September 16, 2019

Joe Biden's oddball "record player" sentence is helping him, because it's distracting us from the rest of what he said.

From the transcript (in response to the question "What responsibility do you think that Americans need to take to repair the legacy of slavery in our country?):
I propose that what we take is those very poor schools, the Title I schools, triple the amount of money we spend from 15 to $45 billion a year. Give every single teacher a raise, the equal raise to getting out -- the $60,000 level. Number two, make sure that we bring in to help the teachers deal with the problems that come from home. The problems that come from home, we need -- we have one school psychologist for every 1,500 kids in America today. It's crazy. The teachers are -- I'm married to a teacher. My deceased wife is a teacher. They have every problem coming to them. We have -- make sure that every single child does, in fact, have 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds go to school. School. Not daycare. School. We bring social workers in to homes and parents to help them deal with how to raise their children. It's not want they don't want to help. They don't -- they don't know quite what to do. Play the radio, make sure the television -- excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night, the -- the -- make sure that kids hear words. A kid coming from a very poor school -- a very poor background will hear 4 million words fewer spoken by the time they get there.
First, that word salad ought to cast doubt on the theory that the number of words a pre-schooler hears is what matters. Imagine playing CDs of Biden speeches to your baby to give him a boost in life. I'm thinking quality matters, not just quantity. And doesn't calm quiet benefit the child too? I can't believe that filling the air with chattering recordings is good for the young brain! I'm just going to guess that the studies of child development are looking at caregivers speaking to the child in person and saying words of substance that have to do with understanding the world around him and interacting with people who are looking him in the face.

Second, Biden is supposedly talking the vestiges of slavery, so the parents who "don't know quite what to do" are, unless he's gone totally off topic, black people. He's making them sound dumb and inept! And his solution seems to be to "make sure" to "bring social workers" into their homes "to help them deal with how to raise their children." Is that really his proposal — social workers in homes? Is that really what African Americans want to hear is the way "to repair the legacy of slavery"? White people taking responsibility is done not by intruding on white people but by sending social workers into the homes of black people?

Can we stop talking about the damned "record player" — which is so distractingly funny — and talk about those 2 things?

83 comments:

Dude1394 said...

I would slam the door is possible on any social worker that showed up at my door. Even if it were Biden.

The Bergall said...

Pandering. What a disgusting trait politicians express......................

Original Mike said...

"First, that word salad ought to cast doubt on the theory that the number of words a pre-schooler hears is what matters."

Touché.

rhhardin said...

It makes sense to me, taking into account that normal speech isn't fluent at all. The ear tunes it all away and you don't notice disfluencies, is all.

Biden takes the legacy of slavery that blacks don't get an education, and is listing the standard remedies that have been tried. The parents not helping is one of the theories, all to explain why blacks don't do as well as they should.

So he's perhaps not PC in suggesting that black parents aren't a great influence but he's in the helpful suggestion mode nevertheless.

My own suggestion is teach good character in school. Good character is what makes IQ not matter at all.

Go for moral equivalence rather than IQ equivalence.

rcocean said...

Sorry, can we please stop talking about Slavery. or the "Vestiges of Slavery" or the "Lingering effects of slavery" - That's bullshit. Slavery ended 154 years ago. And we have African Americans who were actually freed before 1865, (15% of AA population were "Free Colored" in 1860) or are immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. If you want to talk about the vestiges of "Jim Crow" - that's makes more sense. At least were only going back 50 years, instead of 150 years.

In any case, Biden is just talking like a liberal democrat. 1) Throw money at the problem by raising teachers salaries 2) Hire an army of social workers to "Help" black families. 3) Push the kids into "schools" at 3 years old. IOW, tell parents: "we're from the Government and we're here to help"." Finally, people are fooling themselves if they think Biden is a "Moderate". He's going to spend like a drunken sailor and do nothing - i repeat nothing - to stop the Dems in Congress from passing crazy Left-wing legislation.

Dave Begley said...

Biden is a racist. And, yes, he is calling for social workers to instruct Blacks on how to raise their children.

Biden is such an idiot, he doesn't know how stupid he is.

Roger Sweeny said...

Steve Sailer said something similar three days ago. He also pointed out that this was a very respectable opinion only seven years ago (and gave various references to the NYT and Atlantic). Being Steve Sailer, the post is acerbic, and includes:

"The funny thing is that everybody assumes poor old Joe is going senile and can’t remember anything, but the reality is that Joe remembers the conventional wisdom of just before the Great Awokening just fine, while his critics are baffled by his references. ... They’ve completely forgotten what they no doubt assumed was true in 2012."

rcocean said...

Your comment about a baby hearing biden speeches was hilarious. I'm still trying to figure this out:

"The teachers are -- I'm married to a teacher. My deceased wife is a teacher. They have every problem coming to them."

Sorry Joe, I don't think your dead wife has ANY problems coming to her. Why would you bring up your dead wife, in any case?




Mike Sylwester said...

to repair a legacy

What does that phrase mean?

A legacy is not some damage that is repaired.

stever said...

I'm glad his deceased wife is a school teacher. I bet she doesn't complain about the low pay.

Sebastian said...

"I'm just going to guess that the studies of child development are looking at caregivers speaking to the child in person and saying words of substance"

Well, it seems number matters. But as far as I know, the relevant studies don't control for IQ.

Anyway, Biden is the moderate Dem: paternalistic social workers are a modest intrusion compared to we-gotta-take-your-kids progressivism--aimed not just at the black community, of course, but at the "inequality" created by the sheer outrage of parents raising their own children.

Bob Boyd said...

Biden: "...excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night"

Aide (whispers): "People don't have record players anymore."

Biden: "It's outrageous in the richest country in the world people don't have record players. If people don't have record players in their homes there's no reason why the government shouldn't help them buy record players. They aren't that expensive. In the mean time, the social worker could loan them their own record player. I never knew a social worker who didn't have a record player. Remember those Cheech and Chong records? Earache my eye! Remember that? That was so funny. I bet I still have that record somewhere. Kids should be listening to Cheech and Chong. It works. It just works. So why aren't we doing it?"

Sarah from VA said...

There’s this ridiculous bit, too: “have 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds go to school. School. Not daycare. School.” A 3-year-old child DOES NOT need school. I’m not even convinced a 5-year-old does. I remember reading in Anne of Green Gables Mariel’s exclaiming that it was a shame for any child younger than seven to have to go to school all day and as I’ve sent my kids off to school I’m more and more inclined to agree. Seven is about when they start to actually benefit from school and are more able emotionally to handle all its challenges.

A 3-year-old doesn’t need school. She needs a caregiver she knows and trusts, some rules she has to follow and plenty of time to play and explore and talk and drive her caregiver a little crazy. You can do a little enrichment, a little number play and some letter games, and call it school if you like, but it’s not going to drastically change outcomes for you.

John Althouse Cohen said...

That research about the number of words children hear has been called into question. A 2019 study couldn't replicate the classic study on this, and "[s]ome children from lower-income families even had an advantage."

traditionalguy said...

Biden is of white racist thoughts, by white racist thoughts, and for white racist thoughts. He is still a Southern Democrat circa 1960. But we are supposed to think he feels our pain about white racism. He is a loving and caring white racist. No wonder the Dems consider him most electable.

Nonapod said...

We bring social workers in to homes and parents to help them deal with how to raise their children.

Good lord. I'm surprised he didn't just straight up propose that all fatherless homes get assigned a government worker to act as a surrogate paternal figure who all follow strict committee approved protocols for all the interactions with their charges.

And "word salad" is definitely the correct descriptor here. This rambling collection of partial ideas makes some of Trump's quotes seem Churchillian.

Sarah from VA said...

Marilla, not Mariel. My reading comprehension is much better than my editing skills imply. (I blame autocorrect.)

eric said...

I think Biden himself is the distraction.

If you believe, as I do, that the polls aren't meant to reflect what we believe but rather, are meant to influence what we believe, then there is no reason to believe that Biden is actually leading in the polls.

Also, if you've paid any attention at all to the Democrat party over the last 6 years or so, their base hates straight, white, males.

Putting those two things together, Biden has zero point zero chance of winning the primary.

Same goes for Bernie.

Limited blogger said...

I heard that 'word salad' live, and was confused.

Seeing the transcript makes it worse.

I assume Biden's lead in the polls has increased.

henry said...

Biden wants to reward failure (by giving teachers a raise)? Thatr's a great way to get enhanced failure.

Look at schools in Madison or Milwaukee.

Jupiter said...

"Is that really his proposal — social workers in homes?"

Althouse, why does this surprise you? Of course that is really his proposal. He believes that Government intervention is the solution to anything that Government deems a problem. Put a Siri in every kid's house to feed them little homilies about President Biden. And while she's there, she can find out where they stash the guns.

Whenever I receive a communication from the government, which is a lot more often than I'd like, I notice that if it offers me something of value, as it frequently does, it also contains an explicit threat. The Government sincerely wants to help you, but it may need to take your stuff away and put you in jail to do so.

Anonymous said...

If you bothered to read "trashy", "right-wing" sites, where progressive educational "solutions" have been analyzed and critiqued for years, you'd know that there was nothing unusual about the content of Biden's crazy-talk, and nothing remarkable or unprecedented in the attitude toward the "disadvantaged" that he displays.

And to be fair to Biden, as a good liberal he shouldn't be expected to produce anything but "word salad" when delivering the party line on this subject. Progressive educational thinking is every bit as unsound and incoherent as Biden's speech.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

"What responsibility do you think that Americans need to take to repair the legacy of slavery in our country?

Does Americans ONLY equate to white people?

Are not Black, Chinese, Mexican, Japanese people not Americans? When do they become Americans?

How many generations do you have to have born in the United States before you become "American"?

Why do "White People" who have never had anything whatsoever to do with the "legacy of Slavery" bear any responsibility to repairing something that they have no culpability for?

Why can't Black people who have never been slaves or not descended from slaves bear some burden of "repairing" the legacy of slavery.

When the FUCK is this ever going to end?

Michael K said...

It takes a village to screw up a child.

Social workers have had a full employment economy since 1965.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

As to the number of words that children hear. I think it is more important that they hear those words spoken by the people in their lives and not the TV, or babbling media in the background.

Speak TO your children. Talk TO your children. Let them talk to you.

Reading storybooks and discussing the story is the best way to get words into the brains of your children. They learn from the stories and learn new words.

The interaction between parents, siblings, and the smallest children is more important that impersonal media or music.

It isn't the number of the words. It is the QUALITY of the words and the QUALITY of the time spent communicating with each other.

Mike Sylwester said...

What is the present damage of slavery, which ended in the USA more than 150 years ago?

There seems to be an idea that the damage includes African-Americans' inequality in education, employment, wealth, imprisonment, and so forth.

However, at least some of that inequality seems to be caused by the lesser intelligence of African-Americans. As a race in the USA, they score significantly lower on IQ tests.

That lower-intelligence factor in that inequality will not be ameliorated by constantly provoking eternal resentment and guilt about that slavery.

Biden is right to shift the focus from long-ago slavery to current education. African-Americans need to take full advantage of their educational opportunities. They need to study diligently and effectively.

Bay Area Guy said...

By creating blue collar jobs, and by lowering the black unemployment rate to a record low of 5.9%, President Trump has truly become our first black President.

Private sector job growth is the best way for blacks to escape poverty. Also, marrying the women they impregnate and raising kids with a Mom and Dad would help a lot too.

Curious George said...

"He's making them sound dumb and inept!"

Oh come on Althouse, this is exactly how most on the left view minorities. They're too stupid to even figure out how to be able to vote much less parent

Ken B said...

And, er, the elephant in that answer: yet more money for the Democrats' largest lobby group, teachers? That seems worth talking about. That’s the first thing he suggests.

mccullough said...

I love Biden’s answer. It was hilarious.

I hope he wins the nomination. Between Biden and Trump, a couple of septuagenarian white guys, The Woke will implode.

gahrie said...

Is that really his proposal — social workers in homes?


What is your solution to the destruction of Black families? I'll give Biden some credit here..he's not denying the problem exists as most Leftys do, and is proposing some sort of solution.

traditionalguy said...

If we were being honest, the reparations owed to slave descendants is a token not already repaid many times. While the reparations owed to Native Americans is so immense that it cannot be repaid . So they must remain invisible POWs.

barry's blog said...

This all reminds me of the line from Chris Rock:
That’s right. I’m telling my cousin, ”Tina, talk to your fucking kid. ”Talk to him, teach him some shit. ”If you said more words to him than, ‘Mommy be back’… ”he might know something.”

Gospace said...

Democrats are, and have always been the party that advocates group rights, rights not in our Constitution. If you advocate group rights you are a racist, period. Or equivalent word for non-biological people groupings.

Republicans since their founding have been the part of individual rights.

Dedication to group rights inevitably leads to civil war as the demagogues in the various groups rise to power. Or extermination of unfavored groups, such as News in Germany, kulaks in Russia, "intellectuals" in Cambodia, non-Communists identified as enemies of the state in every Communist country, non-muslims in every area ruled by sharia.

The Democratic Party is racist now, was racist April 12, 1861 when they shelled Fort Sumter to start the Civil War, racist when they rounded up Americans of Japanese descent and threw them into concentration camps, et cetera and so on and so forth.

Somehow intellectuals have convinced themselves that judging people as individuals is racist. There are some ideas so stupid only the highly educated can believe them.

rehajm said...

Seeing the transcript makes it worse.

I assume Biden's lead in the polls has increased.


Ha. My thought, too. A word salad that appeals directly to emotion, bypassing any coherent thought- and it works. Plays right inot rhhardin's shtick...

I'm waiting for one of the candidates to not even bother masking it. Just say blah blah blah outrage blah blah blah triple salaries blah blah blah free.

LA_Bob said...

"First, that word salad ought to cast doubt on the theory that the number of words a pre-schooler hears is what matters."

Not that I've read every line Althouse has ever written, but that line has to be up there with the best of them.

Fernandinande said...

You can't spell "Socialist Workers Party" without "social worker".

Anonymous said...

DBQ: When the FUCK is this ever going to end?

When the white people who support, promote, and think to benefit by this bullshit are marginalized in politics, media, and academia.

This bullshit didn't originate with all those mediocre grievance-studies mouthpieces you see on tee-vee or in opinion journals, and its continued existence doesn't depend on them. The problem has been that a lot of white citizens who should know better have been going along with crazy prog whites and their bullshit for a long time now. Not that they weren't warned by clearer-sighted people, that continuing to concede to every turn in the "anti-racism" ratchet would inevitably lead to a disastrous state of affairs - but nooooooooooo, the important thing was always getting their "I'm not racist" cred out there. And here we are.

This bullshit would stop right now if whites in general gave it the "absolutely not on, so fuck off" it deserves, instead of continuing to treat it with seriousness and respect.

J L Oliver said...

Dust Bunny hits it out of the park:

As to the number of words that children hear. I think it is more important that they hear those words spoken by the people in their lives and not the TV, or babbling media in the background. Speak TO your children. Talk TO your children. Let them talk to you. Reading storybooks and discussing the story is the best way to get words into the brains of your children. They learn from the stories and learn new words.The interaction between parents, siblings, and the smallest children is more important that impersonal media or music. It isn't the number of the words. It is the QUALITY of the words and the QUALITY of the time spent communicating with each other.

As a developmental researcher, all research points to the above. Ambient language really isn't a factor.

Meade said...

From the article to which John Althouse Cohen, at 10:36 AM, links:

Through those programs, "health and child development specialists make consistent, scheduled visits to help parents through the critical early stage of parenting," Biden's plan says. "Families may receive coaching on preventive health and prenatal practices, learn how to care for their babies and about important child development milestones and behaviors, receive breastfeeding support, get connected to employment and child care, and receive general support in navigating the often-stressful early stages of parenthood."

Great opportunity for faith-based and other organizations to get involved.

Gospace said...

I've been commenting the last few days using a Kindle with touchpad. I proofread my last.comment before posting and changes were randomly inserted. I hate touchpads.

Fernandinande said...

What, exactly, is the legacy of slavery?

rcocean said...

” A 3-year-old child DOES NOT need school. I’m not even convinced a 5-year-old does."

Yes. I'm extremely skeptical about schooling kids before the age of 6 or even 7. I tried to convince my wife that we should hold our daughter back a year. She said Girls were different, they're more advanced than boys when young, and love all the socializing, etc. And she's probably right - and my sister agreed. Maybe its just the boys that should be held back till six or seven. It takes them awhile to get warmed up and into organized learning.

Meade said...

“What, exactly, is the legacy of slavery?”

Illegal immigration.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

It takes a politburo to raise a child.

Actually, I'm convinced that no child needs school. Raise your own children. Or raise your own damn children. Different emphasis, same message.

Children need to be raised and educated by their parents. When they're old enough, or rather, smart enough, they can go to college, or they can actually learn how to do something, if they're capable.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Original Mike tells My mother tells the story that I talked very little when I was very young. My father, especially, was worried about me. Then one day he came home to find me playing with blocks on the floor. "What are you doing?", he asked. "I'm constructing bridges of various sizes" was my response. My father stopped worrying.

My brother didn't really speak until he was almost 3 yrs old. (mid 1950's) We knew he wasn't deaf. He would respond to us. Could sing ALL the verses of Davy Crockett (his obsession) and has perfect pitch. Yes. Perfect and relative pitch. He could read at 2 1/2 hrs. He would pick out the shows he wanted to watch in the TV Guide or newspaper and could point to words in the newspaper when prompted.

Other than not speaking sentences and gesturing to get his way....he was normally developing.

The doctor at that time just said. "Don't worry about it. When he has something to say....he will tell you." And he did shortly after that. Today, he would be drugged into a zombie state or psychoanalyzed to death.

Brother ended up being a systems analyst and programmer for Ames Research for NASA on the early Mars program and eventually at several private companies in dot.com land....developed much of the programming that is the basis for you use today to keep your financial and personal data secure.

Some people's brains just operate in different ways. Chill out people :-D

Mike Sylwester said...

African-Americans need to study the educational basics -- spelling, vocabulary, grammar, composition, arithmetic, general science, world history and American history.

Education is free through high school. African-Americans who master a high-school education can obtain financial support to continue into higher education.

Those who squander their educational opportunities probably will suffer social and employment disadvantages for the remainders of their lives.

--------

What portion of African-American high-school students read their textbooks?*

The textbooks are issued to them for free. Classes end by 4 p.m. The students have plenty of free time during the evenings and weekends to read their textbooks.

Instead, they spend their free time goofing off, bullshitting and listening to rap music.

-----

* Yes, I recognize that a large portion of White high-school students likewise do no read their textbooks.

iowan2 said...

Great opportunity for faith-based and other organizations to get involved.

Yes, local churches of been negligent in their mission. I worked for 5 years in a community that was very church centered. Iowa locals might be aware of the Dutch Reform Church and the communities they serve. They have taken hold of day care and pre school thru maybe 3rd grade. That is made hard by...yep... government regulation.

doctrev said...

It might sound like word salad, but each sentence taken in isolation speaks to a concept. If you hear them without thinking hard about it- or, more likely, you're distracted by a phone, computer, or something far more interesting- Joe Biden sounds Serious, and his advice is Serious. Children in school at 3 years old is cringeworthy, particularly when you consider successful families sending their children into urban hellholes. But for some black children? It's a sight better than what they put up with at home. The honest answer is "no amount of money will make these children into productive adults, and we don't have enough money to make Americans of any color care about that beyond standard virtue signaling."

Anyways, people asking us to take Joe Biden seriously are themselves obviously not serious people, so I'll move on to the only serious questions I've read in this section: when is this going to end, Dust Bunny Queen? What is my solution to the destruction of black families, gahrie? Simple: take every drug addict and criminal welfare leech, and send them to Africa, along with anyone in their families who protests. Tennessee Coates and every white liberal who takes him seriously will follow. Make them plantation labor, tribal warlords, or crocodile food: I do not care, it's Africa's problem. You'll see a meteoric rise, not just in American standards of living, but African-American standards of living. Even the expelled population might improve, but I stress that I don't care if they do.

Michael K said...

It isn't the number of the words. It is the QUALITY of the words and the QUALITY of the time spent communicating with each other.

The premise of "Childrens' TV" and Head Start is that seeing stuff on TV or in class will make kids smarter and it HAS NOT WORKED.

We have 50- years' experience.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Char Char Binks
Actually, I'm convinced that no child needs school. Raise your own children. Or raise your own damn children. Different emphasis, same message.

Children need to be raised and educated by their parents.


While I agree in principle and theory, the reality of this would guarantee Idiocracy.

Raising your children and instilling your values IS absolutely the province of the Parents. However, leaving them to be educated would create a horribly uneven and lopsided society.

I mean. Look at the uneducated, ill informed, morons that the school system is already producing. Many parents are not educated enough to give their children a rounded education in History, Reading, Writing, Grammar, Literature, Math, Science and other subjects necessary to navigate a technological and connected world. We aren't an agrarian society any more.

It isn't the Parent's fault. They too have been POORLY educated.

Home schooling is a good idea. However, again....most parents neither have the time or capability. Some parents also will purposely not give their children a complete education and/or will be just as bad in partisan or religious indoctrination as our schools are today.

Leaving education to the parents would create a system of those who were lucky enough to have parents who are educated and capable (not the majority of the population) and the remainder of those who have the UNLUCKY draw of perhaps well meaning parents who just cannot provide a formal education.

Yancey Ward said...

I was less troubled by the rest of that section- I think Biden was mostly correct about where the problem lies- it is the parents. That this is controversial today is what is disturbing. I don't think Biden's prescriptions have a chance in Hell of working- social workers and higher teach pay aren't going to change a damned thing, and that is where the criticisms should be leveled- we have tried all of those, and they don't work.

Here is the hard truth- you need two parent homes- that is the necessary ingredient. I think it basically true that if a kid isn't up to grade and fully socialized by the age of 10-12, they never will be.

Gk1 said...

"Helping"? In what way? Like picking your nose while making a tasteless joke kind of helping? We are just too distracted by the nose picking to concentrate on what is being said? Hardly. It's like an old man reminding everyone how out of touch they are by describing how hamburgers used to cost a nickel and tasted better than anything you can get at Five Guys.

Kay said...

All the Joe hatred makes me kind of like him in a weird way. Most likely I would never vote for him, but I can imagine one scenario in which I would.

Gospace said...

I have a very extensive family tree. With distant black cousins from white ancestral cousins who has children with blacks. Many from one ancestral cousin who had children with slaves, and one who openly lived with and had children immediately post civil war with his former housekeeper after his wife died. Couldn't get married - it was against the law due to Democrats. I find among my distant black cousins a Tuskegee Airman and more recently, a few doctors. But I find more recently that the child my successful distant black cousins aren't doing as well as their parents, pretty much across the board. Among my distant white cousins, those who haven't become involved with drive all seem to be doing as well or better than their parents.

I don't see how a generational performance decline can be blamed on systemic racism. I can see that there are a lot more single mothers among recent black distant relatives than white. And that the children of the single mothers of both black and white distant relatives appear to be the ones not being successful in life. Hmmmm... Wonder if there could be a relationship.

Fernandinande said...

"Metric Skills Among The Economically Disadvantaged"

Laughing Fox said...

Meade: Great opportunity for faith-based and other organizations to get involved.

It is indeed a great opportunity. But the left has for many years now been broadcasting how foolish and superstitious, and possibly manipulative and larcenous church leaders are. Black churches were the pillars of their communities. The left played a part in tearing them down.

Laughing Fox said...

It's not the number of words. It is words in context, explaining the world to the child, helping the child develop areas in which he understands what is being talked about (or what he is reading about) and can add the new information to it. Currently, Sesame Street and early years of school include very little explanation of the world. They concentrate on nice feelings and on the technicalities of numbers and letters. Knowing about the world--whcih includes knowing what a lot of words mean--makes it much easier for a student to learn to read and to learn more from reading.

Wince said...

Yeah, but in Biden's defense, they are edgy Richard Pryor records!

Rory said...

There's a Dick van Dyke episode from the early 60s that has an "underpaid teahcers" joke in it. Clear from the context that it was an established cliche then.

"He could read at 2 1/2 hrs."

That's astonishing.

Ralph L said...

Doesn't the chattering class know that black single mothers were the vanguard of the Return to Vinyl?

Ralph L said...

Around here, a big justification for raising teacher pay used to be to attract better teachers. Now it's that our salaries are lower than other states. Guess the unions didn't like the obvious conclusion of the first one.

PM said...

He meant to say Victrola.

dbp said...

"According to our 100% employer reported salary sources the median salary for a Title 1 Teacher with a Bachelor's Degree is $54,198 - $58,438."

FullMoon said...

If a five year olds that can read and write are put in public school kindergarten class they will not progress until the rest of the class catches up with them.

The head start they have becomes sit still and wait.


Most teachers are performing to their abilities. Giving them a raise does not make them more intelligent or more capable.

Was at a home daycare when social worker made a scheduled visit. She said children don't lie and that any child that does not look her (a stranger) in the eye has been abused. Guess she read that in a book or learned it in social worker school.

All ignorant and/or poor black people are not crack whores or criminals and many would welcome some non financial help.


"Waiting for Superman" documentary streaming free with Amazon Prime is an eye opener. Poor people enter lottery where prize is enrollment of child in a decent school. Teachers unionists fight it and brainwash many of the ignorant moms to be against it.

Very sad to see families with high hopes crushed when their number is not picked and the kid has to go to regular public school.

FullMoon said...

This also free with Prime. I may have conflated this and the other..


"The Lottery" is a feature length documentary that explores the struggles and dreams of four families from Harlem and The Bronx in the months leading up to the lottery for Harlem Success Academy, one of the most successful charter schools in New York. The four families cast their lots in a high stakes draw, where only a small minority of children emerge with a chance at a better future.

wildswan said...

You could say that when Joe Biden was asked what white people could do about the legacy of slavery that he said: Stop trying to make teachers solve society's problems. The problems start in the home. Black parents aren't raising their children in the way that makes for success in the middle class, i.e., speaking constantly to them. Send in social workers to show them how, tell them to have something better on than the TV.

Clarity isn't always a good thing.

sinz52 said...

"this was a very respectable opinion"

Except that any five-year-old kid in 2019 is going to ask his parents,
"What's a record player?"

doctrev said...

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Leaving education to the parents would create a system of those who were lucky enough to have parents who are educated and capable (not the majority of the population) and the remainder of those who have the UNLUCKY draw of perhaps well meaning parents who just cannot provide a formal education.

9/16/19, 12:05 PM

While this is true, right now they're not just being denied a formal education at taxpayer expense, they're being steeped in a malignant ideology designed to rip apart America. Under those circumstances, outsourcing schooling to Khan Academy would be much more useful than anything else we're likely to do.

JaimeRoberto said...

If one of the candidates had just said "Slavery ended 150 years ago. Get over it." I would consider changing my vote.

FullMoon said...

"What's a record player?"
-------------

"Continuing one of the more surprising comebacks of the digital age, vinyl album sales in the United States have grown for the 13th consecutive year. In 2018, 16.8 million LPs were sold in the United States, up 14.6 percent compared to 2017 when accounting for the fact that Nielsen’s 2018 tracking period ran 53 weeks from Dec. 29, 2017 through Jan. 3, 2019.

So how big is vinyl's comeback really? Should we all dust off our old record players to prepare for the future of music? According to Nielsen’s 2018 music report, LPs accounted for 12 percent of album sales in the United States, which is quite substantial. Factoring in streaming and downloads of single tracks, however, that number drops to 2.7 percent of album equivalent music consumption, which puts things in perspective.

However small the impact of rising LP sales on the music industry’s bottom line may be, it’s still interesting to witness a hundred year-old technology come back from near extinction. Here's to hoping we don't need to dust off our old VHS tapes for the future of video consumption.

https://www.statista.com/chart/7699/lp-sales-in-the-united-states/

Bay Area Guy said...

Tough Joe Biden -- stands up to Delaware gang-leader, "Corn Pop" at public pool circa 1962.. Then, defuses the dicey situation by apologizing and befriend, Corn Pop.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

"He could read at 2 1/2 hrs."

LOL Rory. I meant 2 1/2 yrs. It really would be astonishing the other way.

Seriously....what would help poor and broken families, not immediately but in the future ....would be to make mandatory classes in public school that covered basic living skills.

Things like. Budgeting, cooking, economics of borrowing and credit, household maintenance, and even child care/rearing as the children are older (in jr and high school ages). Things your parents should have learned, but didn't learn. Things that help you be a fully functioning adult who is capable of raising future children. Even if you don't have children, you will be able to function in life.

If not in public school, then those classes being taught by charitable institutions, churches,YMCA/YWCA, clubs like 4-H etc.

You can't entirely blame parents for not teaching what they have never learned.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Full Moon said: If a five year olds that can read and write are put in public school kindergarten class they will not progress until the rest of the class catches up with them.

This is sadly true. Currently it is not PC to acknowledge that some students are more advanced (I don't want to say smarter) than the norm and that those students should be getting work on the level that would challenge them. Instead they sit and stew for a few years, learning nothing and being bored out of their gourds.

Back to my brother. Back in the olden days. He was bored to death in kindergarten and made a big nuisance of himself. They tested him and decided that he should be "skipped" ahead so instead of going into 1st grade, they placed him in 3rd grade. He was 5 yrs old. Then skipped him again another year. They did that skipping thing back in the day.

So, yes the work was more or less at his level, but socially, he suffered. Graduated from high school at 15 and tried to go to college at 15 yrs old. That didn't work out because he had to have his Mommy drive him to school and sit with a bunch of returning Vietnam Vets in the classroom.

What to do? Waste the potential of the 'gifted' for political correctness? Equalize everyone to the lowest common denominator? Create a 'tracked' program for the students as we had in the 60's. College prep/GE/Vocational Ed/etc? Allow students to progress at their own pace....and to receive the supplemental help that they need to catch up?

Do we even have the ability, infrastructure at the schools, the qualified teachers, the money, the WILL to do this?

It is a quandary.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

doctrev :"
While this is true, right now they're not just being denied a formal education at taxpayer expense, they're being steeped in a malignant ideology designed to rip apart America. Under those circumstances, outsourcing schooling to Khan Academy would be much more useful than anything else we're likely to do.


100% agreed. I believe that I briefly touched on that. The agenda in public school education is malignant and pervasive. Also the agenda of some parents which is religiously or ideologically motivated can be just as destructive.

iowan2 said...

The most important part of the discussion has yet to be mentioned

Why is the federal govt involved in any shape, manner or form in education?

LBJ promised in his Inaugural speech, IIRC that he was going to see to it the United States was going to lead the world in education. Despite the fact that at the time, the United States did lead the world in education. The federal involvement started to degrade educational excellence at that very moment and has yet to find the bottom. Performance will continue to slide until the people take back their responsibility.

Gojuplyr831@gmail.com said...

Better Biden answer "Dems should try to undo the damage to black families that Dems have caused."

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Presumably the Democrats would do what they always do, which is to follow California's lead. California is where all loony left agendas are born. In California they just passed a law which Governor Newsom signed, banning punishment of students for defying persons of authority, including teachers. You can spend $45 billion if you want, Joe, but it will go straight into the shitter when every classroom is a chaotic hell.

Meade said...

More legacy of slavery: https://youtu.be/d2FSPdgEguk

tcrosse said...

To the Victrola go the spoils.

eddie willers said...

"Don't worry about it. When he has something to say....he will tell you."

Reminds me of one of my favorite jokes:

Johnny had never said a word when suddenly, at age eleven, while sitting down for evening supper with his family, he looks up and says, "This biscuit tastes like shit!"

Of course everyone was amazed and said, "You can talk! How wonderful. Why didn't you speak before?"

"Well, up until now everything's been okay".

wildswan said...

In Milwaukee students can apply to other public schools in the Milwaukee district and if accepted, they will be bused there. There are thousands doing this. Then there are charter schools. After that, there are Catholic and other denominational schools. ["Under Wisconsin's regrettable expansion of school vouchers, Christian schools were the only winners, and more than 80% are Catholic. ... Milwaukee's voucher program started with 341 students in 1990 and now has nearly 25,000 students"] Then there is home schooling. So there are alternatives to sending kids to the local public school if it is awful. There are these ways (out of district transfers, charter schools, vouchers, home schooling) to get large numbers of students away from the failing schools. (In some schools 8 per cent are proficient in reading at grade level.)

But no reform is possible in the schools as long as the Dems control the big cities, and the teachers unions control the Dems. In fact, things will get worse. Wisconsin schools have had enrollment decline by 11% in the last ten years and they got $650 million more in the last budget and still achievement scores declined as they have for the last four years, Milwaukee leading the way. The present Governor, Evers, was in charge of Wisconsin education for the last ten years and with him as Governor we can expect Milwaukee-Madison to double down on failure. So save the kids from the school-to-ignorance pipeline by helping them escape one way or another, one kid at a time.

John henry said...

Don't most teachers already make $60m per year? At least those with 5-10 years experience.

And for working 190-200days per year about 6 hour a day.

1200 hours a year vs the 2000 or more most full-time workers do.

(oh, but they work a lot at home, someone will say. Bullshit. In most cases most of the time.)

When teachers leave teaching, do they earn more or less? Adjusted for hours.

Most teachers have no special skills beyond presenting a pre-packaged lecture that translate into marketable non-teaching skills. Most don't even have subject matter knowledge beyond what they teach.

That's a broad generalization of course with lots of exceptions. True of most teachers, though.

More money will do nothing to improve the teaching. (except in my wife's case, of course.)

John Henry