Why shouldn't parents have the choice to place their children in either a 1619 or a 1776 school? Is one more truly history than the other? I doubt it. It does seem unfair to the children to feed them propaganda — either way — but if the only choices are propaganda, why not let the parents decide which form of inculcation they want? Vote with your children.
"It talks about the enormity of slavery, but in almost every case, everything that’s bad about America will be undone by what is good. Almost, literally, that American ideals will overcome whatever evils may be there." That reminds me of something I read earlier this morning:It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realize them!
Written by a child.
It's optimism. Given the choice to teach one's child optimism or pessimism, who would choose pessimism?!
Posts
95 comments:
"'Almost, literally, that American ideals will overcome whatever evils may be there.'"
So? What's the problem?
Of course, if Wilentz wants to argue that the evils of current progressivism can't be overcome so easily since the ideals themselves have been devalued and denied, he'd have a point worth listening to.
Sounds great.
About time somebody pushed back on the commies in education...
Goose gander.
Soviets like to remove choice.
"'It talks about the enormity of slavery, but in almost every case, everything that’s bad about America will be undone by what is good,' Dr. Wilentz said. 'Almost, literally, that American ideals will overcome whatever evils may be there."
We had a liberal pastor visit our bible study, telling us how evil America was. My lovely bride set him straight. Yes America's past has not been totally glorious, but God has blessed this country to such a degree that we can share our abundance with countries less blessed. Who shows up first when there is an earthquake, tsunami or other natural disaster overseas? Egypt? Brazil? Cuba? North Korea?
OTOH, it appears the blessing of the US is not forever. Gee, I wonder why.
Yeah..."overly positive" and focusing on the historical forces that have driven America, for good and otherwise, is just as bad as "1619" driven history, which looks at American through shit-smeared lenses, finding NOTHING good about it, denying the precepts of its Founding Documents, and fostering seething resentment and grievance.
Yeah...no difference!!!
SNORT
As they won't be taking kids with disabilities or learning issues, they act as private schools and aren't truly open for all.
Pretty good scam, pretending to be public schools and yet not really opening your doors to all.
Heavens!!
They believe in the same principles as the founders of our nation!
They allow students to read books that question THE NEW DEAL!!!
HERESY!!!
Lefty Mark ignores the fact that many private schools exist specifically to educate handicapped children. Black children have always done better in Catholic schools, for example. Public schools are approaching child abuse.
Is one more truly history than the other? I doubt it. It does seem unfair to the children to feed them propaganda — either way — but if the only choices are propaganda, why not let the parents decide which form of inculcation they want? Vote with your children.
Ann went to as much school as she could and this is what you get.
It is a ringing condemnation of our current history education system someone could say something like this with a straight face.
To be fair to our education system Ann chooses to be ignorant.
Mark said...
As they won't be taking kids with disabilities or learning issues, they act as private schools and aren't truly open for all.
Pretty good scam, pretending to be public schools and yet not really opening your doors to all.
The kids with disabilities and their parents will choose these schools 99% of the time over the public schools 99% of the time given a chance.
Leftists want to pretend the public schools do anything for kids with disabilities. The teachers in those classes spend 80% of their time doing paperwork.
Talk to a few and you might learn something.
Another hand grenade tossed by a lefty. That would be our dear friend and fellow commenter Mark. Care to provide a link for your smear?
As usual, Mark is full of shit, offering the canard that conservatives are heartless:
https://www.hillsdale.edu/campus-life/volunteer/special-education-assistance/
As for Hillsdale being a private school, and thus not open to all: is Harvard open to all? Is Yale open to all?
Where does Hilldale, which takes NO public funding, pretend it is a public school?
"Pretty good scam, pretending to be public schools and yet not really opening your doors to all."
Mark, are you an idiot without comprehension of simple distinctions, or is it just convenient to pretend to be one?
Charter schools aren't public schools, that is why they're called charter schools -- privately owned, staffed, and administered educational establishments that receive public monies under stipulated conditions of operation.
Do you understand? If so, Quaestor will be happy to help you with other difficult concepts, such as what your toes do if given roast beef or none.
Ah Mark with his "pretty good scam"--not public since not open to all with disabilities or learning issues.
I spent more than 30 years serving on a civil service commission for my local K-12 school district--in a large Los Angeles suburb. Over the years the average full time enrollment in the district was as high as 32,000 students and as low as 18,000 students.
Kids who were "challenged" or "differently abled"--wash your mouth out there Mark when you say "handicapped" had their own campus. The effort was made to mainstream them in the various "regular" campuses in the district. But some were just not able. The same went for those with learning or discipline problems. I'd warrant that nearly every "public" school district in the country has a "continuation high school" for students with discipline problems.
So yes they are "public" school districts--but that doesn't mean that all the students in those "public" schools are shoe horned into a one size fits all classroom.
As for parents preferring one sort of school curriculum--whether it's history or sexual training and "grooming" over another? In the vast majority of intact families, you can bet your sweet bippy that the parents care more about their school aged kids than even the most saintly public school administration. I'll spot you the large cohort of teachers who genuinely care about their students--but an even larger cohort who don't. And as for school administrators? I've seen a lot of them and most are simple careerists more interested in themselves and their careers than the students in the district. Been there--seen that.
As usual, Mark is full of shit, offering the canard that conservatives are heartless..."
Mark's comments would need to quack more credibly to rise to canard standards.
Achilles said...
Is one more truly history than the other? I doubt it. It does seem unfair to the children to feed them propaganda — either way — but if the only choices are propaganda, why not let the parents decide which form of inculcation they want? Vote with your children.
****
Ann went to as much school as she could and this is what you get.
It is a ringing condemnation of our current history education system someone could say something like this with a straight face.
To be fair to our education system Ann chooses to be ignorant.
**************
Amen.
If Miss Ann is so self-professedly cynical about whether the traditional version of American history is anything other than propaganda, then she committed downright intellectual fraud when she offered analysis of cases based on that history.
It seems that the Perfesser has drunk deep of the CRT kool-aid.
Rebecca West, in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, about Yugoslavia, has pages and pages of discussion about history and its effect on the present. At one point, she writes:
"What would the United States be like if it had not those reservoirs of trimphant will-power, the historical facts of the War of Independence, of the giant American statesmen, of of the pioneering progress into the West, whcih every American citizen has at his mental command and into which he can plunge for revivification at any minute."
This truth about the capacity of history to inspire and instruct and guide seems very much to be a thing of the past.
"Lefty Mark ignores the fact that many private schools exist specifically to educate handicapped children. Black children have always done better in Catholic schools, for example."
Black children are an example of what kind of handicap, Mike?
Just repeating your words back to you.
" 'Almost, literally, that American ideals will overcome whatever evils may be there.' "
Once upon a time (as the expression goes) the essential American story, as told by a couple of Jewish boys, went something like this:
As a decadent world destroys itself, wise and loving parents who cannot escape that catastrope themselves manage, almost miraculously, to send their infant son to America. That child is welcomed and nourished and loved. He discovers that in the light and opportunity of his new world, he's grown strong. He dedicates himself to a mission, a never-ending battle to help others, to oppose evil, and support Truth, Justice, and the AMERICAN WAY. (As, it might be emphasized, an everyday journalist. Oh yeah once in a while he punches giant gorillas and breaks the ray guns of mad scientists and catches falling helicopters. As long as he can, he does. But MOST of the time, and from the very first episodes of his 90 year long story, he investigates and proves and exposes greedy business owners and grifting politicians and spies in government offices ... and he has to hustle his super-damned-ASS off in order to get the story before a cuter, younger, slightly more fool-hardy competitive reporter named Lois "scoops" him. )
This nation would be a much better place if journalists as a profession would re-dedicate themselves to that never-ending battle. The American Way.
Of course, the younger generation is frankly embarrassed to embrace their father's ideal...
Dumb Lefty Mark: "Black children are an example of what kind of handicap, Mike?"
A very large percentage of black children are completely handicapped by being forced to attend failing democratical indoctrination centers masquerading as schools.
Arguably one of the worst handicaps that can afflict students.
Charter schools are required to take students with disabilities. Many parents have chosen charter schools for their children with disabilities after protracted problems with the public school not meeting their needs.
Private schools are not required to, but that doesn't mean they never do. The Catholic school I attended had a learning disability program and I knew a student who was legally blind and another who was hard of hearing, both requiring some assistive technology.
Its sadly closed now, but there had been a Christian school for children with mental retardation. I knew a few people who had siblings who went there and they raved about it. One shared how after several years fighting and failing to get the public school to meet their daughter's needs, they managed to get the school district to instead pay for her to go this Christian school.
Of course, I have no idea how the charter schools in the article are on this, but merely being a public, charter, or private school does not say anything about how well they meet the needs of students with disabilities.
Mark - I know a thing about this locally in BLUE Colorado.
The Public school system here is not equipped to handle kids with disabilities.
They claim to, but the kids with autism are treated to a short BS day at school - with teachers caught mocking the parents of these kids. Yay Blue paradise!
“ I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. “
This child produces much better copy than anything Ste. Greta has penned. Remember the watchwords, “Peace and tranquility.”, “It is the gift of Landreu.”
"Given the choice to teach one's child optimism or pessimism, who would choose pessimism?!"
You know the answer to that: Progressives. Democrats in general (with a few exceptions here and there and they would be the old-school Dems).
"...but in almost every case, everything that’s bad about America will be undone by what is good,'" Exactly. And can someone tell me what is wrong with that optimistic look at America? And why are Liberals/progressives always so eager to bring it all down, to disown or not even acknowledge the greatness of this country, yet so eager to jump into bed with a complete fiction called the '1619 Project'? Because the complete fiction makes America wear a black hat that we can never make right. And what better way to milk the system forever than making the system feel unbearable guilt? (And yes, the 1619 Project is a fiction, from it's very beginning. Does it fit today's narrative for all those claiming victimhood? Yes. It is a tool with which to clobber guilt-ridden white Americans over the head. It is not a history.
"Why shouldn't parents have the choice to place their children in either a 1619 or a 1776 school? Is one more truly history than the other?"
Yes, Virginia, one is truly more historically accurate than the other. And yes, parents should have the right to choose whichever one they want for their children. If only the Democratic Party was not wholly owned by the Teachers Unions, they would. They fear what would actually happen to their curricula and their schools if that choice were to be allowed.
Hillsdale has irked the Left for years, and much more so over the past 15 or so as their popularity with online courses, books, speakers, and marketing has found a large audience that goes far beyond it's traditional Midwest following. They offer rigorous discussions on ethics, the Constitution, and other topics that might not be allowed in our socially acceptable 'elite' institutions. And, hence, Hillsdale is growing. Honestly, they appear to me to be a Classically Liberal school. The kind the great universities used to be, once upon a time, before our schools were taken over by those of my generation who never left the campus and had nothing positive to offer. (with apologies to our host, who does not fit into this category. I want to make that clear.)
Re: boatbuilder:
They allow students to read books that question THE NEW DEAL!!!
There's a difference between allowing students to read a book and pushing the idea that the New Deal was a Raw Deal as your official doctrinal stance. I was given the opposite, pro-FDR stance when I was in school. If I had my druthers, the teaching would be more neutral. But the class would inevitably be more bland and forgettable as a result, so I don't really want that.
History comes alive as a story, with personalities who take action, rather than colourless tables of GDP statistics and population figures and recitation of statutory enactments. Casting the New Deal as an heroic narrative may require fudging the facts to make Hoover a villain and Roosevelt a hero, but it turns an incoherent mishmash of things that happened into a story schoolchildren can remember, so they can retain a high level understanding of the flow of history, e.g. there was a Great War (confusing). Then Roaring Twenties (exuberance). Then a Great Depression (sad). And the New Deal (hope). And then the Second World War (US saves the world). That's not the only way to frame the narrative, of course -- Roosevelt can also be seen as a somewhat hapless figure, frantically throwing everything against the wall and hoping something, anything, will stick. Until his administration is rescued -- given clear focus and direction by the War. Or this "raw deal" business.
But however you frame it, I think you do need to force historical events into the framework of a story if you want schoolchildren to retain anything. And turning history into a story inevitably means distortion or omission of facts that someone somewhere thinks incredibly important.
"More than half of Colorado students in grades three through eight didn’t meet grade-level expectations in reading, writing, or math on state tests they took this past spring.
The 2021 Colorado test results released paint a student performance picture that is substantially similar to past years. In literacy, 45.8% of students met or exceeded expectations on the Colorado Measures of Academic Success."
YAY BLUE Ed!
"overly positive...everything that’s bad about America will be undone by what is good..."
Can't have that!
This discussion is like every other right-left discussion about America: pointless. Leftists hate America, and do not want anything good taught about this nation. We inhabit different worlds. America bad, evil, racist, unredeemable... if you work hard enough, you can come up with a way to say this about every single society that exists or ever has or ever will. But leftists only want to say it about America. As a Frenchman once said to me, "Nobody hates their own country the way you Americans do."
"Hey, no fair. They're fighting back against our indoctrination efforts."
"Why shouldn't parents have the choice to place their children in either a 1619 or a 1776 school?"
Because tolerant Liberals are only tolerant if you believe exactly what they believe.
No room for diversity of thought.
And by the way, the canard that "charter schools don't take students with disabilities" is a marker of ignorance and bad faith, 100% of the time. Charter schools are public schools, and are subject to all the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. There is no public school that can avoid these requirements. Some private schools do, but those are different schools (but not to the ignorant).
I think this particular piece of dishonesty has been discredited so many times that anyone who still uses it must be doing so out of pure mendacity. It is uttered by people to whom government control and mediocrity are much more important than education.
“Is one more truly history than the other? I doubt it.”
“One” seems to be hellbent on tearing asunder, rather than unifying. I know which “one” this is and I have no doubts about it.
You have much work to do with your fellow Democrats, professor.
"The curriculum is not critical enough of US history, and it is critical of the New Deal."
Many excellent comments from folks here. It’s heartening to read expressions of clear thinking on this beautiful Easter Sunday!
Outlaw every public union.
Problem solved.
" While many educators applaud the phonics and rigor, they question the infusion of conservative politics into the curriculum, particularly in history."
Oh, they're "educators", are they? So that's what they are.
What do you call a boatload of educators at the bottom of the ocean?
Mark the Masochist writes, "Black children are an example of what kind of handicap, Mike?"
You're a glutton for punishment, aren't you? How about this: Black children are handicapped by being allowed, even encouraged, to underperform academically and to harbor misdirected resentments over the inevitable outcome of inadequate education.
What do you call a boatload of educators at the bottom of the ocean?
A worthy marine life preservation project.
Pretty good scam, pretending to be public schools and yet not really opening your doors to all.
The 'scam' pales in comparison to the festering shitholes that are public schools.
I hope they open a 1000 of these schools.
Hell, even the author of the 1619 Project said it wasn't history, and was never intended to be history. I'm surprised so many are not aware of this.
As they won't be taking kids with disabilities or learning issues,
I hope so, to the extent "disability" is used as a cover for rotten violent tantrums that ruin school for everyone else. And it happens, way too often.
Hillsdale Courses are online for free at https://online.hillsdale.edu/. You can go there and take a course like Constitution 101 or American Citizenship and Its Decline. And form an idea on your own of how Hillsdale teaches American history.
From the post:
"It does seem unfair to the children to feed them propaganda — either way — but if the only choices are propaganda, why not let the parents decide which form of inculcation they want? Vote with your children."
The parents don't get to decide. It takes a village...
Progress.
The NYT forgot the word "Sinister" before "conservative college" this time. Notice that the 1619 project isn't "Liberal/left" or "extreme" but the 1776 project is "conservative" or "Rightwing".
THe MSM has been playing this trick my entire life. I can remember when Reagan was always refered to as "ultra-Rightwing" or "extremely conservative". Meanwhile Ted Kennedy usually was just plain ol' Ted Kennedy and occasionally "Liberal Ted Kennedy". No extremism please, we're liberals.
To the liberal/left teaching kids to love the USA and its history is BAD. You live in the USA, yet hate the country and its history. Lets make the country look as bad as possible to young Americans.
How odd.
Americans, conservatives, Christians, stood up to diversity, inequity (e.g. slavery), and exclusion (DIE), long before the incorporation of America, long before the 1619 project.
Charter schools are public schools, and every child who attends one takes his public school money with him. A major reason public school teachers oppose charter schools. Teachers in charter schools are not required to join the union, and in many places are not required to meet the certifications other public school teachers are. In many cases the group. business, or other organization sponsoring the charter contributes to the school. It might be curriculum resources, teacher training, a building to house the school, or paid volunteer time for its employees to work at the school. Or cash.
When the charter is issued, a goal for student achievement is set, and a way to assess whether the school has met its goals is agreed to. Charters come up for renewal on a regular basis, and schools that don't meet their goals can have their charters revoked. The original purpose of the charter school movement was to give educators "learning laboratories" where new methods could be tried without involving an entire school system. Some charter schools have been enormously successful. Some no better or no worse than regular schools. Some have failed miserably. The biggest issue for the movement has been the reluctance of regular public schools to adopt the things that have been successful. Rather than looking at charter schools as a way of limiting risk, regular public schools have made them the enemy.
"Given the choice to teach one's child optimism or pessimism, who would choose pessimism?"
Sean Wilentz
A couple of lifetimes ago I worked the line in a GM plant. Every black woman I met had their children in parochial schools so as to provide them a chance at life. Mark is so full of shit it bled thru my monitor here. He's beyond recovery, and still in denial. Doesn't believe he is worth exposure to truth.
And another thing, a couple quotes from our VERY RELIGIOUS founding fathers...
https://canadafreepress.com/article/is-america-still-great
White suburbans can be such chumps, and without even trying.
If the America-haters hate it, then I like it. Because I don't hate America or Americans.
“… educators applaud the phonics and rigor, they question the infusion of conservative politics into the curriculum …”
The enemy doesn’t like Hillsdale.
No shit, Sherlock.
Good.
The Hillsdale Diet
Meanwhile is anyone learning some math?
Most little kids, Black White or Asian are full of curiosity and eager to learn at say ages 3 or 4---and then they start school. It might be a private pre-school, a Head Start program (if such is still around) or an early kindegarten class in a public school district.
In many districts (and I'm looking at you Mark) they start out with no educational handicap, but those inquisitive little kids are sure as heck educationally handicapped--and way behind the learning curve if they are in a substandard public school district. And there a lot of substandard public school districts. And the childs educational level doesn't get better from there. OTOH the little tyke may know more about LGBTQQ issues than most of us. So there is that.
Critical of fdr devaluing the dollar?
Critical of fdr for imposing wage and price controls?
Critical for trying to pack the Supreme Court?
Critical of FDR trying, with some success to implement mussolini's Fascist ideology and programs?
Critical of fdr for lying us into yet another European war?
Etc
Merciful Heavens!! Who in their right mind would object to that? Why, they'd have to be crazy. And in the interest of a better society they should be locked up until they believe. Failing tha, euthanasia is the merciful solution.
We must teach the kids that Jesus christ sits at fdr's right hand and God at his left.
John LGKTQ Henry
A history that extols principles opens onto a future supporting those principles. The alternative is the opposite.
Cynicism is a useless political position.
I used to send Hillsdale $100 every year in the 80's and 90's. Perhaps I need to start again.
I always thought they used it well.
I recall reading, a long time ago, that DOJ asked all colleges for photos of their first black students.
Hillsdale submitted a painting. From about 1845. They have been racially integrated for nearly 2 centuries. Since founding.
John LGKTQ Henry
All Ed schools should be burned to the ground and the earth salted.
All teachers with Ed degrees should be given 2 years to get a degree in something useful, at their own expense, or fired.
An Ed degree should be an absolute disqualification for any prospective teacher.
Hillsdale does offer a minor in "classical education" but students need to major in something useful to graduate
John LGKTQ Henry
Even in 1969-1970, my high school US History textbook was based on telling us what was wrong with the unbridled capitalism of the 1920s The Perils of Prosperity, followed by something with a smiling FDR and how he had rescued us from that. Does anyone think that school texts have gotten more conservative since then?
Show your work.
I don't mind leaning the other way if the general trend of movies and TV is against my POV. Would I prefer neutrality? Sure. You first, Princeton.
Think of history as temporizing the essence, expressing what a thing is by its origin.
THE problem is that this "... but if the only choices are propaganda, why not let the parents decide which form of inculcation they want?" is a question. Whys is ANYONE else even an option deciding this, much less (apparently) the default option? Truly, we are a diminished people.
“… educators applaud the phonics and rigor, they question the infusion of conservative politics into the curriculum …”
We hate it when out friends become successful, but we really hate it when our enemies do.
Black children are an example of what kind of handicap, Mike?
Hilarious. Did you think up that devastating idea by yourself ?
Why do you think that every voucher or charter school sign up has thousands of black mothers in line ? They know the difference. Ron DeSantis beat a black opponent for Governor of Florida because he supported vouchers and charter schools. Blacks voted for him on that basis.
You have no idea what you are talking about. You're just regurgitating teachers union talking points.
Bothsidesnow.
Loves "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" That it was written in the shadow of WW II makes it more meaningful.
No, Ann, the paragraph represented to be "written by a child" was not according to this assessment by Grammarly.
* This text scores better than 84% of all texts checked by Grammarly.
* Unique Words 66% - Measures vocabulary diversity by calculating the percentage of words used only once.
* Rare Words 15% - Measures depth of vocabulary by identifying words that are not among the 5,000 most common English words.
* Sentence Length 19.3 - Measures average sentence length words.
* Writing Issues
2 Wordy sentences affected the clarity.
1 Comma misuse was found within clauses.
As von Mises said in his 1927 'Liberalism', in areas of diversity, he used "mixed nationalities," schooling will be a prize of the highest order. And it cannot not be a prize as long as it is compulsory and public. This is an example as those enemies of the community who had gained control of the local public schooling, and promoted diversity to the point of sectarian violence, are now faced with pushback. And they don't like that children might escape and start having unapproved ideas.
As for America good and bad, well, Orwell had an astute observation
"The whole English-speaking world is haunted by the idea of human equality, and though it would be simply a lie to say that either we or the Americans have ever acted up to our professions, still, the idea is there, and it is capable of one day becoming a reality."
-- George Orwell
Funny how the professors are quick to condemn the US, but quicker still to declare the latest failed flavor of socialism as "not real socialism"
"Charter schools aren't public schools, that is why they're called charter schools -- privately owned, staffed, and administered educational establishments that receive public monies under stipulated conditions of operation."
And why why should taxpayers help pay for private schools under any "stipulated conditions of operations?"If the public is helping to pay for these schools, they are public institutions. (By the same token, why should the taxpayers in any area of the country provide funding to private entities whose profits go to the wealthy owners--i.e., multi-million or -billion dollar athletic stadiums?)
If the public has to pay for it, the public should share in the benefits/profits. Otherwise, such endeavors are frauds upon the people, robbery of the many by the few for the few.
This is not even to address the self-serving lie of glossing over the many ills that have existed in our nation over its history. Such ills do not just magically correct themselves; they are remedied through the hard work and persistence of motivated citizens who are able to educate and win over sufficient support by the public to bring about legislative reforms. Such reforms can only be undertaken when our ills are discussed honestly and frankly. Pretending "we are magically wonderful" and all faults will somehow just "go away" in time is a lie.
I like von Mises soup with seaweed, sesame seeds and tofu cubes. Very tasty.
I had two undergraduate and one graduate degree before I became a teacher. I still had to take Ed courses to get and keep my certificate. Education college courses are a total joke. The only thing they are good for is learning the current dogma needed to pass the Praxis teacher's exam for certification. For example, 'placing students in groups based on ability and teaching each to their level is called tracking and is an unacceptable form of discrimination'.
And why why should taxpayers help pay for private schools under any "stipulated conditions of operations?"If the public is helping to pay for these schools, they are public institutions.
***********************
The "just one drop" theory applied to public funding.
If NGOs take money from the government, as most do, are they now public organizations?
If illegals are given welfare funded by the public, are they now property of the state?
If mortgage interest is tax-deductible, is that a subsidy/aka public funding, making the property public property?
Asking for a D.Ed. candidate.
I would repeal all truancy laws, and let the parents sort the children and themselves out. We don't have the intelligence or the courage to triage a situation where triage is the only solution. We keep pretending that we can educate the children of parents who don't give a shit, and it ruins the chances of the children whose parents do give a shit but can't afford a private and/or parochial school. Charters are, at best, a band-aid on a 10 inch gaping wound.
As a second reform, outlaw the teacher unions along with all other unionized public employee unions. They are a fucking cancer that needs excising.
What's so wrong about American students learning a pro-American history? Perhaps, though, it should be observed that there's something uniquely American about our students learning so much of what's wrong about America. I understand that the most assigned book in high school is the one by Howard Zinn...Everyone from the Pennsylvania Deutsch (Germans) to the Scotch-Irish and on through Irish and Italians have some kind of legitimate grievance against American society, but, by and large, our aggrieved multitudes stood a better chance with our bigots than with their own ruling class...You may claim that our founders were hypocritical about the ideals they propagated, but the world would have to wait another few thousand years for some great king in Asia, Europe, or Africa to enunciate such an ideal... The African kings were not known for the abolitionist zeal. Rather the opposite.
Robert Cook and others- Charter schools are public schools. If they were private schools, they wouldn't need a charter. A private school may or may not seek accreditation from one of the regional entities that certify schools as meeting minimal requirements, but private schools do not need governmental permission to exist. Charter schools do. If you don't understand what a charter school is or isn't, blame your local teachers' union.
“No, Ann, the paragraph represented to be "written by a child" was not according to this assessment by Grammarly.”
The paragraph Ann quotes is from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, written between her 13th birthday and her death at age 15. She was a child, no matter what grammarly says.
> the most assigned book in high school is the one by Howard Zinn
The old Stalinist. What a sucker.
For example, 'placing students in groups based on ability and teaching each to their level is called tracking and is an unacceptable form of discrimination'.
The worst part is that we do it anyway. The kids who are good at school take AP classes and courses. The "normal" kids get college prep courses. The kids who do badly get special ed courses. I'll let you guess as to how the demographics sort out.
99% of the problems in public education come from an inability to acknowledge, much less deal with, the facts that Black kids do worse at school and behave worse at school than White kids.
Many political observers have detected a gulf between Hillsdale College's Constitution-based conservatism and the MAGA-based political leadership that assumed control at the college.
This change traces back to the far-right think tank, Claremont Institute. The Institute members that now run Hillsdale are aligned with the dishonest politics of TFG's regime including Professor John C. Eastman, who spoke at Trump's "Stop the Steal Rally" on January 6, 2021, and who proposed the illegal action of having VP Pence stop the formal approval of state vote counts; Then there is the “king of fake news” Jack Michael Posobiec III, well known as a promoter of the Pizzagate hoax and the Seth Rich conspiracy theory while working for the OANN; and among the latest is Charlie Kirk, the founder of the right-wing youth-mobilizing group Turning Point USA, who bragged about sending “80+ buses full of patriots to DC to fight” for Trump on January 6.
But Claremont has many famous writers who have done the most damage. The institute’s best-known scholar is Michael Anton, author of the infamous, wildly without factual basis, “Flight 93 Election” essay. But that got him a job with Trump, which gave him the power to join Hillsdale and set up the Institute as policymakers on how the college would run. He appointed the former president of Claremont, Michael Pack, to head Voice of America, with scandalous results. He put CRB editor Charles Kesler and Claremont cofounder and Hillsdale President Larry Arnn, a Winston Churchill scholar onto Trump's short-lived 1776 Commission. Power over education became the name of the game.
Imprimis, Hillsdale's publication, churns out essays adapted from speeches given at school events, including jeremiads on such topics as "The January 6 Insurrection Hoax" (which includes a defense of an Oath Keeper arrested for the Capitol assault) and the recirculation of a 2017 Imprimis article, "How to Think About Vladimir Putin" (by "traditional measures," perhaps "the pre-eminent statesman of our time").
The non-elite public schools in Atlanta are not only abysmal: they collude regularly in fraudulent acts. Not just trading fat contracts in pay to play. Not just the testing scandal, but regularly over-reporting the number of students they have, all to get more money to pocket. This is widespread fraud, abetted by elected officials and church leaders.
The students know how many days they have to show up to be counted as a body in a chair, just for homeroom. Their parents likely get some benefit from this -- such as not being reported for neglect or truancy, and the bennies running freely.
Nowhere are the needs or education of the children considered. Mark, you have never been in an August headcount lock-in, where children are fed and win prizes just so administrators can pretend these children are enrolled.
All these children learn is how to game the system. And that they are oppressed. Every decent parent is clamoring for charters and vouchers to get out. We need to destroy the ed schools and salt the earth, as JH says. Plus an army of forensic accountants to arrest a good percentage of our school administrators and teachers for fraud. How did Wayne Williams manage to snatch all those kids? Nobody parented them when they were alive.
"they question the infusion of conservative politics into the curriculum" oh that is rich coming from the Left. I would agree if they had left schools alone to be politics-free. In high school years and years ago, our american history teacher was very popular. Students wanted to know who she voted for but she would not say. That is the proper approach.
LOL: If the public has to pay for it, the public should share in the benefits/profits. Otherwise, such endeavors are frauds upon the people, robbery of the many by the few for the few.
Of course. I should have got a share of the $16B in weapons given to the Taliban. Obama should have given me my fair share of the billion in cash he sent to Iran. I should own a share of that incredibly expensive bullet train to nowhere somewhere in the Central Valley. Sure we could do this all day!
I'm sorry, Gadfly. You haven't been clear. Are you complaining or celebrating those things? None of those facts you mention are necessarily bad unless you proscribe to those notions that tell you that those things are bad. From my experience as a father sending my children to both public and private schools public schools fall far short of preparing our children for the world they must face and woefully neglect to teach them our own history. In my youngest daughters constitution class they were never taught that the Bill of Rights was part of our constitution. When it was mentioned at all. How can you judge if the past is good or evil if you don't know anything about the past?
"No, Ann, the paragraph represented to be "written by a child" was not according to this assessment by Grammarly."
Possibly, Anne Frank was a gifted writer. Maybe also, the Dutch to English translator added a bit of elegance to the original.
"As a second reform, outlaw the teacher unions along with all other unionized public employee unions. They are a fucking cancer that needs excising."
I am pro-union, but I do agree that at least one public employee union is a cancer on the public well-being: police unions throughout the land.
"Of course. I should have got a share of the $16B in weapons given to the Taliban. Obama should have given me my fair share of the billion in cash he sent to Iran. I should own a share of that incredibly expensive bullet train to nowhere somewhere in the Central Valley. Sure we could do this all day!"
Specious remarks.
The money spent on arms is another theft from the American people, rife with graft, overpricing, etc. I advocate for a reduction of our War department budget of at least 75%. More would be better, but it won't ever be reduced at all. It keeps going up, enriching all the crooks involved in it, in the private and public sphere.
The money transferred to Iran was Iran's money to begin with, not ours. The funds had been frozen due to sanctions placed on Iran, and most of those funds were held in foreign banks.
If the expensive bullet train is completed and put in operation, the public will benefit by it, just as we benefit by the construction and upkeep of our local roads and interstate highways. Of course, if crooked developers and/or public officials are driving the costs up (and delaying completion), that is due to unsurprising corporate/govt. criminality.
As I said in my remarks, any endeavor that is paid for by the public but that does not benefit the public is theft, a fraud upon the people. Your silly remarks do not undermine, but actually confirm my point.
"As I said in my remarks, any endeavor that is paid for by the public but that does not benefit the public is theft, a fraud upon the people."
So. Our government in general.
Robert. Next to Howard you're the king of silly remarks.
Anything the state can do private business can do better and cheaper. Except waste money.
"I am pro-union, but I do agree that at least one public employee union is a cancer on the public well-being: police unions throughout the land."
All public sector unions should not have collective bargaining.
I wished I would have seen this article earlier. My kids are attending a Barney Charter Initiative charter school, so yes, there's a Hillsdale affiliation. There is a Special Ed department and I'm told by parents with dyslexic kids that their reading curriculum is exceptional for them. There's also no tracks. The school strongly believes that all learning is essential for everyone, not just kids going to college. The country would benefit from this attitude.
Sean Wilentz, a professor at Princeton who was one of the chief critics of The Times’s 1619 Project, also criticized the 1776 Curriculum, calling it overly positive. 'It talks about the enormity of slavery, but in almost every case, everything that’s bad about America will be undone by what is good,' Dr. Wilentz said. 'Almost, literally, that American ideals will overcome whatever evils may be there.'
Oh, the horror!
Teaching kids to be positive, not negative, depressed failures!
How can this be!
Why shouldn't parents have the choice to place their children in either a 1619 or a 1776 school? Is one more truly history than the other? I doubt it.
Well, you're wrong.
The 1619 project is full of outright lies. The 1776 project clearly is not, since if it was they'd have better things to complain about than "too positive".
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/06/1619-project-new-york-times-mistake-122248
https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/fatal-flaw-of-the-1619-project-curriculum/
As for "they're both propaganda"?
One is anti-American propaganda, the other is pro-American propaganda
I can see no reason why the US Government, or and US State governments, should be using tax dollars to fund anti-American propaganda
Given the choice to teach one's child optimism or pessimism, who would choose pessimism?!
Well, the people who want to destroy America choose pessimism
Mark said...
As they won't be taking kids with disabilities or learning issues, they act as private schools and aren't truly open for all.
Pretty good scam, pretending to be public schools and yet not really opening your doors to all.
Let us pretend that everything you say is true.
So what?
1: Let us know when you on the left demand that Social media "open [their] doors to all", even conservatives. Until then, that's not something you can whine about
2: You have two possibilities:
A: Teach the class to the level of the slowest kid
B: Leave kids behind while you teach to a higher level than that
Let the public schools have the lowest, and let the Hillsdale schools give the "not lowest" an actual education that challenges them, and educates them
But, you hate the kids going to the Hillsdale schools, and don't want them to learn, so you whine about policies that let them learn
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