PoliticalChic
Diamond Member
"You cannot hold teachers accountable for that which they cannot control."
I haven't made it so succinctly, but that is exactly my message, time and again.
It is the Liberal control of the system that is responsible for both the aim at indoctrination, and at the lack of real education.
1. Control is by those who follow the communist John Dewey and the communist Paulo Freire, who never intends âpedagogyâ to refer to any method of classroom instruction based on analysis and research, or to any means of producing higher academic achievement for students. [H]e relies on Marxâs standard formulation that âthe class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat [and] this dictatorship only constitutes the transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society.â In one footnote, however, Freire does mention a society that has actually realized the âpermanent liberationâ he seeks: it âappears to be the fundamental aspect of Maoâs Cultural Revolution.â
2. The âMassachusetts miracle,â in which Bay State studentsâ soaring test scores broke records, was the direct consequence of the state legislatureâs passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act, which established knowledge-based standards for all grades and a rigorous testing system linked to the new standards. And those standards, Massachusetts reformers have acknowledged, are Hirschâs legacy.
In the new millennium, Massachusetts students have surged upward on the biennial National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)ââthe nationâs report card,â as education scholars call it. On the 2005 NAEP tests, Massachusetts ranked first in the nation in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and fourth- and eighth-grade math. It then repeated the feat in 2007. No state had ever scored first in both grades and both subjects in a single yearâlet alone for two consecutive test cycles. On another reliable test, the Trends in International Math and Science Studies, the stateâs fourth-graders last year ranked second globally in science and third in math, while the eighth-graders tied for first in science and placed sixth in math. (States can volunteer, as Massachusetts did, to have their students compared with national averages.) The United States as a whole finished tenth. E. D. Hirschâs Curriculum for Democracy
I think you are seeing the whole of American education through some strange lens that is Brooklyn or Queens or whatever uber-liberal NY lens you live in. It is absolutely true that some areas of the US have been entirely given over to the worst of "liberal indoctrination".
It is also true that--thank GOD--NY is not America. In fact, I have been to over half of US states and NY is the ONLY US city so far I never, ever want to visit again. I barely recognized my country there. Sadly.
As to your article there: as usual a very good read, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Students, especially young children, cannot discover "knowledge" if they are ignorant, generally. I don't mean "ignorant" as a slam, btw, I mean they must be taught basic knowledge, skills and facts. I have no problem with this. At the same time, simply drilling them on these all the livelong day is a waste of their human potential. They must also then learn to APPLY what they have learned in the real world. To create, problem solve, etc. So really a balanced view is best--the "sage on the stage" teaches, and when the students have gained necessary knowledge and skills, "the guide on the side" is there to advise.
It's nation-wide.
1. "Third-Grade Teacher Has Students Write âGet Wellâ Cards To Cop Killer Mumia Abu-Jamal A third-grade teacher at a public school in New Jersey is under fire after she encouraged her students to write letters to notorious convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, who recently fell ill in prison.
Marylin Zuniga teaches language arts and social studies at Forest Street School in Orange, N.J."
Third-Grade Teacher Has Students Write âGet Wellâ Cards To Cop Killer Mumia Abu-Jamal
2. - School's Nation of Islam Handout Paints Founding Fathers as Racists
"School's Nation of Islam Handout Paints Founding Fathers as Racists
The mother of an eight-year-old wants to know why a Tennessee school teacher gave her child a handout from the Nation of Islam that portrayed the presidents on Mount Rushmore as being racists.
Sommer Bauer tells me her son was given The Nation of Islam handout at Harold McCormick Elementary School in Elizabethton. The handout asked âWhat does it take to be on Mount Rushmore?"
The handout then explains that George Washington hailed from Virginia, a âprime breeder of black people.â Of Theodore Roosevelt, it was alleged he called Africans âape-like.â There were also disparaging remarks made of Thomas Jefferson (he enslaved 200 Africans) and Abraham Lincoln.
The teacher also told Sommer that her son was not supposed to take the Nation of Islam handout home. It was supposed to stay in the classroom. That bit of news caused her great alarm.
âThe fact that students were cautioned against allowing their parents to see anything is deeply troubling,â West told me. âThe only reasonable explanation is they donât want parents to know what it is their children are learning.â
So whatâs the bottom line?
âWe had a teacher who apparently never looked at something, never read something, before it was distributed to a class of third graders,â West said. âIn addition, she warned the students not to take it home.â
That does seem a bit odd.
Iâve interviewed Sommer at least a half dozen times. Her story has remained consistent. The teacher gave Sommer two explanations for what happened in the classroom. The superintendent gave me a third.
I find it hard to believe an 8-year-old boy would steal a handout from a teacherâs desk, bring it home and then concoct an elaborate tale to cover up the crime."
3. "...many parents of children in public schools are deeply concerned, wondering if they should keep their kids in public school or just get out now.
For these parents, the transgender agenda is the game-changer. Under pressure from transgender activists, progressive politicians, teacher unions, and the education establishment, and despite parentsâ opposition, Americaâs public schools are capitulating to ideologues and implementing the radical transgender agenda with full force.
...regardless of biological sex, .... Activists want every child, from kindergarten on, to learn that âsexâ is something âassigned at birthâ rather than a biological reality. They want children to think that individuals get to choose their own âgender identityâ (not limited to male or female), and that everyone else must affirm that âgender identityâ as true.
...nothing that parents (or teachers) can do to prevent the schools from imposing policies designed to indoctrinate children with gender ideology.
....âpolitical scientists and foreign policy experts have used the term deep state for years to describe individuals and institutions who exercise power independent ofâand sometimes overâcivilian political leaders.â In public education, the âdeep stateâ describes a coalition of various groups â including teachersâ unions, progressive advocacy groups, major corporations, and philanthropists --that work together to promote the progressive worldview..."
Americaâs Public Education System: The Ultimate Deep State
4. The National Education Association approved a new "business item" expressing support for abortion access during its annual conference in Houston.
"[T]he NEA will include an assertion of our defense of a person's right to control their own body, especially for women, youth, and sexually marginalized people," the resolution states. "The NEA vigorously opposes all attacks on the right to choose and stands on the fundamental right to abortion under Roe v. Wade."
The NEA is the largest teachers' union in the U.S. with more than 3 million members. It collected nearly $400 million from American educators in 2018, according to federal labor filings. The union is also one of the most politically active in the country, spending $70 million on politics and lobbying in 2017 and 2018. Nearly all of the union's political action committee spending went to Democrats during the midterm cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
NEA's 2019 adopted New Business Items (NBIs) reveal what savvy teachers have known for decades: state and national teachers' unions are essentially the political action committee of the Far-Left,"
Largest U.S. Teachers' Union Endorses Abortion
5. the 20-minute video being shown in American classrooms entitled The
Story of Stuff; a catchy title to appeal to grade school kids. This piece of anti-capitalist propaganda was
put together by Greenpeace member Annie Leonard.
6. NYC schools allow kids to go on #ClimateStrike
âTEN YEARS. We have ten years to save the planet,â Mayor Bill de Blasio cautioned in a tweet. âTodayâs leaders are making decisions for our environment that our kids will have to live with. New York City stands with our young people. Theyâre our conscience. We support the 9/20 #ClimateStrike.â
Legions of adolescent activists across the globe are expected to demand immediate action to combat climate change in advance of a major UN conference on the issue next week.
As long as mom and dad sanction their principled truancy, absent kids wonât have attendance records dinged, the DOE said.
The September 20th event will feature Swedenâs âClimate Crisisâ sweetheart, 16-year old Greta Thunberg.
Teen activist and Swedish sensation Greta Thunberg, who recently docked her zero-emissions sailboat in New York, will speak at the event which will snake its way through lower Manhattan to Battery Park.
Kids with parental permission to attend will be granted excused absences from school, Education Department officials tweeted Thursday.
The infamous âGreen New Dealâ will be promoted as well.
The New York City climate strike is backed by more than 100 environmental and political activist groups and other institutions, including New York Communities for Change, The New School and the Sierra Club.
The protestersâ demands include a âGreen New Dealâ that would end fossil fuel extraction and move the nation onto entirely renewable energy sources by 2030. Green New Deal policies have been backed by the likes of U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Personally, if I were one of the kids, I might argue about going to school at all. After all, if the Earth only has 10 more years before we are going to die, wouldnât it be better to spend the time having fun or spending quality time with family?
On the other hand, if the New York City school officials were really invested in solving the climate crisis, wouldnât they emphasize science and math? Perhaps keeping the kids in school and having them conduct experiments or perform calculations would inspire an interest in real climate science.
One theory that seems to prove true and is certainly consistent with what is happening with the New York City schools: When global problems are emphasized by locals, serious local matters are being ignored.
Case in point: New York state test results for third- through eighth-grade public school students are out, and the results are underwhelming.
Statewide, more than half the kids flunked yet again: Just 45.4% were deemed proficient in reading and 46.7% in math. In the city, 47.4% passed the reading test, while 45.6% got by in math.
Think the problemâs skimpy funding? Sorry: In 2017, the Empire Centerâs E.J. McMahon reported in May, New York shelled out 89% more per kid than the national average. And that gap has been growing fast: In 1997, per-pupil outlays here were just 45% above average.
âŚIn the city Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza tried to spin the results positively. The pass rate in English, they noted, is up 0.7 percentage points â and three whole points in math.
âGrowth counts for something,â Carranza insisted.
Huh? That paltry uptick is what theyâre proud of? Even though more than half the kids bombed? Please.
Notably, kids in the one category of public schools de Blasio and Carranza (and their union pals) donât run â i.e., the charters â beat their counterparts in the regular schools by more than 10 percentage points in both English and math.
At least the kids wonât be flying private jets to attend the event. That makes them substantially less hypocritical than the celebrities who will be indoctrinating them during the Manhattan event.
NYC schools allow kids to go on #ClimateStrike
7. âFifth-grade teacher defends wearing 'Columbus was a murderer' shirt to schoolâ Fifth-grade teacher defends wearing âColumbus was a murdererâ shirt to school
There is no hope for America unless the occupation of the school system by Liberals is over turned.
First you'll get no argument from me about the NEA; that's why I don't belong. Second, your teacher stories here are anecdotal. You know we live in a vast, very diverse nation. The little elementary school in Littletown, Nebraska looks nothing like the schools in NYC or Berkeley, CA. It would be ridiculous to think they do.
They are from all across the country.
Open your eyes: the teaching profession has moved away from you, as the Democrat Party has moved from America.
Eh, they're talking points. Conservatives have a nugget of truth about teachers and schools and then get totally overblown with it in the very same way Leftists go on about cops.
No, stop and really think about that.
When you all go glossy eyed about how all schools are Leftist Indoctrination Centers, you sound to me exactly like Leftists sound when they go on about all cops being racist haters who are out to shoot blacks. It's irrational. It's fundamentally irrational. I cannot convince you with my experience INSIDE the system for 25 years nor even my very own self. Again, you take nuggets and anecdotes and paint an entire system, mostly for your own personal gain, to convince yourself that your own choice is correct. (homeschooling). This is what Leftists do, again, with police officers. Have at it, but I can't reason with it.
Really???
8. âSeattle Public Schools Say Math Is Racist
The Seattle Public Schools Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee (ESAC) released a rough draft of notes for its Math Ethnic Studies framework in late September, which attempts to connects math to a history of oppression.â Seattle Public Schools Say Math Is Racist
9. âThe sex and gender revolutionaries have officially taken over the Austin Independent School District without firing a single shot. In spite of overwhelming opposition from parents and pastors, the districtâs trustees voted early Tuesday morning to implement a pornographic sex education policy that includes instruction on anal sex and how to place a condom on an erect penis.
The father of a fifth grader demanded to know who gave the school district the right to teach his child how to have anal and oral sex.â Texas School District Implements Pornographic Sex Education Policy
I'm not talking about you or your experience....I take that as truth.
But outside of same, the profession as a whole is owned and operated by Leftism, Inc.
As for you.....if the shoe doesn't fit, don't try to wear it.