the 10 districts with the highest share of ESA students statewide have higher-than-average rates of child poverty, and the top three have child poverty rates that are more than double the state average.

The ESAs are extremely popular. According to a Morning Consult survey, 66% of Arizonans and 75% of Arizona parents of K-12 students support the ESA policy.

Nevertheless, opponents of education choice claim that, recent polls notwithstanding, the voters revealed their opposition to a universal ESA policy when they voted by an almost two-to-one margin in 2018 against Prop 305, which also would have expanded Arizona’s ESAs to all students.

However, divining the will of the voters is not so simple. Unlike the current proposal, Prop 305 had a cap on the number of students who could participate. Since the state’s Voter Protection Act requires a supermajority of at least three-fourths of the legislature to make changes to a law passed by the voters on the ballot, even ESA proponents such as the American Federation for Children opposed the measure, as it would have rendered the current program—participation caps and all—essentially set in stone.

Other critics of the program have raised concerns about the quality of education that ESA children receive. “We will not know if students are using our tax dollars … to learn anything,” fretted Democratic state Rep. Kelli Butler.

Proponents of education choice counter that the accountability under the ESA policy is even higher than in traditional district schools. “Parents are the ultimate accountability, not government,” said House Majority Leader Ben Toma, a Republican, the sponsor of the ESA expansion bill. “They know what’s best for their children, and we should trust them to do the right thing.’’

Arizona lawmakers are right to trust families. Arizona has long been a pioneer in education choice—enacting nation’s first tax-credit scholarship policy in 1997, in addition to the first ESA—and the investment in education choice is paying off.

Despite doomsday predictions about the effects that education choice would have on student performance, Arizona has led the nation in gains on the National Assessment of Education Progress over the past two decades.

When families are empowered to choose the learning environment that works best for their children and that aligns with their values, everyone benefits.

Once again, Arizona is setting an example that other states should emulate.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/06/26/arizona-extends-school-choice-to-all-k-12-students

***************************************************

Rainbow tyranny at Australian universities

Universities should be impartial when it comes to active ideological disagreements, and they should certainly not cede that impartiality in order to side with a position in opposition to the rights of members of their community who they have publicly claimed to support. The first is anti-democratic, the second is hypocritical and unethical.

University impartiality is important because it facilitates pluralism within the academic community.

A report on global democracy released in March found that democracy is on the decline and dictatorship is on the rise, with democracy having backslid to 1989 levels. One shift thought to be responsible for this is ‘toxic polarisation’ and one solution, according to politics professor Matthew Flinders at the University of Sheffield, is for universities to operate as ‘sites of democratic socialisation’ by committing to pluralism as part of their existing commitment to freedom of speech.

If you head into the University of Melbourne campus today, you will find the ‘inclusive’ redesigned Pride flag at every entrance to the university, as well as unfurled down the side of one of its outward-facing buildings. On the surface, the message might seem innocuous: the university supports lesbian, gay, and bisexual people (the rainbow part of the flag), trans people (the pink, blue, and white part of the flag), and ‘queer’ people of colour (the black and brown part of the flag).

Let’s focus on the pink, blue, and white part: the trans flag. This flag was featured at the ‘Stock Out’ protests lead to the resignation of Professor Kathleen Stock from her position at the University of Sussex; used by protesters who assaulted a feminist in Manchester and blocked access to a suffragette statue; and featured on posters protesting against my teaching of feminism.

With that in mind, the message of the ‘inclusive’ Pride flag is actually far from innocuous. Rather than referring to a collection of people with diverse political views, religious faiths, and moral values who happen to be gay, or trans, or queer persons of colour, the flags refer to a specific collection of ideas – an ‘ideology’ – about sexual orientation and gender identity.

One of these ideas is that biological sex is a ‘social construction’ rather than a real difference found in nature throughout our evolutionary history and across the animal and plant kingdom. Another is that because biological sex is a social construction, we should stop caring so much about it, and start caring about other things that are more important like ‘gender identity’ which is a person’s subjective sense of themselves in terms of masculinity, femininity (or neither).

Yet another is that because there are a great many gender identities, there are correspondingly a great many sexual orientations, and sexual orientations are not what we thought they were. Yet another is that identity trumps any material facts. You can be a ‘woman’ without being female, you can be a ‘lesbian’ even when you are a male who sleeps exclusively with females.

Do you see the problem? If there is no sex then there is no same-sex attraction,so there is no homosexuality or bisexuality as the gay rights struggle understood it. Recent legislation aligned with this ideology removed protection for same-sex attraction from the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act, replacing it with a word salad referring to attractions between ‘persons of a different gender or the same gender or more than one gender’. The head of Stonewall, an organization once dedicated to the gay rights struggle, now describes exclusive same-sex attraction as a ‘social prejudice’.

Supporters of this ideology rush to ‘affirm’ gender non-conforming children (who are most likely to grow up to be gay) as transgender, which greatly increases their likelihood of irreversible medical interventions. Arguably, then, this ideology is not affirming of, but rather actively undermines the gay rights struggle. The ‘inclusive’ Pride flag tells me, and all other lesbians on campus, that we are wrong to exclude males from our sexual orientations. We’ve heard that before.

Where does this leave the members of the university community who happen to be gay, trans, or queer persons of colour, and yet who reject this ideology? By flying these flags the university compromises pluralism on campus by making it more difficult for staff and students to voice a dissenting view. This is not just hypothetical: in April, in response to a social media post in which I expressed displeasure about flags put up for ‘Trans Day of Visibility’, the University tweeted:

‘This post runs counter to the views and the values of the University of Melbourne. The author has been counselled and has subsequently edited the post to remove the offensive content.’

Members who disagree with the university’s position risk censure. If most go along with the university out of fear or cowardice, and the university has taken the wrong position, then bankrupt ideologies gain a stronger foothold. And this is not the only consequence; what of the university’s commitment to inclusivity for women, and for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people?

Universities must facilitate constructive disagreement among the members of their communities. That is their obligation, given their function within democratic societies. They fail to do that when they take sides in complex and controversial debates; they fail doubly when the side they take undermines the rights struggles of other members of their community.

It’s time for the University of Melbourne to take down the flags.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/06/peddling-rainbows/

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

28 June, 2022

Inside the Investigation of Axed Princeton Prof Joshua Katz

Princeton University ignored extensive exculpatory evidence in its investigation of Joshua Katz, the tenured classics professor axed last month over alleged actions related to his consensual relationship with a former student.

Announcing the unceremonious dismissal, Princeton said Katz had dissuaded the former student from participating in a 2018 probe into the affair and discouraged her from "seeking mental health care" while she was an undergraduate. Both findings were based on excerpts of a voluminous email correspondence between Katz and the alumna, exchanged over 13 years, in which she sent him professions of love, allegations of "abuse," and threats of suicide.

This report is based on a review of all the materials Katz provided to the university, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation, including more than 3,000 emails between Katz and his former student. That broader correspondence suggests that Princeton seized on unrepresentative exchanges to make its determinations, cherry-picking Katz’s messages and ignoring inconsistencies in the alumna’s story.

In fact, their exchanges show the alumna declined to participate in the 2018 inquiry of her own volition and that Katz went out of his way to avoid pressuring her into that decision. "I honestly don't want to put any pressure on you whatsoever to do or not do anything," he wrote on April 11, 2018, as Princeton was investigating the affair. "The decision here has to be yours."

Katz did admit in three 2018 emails to dissuading the former student from seeking therapy her senior year. But the emails show Katz admitted to many things he did not do when the alumna accused him of wrongdoing, casting doubt on the veracity of that admission. The emails also show that, at other times, Katz told the alumna to seek psychiatric care. "Please remember that the most important thing is that you take care of yourself," he told her in March 2008. "I'm counting on you to do this—and if you feel you can't, then you *must* get help immediately."

The university’s investigative report, which formed the basis for Princeton president Christopher Eisgruber’s recommendation to dismiss Katz, ignored those emails, according to four sources who reviewed the report, one of whom provided the Washington Free Beacon with a list of the emails cited in its appendix. It also ignored a forensic evaluation of Katz by one of the most distinguished psychiatrists in the country, Frank Dattilio, who concluded that the beleaguered professor would admit to "behaviors that he never engaged in for the sake of placating" the alumna.

Katz retained Dattilio, a household name among forensic psychiatrists who has provided hundreds of psychological evaluations to federal courts and law enforcement agencies, to shed light on why he "might admit to doing things he has not done," according to a copy of the evaluation Katz shared with the Free Beacon. That evaluation offered critical context for Katz’s apparent admission, in his email exchanges with his former student, that he had discouraged her from going to therapy.

Katz was "genuinely concerned" the alumna would harm herself, Dattilio, who holds joint appointments with Harvard Medical School and the University of Pennsylvania, told Princeton. He "does not handle intense, volatile emotions very well" and will admit "to doing or saying things he has never done in order to quell emotional upheaval."

Princeton’s investigative report, according to the sources who reviewed it, dismissed Dattilio’s conclusions in a couple sentences, describing them as a "post-hoc, self-serving interpretation" of Katz’s emails.

The report’s omissions bolster the argument, made by liberals and conservatives alike, that Princeton’s investigation was a pretext to fire a tenured professor for political speech. The university disciplined Katz for the relationship in 2018 as a result of a third-party complaint, but decided to reopen an investigation after Katz panned the school’s racial politics in 2020, incurring the wrath of Eisgruber.

The second time around, his former student—a seasoned Democratic operative who worked for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and her local party chapter—participated in the proceedings, supplying Princeton with a handful of incriminating emails.

In response, Katz turned over every exchange he could find between himself and his former student. "Anyone who reads through all of them," he wrote in a statement to the university in October 2021, "will see two deeply troubled people, not a saint and a psychopath."

The emails tell a tragic tale of unrequited love and unintended consequences, sparked by Katz’s relationship with the student in 2007. The fallout of that relationship would upend her life and haunt his own, driving them both to say they were on the brink of suicide, their emails show. Then an activist bureaucracy used Katz’s decades-old mistake to push him out of his job.

The alumna did not respond to a request for comment. Instead, the Free Beacon received a veiled legal threat from her lawyer, Jennifer Salvatore, warning: "To the extent that media outlets are participating in efforts to rehabilitate [Katz’s] reputation by violating my client’s privacy and/or defaming her, she reserves all rights and will take appropriate legal action to defend herself."

Princeton University did not respond to a request for comment.

The affair began in June 2006 and lasted until the alumna’s graduation in 2007. It was dysfunctional but unremarkable, filled with petty resentments and jejune fights: Katz did not take the alumna out for Valentine’s Day in 2007, she complained in a 2018 email. He would ignore her at events and "talk exclusively to other people."

These slights nonetheless appear to have had a profound effect on the alumna, who said in her emails that she fantasized about killing herself during the course of the affair. "A few times I went to the CVS and stood in front of the sleeping pills for a while trying to figure out how much I'd need to buy," she recalled in one April 2018 email. "I got really, really close."

She would later conclude that Katz had abused her, though Princeton’s Title IX office dismissed that charge in April 2021.

During her senior year, the alumna stopped going to therapy—but her emails offer inconsistent explanations as to why. In one message, she claims Katz discouraged her from seeing a therapist because he was afraid the university would discover the affair. But in another, she indicates she stopped going of her own volition in order to protect Katz. In a third, she suggests she became so depressed that "I couldn’t even go to therapy anymore."

Katz pointed out these inconsistencies in an April 2021 statement to the university reviewed by the Free Beacon. Princeton ignored them, according to the sources who reviewed the university's report.

The report also ignored Katz’s persistent and passionate pleas for the alumna to see a therapist, which came in response to what Dattilio described as a "deluge" of emails that, per his evaluation, revealed "emotional volatility." The affair ended when the alumna graduated in 2007, but her correspondence with Katz did not: She would accuse him of giving her "PTSD," then say she missed him. She would call him a "monster," then beg him to marry her. She would apologize for how "worthless" and "repulsive" she was, blame him for "wrecking" her life, and then ask if he was "doing OK," sometimes within hours.

The alumna would also say she was suicidal—at times implying she was moments away from killing herself—and would grow agitated if Katz didn’t respond within minutes.

With her life seemingly on the line, Katz bent over backwards to calm her down. He would apologize profusely for his "monstrous" conduct—"I’m sorry for being a monster," he wrote in November 2010—and beg the alumna to seek help.

Sometimes the alumna would accuse Katz of things he had not done, only for him to apologize anyway. In April 2018, for example, the alumna berated Katz for refusing to leave Princeton during class reunions, which she wanted to attend without running into him. Katz apologized immediately—even though dozens of emails show him coordinating with the alumna to ensure they were never on campus at the same time.

The alumna’s volatility reached a fever pitch when an anonymous third party reported the decades-old affair to Princeton in February 2018—the height of the MeToo movement.

The investigation came as an unwelcome surprise to the former student, who for months railed against the university for prying open a chapter in her life that she’d tried desperately to close.

"I didn’t want this," she wrote on March 12, 2018. "I was doing better at pushing it all down and I am so angry at whoever made this complaint."

When Princeton’s deputy dean of faculty, Toni Turano, asked the alumna if she wanted to participate in the investigation, she refused and contacted Katz to warn him it was coming. She even offered to intercede on his behalf, either by asking Princeton to call off the probe or by expressing support for "the most lenient possible penalty."

Katz said it was up to her. "Thank you for protecting me," he wrote on April 10, 2018. "I can't ask you to do it, though, especially if it's making things worse for you." The next day, he told her that he didn’t want to say anything that might pressure her one way or the other.

The alumna ultimately decided against contacting the university. When Katz told her on April 23 he would be suspended for a year without pay, she replied: "I'm sorry I couldn't fix it."

At the same time she was offering to intercede on his behalf, the alumna was sending Katz messages that oscillated between pleas for love and weekly threats of suicide. Katz himself said he contemplated "jumping" after receiving dozens of emails from her in the course of a few hours.

It was during these weeks that the alumna accused Katz of talking her out of therapy, extracting several apologies from him. The investigative report described those apologies as "clear and persuasive evidence" that Katz "acted to dissuade" the alumna "from seeing a therapist," according to Katz’s October 2021 statement. It did not address the alumna’s threats of self-harm or Katz’s pattern of false admissions.

When the alumna learned on April 30, 2018, that Katz had once attended an academic conference in the city where she lived without telling her, she changed her mind about participating in the investigation and began threatening to get him fired.

"If I can’t trust you to respect my boundaries, I’ll have to enforce them," the alumna wrote. In another email, she told Katz she would give him "a chance" to "convince me I shouldn’t."

"Please, please don't," Katz responded—a plea the university would seize on to argue he tried to discourage the former student from coming forward. Princeton ignored the context of that plea, as well as the alumna’s consistent opposition to the investigation over the preceding two months.

After the 2018 investigation, the alumna continued writing to Katz. Now, with MeToo in full swing—and with Katz becoming more vocally critical of campus progressivism—the alumna, a longtime Democratic operative, began to articulate her grievances in political terms. During the confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, for example, she repeatedly likened Katz to the embattled judicial nominee. A few months later, she likened him to a Republican state defending itself against charges of racism.

"When Texas comes to you and says, of course this law that happens to disenfranchise tons of black people wasn’t *intended* to be racially discriminatory, you don’t just *believe* them," she wrote in January 2019. "Do you understand the analogy here?"

In 2020, Katz wrote a controversial essay that attacked the notion that Princeton was systemically racist. Then in February 2021, the Daily Princetonian published a story about his decades-old affair. The story also reported, based on anonymous allegations, that Katz had "behaved inappropriately" with two other former female students.

As part of his evaluation, Dattilio administered a test to gauge Katz’s propensity for predatory behavior. Katz scored in the lowest possible percentile, Dattilio said, suggesting that "he has no antisocial traits or propensities toward sexually violent or exploitative behaviors."

The alumna submitted her complaint on February 26, 2021, less than a month after the student newspaper painted Katz as a predator.

The resulting investigation had few due process protections for the accused. The university did not share the full complaint with Katz until it had already completed its report, sources involved in the process said, nor did it give his legal team a chance to cross-examine the alumna, as would have been required by Princeton’s Title IX procedures. Because the Title IX office dismissed the complaint, however, the investigation fell to the office of the dean of faculty, whose disciplinary process has fewer due process protections.

That lack of due process meant that investigators could introduce a new allegation whenever Katz provided evidence against an old one. An initial hearing, held in early April 2021, focused on the alumna’s claims that Katz discouraged her from seeing a therapist and dissuaded her from coming forward in 2018, Katz’s statements to the university show. But in a second hearing—held just weeks after Dattilio submitted his forensic evaluation—investigators took Katz to task for not being "forthcoming" during the 2018 inquiry.

By the final hearing, Katz said in his October 2021 statement, "I no longer had confidence that the investigators were being objective. They seemed to want me gone from the University."

https://freebeacon.com/campus/inside-the-investigation-of-joshua-katz/

**********************************************

Pointless splurge on pre-school education in Australia

<i>It only has point as a child-minding service.  Its educational benefits are illusory. But a free child-minding service will be popular with women who want or need to work.. It's only free to the user, however.  The cost to the taxpayer will be huge

The huge "Head-start" progam in the USA started out with similar bright-eyed hopes but had no lasting benefit</i>

On June 16, the Premiers of New South Wales and Victoria announced ‘the greatest transformation of childhood education in a generation’.

The Victorian government will spend $9 billion to provide 30 hours a week of play-based learning for four-year-olds, with a rollout from 2025. They will also provide free kindergarten for three-year-olds, for up to 15 hours.

The New South Wales government will spend $5.8 billion on a similar scheme with later commencement, it reports that this would somehow eventually translate into $17 billion in increased economic activity; this is in addition to the federal government committing $5 billion to the cost of childcare.

Following Covid, the federal and state finances are in disarray.

Federal debt has ballooned towards $1 trillion. NSW debt stood at $50 billion in 2019, heading to $140 billion this year and under $200 billion by 2025. Figures for Victoria are equally parlous, increasing from under $50 billion in 2019 to $150 this year and $210 billion by 2025. The other states and territories have had relatively smaller increases as they were less damaged by Draconian, and perhaps unnecessary, lock-downs.

With these economic threats, it seems a bad time to introduce yet more welfare demand, a demand which we know, once introduced, will never be rescinded. Should we need a better example of where this leads, we have to look no further than the sky-rocketing cost of the NDIS.

Apart from the financial consequences, there are a number of political imperatives at work here. There is a belief that early commencement of education will result in improved educational outcomes; teachers and other unions are in favour of this job creation.

Also, that greater child care will allow more parents to return to the workforce. Underlying this debate is the changed concept of parenting, with the welfare state increasingly expected to take over the traditional role of rearing children, a role which was once considered not only a parental obligation but also their financial commitment.

Currently, there is a shortage of workers in many areas, it is tempting to think that freedom from the (self-inflicted) demands of parenting, would allow many women to return to work to fill those shortages. There are, fortunately, still some who consider involvement in their children’s development to be an obligation and a source of iuytrsatisfaction. At the other extreme, there are a number who look on this as a release from responsibility, but who have no intention of going to work. In view of the cost, it would seem logical to provide child-care, if considered appropriate, only for those who do return to work. There may also be only a short-term demand for workers, if predictions of a recession come to pass the situation may change dramatically, with unemployment rising.

The other big question is the predicted educational outcome, there is no doubt education is in disarray. A UNICEF study in 2017 showed that Australia had slipped down the league tables of educational achievement, coming in at 39 out of 41 in high and middle-income countries, ahead of only Turkey and Romania. In 2003, the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) ranked 15-year-old Australian students 10th in maths, 4th in reading, and 6th in science; 15 years later the results were 23rd in maths, 16th in reading, and 14th in science.

The problems besetting education relate to classroom discipline, distorted curricula, declining teaching standards, fad-driven teaching methods, and reduced parental input. As classroom size has declined and more money is invested, ($36 billion in 2019-2020), the deterioration continues, now enhanced by the Covid pandemic. It is nothing short of scandalous that after 12 years of schooling, 40 per cent of adults have achieved only a basic level of literacy; for many of my parents’ generation, leaving school at 14 had educated them better than those with 4 extra years

A quarter of a million children were enrolled in pre-school activity at 3 years age, part of Julia Gillard’s “education revolution” to develop a child’s “social and cognitive development”; this number had risen to 330,000 by 2021. The traditional education starting point had been at age 5 years, prior to commencing year 1 schooling at 6. Studies from America (whence all good things come) in the early 2000s suggested that improved economic outcomes could be achieved with an earlier start, but that misguided philosophy seems to have persisted. It is also concerning that children of this age are being subtly targeted by left-wing ideology in areas such as trans-gender, climate change, anti-colonialism, etc.

Parents in America have complained about drag queens in classrooms to promote ‘inclusivity’, New York schools have spent $200,000 on this activity; at least the parents (when informed) have the ability to demand change.

A suggestion of early improvement following pre-school does not carry through to later years. Several studies, both in Australia and overseas, have failed to show any long-term benefit from early education, in literacy and numeracy, on NAPLAN (National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy) testing. The latest 2021 US study has confirmed no academic benefit, it did suggest it resulted in better-adjusted children, but without considering the input of motivated parents who had to pay for this activity. NSW and Victoria appear intent on following the Biden playbook with free pre-schooling, in the case of America, an eye-watering extra $1.8 trillion over 10 years, would be needed from the debt-ridden economy.

We are already breaking the bank with debt, yet politics indicate, without evidence, we ‘must do more’ to improve both education and employment prospects. As is often the case, with welfare, education, health, care of the disabled or elderly, or the NDIS, we must be governed, not by what we would like, but by what we can afford.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/06/nsw-and-victoria-meddle-in-pre-schools/

**************************************************

Australia: NSW Auditor-General warns universities of China risk

NSW’s top universities are now much more reliant on Chinese students than before the Covid-19 pandemic and are creating risks for the entire sector, the state’s auditor-general has warned.

Chinese students accounted for 50.5 per cent of the state’s foreign students in 2021 – up nearly 6 per cent on the previous year – due to an enrolment boost of nearly 2300 more students from China, while the number of students from other countries fell, according to the Auditor-General’s latest report on NSW universities, released on Monday.

Chinese students flocked to the University of Sydney, whose revenue from Chinese students rose by a massive 35 per cent to $1.2bn last year.

Figures calculated from university financial statements and the Auditor-General’s report also show that the University of NSW’s revenue from Chinese students rose 12 per cent to about $580m last year.

The rise comes despite ­repeated warnings from governments and national security figures over the past two years on the need for universities to wean off the Chinese student market, amid growing tensions with Beijing and increased concerns about foreign interference on Australian campuses.

In her report, NSW Auditor-General Margaret Crawford slammed universities in the state for their failure to diversify their foreign student intakes and warned of a “concentration risk”.

“Seven out of the 10 universities now record China as the leading source of overseas student revenues. This creates not only a concentration risk for each university, but for the NSW university sector as a whole,” she said in her Universities 2021 report.

“For two universities, the University of Wollongong and Southern Cross University, the top country of origin changed from India to China in 2021.”

In her report Ms Crawford repeated warnings the Auditor-General made in previous years about universities’ over-reliance on students from a limited number of countries. “Unexpected shifts in demand arising from changes in the geo-political or geo-economic landscape, or from restrictions over visas or travel can impact revenues, operating results and cash flows,” she said.

Group of Eight universities CEO Vicki Thomson, who represents both the University of Sydney and the University of NSW, said the higher education sector was not different to any other sector of the economy, including mining, in its exposure to China.

“Our universities are very aware of the commercial risk and the need to balance their portfolios in their recruitment strategies, including with students from China. But, like other industry sectors, we will not walk away from the Chinese market,” she said.

Ms Thomson said Chinese students were choosing Australia because of its “quality offering”.

“We want Chinese students to continue to see Australia as a destination of choice. We are looking at other markets, as we always have, but building alternative markets takes time, investment and resources,” she said.

Overall the number of international students in NSW fell by 12.5 per cent in the first two years of the pandemic, the Auditor-General’s report says. Other universities highly reliant on Chinese students include UTS and University of Newcastle.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/nsw-auditorgeneral-warns-universities-of-china-risk/news-story/4ffb88874c81f64978319949c18cb1fa

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

27 June, 2022

A Supreme win for school choice

In a win for parents and school-choice advocates, the US Supreme Court overturned a Maine law Tuesday that denied religious schools access to state tuition assistance available to students attending secular private institutions.

Maine created the program to give options to kids living in areas without public schools — but excluded faith-based institutions from those options.

The high court ruled 6-3 that the prohibition “penalizes the free exercise” of religion in Maine by excluding “otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise.” In other words, discriminating against all religious education is discriminating against religion, period.

In 2020, the court ruled similarly that states allowing public money to be used in private education can’t deny religious schools access to those programs. In that case, the court struck down Montana’s “Blaine Amendment” (a provision also imposed in New York and dozens of other states, on nakedly anti-Catholic grounds, back in the 19th century) barring public funds from being spent on religious institutions.

The new ruling’s not just a clear win for the three Maine families that wanted the state aid to help their kids attend the (religious) schools of their choice, but likely to force change in the 18 states that still have Blaine Amendments on the books.

The more school choice, the better for students across America ill-served by regular public-school systems. Heck, the competition can only force the public schools to up their game, too — which is something the nation desperately needs.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/21/a-supreme-win-for-school-choice/

********************************************

School districts pricing out parents on record requests by charging tens of thousands in 'exorbitant fees'

Parents around the United States are being charged tens of thousands, including some fees in the millions, for public records requests in their school districts, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Fox News Digital spoke with parents around the county – such as in Michigan, Oregon, and Rhode Island — as well as with public records experts who said they believed schools were using exorbitant fees in order to price parents out of the information they are legally entitled to, such as those related to curriculum. 

A parent from Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland told Fox News Digital that she requested emails that spanned one month between various entities and was asked to pay $5,000. "I never got the [records] because that's well beyond what I'm willing to pay for information my tax dollars already paid for," she said. FCPS was contacted for comment but did not immediately respond. 

In Oregon, the Oregon Department of Education slapped on $10 per email review in various requests. For example, to review 963 emails, the fee was $9,630; for 382 emails, the fee was $3,820; and 109 emails would cost $1,090, according to a complaint with the attorney general that was reviewed by Fox News Digital. The total fees subject to the complaint were ultimately reduced from nearly 15K to a few hundred bucks.

Another request a parent sent into ODE came back with a fee of $1,525. "You may narrow the scope of your request to reduce your overall cost estimate," a rules coordinator at ODE said, according to an email reviewed by Fox News Digital. 

"How could I narrow my request? Is this not a single document?… I do not understand what you mean by narrowing or how 1 document costs $1,525 to download and email to me. Or why 3 hours of time is needed by IT to again download 1 document and email it. Please explain," the parent asked. Fox News Digital reached out to ODE for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

In Rochester, Michigan, the district reportedly charged fees as high as $18 million to complete their requests. "I don’t know what they’re hiding, but they’re definitely hiding information. Why make it so difficult for parents to get [public records] if they don’t have something to hide," a parent told local media. 

Another parent in the district said she had a public records fee of $172,951.67. 

"There are some parents who have in the millions and most parents are afraid to speak out," parent Laurie Madigan said. 

"FOIA allows the District to charge certain fees incurred for processing and responding to FOIA requests when a failure to charge a fee would result in unreasonably high costs to the District because of the nature of the request," the school district told Fox News Digital in a statement. Examples they provided included voluminous requests, requests that require time-consuming searches, and significant redaction.

The parents' fears of sharing their fee stubs with the media are due to stories of school districts acting against parents. One district was accused of spying and creating a list tracking over 200 parents; Rochester School District ultimately paid 190K in a settlement agreement with a parent in March who alleged her employer was contacted by someone in the district, causing her to lose her job. The parent had been advocating on social media in support of kids returning to in-person learning. 

Rochester's counsel denied any wrongdoing, that they engaged in retaliation as well as the existence of the list. "Rochester Community Schools does not have a dossier. The notion of a dossier appears to have been conceived by an attorney for litigation purposes. Rochester Community Schools does not have a list of names of parents who are on social media," the district previously said. 

"I didn't know that anyone was monitoring anything until I was called into the HR office," the parent, Elena Dinverno, said. A deputy superintendent, Debra Fragomeni, contacted her employer to let them know she was participating in a Facebook group that had "threatening behavior," local media reported. Fox News Digital reached out to Fragomeni but did not immediately receive a response. 

"The fact that they were doing it in secret, the fact that they were compiling dossiers of parents… was shocking to me," the parent said. 

"How dare you? How dare you track me," a parent named Stephanie Van Deal said in a school board meeting. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital the district said, "Recent tragic experiences of violence in other districts, such as Uvalde, Texas, and even closer to home, demand that we pay attention to all forms of media, publications and broadcasts, including social media comments, which have been shown to contain clues that could have prevented the loss of life had they been acted upon."

In Rhode Island, South Kingstown, a parent activist named Nicole Solas sent in requests that amounted to 74K regarding the school's curriculum for her daughter, who was in kindergarten at the time. She told Fox News Digital it was her last resort as the school refused to answer her questions. 

"If public information is priced outside of affordability, and it's not really public information, it's a government secret," Solas said.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/school-districts-pricing-out-parents-record-requests-charging-tens-of-thousands-exorbitant-fees

*******************************************

Australia: Griffith University academics mount cancel culture attack

<i>Disturbing that some loony obscure academics could be influenced by heavily biased Leftist "historian" Henry Reynolds, of "black armband" fame.  Birds of a feather flock together, I guess</i>

Although few may remember him today, Sir Samuel Griffith made an immense contribution to the early development of Australia’s parliamentary and legal systems as the primary author of the Constitution and the first Chief Justice of the High Court. He played an integral role in securing the system of government that has made Australia one of the most stable, prosperous, and long-lasting liberal democracies in the world.

That is why it is so remarkable that there are now some who wish to see Samuel Griffith’s name erased from places of public recognition. Even more remarkably, these calls for Samuel Griffith to be ‘cancelled’ are not coming from fringe elements, but from a symposium that took place this month at Griffith University in Queensland.

Inspired by a recent book by author Henry Reynolds, Griffith University Senior Lecturer Dr Fiona Foley argues that Griffith’s name should be removed from the University – and perhaps the federal electorate, Canberra suburb, and New South Wales town as well. Instead, Dr Foley suggests that the University should be called ‘Dundalli University’ in honour of the Indigenous warrior who led the resistance to European settlement in South-East Queensland.

But what was Samuel Griffith’s great crime? Reynolds alleges that Griffith was an ‘enabler’ of massacres because he does not think that Griffith did enough to prevent skirmishes between Europeans and Indigenous groups during his time as Attorney-General and Premier of Queensland.

Professor Geoffrey Blainey AC and historian Keith Windschuttle have both described Reynolds’ approach as adopting a ‘black armband view’ of Australian history. While it is certainly appropriate to reflect critically upon our past as we continue to grow as a society, in having these conversations we should be very hesitant to ‘cancel’ anyone in the absence of highly compelling reasons.

It simply isn’t necessary to agree with everything Samuel Griffith did or believed in order to acknowledge and commemorate what he did to make Australia what it is today. I certainly don’t agree with everything Griffith did as a politician, but none of that detracts from the significance and value of his work as a jurist and drafter of the Constitution.

It is appropriate to continue to commemorate and preserve Griffith’s legacy because we continue to enjoy its benefits. It will be an Australia that no longer appreciates the value of responsible government, robust democracy, and the rule of law that ‘cancels’ Sir Samuel Griffith.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/06/griffith-university-takes-cancel-culture-too-far/

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

26 June, 2022

Wisconsin mom says school district threatening legal action to 'bully' her criticism to silence

A Wisconsin mom alleges that the Oconomowoc Area School District was trying to quell her criticism of materials, such as books, within the district by threatening her with legal action. 

After Alexandra Schweitzer, the president of a No Left Turn in Education chapter in the state, raised concerns about the appropriateness of materials in the district, the district responded with a cease and desist letter that threatened the possibility of future litigation if she continued to make "defamatory statements" via meetings or in email. Her counsel, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, responded Friday stating that Schweitzer "will not be revoking any statement she made" and accused the district of using taxpayer dollars to silence a parent. 

"In fact, use of outside counsel by the Oconomowoc Area School District… to send threatening letters to parents who speak in good faith about their experiences with a school district is antithetical to our Constitution and to your clients’ obligation as public officials," the law group said in response.

"This is a really serious claim that the district is making in response to really trying to be a bullying tactic to parents," the mom's attorney, Libby Sobic, told Fox News Digital. "They do not have a legal claim available to them, not only where our client statement's true, but secondly, she doesn't meet any of the requirements of defamation under the law."

"The… Supreme Court made clear that damages cannot be awarded to a public official for statements concerning his or her official conduct unless it is made with actual malice… You can’t come close to establishing that standard," the response said. The mom's counsel further argued that some of her statements are "conditionally privileged" since it was "given as testimony during a legislative proceeding." Regarding an email the district objected to, the response said it was "non-actionable opinion" that was also "made without actual malice." 

"I definitely feel as if I'm being bullied into silence," Schweitzer added. 

"My biggest message to parents and taxpayers is the parent is the primary educator of the child. And we have a right to know what's going on inside the classroom… And I'm here because many, many parents don't want to stand up... They're scared their child will get bullied or they're scared they'll get blacklisted themselves. And I'm not going to stand down to tyranny like that," she said. 

In the cease and desist, the district said that Schweitzer's defamatory claims included her statements regarding the district's use of a book called "The 57 Bus," which the mom said contains sexually explicit texts. The district said that only portions of the text were read to students "for the purpose of critical thinking and writing craft" and were not available to students. They also claimed that books Schweitzer deemed inappropriate were not available "to… students in the library for checkout… [or] in the District's curriculum."

The district further claimed that the parent was given notice that "texts… deemed inappropriate [were] not available to Oconomowoc Area School District students in the library for checkout, nor [were] they used in the District’s curriculum."

The letter demanded the parent "cease and desist" from making "defamatory statements" about the district, and issue a retraction email "indicating the information is false."

"Oconomowoc Area School District and its Board of Education are entitled to take legal action to prevent you from further distribution of statements containing the false claims in the letter and testimony referenced above, and to seek monetary damages against you," the cease and desist said. 

"If the school district wanted to silence me, they have failed. School districts need to know that parents won’t back down and legal threats won’t deter us from looking out for our kids," Schweitzer said. "It's difficult to get a letter like that. It shocks you. But I had faith in knowing what I was doing… – advocating for the community.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/wisconsin-mom-school-district-threatening-legal-action-bully-criticism-silence

**************************************************

Educators respond to NPR report on COVID-19 impact on student development: 'Told ya so'

NPR spoke with teachers who said that COVID-19 school closures did lasting damage to their students, and they sensed a coming mass exodus of their fellow educators, which some academic readers described as delayed reporting.

Schools nationwide often enforced at-home instruction during the pandemic. Tiki Boyea-Logan, a 4th grade teacher in Rowlett, Texas, remarked on how many of her students failed to progress in their studies as a result and how she and her colleagues struggled to close the learning "gaps" in the piece titled, "We asked teachers how their year went. They warned of an exodus to come."

"I feel like at the beginning of the school year, I basically got second graders, because that's the point where they were in school full time," she told NPR.

"Though you're a fourth grade teacher, you're teaching kids who are emotionally at the second grade level," Boyea-Logan explained. "And academically, we're back to working miracles, like, 'Hey, we need to get these kids caught up, we need to fill these gaps."

Students' academic struggles were compounded, the teachers said, by mental health issues.

"They're very worried about the students that they had this year, because they saw a lot of depression. Someone even brought up cutting, they were afraid that a student would begin cutting again," Suzen Polk-Hoffses, a pre-K teacher in Milbridge, Maine, said of her colleagues' concerns. 

"Students were learning in isolation, then they came back, and they're overwhelmed, and they've experienced a trauma," she continued. "And unfortunately, all schools aren't equipped to deal with the trauma that the students have experienced during the pandemic." 

Seventy percent of U.S. public schools have reported an increase in students seeking mental health services since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) on June 1. The same study, conducted between April 12 and April 25, found that more than three-quarters (76%) of public schools reported an increase in concerns from staff regarding their students' depression, anxiety and trauma since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Some academic experts responded to NPR by arguing their reporting was delayed, with one teacher referring to it as "gaslighting." 

"File this in the ever-growing file of things we warned about 2 years ago but were ignored, cancelled, and shunned for," radio host Phil Holloway tweeted.

High school teacher Dan Buck said he wished he didn't have to say, "told ya so" after reading the report.

"This, which everyone paying attention knew was coming for two years, being spoken about as if a revelation, feels a little like gaslighting," Wisconsin public school teacher James A. Fury tweeted.

"For two years, many teachers and education writers (such as Robert Pondiscio or Daniel Buck) have been warning about learning loss and other ill-effects of school shutdowns all while more established media has all but ignored it or, in a gaslighting fashion, commented on the effectiveness of online learning or praised schools for the decision to stay shut down, ignoring the negative consequences in favor of a narrative in which we're protecting everyone," Fury told Fox News Digital. "Now, left-leaning publications such as NPR are turning around to report on the effects of the shutdowns on students, ignoring voices who were speaking about this since the pandemic's beginning." 

Fury joined others in hitting the NPR piece for also appearing to center on teachers instead of the students, which Fury said "feeds into the ever-growing (within the profession at least) narrative of teacher-as-martyr." 

https://www.foxnews.com/media/educators-respond-to-npr-report-on-covid-19-impact-on-student-development-told-ya-so

******************************************

Parents’ Guide to Children’s Rights Aims to Save America’s Public Schools From CRT

“The most important battleground in the fight to save our American republic is the public schools.” 

So says Kimberly Hermann, general counsel at the Southeastern Legal Foundation, in the introduction to the foundation’s guide for parents, “Your Child’s Rights and What to Do About Them: A Parent’s Guide to Saving America’s Public Schools.” 

Hermann’s outlook is increasingly common among anyone taking stock of the proliferation of lessons on critical race theory (a radical worldview that advocates for the primacy of racial identity) in public school curriculums. And her foundation, a national nonprofit law firm that has litigated numerous cases arising in public schools and universities, is ready to persuade anyone else who will listen.  

Renewed interest in curricular content is not coming from conservative quarters alone—parents of various political stripes have been galvanized by their children’s encounters with critical race theory-based lessons to oppose its dominance in classrooms. That’s the audience the Southeastern Legal Foundation addresses in its guide—those who “have had enough.” 

Why should any parent feel they’ve had enough of critical race theory? To many parents, the theory’s doctrines of “white supremacy” and black/brown victimhood are anathema to their civic or religious convictions on the nature of the person, his or her agency, and the sources of his or her goodness, guilt, and redemption. 

To others, critical race theory is just a time- and resource-intensive distraction from their schools’ persistent failure to bring students somewhere near a grade-level competence in reading and mathematics. 

Fair-minded parents can and should be skeptical of the pedagogic value in a theory that dismisses “legal reasoning” and “rationalism” as mere instruments of white supremacy. After all, critical race theory-based impulses led the Smithsonian to opine that “objective, rational linear thinking” was only an “assumption of whiteness.”   

Yet for all the legitimate concern parents feel when they find this racialist thinking in their child’s homework, there is often a gap between their desire to oppose critical race theory-based instruction and their ability to advocate effectively for that outcome. The foundation’s guide is meant to bridge that gap with introductions to the core legal concepts in play when a public school introduces a critical race theory-based curriculum.

The foundation’s “Parent’s Guide” begins by briefly engaging the threshold question: What is critical race theory? It’s a broad heading, covering the writings of legal activists who have wedged racial antagonisms into Marxism’s framework for class warfare.

Their views vary in the particulars, and their jargoned texts go mostly unread outside of academia. But what is transmitted to younger students comes from the core areas of agreement, which the Southeastern Legal Foundation summarizes as follows: “CRT holds that America was founded on white supremacy and oppression, and that racism is embedded in America’s legal system, government policy, and the Constitution.”

In a strange twist, however, theorists believe that discrimination is still necessary today. Black Americans do not hold enough power, though, and that’s one of the primary reasons, theorists say, that America is not to be reformed, but remade. 

That principle, incendiary as it is, is perfectly at home in the media musings of critical race theory’s most prominent practitioners. It is a bracing reminder that critical race theory is not a program of reform and reconciliation, nor is it a project to promote historical awareness. Rather, it is a self-consciously revolutionary ideology that inspires its adherents to view much of the society in which they live with open contempt.

While critical race theory’s core axioms are revolutionary, it has somewhat subtler presentations. The foundation’s guide notes several of the anodyne headings—social justice, implicit bias, anti-racism, etc.—under which critical race theory appears in classroom materials. Critical race theory may be taught as a stand-alone topic, but advocates insert it, albeit awkwardly, into every subject, even the hard sciences, where the attempted applications seem most absurd. 

Surely, the breadth of critical race theory’s pretensions, its vigorous self-importance, is part of what provokes a visceral reaction from parents. 

Wherever critical race theory lessons are taught, the question of how they are taught and how school officials apply the theory in school activities are the most relevant from a legal perspective. The Southeastern Legal Foundation acquaints parents with the scope of students’ First Amendment speech rights, which are lawfully restricted, but not extinguished, in educational environments. Most noteworthy are the concepts of compelled speech and hate speech. 

Just as students have a right to express their views in class, they enjoy a corresponding right to refrain from expressing views that are not theirs. This is a boundary that critical race theory-based lessons can easily transgress, given that they often require performative confessions of one’s status as “privileged” or “oppressed.” But no school official is permitted to compel students to adopt any views on a subject as fraught as socio-historical “privilege.” 

As then-Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson memorably put it in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette in 1943, “[i]f there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.” 

If that maxim applies to the promotion of patriotic devotion to country, as it did in Barnette, then it applies to “anti-racist pledges” and critical theories teaching that this republic is a continuing experiment in ever-more insidious forms of racial discrimination.

Concerning so-called hate speech, the foundation reminds parents that the very idea remains almost alien to First Amendment law, and the subjectively offensive nature of a student’s speech does not make it permissible for school authorities to restrict it.

As the Supreme Court reiterated in 2017, “Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend.” Instead, the foundation explains that before a school can lawfully restrict a student’s “hateful” speech, that speech must “substantially disrupt” the school environment.

Other examples in the foundation’s guide cover questions of student privacy rights, parental consent, and parental oversight as they may be implicated by critical race theory-based lessons. But one point among them bears emphasizing: For parents concerned with critical race theory in schools, teachers are often allies, not enemies. 

Though teachers may be the ones foisting racially obsessed lessons on students, just as often they are as disturbed as parents with curriculums and class materials purchased by administrators and school boards from outside advocacy groups. The foundation has represented such teachers in litigation, including one in Illinois who complained that her school was separating teachers and students into race-based groups for school activities.

Concerned parents, especially those looking for a non-litigated solution, would do well to enlist the help of sympathetic teachers.

Despite laudable efforts in the public charter school, private school choice, and homeschooling movements, a large portion of the nation’s families still rely on public schools to educate their children. Thus, there’s much at risk if conservatives abandon this arena. 

When critical race theory is taught in grade schools, it’s delivered to an audience that has scarcely learned the vision of America that this theory is meant to supplant. What our public schools implant in young minds can’t be easily dislodged later.

And everything students learn afterward, in college or the workplace, they will interpret with the first set of tools they learned to use. So, if public school students are taught from kindergarten onward that racial grievance is the key to understanding history, politics, and their own daily social interactions, can we expect them to bring some other perspective to the tasks of adulthood?

Hermann and her colleagues are highlighting an important truth, something that has always been true about public schools: These schools are important settings for instruction, debate, and the transmission of values, and are the battlefields that will determine our nation’s future.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/06/13/parents-guide-to-childrens-rights-aims-to-save-americas-public-schools-from-crt

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

24 June, 2022

A Supreme win for school choice

In a win for parents and school-choice advocates, the US Supreme Court overturned a Maine law Tuesday that denied religious schools access to state tuition assistance available to students attending secular private institutions.

Maine created the program to give options to kids living in areas without public schools — but excluded faith-based institutions from those options.

The high court ruled 6-3 that the prohibition “penalizes the free exercise” of religion in Maine by excluding “otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise.” In other words, discriminating against all religious education is discriminating against religion, period.

In 2020, the court ruled similarly that states allowing public money to be used in private education can’t deny religious schools access to those programs. In that case, the court struck down Montana’s “Blaine Amendment” (a provision also imposed in New York and dozens of other states, on nakedly anti-Catholic grounds, back in the 19th century) barring public funds from being spent on religious institutions.

The new ruling’s not just a clear win for the three Maine families that wanted the state aid to help their kids attend the (religious) schools of their choice, but likely to force change in the 18 states that still have Blaine Amendments on the books.

The more school choice, the better for students across America ill-served by regular public-school systems. Heck, the competition can only force the public schools to up their game, too — which is something the nation desperately needs.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/21/a-supreme-win-for-school-choice/

********************************************

Confucius Institutes Closing, but Chinese Influence Operations Continue on College Campuses

When an organization becomes unpopular, it rebrands, but that doesn’t necessarily mean its mission or product has fundamentally changed.

That was the message of a panel of experts at a discussion Tuesday at The Heritage Foundation on the recent widespread closures of so-called Confucius Institutes on American college campuses. 

Founded in 2004, Confucius Institutes are “cultural” centers that operate on college campuses and are funded by China. In the past few years, they’ve come under increased scrutiny as operations of Chinese state influence.

Under then-President Donald Trump, Confucius Institutes were placed under scrutiny by various agencies, including the State Department and the FBI. At the end of 2020, the Trump administration submitted a rule at the Department of Homeland Security requiring that U.S. universities disclose their connection to Confucius Institutes.

In just a few years, most Confucius Institutes have shut down or begun the process of doing so.

However, the Biden administration rescinded the Confucius Institute disclosure policy less than a month later, despite objections by Republican lawmakers, and the heightened risk of Chinese influence remains.

At Tuesday’s Heritage Foundation event, “After Confucius Institutes: China’s Enduring Influence on American Higher Education,” panelists explained the threat that Chinese Communist Party influence continues to represent in American education.

Experts said that despite many Confucius Institutes closing in the past few years, Chinese influence operations in American schools, in both higher education and K-12, continue.

Walter Lohman, director of the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation, explained in his opening remarks that the Confucius Institutes were not like other cultural and language exchange programs established in the United States. They are instead intended as a vehicle to project Chinese “national power” and are essentially “propaganda outlets.”

Even though Confucius Institutes have been shutting down, new organizations that function nearly the same way have emerged in their place. They’ve rebranded, but retained their function of promoting the interests of the Chinese Communist Party in the United States.

“With Confucius Institutes around the country being shut down … I think most of us thought the job was done. We could move on,” Lohman said. “But of course, the job can never be done, and stemming these sorts of influence operations will be an ongoing challenge, requiring eternal vigilance as long as the Chinese Communist Party is in power.”

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., spoke at the event about how China’s regime imperils America’s future, and that’s an issue that must be a top priority.

“America cannot both control its own destiny in the century ahead and ignore the threat the Chinese Communist Party poses to our long-term viability as a nation,” he said.

The Indiana lawmaker said that one of the big misconceptions about the competition between China and the United States is that that rivalry is being conducted in secret. It isn’t; it’s being conducted in plain view, he said. In particular, the congressman pointed to the United Front Work Department, which partnered with Confucius Institutes and conducts various influence operations in the U.S.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department’s mission is to influence foreigners and foreign institutions and especially those in America, and their work can be seen on college campuses all over the country,” Banks said.

The United Front typically targets universities with strong STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programs, he said.

Banks cited several examples in which the Chinese Communist Party conducted espionage through its connection to university programs. That included a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles covertly sending missile technology back to China.

“President [Donald] Trump led the effort to take Chinese espionage attempts seriously. During his administration, he was the first president to actually do so,” the Indiana lawmaker said. That included sanctioning the United Front for the first time.

Banks lauded policies and leadership during the Trump era that led to 104 of the 118 Confucius Institutes closing or beginning the process of closing by the end of 2022.

However, Banks said that the Biden administration “fundamentally does not understand the China threat and has undone in a year and a half much of the progress that was done under President Trump.”

Keith Whitaker, chairman of the National Association of Scholars, called the Confucius Institutes the “beachheads of Chinese influence on higher education” that came under deep scrutiny since his and other organizations began uncovering their true nature. Many of them “appeared” to close, he said.

The problem, however, is twofold, Whitaker explained. It’s not just a problem that higher education in America has been influenced by China’s communist regime, but that it has showed such openness to its influence. Whitaker faulted university administrators for that, rather than professors.

Rachelle Peterson, a research fellow at the National Association of Scholars, said that the Chinese Communist Party is attempting to sidestep scrutiny of Confucius Institutes by rebranding and slightly restructuring to make them seem like new organizations.

“The Chinese government is betting that if it takes away the name ‘Confucius Institute’ and tweaks the structure of the program, no one will be the wiser,” she said.

Often, a Confucius Institute is rebranded as a Center for Language Education and Cooperation.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/06/21/confucius-institutes-closing-but-chinese-influence-operations-continue-on-college-campuses/

**********************************************

Australia: Qld kids failing to meet basic literacy, numeracy targets

Queensland children are failing to meet basic literacy and numeracy targets, with new data showing the alarming levels state school students are falling behind.

This week’s state government budget papers have revealed in every instance, Queensland state school students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 missed the department’s targets on the percentage of students meeting the national minimum standard in reading, writing and numeracy.

The 2021-2022 statistics showed older students were falling behind the furthest, with less than 90 per cent of year 7 students meeting the minimum standard for numeracy, well below the 96 per cent target. Just 82.9 per cent of year 9 students met the standard for reading, compared with a target of 90 per cent.

Writing also proved to be an area of concern with just 72 per cent of year 9 students achieving the minimum standard – compared with a target of 86 per cent – and 83.4 per cent of year 7 students, against a target of 92 per cent.

Indigenous student levels were also below the department’s targets of students hitting the national minimum standards in key numeracy and literacy areas.

Less than half of all year 9 Indigenous students met the national minimum standard for writing, well short of the target of 69 per cent. Just two thirds of year 9 Indigenous students met the national minimum standard for reading, against a target of 78 per cent.

LNP education spokesman Christian Rowan said the results were “extremely concerning”. 

“More worrying still, there is no comprehensive plan from the state government to address this steady decline,” Dr Rowan said. “Queensland’s students, parents, teachers and school staff deserve a world-class education system that exceeds targets.”

But Education Minister Grace Grace commended students and staff for grappling with the “incredibly challenging circumstances” during the Covid-19 pandemic, and insisted NAPLAN results proved there had been “significant improvements”.

“Online learning, staying home when sick, and isolating as close contacts have all had an impact,” she said.

“We make no apologies for setting ambitious and stretching targets, many of which we are very close to achieving after consistent improvements over a number of years.”

The state government also missed its employment and training targets with thousands of students failing to complete apprenticeships or traineeships.

About 3400 fewer students completed their studies than expected, and just 79 per cent of graduates were able to gain employment or continue studies – well below the targeted 87 per cent. Only 73 per cent of employers were happy with apprentices and trainees – below the targeted 83 per cent.

The proportion of Queenslanders with higher qualifications reached 64.9 per cent, above the 62 per cent target.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/education-queensland/qld-kids-failing-to-meet-basic-literacy-numeracy-targets/news-story/5be2d9dfed95829b4ba26a2af9cdc3d4

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

22 June, 2022

The definitive proof critical race theory is being taught in our schools

Parent and America First Legal senior adviser Ian Prior says they won't tell you, but their interest is we need to get to them when they're young, before they have fully developed brains and can look at this and say, wait, this is ridiculous.

The war against parental rights is happening at school districts in every corner of America. "Equity consultants" are making millions of dollars off the back of taxpayers to train teachers to view everything through the lens of critical race theory, and then transform education by applying those lessons through teaching children that America’s institutions, monuments, traditions, holidays, language, and foundational principles are systemically, irredeemably racist. 

America as we know it must be disrupted and dismantled for a more "just" society.

What woke Americans up was the transparency brought forth through the COVID pandemic lockdowns. For the first time, as their children participated in remote learning, many parents were able to look behind the curtain and see that schools were no longer focused on giving children the educational building blocks to succeed in the real world – math, science, reading, and writing. Rather, schools have embraced a new role of changing the belief system of children, regardless of what their parents want.

As a groundswell of parents started to speak out, the left, its media allies, and even our nation’s top law enforcement agencies went into overdrive to treat these parents as racist rubes.

Throughout this debate, we have heard that "critical race theory is simply a way to learn about the past" that "critical race theory is not taught in elementary schools or high schools" and that it is merely "teaching accurate history" and is only taught in law school and college.

America First Legal acquired narrative-shattering documents as part of its litigation against the Tredyffrin/Easttown Area School District (TESD) in Pennsylvania. They prove – unequivocally – the left’s dishonest gaslighting. Indeed, critical race theory is being taught in schools. 

This past winter, TESD parent Ben Auslander exercised his legal right to inspect the documents from teacher trainings that were being used by TESD. The teacher trainings were developed by The Pacific Educational Group, a consulting organization that relies on its "Framework for Systemic Racial Equity Transformation" to contract with school districts and corporations that want to be more woke.

While inspecting the documents, Auslander began making voice notes of what he was reading. When the administrator for TESD saw this, he told Auslander that this was a copyright violation and ended the inspection.

On Auslander’s behalf, America First Legal filed a lawsuit against the district in federal court for violating his First Amendment rights. Through that litigation, we were able to acquire the treasure trove of teacher training materials that TESD and PEG had tried so hard to hide.

Those documents show that critical race theory is absolutely being implemented to transform public schools.

The slides demonstrate that the application of critical race theory by teachers is crucial to a "School Transformation Action Plan" and that the intersection of critical race theory with "schooling" is the key to systemic change.

That is why teachers at TESD were instructed on the five tenets of critical race theory and asked to examine issues through those lenses and apply the lessons learned through that examination to achieve "equity." The tenets are "counter-storytelling," "the permanence of racism," "whiteness as property," "interest convergence," and "critique of liberalism."

Specifically, in the "critique of liberalism," teachers were encouraged to deconstruct and challenge colorblindness, race neutrality, incremental change, equality vs. equity, and the myth of meritocracy. 

Notably, nowhere in the presentation is there any discussion of "true history" – rather, it is all theory and bankrupt, race-based Marxist philosophy.

But the training goes even further when it asks teachers "What Does It Mean To Be White?" 

In this section, it takes dozens of traits like the following and assigns them to "whiteness":

-"Whites are taught to see themselves as individuals, rather than as part of a racial group."

-"Independence and autonomy highly valued and rewarded."

-"Be polite."

-"Must always ‘do something’ about a situation."

-"Hard work is the key to success" and "work before play."

-"Emphasis on scientific method."

-"Adherence to rigid time schedules" and "plan for the future."

-"Nuclear family (father, mother, 2.3 children) is the ideal social unit."

This is racism defined. 

First, it assigns specific traits to people of a particular skin color – white. 

Second, it assumes that non-white individuals do not also value and exhibit those traits because of a different skin color.

Unfortunately, these trainings are not limited to one school district or one consultant. In fact, much of the controversy in Loudoun County, Virginia last year can be traced back to the hiring of the Equity Collaborative, an equity consultant whose CEO who once worked for the Pacific Educational Group and similarly trains teachers to apply critical race theory to their work. 

What we are witnessing is taxpayer-funded consultants and woke school systems using terms like "equity" and "culturally responsive teaching" to hide from parents a very dangerous philosophy that is not only anti-American, but seeks to undo Age of Enlightenment concepts like free will, individual liberty, Constitutional jurisprudence, and the scientific method.

To fight back, America will need more parents to stand up, take legal action and protect their rights to have a say in their child’s education. 

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/proof-critical-race-theory-taught-schools

**************************************************

US Army teaching Critical Race Theory to West Point cadets: report

The US Army has introduced Critical Race Theory to West Point cadets, new documents show, according to Fox News Digital.

The “woke” lessons ask cadets about whiteness while encouraging them to apply Critical Race Theory to their answers, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch and given to Fox News.

The more than 600 documents were only handed over to Judicial Watch after the conservative organization sued the Department of Defense.

“Our military is under attack – from within,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a press release.

“These documents show racist, anti-American CRT propaganda is being used to try to radicalize our rising generation of Army leadership at West Point.”

According to Fox News, a slide that delved into “Whiteness” states: “In order to understand racial inequality and slavery, it is first necessary to address whiteness” and the “Take-for-grantedness of whiteness.”

The slide also claims whiteness “is a location of structural advantage, of race privilege,” is “a standpoint or place from which white people look at themselves and the rest of society” and “refers to a set of cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed.”

Another slide addresses affirmative action and asks “Do you think Affirmative Action creates an environment for ‘reverse discrimination? Use CRT to support your answer.”

A slide also poses the question “how would you apply a tenant of CRT to this idea,” referring to the difference between desegregation and integration.

In another slide, under Critical Race Theory, it states, “racism is ordinary” and “White Americans have primarily benefited from civil rights legislation.”

An additional slide has a graphic that states “Modern Slavery in the USA” with accompanying statements that say black people are less likely than white people to have a college education, receive recommended medical screenings, receive a bank approval for a mortgage or get promoted at a job.

It also states black people are more likely than white people to live in poverty, be homicide victims or be incarcerated.

Judicial Watch uploaded all the documents it obtained from its FOIA request in its press release.

A slide labeled “Educating Future Officers for the Modern Battlefield” states: “Regardless of personal views, future leaders need to understand arguments on controversial issues and need to be prepared to thoughtfully answer questions when Soldiers ask about topics in the news, such as Critical Race Theory (CRT).”

It also states “both CRT and criticisms of it as a theory comprise two lessons in one Social Sciences elective (non-core) course.”

https://nypost.com/2022/06/20/west-point-cadets-being-taught-critical-race-theory-report/

********************************************

Australian Premier introduces a LAW instructing schools to teach students about the 'trauma' of white colonisation

Schools will teach kids about the 'significant trauma' of white colonisation, commemorate 'Sorry Day' and fly the Aboriginal flag under new laws in Victoria. 

Premier Dan Andrews said he expected every school to adopt the reconciliation initiatives and that every year level would take part. 

'Being reconciled is just that. You can't be reconciled if you're not prepared to acknowledge some pretty awful stuff that happened in the past,' Mr Andrews said on Tuesday.

'It's about making sure that everybody feels equal, everybody feels included and everybody feels safe.' 'I think it might be the whole school and I don't see anything wrong with that.' 

Victorian Opposition leader Matthew Guy said it was important for kids to learn about history but it must be done carefully not to create division in children. 'It is important that they do learn lessons of fact from the past, but that is done respectfully,' he said.  'When it involves kids, we've got to make sure that we're not pitting one against the other.'

The new legal standards require that from next term all educational facilities including universities and high schools but also primary schools, kindergartens and childcare centres provide a 'culturally inclusive' environment. 

This includes a recognition that will affect teaching frameworks that 'Australia's colonial history has caused significant trauma and hurt that individuals, families and communities still feel'.

Days marking significant reconciliation steps will also be commemorated including Close the Gap Day on March 18, Mabo Day on June 3, and Sorry Day on May 26. 

National Close the Gap day, held annually since 2009, is part of a social justice campaign advocating for equality and the health of First Nations people. 

Mabo Day marks the concept of 'terra nullius' or land belonging to noone being overturned in a legal case which gave Indigenous Australians land rights. 

While Sorry Day notes the apology issued by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the 'stolen generations' who were removed from their families and communities and raised in colonial settings.  

In addition to the national days, schools will be encouraged to display plaques noting traditional ownership and take steps to respect Indigenous culture and stamp out racism. 

The standards will also apply to government departments, hospitals, councils and also to businesses where children attend such as play gyms and party venues. 

The new laws are part of revised Child Safe Standards overseen by the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People. 

Principal commissioner Liana Buchanan said compliance would be achieved by working with and supporting educational facilities as well as sanctions for those lagging behind.

New laws to create an independent authority to oversee Victoria's treaty negotiations are also set to pass with bipartisan support.

The Victorian coalition initially reserved backing the Treaty Authority Bill after the Andrews government introduced it in state parliament a fortnight ago. But Opposition Leader Matthew Guy confirmed the Liberals and Nationals would vote for the bill without amendment after a joint partyroom meeting on Tuesday morning.  'We'll be supporting the legislation when it comes to parliament tomorrow,' he told reporters.

'Reconciliation is a topic that should be around uniting Australians ... that's why this is an important step.'

The Victorian coalition announced its support for treaty negotiations in May after Mr Guy suggested a federal process would 'make more sense' before the 2018 state election.

Liberal MP Tim Smith, who will not recontest his seat in November after a drink-driving crash, said he does not support 'illiberal and divisive tokenism' and will vote against the legislation. 'I will be crossing the floor,' he tweeted.

Shadow Aboriginal affairs minister Peter Walsh would not say if Mr Smith or others spoke out against the bill in the partyroom. 'Tim, as an individual, is entitled to his opinions,' he said.

If the legislation passes, as expected, the treaty authority will have legal powers to oversee treaty talks and resolve any disputes between the state government and the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria.

It will be led by Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people elected by an independent panel and be grounded in culture, lore and law.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10936571/Daniel-Andrews-introduces-LAW-schools-teach-students-white-colonisation.html

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

21 June, 2022

UK: PM 'could back plan to build a new generation of selective grammar schools' and overturn ban

<i>In the UK, Grammar schools are State-funded selective schools.  They give educational opportunity to bright children from poor backgrounds.  I benefited from an Australian policy that gave educational opportunity to bright children from poor backgrounds -- JR  </i>

Boris Johnson is under pressure from Tory MPs to lift the 24-year-old ban on new grammar schools when he brings forward fresh schools legislation later this year.

Senior Conservative backbencher Sir Graham Brady is ready to table an amendment to the forthcoming Schools Bill when it reaches the House of Commons.

This would lift the ban on new grammar schools being created that was brought in by ex-Labour prime minister Tony Blair in 1998.

According to The Times, Mr Johnson could support the backbench campaign to lift the ban, or even table plans of his own on allowing new grammar schools.

The Prime Minister's senior aide David Canzini is said to view the issue as a new dividing line with Labour.

A Conservative source also told the newspaper that Mr Johnson would not be able to withstand a Tory rebellion in the Commons, if he tried to block the backbench move.

Labour claimed that Downing Street considering lifting the ban on new grammar schools showed the Tories were 'out of ideas' after 12 years in power.

They also criticised the move for being focussed on saving the PM's future, after his battering by Tory rebels in a recent no confidence vote. 

There are currently 163 grammar schools in England, with a total of around 176,000 pupils. 

Senior Conservative backbencher Sir Graham Brady is ready to table an amendment to the forthcoming Schools Bill when it reaches the House of Commons

The New Labour government banned the creation of new selective schools, but Mr Blair steered away from shutting down those that already existed.

Mr Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, had previously planned to overturn the ban on new grammar schools but shelved her ambition when she lost her Commons majority after the 2017 general election.

Sir Graham, the chair of the Tories' powerful 1922 Committee, is a long-time supporter of grammar schools and a former student at Altrincham Grammar School for Boys.

He said: 'After 12 years of Conservative-led government it is really very odd that we still have a statutory ban on any new selective schools.

'At the very least lifting that ban would provide freedom and flexibility for people where there is demand.'

Support for overturning the 1998 ban has also been found among 'Red Wall' Tory MPs elected at the 2019 general election.

Stoke-on-Trent North MP Jonathan Gullis suggested the move could help Mr Johnson with his 'levelling up' agenda.

He said: 'By lifting Labour’s ban, we can spread opportunity fairly across the country and turbocharge social mobility in places like Teesside and Ashfield which we are determined to level up.'

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/uknews/pm-could-back-plan-to-build-a-new-generation-of-selective-grammar-schools-and-overturn-ban/ar-AAYFbeh?li=AAaeSy5

*******************************************************

University tries to suppress openly conservative student

A graduate student who obtained her master’s degree in May has filed a lawsuit against an Illinois college. The student claims she was disciplined for sharing her conservative and Christian beliefs with students and teachers who had opposing viewpoints.

Maggie DeJong enrolled in a master’s degree in Art Therapy Counseling at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, in May 2022, after graduating magna cum laude from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2018.

Art therapy, a mental health profession combining art and psychotherapy, is a minor field with only a few thousand professionals.

She shared her Christian beliefs and Conservative viewpoints with fellow students and professors throughout the first few years. Despite their differences from the majority of her peers, they seemed to get along pretty smoothly.

All of that changed just a few months before Ms. DeJong was to get her master’s degree. She received three “no contact” orders from school administrators without any warning or complaint from any professor or fellow student.

“I was alarmed when I had received three no-contact orders that prevented me from having direct or indirect communication with these three students,” DeJong said Friday during an appearance on “Fox & Friends First”. She and an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, Tyson Langhoffer, spoke about the censorship she endured earlier this year.

“Essentially, they were restraining orders that applied to on and off-campus,” she declared.

The ADF sued Randall G. Pembrook, the university’s former chancellor, Equal Opportunity Director Jamie Ball, and Megan Robb, the Program Director of the Art Therapy Counseling Graduate Program, on behalf of DeJong.

After a few fellow graduate students complained that DeJong’s opinions and social media posts “harmed” them, school officials basically tried to suppress her, the ADF says.

According to court documents, Ms. DeJong does not support Black Lives Matter (Racist Hate Group) because of the organization’s call to “destroy the Western-prescribed nuclear family.” She shared information critical of BLM on her social media platforms, including a link to a Black Lives Matter (Racist Hate Group) paper titled “What We Believe.”

Several of her teachers and classmates backed the BLM and joined calls to defund police, believing that they were systemically racist.

In February 2021, the art student came to class wearing a hat with a black and white American flag with a single thin blue line stripe. According to court filings, she wore the “Back the Blue” hat to show her support for law enforcement.

“Defendant Robb noted during class that Ms. DeJong was wearing the hat and asked her to explain why she was wearing it,” her lawyers informed the court. “Ms. DeJong said that she was wearing the hat to show her support for law enforcement and explained her belief that defunding the police would hurt society.”

DeJong refused to remove the hat, despite the fact that some students claimed it was a sign of oppression and that she was a racist for wearing it.

Professor Robb mentioned in class months later that DeJong had previously worn a blue-lives-matter hat. DeJong’s peers described the headgear as “unsafe,” comparing it to someone eating peanut butter near someone who has a peanut allergy.

One of the students who submitted a complaint against DeJong was “S.W.” “We all have to censor ourselves because we have to keep the peace,” she allegedly said. “We must act in the best interests of the wider public.”

Robb allegedly added that DeJong was entitled to her viewpoint “unless it harms others.”

Defendant Ball issued three no-contact orders against Ms. DeJong on February 10, 2022, relating to Students A.S., T.P., and S.W.

Ms. DeJong was forbidden from having “any contact” or even “indirect communication” with the Student under each order.

“This Order is not an indication of responsibility for a violation of University policy;” noted former chancellor Pembrook, “rather, it is intended to prevent interactions that could be perceived by either party as unwelcome, retaliatory, intimidating, or harassing.”

DeJong was told that “if at any time” Ms. DeJong “need[ed] to communicate” with the complainant, “you may do so only through me or a third party explicitly authorized by me.”

Each of the three directives included a copy of Lieutenant Adam Severit of the SIUE Police Department.

Her lawyers wrote to Pembrook on February 23, requesting that the no-contact order be lifted.

Orders were issued on February 28. DeJong found out about the claims against her on March 10.

On May 31, she filed a lawsuit against the college administrators in the Southern District of Illinois District Court.

https://dailyallegiant.com/why-this-christian-student-is-suing-her-college-will-make-your-blood-boil/

*********************************************

Australia: Bondi school parents slam decision to ban outdoor play before class

<i>Power-mad bureaucrats at work</i>

Frustrated parents have lashed a decision by Bondi Beach Public School to prohibit outdoor play before school, warning that children are missing out on vital exercise and interaction after months of disruption.

In a letter sent to a parent who raised concerns about limiting outdoor play on school grounds, Paul Owens, from the Bondi Principals Network, said the principal and school executive was “evaluating a focus on quieter and semi-active social interaction prior to morning classes”.

“This initiative responds to playground observations, incidents that may arise, and students’ preparedness for learning once they’ve entered classrooms,” the letter said.

But parents said restricting students from using the playground before school started was causing consternation, with many worried that limiting outdoor play would cut back on critical exercise and interaction with other classes and year groups.

“There has been little discussion between the school principal about the restrictions or changes to when children can play in the school playground,” a parent said, who has a child in a senior primary year and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“None of the parents I have come across at the school thinks no play outdoors before school is a good idea,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said the “initiative has been implemented on a short-term basis in response to school leadership and teacher observations of playground interactions and students’ preparedness for learning once they entered classrooms”.

The Herald understands Bondi Beach Public is the only school in the area trialling a routine to limit before school outdoor play.

“The trial is one of a number of strategies Bondi Beach Public School has implemented to support positive classroom behaviour and learning. Other examples include having two breaks in the day of a similar length where children can engage in active play if they wish,” the spokesperson said.

“Wellbeing data, student comments, and teacher observations, show the trial is having a positive impact.”

Another parent, who has had three children attend the school over 10 years, said there was concern that children were being “forced to sit quietly in classrooms before the school day starts”.

Annie Robin, a parent whose son is in year 4, said after months of COVID-19 disruptions students need to “socialise with other year groups”.

“My main frustration is the kids aren’t learning to put out fires themselves and deal with conflict in the school playground – they need to be around other kids. They need to be running around burning energy,” she said. “Parents are really upset about this.”

Under the latest COVID-19 advice, schools are not required to keep students in their class or year group cohorts and there is no need to stagger start and finish times. Schools can also run activities and assemblies with mixed year groups.

Another parent, with two children in different years at Bondi Beach Public, said many restrictions introduced during the pandemic have stayed in place.

“There is indignation in the community. Before COVID-19 kids could show up at school from 8.30am and play in the school yard before the bell went,” the parent said. “All stages mixed and it was very sociable. But many of the COVID-19 rules have been kept and it’s just hindering kids interaction which is so important while they are preparing for high school.”

In a letter to a parent the Bondi Principals Network said the “positive impact of the current routine will be seen over time and therefore, [principal] Ms O’Neill explained the evaluation will not be finalised until the end of the year”.

“Ms O’Neill will provide an update to parents once feedback has allowed for appropriate conclusions to be drawn,” the letter said.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/bondi-school-parents-slam-decision-to-ban-outdoor-play-before-class-20220615-p5atv1.html

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

20 June, 2022

Elite NYC private schools are teaching kids that American society must be destroyed

Ryan Finlay is a brave young man. A senior at the elite private Horace Mann School, Finlay last week published a pointed but measured essay describing the aggressive political bias that’s dominated his education on the Bronx campus, where generations of famous and well-connected New Yorkers, from Jack Kerouac to Eliot Spitzer, have matriculated or sent their children.

Faculty “feel obligated to open students’ eyes to the inequality that surrounds them,” Finlay explained, but that takes the form of “continuous pressure in the classroom to embrace visions of wholesale societal reform.”

The message, hammered relentlessly into students’ heads at Horace Mann, is that “the system is broken, unable to be reformed, rotten to the core, and deserving of demolition,” he wrote.

The irony of hyper-privileged New Yorkers paying nearly $60,000 a year for their children to learn they are the undeserving beneficiaries of a broken system need not be dwelled upon here. Finlay’s essay breaks the self-imposed conspiracy of silence that has largely shielded top private schools from criticism from within.

There have been rare exceptions of dissident teachers like Paul Rossi of the Grace School and “Brearley Dad” Andrew Gutmann, who blow the whistle on private-school indoctrination. But few are willing to do so publicly. The largely unquestioned proposition is that private prep schools are the gateway to elite universities and America’s leadership class, an academic arms race famously described in a New York magazine cover story 25 years ago as “Give me Harvard, or give me death.”

This explains how the parent body of these schools can be sloppy with C-suite executives and boldface names from media, film and television who grow unaccountably meek and humble in the face of private-school admissions officers and headmasters despite their aggressive, Type A personalities in every other facet of their lives. 

Finlay’s very public essay is a tacit rebuke to parents, like those at the exclusive Dalton School, who penned an open letter complaining that “love of learning and teaching is now being abandoned in favor of an ‘anti-racist’ curriculum” but were too timid to sign their names to the seven-page complaint.

Wealthy parents can afford to purchase billboards anonymously demanding elite private schools teach their kids “how to think, not what to think.” But they cannot afford to put at risk their children’s shot at the Ivy League, so they sit and seethe, lest their children be deemed not a good fit and “counseled out.”

The more troubling picture Finlay paints is of a drifting and deeply anti-intellectual institution. It’s a devastating strike at the heart of another story affluent parents comfort themselves with: that the obscene price they pay for elite private school is not about protecting their privilege. Given the chaotic state of public education, there’s simply no other way for children to get a rich and stimulating education. But Finlay makes clear, the object of social justice-related curricula at Horace Mann “is not for the material to be challenged, but absorbed without question.”

The real lesson students are learning is not critical thinking and deep engagement with ideas. It’s self-censorship and risk assessment. “It’s not worth jeopardizing academic success at HM in exchange for political expression,” he concludes.

In the end, exclusive private schools have led themselves into a box canyon from which there can be no honest escape. Like an organism that devours its host, their commitment to equity, inclusivity and “dismantling privilege” requires that privileged New Yorkers continue spending north of half a million dollars in tuition for their children to learn that their privileges are unearned and undeserved.

And what reason do elite universities’ admissions offices have to continue to look favorably upon prep school graduates when they too are committed to equity? Surely an Ivy League acceptance letter is wasted on someone who was born on third base.

Unless, of course, it’s all a cynical exercise with all involved — parents and faculty alike — believing their professed commitment to social justice insures them against practicing what they preach.

Because let’s be honest. There’s really only one surefire way for elite private schools to demonstrate their commitment to dismantling privilege: Close their doors and cease operations.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/16/elite-nyc-private-schools-are-teaching-kids-to-hate-america/

*********************************************

CRT and LGBT in the Classroom: Americans Have Had Enough

The U.S. education system appears to have been hijacked by people with a specific agenda. Actual education has been replaced by indoctrination, teachers replaced by activists pushing nefarious agendas.

Young children are being exposed to provocative, highly-sexualized content. They’re also being encouraged to question their privilege and supposedly racist roots.

However, all is not lost. More and more Americans are speaking up against the madness. They have had enough. According to the latest University of Massachusetts Amherst Poll, an increasing number of Americans want the insanity, or the slide into insanity, to stop—and they want it to stop now.

The vast majority of respondents stated that teachers asking children in grades K-6 for their preferred gender pronouns was wrong. The vast majority also said they were against the idea of assigning children in grades K-6 books that discuss transgender issues. They also opposed the idea of teachers discussing their sexual orientation with young children.

Commenting on the poll, author Don Surber had this to say: “LGBT classes are indoctrination, not education.” The same could be said about CRT classes. As Surber noted, although “CRT proponents claim this is only taught in college, they should have no problem with banning teaching a racist and anti-American doctrine that seeks to discredit the Constitution.” But, for some strange reason, “proof of CRT instruction in schools keeps popping up.”

Surber finished by asking a pertinent question: “If so many people oppose teaching CRT and LGBT, why are these subjects being taught in public schools?”

He’s right. How did we get here?  I’ll tell you how. Last year, in an article for The American Mind, I discussed something called the gated institutional narrative (GIN), a concept first put forward by the polymath Eric Weinstein. The GIN perfectly encapsulates the madness that has swept, and continues to sweep, through the U.S. education system.

As I said at the time, the “GIN explains the ways in which heavily filtered information is presented to the public by the mainstream media and academics.” Take the New York Times’ “1619 Project,” for example. Although the project has been lambasted by highly-respected commentators, it still, for some unfathomable reason, carries a great deal of authority.

On closer inspection, however, the reason it carries so much authority is entirely understandable. After all, the project was initiated by the NY Times, one of the most influential papers on the planet. Additionally, its historically inaccurate narrative has been pushed by comparably powerful outlets, frequently and forcefully. Furthermore, it appeals not to facts, but to feelings. In this age of speaking “your truth” instead of the truth, the NY Times decided to tell its “truth.”

The GIN, as I said in The American Mind piece, “is like an exclusive nightclub. Only the right kind of people can enter.” Orthodox thinkers—in other words, people willing to follow the herd—are the only people permitted entry. Those who refuse to comply are quickly turned away. “Go away and sober up,” they’re told.

Bad ideas beget bad ideas—the inaccurate (often pernicious) ideas generated within the GIN bounce around in a gigantic echo chamber. Then, like a swift missile strike, they’re launched into broader society.

At the same time, good ideas—that is, ideas that counter the bad ones created within the system—are intentionally blocked from entering. With such a design, it’s easy to see how bad ideas, even wicked ones, continue to circulate and become more virulent in nature.

Bad Ideas Spread Like a Virus

In his latest book, aptly titled “The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense,” Dr. Gad Saad discusses how bad ideas, or “idea pathogens,” spread like a virus, killing common sense in the process. In the American education system, as you’re no doubt aware, commonsense is in short supply.

If in doubt, let me point you in the direction of a recent piece written by Jonathan Turley, one of the country’s leading legal scholars. Unlike so many involved in academia, Turley has a backbone. He has a significant voice and is not afraid to use it. Instead of echoing the narratives of the GIN, Turley exposes the absurdities occurring within the gated community.

In the insular world of academia, he noted, “there have been growing controversies over language guides and usages, including the use of pronouns that some object to as matters of religion or grammar.” Now he warned, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), “the largest association of science teachers in the world,” wants to add to the controversy.

Take a read of the NSTA’s latest guide, and you’ll quickly see that Turley’s concerns are very much warranted. The educators are now pushing for “gender-inclusive biology.” What, you’re probably wondering, could this new-age biology entail?

In short, unscientific calls to permanently abandon everyday terms like “men,” “women,” “parent,” “mother,” and “father.” Mothers, according to the guide, should only be referred to as “persons with ovaries.” Fathers, meanwhile, should be referred to as “persons with testes.”

Although tens of millions of Americans have had enough, don’t expect the GIN to stop churning out bad ideas anytime soon.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/crt-and-lgbt-in-the-classroom-americans-have-had-enough_4529306.html

***********************************************

Australia: "Dark Emu" rebuttal added to school reading list

<i>"Dark Emu" is a monstrous work of fiction parading as history.  But the Left love it.  They routinely ignore the facts.  That's what they do</i>

A critique of Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu has been included by Victoria’s curriculum authority on a resource list for the state’s Australian history teachers to use in the classroom.

In the latest challenge to Professor Pascoe’s work, a book by anthropologist Peter Sutton and archaeologist Keryn Walshe – which says Dark Emu relies on colonial accounts as sources – has been endorsed by the state’s curriculum chiefs.

Professor Pascoe says before European conquest, Indigenous Australians engaged in sophisticated agricultural and farming techniques. He contends that precolonial Aboriginal people sometimes lived in houses and villages and employed technology to harvest food.

Professor Sutton and Dr ­Walshe challenge this, claiming Indigenous Australians were “complex hunter-gatherers”.

Their work, Farmers or ­hunter-gatherers? The Dark Emu debate, was published last year and has been added to a list of optional resources, alongside Dark Emu, for teachers and now thousands of year 11 and 12 students across the state to use in the study of Australian history.

Professor Sutton, from the University of Adelaide and the South Australian museum, said if students were being given Dark Emu without a critical analysis of the work, they were being “misled”.

“I think that’s quite shameful. Let’s say the Dalai Lama tells you that two and two makes five. You say, look, with all due respect, your spiritual highness, two and two does not make five,” he told The Australian.

“So this issue is not really about Bruce … It’s about whether students are being guided … in terms of reliable sources of factual information.”

Professor Pascoe’s 2014 work, Dark Emu Black Seeds: agriculture or accident?, has been included on the same list since at least 2015 according to a VCAA resource list dated that year.

It argues that the economy and culture of Indigenous Australians before European conquest has been undervalued, and that journals and diaries of explorers revealed “a much more complicated Aboriginal economy than the primitive hunter-gatherer lifestyle we had been told was the simple lot of Australia’s First People.”

Professor Sutton and Dr ­Walshe “contend that Pascoe is broadly wrong” and say Indigenous Australians were “hunter-gatherers-plus” whose “hunting, fishing and gathering economy was far more complex than might be imagined from the word ‘mere’.”

Dark Emu is listed as an optional resource in two NSW high school subject “sample programs” – they include stage 6 Investigating science and Stage 4 Technology Mandatory – but it is not a prescribed text. Nor is Professor Sutton’s work.

Queensland and Western Australia recommend neither book as a prescribed or recommended resource.

Professor Sutton, an anthropologist since 1969, said students should have the opportunity to review both pieces of work, not Dark Emu alone. “(Dark Emu should) either be excluded on the basis that it’s been disproved by the heavy weight of Aboriginal evidence in our expert opinion or you present both that book and its answer and you get the students to compare the pair,” he said.

“I often say to people ‘Don‘t read our book first. Go and buy a copy of Dark Emu, have a good read, then read ours,’ ”

Professor Pascoe did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokesman from Victoria’s Department of Education said books were selected by individual schools to support teachers in delivering the state’s curriculum.

“Texts to support the implementation of the Victorian curriculum are determined by individual schools, consistent with advice provided by the Department of Education and Training on the selection of suitable teaching resources,” he said.

“Farmers or hunter-gatherers: The Dark Emu debate" by Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe is not on any of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s prescribed text lists for senior secondary VCE studies. However, the book is on a list of optional resources that teachers may use to explore a range of different interpretations of the past in the study of VCE Australian History Units 3 and 4.”

Professor Sutton described his work as a “forensic examination” of Professor Pascoe’s, whom he said omitted evidence that did not suit his theory and relied too heavily on the work of European explorers.

Professor Sutton’s work is included in the optional reading list for the VCE subject area “from custodianship to the Anthropocene (60,000 BCE-1901)”.

A spokeswoman for the ­national curriculum authority, the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority, said it did not recommend books for students to read.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/dark-emu-rebuttal-added-to-school-reading-list/news-story/9bfab1364a39acbb4e5062b25ebea666

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

19 June, 2022

A profile of the elite

<i>This is truly disgusting</i>

I have just finished my freshman year at the University of Chicago, a school boasting an annual sticker price of $80,000 and an acceptance rate of around 5 percent.

I don’t match the typical UChicago student profile. I lived in a single-mother household in a small Tennessee town for most of my life, my mom worked two jobs, and 50 percent of my high school graduating class didn’t go to college. God, family, and country were the pressing concerns of my neighbors, not top SAT scores or being valedictorian.

So when I heard during my first month in college that I was unable to participate in a debate tournament because I was white, I realized I had just entered an entirely different world. This, I would soon learn, is the world of our highly educated and highly cultured. A world inhabited by future politicians, academics, tech tycoons, and billionaires who do what they’re told to ascend into the ranks of the elite.

But who exactly are these students? Being an outsider to this world, I quickly picked up on some startling characteristics throughout my first year. What I observed was more instructive than what I learned in my classes. It painted a picture of where our country is precisely headed.

For one, these students are scarily obedient, even to the most insane and illogical demands.

A few months ago, my university’s administration finally ended the requirement that all students wear masks in class. The next day, however, one of my professors exclaimed to my entire class that he thought everyone should be wearing masks because we’re still in a “pandemic.”

Without hesitation, every single student around me, who all entered class not wearing a mask, automatically grabbed a mask from their backpacks and put it on their faces. There was no hesitation from any of them. The whole scene felt incredibly robotic and genuinely creepy. I ended up being the only student in the room without a mask, earning me looks of ire from both my professor and peers alike.

I’ve seen students double-masked while sitting alone in the dining hall, riding bikes outside, and studying in a library cubicle.

These are kids who got perfect scores on the SAT, mastered multi-variable calculus in middle school, and surely have IQs way above average. And yet they quietly, and subconsciously, obey demands that any sane person would laugh at.

Why are our most intelligent young people the most obedient? What happened to the youth being rebellious?

In the 1960s, students would have been bullied for zealously wearing masks whenever a hypochondriac lecturer barked at them. Masks—and booster shots, social distancing, remote learning, and so on—would have been ridiculed from the very beginning, for that matter.

On another note, I was shocked by the complete lack of representation of middle-class white kids in the student body. To date, I haven’t met a single middle-class white student who was admitted through the standard admissions process (and not through athletics).

To be more specific, I mean middle-class students of European ancestry. I’ve met several middle-class Hispanic students who appeared white but marked Hispanic on their college applications, earning them a sizeable increase in their acceptance rate thanks to affirmative action.

It has become increasingly clear to me that as a white male, your only real way to get into an elite university, barring any absolutely extraordinary circumstances, is to either be low-income or extremely wealthy. The more low-income students a university has, the more impressive its statistics look to its board of trustees and donors. And the wealthiest of the wealthiest almost certainly went to our nation’s top boarding schools, signaling to these universities that they’re already well-positioned to become the next President Barack Obama or McKinsey CEO. These schools don’t want to miss out on claiming the next president or Wall Street hotshot.

If diversity is truly a concern of these elite universities and students, why is the absence of middle-class white Americans never lamented? If anything, it seems like it’s celebrated. After all, the racist, Trump-supporting Middle Americans have no right to study in the same hallowed libraries as the children of Martha’s Vineyard’s aristocracy.

Ultimately, that’s what attending an elite university is about at the end of the day: Helping you secure a comfortable job at an esteemed institution like Goldman Sachs or Bain Capital, removed from your less diverse, less woke fellow citizens, whom you’re trained over the years to view with contempt.

Of course, obtaining such a prestigious job is not an easy task. You need to learn to recite your pronouns whenever you’re asked to introduce yourself, and you need to radically change your language to make it more inclusive. If you’re one of the unfortunate ones with less melanin, you need to participate in diversity training that makes you despise yourself for being born the wrong skin color. And don’t forget about those daily virtue-signaling posts on LinkedIn: One day an HR employee at J.P. Morgan will surely notice!

Welcome to the elite.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/welcome-to-the-elite_4537594.html

*********************************************

NYC: After years of classroom disorder, Chancellor Banks needs to install a serious discipline code — ASAP

<i>And the need is not restricted to NYC</i>

Schools Chancellor David Banks has much on his plate but ensuring safety on school grounds needs to be Priority No. 1, as the alarming stories teachers have been telling The Post make clear.

Fact is, Team de Blasio turned the Department of Education’s school discipline code into a complete joke with their progressive views — and students know it. As the number of suspensions handed out by principals and superintendents plunged through this year, teachers and parents say classroom disorder has soared.

A veteran teacher at one troubled Bronx high school told The Post of harrowing violence that goes unpunished. One incident, for example, involved a gang-related altercation in the middle of the school day where a student began slashing his peers with a boxcutter.

No one gets suspended, the teacher said, as principals are pressured “from above not to suspend students, or to take any punitive measures at all [and] there’s no accountability for any bad behavior.”

Another educator confided, “We have teachers getting kicked at, spit at, cursed at, things thrown at [them] and the kid is back the next day like nothing happened.”

DOE data show that suspensions plummeted more than 42% from 2017 to 2021 and, indeed, have been trending downward ever since the department “revamped” the discipline code under Mayor Bill de Blasio. For years, school-climate reports contradicted the DOE’s insistence that school crime was low.

Kids now fear to set foot in their schools unless they’re carrying a weapon, and that has led to more weapons seizures. This school year is shaping up to be a particularly dangerous one for school-safety personnel, with 84 cops and school-safety agents injured — 56 seriously enough to need hospital treatment — due to student misconduct through March 2022.

According to Chalkbeat, DOE officials credit their restorative-justice programs — which refer rule-breakers to conflict circle sessions and guidance counseling — with lowering days lost to suspension. But again, that only fueled misbehavior.

Banks needs to install a completely new disciplinary code pronto, one students take seriously. Kids need a safe place to learn; neither they nor school staff should be robbed of their sense of security in school.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/17/chancellor-banks-needs-to-install-a-serious-discipline-code/

**************************************************

New York's curriculum is critical race theory by another name

It is no surprise the New York State Education Department quickly denied the allegations when exposed for using pandemic relief funds for schools to promote critical race theory.

After two years of school closures, mask mandates, social distancing – and the devastating learning loss and developmental harm these inflicted on students – the state's Democrat leadership clearly knew how outraged parents would be upon finding out they prioritized taxpayer dollars to peddle this radical ideology. So, their playbook is to deflect, label the existence of CRT in elementary and secondary classrooms as a right-wing conspiracy theory, and assert their denial as an unquestionable fact. 

Yet look no further than Monroe County, where West Irondequoit Central School District students were required to participate in an anti-racist curriculum project to learn of "the contemporary realities of structural racism." Earlier this school year, students at the Lower Manhattan Community School were segregated by race in order to "undo the legacy of racism and oppression in this country that impacts or school community." Make no mistake, dividing and defining students by their race is state-sanctioned racism.

The National Education Association – the nation’s largest teachers union and major funder of Democrat campaigns – have officially endorsed the teaching of CRT and committed to defend their ability to teach it to America’s children. A seemly strange embrace if, in fact, CRT only existed in graduate school lounges. CRT is clearly popular with the radical far-left ideologues who have taken over much of the educational ecosystem. 

So how does today’s Democrat party attempt to appease their radical base while not digging deeper in the confidence they’ve lost with America’s parents? 

It’s simple – they push this divisive and discriminatory ideology a through an array of seemingly benign jargon. Our children are now experiencing "transformative SEL [social and emotional learning]" that is promoted as "a way to integrate an explicit equity and social justice lens" and includes "examining prejudices and biases" and "disrupting and resisting inequities." Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education or "CRSE" that seeks to "dismantle systems of biases and inequities rooted in our country’s history, culture, and institutions" and encourages educators to "act as agents of social change to redress historical and contemporary oppression." 

And then there is corporate America’s favorite, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion or "DEI," that is designed to "propel us beyond the systemic racism that has come to define America’s institutions." To illustrate how these terms are devoid of any traditional meaning, New York’s Education Department sought to dodge federal accountability for its lowest performing schools in the name of advancing DEI – and turn a blind eye on the schools that perpetually fail the low-income and minority communities they serve. 

Fortunately, parents are too smart to fall for this game. When they see kids as young as two or three being labeled as inherently racist because of the color of their skin, parents know this is fundamentally wrong and un-American. When they hear of students being forced to do privilege walks or apologize for their "white guilt," parents know it only seeks to define and divide children by race. 

When meritocracy and the constitutional guarantee to equality under the law are attacked, parents know this is an affront idea that Americans from all racial backgrounds should have opportunities to achieve their full potential. Call it whatever you want, this radical ideology does not belong in the classroom. 

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/new-york-curriculum-critical-race-theory-another-name

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

17 June, 2022

YES! They Have Been FORCED To Cancel Drag Queen Story Hour

After community outrage, a mayor in North Carolina said Saturday that a planned LGBT Pride “Drag Queen Story Hour” event had been canceled.

The event was canceled after Apex Mayor Jacques Gilbert, a former captain of the Apex Police Department, forwarded community feedback to the festival commission hosting the event, according to a Facebook statement.

Here’s what Gilbert said, who used to be the captain of the Apex Police Department:

“Given that this part of the event was not originally presented when the event was proposed, I met with representatives from the organizations hosting the event, the Apex Festival Commission, and presented the feedback I have received from citizens.”

“Today I was notified that the Apex Festival Commission has taken the feedback into careful consideration and has decided to remove the Drag Queen Story Hour from the event,”

“It continues to be my goal to ensure that all voices in our community are represented,” said the mayor, noting that he “received a variety of feedback regarding the Drag Queen Story Hour.”

According to town council member Audra Killingsworth, the town got numerous complaints, some of which escalated into threats of violence, an outlet reported. The organizers said, “While the event may seem to be a small part in the festivities, the Drag Queen Story Hour can have a big impact on kids.”

The mayor’s announcement drew mixed reactions, with some expressing disappointment at the cancellation and others supporting the decision.

One parent wrote, “This was THE Pride event I was planning to attend with my toddler. Very disappointed in the event organizers who were swayed by hateful, misguided comments.”

One person said the decision was “fair,” adding that “this performance (stage names, etc.) is too adult for a children’s activity,” and thanking the mayor and the committee for their choice.

https://dailyallegiant.com/yes-they-have-been-forced-to-cancel-drag-queen-story-hour/

**************************************************

'Woke' Open University anti-racist training course titled 'Union Black' tells academics that 'white superiority' is 'embedded in the English language'

A 'woke' anti-racism Open University training course devised by professors as well as Labour frontbencher David Lammy is teaching academics that the English language upholds 'white superiority'.

The programme titled Union Black, which was launched last year through a £500,000 investment from Santander, claims that the idea of 'white hegemony' has been 'covertly weaved' into people's minds.  

Course material studied by academics at almost 100 UK universities including Imperial College London says 'white superiority' is ingrained in the 'cultural psychology of the English language' - and that white Europeans have most 'successfully' imposed racist ideas.

Another module praises cancel culture, urging participants to 'share collective expressions of moral outrage' and encouraging them to become 'active allies' in advancing racial justice.

The course's claims about race and the English language have been blasted as 'characteristically woke', 'unhistorical', 'ignorant' and 'illiterate' by Dr Zareer Masani, historian of the British Empire.

'This is a sad reflection of woke brainwashing of our future academics. It betrays abysmal ignorance of how any language evolves, assimilating diverse influences along the way,' he told The Telegraph.

The programme was developed by leading academics including Professor Marcia Wilson, Dean of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the Open University. It also includes contributions from Mr Lammy, Sir Keir Starmer's Shadow Justice Secretary, historian and film-maker David Olusoga and Baroness Shami Chakrabarti among others. 

In one module, called 'What is whiteness?', the course states: 'Along with religion, politics, laws and customs, white superiority is embedded in the linguistic and cultural psychology of the English language.

'Consequently, given the global reach of the English language, the assumption of white hegemony has been covertly weaved into the consciousness of white people, black people and people of colour.'

It calls on university staff taking the training programme to address unconscious biases which all people are either 'unaware of' or 'in denial about'.

An Open University spokesperson said: 'We are proud to have worked together with Santander on developing this course which is aimed at increasing awareness of racism and building allyship to support inclusion.

'Feedback from participants on the course has been extremely positive, and we are recommending it to staff and students across all UK universities.'

Santander previously said that the Union Black course was created in response to a report highlighting racial inequality in higher education. MailOnline has approached Santander for further comment.

The Telegraph reports that the course argues that the problem of white dominance is also political, stating: 'Historically, British politics has maintained white hegemony, making immigration an existential threat to white Britons.'

It defines 'whiteness' as 'the systemic and structural domination and oppression of 'non-white' peoples', informing students that 'white' people only exist in opposition to 'black' people, both of which are socially constructed ideologies'.

Course material also claims that the majority group experiencing 'reverse racism' from the minority group is a 'mythical' idea and suggests 'some people have been improperly educated about what racism truly means'.

However, the claims go against the views of the Commission on and Ethnic Disparities, led by Tony Sewell.

The report, published last year and which split opinions, said the 'claim the country is still institutionally racist is not borne out by the evidence'. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10922597/Anti-racist-training-course-tells-academics-white-superiority-embedded-English-language.html

************************************************

New NYC Council bills intend to widen access to elite public high schools

City Council Members Justin Brannan, Keith Powers and Oswald Feliz will introduce three proposals Thursday to promote test preparation for specialized high schools that rely on the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) for entry.

“We know SHSAT prep has the ability to level the playing field for every student in NYC,” said Brannan, whose district includes Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst and Bath Beach in Brooklyn.

“We have a responsibility to ensure that every student, regardless of race or class, can thrive within our school system,” he said.

The package requires the Department of Education to create a plan to administer specialized high school admissions tests on a school day.

The proposal would continue two years of the schools offering the SHSAT during the day since the pandemic began — to increase awareness of the test and make traveling easier for families who work or have other responsibilities.

Close to 15% of test-takers received an offer for this fall, or 4,053 out of 27,669 students who took the SHSAT this school year,new city data released Wednesday showed. 

The third in the series has the DOE create a plan to provide SHSAT preparation to all middle school students.

Council members said the vast majority of New York City middle schools do not currently have access to publicly funded test preparation.

“For years, antiquated practices around the SHSAT have shut too many students out from success and opportunity,” said Powers, whose district extends from much of the Upper East Side and Midtown to Stuyvesant Town.

Powers added that while “there’s still so much more” that the city could do to address concerns about the test and increase diversity at the selective schools, the laws could be “pragmatic steps forward.”

Black and Latino students made up 21% and 26% of students who sat for the SHSAT this school year, respectively — but got just 3% and 6% of offers to enroll in specialized high schools this fall, data showed.

Asian students made up 31% of test-takers and 53% of offers; white students were 17% of test-takers and 28% of offers.

The distribution of offers by ethnicity was similar this year to that of last admission cycle.

Council members said previous legislation similar to their proposal had widespread support, including from Speaker Adrienne Adams, until public health measures took precedence.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/15/new-nyc-council-bills-would-widen-access-to-elite-public-high-schools/

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

16 June, 2022

Missouri Attorney General Subpoenas 7 School Districts Amid Worry Over Student Surveying

Surveys in Missouri schools that collect information from students and create a perceived need for a so-called social-emotional learning curriculum have drawn the attention of state officials.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt issued subpoenas last week to seven school districts that allegedly employ student surveys—created by education companies Panorama and Project Wayfinder—that gather data about parents’ political beliefs and income levels, as well as racial identity, sexual behaviors, and mental health.

“Those same groups come in and sell that curriculum to the schools,” said Kimberly Hermann, general counsel with Southeastern Legal Foundation, a national nonprofit law firm that defends liberty.

“The contracts with these companies are public record, so they’re supposed to be approved during school board meetings, but the surveys are happening without parental consent and parental notification.”

In response, Schmitt has opened an investigation into the use of student surveys in Mehlville, Webster Groves, Jefferson City, Lee’s Summit R-7, Park Hill, Springfield, and Neosho schools—with an eye on violations of Missouri’s Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment.

“Subjecting students to personal, invasive surveys created by third-party consultants, potentially without parents’ consent, is ridiculous and does nothing to further our children’s education,” Schmitt said in a statement.

Hermann details in a May 1 letter to Schmitt that Webster Groves requires middle school students to take a survey on “LGBTQIA+ Struggles!” that asks: “What are your preferred pronouns, what struggles have you experienced related to LGBTQIA+, and what would you like to see in the school in order to be more inclusive?”

“There are federal statutes that they’re not supposed to ask these questions,” said Andy Wells, the Missouri chapter president of No Left Turn in Education, a national education advocacy organization.

“The problem is that school districts, and some of the companies that are being hired by school districts, don’t care. They just ignore it. They do it anyway and if somebody doesn’t like it, you’ll have to sue them.”

Second-graders were asked, “When is the first time you noticed that people can be different races from you, what did you notice, and do you feel more comfortable around people who look like you?”

“The goal here is to teach these kids that America is a white country of white supremacy and to destroy the nuclear family,” Hermann said. “If bad actors in the progressive left are not stopped, then we’re just going to have a further divide in this country among our kids.”

Neither Panorama nor Project Wayfinder responded by press time to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.

Schools often create partnerships with third-party vendors to secure grant money, according to Jill Carter, a candidate for the Missouri Senate’s 32nd District, and by accepting the grant, they are bound to allow the surveying.

“If it’s a platform that’s providing software or technology, especially with the technology in our school’s increasing, there’s less and less ability for the school to even really know what is being asked,” Carter told The Epoch Times.

“They are giving over that oversight, and the teachers sometimes don’t even know, because the kids are online or on a tablet, and that’s part of the software or implementation of some of these programs.”

Among the concerns identified is confidentiality.

“There’s a lot of danger by it,” Wells told The Epoch Times. “The biggest of which is who has access to the data and whether it follows students to college. How is the data being used?”

Another anxiety is whether the information gleaned is creating a profile that flags a need for intervention.

“It’s definitely a force of government and the intervention would be, ‘If we don’t like the way you respond on these surveys, we’re going to recommend intervention,’ and Panorama offers intervention activities and questions,” said Missouri-based Mary Byrne, who holds a doctorate in education from Teacher’s College in Manhattan.

“There’s a menu that you can access for teachers to implement different activities.”

The use of surveys isn’t new, according to Byrne.

“It was done years before, and that’s why the Pupil Privacy Act was put in place,” she said.

The Pupil Privacy Act, also known as the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment of 1978, prohibits children from participating in surveys and other analyses without parental consent and includes a provision for parents to opt their child out of such evaluations.

But there is no cause of action to file a lawsuit for a violation of federal privacy laws.

“The way Congress wrote the law is you can file an administrative complaint, but under the Biden administration, we know that’s not going anywhere,” Hermann said.

The subpoenas delivered by Schmitt demand documents and information to determine the extent of the surveys and whether parents consented to the surveys prior to distribution to students.

“We’d like him to obtain information regarding where these surveys are coming from and enforce federal and state privacy laws,” Hermann said.

“He has numerous different avenues that he could go based on the law and his investigatory power. So we’re going to leave it to his office to make determinations about what they think the best avenue is.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/worry-over-student-surveying-leads-missouri-attorney-general-to-subpoena-seven-school-districts_4526142.html

*******************************************************

Oregonians Say Education on Wrong Track, Overwhelmingly Support School Choice, Poll Finds

A new poll suggests that Oregon voters are extremely dissatisfied with the state’s K-12 education system and would overwhelmingly support school choice.

Of 727 registered voters polled on June 1, just 25 percent of Democrats, 9.7 percent of Republicans, and 14.1 percent of independents believe that Oregon’s public K-12 education system is on the right track.

The poll, commissioned by the advocacy group Oregon Moms Union and conducted by Nelson Research, also suggests broad support for school choice across party lines, including 59.7 percent of Democrats, 84.5 percent of Republicans, and 77.4 percent of Independents.

School choice gives parents the right to use the tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school of their choice.

Only 24.3 percent of those surveyed oppose letting parents have the right to use their tax dollars the way that best serves their child’s needs. Only 3 percent had no opinion.

The results in Oregon mirror a national poll conducted by RealClear Opinion Research in February.

That survey of more than 2,000 registered voters found the concept of school choice enjoys overwhelming support, with 72 percent in favor of the concept and 18 percent opposed. The same holds true across party lines, with 68 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of Republicans, and 67 percent of Independents saying they support such a policy.

That’s up nearly 9 percent since the pandemic began.

“In light of the failures of the public education system navigating COVID, the recent trend of parents pulling kids out of public schools, and continued poor performance indicators, we wanted to know what the public’s appetite is for real education alternatives for parents,” said MacKensey Pulliam, President and Co-Founder of Oregon Moms Union.

“Many parents are already pulling their kids out of the public school system in Oregon so that they no longer have to co-parent with the government and can have choice in their child’s education,” Pulliam told The Epoch Times.

Oregon’s largest district, the Portland Public Schools is feeling the pressure. PPS projects that next year’s enrollment will be down 14 percent from pre-pandemic levels. Other districts around the state are experiencing a similar trend.

Christine Drazan, a Republican candidate for Governor and former Oregon House Minority Leader, weighed in on the problems plaguing Oregon’s K-12 education system.

“Despite record funding levels, our graduation rates and student achievement remain stubbornly low,” she told The Epoch Times. “At the same time, what’s best for our kids too often takes a backseat to political agendas and the voices of parents are overridden by bureaucrats with too much power and misguided priorities.”

“We need to get back to basics in our schools … and focus on ensuring that our students know how to read, write, and do math,” she added.

If public schools can’t get that done, she supports school choice.

“Access to a classroom environment that best fits the needs of a student is essential to their ability to succeed,” Drazan continued. “For many students, the traditional classroom is just fine. For others, a charter school or other format might be more ideal.”

During the past two years, increasing numbers of parents have already “voted with their feet” for school choice, wrote Kathryn Hickock, executive vice president at the Portland-based Cascade Policy Institute.

Since the COVID pandemic began, 8.7 million children switched from public to private schools nationwide, she wrote on the advocacy group’s website.

In Oregon, charter school enrollment increased 20.8 percent between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years. Today, nearly 36,000 of the state’s 560,000 students attend 131 charter schools.

The number of Oregon homeschooled students increased 73 percent between the last two school years, according to Hickock.

Nationwide, 11.1 percent of American households with school-aged children report they are now homeschooling. That’s double the percentage compared to before the pandemic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/oregonians-say-education-on-wrong-track-overwhelmingly-support-school-choice-poll-finds_4528487.html

***************************************************

Australia: Boys falling far behind girls in HSC and at university

<i>The feminization of education reaps its inevitable rewards. It starts in primary school with the idea that boys are inherently disgusting, obnoxious, violent, and disrespectful, and asking them to sit the heck down during class and pay attention to the teacher.  It is a system where boys are punished for behaving like boys and have few if any male teacher role models</i>

Boys are falling far behind girls in school-leaving exams and at university to the extent that a University Admissions Centre (UAC) analysis of results found that being male was “greater than any of the other recognised disadvantages we looked at”.

The centre looked at Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) and first-year university grade point average data and found the gender education gap persisted across socio-economic quartiles at both senior school and university levels.

Educators said there could be many factors at play, including different maturity levels, the compulsory inclusion of English in the HSC, which tended to favour girls, the declining popularity of difficult maths and sciences, and the increase in the school-leaving age.

Jennifer Buckingham, a reading expert who has studied the gender education gap in a previous role at the Centre for Independent Studies, said all jobs, including trades, now needed workers with strong literacy and numeracy skills. “The options for boys who don’t do well at school are becoming fewer and fewer,” she said.

“The expectations of what they can achieve change, they set their sights lower, and there are economic consequences of that too.”

The UAC analysis of ATAR data over many years, but particularly from 2020, found there was gender parity at the top end of the ATAR scale, above 98, and at the bottom end, below 39, but boys were far outnumbered by girls in the middle range.

The analysis said boys were under-represented due to a “combination of boys not performing as well as girls placed at similar points in the gender ability spectrum, and, more importantly, boys choosing study patterns that do not make them eligible for an ATAR or an HSC”.

The centre’s analysis found an ATAR-aged boy was 16.3 per cent less likely to obtain an HSC qualification than a girl in the same group, and 15 per cent less likely to complete at least one subject in 2020 than girls. “The effect of being male was greater than any of the other recognised disadvantages we looked at,” the analysis found.

The gap persists into university, the UAC analysis found, with boys enrolling at lower rates, less likely to pass all their subjects, and more likely to fail everything. The issue was across socio-economic quartiles.

NSW Department of Education data also show boys are also more likely to skip school. Attendance among high school girls is more than 82 per cent, compared with less than 73 per cent for boys. Boys also represent 70 per cent of school suspensions.

Robin Nagy, the director of Academic Profiles, which examines data for the independent sector, said the gap could be partly due to NSW requiring English to count towards a fifth of a student’s HSC mark. “On average, girls would appear to benefit more from this requirement than boys, due to the archetype of girls performing better in English,” he said.

Female enrolments outnumber male ones in the harder English subjects, which scale to higher ATAR marks, and boys were over-represented in easier subjects.

Craig Petersen, the head of the Secondary Principals Council, which represents public school principals, said there had also been significant efforts over several decades to ensure girls were catered to in HSC examinations.

“In response to the research that shows girls respond better to narrative questions, we started seeing scientific or mathematical problems voiced as a story,” he said.

This so-called “feminisation” of the HSC physics and chemistry syllabuses, in particular, was wound back in the most recent revision of the syllabuses, released in 2018, which had greater focus on mathematical applications and less on sociology-based content.

Petersen said boys also matured more slowly than girls; the prefrontal cortex, which helps people understand the consequences of their actions, does not finish developing for boys until 25. “That may be the area that says, ‘I want to have a good job, therefore I need to study hard’.”

The decision to raise the school-leaving age to 17 about a decade ago also meant boys who would once have left after year 10 for a trade were now staying on, Petersen said. “[Some] fall into this malaise, they don’t really want to be there, aren’t motivated,” he said.

Melissa Abu-Gazaleh is the managing director of the Top Blokes Foundation, which advocates addressing the health and wellbeing of young men to increase their engagement in school.

She said many young men were still tied to the stereotype that they should not express vulnerability or seek help, and expressed their frustration in outbursts, which led to disciplinary action.

“This then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy where the male student then has lower aspirations to be better or achieve more,” she said. Giving male students a different message about seeking help and positive role models would help, she said.

Concerned that boys needed more help, Dapto High principal Andrew FitzSimons appointed a boys’ mentor, Andrew Horsley, who works with the Top Blokes Foundation and local service providers to ensure boys get the support they need.

“For me, it’s all about developing connections,” Horsley said. “With boys, sometimes you need to spend a bit of time and effort and energy to develop those connections, and then they’ll feel safer, if they’re struggling with something.”

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/boys-falling-far-behind-girls-in-hsc-and-at-university-20220607-p5arsk.html

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

15 June, 2022

California Lawmaker Trying To Make DRAG SHOWS Part Of Mandatory Curriculum!

Senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco, who two years ago got a bill passed decriminalizing men having sex with boys by labeling all opponents “homophobic” and “anti-Semitic,” is now proposing that “Drag Queen 101” be included in the K-12 curriculum.

The Democrat senator may have outdone himself this time. The Senator appears to be unsatisfied with his plan, which would allow children as young as 12 to receive the COVID-19 vaccine without parental approval. Or his bill to remove the felony sentence for deliberately exposing someone to HIV.

Wiener made the remark in reaction to Texas Representative Bryan Slaton’s (R) announcement that he will introduce legislation to prohibit drag shows in the presence of children.

Here’s what Wiener said Tuesday on Twitter:

“This guy just gave me a bill idea: Offering Drag Queen 101 as part of the K-12 curriculum. Attending Drag Queen Story Time will satisfy the requirement.”

Wiener, who isn’t a father, has a sardonic sense of humor, but, given his previous legislation, which is heavily focused on the LGBTQ population in California, this feels more ironic than hilarious.

SB 145, his bill to relax sex offender requirements for sodomy with minors, actually says in the bill language:

“This bill would exempt from mandatory registration under the act a person convicted of certain offenses involving minors if the person is not more than 10 years older than the minor and if that offense is the only one requiring the person to register.” Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 145 into law.

“The bill would instead make the intentional transmission of an infectious or communicable disease, as defined, a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than 6 months if certain circumstances apply, including that the defendant knows he or she or a third party is afflicted with the disease,” according to Wiener’s bill, SB 239, which was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Well, it looks like all of his work seems to have a consistent theme.

https://independentminute.com/2022/06/10/sick-california-lawmaker-trying-to-make-drag-shows-part-of-mandatory-curriculum/

***************************************************

UK Tries ‘Old School Tie’ Approach to Migration Management

Assuming that there is a worldwide search for recent college graduate talent, as the open-borders people keep proclaiming, the United Kingdom has a new immigration policy — but it harks back to the ancient British tradition of the old school tie. It seeks to attract what might be called the advantaged talent of the world.

The government of Boris Johnson (Eton/Oxford) has created a worldwide list of 37 non-UK universities and declared that all of the current graduates of these elite institutions shall have an open invitation to be legal nonimmigrants in the UK for two years, even if they do not have a job. If they have a PhD from one of the 37, the offer is for three years.

The new scheme has one resemblance to and several differences from our H-1B and OPT programs. All of these programs seek highly educated talent from overseas.

On the other hand, in the UK program the screening is done by the 37 universities, not by UK employers, so there is none of the semi-indentured nature of the H-1B program. Further, unlike the U.S. program for the employers of recent alien grads of our universities, Optional Practical Training, there is no subsidy paid to employers (or if there is one it was not reported in the British coverage). A third difference is that the aliens involved have not gone to UK universities, while those in OPT have all attended U.S. ones. A fourth difference is that both OPT and H-1B stress high-tech credentials, while the new UK tradition does not (as Eton and Oxford do not).

The new system will be easy to administer as all coming from the select 37 are automatically eligible. It is also a blunt tool; the valedictorian of the Ivy League’s Dartmouth, which is not on the list, does not get admitted, but someone who just barely scrapes through at Harvard, which is on the list, gets a nice welcome.

The list of 37 universities, in addition to the 20 in this country (parts of which were once British territory) includes eight in other former UK colonies (Canada, three; Hong Kong and Singapore, two each; and Australia, one); and nine in the rest of the world (China, Japan, and Switzerland, two each; one each in France, Germany, and Sweden). That only three of the 37 are in the EU may reflect the British thinking that led to Brexit.

The general idea is that if you have managed to get a degree from one of the 37 you are potentially useful to the UK economy.

The American institutions that made the list are: California Institute of Technology; Columbia; Cornell; Duke; Harvard; Johns Hopkins; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; New York University; Northwestern; Princeton; Stanford; UC Berkeley; UCLA; UC San Diego; University of Chicago; University of Michigan (Ann Arbor);the Universities of Pennsylvania, Texas (Austin), and Washington; and Yale.

https://cis.org/North/UK-Tries-Old-School-Tie-Approach-Migration-Management

************************************************

Australia: My all-girls education failed to give me the skills I now value most

<i>This article by Anita Punton is a good antidote to the deeply biased <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/education/why-girls-schools-succeed-at-producing-women-who-lead-20220612-p5at3t.html">article by Loren Bridge</a> that <a hred="http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/2022/06/why-girls-schools-succeed-at-producing.html">I rubbished</a> recently</i>

I went to a private, all-girls school from the age of five. Whenever I had my violin lesson, the portraits of the two Miss Singletons, tightly stitched into their Victorian gowns, looked down on me with admirable patience.

The Singleton sisters were the joint principals of my alma mater in the late 19th century, and they were determined to provide girls with a proper education.

I found them hugely inspiring. Still do. But my all-girls education failed to give me the skills that I now value most. I had to learn those skills in the real world.

I support anyone who believes an all-girls school is the best choice for their daughter, but I don’t subscribe to the theory that this educational model is how our future female leaders have the greatest chance of succeeding.

When my two sons reached high school age, I was determined that they would go to a co-ed school, because I believed it was the best way for them to grow up treating women as equals.

Paradoxically, I wanted my daughter to go an all-girls school like me, to give her “opportunities” to “fulfil her potential” and be a “leader”. These are the same words and phrases that all-girls schools use so liberally in their marketing.

However, I started to notice that most of my highly educated, successful female friends were choosing to send their girls to co-ed schools. One of them told me bluntly: “The world is not single sex. They will have to work with men all their lives.”

I began to question the logic that girls must be sequestered away from males in order to learn the very skills that are needed to work with them in the future.

One of the underlying assumptions about all-girls schooling is that boys are an impediment to a girl achieving her potential. They are “other”. It’s as if their presence will take something away from a girl, that she will not feel confident enough to thrive in their presence.

This was certainly the messaging I took on board throughout my time at an all-girls school, and I still hear the same messaging from parents today.

Now I feel those assumptions not only further entrench outdated gender roles, but demonstrate an offensive distrust in both the strength and capacity of our girls and the humanity of our boys.

On a daily basis, boys in a co-ed school get to see that girls are confident, capable, courageous and profoundly human. They get to experience a female perspective when discussing issues. They work together on projects. They see girls succeeding and leading and it is completely normal.

The idea that girls must be isolated from the rest of society and overtly taught strategies of how they are going to cope when they finally are catapulted back into it seems a back-to-front way of going about preparing girls for leadership. The cultivation of women’s leadership potential should not be the sole responsibility of women; all of society must contribute.

My daughter has grown up with a second language that wasn’t available to me as a teenager – a language to express female solidarity, strength, possibility and self-worth. The culture she has experienced is totally different to the one I knew as a teenager.

And while some might dismiss the empowering effect of a Taylor Swift lyric, or watching The Simpsons episode “Lisa vs Malibu Stacey”, those cultural experiences have done as much to provide fluency in that language for her as any overt teaching by her parents or school.

I ended up sending my three children to the local high school. My daughter is now 15. What has she missed out on going to a co-ed school? Her government school, like many, had some poor facilities, inconsistency in teaching due to a staff room under immense pressure, funding shortages.

What has she gained? All those skills it took me so long to learn. Enviable confidence that she can talk to anyone and handle herself in any situation. An ability to try new things, make a fool of herself and find it funny, rather than humiliating. A complete indifference to the “otherness” of boys. She lives her life with them every day. They are her friends and collaborators.

This morning, I asked her if she had ever felt any sense of discrimination at school because she was a girl. Did the boys dominate? Has she ever been tempted to “play small” because she’s worried what the boys will think of her? Did she feel that the boys were stopping her from achieving her potential?

She gave me the same withering look as the time I asked her to explain TikTok. “Never,” she said. She’s too polite to say “OK, Boomer”, but I’m pretty sure she thought it.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/my-all-girls-education-failed-to-give-me-the-skills-i-now-value-most-20220614-p5atmj.html

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

14 June, 2022

Working in Higher Ed Sucks. Here’s Why I Left

Lately, I’ve been hearing an increasing number of “I quit” anecdotes from friends working as administrative staff at universities. I worked in this space until recently, so I feel little surprise. But I do feel sympathy because most of them have been systematically underpaid and overworked for years.

Frankly, higher ed deserves a Great Resignation. And it may be coming sooner than its leaders realize.

I still vividly remember the struggle so many are experiencing. After graduating with a master’s degree, I worked in a major university’s dean of students office from 2014 to 2016, a role that regularly demanded 60-hour weeks. I was on the front lines, dealing with student issues, including the student stress and depression that pervaded such a high-achieving academic environment. For this, I was paid about $30,000 a year with meager benefits.

The reason I endured this for so long—and why many others do too—was the belief that I was working for a higher calling: namely, the betterment of students’ college experiences and subsequent careers. Colleges consistently inculcate this idea of a higher “mission” to appeal to administrative staff, getting them to accept pay and hours that would be unacceptable elsewhere.

Ultimately, my employer’s talk about its mission didn’t put dinner on my table.

If colleges walked the walk and were genuinely mission-focused, things might be different. But in reality, they operate no differently from for-profit corporations, paying top dollar to those in leadership positions while underpaying junior staff, and preferring to focus on generating revenue.

According to a 2019–2020 survey by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, academic advisors nationally make less than $50,000 a year on average, including those with master's degrees. Comparatively, the national average for master's degree holders is just over $70,000.

Meanwhile, the prospects of advancing to more senior, better-paid roles are remote. It can take decades to qualify for a vice president or dean role, where salaries start to enter six-figure territory.

University administrators should have moved to address these issues long ago, but the prevailing attitude has been to do things the way they’ve always been done. After all, the old way has delivered handsome profits and comfortable life for those at the top.

It’s unlikely to work much longer, though. I’ve lost count of the number of friends in higher ed who’ve told me in recent months they’re leaving or considering leaving their jobs because they feel undervalued. A potential perfect storm is brewing for colleges, as employees come out of the pandemic with a new perspective on their work-life balance and the opportunity to do something about it.

If college leadership teams are smart, they will start implementing fundamental changes before the resignation trickle turns into a flood.

The first thing they should do is to drop the empty “mission” rhetoric, at least when it comes to persuading staff to work longer and harder for some nebulous greater good. Then, they should implement more equitable wage structures that put administrative workers on par with equivalent workers in other sectors.

It’s not all about the money. The Great Resignation has taught us that workers are placing more value on flexible work arrangements and comprehensive benefits, including training and development opportunities. College leaders have generally dragged their heels on allowing remote work, probably because they have so much invested in the physical infrastructure of the college campus. But if they want to retain people, they need to recognize that many employees now see hybrid work as crucial.

Colleges should also go beyond the standard health benefits they offer and think more innovatively about how to attract and retain employees in this environment. Millennials and Gen Z workers want their jobs to have meaning and enrich their lives. Universities should respond by offering healthy professional development allowances, perks such as student loan payment assistance, and even a chance to share in institutions’ often substantial equity.

When I found a new career after leaving higher ed, I felt the relief that comes from leaving a toxic relationship. Many more will be following my footsteps unless colleges start to mend their ways. University leaders can’t rely on their “mission” anymore to justify low pay and overwork for administrative staff.

https://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2022/06/07/working_in_higher_ed_sucks_heres_why_i_left_110736.html

**********************************************

Teachers in Conservative States Are Volunteering to Carry Guns

The Republican-led Texas legislature is addressing the twin issues of school safety and mass violence following the May 24 Uvalde, Texas, school shooting. Committees of lawmakers are reviewing past legislative efforts, such as the Guardian and Marshal programs that allow teachers to carry firearms in the hopes of hardening schools as targets. School officials and firearm trainers in the Lone Star State say interest has risen sharply since the recent shooting.

Jeff Sellers owns Schools on Target, a company in Marble Falls, Texas, that trains teachers to carry firearms in schools. Since the school shooting, Sellers told The Epoch Times that he has added nine additional classes—double the amount customarily held—for June through August.

“I’ve gotten an insane amount of calls,” Sellers said. “It hasn’t stopped. Ninety percent is because of Uvalde.”

Bryan Proctor, owner of Go Strapped Firearms Training in Arlington, Texas, told The Epoch Times much the same thing—that training requests for the Guardian program have skyrocketed.

“We’ve had about a 100 percent increase,” Proctor said. “It’s been pretty dramatic. I’ve sent out over 20 proposals in the past week.”

Proctor said teachers want to protect their students and themselves, despite what people may be hearing form the select voices in legacy media.

“What you’re seeing is a vocal minority,” Proctor said. Arming teachers isn’t about giving them something else to be responsible for—but instead giving them a tool as a last defense.

Elsewhere, state legislatures are investigating how to make schools safer and arm teachers.

Louisiana is currently looking at legislation similar to Texas, allowing teachers to carry guns in schools after receiving specialized training. Ohio’s latest bill aims to be less restrictive than the current law, mandating 700 hours of police training and board approval before allowing teachers to be armed.

Republican governors Bill Lee of Tennessee and Ron DeSantis of Florida took action on school security this week. Lee signed an executive order June 6 to ensure working safety protocols at schools, and to evaluate training for active shooter scenarios. DeSantis signed a school safety bill into law on June 7 that focused on crisis intervention and training, and mental health awareness. 

Meanwhile, teacher unions have nixed the idea and portrayed arming teachers as unpopular with educators. A 2018 Gallup poll found that 73 percent of teachers oppose the idea.

Meanwhile, policies to arm teachers in some form has widespread participation throughout the country amid the horror of gunmen targeting schools for mass shootings. The RAND Corporation reported in 2020 that 28 states permit armed teachers under some circumstances, while states such as Texas and Florida have passed laws encouraging the practice.

In North Florida, one principal at a private Christian school said he would like to see the program expanded to include private schools. The principal, who didn’t wish to be identified, said he added chain-link fencing around his school’s 40-acre perimeter and allowed just one-way traffic onto the campus, except during drop-off and pick-up times.

Now, cameras monitor doors into buildings, and access is controlled remotely or with special key fobs. Classrooms stay locked throughout the day. But it’s not enough anymore, he said.

He asked for training under Florida’s school guardian program to protect his school’s 340 students, ranging from toddlers to high school seniors. He was denied because the program doesn’t extend to private schools.

Currently, it is open to employees of public schools or charter schools who volunteer to serve as guardians and their official job duties. To qualify, they must pass psychological and drug screenings, and complete a 144-hour training course.

Sheriff’s offices in 45 of Florida’s 67 counties participate and receive funding to cover screening and training costs. And guardians receive a one-time bonus of $500 for serving in the program. Schools in districts can arrange to send employees for certification.

So the principal is now training on his own to become a licensed, armed security guard.

“It’s the only option,” he said. “Even before this last school shooting, I said, ‘I’ve got to go get this taken care of.’ So we’re doing it the right way.”

About a decade ago, Texas lawmakers created the school Marshal program, as a way for educators to carry weapons inside schools, and later initiated the Guardian program.

Under the Marshal program, school employees can carry a handgun on school premises after 80 hours of training. However, school marshals are restricted from carrying concealed firearms if they are regularly in contact with students. Instead, the marshal can store a gun in a safe at the school. There are 62 school districts participating in this plan, according to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

Gretchen Grigsby, director of government relations with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, told The Epoch Times that 30 new students and nine new school districts have signed up for the Marshal program since the Uvalde shooting.

The Guardian program authorizes school boards to arm employees under the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act and the Texas Penal Code. After completing 16 hours of training, those employees may carry a concealed firearm in the presence of students. According to the Texas Association of School Boards, 389 districts reported using the Guardian plan as of May.

While Democrats are calling for gun control, people like Sellers reiterate that the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Sellers told The Epoch Times that the first few minutes of an active shooter situation are critical, and arming teachers could save lives.

“In active shooting incidents, time is everything,” Sellers said. “No gun control law is going to stop evil from conducting evil acts.”

Madalyn Maresh is an assistant superintendent at the Edna Independent School District, a rural 3A district northeast of Victoria, Texas. She told The Epoch Times that her district reopened the application process for the Guardian program at her school in response to the Uvalde shooting.

“The day I reopened it, I got two applications immediately,” she said. In the three years since the program has been operational, she gets between 3 to 10 volunteers per year. Without guns for protection, teachers are forced to use their own bodies to shield students from an active shooter, she said.

“You’ve got to find what fits your community. We got zero push back on it—our community embraces it,” Maresh said.

Kyle Collier, police chief for City View ISD in Wichita Falls, Texas, said an additional four or five teachers volunteered after the Uvalde shooting.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-call-to-arms-teachers-in-conservative-states-are-volunteering-to-carry-guns_4519281.html

***********************************************

NC man pays off entire student loan of $28K — 'Cannot describe how happy'

For nearly two decades, Bruce Paulson, a digital marketing expert, toiled to pay off his student loan debt in the amount of nearly $28,000.

"It took me 19 1/2 years to pay it all off," he told Fox News Digital about his accomplishment. 

Though that's a long stretch of time, he also noted, "If I hadn't made the extra payments toward the principal those first few years, it would have taken much longer."

Based in North Carolina, Paulson, 42, recently received confirmation from Navient, the financial services company that managed his loan, that he had paid off his student loan debt in full.

"I cannot describe how happy I was," he said. "I never thought the day would come when I actually paid back all the money I owed plus interest."

In addition to making extra payments early on, Paulson credits the auto-payment plan for his success in completely ridding himself of debt. 

He said he set that up shortly after graduating in 2002 from Appalachian State University, set amid the storied Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. 

Over time, though, whittling down his student loan became more of a challenge for him, he said.

"Eventually my loan got sold to another bank and their website was not as easy to use. It got harder," he said, "to pay extra toward the principal."

"With Navient," he added, "I just left the auto payments [plan] on" and continued getting rid of his debt bit by bit that way, he said.

Navient, the Delaware-based company that services and collects student loans, clarified to Fox News Digital that borrowers, using its online portal, "can make additional payments toward the principal when paying extra payments." 

In search of independence and financial freedom, Paulson said he pursued a variety of jobs over the years. 

One of those included selling wine in Napa Valley — but he struggled to get by, especially early on, when all he yearned to do was to snow ski.

"I had zero dollars when I graduated from college, and I could not wrap my head around owing almost $30K."

"My goal in life was to ski big mountains," he said. 

Saddled by that student debt loan, he said he put that dream on hold.

He also "began to wonder why I just spent four years in school and had a huge amount of money to pay back, and I had no idea how," Paulson explained. 

"I did not have any skills that the job market valued," he said. "I had zero dollars when I graduated from college, and I could not wrap my head around owing almost $30K. It made me nervous to even think about it."

Paulson’s candid view of college runs counter to the prevailing narrative among many today that higher education is vital for success.

After a slog of career setbacks, Paulson eventually founded Determined Solutions in 2015. The company specializes in search engine optimization — and glowing client testimonials abound on his firm’s website (DeterminedSolutions.com).

"The market, for the most part, does not value college. No client I have ever had cared that I went to college. They never even asked."

"I am currently in the best place I’ve been with my business, and I just keep getting more and more opportunities. And that is really awesome," he said.

Paulson’s unorthodox outlook on college offers a cautionary tale for those leery of incurring student loan debt.

"The market, for the most part, does not value college," said Paulson. "No client I have ever had cared that I went to college. They never even asked. They only cared about how I could help them. And that is the reality of life."

Even with a bachelor's of science degree in business administration, Paulson said that nothing he learned in college was pertinent to the real world or to running a business for him.

"Going to college and getting student loans was the biggest financial mistake I've ever made," he said bluntly.

"Taking responsibility for my error and finally paying it off has been great for me."

"But since I did it when I was young, I accepted that it was my mistake and my responsibility to fix it," he said. 

"That helped me tremendously throughout my life. Taking responsibility for my error and finally paying it off has been great for me," he said.

Paulson said he never considered defaulting on his student loan. "I didn't even know it was possible," he said. 

He said he was "super broke for many years — and I lived in a tiny studio apartment in Lake Tahoe, making $8 an hour. I ate canned food and Ramen noodles," he said of his time in Nevada.

"The only person who could break and devalue my word was myself — and I was not going do that." 

He added, "All a person really has in this life is their word. I might have been broke, but I still had my word, which to me has a lot of value."

"The only person who could break and devalue my word was myself — and I was not going do that." 

With his student loan now paid in full, Paulson continues to have mixed feelings. Does he regret going to college? 

"Yes and no," he replied. "College was not the right choice for me."

"It was a mistake," he also said. "But I learned from it. I am kind of hardheaded. I must make mistakes to learn."

"I will be able to navigate adverse economic conditions much better than the average person."

Paulson added, "By living within my means and having zero debt [now], I have a level of freedom that most people I know do not have. I will be able to navigate adverse economic conditions much better than the average person."

Paulson also made these key points: "If the government forgives someone's student loans, or reallocates a person's student loan liability to someone else, then the person who took out the loan will not learn from their mistake. What is the consequence of that?"

"The person will likely make even bigger mistakes in the future. Plus the person will be breaking their word." 

"I do not see," he also said, "how a situation like that sets someone up for future success."

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/nc-man-pays-student-loan-happy

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

13 June, 2022

Keeping Schools Open During Pandemic Helped Swedish Children Avoid Learning Loss

There’s no evidence that Sweden’s youngest schoolchildren, who have never had to miss a single day in school because of the COVID pandemic, suffered any drop in their reading skills, a new study suggests.

When the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus first hit Sweden, the country’s public health authorities made it clear that daycare centers and primary schools, which serve students in grades 1 through 3, must stay open. Swedish government held on to that policy even after its COVID-19 death rates surpassed those of its Nordic neighbors.

Throughout much of the pandemic, Sweden’s response relied heavily on voluntary cooperation. Instead of imposing face covering and social distancing mandates on schools, it only recommended teachers and students to stay at home if they felt any symptoms of illness.

In a study published in the International Journal of Educational Research, a team of researchers at Stockholm’s Karolinska University analyzed data from 97,073 primary school students across Sweden. The goal was to investigate whether Swedish children suffered any potential learning loss over the past two school years.

There is no official national data on student progress in reading during the pandemic because the Swedish government canceled its national tests in 3rd-grade reading and math in 2020, and didn’t require schools to report those test scores in 2021. This prompted the researchers to base their study on data collected from LegiLexi, a popular free-to-use online tool that allows primary school students to test their language skills.

The researchers compared average LegiLexi test scores from the four school years from 2017–2018 to 2020–2021 in two aspects: word decoding and reading comprehension. The result shows that test-takers in the 2020–2021 “pandemic year” performed just as well as those in previous school years in both areas of language.

“We conclude that there is no evidence of a learning loss regarding early reading skills in Swedish primary school students,” the researchers wrote.

This of course doesn’t mean that the CCP virus pandemic didn’t at all negatively affect the reading ability of any individual Swedish child, the researchers noted. But overall, Swedish primary school students’ reading skills did stay at a stable level throughout the pandemic.

“In the light of international studies on reading skills in younger students during the pandemic, we conclude that the decision to keep schools open benefited Swedish primary school students,” they added.

The finding comes amid numerous reports on loss of literacy skills among American children in the aftermath of pandemic lockdowns and widespread school closures.

According to a report (pdf) publish this February by curriculum and testing company Amplify, the percentage of students at highest risk for not learning to read jumped by 8 percent during the pandemic, from 29 percent in the 2019–2020 school year to 37 percent in the 2021–22 school year.

Another study (pdf), conducted by the University of Virginia, found that about 35 percent of Virginia’s children in kindergarten through 2nd grade scored below their expected levels of literacy in the fall of 2021.

“Especially alarming, overall K-2 Fall 2021 scores indicate the highest percentage of students scoring below benchmark at grade-level entry ever observed at the fall assessment,” the study warned.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/keeping-schools-open-during-pandemic-helped-swedish-children-avoid-learning-loss-study_4526103.html

*********************************************

'This is not part of the curriculum': Parents' fury after its revealed NYC has spent more than $200k sending drag queens into schools to read to kids as young as THREE - sometimes without parental consent

New York City has been spending heavily on sending drag queens into its public elementary schools, dropping more than $200,000 on appearances since 2018. 

Just last month, records show the city paying $46,000 to send Drag Story Hour NYC to public schools, libraries, and street festivals, according to the New York Post.

Some parents say the programs were booked without their consent, while city officials have responded with outrage, according to the Post.

The news comes as debates rage across the country about how gender identity and young children should interact.

In 2022 alone, Drag Story Hour NYC has made 49 appearances at 34 public schools in New York City, according to its website. 

The organization characterizes itself as promoting inclusivity, creativity, and acceptance of the self in children, by exposing them to drag queens reading similarly thematic books. 

'Through fun and fabulous educational experiences, our programs celebrate gender diversity and all forms of difference to build empathy and give kids the confidence to express themselves however they feel comfortable,' the website reads.

Images from the site show people dressed in bedazzled dresses, shimmering wigs, and heavy eye shadow, reading to young children in classroom, and even helping the kids apply makeup themselves. 

The company has received  $207,000 from taxpayers since 2018, records show. $50,000 of that has come from the New York State Council on the Arts, and the other $157,000 from the NYC Department of Education, the Department of Youth and Community Development, the Department of Transportation, and Cultural Affairs.

The funds were provided by city council members, with $80,000 being allocated for drag programs in 2022 alone - over three times as much as was provided in 2020 for drag programs.

'I can't believe this. I am shocked,' Helen Qiu, the mother of a Manhattan middle school student, told the Post, 'I would be furious if he was exposed without my consent. This is not part of the curriculum.'

But some parents say that the drag programs have taken place without their consent, and that they only learned about them after their kids came home from school and mentioned them. 

'I didn't get any notice, my daughter actually came home and told me that a drag queen came to the school,' said PS 191 parent Reese Harrington. 'I feel like it would have been better for that conversation to happen at home.'

Storm Neverson, the parent of nine and six-year-old girls at the STAR academy, expressed concerns about schools exposing young children to drag queens.

'If they were in junior high school or middle school, I would be okay with that because I feel like they would have a little bit more understanding,' said Neverson. 'At this time, the kids were just a little too young.'

Neverson said that she was told that the program was happening, but that she was not asked if she thought it was okay.  

'It was mostly just like a heads up, you know, like, "Hey, this event is coming up. We're gonna have these people come in." And that was that,' Neverson said. 

Queens City Council member Vicki Paladino responded with outrage over news of the city's drag queen expenses. 

'I am considering pulling funding to any school in my district that is implementing Drag Queen Story Hour,' Paladino said, 'We are taking hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the pockets of hardworking New York taxpayers… to fund a program teaching little children about their gender fluidity? Not. On. My. Watch.'

The Department of Education defended the city's expenses on the drag queen appearances at schools, characterizing them as helping prevent violence against transgender people.   

'Last year, 50 transgender or gender-nonconforming people were killed in the United States due to their identity,' spokeswoman Suzan Sumer told the Post, 'We believe our schools play a critical role in helping young people learn about and respect people who may be different from them.'

News of the program comes as debates and controversies swirl across the country about the role of gender-identity exposure and education to children. 

Just last week, a Dallas gay bar threw a pride month event that invited kids to join drag queens on stage beneath a pink neon sign reading 'It's not gonna lick itself.'  

In March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into a parental rights bill that bans teachers from giving classroom instruction on 'sexual orientation' or 'gender identity' in kindergarten through third grade.

In April, a Tennessee lawmaker said he would 'burn' banned books if he could, as books about gender identity top the lists of banned titles at schools across the country.    

In May, a Florida mother sued her daughter's school after teachers created a 'transgender support plan' for her daughter without asking for parental consent.

This month, even Pizza Hut was pulled into the debate after it promoted a children's book that featured a little boy who dresses in drag.

Also this month, DeSantis moved to ban transition therapies for children and revoke Medicaid support for trans adults' treatments in Florida. 

That includes suspending access to 'puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries'.

'Florida must do more to protect children from politics-based medicine,' wrote state surgeon general Joseph Lapado, who DeSantis appointed to his post in February. 

'Otherwise, children and adolescents in our state will continue to face a substantial risk of long-term harm.' 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10908823/Parents-furious-revealed-NYC-spending-200k-sending-drag-queens-schools.html

********************************************************

Australia: Why girls’ schools succeed at producing women who lead

<i>There is probably some truth in the claims below by the partisan Loren Bridge but she ignores the elephant in the room:  Girls schools are almost all private, even if they are Catholic schools only.  

And private schools are almost all selective in some way.  Most require fees for attendance and that selects for parents who can afford such fees -- almost all being from better-off families.  And richer people tend to be brighter, which their daughters inherit.  So the pupils at such schools will mostly be of above-average IQ.  And high IQ helps with almost everything in life

And at least some of the claims above are simply untrue.  She says that boys and girls have equal basic ability at maths.  But all the psychometric research shows otherwise.  And how many Fields medals were won by women?  Just one, an Iranian lady

And I haven't even mentioned testosterone

The whole article below is suffused by Leftist bias, so should be taken with a large grain of salt </i>

Much has been said about this exciting “teal wave” of forthright, trailblazing, smart women. Five out of the eight female independents who will take their place on the crossbench of this parliament – Dr Monique Ryan, Dr Sophie Scamps, Dai Le, Allegra Spender and Zali Steggall – are graduates of girls’ schools.

This would be no surprise to anyone familiar with the benefits of single-sex education for girls, but for those who aren’t, it’s important to put this figure into perspective — girls’ schools make up just 2 per cent of schools in Australia.

Clearly, there is something inherent to the girls’ school environment that better prepares women for high-level leadership.

So what is it about a girls’ school education that ignites in young women the determination, inspiration and motivation to lead? What gives them the courage and grit to be change-makers in a world that continues to squeeze women onto the edges of the centre stage positions that men carve for themselves?

In girls’ schools, students are intentionally equipped with the knowledge and skills required to overcome social and cultural gender biases, and in doing so, actively break the stereotypical norms that define women in society. This is achieved through an education that rewires the implicit biases that so often limit women.

Women are expected to walk a tightrope between exhibiting the characteristics society expects of women and being seen to have the “strength” to lead. They are in a double bind. The obsession with former prime minister Julia Gillard’s empty fruit bowl in her kitchen illustrated this perfectly.

To resist this concentrated pressure, girls must be encouraged to take a leap of faith. They must leap from the tightrope and defy gendered pressure. To do this, they need the confidence to lead and be disruptors.

A study by the University of Queensland found that confidence levels for girls in single-sex schools matches that of boys, while girls in the general population consistently demonstrate lower confidence levels than boys.

In other words, the study found that a girls’ school provides the environment for girls to develop and maintain innate confidence and healthy self-belief. And it is confidence, or a lack of confidence, that is frequently attributed to the under-representation of women in senior leadership roles.

Let’s be clear — girls aren’t innately less confident or assertive than boys, they aren’t less capable in maths and sciences and they certainly don’t have more body image or mental health issues than boys as infants. It is our patriarchal society that stereotypes women diminishing their self-belief and self-efficacy, quashing their voice and ultimately, their power.

A girls’ school turns the tables on gender stereotypes, and this can be life-changing for a girl.

Girls’ schools provide significant leadership opportunities — 100 per cent of the leadership positions (not just 50 per cent) are held by girls. The power of mentoring and role modelling provided by past students, and the predominantly female leadership of girls’ schools, provides girls with leadership development opportunities beyond those available in co-ed schools. With no requirement to cater to boys, girls’ schools balance the inequality in broader society through purposeful, targeted education.

Data from a US study shows that girls’ school graduates are more likely than co-ed school counterparts to be involved in political activities, demonstrate social and political agency, and be supportive of societal improvements. They are more likely to be change-makers.

Research shows unequivocally that girls thrive in an all-girls environment; they do better academically, socially, and emotionally. Regardless of socio-economic factors, data — not just from a single study but from a plethora of unique studies from all over the world — indicates that girls simply do better in girls’ schools.

Girls in co-ed schools tend to be more self-conscious and less confident; they are less likely to speak up in class, ask questions or take on a leadership role. They are also more likely to have a negative body image and considerably more likely to experience sexual harassment or bullying. In contrast, girls in girls-only environments participate more freely in discussions, are more competitive and take more healthy risks with their learning — skills that are advantageous for life success.

Girls’ schools are at the forefront of gender equality, deliberately challenging gendered norms and purposefully building girls’ confidence, conviction and self-belief, making sure that girls have the skills and knowledge to speak out and to break down barriers.

These are skills our new female MPs will certainly need as they step into the male-dominated Parliament House, famed for its sexism and misogyny. May their voices add power to changing that culture and progressing the ongoing fight for a more equal society.

https://www.smh.com.au/education/why-girls-schools-succeed-at-producing-women-who-lead-20220612-p5at3t.html

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

12 June, 2022

Progressives Have Captured Another Institution: Commencement Addresses

Time was when many commencement speeches at major universities were about America and its values and what graduates could expect in the future. In recent years, they have become a political capstone on the progressive ideas imposed upon them in their classes and textbooks.

This year has been no different. While an occasional token conservative or Republican is invited, most speakers are liberal in their political beliefs and promote activist causes.

Here are just a few examples from a long list.

Augustana College: Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

Bard College: Deb Haaland, secretary of the Department of the Interior.

Brandeis University: Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts.

Clark University: Mary Frances Berry, civil rights activist.

Harvard Law School: Loretta Lynch, former U.S. attorney general.

There are many more you can Google, but the picture is clear. Most major universities, while giving lip service to “diversity,” don’t believe in diversity of opinion.

Perhaps the most troubling of this June’s commencement addresses was not just the main speaker at Harvard’s Law School commencement, but a prominent and soon-to-be powerful and influential person who attended.

The main speaker was New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, whose preferred topic appeared to be “LGBTQ-plus.” She bragged that her deputy is an “openly gay man.” She also touted her country’s approval of same-sex marriage and its progress on “climate change.” This presumably is supposed to inspire graduates to embrace her views, if they don’t already share them. Why wouldn’t they after what they’ve been taught, watched what is promoted in the media, and endured the peer pressure of like-minded students?

Among those attending the ceremony was Supreme Court justice-designate Ketanji Brown Jackson. When Ardern reached the part in her address in which she referenced New Zealand’s ban on “military-style semi-automatics and assault rifles,” Jackson applauded.

As Congress debates which, if any, weapons to ban, this issue could come before the Supreme Court. It was inappropriate for Jackson to seemingly telegraph her opinion in advance. Notice how the justices never applaud at a president’s State of the Union Address. That should be Jackson’s model.

What a contrast between Ardern’s remarks and another commencement address delivered at Harvard on June 8, 1978, by Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn. His speech drew the ire of some faculty and The New York Times editorial page, because it didn’t fit in with their ideological perspectives.

While Solzhenitsyn called Western systems “best,” he indicted the West for its lack of courage: “A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations.

Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society. Of course, there are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life.”

He added: “Should one point out that from ancient times declining courage has been considered the beginning of the end?”

Solzhenitsyn was a modern prophet. Many speakers at recent commencement ceremonies are more pathetic than prophetic.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/06/07/progressives-have-captured-another-institution-commencement-addresses/

************************************************

De Blasio’s HS-admission lottery could destroy NYC’s public-school system

The cockamamie system imposed during the last mayor’s last days in office no longer put a premium on good grades; it lowered the bar for entry into many competitive high schools and mixed kids with a range of academic achievement into various bingo baskets.

As a result, some of the city’s best students opened their admission letters Thursday only to learn they didn’t get into any of their top choices.

High-achievers of all backgrounds are asking: “What’s the point of striving for all As and perfect attendance? There’s no reward for excellence, and half-stepping can still get you into the best school.”

It’s not just that the nation’s largest — and fast-shrinking — school district is telling kids and parents: “Good grades don’t matter.” Families that care about education will now look outside the DOE system for a high school that will challenge their kids. Many will join the angry mom who told The Post she and her family are now looking at leaving the city entirely.

We warned Chancellor David Banks about this months ago; now he’s stuck with this mess. At a bare minimum, he needs to make it plain that future admissions will be far more like the traditional process Blas blew up.

If the system no longer strongly rewards merit, the flight from DOE schools — and from the city itself — will become a flood.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/09/de-blasios-hs-admission-lottery-could-destroy-nyc-public-schools/

************************************************

Star-studded LA high school is sued by Jewish father for its 'racially divisive, anti-Semitic' curriculum which branded Jews 'oppressors'

A star-studded Los Angeles high school is being sued by a parent for its allegedly 'racially divisive, anti-Semitic' curriculum – and may soon face more lawsuits, the parent's lawyer claims. 

Celebrity alumni of Brentwood School, a private K-12, include Jonah Hill, Adam Levine and Jack Quaid, and parents of alumni include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Reese Witherspoon and Jack Nicholson. 

In a lawsuit filed in a Los Angeles court on Wednesday, a Jewish parent of a former 8th grade student at the $50,000-per-year school said the girl was booted after he complained about alleged anti-semitic discrimination in its new woke curriculum installed after the death of George Floyd. 

The school says the claims are 'baseless' and a 'work of whole fiction'. 

Frustrated father Jerome Eisenberg is suing the school for breach of contract, violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act – which protects individuals from discrimination by California businesses – and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims. 

The news of the lawsuit being filed was first published by LA site The Ankler. 

Eisenberg said he was happy with the school until the summer of 2020, when the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer led to an alleged ideological overhaul of the school's policies and teaching. 

He accused the school of holding racially segregated meetings, encouraging students to treat Jewish people as 'oppressors', and discriminating against a Jewish group of parents. 

'Everything at Brentwood radically changed after the death of George Floyd,' the lawsuit said. 

'After accepting parents' tuition payments, Defendants Brentwood and its head of school, Michael Riera, pulled a bait-and-switch with the school's curriculum and culture.' 

Eisenberg claimed the school replaced its traditional teaching with 'an identity-based ideology of grievance, resentment, and racial divisiveness' and 'started indoctrinating [students] into what to think, based on Brentwood's preferred political fad of the moment.'

 In the girl's literature class, To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies were replaced by Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped, which Eisenberg said included 'ahistorical, racially inflammatory perspectives on this country's history with no legitimate pedagogical purpose.' 

'[The] English Department told parents that if they wanted their children to read Shakespeare or Hemingway, they should do it in their own free time,' the legal complaint said. 

The changes were made secretly and 'withheld from parents', Eisenberg claimed, while Jewish parents were 'prevented from participating in the school's policy-making decisions' due to the school's alleged 'anti-Semitic animus'. 

A source close to the dispute told DailyMail.com that 40% of Brentwood students were Jewish and claimed that Eisenberg was in a tiny minority of disgruntled parents. 

'The curriculum changes have not affected interest in Brentwood. In fact, more people have wanted to come to Brentwood than ever before,' the source said. 

A parent at the school, who also asked to remain anonymous, said: '​​It's only a few parents who have a problem with the changes to the curriculum.  The students by and large, including my own, have no problem with it.' 

The parent said they didn't trust Eisenberg, having discovered he had previous charges for fraud dating back to the 1990s. 

According to a 1993 LA Times article, Eisenberg and his realtor client were charged with improperly inflated real estate values in loan transactions allowing them to obtain $6million. 

According to federal court records, Eisenberg, a former lawyer, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and bank embezzlement in 2000, was sentenced to a year in prison and resigned from the California bar. 

Eisenberg's lawyer claimed that the furious father is just the first in a growing number of parents considering legal action against the school. 

'I can tell you for a fact that there are dozens of parents who support what Jerry's doing,' attorney David Pivorak told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview. 'Jerome Eisenberg is by far not not alone in this.' 

He added that other parents had approached him for representation, and that 'it's not out of the question' that Eisenberg's complaint would become a class action lawsuit. 

Pivorak added that the girl's removal from Brentwood School was 'devastating' to her. 

'For someone her age, 13 or 14, it's jarring and it's devastating, because you're no longer with your friends. You have to completely reorganize your life. It's tough having to make new friends, especially for a young girl,' he said. 

'When you're suddenly pulled away from [your community] because your school decides to discriminate against you and single out your group, and you're punished because of that, it's kind of jarring.' 

Pivorak said he believes parents are afraid to speak out against woke new curricula for fear of being 'canceled'. 

'You have a lot of very unhappy parents who, in woke progressive LA, are terrified to stand up and oppose this stuff,' he said. 

'With the cancel culture that's been proliferating throughout the country, standing up and opposing the woke regime is akin to having a scarlet letter on your forehead. You're ostracized from your friend group, you're ostracized from society in general.

 'Not only are they afraid to lose their social standing, but they're also afraid of what's going to happen to their kids, their college admissions letters and their ability to proceed in life.' 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10906219/Los-Angeles-high-school-sued-Jewish-parent-racially-divisive-anti-Semitic-curriculum.html

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

10 June, 2022

NYC public schools set to lose $215M from budget cuts, hurting hope for smaller class sizes

New York City principals and advocates fear that school budget cuts to the tune of $215 million will make it impossible to afford smaller class sizes next year — just as a bill in Albany has made that reform a priority.

Slashed public school budgets have raised worries about how to pay for new teachers — and even retain current staff — in order to comply with class size caps recently passed by the state legislature.

“Class sizes will inevitably increase if these devastating cuts are enacted,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters.

The shrunken allocations tie school budgets across the city to enrollment for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Public schools have lost an estimated 120,000 students over the last five years — and have also seen average class sizes reduced as a result during that same period.

But Haimson predicted next school year’s budgets would reverse that trend.

“It will be impossible for the DOE to comply with the new state law. In fact, these cuts are like the Mayor and the Chancellor thumbing their nose at the State Legislature,” she said.

Haimson also noted that the city foresees a loss of about 1,500 teaching positions next year, and more than 3,000 after that.

Overall city funding for schools has been reduced primarily due to lower enrollment, a spokesperson for City Hall told The Post.

Kindergarten through third grade classes have averaged around 21.2 students this school year, compared to 23.8 students before the pandemic, according to data compiled by Haimson’s advocacy group. The averages in grades four through eight have also fallen to 23.8 in 2021-22 from 26.5 in 2019-20; and 24.7 in high school from 26.4 students.

A principal in Brooklyn told The Post that his school will have to reduce staff by at least one or two teachers, in responding to the budget.

“Also I don’t know if I’m going to have any money for supplies throughout the year or for students to go on trips,” said the administrator, who added the DOE is encouraging more field trips.

The initial cuts total $375 million, but to soften the shock to city schools this budget season, some of that loss was backfilled with $160 million in federal stimulus funds, The Post has reported.

The stimulus funds that are partially filling in the budget gaps are slated to expire within the next couple of years.

“Educators and parents fought for federal funds to stabilize schools as we moved through the pandemic,” Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said in a statement. “This additional funding was supposed to hold schools harmless.”

Education officials have warned that enrollment declines can also lead to service and program cuts, testifying at City Council budget hearings to that effect.

City Hall spent much of last week warning of the fiscal impact of the class size bill on other education programs, from school safety measures to dyslexia screenings.

On Friday, Mayor Eric Adams changed his tone, saying that he was “optimistic” about a shared goal of smaller class sizes.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/07/nyc-public-schools-set-to-lose-215-million-from-budget-cuts/

*********************************************

Two Georgia preschool teachers arrested after classroom video captures alleged abuse

<i>A Muslim and an Hispanic</i>

Two Georgia preschool teachers were arrested Monday after parents watched a classroom surveillance video allegedly showing the teachers abusing children. 

Police began investigating the alleged abuse June 3 after a parent reached out to the Roswell Police Department to voice her concern about her child's safety at the school. 

The parent reportedly logged onto the school's camera system and saw "physical contact" in the two teachers' interactions with several students in the classroom, according to a press release from Roswell Police Department.

After further investigation, authorities obtained the video and arrested both teachers based on the actions of the two teachers. Zeina Alostwani, 40, and Soriana Briceno, 19, were charged with first-degree cruelty to children.

Gloria Barghi, a mother to one of the students, said she had a "weird" feeling she needed to check on her son.

"I just told my husband, I said, 'Call it mother's intuition.' I just want to see if he's OK,'" Barghi told WSB-TV. "I pulled up the app. I picked it up right when the lead teacher was assaulting the first victim. It was intentional. It was thought out. It was malicious … these are defenseless little kids.

"They had no policies in place. There was no, 'If this happens, these are the procedures we go by,' to the point that I had to demand that the teachers were removed from the classroom.

"And we would not leave until they were removed. The director even looked at me and questioned, 'So you want me to remove them?' And I said, 'You better believe it. Remove them now.’"

Alostwani and Briceno were booked into the Fulton County Jail Monday

https://www.foxnews.com/us/georgia-teachers-arrested-classroom-abuse-students

*******************************************************

Australian universities have held their position in world rankings through the pandemic with seven institutions in the latest global top 100 list released by higher ­education analyst firm QS

At 30th, the Australian Nat­ional University retains its position as the best ranked local institution in the 2023 QS World University Rankings, down three places from 27th last year.

Second is the University of Melbourne at 33rd, followed by the University of Sydney at 41st.

Also in the top 100 are UNSW (45th), the ­University of Queensland (50th), Monash University (57th) and the University of Western Australia (90th).

Among other Australian universities, La Trobe stood out, rising 46 places to 316th in the latest ranking list. QS said the improvement was mainly due to a rise in the number of citations per ­research paper published by La Trobe academics.

La Trobe has also increased its output of research papers, up by 37 per cent since 2016, nearly three times higher than the 13 per cent average growth in research output over that period.

QS senior vice-president Ben Sowter said although Australian universities had suffered from international isolation during the pandemic, their rankings had stagnated rather than declined.

“There are as many universities rising as falling,” he said. “Australia continues to shine for research excellence, but its recognition among the global academic community and employers has taken a hit, connected with the reduced international engagement during the pandemic.”

Mr Sowter said if the number of international students in Australia took a long time to recover, it would “jeopardise the intellectual diversity and exchange that are causing Australia’s institutions to thrive”.

Because of two years of closed borders during the pandemic, Australian universities also went backwards in the reputation surveys that account for half of the QS ranking. Of the 38 ranked Australian universities, 37 declined in the academic reputation survey of more than 150,000 ­academics globally, which makes up 40 per cent of the QS ranking.

And all 38 ranked universities declined in the employer reputation survey (which samples nearly 100,000 employers ­globally), which makes up 10 per cent of the ranking.

However, Australian universities did well on the research measure, which counts the number of research citations per academic, and makes up 20 per cent of the ranking score. Thirteen Australian universities are in the world’s top 100 on the research measure.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/seven-australian-universities-are-in-qs-world-rankings-top-100/news-story/5e36dd99035a6dcc74ce701026c2b277

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

9 June, 2022

Many Gen Z Students Afraid to Speak Their Truth in Classroom

Ideally, American public schools are settings where young Americans develop into citizens and become socialized to particular ideas, values, and civic norms. Attitudes toward democracy and disagreement are forged in these spaces.

In this context, the findings of the Knight Foundation’s just-released report on high schoolers’ attitudes toward free speech should worry us. The report, part of the Knight Foundation’s Future of the First Amendment project, finds that high school students censor themselves at levels currently seen on collegiate campuses.

There is some good news in the Knight report, however. The data powerfully illustrate that Gen Z high school students today are open to free speech and do not support cancel culture or the rampant censorship that threatens learning and viewpoint diversity.

While civics knowledge has been in decline for decades, a healthy majority of high school students—63%—say that they have taken classes that dealt with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The report also demonstrates a strong appreciation of and support for viewpoint diversity. When asked if people should be allowed to express unpopular opinions, 57% of students strongly agree with this statement, while another 32% mildly agree. This means that almost 9 in 10 high school students support freedom of expression: thus, young Americans are hardly in favor of censorship.

Moreover, the overwhelming majority of today’s high school students understand that a healthy democracy requires certain crucial conditions.

Ninety-two percent of students, for example, believe that it is important to protect the ability of different groups in society to be heard. Another 91% hold that it is important to create a robust exchange of ideas and views, and 93% say that it is important to have an inclusive society welcoming to diverse groups. This is all encouraging news.

But the data also show that high school students are censoring themselves in the classroom. Only 19% of students said that they were very comfortable voicing disagreement with ideas expressed by the instructor or by other students. Another 36% were somewhat comfortable, meaning that just over half (55%) of students were comfortable disagreeing with their teachers and fellow students.

These findings resemble those related to the state of free speech on college campuses. In the spring of 2021, FIRE and College Pulse surveyed over 37,000 college and university students about their levels of comfort in disagreeing with professors. Just 40% of college students surveyed reported that they would be very or somewhat comfortable publicly disagreeing with a professor about a controversial topic; only 51% stated that they would be very or somewhat comfortable expressing their views on a controversial political topic during a class discussion.

The Knight report reveals that the situation is even worse in high school.

Sadly, the findings from Knight also mirror earlier survey data that I collected with Next Gen Politics showing that a significant number of high school students are not comfortable sharing their thoughts in class.

Sixty percent of students surveyed said that they have felt they could not express their opinions on a subject because of how students, teachers, or the administration would respond—a proportion identical to that of college students who report self-censoring on campuses.

Further analysis of the Next Gen data showed that significant numbers of students have been self-censoring both inside and outside the classroom. High school students regularly report that they crave dissent in dialogue, yet they are uncomfortable expressing it themselves for fear of being shunned or canceled. 

This repressive climate is toxic for our educational system, which is anchored on the classically liberal idea that people can disagree and still find common ground.

As many of these high school students will prepare for the workforce or collegiate settings, they are being conditioned to keep silent rather than dissent or question others, putting the vibrancy of our democracy at risk.

It is time for families, communities, and education professionals to demand better and embrace the debate and discourse that comes with real education.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/06/06/high-school-students-value-free-speech-but-feel-uncomfortable-speaking-up

****************************************************

California Senate Aims to Make Schools More Dangerous

Two days after the mass murder of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, the California Senate passed SB-1273 School safety: mandatory notifications. The measure, authored by state Sen. Steven Bradford, ends a requirement for schools to report violent threats from students to law enforcement. The measure also excludes from the notification requirement “a violation involving certain instruments, such as an instrument that expels metallic projectiles, a spot marker gun, a razor blade, or a box cutter.” 

The American Civil Liberties Union, a supporter of the bill, claims “Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students, as well as students with disabilities, are disproportionately referred to law enforcement, cited, and arrested.” Eliminating mandatory reporting, according to the ACLU, “will protect students from unnecessary contact with the criminal legal system, decrease school related law enforcement referrals and arrests, and keep students in school.”

State Sen. Melissa Melendez contended that removing the reporting requirements “impedes law enforcement from being able to best protect our schools.” Melendez, who has children in school, recalled that in 2018, student Nicholas Cruz murdered 17 people at the Stoneman Douglas school in Florida. Supporters of SB-1273, Melendez said, “are asking for a repeat of Stoneman Douglas across the state of California.” 

The California State Sheriff’s Association argues that “School officials and law enforcement should work collaboratively, especially when it comes to students whose behavior violates the law and jeopardizes school safety.” Removing reporting requirements “impedes law enforcement from being able to best protect our schools” and “will only reduce the level of student safety.” 

With the removal of mandatory reports, writes Diego Hays of San Diego News Desk, “the schools leave themselves open to more school shootings or threats against the school itself. The removal makes schools way more unsafe to students and teachers and staff.” In the California Globe, Wenjuan Wu cites another potential problem with SB-1273.

“The rationale that not holding disruptive or violent students accountable will somehow create a safer school environment is mind-boggling,” Wu contends. “Withholding information that would otherwise help law enforcement identify potential threats of violence is also an obstruction of justice.” 

Bradford’s measure now moves to a vote in the state Assembly. 

https://blog.independent.org/2022/06/03/california-senate-aims-make-schools-more-dangerous-students/?omhide=true

***************************************************

Save our kids from dismal education

Enough of terrifying our kids on a daily basis.

Climate Change activists have a lot to answer for in terms of the mental health of children of all ages around the world. Then came the lockdowns, which completely damaged their social and relationship skills, particularly for the very young. Now, they see kids in schools being gunned down.

The filter through which our children see the world has become the very opposite of what it should be. 

I don’t want to get into a debate about how real Climate Change is, as the whole thing has become an accepted religion for too many people. All I want is to suggest that you do your own research into the predictions of Climate Change activists and check for yourself how many of those predictions have eventuated in the last twenty years.

In the meantime, a huge number of children have been led to believe the planet will cease to exist and that they are responsible. The number of related stress and psychological issues developed is astounding.

Adults have also been scared senseless, but my focus is on getting our kids back to being happy, healthy, carefree little Vegemites – globally.

We need an educational curriculum – not one that teachers are tasked with implementing in classrooms, but one that starts in schools and on social media. Even better if it spawns into live events that reconnects kids with the wonderful beings they really are.

Essentially this would be a movement that reinforces how special and loved they are. How they make a difference to the world, their family, community, and to individual others. A movement that encourages kindness to others and smiling. It would involve looking for and finding things they like and love in this world, regardless of their circumstances or environments. 

The bullying, suicides, and discomfort children feel in their own skin can absolutely be helped by a program that I envision being created by experts like Tony Robbins, Esther Hicks, The Wiggles as well as people I know personally that have been working in this arena for many years.

Certainly, include educators and psychologists in the process, but this collaboration can start slowly and build on its successes. There are technologies available that can encourage participation and corporations should participate in providing products and services to enhance this movement. 

Russia and China know full well that if you educate children from a young age, you have them for life. This insidious communist paradigm is what has created the destructive Woke culture we have today.

It took many years, but the regiment of Woke indoctrination took hold in perfect circumstances. Governments, universities, and even corporations exploded in a collaborative acceptance of destroying our history, implementing unacceptable language distortion, and officially agreeing that there are no longer two genders. I have every respect for anyone in a gender morphing crisis or distress, but that is a long way from teaching small children in schools about sexual orientations that adults struggle with.

How did we go from America having a two-term black President in Barrack Obama and African Americans holding offices at the highest level of every profession to believing in systemic racism?

Why didn’t the ‘privileged’ African Americans in those positions cry out to save our society from a radical race movement by denouncing the lie of systemic racism before it spilled out into the Western world?

Has Oprah gone into senility? I would love her to explain how she reached the heights she did within such a systemically racist country. Not to mention her friend Gail, the wonderful Tyler Perry, and others who jumped on the systemic racism bandwagon ignited by George Floyd. 

How did all of this happen? We were groomed, folks…

We were groomed and the education started in our universities and crept all the way down to our kindergartens.

One of the few benefits of the Covid lockdown was that parents woke up to what their children were being indoctrinated within the school system. All of this did not happen by accident, but that is a subject for another article. 

So, let’s take back our kids.

Let’s highlight the wonderful world they live in.

Every child should feel good about who and what they are. Every child should know how to smile and be kind to others. Every child should know they can do and have anything they want.

Let’s start a movement from kindergarten to high schools to take our children back to appreciating how good their country is, how good their community is, and how good life can be. 

https://spectator.com.au/2022/06/our-kids-deserve-to-be-happy/

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

8 June, 2022

Solving the teacher retention crisis: Give teachers the respect they deserve

When the Texas American Federation of Teachers (AFT) surveyed its members in November, an astounding 66% of teachers and school staff who responded said they were considering leaving their profession. And that was before the Omicron COVID surge in January and before the devastating attack on the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. 

Yes, low pay and overwork were the two most significant pressures pushing them to leave at that point. Most other states are experiencing the same challenges in retaining teachers. We’ve known that even before the chaos and instability of the pandemic, educators were suffering from overwork and low wages. But the pandemic exacerbated the problem and brought us to the crises we face now for teacher retention.

Other layers causing stress also contribute to teachers questioning their profession. You have the excessive test prep and punitive standardized testing system. There are the constant attacks from some elected officials branding teachers as pedophiles, groomers, indoctrinators, or librarians as purveyors of pornography. And now, tragically, there’s fear—the fear that inaction from our leaders will make their schools targets for mass shootings. 

Using data starting in 2010, Texas AFT and Every Texan evaluated how salaries kept up with the cost of living in our state. The resulting joint report, "The Lost Decade: Texas schools are underfunded & facing devastating staffing shortages," is grim. On average and adjusted for inflation, educators are making four percent less than in 2010. Averages don’t tell the whole story. For example, San Antonio Independent School District teachers are making nine percent less and Houston Independent School District teachers 13% less.

The latest stats from 2019 also show that college graduates in similar professions make about 20% more than our nation’s teachers.

Many school staff positions — custodians and food service workers, for example—are still working at poverty-level wages. 

When asked by a reporter whether he would commit to raising salaries for teachers, our governor—Greg Abbott—responded that he and our Legislature had already provided a large pay raise with school finance legislation in 2019. Yes, a scant few teachers did get healthy raises, but others didn’t even get enough to cover rising premiums for their district-sponsored health insurance. 

Some states like New Mexico have stepped up to the plate to confront low pay head-on with significant pay increases statewide. Others have not. And in Texas, the governor’s response to the problem has been to create a task force on teacher retention and recruitment. This task force will merely rehash what our "Lost Decade" report already confirms about the need to respect educators and pay them for their hard work.

So what’s the solution? How do we show educators the respect they deserve? States need to increase their funding annually to public education to stave off inflation. That ensures that schools are equipped to educate our kids, but it also acts to increase teacher pay.

Our Texas legislators had an opportunity to increase funding in its last session in 2021, but instead, they did nothing—leaving local districts scrambling to cobble together funding for whatever modest raises they could afford. That indifference to educators needs to stop.

We also need to respect educators as professionals who are devoted to their students. That means stopping the heinous political attacks like the witch hunt for supposed Critical Race Theory instruction. Surveys of parents nationwide show widespread and significant support for schools and teachers, but the headlines read differently. The result: Our teachers feel insulted and devalued.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/solving-teacher-retention-crisis-teachers-respect-deserve

*******************************************************

A Wisconsin school district is closing a Title IX inquiry into three middle school students accused of sexual harassment for using improper pronouns

"We have issued clear directives and expectations to all students involved in this matter for the purpose of preventing bullying and harassment and ensuring a safe and supportive learning environment for all of our students," Kiel School District said. "Based on these actions, and pursuant to District policies and procedures, the School District considers this matter closed."

The students subject to the Title IX inquiry were represented by a conservative legal group called the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. 

"We are pleased that the Kiel Area School District has finally ended its misguided Title IX investigation," the group said. "While the District’s statement attempts to reframe the investigation, it was always primarily about ‘mispronouning.’"

Title IX prohibits sexual harassment at schools that receive federal funding and demands schools facilitate an environment free from sex-based discrimination. It states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." 

"The District may not be willing to admit it publicly, but it has recognized that it has no legal basis to demand that our clients refrain from 'mispronouning' other student," the legal group continued. 

Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty also said it will ensure the inquiry is erased from the students' academic records. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the district for comment regarding the dropped inquiry but did not immediately receive a response. 

"We wish they would have dismissed it right away – that could and should have happened," said an attorney with the legal group. "I don’t know why they took two weeks to dismiss it, but we’re glad they finally did.".

Following the Title IX inquiry, the district was plagued with bomb threats. 

"Over the last several weeks, our school district and community have been greatly impacted by media attention related to a complaint involving harassment," the district said.

Local police will continue to collaborate with the FBI and the Wisconsin Department of Justice to investigate the threats, according to Fox 11.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/wisconsin-school-district-drops-sexual-harassment-probe-3-students-accused-using-wrong-pronouns

****************************************************

UK: Sixth-form student hounded out of private girls' school for alleged 'transphobia'

Last month, a story broke in the national Press. It told of a sixth-form student being hounded out of her private girls' school for alleged 'transphobia'.

And it received even wider attention when J. K. Rowling — herself the victim of bullies from the fringe element of the pro-trans movement — expressed her disgust at the girl's treatment.

Yet what drew me to the case — and to this brave, if unlucky, teenager's plight — was when the trans rights activist and Guardian columnist Owen Jones tweeted on May 17: 'This 'story' — claiming 60 girls drove a girl out of a school for 'questioning trans ideology' — doesn't include their side of the story or even name the school. I want to speak anonymously to these girls for their story, so please RT!'

I thought Jones's tweet expressed a desire to pursue a young female victim of bullying and discredit her, which I considered nothing short of disgraceful. And I said so publicly.

At this, I was contacted out of the blue by the girl, whose name I have changed to 'Kate'. We meet in a London cafe days after her story broke.

As she sips her cappuccino, Kate seems wise beyond her 19 years: warm, with a sharp sense of humour. She has an intimidating intellect, and seemingly reads Dostoevsky and Socrates for fun.

She remains angry and is disappointed in Jones, calling him vindictive for announcing in his tweet his plans to — as she sees it — trash her online and give a voice to her bullies.

But she also wants to make it clear that she is less interested in her own story than in the far wider question of freedom of speech, and how this is increasingly threatened in the censorious climate whipped up by the pro-trans lobby.

'I'm not speaking in pursuit of a petty vendetta but to a much larger issue that affects teachers and students alike,' she says.

'But Owen Jones, based on what he tweeted, appeared convinced it was just a case of high-school bullying that was contrived by a bigot to turn herself into a victim.'

Pausing regularly to compose herself as she tells a very difficult story, Kate reveals exactly what unfolded.

It all started in late 2021, when a baroness who sits in the House of Lords visited Kate's school, which she attended as a day pupil rather than as a boarder.

The talk was on the baroness's work campaigning for LGBT rights, and sixth-formers were told their attendance was compulsory.

The peer, says Kate, was dogmatic from the start. 'She was saying that her colleagues were 'transphobic' and implying that the Lords was a phalanx of bigotry.'

Kate says she found this view to be 'disconcerting' and suggestive of 'a distaste for negotiation'. So, after careful consideration, Kate decided to raise her hand and ask a question that troubles many on the Left: How do you define a woman?

Critical theory — the discipline that has come to dominate discussion in the workplace as well as in schools and academia, and for at least one member of the House of Lords — holds that 'gender identity' is a social construct. Biological reality, that is, having ovaries, a penis or a particular set of chromosomes, is irrelevant, according to the theory.

Kate asked about how to bridge this gap, but she wasn't given a straight answer to her apparently simple question.

The baroness had also claimed that trans people are denied human rights. Kate asked about how to achieve consensus between competing rights; for example, on whether male-bodied trans women should be allowed to visit female-only spaces, such as changing rooms and rape refuges.

At this, the speaker accused Kate of reducing the issue to 'semantics'.

'I said, 'I respectfully disagree' and thought that was the best place to leave it,' says Kate today.

What she did not know was that one of her fellow pupils had run out of the room crying when she engaged in this moderate and reasonable discussion with the peer.

Shortly afterwards, Kate visited the school's 'wellbeing' centre, only to be refused entry. Students began claiming that she'd been 'transphobic' at the talk and alleging that she had caused them 'harm'.

As is the way in schools, the rumours swelled, and before long it was being claimed that Kate's contribution during the baroness's visit had caused the school's trans students to consider suicide.

Later that day, Kate went to collect her bag from her locker, where she encountered another girl. 'She looked at me with cold, steely eyes,' Kate recalls. 'I looked for any empathy or understanding from her but there was nothing.'

What happened next sounds terrifying. Soon, a number of people gathered and before she knew it, Kate had been circled by a mob of furious students.

'They began shouting at me, words such as 'Nazi', 'bigot', 'fascist', 'transphobe', 'homophobe' and 'racist',' she says. 'There were up to 60 of them.' Some called her a 'c***'.

'They were so close and enunciating so emphatically, all I felt was their spit on my face.'

Shaking, Kate managed to break out of the circle and run away from them. Then she slumped to the floor. 'I wasn't crying but I could hear an animal sound coming from my throat,' she tells me.

One of the girls, distressed at what she had witnessed, ran after Kate, asking if she was OK. And then the head of sixth form asked the students that had surrounded her: 'How could you do this?'

It looked as if sanity might prevail, despite everything.

But when Kate arrived at school the next morning, she found that her desk had been covered in print-outs of the pink, blue and white trans flag, each of them scrawled with the slogan, 'Trans rights are human rights'.

The day after that, the school's sixth-formers staged a spontaneous 'Trans Day of Visibility' — without warning Kate or inviting her to attend. They all came to school wearing the colours of the trans flag.

An investigation was opened and the deputy head teacher interviewed several of the students, including Kate. Perhaps four days after the incident, Kate came into school and overheard her favourite teacher addressing the sixth form and describing Kate's 'terrible, hateful behaviour'.

'Later, a second, retroactive investigation was launched pertaining to my character to justify the reaction of the girls, allegedly legitimated by a 'provocative' history going back five years,' says Kate.

As the mounting stress of this ongoing public shaming continued, she eventually self-harmed on school premises. After that, the school refused to allow her back for several weeks.

'I was seen as a danger to myself and to other students,' she says. Eventually she did return to school. However, she was made to sit in the library, away from her fellow students, 'just surrounded by books and my own thoughts'.

This isolation inevitably had a terrible impact on her mental health. Having struggled with anorexia during her GCSE years, Kate began to dislike the idea of eating food once again.

When she begged to be allowed to go back into school properly and attend lessons like everyone else, she was informed that she had 'distressed' the other students for too many years.

Eventually, Kate had simply had enough. As she puts it: 'It was a Wednesday, and a teacher who had stuck by me said I could achieve all my ambitions without school. So I listened. I walked out and never turned back.'

Today, she is continuing her A-level studies online and is on course to start university by the time she is 21.

'I'll feel like a mature student!' she says with a laugh.

At 13, Kate spent a year in hospital being treated for her anorexia. During those traumatic months spent with similarly afflicted girls from different backgrounds, Kate tells me she 'fundamentally changed'.

Yet her school, too, had changed during her year in hospital. It was, by then, affiliated with the pro-trans group Stonewall (described by some as 'extremist', although it denies this), and several girls had started identifying as non-binary or trans. Kate's former school has always had a liberal ethos, and she was fond of many of her teachers.

It was these positive experiences that led her to regularly wonder out loud whether she was a 'bad person' for questioning trans ideology. She asked herself: 'Why else would they turn on me so viciously?'

However, her experience of anorexia has given her special insight, which she discusses with typical eloquence.

'I couldn't help but hear the anorexic mentality reverberate in conversations about gender dysphoria,' she says.

'Both anorexia and gender dysphoria [make people] aspire to reach an idealised form of the self, liberated from the grotesque realities of material existence. Both are driven by a desire to control one's reality — to unveil a potential 'truth'.

'I'm not denying the validity of medical transition as a means to stifle that incessant anguish; the frenzied grief and piercing wails that drive one to the brink of madness.

'A common refrain was that I would kill myself if I gained weight. I tried [to commit suicide] and, thankfully, failed. But I would have done so either way, treatment or affirmation.'

It is a fascinating insight — and one that warrants closer study.

So, what next for Kate? She is still unsure about what to do with her life, although she is currently thinking about working as a museum curator.

She tells me she 'can't wait' to get to university, although she is also deeply worried about entering another place of education in today's censorious climate.

'There is no forgiveness for those branded with the damning suffix of '-phobic' — a term so elastic it encompasses all scepticism,' she concludes.

And with that, she's off to visit some art galleries.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10894523/Sixth-former-bullied-private-girls-school-questioning-trans-ideology-shares-story.html

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

7 June, 2022

Politically correct education

Monica Gill teaches at Loudoun County High School in Leesburg, Virginia.  She teaches two classes of “academic level” U.S. history, designed to prepare students for college-level coursework. Trouble is, “a third of my kids in these classes cannot read above a fourth-grade level. Cannot.” Monica chalks that up to a number of things — mostly, perhaps, to a culture that’s increasingly more interested in coddling children than challenging them.

“We are so involved in this culture of feelings. We don’t want kids to have low self-esteem; we don’t want them to be hurt by being held back. And we’re paying the price for that mentality right now. I see kids who are suffering academically, and from mental health issues. That’s hard, because you’re trying to deal with both — and I don’t think we’re dealing with either effectively.

“I have so many more students now than I did 20 years ago who suffer from mental health issues: gender dysphoria, depression, anxiety, stress — even being hospitalized for those things. It’s heartbreaking. And it seems like the adults around these kids are not always helping them make the best decisions in navigating these issues.”

Monica has come to believe that her school district, like many others, “has been making decisions that seem far more ideological than really about what is best for kids.

“It’s been a slow crawl,” she says, describing some of those dubious decisions. Directing teachers not to grade homework, for instance, “because some kids don’t have any support at home. It’s not ‘fair.’ Not ‘equitable.’” But, of course, homework that won’t be graded is homework that won’t be done — so there’s no point in assigning it, Monica’s learned. 

Other policies followed: “‘We’re not going to penalize students’ grades for being tardy, or being absent, or skipping class,’ they tell us. ‘We’re not going to take points off if they don’t put their name on their papers. These are behaviors, and we shouldn’t be grading behavior.’” More and more indulgences inspired less and less discipline, Monica says, and the challenge of learning fell by the way.

Then came the pressures to embrace critical race theory and, later, Policy 8040 — requiring all teachers, whatever their beliefs about biological sex and gender, to use the pronouns that transgender and “gender-expansive” students specify, regardless of their true biological sex.

“Which means,” Monica says, “that any kid, at any time, can make a gender claim, and I, as the teacher, have to accept that claim. If they are a boy, and say, ‘I was “Charlie,” but today, I’m “Cindy,” and I want you to use she / her pronouns for me,’ we are mandated that we have to participate in that. We have to use those pronouns. We have to accept and affirm that this boy is now a girl, or vice versa.” 

That, Monica found, was the line she couldn’t cross.

“I’m a government teacher. I know that it is always wrong for government to mandate speech.”

“There are so many issues with that policy in particular that, as a teacher and as a Christian, were just untenable,” she says. “We’re supposed to be loving, respecting … protecting and not harming.” And yet, “we’re compelled to say things we don’t agree with, that we don’t believe — things that aren’t true — to our kids.”

Monica was far from the only one feeling the frustration. At a Loudoun County School Board meeting last spring, another teacher — Leesburg Elementary physical education teacher Tanner Cross — became an instant lightning rod for the gathering storm of controversy when, speaking in his personal capacity, he eloquently expressed the concerns of a growing number of parents and teachers in the district:

“It is not my intention to hurt anyone,” he said. “But there are certain truths that we must face … We condemn [these] policies [because they] damage children, defile the holy image of God. I love all of my students, but I will never lie to them ... I’m a teacher, but I serve God first. And I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa, because it is against my religion. It’s lying to a child. It’s abuse to a child. And it’s sinning against our God.”

Monica was sitting in the audience, awaiting her own turn to speak. She had talked with Tanner at other meetings in recent weeks, and knew she had found a kindred spirit. Kim Wright, an English teacher at Smart’s Mill Middle School and the wife of a pastor at Monica’s church, decided she had, too. Both were stunned, two days later, when district officials placed Tanner on administrative leave while they investigated his alleged “disruptive impact.”

If the move was intended to intimidate Tanner — and other teachers, like Monica and Kim, who agreed with him — it quickly backfired. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed suit on Tanner’s behalf against the district, and the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Tanner’s constitutional rights had likely been violated. He was permanently restored to his teaching position.

When they learned that ADF would be amending Tanner’s lawsuit to directly challenge Policy 8040, both Kim and Monica asked to join him as plaintiffs in the case.  

“Tanner and Kim and I all believe that lying to a kid is harming them,” Monica says. “It’s ultimately harmful to say, ‘Okay, yeah, you really are a girl now,’ or to use pronouns that don’t align with their biological sex.

“Words matter,” she says. “Words carry meaning. If I am forced to use a pronoun for a student that does not align with their biological sex, I am essentially conveying to that student that gender is fluid — and that’s not true. As a teacher who cares for her students — as a Christian who believes firmly that all human beings are created in the image of God as either male or female — I can’t participate in that.

“I’m a government teacher. I know that it is always wrong for government to mandate speech. Micromanaging people’s pronouns, this is not the job of government.”

“I just am so thankful to the Lord and for ADF, to have this group of people come around me and provide all of the expertise and resources and support I needed to take on this Goliath.”

Her decision to join the lawsuit wasn’t made lightly. Two years ago, when CRT began to dominate teacher training programs, she asked to meet with her principal, who suggested Monica take her concerns directly to district officials. Monica wrote a letter to her superintendent and to those leading the district’s “equity initiative.” None of them replied.

So, she began attending — and speaking out at — school board and equity committee meetings. But officials weren’t listening, she says. “They did not seem to care at all about the concerns of teachers or parents. We were just talking to the air.”

Some people, though, took notice. A writer for The Federalist heard Monica speak at one of the increasingly volatile school board meetings. She invited Monica to write an opinion piece for the online magazine. Monica wrote two. Word spread fast. This time, her principal called her. 

“You gave me a lot to think about,” she said. She also told Monica that, the day after the article was published, she had gone to the district’s HR office in person, to tell officials there, “they had better not try and do anything to you. I’m here,” she told Monica, “to protect you.” 

“And she has,” Monica says, at least as far as her out-of-school writing is concerned. But Policy 8040 is another matter, and that puts Monica under threat of punishment right now.

Still, when a lawyer she spoke with connected her with an ADF attorney, she was relieved to find strong legal support. That’s when she learned ADF was also representing Tanner in challenging the district’s Policy 8040. She decided to join the lawsuit.

“I just am so thankful to the Lord and for ADF, to have this group of people come around me and provide all of the expertise and resources and support I needed to take on this Goliath,” Monica says. 

“You just feel like, ‘I'm not getting anywhere, not going anywhere, not going to make it. This isn't going to make a difference.’ And then, finally, you get someone on your side who says, ‘We've got you. We've got everything you need to take this fight to the next level and really make a stand for what's right.’ That makes a huge difference.”

“I love all of my students, but I will never lie to them ... I’m a teacher, but I serve God first.”

A huge difference is exactly what’s needed, says Logan Spena, legal counsel with the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, and one of the attorneys representing Monica and her colleagues. Too many people, he says, underestimate the full breadth of what’s happening in places like Loudoun County.

“This is the government adopting an orthodoxy about the relationship between sex, gender, and human identity,” he says, “and forcing teachers to affirm that it’s true. These administrators are willingly adhering to this idea, not just that a person can be a man or a woman, regardless of their biological sex … but that human identity is not related to those categories at all. That you can identify as anything.” School officials are calling that idea “gender expansiveness.”

“This is not “just a ‘live and let live’ kind of controversy,” Spena says. “This is school districts adopting an ideological account of what human beings are — and forcing their employees to go along with it. These officials are demanding that we accept and adhere to radical and harmful ideologies.” 

For those not willing to do that, he says, now is the time to speak up. Many are persuaded that these schools’ transgender agendas are unstoppable, propelled by near-universal assent. “And that’s not the case,” Spena says. “In fact, most people don’t accept these ideas. The only reason there’s so much pressure to adhere is that so few people are willing to talk about it.

“In order to protect the lives of countless children,” he says, “it’s time for people who really don’t agree with this to talk about it.” That’s what makes Monica, Kim, and Tanner so remarkable, he says — not the rarity of their views, “but that they have the courage to stand.”

“School districts [are] adopting an ideological account of what human beings are — and forcing their employees to go along with it.”

“This whole experience really has been a huge growth point and shift in my faith,” Monica says. “Prior to this … I wouldn't have considered myself a particularly courageous person.” But now? 

“I'm really not afraid of anything anymore. I believe that the Lord has me. He is sovereign. He's placed each one of us in the times that He's placed us for a purpose. And, ‘if God is with us, who can be against us?’”

She reflects often on the late summer day, a few years ago, when that courage came to her. She was cleaning the dusty classroom she’d just inherited from a retiring fellow teacher. Feeling low, she remembers, and overwhelmed by all that she was seeing in the school system, and the dark impact it was having on the students she loved. She was looking for a way to leave.

“And I was praying … saying, “Lord, I can't do this anymore. It's just too hard.” Cleaning off a bookshelf, she found an old book stuffed back in the corner. “I picked it up, dusted it off, and looked at the cover. It said, Holy Bible.

“I thought, ‘My goodness, what are you doing here?’ And then I opened it. On the inside cover was written, ‘Presented to Loudoun County High School from the Senior Class of 1955.’”

“My cynicism kicked in, and I thought, ‘We'll never see anything like this again. This is terrible. Look at how far we've fallen.’ Then the Lord, just in that moment, got hold of my heart.

“‘I did not give you this gift for you to judge this place,’ He told me. ‘I gave you this gift so that you would know I have not abandoned this place. I have put you here for such a time as this. There are other Christians whom I have placed here for this time. I have not abandoned you. I have not abandoned public schools. I have not abandoned these children. You’re here to be my salt and light. So … stay.’”

“And so — I've stayed. I have not been anxious since. He just removed all my fear.”

Which is what allows a teacher who’s always telling her students she loves them … to step forward, and show them that it’s true.

https://adflegal.org/faith-and-justice/may-2022/teachers

*************************************************

Ilya Shapiro Resigns at Georgetown Law, Citing ‘Untenable’ Status at School

Georgetown law professor Ilya Shapiro resigned less than a week after being reinstated by the school.

Georgetown Law School placed the constitutional scholar on administrative leave and subjected him to a four-month “investigation” over a tweet.

The tweet, which Shapiro deleted and called “inartful,” opposed the idea that a Supreme Court justice should be chosen by their race.

Shapiro, who previously worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, explained why he believed his job at Georgetown Law was “untenable” in an article for The Wall Street Journal.

Specifically, Shapiro wrote that a report from the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Affirmative Action he received after being reinstated confirmed that he needed to leave.

Instead of clearing Shapiro’s name and actually committing to free speech, Georgetown Law said he’d be reinstated on a technicality (the offending tweet was a few days before his employment). The school then said it would effectively be watching him for wrongthink.

“Dean William Treanor cleared me on the technicality that I wasn’t an employee when I tweeted, but the [Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Affirmative Action] implicitly repealed Georgetown’s Speech and Expression Policy and set me up for discipline the next time I transgress progressive orthodoxy. Instead of participating in that slow-motion firing, I’m resigning,” Shapiro wrote.

Shapiro noted that the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Affirmative Action made it clear that its policies would be far from objective. The report said essentially that if Shapiro made any statement in which people were offended—or said they were offended—he would be considered in violation of its policies, regardless of his intent.

Here are a few examples Shapiro gave that could lead to him being in violation of the school’s new rules.

“I laud Supreme Court decisions that overrule Roe v. Wade and protect the right to carry arms. An activist claims that my comments ‘deny women’s humanity’ and make her feel ‘unsafe’ and ‘directly threatened with physical violence.’”

“When the Supreme Court hears the Harvard and University of North Carolina affirmative-action cases this fall, I opine that the Constitution bans racial preferences. Hundreds of Georgetown stakeholders sign a letter asserting that my comments ‘are antithetical to the work that we do here every day to build inclusion, belonging, and respect for diversity’ (borrowing the language from Mr. Treanor’s statements of Jan. 31 and June 2).”

Given the meltdown that took place at Georgetown Law after the tweet, it’s almost difficult to see almost anyone operating in or teaching at Georgetown Law without causing offense.

What’s worse is that Shapiro would be a target in an environment in which the primary professional and social currency is to be an aggrieved victim.

John Malcolm, the vice president of the Institute for Constitutional Government at The Heritage Foundation, said in a statement to The Daily Signal that Shapiro is correct in his decision to step away from Georgetown Law:

After being reinstated to the faculty based on a technicality by Georgetown Law School, Ilya Shapiro has wisely decided to resign because of the hostile work environment the school has created, especially for conservatives and libertarians and anyone else who says anything that offends the liberal zeitgeist that prevails on campus. 

While Georgetown may talk the talk about free speech and the robust exchange of ideas, they clearly do not walk the walk. In his resignation letter, Shapiro said that the Dean had put a target on his back and set him up for failure (and additional undeserved ridicule). He is absolutely correct. We at Heritage look forward to continuing to work with Ilya in the future, and look forward to hearing about his next endeavor.

There is an immense double standard for how people on the right and left are treated in higher education. Georgetown might be an extreme example, but it’s far from alone. Our universities are of, by, and for the left, a left that is now immensely intolerant of dissent and is looking to purge everyone on the “wrong side of history.”

Of course, those who are actually victimized by left-wing mobs and bullies are assumed to be villains, unworthy of even basic civility. For all their language about students being harmed by Shapiro’s tweet, Georgetown Law seemed to have little public concern for how he felt or was being treated by students and faculty.

All are welcome, unless you disagree with the extremely rigid but perpetually morphing tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And this ideology is ruthlessly enforced by an expensive, taxpayer-subsidized administrative apparatus that has mushroomed in our colleges and universities.

Higher education is becoming a mockery of what it once was. Our most prestigious schools now fit a caricature of being the bastion of privileged, unthinking, entirely left-wing elites absorbed with performative, narcissistic displays of offense and grievance.

This campus culture festered for decades and now pervades every powerful institution in the country.

What happened to Shapiro was shameful but at least it shines a light on the deep rot in modern academia, which is increasingly about ideological credentialing and little else.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/06/06/ilya-shapiro-resigns-at-georgetown-law-citing-untenable-status-at-school

*******************************************

Teachers Explain How They Push ‘Gender Lessons’ on Young Children

Teachers across the country revealed the strategies they use to teach young children about gender ideology in a Friday article published by The Washington Post.

Teachers discussed the various ways they are injecting gender-related discussions into their lessons, including comments about using hormones to stop menstrual periods and declining to state that sexual anatomy is gender-specific, according to The Washington Post. One transgender teacher makes a point of telling students about the process of gender transitions, including with personal testimony.

“LGBTQ identities are a naturally occurring facet of human variation, and that is why we need to learn about them in the context of biology and human anatomy,” Sam Long, a biology teacher at Denver South High School, told The Washington Post. Long, who is transgender, frequently discusses gender ideology with students, teaches that gender is a spectrum rather than a binary, and shares his own sex-change experience.

Bill Farmer, a science teacher in Evanston, Illinois, teaches students that gender is a social construct, not a biological reality, he told The Washington Post. There are currently more transgender and nonbinary students in his classes than ever before—at least one or two per class—and approximately half of his school’s biology teachers cover these subjects.

“There’s not many spaces where students have the opportunity to engage in these discussions in a more structured way and where there’s a safe space to ask questions,” he told The Washington Post. “Most students are testing out or trying to figure out where they fall in their gender identity.”

One Massachusetts kindergarten teacher gives children lessons on pronouns, including gender-neutral pronouns “they” and “ze,” and introduces them to concepts including trans identities and “gender queer,” he told The Washington Post. He doesn’t fully define the terms because it would be “too much” for kindergarteners.

“We don’t say a penis belongs to a man,” he told The Washington Post. He instead teaches that a penis belongs to a human, and that doctors sometimes get it wrong when determining a newborn baby’s gender.

Kara Haug, a sex-ed teacher in the Sacramento area, claimed she didn’t bring up gender identity in her classes but would simply answer students’ questions when they arose, she told The Washington Post. When one student asked her if she could stop her period if she felt like a boy, for example, she explained how hormones work.

Several states require that school curricula include LGBT topics, and multiple curriculum plans addressing transgender and gender ideology have come into use in schools, according to The Washington Post.

One of these lessons, titled “Pink, Blue and Purple,” instructs teachers to ask first graders how they know what gender they are and then explain that gender identity is a feeling and is not based on one’s body parts. It was developed by Advocates for Youth, a youth-oriented sexual health group.

Haug, Farmer, Long, and Advocates for Youth did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/06/06/teachers-explain-how-they-push-gender-lessons-on-young-children

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

6 June, 2022

At Stanford, the New Applied Science Is Social Engineering

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education recently named Stanford University the worst higher education institution for free speech in the United States. Sadly, this problem is only one of many that are eroding student life at Stanford. Over the past several years, Stanford’s activist administration has sought to transform almost every element of student life radically. The Office of Student Affairs, which had fewer than 50 employees just three decades ago, now employs more than 400 administrators who micromanage students and infantilize adults who pay for an education at Stanford.

The current assault on student adulthood began six years ago with the adoption of what are euphemistically called Stanford’s “Standards of Excellence.” With these standards came social contracts and performance agreements that today apply to almost all Stanford organizations. Nonperformance can be assessed and penalized. Stanford’s “student customers” have been transformed into something more akin to marionettes.

The latest development is a program called ResX. Each new student now receives a university-mandated assignment during his or her freshman year to a “neighborhood” where students are to remain affiliated for their entire undergraduate careers. This “reimagining” of student life now determines—when students live on campus—where they eat, sleep, and socialize. Administrators are thereby centrally planning what they deem to be acceptable residential cultures.

From ethnic-themed dorms for the “Black Diaspora” and “Chicanx/Latinx” students to apartment buildings promoting “the IDEAL (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access in a Learning community),” students are sorted by singular attributes and shielded from those who look different and think differently. Not too long ago, liberals would have called such school-sanctioned isolation and discrimination “segregation.”

But residential life is only one area where Stanford administrators have seized adulthood from the students. Administrators aim to run their social lives as well.

In 2021, they imposed stronger regulations on students’ activities outside the classroom. They now require students to register any party they host while also banning get-togethers during “dead weeks” before finals. Officials have banned hard alcohol and made drinking games a punishable offense. Even students 21 and older must abide by these restrictions.

These measures are overbroad and even counterproductive. They have drawn widespread condemnation from students, including a student-led health and safety initiative that provides snacks and water at parties and walks students home on the weekends. These students say that the rule changes have spurred an increase in binge drinking.

This year, Stanford administrators established new policies that require fraternities and sororities to lobby to remain in their houses on campus after three years. And organizations that want to return after a hiatus face steep challenges. Since Stanford requires freshmen to live in university housing, only three years remain in which students can choose. Fraternity members are now being arbitrarily banned from living more than two of those years in their fraternity, forcing organizations to rush 50% more members.

Stanford dedicates resources to various student causes, activities, and organizations, but it finds little reason to strengthen Greek life. Yet numerous studies demonstrate that students who join Greek organizations graduate on time more , are more engaged in the classroom, are more likely to participate in internships and faculty-generated research projects, maintain higher levels of mental health, and are more likely to have interactions and discussions with people different from themselves.

Stanford enrolls young people who spent much of their youth sacrificing to win admission. But these days, it tells adult students where they must live, how they may socialize, and with whom they may associate. These students, finally embarking upon adulthood and a future they can design for themselves, have been left no choice but to adhere to stringent rules that neither enhance their education nor prepare them for life after college.

Embarrassingly, the motto of Stanford is, “The winds of freedom blow.” Yet Stanford, like so many elite educational institutions, has moved from the study of social ideas and behavioral practices to putting coercive utopian experiments into effect on campus.

https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=14191&omhide=true&trk=title

**************************************************

Teachers, parents want real discipline as NYC student suspensions fall

A progressive push to soften school discipline has caused student suspensions to plummet — and made city classrooms more chaotic and dangerous than ever, parents and teachers charge.

Suspensions of five days or more meted out by principals and superintendents plunged more than 42 percent from the fall of 2017 to the fall of 2021, from 14,502 to 8,369, Department of Education data shows.

As suspensions declined, taxpayer money allocated to “restorative justice” — a system that sends badly-behaving students to mediation, conflict “circle” meetings, and guidance counseling, rather than boot them from classrooms — soared. The city in February pledged to sink $1.3 million more into such programs.

“That’s the reason everything’s in the toilet,” one Queens educator, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Post. “They were saying people of color were disproportionately affected by suspension, but to completely take [suspensions] away from everybody in every instance is doing more harm than good.”

Black and Hispanic kids are suspended more often than their peers, according to a 2021 report, and some advocates have cheered the drop in kicking kids out.

But fewer suspensions mean more mayhem in the classroom, according to educators and parents.

“We have teachers getting kicked at, spit at, cursed at, things thrown at [them] and the kid is back the next day like nothing happened,” said the teacher, who didn’t give her name for fear of retaliation. “And the teacher is asked, ‘What did you do to trigger the child?'”

Pressure from the DOE has prompted administrators to downgrade incidents or sweep them under the rug, educators charge.

The fact that educators now have little recourse emboldens misbehaving kids, said one teacher.

“Right now, with the way the discipline code is, it’s basically, ‘Stop doing that or else we’ll ask you again,” said Queens teacher Kathy Perez. “The kids know that there are no consequences.”

Kids who want to learn, the vast majority, get cheated.

“Everyone is so concerned with the rights of the two or three upstarts in the room, that the other 30 kids — their rights to get an education … to be able to sit in an environment that’s not intimidating, that’s not scary, that’s not filled with noise” don’t matter, said Perez, a reading specialist who won a $125,000 legal settlement from the city after she was hurt by out-of-control teens in class. “No one has ever had an answer to that.”

Olivia Ramos said her son was assaulted five times at Manhattan’s 75 Morton, a West Village middle school which pushed restorative justice.

“There’s no punishment to the kids who misbehave,” she said. “He was calling me from the bathroom, in seventh grade, scared because there were fights in the bathrooms, in the hallways, in the staircases, really bad fights.”

She eventually secured a safety transfer for her child, Ramos said.

The reasons for falling suspensions also include rising absenteeism and reduced enrollment since the pandemic. But the problem is only getting worse under the woke philosophy of “restorative justice.”

“The schools were out of control starting with de Blasio,” said Gregory Floyd, head of Teamsters Local 237, which represents the city’s school safety agents. “He decided to reduce suspensions by not suspending students for infractions they should have been disciplined for. This is part of the reason why we have what we have today.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/04/teachers-parents-want-discipline-as-nyc-student-suspensions-fall/

**********************************************

Silent panic alarms could be coming to NY schools after ‘Alyssa’s Law’ passes

Albany pols passed a law Saturday requiring school districts statewide to seriously consider installing silent panic alarms to alert law-enforcement authorities during emergencies.

The state Assembly approved “Alyssa’s Law,” named after 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff, who was shot and killed in 2018 during the Parkland, Florida school massacre.

“Schools should be a safe place for our kids to learn and grow,” said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie in a statement announcing the bill’s passage.

Alyssa’s Law will force each school district’s safety teams to consider installing panic alarm systems and other direct communication technologies as part of their mandatory regular reviews of safety plans.

The measure had previously passed in the state Senate and now heads to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.

Fabien Levy, a spokesman for Mayor Eric Adams, said the city currently doesn’t believe it needs panic buttons in Big Apple schools but will review the measure.

“Our children’s safety is our top priority, which is why all our public schools have School Safety Agents assigned to them,” Levy said in an email.

“SAAs are members of the NYPD and, thus, our schools already have a direct line to police in case of an emergency. We don’t believe there is a need for legislation to supplement the good work we’re already doing in New York City public schools, but we will review this legislation.”

https://nypost.com/2022/06/04/panic-alarms-could-be-coming-to-ny-schools-after-alyssas-law-passes/

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

5 June, 2022

Biden admin to cancel $5.8B in school loans for former Corinthian College students

<i>I am reasonably happy with this measure.  The students were clearly defrauded and most of them were probably poor.  Giving them relief could therefore be seen as justice</i>

The Biden administration says it will cancel federal student loans for some 560,000 borrowers who attended the for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain. 

Under the new action, hundreds of thousands of students who attended the now-defunct chain will receive $5.8 billion in full loan discharges – the largest of its kind in the Department of Eduction's history. 

"As of today, every student deceived, defrauded and driven into debt by Corinthian Colleges can rest assured that the Biden-Harris Administration has their back and will discharge their federal student loans," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. "For far too long, Corinthian engaged in the wholesale financial exploitation of students, misleading them into taking on more and more debt to pay for promises they would never keep."

Thousands of former Corinthian students were already eligible for debt cancellation, but they had to file paperwork and navigate an application process that advocates say is confusing and not widely known.

Those who have a remaining balance on their debt will also get refunds on payments they have already made, Education Department officials said. Students who have paid off their school loans will not be eligible. 

At its peak, Corinthian was one of the nation's largest for-profit college companies, with more than 110,000 at 100 campuses across the country. 

The company shut down in 2015 amid widespread findings of fraud. The Obama administration found that scores of campuses were falsifying data on the success of their graduates. In some cases, the schools reported that students had found jobs in their fields of study even though they were working at grocery stores or fast-food chains.

Hundreds of students told investigators they were pressured to enroll with promises of lucrative employment, only to end up with huge sums of debt and few job prospects. Federal officials also found that the company falsely told students their course credits could be transferred to other colleges.

The case inspired a federal crackdown and the Obama administration promised to forgive loans for Corinthian students whose programs lied about job placement rates. But an explosion in applications for debt forgiveness, along with political battles over the process, created a years-long backlog in the process, leaving many former Corinthian students still awaiting relief.

The Biden administration’s announcement comes as President Biden considers broader student loan forgiveness. On the campaign trail, Biden said he supported forgiving $10,000 in student loans for all borrowers. He later indicated that such action should come through Congress, but the White House has said he is considering whether to pursue it through executive action.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-cancel-school-loans-corinthian-college-students

**************************************************

Rural Texas schools consider arming teachers in wake of Uvalde shooting

Rural Texas school districts are looking to arm staff and add school police officers to campuses in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

"Just watching the response from well over 50 plus agencies going to Uvalde … how long it took many of those agencies traveling maybe 80 miles from San Antonio," Natalia ISD Board President Eric Smith of Medina County told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. "Anything of that capacity, you have to rely on outside agencies to assist. And I just feel like the more we can get folks already on our campus, just the better overall benefit it would make."

School district leaders in Medina County, located about 40 miles outside of San Antonio, are pitching county commissioners to fund six school resource officers (SROs) to be placed across the six districts in the county to help protect students from any potential violence or shooting. 

"I’m just hoping our county commissioners get on board with this idea. I realize that’s going to be a cost. I realize it’s an extra expense," Smith said, according to KSAT.

Smith said his district is also considering implementing a guardian program, which would arm confidential staff. He explained to Fox News Digital that both Natalia and Lytle ISD will receive presentations on the guardian program, while three other schools in the district have already implemented the program. 

La Vernia ISD in Wilson County, also located outside of San Antonio, already approved arming staff in early May and is interviewing employees to fill the roles, KSAT reported.  

The districts looking into arming staff are taking guidance from Nixon-Smiley CISD, which launched a guardian program in 2018. Staff in the guardian program at Nixon-Smiley are required to pass state training, undergo psychological evaluations, and be approved by the administration and board members. 

"As far as the safety of our students, the guardian program seems to meet our needs," Nixon-Smiley CISD Superintendent Jeff Vanauken in Gonzales County said, according to KSAT. "They are being trained specifically for the active shooter situation. So I feel very confident about our training program for them."

The executive director for the Texas Association of School Resource Officers told the outlet that rural schools need to consider implementing a school guardian or marshal officer on campus or adding an SRO, citing how quickly school shootings can take lives. 

"We know that a lot of deaths occur in those first few minutes," Lynelle Sparks said.

The comments come after 19 children and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, last Tuesday. The shooting has ignited calls from local leaders to increase security at schools with more SROs and other measures. 

https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-school-increase-police-arm-teachers

*************************************************

Georgetown Law Reinstates Ilya Shapiro

Well, there it is. After four months of “investigation,” Georgetown law professor Ilya Shapiro has finally been reinstated.

In case you haven’t been following Shapiro’s saga, here’s the rundown.

Shapiro, a constitutional scholar who previously worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, was put on indefinite administrative leave in January for a tweet in which he condemned the practice of selecting Supreme Court judges based on race. This was before President Joe Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“Because Biden said he’d only consider black women for SCOTUS, his nominee will always have an asterisk attached. Fitting that the Court takes up affirmative action next term,” Shapiro wrote in his first Tweet.

And here is the one he was put on leave for: “Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid prog & v smart. Even has identity politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesn’t fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get a lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?”

Shapiro then wrote on Twitter that the nominee would always have an asterisk attached and that it was fitting the Supreme Court would soon be deciding an affirmative action case.

The now-reinstated law professor later apologized for how the tweet was worded: “I meant no offense, but it was an inartful tweet. I have taken it down.”

The tweet created a full-blown crisis at Georgetown Law School. First, a journalist drew attention to the tweet, then student activists went on the warpath to get Shapiro fired. They conducted “sit ins” on campus and protests.

The school quickly put Shapiro on administrative leave and launched an investigation of the tweets, which apparently took four months to complete. Was the school really spending all those months analyzing the tweets or was it just waiting for the mob to quiet down and the offended students to graduate?

John Malcolm, the vice president vice president of the Institute for Constitutional Government at The Heritage Foundation, said in a statement to The Daily Signal that it’s good Shapiro was reinstated:

I am glad to see that justice delayed is not always justice denied. It is absurd that it took months to ‘investigate’ a hastily drafted and ill-considered tweet. Ilya is an outstanding scholar who will contribute to a robust exchange of ideas, assuming that is still welcome at Georgetown Law School.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/06/02/georgetown-law-reinstates-ilya-shapiro

**************************************************

Texas Governor Orders Random School Inspections in Bid to Ensure ‘Culture of Constant Vigilance’

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has instructed state officials to start carrying out random inspections at schools in the state.

The Republican governor directed the Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC) to coordinate with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to “develop and implement a plan to conduct random inspections to assess access control measures of Texas school districts.”

“Among other reviews, your team should begin conducting in-person, unannounced, random intruder detection audits on school districts,” Abbott said in a letter (pdf) to the state’s school security officials.

“Staff should approach campuses to find weak points and how quickly they can penetrate buildings without being stopped,” he said.

“This will help determine if schools are prepared to implement and follow the [Emergency Operations Plans] they have already submitted to the state,” he added. “This will improve accountability and ensure school districts are following the plans they create.”

The order comes after a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. An 18-year-old shooter had entered the school via a back door that was unlocked, according to the latest account of the situation by officials.

In his letter to Kathy Martinez-Prather, the director of the TxSSC, Abbott said more needs to be done after the tragic massacre. He also outlined several measures to “ensure that a culture of constant vigilance is engrained in every campus and in every school district employee across the state.”

State law requires school districts to create school security committees that are required to meet three times a year. Abbott asked Martinez-Prather to contact every school district to let them know they are expected to meet once this coming summer and to carry out several safety measures before the start of the 2022-2023 school year—specifically by Sept. 1, 2022, and report to the TxSSC by Sept. 9, 2022.

The measures include ensuring their security committee reviews their plans in cases of emergency and active threats. It also includes ensuring that all staff and substitute teachers are trained on the safety procedures of their specific campus and that all drills are scheduled before the start of the next school year.

Furthermore, the officials must also carry out “an assessment of their access control procedures, such as single access points, locked instruction room doors, visitor check-in procedures, exterior door locks, etc.”

A TxSSC spokesperson told the Texas Tribune that it is “designing a program and action items to specifically address the governor’s directives within the prescribed timelines.”

On the same day, Abbott sent a letter (pdf) to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state House Speaker Dade Phelan requesting them to each convene a special legislative committee to review a series of topics in order to prevent future school shootings: school safety, mental health, social media, police training, and firearm safety. The committees would make recommendations to the state’s legislature and the executive branch over what meaningful actions can be taken.

Abbott also said in his letter to Martinez-Prather that the TxSSC should “immediately begin” working with his office and the state legislature on recommendations to improve current school security systems and decide on the funding needed to continue that work.

“This issue will no doubt be at the forefront of the next Legislative Session. You have my full support to make recommendations for consideration by the Legislature,” Abbott wrote

https://www.theepochtimes.com/texas-governor-orders-random-school-inspections-in-bid-to-ensure-culture-of-constant-vigilance_4506938.html

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

3 June, 2022

Parents rally as Fairfax school board punts controversial vote on changes to sex-ed classes

Despite the Fairfax County school board's decision to punt a controversial vote on changes to family life education (FLE) classes to June, parents showed up in full force at Luther Jackson Middle School at last Thursday's meeting. 

The Fairfax school board is considering changing the FLE classes in the name of equity, including largely eliminating separate gender classes. The recommendation, from the school board sex-ed committee, would mix boys and girls in 4th through 8th grade for all discussions of puberty, sexually transmitted diseases, and the human reproductive system. The board will also consider increasing penalties against students for "malicious misgendering" "deadnaming" their peers. "Deadnaming" is a word used to describe the act of referring to someone by a name they used prior to transitioning. 

"Too far, too much, too young," was Fairfax County parent Jeff's mantra. And his fellow parents in attendance roundly agreed. 

"I asked my son this morning what he was going to learn," Jeff told Fox News Digital at a rally ahead of the school board meeting. "He said, ‘math, science, language arts, writing. And he said, ’oh, science.' That's what we want to hear, right? We don't want to hear, ‘I got punished today because I called somebody by the wrong pronoun. Or what this regulation identifies as 'malicious misgendering.’"  

Elizabeth McCauley of the Virginia Mavens was concerned the administrators seemed to be prioritizing progressive agenda items at a time when Virginia schools are falling behind. Recent reports have found that, in the state of Virginia, only 33 percent of eighth graders and 38 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading.

"I think just the basic of saying what is falsehood is true," McCauley told Fox Digital."Boys are boys and girls are girls. And God has uniquely designed each individual the way they are. And starting at a very young age and preying upon young children. Grooming young children. Having pornographic, pedophilia literature in schools. That's very problematic. And also doing that and focusing so much effort on that, when kids are falling behind in academics."  

McCauley blasted the materials she said children were being exposed to in classrooms.

"Also, I think the Family Life Education course, it's so important for parents to have to opt-in versus opt-out," she said. "That's absolutely key. Especially when they're expanding upon information that students are hearing here at school, but you would never even dream of mentioning in an adult working environment. Some of the things that kids are being told in school or even literature that they're receiving in school, is, if you sold it on the street, or you had it on the street, you'd be criminalized for it." 

McCauley spared no hesitation when asked why she thought the Fairfax school board pushed the FLE vote to June.

"They're afraid because hey, I'm a mother bear," McCauley said, pointing to her t-shirt that read, "Beware the Mama Bear." "Beware the mother bears. Mother bears and Papa bears are coming out because we care about the future of our country. We care about our children."

https://www.foxnews.com/media/parents-rally-ahead-fairfax-county-school-board-vote-sex-ed-classes

*****************************************

Poll: Majority of Americans in Favor of Teachers Being Armed

In the wake of the deadly Uvalde elementary school shooting, the heated topic of gun laws is once again a major forefront of people’s minds. Though a majority of Americans believe arming teaching will make schools more safe. 

A recent poll conducted by The Trafalgar Group, surveyed 1,091 general election voters and found that 57.5 percent of voters believe schools are somewhat or much more dangerous without teachers who carry a legal firearm and are properly trained Ito use it. This leaves just over a mere 30 percent who oppose it. 

While 67.5 percent of these voters are Republicans, almost half at 48.2 percent, are Democrats in favor of arming teachers. 

The poll also suggests that a younger age group of 18 to 24 year olds support the idea that teachers who have access to guns will be able to protect themselves and students. 

As violent crimes continues to sweep through the nation, it has become more common for Americans to view legal firearms as a "need." 

Convention of State’s Action President Mark Meckler told the Daily Wire that “no shooting at a school is going to be stopped by gun control laws. They are going to be stopped by a variety of fairly simple on-site measures, including arming law-abiding citizens — in this case, specifically teachers — and empowering them to protect our children, schools, and communities,” adding “a majority of voters see this clearly, despite the relentless propaganda by people who want to confiscate the guns of law-abiding citizens.”

Meckler continued to say that self-defense is the “bedrock of this Republic and our Constitution,” and that being able to defend people is the responsibility as a citizen. 

“So many deaths have been prevented by armed citizens so why would we question the voluntary training and arming of teachers to protect those we love and care for the most?”

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2022/06/01/poll-majority-say-having-armed-teachers-makes-schools-safer-n2608078

**************************************************

‘Expert’ idiocy on teaching kids to read is beyond comprehension

Every teacher of struggling readers has experienced the moment when a student says, “I read it, but I didn’t get it.” It can be a bewildering experience. Why don’t they get it?

For several decades, elementary schools in New York City and across the country have turned to Columbia University education professor and acclaimed reading guru Lucy Calkins to answer that question. But in recent years, her influential and best-selling “Units of Study” curriculum has faced an intense barrage of criticism from experts who complain its “balanced literacy” approach is ineffective and gives short shrift to phonics — teaching children to look at pictures and guess words, for example, instead of sounding them out.

Schools Chancellor David Banks has announced plans to move literacy instruction in New York City away from Calkins’ curriculum in favor of approaches based on the “science of reading,” including phonics. Perhaps as a result, Calkins now appears to have conceded the argument, promising in a lengthy New York Times article to include “daily structured phonics lessons” in her program. That’s welcome news, but it’s not enough.

The South Bronx elementary school where I taught 5th grade for several years was a proponent of Calkins’ approach. We adopted her teaching methods and employed her literacy coaches for years, to very little effect. Her greatest sin against literacy comes after kids learn to “decode” the written word, whether or not they are taught with phonics, which is just the starting line for reading.

Calkins’ literacy philosophy is aimed at children developing a “lifelong love of reading” and discovering the intoxicating power of their own voices as writers. This mostly entails kids reading books they chose themselves and writing about their own experiences and interests. That may sound engaging and fun for kids (and it often is), but it can be fatal to sophisticated adult literacy, particularly for disadvantaged children.

Here’s why: Reading feels like riding a bike to good readers. Once you learn how to pedal and balance, you can ride nearly any bike. Reading may feel the same way; reading comprehension, however, is far more complicated. It depends on the reader and writer having in common a lot of background knowledge, vocabulary and context. Consider the common word “shot.” Phonics instruction can ensure children can read the word, but it means different things on a basketball court, in a doctor’s office and when the repairman uses it to describe your dishwasher.

Words and the ability to “decode” them are just the tip of the iceberg; comprehension lies beneath. The critical role of shared knowledge to language proficiency is the basic insight of another, less-heralded professor, the University of Virginia’s E.D. Hirsch Jr. Hirsch is something of the anti-Calkins and preaches a very different message: For education to work as an engine of equity and upward mobility, schools must do all in their power to expand children’s horizons, ensuring they get a well-rounded education in science, history, literature and the arts — access to the rich knowledge and vocabulary that undergird literacy.

Calkins’ work mostly disregards this fundamental insight, focusing students’ attention in the mirror instead of out the window. For low-income kids who are less likely to grow up in language-rich homes and don’t have the same opportunities for enrichment as affluent kids, the opportunity costs of Calkins’ “philosophy” are incalculable. Endless hours of class time that could be building knowledge and vocabulary are squandered.

I witnessed this daily in my South Bronx elementary school, where fewer than 20% of students passed state reading tests. I never had a single student unable to read words printed on a page. When they were reading and writing about topics they knew — the Calkins method — students did well. But when asked to read about unfamiliar topics on state tests, they often struggled. They read it, but they didn’t get. One principal I worked under attributed our low scores to “test anxiety,” but that wasn’t the problem. Their education was all mirrors and no windows.

It is well that Calkins has finally seen the light on phonics, however begrudgingly. But her approach commits even greater sins, particularly against low-income children, that phonics alone can’t fix.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/01/expert-idiocy-on-teaching-kids-to-read-is-beyond-comprehension/

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

2 June, 2022

Blue States Spent Covid Funds on Controversial Race Teachings

When Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act in March 2021, it provided $122 billion for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.

This funding was intended to be used by schools for personal protective equipment, increased sanitation, and enhanced ventilation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But states including California, New York, and Illinois used this funding for more than Covid relief, Fox News reported.

Thirteen states with a combined $46.5 billion in federal funds to reopen schools have used some of it to teach critical race theory and other controversial race-based teachings.

In California, the $15.1 billion federally funded reopening plan included $1.5 billion for training school staff on implicit bias, environmental literacy, ethnic studies, and LGBTQ+ cultural competency, according to Fox.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said he was “excited” to approve California’s plan. 

In New York, the plan to use its $9 billion in federal funding included spending some on “providing staff development on topics such as culturally responsive sustaining instruction and student support practices, privilege, implicit bias, and reactions in times of stress” and “[supporting] the work of anti-racism and anti-bias,” according to Fox.

Similarly in Illinois, part of its $5.1 billion went to a plan with “an emphasis on equity and diversity." 

Aside from the heated debates over critical race theory, when Congress appropriates money for a specific purpose, it should be used for that purpose. America needs to be able to trust that its institutions will govern in good faith, regardless of politics.

https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2022/06/01/blue_states_spent_covid_funds_on_controversial_race_teachings_834479.html

***********************************************

Chicago-Area School administrators will require teachers next school year to adjust their classroom grading scales to account for the skin color or ethnicity of its students

School board members discussed the plan called “Transformative Education Professional Development & Grading” at a meeting on May 26, presented by Assistant Superintendent for Student Learning Laurie Fiorenza.

In an effort to equalize test scores among racial groups, OPRF will order its teachers to exclude from their grading assessments variables it says disproportionally hurt the grades of black students. They can no longer be docked for missing class, misbehaving in school or failing to turn in their assignments, according to the plan.

“Traditional grading practices perpetuate inequities and intensify the opportunity gap,” reads a slide in the PowerPoint deck outlining its rationale and goals.

It calls for what OPRF leaders describe as “competency-based grading, eliminating zeros from the grade book…encouraging and rewarding growth over time.”

Teachers are being instructed how to measure student  “growth” while keeping the school leaders' political ideology in mind.

“Teachers and administrators at OPRFHS will continue the process necessary to make grading improvements that reflect our core beliefs,” the plan states, promising to “consistently integrate equitable assessment and grading practices into all academic and elective courses” by fall 2023.

According to the Illinois State Board of Education, 38 percent of OPRF sophomore students taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) failed.

The OPRF failure rate was 77 percent for black students, 49 percent for Hispanics, 27 percent for Asians and 25 percent for whites.

"Signal and reinforce districts’ DEIJ values”

Advocates for so-called "equity based" grading practices, which seek to raise the grade point averages of black students and lower scores of higher-achieving Asian, white and Hispanic ones, say new grading criteria are necessary to further school districts' mission of DEIJ, or "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice."

"By training teachers to remove the non-academic factors from their grading practices and recognize when personal biases manifest, districts can proactively signal a clear commitment toward DEIJ," said Margaret Sullivan, associate director at the Education Advisory Board, which sells consulting services to colleges and universities. 

Sullivan calls grading based on traditional classroom testing and homework performance “outdated practices” and foster "unconscious biases."

"Teachers may unintentionally let non-academic factors—like student behavior or whether a student showed up to virtual class—interfere with their final evaluation of students.," she said. “Traditional student grades include non-academic criteria that do not reflect student learning gains—including participation and on-time homework submission."

School districts across the U.S. are "experimenting with getting rid of zero-to-100 point scales and other strategies to keep missed assignments from dramatically bringing down overall grades," according to a March Associated Press report. "Others are allowing students to retake tests and turn work in late. Also coming under scrutiny are extra-credit assignments than can favor students with more advantages."

The report interviewed science teacher Brad Beadell of Santa Clara, Calif., who said he has "stopped giving zeros and deducting points for late work" as well as allowing students "unlimited retakes for quizzes and tests."

https://westcooknews.com/stories/626581140-oprf-to-implement-race-based-grading-system-in-2022-23-school-year

***************************************************

Australia: More than 20 per cent of NSW students fall below acceptable standards

More than one in five NSW public school students are below the lowest acceptable standard in reading and numeracy, and the gap between the most and least advantaged students is widening.

The NSW Department of Education admitted it needs to do better after it again fell well short of the government’s achievement targets. Its 2021 annual report showed students improved slightly on some measures and went backwards on others.

“We will need considerable improvement across all cohorts and schools in our systems,” the report said.

One target involved increasing the proportion of public school students above the minimum standard for reading and numeracy in NAPLAN to 87.9 per cent, but average results were almost nine percentage points below that target.

The gap between the highest and lowest socioeconomic status students increased slightly between 2019 and 2021, making the target of narrowing the gap in the top two NAPLAN bands even more difficult to achieve.

More than half the students in public schools are from low socioeconomic backgrounds, the report said. “We will need to show significant improvement across all years and learning domains to reduce the widening gap,” it said.

The department was also more than 10 percentage points below its target of ensuring two-thirds of students achieved the growth expected of them in reading and numeracy. While year 3 and 5 students were on track, years 7 and 9 were significantly below.

However, the system fell only slightly short of its target of more than two-thirds of students making it into the top two HSC bands. It was also on track to achieve its 2022 target of ensuring almost 92 per cent of school-leavers were in higher education, training or work.

Craig Petersen, the head of the Secondary Principals Council, said NAPLAN was a simplistic measure and measured basic skills rather than the more complex things students were taught at high school, such as critical thinking and problem-solving.

He also said the past two years were highly disrupted due to COVID-19. “I think the targets were always highly ambitious, and [then came the] the challenges of COVID and, even more significantly, staffing [shortages],” he said. “If I haven’t got qualified maths or science teachers in front of every class, I’m not going to meet those targets.”

A NSW Education spokesman said the ultimate goal was to ensure improvement for every student in every school.

“It is pleasing to see that our NAPLAN results are heading in the right direction despite disruptions to learning over the past 2.5 years due to COVID-19.

“We know there is more work to do which is why we have given teachers and principals more time to focus on students’ attendance, literacy, numeracy and wellbeing outcomes by taking a number of requirements off their plates.”

He said the department invested $256 million, through the School Success Model, in targeted support to lift literacy and numeracy results.

The NSW government has provided an additional $383 million for a renewed COVID-19 Intensive Learning Support program in 2022, as well as $337 million provided for targeted small group tuition for students in 2021, he said.

The department also came under fire from the NSW Teachers Federation over its use of consultants, with its consultancy bill more than doubling to more than $10 million from $4.5 million in 2020.

They include almost $5 million to Encompass Consulting Services for “department portfolio and program optimisation” and $3.3 million to KPMG for “transformation of support services operating model”.

“It beggars belief that so much money is being squandered on consultancy after consultancy and, beyond that, one has to ask what is it that the department actually does other than manage contracts,” said president Angelo Gavrielatos.

The department said it only engaged consultants when it was unable to deliver outcomes or when it needed independent advice.

“The $10.7 million consultancy expenditure in the 2021 annual report represents around 0.05 per cent of the department’s total expenses budget (about $20 billion) over this period,” the spokesman said.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/more-than-20-per-cent-of-nsw-students-fall-below-acceptable-standards-20220601-p5aq9h.html

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

1 June, 2022

The city must stop CUNY Law using taxpayer funds to target Jewish students

The time has come for New York City to take a closer look at the City University of New York School of Law and ask itself whether the institution is meeting its mission for all New Yorkers.

CUNY Law is the only one of the metro area’s 13 law schools subsidized by New York City taxpayer dollars. With in-state tuition just $15,450 per year, the school’s mission is to provide an affordable legal education to the city’s diverse student population — many of whom are planning careers in the public interest.

It has more than met that mission with respect to certain ethnic groups but failed entirely with respect to others. Specifically, it has fostered a culture that has isolated and excluded many Jewish and Israeli students — deterring them from even applying.

In the past year alone, CUNY Law’s Student Government Association passed a resolution to ban Hillel and other Jewish institutions from campus. The faculty council voted in favor of boycotting, divesting and sanctioning Israel — despite a state order forbidding this very conduct. And the school recently selected a student keynote speaker for graduation who, in her own words, seeks to “globalize the Intifada.”

If CUNY Law were a private law school, perhaps it would be within its discretion to take such a strong anti-Israel stance. But as the city’s only public law school, CUNY Law must be open to all New Yorkers. The chosen commencement speaker must speak to everybody. And events targeted to the entire student body, such as the school’s graduation ceremony, must be made pleasant for members of all ethnic groups.

I write this not to take a position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which, no doubt, is complicated by longstanding territorial struggles that emerge out of British colonialism, but rather as a CUNY professor deeply troubled by CUNY Law’s willingness to foster a hostile environment to nearly an entire ethnic group — any entire ethnic group.

As a Baruch College law professor, I regularly advise my students on applying to law school. As much as CUNY Law’s tuition price presents students with a great opportunity, I cannot in good faith encourage anyone to apply to a school where one ethnic group is targeted for isolation and exclusion. It harkens back to ugly days of an earlier era when private law schools around the country placed quotas on Jewish student admission.

Without immediate intervention, there is little reason to believe CUNY Law will change any time soon. Faculty self-governance provides schools with broad discretion when hiring new faculty. Thus, much as there has been historic exclusion of black, female and other minority faculty members at many law schools throughout the nation, there is a dearth of young faculty at CUNY Law supportive of Israel. One can only imagine this is a conscious decision by current faculty who oppose Israel’s very existence. 

The path forward for legal education, of course, is not to exclude individuals of diverse ethnicities or viewpoints but to preach inclusion and tolerance. While CUNY Law student groups are more than within their right to invite speakers to campus who support the BDS movement, pro-Israel groups must similarly be given a forum to invite speakers who share the Zionist perspective. A public institution that places content-based restrictions on political speech presumably runs afoul of protections granted by the US Constitution’s First and Fourteenth Amendments.

As the only law school funded with New York City taxpayer dollars, moreover, CUNY Law has an ethical duty to build an environment that makes Jewish and Israeli students, like all other students, feel welcome on campus. Similarly, it has a legal duty to comply with New York state Executive Order 157, which prevents “all agencies and departments over which the Governor has executive authority” from engaging in the boycott of Israel.

Hence CUNY Law fails to meet its mission both as a law school and a New York City taxpayer-funded institution. As such, the city needs to step in and correct the school’s leadership shortcomings — ensuring that the rights and well-being of all students, including Jewish and pro-Israel students, are adequately protected. 

https://nypost.com/2022/05/30/the-city-must-stop-cuny-law-using-taxpayer-funds-to-target-jewish-students/

***************************************

Kirk Cameron: Public schools grooming kids with critical race theory, 'sexual chaos,' and 'racial confusion'

Award-winning actor Kirk Cameron blasted America's public schools for becoming breeding grounds for far-left progressive agendas, including critical race theory, Nikole Hannah-Jones' 1619 Project, and gender ideology. 

"The problem is that public school systems have become so bad. It's sad to say they're doing more for grooming, for sexual chaos and the progressive left than any real educating about the things that most of us want to teach our kids," he told Fox News Digital. The solution to the problem, he said, was for parents to take the lead on their children's education and teach them at home. To make the case, the award-winning actor referenced his upcoming movie, "The Homeschool Awakening." 

The movie follows the journey of about 17 homeschooling families who respond to misconceptions and stereotypes. In the film, Cameron also discusses his journey to homeschool his six children with his wife, Chelsea. 

Cameron's father, grandmother, and grandfather were teachers. He stressed that there are many excellent teachers in the U.S., but the school system is holding them back from being a "light in the darkness, [and] to pass on the kinds of values and virtues that made this the freest, strongest, most prosperous nation in the whole world."

Cameron takes issue with the perspective that a child's education should be left solely to the so-called experts, without parents' input. "And that's just a fundamental difference in the way that we look at. Who has been entrusted with the sacred responsibility of raising our children? Is it the parents or is it the government?"

He went on to strongly criticize "those who are rotting out the minds and souls of America's children" and said they were "spreading a terminal disease, not education."

"And you can take your pick. Just go down the list. The things that are destroying the family, destroying the church, destroying love for our great country: critical race theory, teaching kids to pick their pronouns and decide whether they want to be a boy or a girl, The 1619 Project," he said.

Cameron said the "genesis" of creating, what would become a project that spanned over two years, was the novel coronavirus pandemic. At that time, he said, parents were finally starting to see the things schools were teaching their kids. 

"If we send our children to Rome to be educated … we shouldn't be surprised if they come back Romans," Cameron said. "If we want them … to love God and love their neighbor and feel gratitude and thankful that they live in the United States of America, the freest country on earth, then you've got to teach them those things … 

I realized that there was no better way for our family to do that … then to bring them home and join in with this rich, robust community, with tons of curriculum to to to be able to have the flexibility and freedom to raise our kids the way we wanted them to be raised."

"Homeschool was not on our radar screen because we had these misconceptions and stereotypes like so many people do. Like, you know, that's for like Quakers and the Amish, and how could you possibly teach your kids enough so that they get into college? What about socialization?" Cameron said. However, after going through the process, Cameron learned that his children were able to socialize with people of all ages, and that the world was his kids' classroom.

"When you're together as a family … you're able to travel, … [and] you're not locked into a schedule that everyone else is locked into, … you can discover your own individuality and uniqueness … And it really lends itself to a healthy, flourishing community in your home," he said.'

https://www.foxnews.com/media/kirk-cameron-public-schools-grooming-kids-critical-race-theory-sexual-chaos-racial-confusion

********************************************

Australia: Murdoch University will review its controversial decision implemented last year to stop offering majors in maths, physics and chemistry, according to new vice-chancellor Andrew Deeks

<i>Sanity returns.  Crazy Finnish lady gone to Ireland.  Lucky Ireland</i>

He distanced himself from the decision made in 2020 under former vice-chancellor Eeva Leinonen, saying “it was perhaps a particular view of the management at the time”.

“It wasn’t a view of the broader academic community,” said Professor Deeks, who started as vice-chancellor in April.

The changes, which also curtailed Murdoch’s engineering degrees, abandoned the majors previously offered in maths, physics and chemistry in favour of offering less specialist STEM subjects more broadly.

The Australian Institute of Physics and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute – both accrediting bodies for university courses – said at the time that they “strongly objected” to the move.

Professor Deeks, who is by background a civil engineer, said the maths, physics and chemistry majors had been suspended rather than cancelled completely.

He said he had asked to see the business case for bringing them back, as well as other subjects such as Indonesian, radio, theatre and drama that were cut as part of Covid cost-saving measures.

“I’ve put the challenge to the heads of discipline right the way across the university to go back and have another look at this and see where it makes sense,” Professor Deeks said.

“I’ve said to bring back programs if they will work or to bring back replacements which are enhanced for the current age.”

He said Murdoch would not be focused solely on STEM but “more of the STEAM concept (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) of ensuring we have that engagement with the humanities and social sciences”.

In an interview with The Australian Professor Deeks said Murdoch University was now on a different course to when it sued a whistleblower staff member, Gerd Schroder-Turk, in 2019 after he questioned the university’s standards and revealed that international students who were not academically ready for their courses were being enrolled via a questionable education agent.

The university withdrew the action against Professor Schroder-Turk, a physics academic who is also a member of the university’s governing body, in 2020.

“I think that was a very unfortunate incident in the university’s history. There were obviously some failings which were revealed at that time,” Professor Deeks said.

“The university’s taken very strong action on the back of that and has put in place robust processes to ensure the quality of all the students that we’re admitting, and especially the international students and especially students that would be coming to us through agents.

“We’re no longer working with the particular agent concerned.”

He said he was meeting regularly with Professor Schroder-Turk, who continues as a member of the university’s Senate.

”It was an unfortunate decision by the then management at the university to pursue one of its academics legally. I can assure you that under my watch we will not be going in that direction.” Professor Deeks said.

As proof of the university’s new direction he pointed to the fact that the higher education regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, had renewed Murdoch’s registration for the full seven years in March after last year limiting it to four years registration while it demonstrated “the effective implementation of improvements”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/murdoch-uni-reviews-controversial-changes-to-stem-degrees/news-story/3f6d73e449482912b30df2d9f6db9a93

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

Primarily covering events in Australia, the U.K. and the USA -- where the follies are sadly similar.


TERMINOLOGY: The English "A Level" exam is roughly equivalent to a U.S. High School diploma. Rather confusingly, you can get As, Bs or Cs in your "A Level" results. Entrance to the better universities normally requires several As in your "A Levels".


MORE TERMINOLOGY: Many of my posts mention the situation in Australia. Unlike the USA and Britain, there is virtually no local input into education in Australia. Education is mostly a State government responsibility, though the Feds have a lot of influence (via funding) at the university level. So it may be useful to know the usual abbreviations for the Australian States: QLD (Queensland), NSW (New South Wales), WA (Western Australia), VIC (Victoria), TAS (Tasmania), SA (South Australia).


There were two brothers from a famous family. One did very well at school while the other was a duffer. Which one went on the be acclaimed as the "Greatest Briton"? It was the duffer: Winston Churchill.


The current Left-inspired practice of going to great lengths to shield students from experience of failure and to tell students only good things about themselves is an appalling preparation for life. In adulthood, the vast majority of people are going to have to reconcile themselves to mundane jobs and no more than mediocrity in achievement. Illusions of themselves as "special" are going to be sorely disappointed


Perhaps it's some comfort that the idea of shielding kids from failure and having only "winners" is futile anyhow. When my son was about 3 years old he came bursting into the living room, threw himself down on the couch and burst into tears. When I asked what was wrong he said: "I can't always win!". The problem was that we had started him out on educational computer games where persistence only is needed to "win". But he had then started to play "real" computer games -- shootem-ups and the like. And you CAN lose in such games -- which he had just realized and become frustrated by. The upset lasted all of about 10 minutes, however and he has been happily playing computer games ever since. He also now has a degree in mathematics and is socially very pleasant. "Losing" certainly did not hurt him.


Even the famous Marxist theoretician Antonio Gramsci (and the world's most famous Sardine) was a deep opponent of "progressive" educational methods. He wrote: "The most paradoxical aspect is that this new type of school is advocated as being democratic, while in fact it is destined not merely to perpetuate social differences, but to crystallise them." He rightly saw that "progressive" methods were no help to the poor


I am an atheist of Protestant background who sent his son to Catholic schools. Why did I do that? Because I do not personally feel threatened by religion and I think Christianity is a generally good influence. I also felt that religion is a major part of life and that my son should therefore have a good introduction to it. He enjoyed his religion lessons but seems to have acquired minimal convictions from them.


Why have Leftist educators so relentlessly and so long opposed the teaching of phonics as the path to literacy when that opposition has been so enormously destructive of the education of so many? It is because of their addiction to simplistic explanations of everything (as in saying that Islamic hostility is caused by "poverty" -- even though Osama bin Laden is a billionaire!). And the relationship between letters and sounds in English is anything but simple compared to the beautifully simple but very unhelpful formula "look and learn".


For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.


The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"


A a small quote from the past that helps explain the Leftist dominance of education: "When an opponent says: 'I will not come over to your side,' I calmly say, 'Your child belongs to us already. You will pass on. Your descendents, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time, they will know nothing else but this new community.'." Quote from Adolf Hitler. In a speech on 6th November 1933


I am rather pleased to report that I am a lifelong conservative. Out of intellectual curiosity, I did in my youth join organizations from right across the political spectrum so I am certainly not closed-minded and am very familiar with the full spectrum of political thinking. Nonetheless, I did not have to undergo the lurch from Left to Right that so many people undergo. At age 13 I used my pocket-money to subscribe to the "Reader's Digest" -- the main conservative organ available in small town Australia of the 1950s. I have learnt much since but am pleased and amused to note that history has since confirmed most of what I thought at that early age.

I imagine that the the RD is still sending mailouts to my 1950s address!


Discipline: With their love of simple generalizations, this will be Greek to Leftists but I see an important role for discipline in education DESPITE the fact that my father never laid a hand on me once in my entire life nor have I ever laid a hand on my son in his entire life. The plain fact is that people are DIFFERENT, not equal and some kids will not behave themselves in response to persuasion alone. In such cases, realism requires that they be MADE to behave by whatever means that works -- not necessarily for their own benefit but certainly for the benefit of others whose opportunities they disrupt and destroy.


Many newspaper articles are reproduced in full on this blog despite copyright claims attached to them. I believe that such reproductions here are protected by the "fair use" provisions of copyright law. Fair use is a legal doctrine that recognises that the monopoly rights protected by copyright laws are not absolute. The doctrine holds that, when someone uses a creative work in way that does not hurt the market for the original work and advances a public purpose - such as education or scholarship - it might be considered "fair" and not infringing.


Comments above by John Ray



My Home Pages are here (Academic) or here (Personal); My Home page supplement; My Alternative Wikipedia; My Blogroll; Menu of my longer writings; My annual picture page is here; My Recipes;

Email me (John Ray) here.