The School Shooting, Another Angle

For John, BLUF:  A reporter for The LA Times was "shocked" that the shooter in Uvalde, Texas, was an American of Hispanic heritage.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Los Angeles Times Columnist Can’t Believe Texas Shooter Was Latino

Here is the sub-headline:

Gustavo Arellano blames American values for shooter's bloody rampage

From The Washington Free Beacon, by Washington Free Beacon Staff, 27 May 2022, 1:20 pm.

Here is the lede plus three:

A Los Angeles Times columnist expected the Texas elementary school shooter to be a "white supremacist" and was disappointed to learn he was a Latino.

"When I heard that a gunman had killed multiple schoolchildren in a predominantly Latino town in Texas, I immediately thought: white supremacist," Gustavo Arellano wrote in a Wednesday column. "How could I not?"

Arellano said his "stomach dropped" when he learned the mass shooting was in fact carried out by an 18-year-old Latino named Salvador Rolando Ramos. In an attempt to explain why a "Latino-on-Latino mass school shooting" would take place, Arellano blamed the tragedy on Ramos's assimilation into American culture.

"What Ramos did—stemming from a pathology found almost nowhere else on Earth—is as American as apple pie."

The LA Times Reporter has a good point.  The shooter had adapted to US Culture.

On the other hnd, Reporter Gustavo Arellano seems ignorant of a nation 144 mile south of the LA Civic Center, the United Mexican States.  A nation where drug cartels run big patches of territory and peole disappear.  For example, on 26 September 2014, students from a teacher training school in rural southern Mexico commandeered some buses, with an ultimate destination of Mexico City, for a demonstration.  Two buses disappeared enroute and 43 of the students went missing, to be tortured and killed.

Not every Latin American culture is like that, but to think the United States stands along in the Whestern Hemisphere in terms of violence and the use of guns is to reveal ignornce.

However, Reporter Arellano is spot on to identify culture as a part of the equation.  Our culture has shifted in the last 60 years and not for the better.  We thought we were making things better, but we were not.  I went to High school in LA County and for two of those years was on the High School Rifle Team.  I took my 22 Caliber Rifle to school on dzys we went to the range.  No big deal.  What changed?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

School Shooting and Society

For John, BLUF:  History and sociology tell us that school shootins, like the recnt one in Uvalde, Texas, are a relatively new phenomena, which calls for explanation.  just move along.

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Flashback 30 Years:  Guns Were in Schools... and Nothing Happened

From PJ Media, by Writer J. Christian Adams, 15 May 2018 5:30 AM ET.

Here is the lede plus four:

The millennial generation might be surprised to learn that theirs is the first without guns in school.  Just 30 years ago, high school kids rode the bus with rifles and shot their guns at high school rifle ranges.

After another school shooting, it’s time to ask:  what changed?

Cross guns off the list of things that changed in thirty years.  In 1985, semi-automatic rifles existed, and a semi-automatic rifle was used in Florida.  Guns didn’t suddenly decide to visit mayhem on schools.  Guns can’t decide.

We can also cross the Second Amendment off the list.  It existed for over 200 years before this wickedness unfolded.  Nothing changed in the Constitution.

That leaves us with some uncomfortable possibilities remaining.  What has changed from thirty years ago when kids could take firearms into school responsibly and today might involve some difficult truths.

I am one of those kids who took his rifle to [an urban] high school.

Like the author, i want to understand what changed in society since then.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Transition Closets

For John, BLUF:  The idea is you go off to school the way your parents dress you, and then, once at school, you chaange into those cloths that best represent who you think you are (gendere wise).  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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California School Creates ‘Transition Closet’; Allows Students To ‘Swap Out’ Of Clothes ‘Parents Approve Of’

From The Daily Wire, by reporter Ben Zeisloft, 23 February 2022.

Here is the lede:

A high school in Oakland, California, is creating a “transition closet” that will allow students to come to school in clothes that their “parents approve of” and change into the clothing of their selected gender identities.

It really does seem like the public schools against the parents.

My nagging questiion is under what circumstnces can the Parents say "Enough!" and release their child to the school for housing, feeding, clothing and general supervision?  If the path the parents are on for raising their child is no longer satisfctory to their Lordships at the school, is it not time to transition the child to the school, full time.

I expect, a hundred years on, if the United States is still around, this will be seen as child abuse.

That said, adults should be free to identify as they wish.  And to have surgury and drugs as they see fit.  As with, from my childhood, Ms Christine Jorgensen.  But, Ms Jorganson was in her twenties when she sought surgury.  An adult.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Does Shop Class Help Language Learning?

For John, BLUF:  Don't kids in Middle School take Shop anymore?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Using mechanical tools improves our language skills

From Medical Press, by Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, 11 November 2021.

Here is the lede plus one:

Our ability to understand the syntax of complex sentences is one of the most difficult language skills to acquire.  In 2019, research had revealed a correlation between being particularly proficient in tool use and having good syntactic ability.  A new study, by researchers from Inserm, CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon and Université Lumière Lyon in collaboration with Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, has now shown that both skills rely on the same neurological resources, which are located in the same brain region.  Furthermore, motor training using a tool improves our ability to understand the syntax of complex sentences and—vice-versa—syntactic training improves our proficiency in using tools.  These findings could be applied clinically to support the rehabilitation of patients having lost some of their language skills.  This study is published in November 2021 in the journal Science.

Language has long been considered a very complex skill, mobilizing specific brain networks.  However, in recent years, scientists have revisited this idea.

Research suggests that brain areas, which control certain linguistic functions, such as the processing of word meanings, are also involved in controlling fine motor skills.  However, brain imaging had not provided evidence of such links between language and the use of tools.  Paleo-neurobiology has also shown that the brain regions associated with language had increased in our ancestors during periods of technological boom, when the use of tools became more widespread.

When considering this data, research teams couldn't help wondering: what if the use of certain tools, which involves complex movements, relies on the same brain resources as those mobilized in complex linguistic functions such as syntax?

I am hoping that the Lowell School Committee can illuminate the answear to this question.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Trust in Schools

For John, BLUF:  He isn't out right lying to us, but neither is he giving us the truth.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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His team’s trying to hide it, but de Blasio’s bungling has parents fleeing NYC schools

From The New York Post, by Mr Ray Domanico (Director of Education Policy at the Manhattan Institute), 10 November 2021, 7:47 pm.

Here is the lede plus three:

Mayor-elect Eric Adams won on a common-sense platform of making critical city services more efficient.  Nowhere is the need clearer than in Gotham’s school system, which under outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio has drifted aimlessly, sowing parental discontent.

Last week, the system released its annual student headcount, much anticipated after last year’s huge drop, particularly in the early grades, due to COVID-related school closures and the city’s uneven remote-learning performance.  Did some students who left return this year or has the Department of Education irrevocably lost them to public charter and private schools?

We have no way of knowing: In an incredibly cynical act, the DOE released a single number, total students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.  With that restricted accounting, the news didn’t seem so awful:  Enrollment was down 17,000, a much smaller drop than last year’s 43,000.  But that comparison says little because year-to-year changes often look very different at different grade levels.

What is the city hiding?  A close look at State Education Department numbers shows parental confidence in de Blasio’s stewardship was already dwindling pre-pandemic, before the disastrous 18-month shutdown of most DOE schools.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has been a disaster for Public Schools and for the leadership of such schools, be it Administration or Labor Union.  Suddenly, parents were seeing, live, what was going on in the classrooms.  Parents got to see what was going on in the classroom and some of them, many of them, were unimpressed.

I think that Mayor Bill de Blasio only added to the distrust and distaste.  Then along came Virginia Gubinatorial Candidate Terry McAuliffe, with his assertion:  “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” I hope that as we go forward together, schools will be receptive to the desires of the parents, working with all parents.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Placement of Students (By Parents)

For John, BLUF:  Are parents voting on Public Schools by moving their children to other schools or to home schooling or maybe just moving to a new community and school district?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Blue State Blues:  Record Number of Students Flee Nation's Largest Public School Districts

From PJ Media, by Reporter Gwendolyn Sims, 31 October 2021, 9:40 AM ET.

Here is the lede plus two:

This week the three largest public school districts in the U.S. announced that they are in the middle of a massive and continuing problem: record low enrollment numbers.

The New York Times reported that since the fall of 2019 enrollment in New York City’s (NYC) public school system—the nation’s largest district—has dropped by about 50,000 students or 4.5%.  The numbers are even worse in the nation’s second-largest public school district, where the Los Angeles Times reported the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) lost a record of more than 27,000 students or 6.0% of its enrollment since 2019.  The third-largest district’s numbers are just as bad in Chicago’s public schools (CPS), where WTTW reported enrollment is down nearly 25,000 students or 3.0% over the same time.

What exactly is to blame for the record drop in enrollment across these districts?  The districts are quick to blame the COVID-19 pandemic; that’s not the only reason fewer parents want their children to attend these public schools, but you’d never know that to listen to them.

We need more data, but the current numbers suggest there may be problems out there.

While I find it unlikely to happen, it would be interesting and revealing if state and local governments allocated school money to the individual students, to be spent as the parents see fit.  Will parents who can't afford private or parochial schools today shift their children's school of choice under such a regime?  There is a hint in the election of Florida Governor Ron DiSantis.  What put him over the top was 100,000 Black women who voted for him over the issue of schools.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Reaching All Students

For John, BLUF:  The Lowell School Department is under pressure to help students do better.  Thus new lines of pedagogical improvement are being sought.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Lowell School Committee hears plans for culturally and linguistically sustaining practices

Here is the sub-headline:

Member Mike Dillon blasts as “Marxist”

From The [Lowell] Sun, by Reporter Alana Melanson (amelanson@lowellsun.com), 5 May 2021, 10:43 p.m.

Here is the lede plus three:

Lowell Public Schools have been working on a plan to unify and strengthen culturally and linguistically sustaining practices (CLSP) within the district, but some of the components may be a tough hurdle for some school officials.

Committee member Mike Dillon blasted the efforts as “Marxist” and not having enough “diversity of thought or politics.”

Chief Equity & Engagement Officer Latifah Phillips presented the plans to the School Committee Wednesday night, which include a proposal to hire a CLSP coordinator at an estimated $100,000 salary in the next school year to support the initiatives.

In outlining the three-step process of building a CLSP continuum, Phillips said it starts with understanding one’s own culture, lens of viewing of world and personal biases.  Next comes trust and relationship building, followed by developing cultural proficiency and practices that empower students, she said.

It appears that Lowell School Committee Member Mike Dillon thinks CLSP is the thin edge of the wedge of Critical Race Theory (CRT).  (See him talk at this link https://youtu.be/Cz_S1fQkQlg)  He is asking as to if CLSP is a neo-Marxist attempt to replace class consciousness and conflict with racial consciousness and conflict, with an end goal of replacing capitalism (and democracy) with a government controlled economy.

I expect that this will be resolved by discussions at the sub-committee level and by reassuring interactions between School Committee Members and School Staff.

There should be no doubt that there are disparities for students along racial lines.  The above linked Slide Presentation shows that.  But, it appears there are also issues within racial groups, which suggests there are cultural differences within racial and ethnic groups.  These need to be addressed and resolved.  Perhaps CLSP is the answer.  On the other hand, Critical Race Theory only promises misery.  It brings Venezuela on its wings.

Regards  —  Cliff

Improving Civics Education

For John, BLUF:  There seems to be a certain lack of civics education, at least as judged by citizen participation in local government and in voting.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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NAS Debuts Coalition to Stop Action Civics

From National Review, by Mr Stanley Kurtz, 22 March 2021, 7:44 AM.

Here is the lede plus two:

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has announced the formation of a coalition to promote authentic civic education.  The new NAS Civics Alliance will oppose attempts to replace proper courses in American government with politicized “action civics.”  Most conservatives still haven’t even heard of action civics, where K-12 and college students are required to protest and lobby for (invariably leftist) political causes for course credit.  At a moment when the public and legislators are eager to restore long-neglected civic education, radicals are attempting to smuggle partisan leftist activism into K-12 education under the misleading label of “civics.”  The new NAS Civics Alliance aims to block these moves and restore genuine civic education instead.

The NAS Civics Alliance announced its formation with an introductory essay from NAS President Peter Wood, an Open Letter and Curriculum Statement signed by members of the alliance, and a page where anyone can sign the Open Letter and join the alliance.

The Open Letter warns against the rise of action civics in states like Massachusetts and Illinois, and new attempts to nationalize the practice.  The Civics Curriculum Statement lays out a range of positive alternatives, while being careful not to endorse any specific program.  The NAS Alliance, for example, makes no attempt to force a single solution on the complex question of precisely how to balance state-level mandates with local school-district control.  On the other hand, the NAS Civics Alliance clearly endorses the Partisanship Out of Civics Act (which I authored) as a model for legislation which would ban action civics at the state level.  Opposition to the politicization of civic education is the alliance’s unifying theme.

The Author points out that Our Commonwealth is one of the early adapters of the idea to encourage school students to write letters to elected officials.  I am all in favor of that.  I am in favor of it as long as the teacher or the school is not "steering" the student in one direction or another.

for sure, we have to improve our teaching of civics in public schools.  When I was in 9th Grade, in Bucks County, Pa, we have a year long course called "CORE", in which we looked at life as an adult, including examining three separate job options.  We then went on to examine Government at all levels, and about the time my parents pulled me out to go to California, we were embarking on writing a "town charter".  All good stuff.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Watch Your Acronyms (and Initialisms)

For John, BLUF:  This is San Francisco, which might be used as an excuse.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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YGBKM:  Acronyms A Tool Of White Supremacy, Says San Francisco School Board

From Hot Air, by Captain Ed Morrissey, 2 February 2021, 11:25.

This appears to be more of a class issue than a race issue.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Follow the Science

For John, BLUF:  Teachers, and students, should be returning to the classrooms, in person.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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When the White House can't handle the truth

From The Washington Examiner, by Chief Political Correspondent Byron York, 5 February 2021, 08:39 AM.

Here is the lede plus six:

On January 21, President Biden’s first full day in office, White House press secretary Jen Psaki began her briefing with this:  “When the president asked me to serve in this role, we talked about the importance of bringing truth and transparency back to the briefing room.”  Now, the administration’s position on opening schools shut by COVID lockdowns is testing that pledge.

Psaki’s problem started on Wednesday, when the White House COVID Response Team held a teleconference for the press.  Among the group was Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the president’s new choice to head the Centers for Disease Control.  A reporter asked Walensky about the CDC’s priorities for vaccination, and in particular whether “the federal government would be working more closely with states to kind of get more vaccinations to teachers in particular so that schools can reopen in the fall.”

Walensky said that a group inside the CDC, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, had created a priority list for those receiving vaccinations.  In December, the committee included teachers in what was called the 1b category, meaning they would be among those who should be next in line.  But that wasn’t law — it was the CDC’s guidance for states to follow, or not to follow.

“We’ve left that to the states to manage,” Walensky explained, “in terms of recognizing the prioritization of ACIP, but also manage at their own local level.”

And then: “That said, I want to be very clear about schools, which is:  Yes, ACIP has put teachers in the 1b category, the category of essential workers.  But I also want to be clear that there is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen and that that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated in order to reopen safely.  So while we are implementing the criteria of the Advisory Committee and of the state and local guidances to get vaccination across these eligible communities, I would also say that safe reopening of schools is not — that vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for safe reopening of schools.”

There it was: The head of the CDC frankly stating that the science shows schools can safely reopen, and that the reopening of the schools does not depend on vaccinating teachers.  Given the current debate, in which teachers unions, the longtime allies and benefactors of Democratic politicians from Joe Biden on down, are demanding that schools remain closed and that teachers be vaccinated before any reopening can occur, Walensky’s statement was big news.  Would Democratic officeholders listen to the science and break with the unions?

It was such big news that the White House immediately ran away from it.

There are two issues here.  The first is that this White House, notwithstanding the promises to be different from the Trump Administration, is trying to curate the news to meet the interests of various constituencies.  Business as usual.

The second issue is getting our students back to school.  The science seems to say that we can reopen schools, but the Teachers Unions are saying no.  I can see their concern that if the CDC (Centers For Disease Control and Prevention) is wrong, it could be a serious problem for teachers.  However, it is the science.  I thought we are about following the science.  Are we?

Then there is the cui bono question.  If, as COVID-19 goes on, Student performance declines, if teachers are not in the classroom they can distance themselves from said decline.  And, they are still getting paid.

For sure, the White House hung CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky out to dry on this one.  Not a good look.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Frustrated

For John, BLUF:  Children who are frustrated easily do not have mechanisms ot cope with the problems of life.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Link found between self-control in childhood and success later in life

From Medical Express, by Reporter Bob Yirka, 5 january 2021.

Here is the lede plus one:

An international team of researchers has found a link between degree of self-control during childhood and success later on in life.  In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describe their decades-long study of self-control in children and how it correlated with outcomes later on in life.

In this unique study, the researchers set out to learn more about the relationship between self-control and aging—specifically, they wanted to know how well children with self-control issues fare as they grow older—in this case, to age 45. To find out, they studied 1,037 children born between 1972 and 1973 (in New Zealand) who were included in the Dunedin Longitudinal Study as they aged from three to 11 years old.  In so doing, they made self-control assessments of the children by talking to their parents, their teachers and to the children themselves.  Each of the children were graded on characteristics such as impulsivity or how easily they grew frustrated when working on projects, and whether they followed through on such projects despite their frustration.

This is an interesting observation and suggests that one of the roles of school might well be to help young people to learn to deal with life's frustrations, so they have the coping tools to take into adulthood.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Education Failing

For John, BLUF:  Yes, this is two years old, but The InstaPundit thought it important, and so do I.  It hasn't improve in the last two years.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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9 Years Into Common Core, Test Scores Are Down, Indoctrination Up

Here is the sub-headline:

Common Core sucked all the energy, money, and motivation right out of desperately needed potential reforms to U.S. public schools for a decade, and for nothing.

From The Federalist, by Mrs Joy Pullmann, 5 November 2018.

Here is the lede plus three:

It’s been about nine years since the Obama administration lured states into adopting Common Core sight unseen, with promises it would improve student achievement. Like President Obama’s other big promises — “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” — this one’s been proven a scam.

“If you set and enforce rigorous and challenging standards and assessments; if you put outstanding teachers at the front of the classroom; if you turn around failing schools — your state can win a Race to the Top grant that will not only help students outcompete workers around the world, but let them fulfill their God-given potential,” President Obama said in July 2009.

He went on to state his faith that Common Core — at that point unwritten — would “not only make America’s entire education system the envy of the world, but we will launch a Race to the Top that will prepare every child, everywhere in America, for the challenges of the 21st century.” Race to the Top was a $4 billion money pot inside the 2009 stimulus that helped bribe states into Common Core.

So here we are, nine years later. Common Core has been officially rolled out into U.S. public and even many private schools for at least three to five years now. Are American children increasingly prepared for the “the challenges of the 21st century”? We’re actually seeing the opposite. They’re increasingly less prepared. And there’s mounting evidence that Common Core deserves some of the blame.

I am in agreement with the Author  Neither Common Core, nor Leave No Chiled Behind, has given our public education an upward thrust.

For thoe who think this is strictly on the schools, I don't agree.  An important factors is parents and their impact on their children.  Parents are an important factor in their children's perserverencer in school, and their children's success.  Improvementd in education will require more than fixing eduction.  It will require fixing our social services system.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Cost of Eduction Frills

For John, BLUF:  When I say frills, I mean the extra bells and whistles in higher education.  Given the problems we have in socialization of young people in a period of fewer intact facilities, this may be needed in grades K though 12, but then those students graduate and are adults, with the right to drive cars and vote.  At some point the apron strings need to be cut.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Why Tucker Carlson predicts diversity deans could soon be 'gone for good'

Here is the sub-headline:

• Fox's Tucker Carlson predicted that many college diversity deans could soon be "out of work."
• As the coronavirus pandemic has a costly impact on colleges, many top-tier schools will weather the storm just fine.
• Others, however, could have a much tougher financial path ahead.

From Campus Reform, from Managing Editor Jon Street, 21 March 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

Fox's Tucker Carlson took aim at the "higher education establishment" Thursday, predicting that many colleges are soon likely to "go under."

As Campus Reform previously reported, amid federal bailouts of the airline industry and perhaps even many hotels and cruise lines, a survey of college presidents across America before the coronavirus pandemic found that less than two-thirds are "confident" in their schools' financial stability over periods of five and ten years, signaling what could be yet another sought after bailout by American taxpayers.

But as a number of top-tier American colleges have been found to have more money even than some countries, as Campus Reform also has reported, it's unlikely that schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford will run out of cash any time soon.

As for some smaller, private colleges, on the other hand, they could face a much bleaker picture.

You can almost count on Tucker Carlson to vear into less trodden territory.  And, his comments make sense.  There are smaller colleges, without big endowments, on the edge.  To survive they will have to shed some of the frills.  Like Host Tucker Carlson, I think a "diversity dean, and the accompanying overhead of administrators and deputies, are a frill.  The mission is education and not nursemaiding.  Students need to be focused on what happens after college, when they have to get a job in a world where there may or may not be a "diversity dean".

I would think that colleges could replace their diversity staff with a couple of lectures for the Senior Class on job hunting and interviews and work place social behavior.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

NYC Fail

For John, BLUF:  As you think about this major fail in our largest City, remember that just weeks ago the Mayor, Bill de Blasio, was a front runner for the Democratic nomination for President.  We dodged a bullet.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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‘Blood on their hands:’ Teachers say de Blasio and Carranza helped spread coronavirus

From The New York Post, by Reporter Susan Edelman, 21 March 2020.

Here is the lede plus six:

One after another, sick Brooklyn Technical High School teachers called union chapter leader Nate Bonheimer last week, to tell him they’d tested positive for COVID-19.

By Friday, five of them had shared the devastating news.  But after being notified about each one, the city Department of Education still ordered the 6,000-student school’s 350 staffers to show up for work last week, saying the building had been cleaned.

“The DOE did not close the school for any of the cases,” said Bonheimer, who worries that inaction exposed others to the dreaded infection.

The city failed to follow a March 9 directive by the state Education Department that “requires an initial 24-hour closure, in order to begin an investigation to determine the contacts that the individual may have had within the school environment.”

DOE did not attempt to identify close contacts, Bonheimer said. “They did not alert the people who needed to know the most to protect themselves, their families and everyone else they came into contact with.”

One infected teacher was so torn by the secrecy he took it upon himself to personally let all his students know his condition.

Around the city, teachers and administrators are outraged that Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza resisted a drum beat to close the public schools in the name of safety.

Some renamed the coronavirus “Carranzavirus.”

This speaks for itself.  I figure there must be some Latin phrase for this, and sure enough, there is—Res Ipsa Loquitur.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Not Fixing Our Educational Issues

For John, BLUF:  I don't think I would look to either Representative Ocasio-Cortez or Mayor De Blasio for informed, innovative and effective solutions to any societal problems.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Ocasio-Cortez Joins De Blasio In Call To Punish Asian Students

Here is the sub-headline:

Progressives want to lower the standards of admission at New York's top public high schools in the name of diversity. And they don't care how many Asian students it harms.

From The Federalist, by Mr David Marcus, 20 March 2019.

Yes, this is from a year ago, but I just saw it reposted at InstaPundit, and thought that given the continuing trends in New York City Public School’s, it was worth reposting here.

Here is the lede plus one:

The battle over the admissions standards at New York City’s elite public high schools has heated up again.  After having failed to change the standards last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio is back at it, this time with some backup from celebrity freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  As usual, their impassioned pleas about the lack of black and Hispanic students completely ignores that it is Asian, not white, students who would bear the brunt of the proposed changes.

At issue is the fact that these hyper-competitive high schools consider only a test score in deciding admissions.  This meritocracy has created some of the best high schools in the world.  They would have you believe that wealthy white parents game the system by hiring expensive tutors, but while they might, it’s not working.  In fact, wealthy white kids are not dominating this process at all.

This was based on a Tweet from NY Democratic US Representative Alexandra Occasio-Cortez:

68% of all NYC public school students are Black or Latino.

To only have 7 Black students accepted into Stuyvesant (a *public* high school) tells us that this is a system failure.

Education inequity is a major factor in the racial wealth gap. This is what injustice looks like.

The Writer then provides a little extra information:

Her math is correct, but what she fails to mention is that while Asian students make up only 15 percent of all students in New York, they are a whopping 74 percent of students at Stuyvesant, the school she references.  She claims this is inequity and represents a racial wealth gap.  But exactly what systems does she believe that New York City has in place that can explain the extraordinary achievements of Asian students?  Are Asians getting better schools?  More resources?  In what way are Asians the beneficiaries of a racial wealth gap?

Don’t expect answers any time soon.  This is a question Democrats and their allies in the news media have no answer for, and can barely even bring themselves to mention.  The pebble in their shoe is that despite obvious racism that exists and has always existed towards Asian Americans, they succeed anyway, by almost every metric.

Miss Occasio-Cortez May have the arithmetic right, but her math is bad. & Specificallt, she has trouble with word problems  She can't find where information is missing, or she makes large, glittering assumptions that obscure other minority students.  And, like some European, she misses the fact that some are late bloomers, taking until High School, or even College, to hit their educational stride.

We are not going to fix educational problems in New York City, or the United States, with simple solutions.  The problem is too complex for easy bromides to promise quick solutions.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

You Are What You Read

For John, BLUF:  There are quite a few places in the world, and a few in the US were culture dies not provide a glue to hold the people together, where trust is low and subgroups protect themselves by intimidation and violence.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

Educational Earthquake:  ‘Disappearing’ the Great Writers From Schools

Here is the sub-headline:

Orwell’s warning in ‘1984’ is as relevant today as during the Cold War

From The Epoch Times, by Ms Barbara Kay, 18 November 2019.

Here is the lede plus two:

The Greater Essex County District School Board in the Windsor, Ont., area is supplanting its grade 11 literature curriculum, which up to now has featured great writers of the western canon such as Shakespeare and George Orwell, with a year-long program of Indigenous writers.  The change has already been effected in eight of the district’s 15 schools.

In the Peel district as well, I am informed by a reader, the same transformation is in progress.  It would be naïve to assume that these schools will remain anomalies for long.  The “disappearing” of dead white European male writers, however magnificent their achievements, may well be normalized across Canada before long.

It is hard to overstate the alarming implications of this educational earthquake.  Deliberately withholding Shakespeare from young minds is a form of aesthetic starvation, but depriving them of Orwell is a moral crime.  It is from Orwell’s “Animal Farm” that young minds first grasp the nature of totalitarian evil, whether it arises from the left or the right, and understand the preciousness of their freedoms.

It is Canada, but it could be us.

This is very scary.  We have built a functioning culture on this Western Canon.  If we stop teaching the Canon, will the culture survive?  If not, what replaces it?  Do we become like Malmo?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Abolish Grades?

For John, BLUF:  If we abolish grades, how does a teacher signal that someone is in the wrong field of study?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Prof calls to get rid of grades because they are 'capitalism in action'

Here are the sub-headlines:

• New School professor Richard Wolff is known for his outspoken views against capitalism.
• He recently asserted that capitalism is being propped up by “meritocracy,” and that therefore “all levels” of education should do away with grading scales.

From Campus Reform, by Investigative Reporter Celine Ryan, 6 Aug 2019.

Here is the lede plus three:

A New York professor is calling for the abolition of grades.  He claims they are not only unfair to students, but that they are a means of propping up capitalism, and as such, academia would be better off doing away with grading entirely.

“Grading takes up much of my time that could be better spent on teaching or otherwise directly interacting with students,” New School professor Richard Wolff wrote in a Monday op-ed entitled “Grades Are Capitalism in Action.  Let’s Get Them Out of Our Schools.”  He claims the practice of administering grades to students has “little educational payoff” and “disrespects [students] as thinking people.”

Wolff has been known to promote Marxism and condemn capitalism, even going so far as to blame capitalism for American homelessness.   More recently, he made headlines by comparing President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler on Twitter.

According to Wolff, the practice of grading is one that has served to prop up America’s capitalist economic system and its “major failures,” including "socially divisive inequalities” and the creation of “boring, dangerous, and/or mind-numbing” jobs.  He asserts that capitalism’s survival can be attributed only to flawed human ideologies, one of which is the concept of “meritocracy.”  Grades, he says, are one of many “mechanisms” used to “anchor” the concept of meritocracy in society.

I wonder if Professor Wolff has considered that some students may be differently learning abled and need grades to succeed?

I wonder if Professor Wolff ever contemplates that if not for capitalism he would be living as a serf in Europe, rather than as a Professor at the New School?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Schooling Options

For John, BLUF:  Competition is good.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Are Homeschoolers Overqualified?

Here is the sub-headline:

A shocking letter to Mike Rowe suggests they are.

From Intellectual Takeout, Ms Annie Holmquist, 24 May 2016.

Here is the concluding paragraph:

In the last decade, the number of children being homeschooled in the U.S. rose 61.8 percent. In the U.K., homeschooling rose by 65 percent. Unless today’s institutional schools step up their game in regards to teaching children basic academic and practical skills, is it likely that the ranks of homeschoolers will continue to grow as parents look to form their children into well-rounded and well-adjusted adults?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

School Mx (Mx for Maintenance)

For John, BLUF:  Something is going n here, but I am not sure what.  I hope we don't outfox ourselves.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Health board hears laundry list of Lowell High gripes

From The [Lowell] Sun, by Reporter Aaron Curtis (acurtis@lowellsun.com), 6 February 2019.

Here is the lede plus seven:

LOWELL -- A mouse scurrying across the floor of this Lowell High School classroom has become so common, the teacher named the rodent, according to Faith Salbasfregeau.

Salbasfregeau -- told this by her grandson who sits in that classroom -- shared the story with the Board of Health on Wednesday night.

"This might be a joke, but I take it very seriously," the Lowell resident told the board.

Salbasfregeau was one of the roughly 25 concerned family members in attendance for the meeting. Complaints of rodent droppings and frigid classroom temperatures across the district, and how they are being addressed, were the focal point.

The concern expressed during the meeting was spelled out in almost six pages of complaints compiled by Paul Georges, president of the United Teachers of Lowell union.

The list is part of George's push to place pressure on the city and the district to find short-term solutions to the ongoing problems in school buildings. In December he called the Massachusetts Department of Labor Standards, prompting a state probe, Georges said.

The Board of Health went through each complaint regarding the 27 district schools Wednesday night, and the maintenance and repairs to address each of those complaints.

City Manager Eileen Donoghue said the city and district are working aggressively to address issues and apply both short and long-term solutions. The district has repaired "virtually" all the problems listed, according to Donoghue.

The article goes on from there.

It isn't like we are the only industrial government entity with a Mx problem.  The whole German Military has a Mx problem with its equipment.  Which is why President Trump complains about their [lack of] financial contribution to our common defense.

This is one of City Manager Eileen Donoghue's big problems, and she seems to be getting a handle on it.

Regards  —  Cliff

Truancy

For John, BLUF:  We have to do a better job of teaching parenting.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Immigrant Truancy in America:  'No One Wants to Talk About It'

From Real Clear Investigations, by Ms Helene Stapinski, 7 January 2019.

Here are two key paragraphs:

Chronic absenteeism plagues public education in general across the United States.  The U.S. Department of Education recently reported that about one in seven students missed 15 days or more during the 2013-14 school year.  Although these numbers are not broken down by race, ethnicity and class, experts say that the problem is especially acute in high-poverty schools, including those where many students take English as a second language.  The stakes for these children are especially significant because school is often a gateway to American culture as well as career opportunities. 

But because of the highly charged atmosphere surrounding immigration, hardly anyone wants to talk about the problem of truancy.  [David] Ishibashi [executive director of the Youth Success Network] was one of the few officials who would even agree to be quoted by name regarding the problem among immigrant families.  Most school advocates and immigration experts interviewed by RealClearInvestigations would speak only on condition of anonymity.

One of the issues here is parental responsibility, and how to instill it.  Another is adaptation to the nominal American Culture. Otherwise, why did you come here?

Read the whole short article!

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff