Dumb and Dumber (Nos. 38 & 39)
Watching the Education Apocalypse in Slow Motion
I was hoping to have a long form essay for you this past Tuesday, but as I noted last week I’ve been on a weeklong trip to Nevada and Utah and it didn’t get finished. Actually, I had an essay ready to go but I kept writing, writing, and writing, and it just got too long to publish. The good news (for me at least) is that what was once one essay is now two, which I’ll publish this coming week and the one after.
Right now I’m at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, where I gave two talks and taught a couple of classes. I’ve had a wonderful time at Snow. Great college in a beautiful place that values freedom of thought and speech.
K-12 EDITION
AT A CERTAIN POINT, PARENTS HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WELLBEING OF THEIR CHILDREN. If your child is being abused at school, you have a moral responsibility to get them out: “‘I Get Scared To Go To School’: Uptick In Violence In Baltimore County Schools Has Students Fearful & Parents Concerned.”
AMERICA’S KIDS CAN’T READ, WRITE, OR CALCULATE, BUT THEY SURE DO KNOW WHICH PRONOUNS OR HORMONE BLOCKERS TO USE, NOT TO MENTION KNOWING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN “cisgender, transgender, nonbinary, and "gender expansive.” “America’s Kids Earn Disappointing Grades on Nation’s Report Card
Math and reading scores for 9-year-old students in the U.S. are flat since 2012, while those of 13-year-olds declined dramatically – representing the first major drops in the subjects since the National Assessment of Educational Progress began tracking long-term academic achievement trends in the 1970s. . . .
"None of these results are impressive," said Peggy Carr, the associate commissioner in the assessment division of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees the administration of the testing and the analysis of results.
"All of these results are concerning, but the math results were particularly daunting, particularly for 13 year-olds," she said. "I asked them to go back and check because I wanted to make sure [the results were accurate]. I've been reporting these results for years – for decades – and I've never reported a slide like that."
NO, THEY’RE NOT ACTUALLY QUITTING. THEY’RE JUST MAKING A SCENE AND ACTING OUT: Florida teachers quitting in protest after bill would make open gay grooming virtually impossible
I’D CUT, TOO, IF I WERE IN NYC GOVERNMENT (AND PRIVATE) SCHOOLS. #JustWalkAway: Chronic Absenteeism In NYC Schools Hits 40%
NO: Do Kids Really Need To Wear Masks at School?
THEY KEEP TELLING ME THAT THE PROBLEM WITH HOMESCHOOLING IS THAT THE KIDS DON’T GET ENOUGH SOCIALIZATION. If this is what they mean by “socialization,” then I’ll take a pass on the whole socialization thing: High Schooler Killed Himself 6 Hours After Falling Victim To Sextortion Plot
FINALLY, SOME GOOD NEWS. A good report from Mike Sabo at RealClearPolitics: “1776 Unites Curriculum Highlights the American Character.”
Teachers looking for a history and civics curriculum that focuses on America’s promise of securing liberty for all have a new resource: the 1776 Unites curriculum. A creation of 1776 Unites, an initiative of the Woodson Center focused on reviving American education and culture, the curriculum embraces the “ideas of family, faith, and entrepreneurship that have enabled all Americans – including black Americans – throughout history to move from persecution to prosperity.”
As 1776 Unites members wrote in an open letter to the National School Boards Association and local school boards, the curriculum “offers authentic, motivating stories from American history that show what is best in our national character and what our freedom makes possible even in the most difficult circumstances.”
According to entrepreneur and civil rights leader Bob Woodson, it tells stories of “black Americans who seized their own destinies and flourished despite the harsh restrictions imposed by true institutional racism in the form of slavery and Jim Crow.”
This Mike Sabo fellow is doing excellent work as the editor of RealClear’s American Civics portal. And more good stuff from Mr. Sabo: “Educating Students about the Victims of Communism.”
GOOD REVIEW OF A NOT SO GOOD BOOK: “Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy.”
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG! Gay substitute teacher fired after handing out pride bracelets to students
HOMESCHOOL EDITION
MORE, PLEASE; FASTER, PLEASE: Program offers grants to financially challenged homeschoolers
HIGHER ED EDITION
RACISM ALERT: Elizabethtown College edition. Where do these people think all this racism leads us? “No whites allowed at anti-racist Elizabethtown College event.”
THREE HEAVYWEIGHT DEFENDERS OF FREE SPEECH AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM: “So They’re Trying to Shut You Up: How to defend yourself in a free-speech crisis, whatever your politics.”
GEORGE F. WILL: “The woke mob runs into a college teacher who’s fighting back.”
THIS KIND OF THING HAPPENS A LOT. These young men need to, in the words of Barack Obama, “hit back twice as hard.” They could start with good lawyers. “Hoax: No substance to rape allegations against Oklahoma university frat.”
SUE AND SUE BIGLY: Professor suspended after publicly criticizing university’s ‘wokeness.’
THE BABYLON BEE DOING WHAT IT DOES BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE: Teachers Who Insist They’re Not Teaching Your Kid About Sex Also Weirdly Outraged By Ban On Teaching Your Kid About Sex.
VICTORY!!! Great news for the little guys and bad news for the “educated” Ruling Elite: Appeals Court Upholds Gibson’s Bakery Massive Verdict Against Oberlin College.
PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS EDITION
THE PARTY OF SCIENCE: Harvard Med School professor: White women are ‘birthing people’; blacks, Hispanics are ‘women.’