…apparently NOT!
Following the events in the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, many schools pushed out advice that talking about both sides was no longer an option. One guidance that circulated among educators was titled “There’s Nothing Virtuous About Finding Common Ground.” Translation of this document amounts to the fact that open debate, pros and cons lists, and anything else that exposes impressionable minds to anything other than prevailing orthodoxy is prohibited in many public schools. At least they’re finally admitting that the Common Core standard of critical thinking was really a euphemistic red herring for critical race theory instead.
Some states are pushing back; Iowa’s legislature recently proposed a law that would make it illegal, and punishable by fines, to teach anything related to Critical Race Theory, 1619 Project, etc. in its public schools. That’s a good start, but it isn’t enough. Parents need to speak up and more legislatures need to act. It is also encouraging that several states are pushing back on the Biden administration;’s transgender idiocy.
Biden isn’t the only one trying to ruin schooling. Vice President Kamala Harris, who as Attorney General in California, opined that “A school counselor may inform a parent or principal that a student is pregnant or has had an abortion, in order to prevent a clear and present health or safety danger, but is not required to do so and cannot be held liable for not doing so.” Some states can’t legally administer an aspirin without consent but are free to withhold information about a minor’s terminated pregnancy. Disgusting.
1. From the Daily Caller: “Elementary School In Philadelphia Instructed Students To Simulate Black Power Rally To Free ‘Black Communist’ Angela Davis”
For those not familiar with the story of Angela Davis, she hates America, supports communism, and was sent to prison for a while after supplying firearms that were used in a murderous courthouse rampage. We keep hearing guns are bad from the left, but apparently when they are obtained by militant blacks and used to kill innocent people in a courthouse proceeding, their use can be overlooked. Her politics aside, I am not sure why anyone that abetted multiple murders needs to be free.
2. From Breitbart: “San Francisco Unified School District Labels Acronyms a ‘Symptom of White Supremacy Culture’”
There are some things you can’t make up. I am not the first to notice this, but the Babylon Bee has gone from extreme satire to middle-of-the-road headlining. And they haven’t changed at all. America is such a decent country, and its people so wonderful, that the political left has simply run out of horrors to fight. I facetiously wrote my own article last November about how emojis would soon be racist because they relied on understandings of homonyms (i.e. an “eye” emoji used to communicate the first-person pronoun “I”) but I fear we are nearing that future as well.
3. From Fox News: “Oregon promotes teacher program that seeks to undo ‘racism in mathematics’”
George Orwell used the example of 2+2=5 to make the point that the mind is the last bastion of freedom. People can essentially believe anything if told enough and under the right conditions. This somehow actually became a thing last year, where a teacher unironically shared her math lesson about how 2+2=4 actually was racist. Given that the Smithsonian Museum already established that rationality, objectivity, the scientific model, and other basic features of logic were all rooted in whiteness, it was only a matter of time before this kind of thinking emerged elsewhere. Since algebraic thinking was expanded in the Middle East during white Europe’s so-called “Dark Ages,” does algebra get a pass or is all math bad?
4. From the Daily Wire: “Illinois Might Mandate Teachers To ‘Embrace’ Progressive Viewpoints”
Is it important for teachers teaching math to be proficient in math? Is it important for teachers of the English language and literary traditions to know grammar and classic works? If you certify teachers in Illinois, the answers to those questions are no. It is also racist to ask those questions and racist to continue demanding proficiency in subject areas from teachers. Systemic racism means doing what has always been done. Since black and brown students have underperformed compared to their white peers (for a host of legitimate reasons, for the record), the short answer is that teacher qualifications and cultural and racial consciousness is the only one that matters. George Bush, another vile racist, once cautioned against the soft bigotry of low expectations. Someone should tell that to Illinois when none of their kids can read, write, or do math. Oh wait, they can’t already. Good job, Illinois!
5. From PJ Media: “The SPLC’s Horrifying Plan for Your Children’s Schools”
6. From American Thinker: “Exposing BLM’s Agenda-Driven K-12 Curriculum”
If you thought last summer’s riots were awful, just wait until school-age kids across the country get a few more years under them. In any given year, there are about 50-60 million students in the public school system. America is so awful, these students are all taught, the only recourse is burning it down and starting over. Once they learn about the horrible and irredeemable history of the United States and come to understand just how awful this country is, does anyone think those riots won’t return, and in greater force? I’d say it’s basic math, but Oregon and Illinois are making that analogy tougher by the day.
7. From The College Fix: “School superintendent in hot water for saying Black Lives Matter is a ‘political’ movement”
The worst part of the article is that the man apologized. Couldn’t he have learned a lesson from Gina Carrano? This statement is as true as saying the sky is blue.
8. From the Daily Caller: “A Gay Father Of Mixed-Race Children Was Too White For The San Francisco School Board”
This is perhaps the most recycled story on the list, but it’s also my favorite. We covered it on our podcast as well. If a daily dose of schadenfreude is un-Christian, color me a sinner, because nothing makes me smile like a kid on Christmas than seeing a devout leftist get eaten by their own kind. You know this gay dad of biracial children only votes one way, and he finally experienced what so many of us have endured on the conservative right. He thought he was a shoe-in (I’m gay! My kids are mixed race!), only to find out his white skin made him a liability and the enemy. The best part is that someone went on record saying there were too many white men, which is another way of saying his gay perspective was immaterial. Delicious stuff. Unfortunately for the rest of us, he will likely still vote Democrat. What’s the saying about a horse and water?
9. From the Washington Times: “Thomas Jefferson, George Mason schools to be renamed in Va. district so everyone can ‘feel safe’”
It’s astonishing to listen to school types say they want to teach real history, only to subsequently erase it physically and visibly. I hardly condone changing a Robert E. Lee school name (his life consisted of more than just four years as a Confederate general and did a lot more for the country than any of the loser school board members combined), but if the South is confronting its ugly history, then at least I am open to the debate. I refuse, however, to debate the erasure of Founding Fathers (least of all Jefferson, whose written word provided the foundation from which slavery was abolished, Dr. King advanced civil rights, etc.). They all stay. Period.
San Francisco voted more recently to get rid of Lincoln as well, but there are so many stories out of the city alone I wanted to diversify the column geographically. That being said, what the hell is happening out there and why does anyone tolerate it? But again, in the tasty satisfaction of leftist cancelation, I delight in knowing that career politician and lifelong Democrat Diane Feinstein is going to lose her namesake school, too.
10. From Townhall: Teachers’ Union Cuts Vaccine Line, Then Refuses to Return to Classrooms Anyway
I need to make an important distinction. I like many teachers. Save for the minority of crazies and activists in front of our kids, most are decent people who just like kids and want to do some good in this world. I also believe that most go along for the ride of CRT and BLM nonsense because 1) They don’t know any better, 2) There is no alternative, 3) Teachers are feelers and leftism preys on emotions, 4) They like their jobs over any outspoken criticism.
Nevertheless, when it comes to teacher unions and teachers as a collective, I have nothing but contempt for them. Among these headlines and countless others, this is a fair statement to pursue. Most of all, though, their collective response to Covid has been nothing short of embarrassing and pathetic. While hourly workers across the nation have stoically kept grocery store shelves stocked, checkout lines humming, gas stations operating, and deliveries of food and other sundries arriving on time, salaried teachers have wet themselves over a virus with a 99.998% survival rate if under 50 years old AND with no evidence (since May, mind you) that kids are a vector of transmission for adults.
Teachers have hid behind their insanely strong and immoral public unions since last March. They have collected every paycheck, every healthcare benefit, every retirement contribution – and for what? In the private sector, you work or lose your job. In the field of K-12 public education, you are rewarded for being a coward.
Most infuriating is that teachers demanded remote learning while many of them marched in BLM protests protests over the summer. If anyone still doubts their sincerity, just know that the same people that are allegedly afraid of transmission-free kids were the same people marching in superspreader events.
Oh, and public education doesn’t nearly matter because home life has the biggest impact on a person’s life trajectory. So there’s that, too. But we will save that for another day.
Get your children OUT of the System – NOW
Written by Parker Beauregard for The Blue State Conservative ~ February 16, 2021