Category: Education

Of Course You Can’t Do That

CRT, Education, Homeschooling, Marxists

It IS the most fundemental issue facing us right now:

The American Left (aided and abetted by some conservatives) believes that the government, not parents, should determine the content of a child’s mind—their ideas, their principles, and their values. A few weeks after McAuliffe’s tone-deaf faux pas, two authors writing in The Washington Post summed up the Left’s position in the title of their op-ed: “Parents claim they have the right to shape their kids’ school curriculum. They don’t.” Parents should have neither the right nor the authority, according to the Post’s writers, to determine the ideas taught to their children. This task should be left to the “experts”—to the experts of the Education Establishment. The authors go on to claim that “education should prepare young people to think for themselves, even if that runs counter to the wishes of their parents.”

And:

“When it comes to society’s interest in protecting children, the legal precedent is unambiguous: The rights of parents come second.” But the question is, if parents’ rights come second when it comes to protecting or educating their children, then whose rights come first? And the authors’ answer is obvious: society’s rights, the government’s rights, the rights of the public-policy experts trump those of parents.

I need to quit now, because bullshit like this makes one of my fingers twitch really badly.  Let’s call it this one, just for the official record:

(but I could be lying)

And that’s even after having completed my own kids’ homeschooling many years ago.  But despite that, this is a hill I’d be prepared to die on, if called to do so.

Quick reminder to the “experts” and the State-sponsored thugs they use for “enforcement” :  if you want to see a serious piece of social upheaval, start fucking with people’s kids.  Virginia parents’ reaction to the CRT curricula isn’t even an appetizer.

Our kids are ours.  They are not the possession of the State.  But go ahead and poke that nest of rattlesnakes with your short little sticks…

Unequal

Education

Ah yes, using inequity to try to achieve equity:

Universities ‘will give poorer pupils priority’: Private school teenagers will get short shrift in admissions as colleges look to prioritise the disadvantaged

This time, it’s not choosing Blacks over Whites, but poor over wealthy.  Yup, I can just see how this will help the poor overcome the “systemic bias” of the British education system.  It’s the academic version of the “magic dirt” theory:  that somehow, exposing the poor to better education will somehow raise all of them into successful careers after graduation.

Now, I agree that the earlier system of admissions — whereby the son of Lord Snotnose-Dribbling was guaranteed a place at Oxbridge simply he was the future Earl of Dunfartin.  But let’s be honest, here:  private school education tends to produce better students than state-managed warehouses do.  And yes, it’s unfair that a scion of a wealthy (or titled) man should have easier access to places like Eton or Harrow than those of a fishmonger in Whitechapel, ergo  a better chance of getting into, say, Cambridge.  But denying the “privileged” a place at university in favor of poorer individuals whose grades are worse than the former isn’t much better, is it?

Once again, they’re expecting equality of outcome by “equalizing” admission, when any fool will tell you from experience that it’s a fool’s pursuit.

But the Left have never allowed commonsense, history and logic to interfere with their stupid philosophy, have they?

Deceit And Coverup

Education, Marxists

Via Insty comes this latest bastardy, in Eureka MO just west of St. Louis:

Faced with complaints from parents about the indoctrination of children, an official in Rockwood School District, Missouri, instructed teachers to create two sets of curriculum: a false one to share with parents, and then the real set of curriculum, focused on topics like activism and privilege.

I should point out that the foul “educator” who sent out this loathsome message is, like First Lady Jill Biden, a Doctor in Education (EdD).

And the next time someone tells me that homeschooling is wrong for children, I’m going to punch them in the face.

Timeless

Anarchist thugs, BaconLettuceMayo, Education, Literature

A constant whine among stupid people — professors and students alike — is that Literature classes should no longer have to read Shakespeare because he’s “not relevant to today’s world” or some such nonsense.

Now I can understand why students whine about reading Shakespeare, because they’re ignorant and immature, and “that’s not English, dude” — IDK wht u sez LOL — as though if it’s not “modern” then it’s not worth learning.

I will also disregard the usual cant about Shakespeare being beyond the pale because he’s, like, old and a Dead White Male Patriarch to boot.

Over at Taki’s place, David Cole has written an absolute masterpiece on Aaron, the arch-villian in Titus Andronicus  (one of my favorite of all the Bard’s works, because if you think that Brian De Palma is the be-all and end-all of violent writing, Andronicus  has him beaten by a country mile).

What Cole proves (as though any proof were needed) is just how relevant Shakespeare is in today’s world.  And what Shakespeare proves is that when it comes to the human condition, there’s very little new under the sun.

Go there now and read it all.

And then read Titus Andronicus, for the full treatment of malevolence and violence.

Education Funding

Education

From Insty:

Among other things, education money should go to parents, not to schools.  Public schools should have to compete with private schools and homeschoolers for students and funds.

I know what happens when this kind of thing is proposed:  “ZOMG the parents will just spend the money on cigarettes / booze / [insert indulgence of choice] !”

And some would. But a vast majority wouldn’t — so once again, the many are punished for the stupidity of the few.

A better idea might be instead to lower tax rates so that people could keep more of their own money, and spend it on the education of the children.  Of all the baleful “benefits” first instituted by Napoleon and Otto von Bismarck, “free” schooling (subsidized by the State) is one of the worst.