**On Tuesday, November 30, 2021, I will return with the second long-form essay in my series on the issue of “rights” and education.
DUMB AND DUMBER (No. 16)
K-12 EDITION
THE CASE FOR HOMESCHOOLING: “Our Homeschooling Odyssey.”
NEOCONS ARE GOOD AT DIAGNOSING THE PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION BUT NOT SO GOOD AT OFFERING SOLUTIONS THAT ARE MEANINGFULLY DIFFERENT FROM THOSE OF THE EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT: “'Culturally Responsive Education' Can Morph from Appealing Theory to Troubling Practice.”
AN EARTHQUAKE IS COMING: “The Other Back to School Story.”
REPULSIVE: “California parents demand answers on school board member's profane tweets: 'Really disturbing to me'.”
REMEMBER: THESE PEOPLE THINK OF THEMSELVES AS YOUR CHILD’S “SECOND MOTHER,” WHICH MEANS THEY CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANT IN YOUR ABSENCE.: “Oregon teacher removes American flag from classroom, says it 'stands for violence and menace and intolerance'.”
A Portland-area teacher who opposes her district’s vote to ban Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ Pride symbols in schools told local media that she removed the American flag from her classroom because it represents "violence and menace and intolerance."
"I'll say this personally: I've spent 23 years in this district and you can't tell me what to do," she said. "I know my kids, and I know what's best for them and what to do to help them feel comfortable. I took the American flag down in my classroom because that's the most political symbol there is.
GRIFTER REPORT: “What Is the Purpose of School? Like it or not, educators are in the social-welfare business.”
MAJOR LEAGUE GRIFT FOR THE EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT. You might think that more money would translate into better results, but you would be wrong. “Public schools now costlier than college.”
Arizona public schools just hit a major milestone — they’re officially more expensive than the full freight tuition cost of sending a child to college at a four-year university here in the Grand Canyon State.
As newly reported by the nonpartisan Joint Legislative Budget Committee, Arizona public schools are now so awash in funding that they will have $14,326 to spend per student in the 2021-2022 school year. By comparison, according to the same budget analysts, tuition and fees at Arizona State University cost around $3,000 less, coming in at $11,348. At Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona, those tuition totals rise only to $11,896 and $12,671, respectively. In other words, attending any of Arizona’s three public universities would cost a family less than taxpayers are kicking in for each student in our public K-12 system.
GROSS. And a fifteen-year-old would prefer to write a sex scene for his or her teacher (as opposed to their mom), why? “Ohio High School Book Prompts Kids to 'Write a Sex Scene You Wouldn't Show Your Mom'... Mayor Demands Resignations.”
HIGHER ED EDITION
THIS IS WHAT’S CALLED PROGRESS AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, I GUESS.
Professor #1 refers to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan Flu” and is persecuted and prosecuted by the university.
Professor #2 Tweets that the cause of 9-11 was America’s “heteropatriarchal capitalist systems” and is publicly defended by the university.
Let’s see if the administration will apply their free speech policy to non-Leftists: A Good Statement on Faculty Speech from Syracuse
HERE’S A MUCH BETTER STATEMENT ON CAMPUS FREE SPEECH:
NICE: “Banking Firm That Lost 66 Employees on 9/11 Pays for All Their Children to Go to College.”
I NEVER SAID I WAS A PSYCHIATRIST, BUT I’M PRETTY SURE THIS “PROFESSOR” FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT & FAMILY SCIENCE COULD USE SOME FRIENDLY HELP: “EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Tech syllabus apologizes for instructor's White skin.”
WE NEED A NEW REVOLT OF THE VENDÉE (BUT WITH A BETTER OUTCOME): “Cancel Culture is Both a Scarlet Letter and a Reign of Terror.”
INDOCTRINATION U: “Princeton Indoctrination Begins Before Classes Even Start.”
JUST LIKE CLOCKWORK . . .“Profs blame 9/11 on US foreign policy, racism at event featuring speakers with ties to terrorists.”
COMING TO A COLLEGE NEAR YOU:
IT’S COME TO THIS: “Is It Ever OK To Enunciate A Slur In The Classroom?”
CENSORSHIP U: “Report: 74% of professors targeted for unpopular speech or research end up punished by administrators.”
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: “States are cutting university budgets. Taxpayers aren't interested in funding campus kooks.”
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make crazy. And higher education has become objectively crazy. It’s not a shock that taxpayers think their money might be better spent elsewhere than on subsidizing enclaves of insanity. It’s especially true when universities spend so much of their time attacking so many of the Americans who pay taxes to support them, from Trump voters, to Christians, to gun owners and businesspeople. It takes a lot of chutzpah to slap someone in the face and then put your hand out for money, but that’s what universities have been doing for decades and with special force over the past few years.