Ayers' work funding radical "education" groups in Chicago came just in the last 12 years. And he teamed up directly with Obama on that....I'd like to see the details of these proposals. And "seemed to envision" is awfully weaselly. What is wrong with a foundation that chooses to fund creative proposals for teaching kids to analyze the problems of racism in American history and rejects mundane proposals to drill math and science?
"Proposals from groups focused on math/science achievement were turned down. Instead, CAC disbursed money through various far-left community organizers," such as ACORN.
Ayers seemed to envision schools as "sites of resistance" and for teaching kids to oppose "oppression," with a focus on America's evil and racist past - and an eye toward "social transformation."
This is the swamp in which Obama operated....
October 13, 2008
"This is the swamp in which Obama operated...."
The NY Post says we shouldn't just mistrust Ayers for his past; we should mistrust him for his present:
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Math drill is a work skill.
Chip on the shoulder is the opposite.
It's pretty hard to resist the Man when no one bothers with the "mundane" task of teaching basic skills. A quick glance at Chicago stats shows it's also difficult to graduate.
I'd settle for a list of the Annenberg Challenge recipients and the amount recd.
That would tell us a bit more about how they tried to improve education.
It's fair game to criticize and scrutinize what the Annenberg Foundation funded. But keep in mind that their turning down one proposal for another doesn't mean math and science weren't taught. The foundation isn't the school board.
Yeah, that's right, Ann. Who needs to waste time with boring math and science when it's so much more rewarding to deconstruct the oppression endemic in our patriarchal society. Sure, the kids probably won't be able to get a job later (other than that of a community organizer), but there's always the public teat do draw from.
Nothing would be wrong with it if we didn't spend more on education that any other nation yet have kids graduating with out math, science, reading, and writing skills at 12th grade level (some wouldn't pass 8th grade). And we have eliminated history for "social studies." Bullshit.
Schools went down hill when they decided they needed to be about socialization rather than the "3 Rs"
So Ann, don't you think the money could have been used to develop better math/teaching skills? Reading? Something other than social justice.
Even those who don't agree with him believe that Cass Sunstein is a fool, hack or shill. He again ran his comments on the Obama-Ayres connection this weekend. Money quote:
"Of course many legitimate questions can be raised about any candidate for public office. But it is a gross understatement to say that the alleged Ayers-Obama association is not one of them."
Whole thing here:http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/10/11/obama-and-ayers-the-view-from-hyde-park.aspx
If Annenberg Challenge board approved giving significant dollars to Acorn-type groups, what would that tell us about Obama and Ayers?
It's one thing to teach students to think critically. It's quite another to teach them to think critically from only one point of view.
And besides, little ones don't need to learn to think critically while they're trying to learn reading, writing and 'rithmetic.
What is wrong with a foundation that chooses to fund creative proposals for teaching kids to analyze the problems of racism in American history and rejects mundane proposals to drill math and science?
Are you freaking serious?
What's wrong with NOT teaching children basic skills and the ability to get a job and be a productive citizen?
What's NOT wrong with turning out young adults who have a warped view of the world taught to them by a radical socialist agenda????
What's wrong with people who don't think that there is anything wrong?????????
Are you SERIOUS!!!!!
The CAC gave the Small Schools Workshop grants totaling more than $1,000,000.
The Workshop was and is headed by director Michael Klonsky, a Communist and associate of Bill Ayers.
University of Illinois education Professor Klonsky is a former SDS member who in 1969 founded the October League, a Communist party which was later renamed "Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) of the United States of America" in 1977, according to a 1977 WaPo article.
If you visit the home page of Klonsky's Small Schools Workshop, you will find no reference to the Communist Party.
Until June 2008, he had a blog on Sen. Obama's official website.
Professor, I don't know what this Small Schools group does, but I suspect it's up to no good. (I'll spend more time looking up what it actually does, but as a rule I doubt senior Communist party officials have my children's or this country's best interests at heart.)
This truly is all too unbelievable, and that's why it has not broken through the mass consciousness. People simply do not want to believe any of this, because it means that lots and lots of people we want to be able to trust--like the mayor of Chicago and professors who teach our children--are not trustworthy. If I can find out the above in 10 minutes, what does it tell you about how lazy and incompetent major news outlets are?
I suspect a rhetorical question. But it's a question worth answering, anyway.
1) Schools are a public resource and a significant drain on budgets. They shouldn't be diverted to private side projects.
2) Likewise, the Annenberg challenge was a nonprofit. Nonprofits are exempt from taxation because they are expected to benefit the public. Instead, a huge cache of money was looted to give to organizations which -- hooray! -- turned around to support Obama when he put on his politician hat.
3) Obama has made proposals for a gigantic national service program. Doesn't the worthiness of such a huge devotion of money and time depend rather sensitively on whether the money will be wasted or looted and whether the time will be spent productively? Or whether the national service can be easily diverted to side projects?
It's the New York Post, for cripes' sake. A rag, an organ of Rupert Murdoch.
More interesting is this look from the New York Times at the person/Freeper behind so many Obama rumors. (Rumors heard here at Althouse).
Juicy bits:
* When he ran for Congress in CT, his campaign committee paperwork listed one purpose as “to exterminate Jew power.”
* His admission to the bar was blocked due to “moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character.”
* Due to his numerous filings, he was prevented from filing any more without prior approval.
Beth makes the key point. It was a private foundation that had something it wanted to fund to enhance education. The public schools are damned well obligated to provide basic skills training, using tax money. What if there were a foundation that cared about art and music and exclusively funded that? Would you complain about not teaching math and science?
And as far as teaching reading is concerned, I favor teaching reading with books about history and wonder why you think the funded projects didn't require reading?
Alpha, I hate posts telling me about some other subject I should be blogging about. If you really wanted me to post about it, you should email me. What makes you think I'm not planning to write about that article? Your criticism now makes it look like, if I did, I'd be responding to that, which is irksome.
"What is wrong with a foundation that chooses to fund creative proposals for teaching kids to analyze the problems of racism in American history and rejects mundane proposals to drill math and science?"
Um, perhaps because the later is, ya know, KNOWLEDGE, and the former is bullshit lefty political indoctrination of children?
Does anyone think that the Ayers/Obama plan was to teach kids about the heroes of the Civil War, who fought to stop slavery, or the long list American heroes - black and white, from reconstruction through the civil rights era - who fought to end lynching and racial discrimination?
No, the plan was to present all institutions of present-day America as forever stained by racism (and sexism, homophobia, and all the rest) against which they should rise up and rebel. They wanted hard-left indoctrination of children who don't have the means to know any better.
"The results of an August 2003 final technical report of the Chicago Annenberg Research Project by the Consortium on Chicago School Research "suggest that among the schools it supported, the Challenge had little impact on school improvement and student outcomes, with no statistically significant differences between Annenberg and non-Annenberg schools in rates of achievement gain, classroom behavior, student self-efficacy, and social competence."
Sorry, but that is a hell of a lot of money to spend without appreciable results. I'd accept the idea of it being supplemental to the basics, but that assumes they're going swimmingly, when they're not.
Lions and tigers and radical socialists, [Oh My!]
Beth makes the key point. It was a private foundation that had something it wanted to fund to enhance education. The public schools are damned well obligated to provide basic skills training, using tax money. What if there were a foundation that cared about art and music and exclusively funded that? Would you complain about not teaching math and science?
The analogy is terrible. In the one case, the benefits go to the students who have access to a curriculum which is available many other places with public funds and which is valuable in its own right. In the other case, the benefits go to the outside semi-political groups who get to expound their version of the world and get paid for doing it.
Note that the money didn't actually go to the schools. It went to the outside groups.
I like my description of diverting a public resource for a side project much better.
What if there were a foundation that cared about art and music and exclusively funded that? Would you complain about not teaching math and science?
It is the exclusivity that I object to in the public public shcools and the diminishing of teaching actual skills because the schools have received money that is earmarked for a particular use. I would vociferously object if the school my child went to ceased to teach or diminished the teaching math and science and stressed music and arts, no matter how valueable the arts are, because they received a wad of cash from a foundation.
Objectivity and a functional education are, or at least should be the results of a PUBLIC school education that is funded by tax payer dollars. If parents want to have a music/arts emphasis or a science/math emphasis at the expense of a rounded learning experience in the elementary or even secondary school level, then they are welcome to remove their children from the PUBLIC school system and choose the indoctrination of their own persuasion.
You already know my views on wearing campaign buttons or expressing personal political or religious opinions in school. It should be forbidden. It should also be forbidden for a private organization to change the course of PUBLIC school education.
I sit on the board of a private foundation that assists teachers in our rural area where schools are sadly underfunded. Projects presented to us for funding by the teachers are for extra-curricular activities or to purchase supplies and technology that the school is unable to fund. At NO TIME would we ever consider interfering with the ciruculum of the District and at NO TIME would we consider funding anything that is remotely political or religious in overtones.
And what's wrong with ACORN? The wingnut attempt to smear an organization that gets poor people registered to vote is mind-boggling.
Sure they accidentally register some people twice, or non-existent people are registered, as is bound to happen when you register millions of people, but the number of people that actually end up VOTING more than once is approximately zero.
But keep in mind that their turning down one proposal for another doesn't mean math and science weren't taught. The foundation isn't the school board.
This is a good point. We don't know that math and science weren't taught, except for the evidence that the math and science scores for these schools are abysmal, as are the graduation rates.
There are only so many days and hours in the school year. When you (the school or the teacher) are given lots of funding for purpose X, the likelihood is that the subjects A and B will be taught less.
After all it is much more fun to learn how the "man" is keeping you down and suppressing you than it is to learn how to write coherent sentences or basic math.
In addition. Some of these grants were for elementary children who need to be learning elementary subjects, not socio-political crappola.
The challenge should be to turn out functioning, productive students and not focused on indoctrination or even on one, worthy topic like music.
Spin it anyway you want. This particular foundation is aimed at pure ideology and not education.
I've lived in some really crappy apartments over the years, and in every one there are neighbors who are constantly screaming at their kids to shut up. The idea of bedtime is nonexistent. Nutrition - very funny.
There was an interesting segment on This American Life called "Going Big where a guy creates a community center to address those issues with parents. Because some of these kids are so beaten down before they ever show up in a classroom, it's amazing they're able to learn anything at all.
" but the number of people that actually end up VOTING more than once is approximately zero."
Really? And how do you know that. If I lived in the city, where precincts are close together, I could easily register in several precincts and go to each one and vote.
The precincts populations are so large and the poll workers change during the day, I could register under several names in the same precinct and vote early in the morning and come back in my various alter identities and vote in the evening. Vote early and vote often.
No one is checking the data base. No one is looking at ID's in some locations. Evidently no one cares.
Until there is a verifiable method of proving identity and preventing fraudulent registrations, the chance of people voting more than once is statistically much more than ZERO.
Of course if you went to a school funded in Chicago, your grasp of statistics is likely to be zero as well.
I wasn't trying to assign blame, but for a lot of disadvantaged kids the worst oppression happens at home and has little to do with race.
I love the debate here. Do we making any progress, though?
Does anyone inclined to think these programs are valuable change their minds at all?
Or vice versa?
I'm starting to believe that Americans are just hopelessly divided on these issues. It is such a drastically different point of view, at least for me.
It's depressing, honestly. Sorry. And I am *such* an incurable optimist that I'm quite shocked to be feeling this.
Does anyone inclined to think these programs are valuable change their minds at all?
My understanding is that the Annenberg Challenge's own analysis is that their work produced no appreciable improvement in children's education. "the money had no impact at all: test scores in schools that received money from Annenberg went up, but at the same rate as all other schools in Chicago."
http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/content/publications.php?pub_id=60
$140 million, 6 years, no impact.
Darcy:
I have been thinking about that too.
It seems to me we have several factors in play. People are informed, highly informed. At the same time they are either persuadable or unpersuadable.
It makes no sense to even discuss issues with unpersuadable people. And many many of us are dug in to our side the issues.
I don't know what will change that.
I had a typo above.
I meant to say people fall into three groups: informed, very informed and uninformed.
I'm certainly "inclined to think" the programs could be valuable, but unfortunately they weren't. If the Obamas believed otherwise, presumably their girls would be attending public schools.
At NO TIME would we ever consider interfering with the ciruculum of the District and at NO TIME would we consider funding anything that is remotely political or religious in overtones.
Dust Bunny Queen touches on the issue of religion, which deserves some attention. Suffice it to say that there are lots and lots of organizations that would like to affect school curricula on particular subjects. (Evolution, anyone?)
I'm starting to believe that Americans are just hopelessly divided on these issues.
All the more reason not to let those on one side of the divide use the public schools to give themselves a captive and impressionable audience.
"What is wrong with a foundation that chooses to fund creative proposals for teaching kids to analyze the problems of racism in American history and rejects mundane proposals to drill math and science?"
What is wrong with such a foundation is that its educational goals would result in many kids who don't have the fundamental skills to function as adults in modern society. Kids of the age targeted by Ayers are not developed enough to analyze the effects of racism. They can barely analyze a word problem in arithmetic or diagram a sentence, let alone analyze human bigotry.
Prof. Althouse, in posing the question, you appear to make the same mistake as do so many highly intelligent, creative people and that is applying education criteria for highly intelligent, creative people to the vast majority of us ordinary people. Orindary people typically fail in analytical reasoning unless they are drilled in the fundamentals first. Things that may seem self-evident to you are probably not to ordinary people lacking knowledge of a wide set of facts. For a lot of us, critical thinking is impossible without a wide range of facts.
When students in what was once one of the best school systems in the country (Newton, Mass.) fall behind their peers in math because there is too much emphasis on self esteem and not enough on basics, I think the point is well enough illustrated.
Really dustbunny queen. Can you name me 10 people who voted twice in 2004. The Bush Administration had the federal prosecutors investigate voting fraud charges like crazy after the 2004 and 2006 elections. So it's not as if Republicans haven't tried.
So please - give me some names if this is really such a crisis.
Here's more info.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/013581.php
What is wrong with a foundation that chooses to fund creative proposals for teaching kids to analyze the problems of racism in American history and rejects mundane proposals to drill math and science?
Because it's a politicized issue, and has no business in grade school curriculum. And it absolutely should not take priority over the fundamentals in grade schools where kids are already floundering.
The Post recently published an article that said that Obama is still smoking cigarettes on the sly. He bums them from campaign staff, rather than buying his own.
Is that good judgment?
At any rate, it's the only newspaper that seems to have touched upon Obama's continuing nicotine addiction.
Paul Zrimsek said:
All the more reason not to let those on one side of the divide use the public schools to give themselves a captive and impressionable audience.
Oh, I heartily agree with you! I'd love to believe that we're persuading.
kirby, speaking as someone who has been on and off the smoking wagon a dozen times, I can sympathize with him. But his reasoning was weird, when he said, "But I figure, seeing as I'm running for president, I need to cut myself a little slack." I mean, wouldn't that transfer to, "seeing as I'm the leader of the free world..." ?
Here is the article where the above quote appears.
In June, Men's Fitness magazine said Obama was one of the 25 fittest men in America.
Here is a 1960 letter written to RFK by JFK's personal doctor describing John Kennedy's excellent health to put to rest all those awful rumors. And 42 years later we learn that the doctor was lying.
It's sad to watch Ann twist and spin to rebut every story asking legitimate questions about Obama. What is wrong with a foundation that chooses to fund creative proposals for teaching kids to analyze the problems of racism in American history[?]
For starters, it's completely inappropriate to give this much weight to "the problems of racism in American history." The history of America is so much more than racism. This focus on the evils of America is twisted and wrong.
Continuing, it's an inappropriate subject for elementary and middle-school children. They do not have the background in history, pyschology, sociology, and economics to treat the subject fairly. Most high school students would be ill-equipped to deal with the subject. It is especially inappropriate for the students in the CAC schools because they were failing in the basics that would allow them to address the subject seriously.
These answers to Ann's questions are so obvious that it's embarrassing she bothered to ask them.
Ann, What's wrong about it is that $100 million dollars was spent with no discernable results in any field of study. You must admit that if there had been any significant or notable achievments at all the campaign would be shouting it from the rooftops. Are you hearing anything? Why THAT isn't an issue I do not know. $100 million dollars wasted - and Sen. Obama's "skills" at managing the Annenberg funds are not even on the table for discussion.
Can you name me 10 people who voted twice in 2004.
Can you name me 10 people who embezzled from their community boosters club in 2004? Off the top of your head 10 people who shoplifted in 2004. Oh...you can't? Gee I guess that embezzling and shoplifting just don't exist.
Nothing to see here....move along.
Oh wait. We don't even have to go back to 2004 double dipping is alive and well in Texas on both sides of the aisle. When something illegal is easy to do unscrupulous people will do it.
Ayers is clearly still very much the radical, and his personal views about education are radical. See, for instance, his Caracas speech.
However, what BHO's shills like FactCheck and Politifact have been able to get away with is claiming that - due to others' involvement in the board - CAC was mainstream. That's then picked up by BHO's shills in the MSM.
Simply pointing out that Klonsky was funded doesn't cut it. Simply pointing to an Ayers speech doesn't cut it. We need to find examples of Ayers' radicalism seeping into a specific curriculum.
If anyone can do that, we can discredit the "fact checkers" and those in the MSM who've relied on them, and also provide an example of BHO helping spread radicalism in schools. The latter is something that would have a very major impact.
So it begins, or rather ends.
Political organizations that spend millions with no discernable help to kids, but a boost for the political organizations. And no skepticism against them , not like that directed against, say, Haliburton.
I don't see any point discussing it any longer. The left has won, and will institute and mandate leftist principles in public schools and the rest of society. We have become, in effect, a single party State.
We were the first port of freedom in the world, but more recently the last one remaining. And then there were none.
Can you name me 10 people who voted twice in 2004.
and
and
and
and
ana
Those are just the some who got caught. Does it only count in 2004 for some reason?
Let's just call this program by it's correct name:
"Let's Require Every Parent to Raise His/Her Children The Way Bill Ayers Raised His".
It's a wonderful program where every child can be told each school day how the things Mom and Dad say are wrong and should not be believed.
Schools as re-education camps. Paid for with taxpayer dollars.
$140 million, six years. Here's how they could have made a difference: hire college students to be part time tutors for kids struggling in the basic subjects.
(Or spend the money to bribe, er, lobby politicians to change teacher licensing so, for example, someone who worked as a part time teacher at CalTech for years could teach AP physics to seniors.)
"Analyzing the problems of racism"?
OK, I've analyzed them. Problem Number One:
Minority kids aren't learning math and science in school.
I believe that Ayers is sincere. I believe he really, honestly believes that a modern nation can get by just fine without teaching its young people anything useful. He's a progressive. He doesn't know where goods and services come from, and he's too ignorant and parochial even to ask the question. Does a house cat know how cat food gets in the can, or how the can arrives in the kitchen? Of course not.
Any barn cat as a far more subtle and profound understanding of the world than Ayers has. What a shame Ayers is too arrogant to listen.
Ayers is not evil. He's just inhumanly stupid.
Ayers views on education are well known in the 'university environment' of Chicago. Ayers himself stated, "I'm a communist with a little 'c'".
From Ayers speech to the "World Education Forum" in November 2006:
"President Hugo Chavez, Vice-President Vicente Rangel, Ministers Moncada and Isturiz, invited guests,comrades. I’m honored and humbled to be here with you this morning. I bring greetings and support from your brothers and sisters throughout Northamerica. Welcome to the World Education Forum! Amamos la revolucion Bolivariana!"
A little later in his speech:
"This is my fourth visit to Venezuela, each time at the invitation of my comrade and friend Luis Bonilla, a brilliant educator and inspiring fighter for justice. Luis has taught me a great deal about the Bolivarian Revolution and about the profound educational reforms underway here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution, and I’ve come to appreciate Luis as a major asset in both the Venezuelan and the international struggle—I look forward to seeing how he and all of you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane."
What does this mean?
What is wrong with a foundation that chooses to fund creative proposals for teaching kids to analyze the problems of racism in American history and rejects mundane proposals to drill math and science?
The purpose of the foundation was to improve education in the area. Since math and science skills, which are basic and fundamental to the ability to analyze information, were abyssmal, it would have behooved the board to fund creative proposals for teaching these skills. There's no need to degrade math and science proposals as boring drilling and to elevate indoctrination proposals, which I what I would call any proposal that teaches children to view all through a lens of race, as "creative." That's just silly. Where does this anti-math anti-science sentiment come from?
Sadly, I agree with Pogo. $900 billion in assets controlled by non-profits and what do we get for it? Anti-American propagandizing.
AJ, here's one project funded by Annenberg: Shooting Back. But I'm sure the funds went to cameras and not to Hamas!
Yes, let's raise more little Bill Ayers. Then surely the seas will begin to recede and the sick will be taken care of. It's not totalitarian, it's "neighborly." Chesa in Venezuela
Freeman Hunt asks: Where does this anti-math anti-science sentiment come from?
Silly, who needs math and science? Ann demonstrates that it's possible to be wildly successful as a law professor even if you start out as an art student. She never needed math or science, why should we?
Antimath Antiscience is derived from the belief that it is "The Man's" fault for everything.
I guess Ayers believes "The Man" must be eliminated first then schools will work.
Funny Ayers' father was "The Man" in Chicago. Didn't he run the major electric company in Chicago? I guess Ayers did not have the balls to eliminate his own father.
FWIW William Ayers will leave behind nothing but angry losers when he is dead. He and his hideous wife, Bernadine Dohrn, have failed 110% IMO.
Patca:
$900 Billion in assets in non-profits!! I say let's tax it all.
Afterall, what did Willie Sutton, the bank robber, say when he was asked why he robbed banks?
"Because that is where they keep the money."
Ann Althouse wrote:
What is wrong with a foundation that chooses to fund creative proposals for teaching kids to analyze the problems of racism in American history and rejects mundane proposals to drill math and science?
Stating the matter in such a way vis-a-vis science and math is deeply troubling, Ann. There's something about it that screams “law professor” to me — that a person who's had to sit through endless “drilling” in the law would thereafter think that that's all science and math is (or all that is important about them) is “drilling,” is perhaps understandable coming from a person wholly outside the discipline, however it's also a real shame and tragedy of our educational system — even though many actual scientists also misunderstand (or have never learned) the nature of their calling.
I made this point in a comment to one of your postings the better part of a year ago, Ann. It was quite lengthy, and perhaps you didn't read it (given its length, perhaps understandably) or think about it and try to understand it, but I suggest you go back and do so (most of the words, indeed, are not my own, but those of philosopher of science Jacob Bronowski).
Science is far, far more than just rote memorization, and attempting to caricature it as such is almost the diametrical opposite of the truth, while education's failure to communicate even an iota of this fact is a gross disservice to not only everyone's mental life but also the future of our species and world.
That some Chicago terrorist in spectacles can raise money and piss it away on the "raising awareness" unicorn is of little concern. That's what lefties do for chrissakes.
But what is the DNC Presidential candidate doing involved with such far left claptrap?
And why is this blog buying such warmed over bullshit, theories of education that have repeatedly failed, disproven by decades of declines since Dewey started the whole shameful process.
Ann, Beth, MadisonMan.
Support this or not?
Good enough to expand to the rest of the US or not?
Call me disillusioned. I feel like I've been sucker punched.
Call me disillusioned. I feel like I've been sucker punched.
Yeah. That about captures it.
2 + 2 equals...whatever Dear Leader says it is.
If you're really interested ... .
A long-remembered high school math teacher used to recite the following, at least daily:
"The more math you learn, the more money you'll earn."
She was right.
of course, math isn't as fun as learning about how shitty America is.
From the article reader links:
Teaching science for social justice? Let Teachers College professor Angela Calabrese Barton, the volume’s principal author, try to explain: “The marriages between capitalism and education and capitalism and science have created a foundation for science education that emphasizes corporate values at the expense of social justice and human dignity.” The alternative? “Science pedagogy framed around social justice concerns can become a medium to transform individuals, schools, communities, the environment, and science itself, in ways that promote equity and social justice. Creating a science education that is transformative implies not only how science is a political activity but also the ways in which students might see and use science and science education in ways transformative of the institutional and interpersonal power structures that play a role in their lives.” If you still can’t appreciate why it’s necessary for your child’s chemistry teacher to teach for social justice, you are probably hopelessly wedded to reason, empiricism, individual merit, and other capitalist and post-colonialist deformities.
Ann, can you see how this thinking is applied to every subject in a crushing way? The exhibit you posted about yesterday - art also must be about re-framing assumptions about power. Who cares if it's visually uninteresting? Everything must be "in the service of the Agenda" for these people. It's soul-destroying shit.
If you still can’t appreciate why it’s necessary for your child’s chemistry teacher to teach for social justice, you are probably hopelessly wedded to reason, empiricism, individual merit, and other capitalist and post-colonialist deformities.
Heaven forbid that reason, empiricism, and individual merit are emphasized in science. Wow. Just wow. This is what happens when a bunch of liberal education majors have to come up with science curriculum. "Science is like hard and stuff. That's 'cause it's mean. Let's teach how it's mean instead."
In the next few generations, it is those cultures "hopelessly wedded to reason, empiricism, individual merit, and other capitalist and post-colonialist deformities" which will raise the annual incomes and quality of life by multiples over failed cultures that actually believe bullshit that encourages unreason, foucauldianism, rejects merit.
Christ, the leftiest lefties see Obama on the verge of victory, and cannot wait to shove all their bizarre fantasies down our throats.
May God forgive us.
Damn Pogo:
You are taking this really hard. Go get drunk or something. You'll feel better for a short while.
I am being selfish but must look at the bright side. I will be able to get a better room in Vegas for the same price when the Obama-fueled recession arrives.
"Go get drunk or something."
If history is any guide, the vodka will be plentiful and cheap.
If I didn't have kids, I really wouldn't give a shit, AJ. But you're right. I'll be offline for awhile.
If you still can’t appreciate why it’s necessary for your child’s chemistry teacher to teach for social justice, you are probably hopelessly wedded to reason, empiricism, individual merit, and other capitalist and post-colonialist deformities.
What a giant crock of horseshit!!
Want to be a plumber? Learn math, chemistry and physics.
Want to be a carpenter? Learn math and geometry.
Want to be able to bake a 'sweet potato pie' and not kill your family? Learn math and chemistry.
Want to be able to go to the store and not be shortchanged or cheated? Learn basic math.
Want to become an auto mechanic? Math, chemistry and physics
Make a quilt? Geometry and math.
Want to reload shotgun shells or casings? Math and chemistry.
None of those skills require being "hopelessly wedded to reason, empiricism, individual merit, and other capitalist and post-colonialist deformities". Whatever the hell that means.
I'd like to see these ideologues try to get along in the 'real world' instead of some fantasy land. Frankly....I can't wait for them to win and destroy civilization. Just see how much we need these useless pieces of garbage then.
when the shit hits the fan,I'll take the mechanic, the plumber, the carpenter and the quilting pie making ladies over the Ayers of the world anytime. The Ayers and other dreck of society can go begging for a place at the table.
DBQ: The author of the article to which I linked wrote that sentence in sarcasm. He's writing about some trends in modern ed schools, a trend in which Ayers is involved. The author himself is not promoting the trend.
Thank you for the clarification Reader. It is hard to tell the farce from reality anymore.
I would be taking this a lot harder if I didn't have kids -- not that I'm sanguine about the future, because I'm not. But I am more hopeful probably than I have any reason to be, because of my kids and my community. The school my children attend, and the other schools around here, have good solid curriculum. They teach respect for America and our military. There wasn't a dry eye in the house at last year's Veterans' Day assembly. You should see my 6th-grader's science project assignment. There's real learning going on there.
I know there are a lot of bad schools and a lot of bad policy, but there are also a lot of good people out there fighting that trend. For the sake of my own kids I have to hang onto the hope that reason will prevail in the end. (Note that Obama has nothing to do with that hope at all.)
What if there were a foundation that cared about art and music and exclusively funded that? Would you complain about not teaching math and science?
No, because art and music are valuable skills and one could see how schools are missing out.
Math and science are supposed to be core, however, and the system is failing at teaching them. These are civilization-level survival skills. (That is, math and science help the civilization survive, versus say husbandry and agriculture, which are more intimate survival skills as well.)
I find it portentous that we have a society paying big money to a group dedicated to destroying it. But I take solace in the fact that these guys can't teach anything well.
I'd like to see these ideologues try to get along in the 'real world' instead of some fantasy land. Frankly....I can't wait for them to win and destroy civilization. Just see how much we need these useless pieces of garbage then.
What's the second derivative of a parabola?
What is wrong with a foundation that chooses to fund creative proposals for teaching kids to analyze the problems of racism in American history and rejects mundane proposals to drill math and science?
Could this be the first-ever example of a blog author trolling her own blog?
What's the second derivative of a parabola?
Haha, nrn312! OMG, you're just too funny! How easy it was for you to show just how irrelevant math and science really are!
But wait -- I seem to vaguely recall (it has been more than 20 years now) that derivatives are taught in calculus. You know, college-prep and college level material. No worries, though. The kids in the schools targeted by the CAC won't ever have to know about derivatives or other silly, useless ideas because they'll never be able to get into college with the grades they're getting now.
Just don't expect any graduate of those Chicago elementary schools to be able to make proper change without a computerized cash register counting it out for them.
Congressional Quarterly has a new story up fact-checking this Ayers attack and finding it "pants on fire wrong." IOW, a lie.
Key points:
* Ayers “was never on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge,”
* 'Clearly the invitation referred to “a considerable departure from the usual or traditional,” rather than “advocating extreme measures to retain or restore a political state of affairs.”'
* The Board for this effort included many mainline Republicans, including a former Nixon Cabinet member.
* Some of the external partners included in this effort: "the Chicago Symphony, the University of Chicago, Loyola University, Northwestern University, the Chicago Children’s Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance and the Logan Square Neighborhood Association." Yeah, real "radical."
The credibility for the Republican Party is swirling the bowl with its cohorts.
"Heaven forbid that reason, empiricism, and individual merit are emphasized in science."
Their placards at the annual anti-Columbus Day protest will read "The Enlightenment Sucks."
What's depressing to me is not that Obama might win but that so many people buy his BS. The transformation is almost complete. Do we need a dose of socialism every generation to cure ourselves of it?
Hey Alpha:
Thanks for the info on the board. But can you get me what I asked for - a list of the grant reicpients (name and amount)?
I mean Jeez how many times do I have to ask?? You keep giving us stuff we did not ask for!!
What's depressing to me is not that Obama might win but that so many people buy his BS.
Yes, exactly!
This time it's gonna be different
I'm gonna do things my way
Things are gonna be much different this time
The stars will align, the gods will bless us, men will angels become, and the Great Socialist State will put forth an untold bounty of justice and prosperity.
What's the second derivative of a parabola?
I don't do calculus, but that IS a constructive and useful skill. If you can, then you can help us construct a decent telescope mirror among other things.
My work skills are pretty usless in a way. Knowing the sharpe ratio, standard deviation of a portfolio of stocks, the difference between mean and median and mode or the duration of bonds is not all that helpful in a third world economy. (which is what the leftists are aiming for)
I can however, make a great apple pie (the theme of the day).
And if lard is not an option, what's you recommendation?
Also, I'll bet that recipe would work well with the type of apples I brought back from the East Coast: they have a tartness to go with the sweet. We have a lot them, so we're looking at things to make, and my son's interested in learning to make pie.
Alpha, would you like to argue that Bill Ayers had nothing to do with the project? If so, I've got a beautiful link just for you.
Reader. You could use half butter half crisco. The main thing with a lard or butter crust is that the dough be chilled and the water you add very cold. The less you work the crust, the less tough it will be.
The all granny smith apples are just a bit tart and you need to slice the apples really really thin because they will still be firm after cooking if cut too thick. The next time I make it, I'll probably use half granny and half gala apples. I might also throw in some raisins.
So fun to make a pie with your son. Hope he enjoys it. I really loved my time as a 4-H teacher, when my daughter was young, showing the kids how to bake cookies, pies and cakes.
Ann, was that a seriously legitimate question to even ask?
It was a private foundation that had something it wanted to fund to enhance education.
Actually, it was a "challenge grant," so public money was used also.
And why not? It's about time we got beyond science and math and all that other acting-white crap. It's all just an arbitrary social construction of a racist, patriarchal society anyway--that's what kids really need to learn. Reading and writing are just outmoded elitist crap--in Obamamerica everyone will get their income just by swiping their government-issued ID cards--no need to even sign your name.
And what's with the s-word? In Obamamerica everyone will call them wetlands.
Downtownlad,
No one votes twice????????
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/16/nyregion/16jersey.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
C'mon, I come from the place where they may have coined the phrase "vote early and often"
downtownlad said...
And what's wrong with ACORN? The wingnut attempt to smear an organization that gets poor people registered to vote is mind-boggling.
Sure they accidentally register some people twice, or non-existent people are registered, as is bound to happen when you register millions of people, but the number of people that actually end up VOTING more than once is approximately zero.
Right.
Accidentlaay registering the professional football team?
You need to get out of downtown and acquaint yourself with the internet google search feature.
Or get back under the bridge.
For those quoting this: "If you still can’t appreciate why it’s necessary for your child’s chemistry teacher to teach for social justice, you are probably hopelessly wedded to reason, empiricism, individual merit, and other capitalist and post-colonialist deformities" please note that those words are the assessment of the writer, Sol Stern, not of any of the people or plans he proposes to critique. If you're all up in arms over "post-colonialist deformities" then you're fighting a strawman. If you want to be fair, respond to the part he quotes right before adding that interpretive bit of sarcasm.
Oh, sorry. Reader already caught that.
"including a former Nixon Cabinet member."
Is he running for POTUS? If so, he's lost my vote.
Okay, so the part before, is this:
“Science pedagogy framed around social justice concerns can become a medium to transform individuals, schools, communities, the environment, and science itself, in ways that promote equity and social justice. Creating a science education that is transformative implies not only how science is a political activity but also the ways in which students might see and use science and science education in ways transformative of the institutional and interpersonal power structures that play a role in their lives.”
That's not any better than the writer's sarcastic part. And my comment about "mean science" still applies.
Ayers was the education minister for the Weathermen. Obama doled out the funds for his ideas. They're mostly against things in order to just build resentment. How do you find what has value in America doing that?
For downtownlad:
http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2008/10/voter-fraud-you-can-believe-in-every.html
"They turn in 5000 new voter registration forms in Indiana, election officials start checking them and give up after the first 2100 were found to be fraudulent."
Nice, huh.
Isn't this the group Obama gave $800,000 to "get out the vote." (Even if you have to make up the voters.)
For anyone (downtownlad --can you read?) still looking at this thread -- here's more from instapundit this morning:
JIM HOFT: The Complete Guide to ACORN Voter Fraud. "They register dead people, but that's not all." So where's the Department of Justice on this?
UPDATE: Where is the Justice Department? Apparently, not responding to complaints. Advice to The Virginian: It might be better to call or write than to email . . . .
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Nathan Woods emails: "One aspect of the voter registration fraud I haven’t seen addressed is how their tactics are akin to a paper DOS attack. Take my personal situation as an example I moved to a different county in the Atlanta metro area, from Dekalb to Fulton, in the middle of September, which means I was submitting my voter registration/change of address form quite close to the deadline. Now imagine the same scenario in one of these cities in the news. Will there be time for the legitimate voters to get registered when the election boards are so busy with the incredible number of phonies overwhelming the system?"
posted at 07:26 AM by Glenn Reynolds
Some get great currency out of talking about American being an "international thug" -- sounds like Obama's ACORN friends are brushing up on their skills in preparation for their takeover of the mortgage business and voting registation.
BTW -- for those who asked, there is info on the net about CAC recipeints. You'll have to do some digging to get by the non-profit mush words and find out what they actually believe and did (besides lining their pockets).
Google some of the officers of the recipients to get the drift.
One of the goals of CAC was to improve the leadership (?) of the Chicago schools ... give principals better skills(?)
They apparently did not think development of better teaching methods and skills for core subjects (reading, writing, math) in dicey educational systems was worth any of the $150 M.
Kids can't even fill out job applications or health info forms. Now that's a basic tool in the tool box that helps people succeed.
But not worth much at the ballot box. No victimhood there.
"Leadership" in educational theory is code for "left wing advocacy," or as Wolfe put it, "mau-mauing the flak catchers."
DBQ:
the best apples for baking are Jonathan or, if unavailable, Jonagold. Bake up perfectly, with a perfect balance of tart/sweet.
There's no need to degrade math and science proposals as boring drilling and to elevate indoctrination proposals, which I what I would call any proposal that teaches children to view all through a lens of race, as "creative." That's just silly. Where does this anti-math anti-science sentiment come from?
Freeman,
Well, there's 2 different groups. One is comprised of idiotic education majors like those you described. Too lazy and undisciplined to drill their students on the basics. Or too stupid to realize that you can't really know anything without the fundamentals.
The other group is made up of people like Ayers. Educating students isn't the point. Creating humans who hate the "establishment"--and who, above all, will vote (D)--is the point.
If you want to be fair, respond to the part he quotes right before adding that interpretive bit of sarcasm.
Beth, you're a teacher. Doesn't this gross you out?
For that matter, Althouse is a teacher too. Oh well.
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