"... said Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of... an organization focused on youth civic engagement.
She cited a recent TikTok campaign against an Alaska oil project, which resulted in a misguided petition urging President Biden not to sell Alaska. 'You need some basics to understand what’s even verifiable:
Does it even jibe loosely with what I learned?' she said, noting that the president does not have executive power to sell a state."
I think it's interesting that the NYT thought its readers needed that explanatory phrase, "noting that the president does not have executive power to sell a state."
It's hard to believe in the future of democracy in American when you realize how little grip voters have on even the most basic facts and concepts. Why are we asking ourselves who should govern us? We're idiots.
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66 comments:
"I think it's interesting that the NYT thought its readers needed that explanatory phrase"
Why are we asking ourselves why the NYT thought its readers needed that explanatory phrase? They're idiots.
We're idiots.
Well, some of you are...
My first reaction was to want to know if the test was based on historic history or the new lefist-friendly revisionist view of history...
...and now I see the goal of the article- we fucked over our kids during the pandemic but it wasn't JUST because of the pandemic, you see...
Speak for yourself.
Obvious retort: NYT needs to put the author of it's own 1619 Project on this task. She'll set everyone straight about history...set them straight to hell...
I used to wonder how society functioned as well as it did, considering the shallow and fluffy lives of most people. Then I concluded humans mostly follow the leader and the leaders were strong and effective competitors -- average people had good role models. This persisted in a weak form through the Network TV and newspaper era. It has fallen apart in the web and social media era, as even the smartest among us struggle to separate wheat from chaff and fight back against loud and confident ignorance and corruption. Trump correctly sniffed this problem but is surely part of the problem himself.
I fear that we must fail badly and broadly before people again recognize merit and value merit. The US has historically lagged 50 or so years behind Europe. We are therefore entering a period akin to 1970s "Euro sclerosis" and "Government dole" phase. Following the UK's Sex Pistols of the 1970s, welcome to "Anarchy in the USA."
It's hard to believe in the future of democracy in American when you realize how little grip voters have on even the most basic facts and concepts
Simple things.
Like the federal Government only has the power, delegated to it, via enumerated powers in the Constitution.
That delegation is of from the PEOPLE, and the STATES. Because that is where ALL the power emanates from.
If you understand that, then you would not be so quick to acquiesce to government agents banning you from worshiping as you choose.
What ARE they teaching kids in school today. Oh, that's right...
The elite likes (and needs) a dull and easily manipulated electorate. Uneducated and unarmed.
The last thing they want is a replay of the Monty Python scene where the field peasant stands up and asks "who made you my King? Some tart in a lake with a sword?"
Who teaches civics in today's liberal septic fields? Biden/Harris exemplify current definitions of best and brightest. "Idiocracy".
““Kids seem to be more interested in history and civics than ever before,” she said.”
That’s good news and with this renewed interest in history and current events, comes the need for a solid basic knowledge in social studies.
"We're idiots." By design.
"Why are we asking ourselves who should govern us? We're idiots."
Because the elites who actually govern are even dumber. How's that Lab Leak Disinformation going?
We all create our own private universes where our "truths" become "the truth" in our own minds. When you teach, the hardest part is getting people to surrender their private truths for what really happened. Things like Columbus did not sail to prove the Earth was round. Even the most illiterate peasants had known the Earth wasn't flat for over a millennium. White people did not bring slavery to North America. It was already here. Indigenous people had been enslaving each other long before the Europeans arrived. There is a reason why people who want to change the way our citizens view our country start with little kids. If you can convince them to buy lies like there are more than two genders at five, their high school biology teacher's job becomes nearly impossible.
Reading and Math taking priority? Who are they kidding. Take a look at the test scores and read the accounts of professors lamenting how unprepared many college students are and tell me I'm wrong.
I know it's not fashionable to say here, but a good, solid liberal arts education gives you a broad exposure to ideas and a knowledge of the historical context of those ideas to prepare you for thinking through these things. Now, is it the emphasis on "reading and math" that led to this sorry state? Or is it the decline in the way the liberal arts have been taught in schools? Dunno. Maybe a little of both.
The president does not have executive power to sell a state in whole, but rather in parcels, regulatory suppression, immigration reform, welfare subsidy, etc.
Obviously, more funding for the Dept of Education is needed!
On Monday one of my students insisted that Lincoln had owned slaves, and refused to believe me when I told him he was wrong.
the president does not have executive power to sell a state.
But, as we see, he can sell the country down the river.
What would they say if you told them the state of Alaska identifies as sold?
"Yeah, they're hicks, Rita."
If the emphasis has been on science and maths, it's not working there either.
For 20 years, ending with Covid, I substitute-taught Gr. 5 to 12 in the two best school districts in Kansas, both in one of America's wealthiest 1 percent of all counties. I limited my work to subjects in which I'm highly qualified -- Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Earth Science, History, Geography, Civics, French, and Spanish. Several of these subjects I previously taught full-time as a certified teacher, or at the junior college level.
What I've encountered is quite discouraging, especially since I can compare Grade 11 students in 2017 to those in 2007 or 2002. The trajectory of knowledge has been consistently downward. Dangerously so. When I was first certified to teach, in western Canada some decades ago, the emphasis was on subject knowledge and a history of supervised teaching, such as being a TA in grad school.
In comparison, the States began to emphasize pædagogy over subject-matter competence. I returned to my natal country in the '90s, school systems were desperate for science teachers. Yet I was told -- with four degrees in the hard sciences and over a dozen years in the classroom -- that I would need to get a 4-year B.Ed. degree before I could be licensed to teach. So I checked into it.
What a dysfunctional horror show of up-tight, delusional, activist women !! One requirement for the degree was "demonstrable social suitability for the profession" to be established in part by 50 hours per semester volunteer work with non-profits, for which there was an "acceptable" list, which included Planned Parenthood. So I asked "What about Kansans for Life ?" ... "No. They're on the other side." ... "Well what about the NRA ?" ... silence, then "Aren't you for gun control ?" ... "Oh yes, definitly control guns. Low-Ready, good trigger discipline, and if yyou really need it,, two hands,, front-sight, and three rounds center-of-mass to neutralize the threat."
In that exchange I understood why Canada's world education ranking is consistently in the Top 5 -- along with Finland, Sweden, Singapore, and Switzerland ... whilst the US struggles repeatedly to avoid falling out of the Top 50.
"It's hard to believe in the future of democracy in American when you realize how little grip voters have on even the most basic facts and concepts."
I agree with the sentiment, but was voters' grip better in the past? Do voters with a better grip make better choices? Does anyone care about grip while they can grift? Would the future of democracy improve if we required some minimal grip? (Example, fill in the blank: "Over the past 20 years, as CO2 emissions rose, global temperatures increased by . . . degrees.")
"Why are we asking ourselves who should govern us? We're idiots."
But some are more idiotic than others. Let's distinguish between the merely ignorant and the actively idiotic--the people who believe things that ain't so and can't be yet insist on making reality conform to their delusion.
Ignorance is bliss. When they took civics out of schools, the schools went downhill. Progressives have ruined education, but then, WHAT haven't they ruined??
Ellie said...
We all create our own private universes where our "truths" become "the truth" in our own minds. When you teach, the hardest part is getting people to surrender their private truths for what really happened. Things like Columbus did not sail to prove the Earth was round. Even the most illiterate peasants had known the Earth wasn't flat for over a millennium. White people did not bring slavery to North America. It was already here. Indigenous people had been enslaving each other long before the Europeans arrived. There is a reason why people who want to change the way our citizens view our country start with little kids. If you can convince them to buy lies like there are more than two genders at five, their high school biology teacher's job becomes nearly impossible.
5/3/23, 7:47 AM
THIS^^^^
It's funny that the NYT had to get out the idea right away that it's reading and math that are taking up the focus. As if 6-8 hours a day at school isn't enough to teach reading, math and civics.
They were so afraid someone might think it's DEI nonsense taking up the kids' time in school.
Of course, the president doesn't have executive power to do a whole bunch of stuff that they nevertheless do - see Obama and immigration, for example.
Given the normal distribution in IQ and the inclination toward rational ignorance, it is not possible for a large part of the population to get a grip on public policy and its history. Simply learning some key facts, recent trends, law on the books, likely outcomes of different scenarios--it's hard and takes effort. On some basic policies, "experts" have no clue--in those areas, we're idiots led by idiots.
Of course, as Hayek, Sowell and others have long argued, what makes ruling idiots especially dangerous is their assumption that they know, even when the system operates in a way they can't possibly grasp or control. Support for the vision of the anointed is meta-idiocy.
I’ve found even some of my friends and relatives have a poor understanding of history and civics. And we’re in our sixties. This may be both poor education and simply not caring to know or absorb the info. They are headstrong in their political convictions, though. Good thing we all have equal standing when we vote ;).
Civics and history have been cut back in the public schools. When I was in middle and high school 50 years ago, it was mandatory to teach the students how our government works as well as the history, good and bad, of our country. In 8th grade, we went in depth in studying the US Constitution. Mandatory in 8th Grade. It should be also mandatory in high school, where it should be studied in depth (as a high school senior, I did study it in depth as an elective as it wasn’t mandatory).
In the past decade, my son’s school had NOTHING when it came to studying our government and the Constitution as well as only a smattering of history. The 1619 Project was disavowed by respectable historians as fabrication. Yet, the government bureaucrats, educrats, and the NY Times keep pushing this revisionist history. This is ironic as these same people are concerned about “disinformation” being pushed to our country all the while they are actually pushing disinformation!
this all comes from the typical 'murican attitude that doesn't care about all that "pointy-head pnonsense" that goes on in school. Just play sports, learn science and math, and get a degree so you can get a good job. Everything else is irrelevant.
As a result, The extreme Left stepped into the vacuum, and ended up teaching kids anti-patriotism, Gay rights, SJW diversity, etc. etc.
I don't think this article will do much good. Nothing will be done, until someone thinks they can make more money by changing it.
"We're idiots."
No, they're idiots.
“ We’re idiots, babe
It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves”
'I think it's interesting that the NYT thought its readers needed that explanatory phrase, "noting that the president does not have executive power to sell a state."'
It's because we've evolved into a country with an imperial presidency.
Not sure where it started, but it became very apparent under Obama.
Executive orders for everything, 99% of which were not within the power of the president.
But the lapdogs in congress (both parties) didn't push back.
So here we are.
That, and youngsters these days are pretty stupid...
'From "U.S. History Scores Are Falling, but It’s Not Just Because of the Pandemic/The latest test results continue a nearly decade-long plunge, as reading and math take priority" (NYT).'
Btw, it's not just history. Most kids can't read. Black children can't read at all.
I am a person of a certain age, having gone to high school in the '70s.
I honestly believe that people my age (and maybe a few years younger) were the last 'generation' in America to actually learn things.
We had parents who were engaged. We had teachers who taught facts and processes, and taught ZERO politics other than civics.
We didn't know about our teachers' sex lives, nor about which political party was good or bad.
They taught us to read and do math. Any person with an IQ of 100 could then teach themselves for the rest of their lives.
We were given a gift.
Kids these days are being mentally and emotionally abused in school, courtesy of the far-left, radical Teachers Union.
"It's hard to believe in the future of democracy in American when you realize how little grip voters have on even the most basic facts and concepts. Why are we asking ourselves who should govern us? We're idiots."
I am opposed to making voting too easy. A modicum of effort (like showing up on the appointed day) goes a long way to passively excluding the ill informed.
"It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves”
With the advent of the anti-farming "green" movement, we soon will not be able to even do that. We are idiots.
"It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves”
With the advent of the anti-farming "green" movement, we soon won't be able to even do that.
If it's on TikTok, expect it to be fictitious. Expect it to be Communist Chinese propaganda, disinformation and general muckraking and sowing confusion and mischief.
"the president does not have executive power to sell a state.".
Hmmmm ... I seem to recall Presidents who bought a few.
I probably wouldn't be getting letters saying I should be jailed for expressing my opinions if people had a basic understanding of civics.
A campaign based on accusing Biden of selling Alaska to big oil? Heaven forfend. Next thing you know they'll say he's a sell out. Do they teach rhetoric in schools?
Actually, a constitutional amendment that would allow states to be purchased by, say, P/E firms is a really interesting idea.
Disney could bid against Big Sugar for Florida.
The Cali cartel could complete it's acquisition of California with far less shooting.
Cory Doctorow call your office!
-XC
Time was when the voting franchise was restricted to those who owned property of some set minimum value.
Like the question of what should be taxed (wealth, income, spending, excise, etc) and how much, there is NO FAIR ANSWER.
But we are seeing in these present times the result of extending the vote to those who have no "skin in the game."
That and - dare I say it - voting procedures that are an open invitation to FRAUD.
Consider the progression of Rome from the time of the Tarquins (kings); through the Republic, rule by the Senate oligarchs; gradual increase of Tribune powers; emergence of Populares (members of the elite who invoked the power of the mob); through decades of Civil War; to the Empire (one man with a phone and a pen). Familiar story?
"It's hard to believe in the future of democracy in American when you realize how little grip voters have on even the most basic facts and concepts. Why are we asking ourselves who should govern us? We're idiots."
Yes, we are, due in no small part to the efforts of the mediaswine at NYT, etc., and American Universities and the teachers they indoctrinate.
The "Democracy" is running on fumes. We would have to be idiots not to notice. Women and girls are being bullied and cheated on athletic fields by "females" with dicks, elections are conducted in violation of the Constitution, people are held without bail for misdemeanors, 60 million babies have been slaughtered and the "mothering" gender screams for more, hoards descend on stores for wholesale shoplifting, the majority leader of the Senate threatens Supreme Court Justices by name, federal law enforcement is provably corrupt, etc., etc.
What's to save?
I feel 100% confident that Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of... an organization focused on youth civic engagement, is just the right person to guide our youth towards the correct knowledge pf and attitude towards our nation's history.
Then I'd like to sell you the state of Alaska.
"It's hard to believe in the future of democracy in American when you realize how little grip voters have on even the most basic facts and concepts. Why are we asking ourselves who should govern us? We're idiots."
Yes, we are, due in no small part to the efforts of the mediaswine at NYT, etc., and American Universities and the teachers they indoctrinate.
The "Democracy" is running on fumes. We would have to be idiots not to notice. Women and girls are being bullied and cheated on athletic fields by "females" with dicks, elections are conducted in violation of the Constitution, people are held without bail for misdemeanors, 60 million babies have been slaughtered and the "mothering" gender screams for more, hoards descend on stores for wholesale shoplifting, the majority leader of the Senate threatens Supreme Court Justices by name, federal law enforcement is provably corrupt, etc., etc.
What's to save?
Reading and math should take priority over pretty much everything. If you can't read, learning anything else is going to be exceptionally difficult in a school setting.
I doubt that history is being relegated due to concerns about reading and math. It is being relegated for CRT, DEI, and other nonsense that has no educational value but has great indoctrination value.
Thank you, Jesse Jackson, and his mob of 1987 Stanford students, chanting "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Civ has got to go!"
A real public service, that was.
Oh, and the idea that there's some kind of priority on math and reading is so ludicrous that I want to cry. I tutored in-class at public and private schools, and the secular decline in ability among both students and faculty was painful to observe.
Of course, "priority" really means "increased budget". Nothing to do with results...
We've always been idiots. Social media just amplifies it and destroys the illusion.
Well, the students are taught this by their teachers, professors, even some of their law professors. Perhaps only as theory, but probably not with clear disclosure that it is flights of fantasy by some activist law professor.
Another reason for school choice so the students who can survive don't have to waste their earliest years in the indoctrination centers controlled by the teachers unions and Democrats.
"as reading and math take priority" (NYT)."
LOL! Sure, reading and math are taking priority. Sheesh.
Can we sell New Jersey?
"President Biden’s education secretary, Miguel A. Cardona, seized on the results, admonishing politicians for trying to limit instruction in history, often on topics of race, a trend that has played out in dozens of states, typically Republican controlled."
I have to question the Secretary's assessment of the problem.
This is why the founders rejected democracy as a governing paradigm.
Every now and then someone sets out to get college students to sign a petition banning dihydrogen monoxide* because it’s been known to kill people. Hundreds of thousands regularly sign, proving that science education is pretty bad, too.
How many high school and college students know the difference between a bill, a law, and a regulation? As a Boomer that was on a test in 6th grade.
How many people are aware that without CO2 in the atmosphere there is no plant life? I learned the carbon cycle and how photosynthesis works back in grade school and in high school freshman biology.
Junk science teachers, junk students, no wonder they swallow junk science whole.
____________
Two hydrogens and one oxygen — H2O
It's hard to believe in the future of democracy in American when you realize how little grip voters have on even the most basic facts and concepts. Why are we asking ourselves who should govern us? We're idiots.
1: Speak for yourself
2: The ones sabotaging the education of kids today are the same ones who want all power turned over to themselves
Only true idiots would reward such monsters
3: The proper fix: remove ALL left wing BS from schools, and keep it out, until such time as the schools are successfully teaching reading, math, history, and civics.
No "gender ideology". No "diversity", no "equity".
Oh, and if you can't read, you can't learn history or civics
If you can't do math, you can't have a meaningful contribution to civics
The purpose of asking people to sign the petition wasn't to prevent Joe
Biden from selling the state of Alaska. The real purpose was to gather a list of names of stupid people who would be likely to send money in response to future mailing and advertisements.
The purpose of asking people to sign the petition wasn't to prevent Joe
Biden from selling the state of Alaska. The real purpose was to gather a list of names of stupid people who would be likely to send money in response to future mailings and advertisements.
noting that the president does not have executive power to sell a state.
The President also doesn't have the power to negate student loans.
But that doesn't stop those who know better from saying otherwise around election time.
"Ignorance is bliss. When they took civics out of schools, the schools went downhill. Progressives have ruined education, but then, WHAT haven't they ruined??"
It isn't progressives who are censoring teachers, banning books in schools, forbidding use of certain words (that sound like "way"), etc.
Good to be back, thanks!
Among other things I did on Monday with two old friends was visit a much-visited place (Shiloh NMP) as well as some of the sites of fighting in early October 1862, a small and little known battle called Davis's Bridge or Hatchie Bridge, south of Pocahontas, Tennessee--not much visited.
Three longtime students of the ACWABAWS and milhist in general, who have spent decades in this area, had not been to see what might remain, and were amazed at how little we knew.
Shiloh itself has been spiffed up since I was last there about '01, but we only had a few hours--even so, seeing the ground again helps me comprehend what I read.
On the way back to Bolivar where were staying at the McNeil Place, the conversation turned to politics. My friends' politics are considerably more left than mine, and I learned that Trump and Tucker are the twin demons of rightwing racism, which didn't surprise me.
What did surprise me was their conviction that American public education is crappy because the Republicans want it so. As the only guy in the car who had been edumacated in the public schools, whose kid had gone to public schools, and who spent my career at a public university campus, I had to bite my tongue--I needed to get along with them for the next two days.
My unspoken thought was that if the R's have wrecked public education, they did it by putting leftwing Democrats in charge.
OK, but a President can definitely sell himself.
There is more than one way to scalp a State.
May be correct or incorrect, but I read some years ago that an average college grad today isn’t as well-versed as a high school grad from 100ish years ago. I believe it. I was taught civics in tenth grade in my small town in Louisiana. Do they even teach civics any longer?
Robert Cook said...
"Ignorance is bliss. When they took civics out of schools, the schools went downhill. Progressives have ruined education, but then, WHAT haven't they ruined??"
It isn't progressives who are censoring teachers, banning books in schools, forbidding use of certain words (that sound like "way"), etc.
1: "banning books in schools"? Oh, you mean like "To Kill a mockingbird", which the Left has started to ban because it commits the crime of doubting a woman who claims to have been raped
The Left is constantly banning right wing books from schools. What is happening now is that State Legislators are fighting against the Left's ideological propaganda, and you assholes hate that
2: "censoring teachers"? You can't possibly be so stupid as to be unaware of the vast amount of left wing cancel culture being directed at ANYONE in education who leaves the left-wing plantation. So we'll just chalk this up to your complete dishonesty
3: "forbidding use of certain words (that sound like "way")"
Poor groomer Cookie, just so outraged that "teachers" can't discuss their sex lives with kindergarteners.
You really are a sick fucker to be upset by that
It isn't progressives who are censoring teachers, banning books in schools, forbidding use of certain words (that sound like "way"), etc.
Actually, Cookie, yes it is. Well, except for “Don’t Say Gay,” which has been debunked an uncountable number of times yet stupid people like you cling to it like a drowning person might cling to a cinder block. You’re one of the junk people I referenced above
"It's hard to believe in the future of democracy in American when you realize how little grip voters have on even the most basic facts and concepts. Why are we asking ourselves who should govern us? We're idiots."
When you read the nonsense spouted by our usual suspects and consider that some of those were or are educators then you realize why this is happening.
In the spring of 1775 something truly amazing happened to change the history of the world and for the last 100 years the progressive left has been laboring mightily to deny its significance. How can you make decisions about your country if you don't know your country's past?
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