Assault on education

[China]

NC Republicans launch ‘most egregious’ attack in the country on UNC. Why?

 

The University of North Carolina System drives the state’s economy and advances the state’s reputation as a leader in public higher education. But Republicans are prepared to trade all that for the satisfaction of intimidating professors and solving a problem that doesn’t exist – universities as liberal indoctrination centers.

 

That’s the goal of House Bill 715, which would eliminate tenure for UNC System and community college faculty hired after July 1, 2024.

 

It also sets minimum class sizes and calls for UNC campuses to submit to the UNC Board of Governors a list of all “noninstructional” faculty research. This is part of a trend in several red states to rein in public university faculty and give more power to politicians and their appointees.

 

Irene Mulvey, national president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), recently testified against such legislation in Florida and Texas. She told me the North Carolina bill is the most sweeping move yet to undermine the independence of tenured faculty.

 

“There are attacks on tenure nationwide, but this is the most egregious I’ve seen,” she said. “It’s saying academic freedom would no longer be respected or protected in North Carolina.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[JCB]

I personally would love to talk to those fascists about my research on anti-democratic politics in America. Let’s fight, ****ers.

[China]

DeSantis' educational board nominees have deep ties to dark money: report

 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has placed an emphasis on structuring school boards by nominating far-right activists who align with his controversial initiative to reform education.

 

Now, a new report is offering insight into the types of nominees he's selected and how they are connected to Republican dark money. In a report published by Truthout, Alyssa Bowen and Caitlin Mahoney began with an overview of all that has transpired in recent months.

 

"DeSantis has appointed far-right activists with ties to dark money groups to fill the state’s Board of Education, which wields significant power over the state’s K-12 schools, including the power to dictate educational standards," Bowen and Mahoney wrote.

 

"These appointments, however, have garnered less media attention than DeSantis’s takeover of Florida’s New College, which included appointing Christopher Rufo, the architect of the recent manufactured outrage over supposed 'critical race theory' in public schools and an

 

According to Bowen and Mahoney, the nominees have been linked to dark money groups like Moms For Liberty (MFL), “Judicial Crisis Network” (JCN), The Catholic Association (TCA), and a number of others.

 

The writers went on to express concern about how these types of nominees and heir extremist views could ultimately impact schools and education across the state of Florida. They note that the type of money they have access to puts them in a better position to push their agenda.

 

"Such extremism by members of a board that determines what is taught in K-12 schools statewide should be disqualifying in itself," they wrote. "The dark money ties of these far-right actors, who have the power to push the fringe positions of their donors to public school children across the state, should also raise eyebrows."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Destino]

Roald Dahl is a regular lightning rod of controversy lately.  

[Larry]

5 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

 

Was one of them dressed up as a Trans M&M?  

[Larry]

And they've been indoctrinating us with their drag shows for generations, too.  

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[The Evil Genius]

Maybe Thanos should win. 

[Destino]

I’m not in favor of banning books, but my daughter recently became interested in YA books.  The section at Barnes and noble is absolutely loaded with sex.  If these people actually start reading those books they’re going to be horrified.  

[GhostofSparta]

2 hours ago, Destino said:

I’m not in favor of banning books, but...

Well that's one way to start a sentence

[Destino]

8 hours ago, GhostofSparta said:

Well that's one way to start a sentence

lol

 

I’m still not in favor of banning books though, or any speech for that matter.  I think the idea of banning speech is just begging for abuse.  There’s no right way to give the government that sort of power. It just allows them to decide what topics can be debated.  What I am in favor of is parents paying closer attention to what their kids are getting into. 

 

what exactly is a parent doing if they’re not guiding the education of their children. Imo that encompasses a great deal more than just basic schooling.

[The Evil Genius]

7 hours ago, Destino said:

 What I am in favor of is parents paying closer attention to what their kids are getting into. 

 

what exactly is a parent doing if they’re not guiding the education of their children. Imo that encompasses a great deal more than just basic schooling.

 

I say this as someone without them, but I suspect the answer is that deep down (to the point where people will never admit it), kids are an inconvenience for too many people who have them.

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by The Evil Genius

[TradeTheBeal!]

Y’all gotta remember…Destino, whom I think very highly of, is on the record as thinking the modern masterpiece film The VVitch is actually a diabolical parable that celebrates child trafficking and rape.  So uh…y’all gotta give him his space here.  
 

He’s trained his brain to find great and powerful evil in the works of fiction.  Which is a not at all uncommon coping strategy.  

[Destino]

6 hours ago, TradeTheBeal! said:

Y’all gotta remember…Destino, whom I think very highly of, is on the record as thinking the modern masterpiece film The VVitch is actually a diabolical parable that celebrates child trafficking and rape.  So uh…y’all gotta give him his space here.  
 

He’s trained his brain to find great and powerful evil in the works of fiction.  Which is a not at all uncommon coping strategy.  

What I said, which is objectively true, is that the devil in that movie uses extreme coercion to get the answer it wants… including killing the girls entire family.  The coercion present undercuts the notion of choices being made freely, even if Anna Taylor Joy disagrees with me.  Let’s not confuse discussion over what occurs in the narrative with my accusing the film creators of “celebrating” anything.  It’s horror, my favorite genre, it’s supposed to have very dark and scary happenings.  
 

I just didn’t buy your take on things that it was somehow a feminist empowerment narrative.  I still don’t. 
 

Also, coping strategy? Really?  lol

[Destino]

2 hours ago, The Evil Genius said:

 

I say this as someone without them, but I suspect the answer is that deep down (to the point where people will never admit it), kids are an inconvenience for too many people who have them.

 

Maybe, though I suspect it’s more a matter of time and energy.  It’s hard to be everything for everyone.  

[China]

 

[dfitzo53]

I mean honestly, everybody probably should receive basic first aid training in public school. First aid training nowadays generally involves use of tourniquets, most likely not dissimilar from those in the military. 

 

But obviously the real problem here is cutting sex ed. Red states gonna red state. They really just want it to be the middle ages.

[China]

I'm all for kids learning first aid, but this comes across as "Since we're unwilling to do anything about our gun problem, let's at least teach kids how to keep each other from bleeding out when they inevitably get shot in a school shooting."

[Cool Hwhip]

1 minute ago, China said:

I'm all for kids learning first aid, but this comes across as "Since we're unwilling to do anything about our gun problem, let's at least teach kids how to keep each other from bleeding out when they inevitably get shot in a school shooting."

As a teacher myself, unfortunately I tend to agree. Of course kids needs to understand the basics of first aid in case they need to help their fellow students,teachers, etc in case of emergency. Obviously they can use these skills for outside of school also. However,as you say I don't think this is really as well meant if you will as they are making it out to be. A bit of window dressing to hide the real issue of gun control in schools and the public in general.

 

Again, I applaud the idea behind first aid training for kids, but way, way more needs to be done to make schools safe.

[dfitzo53]

5 minutes ago, China said:

I'm all for kids learning first aid, but this comes across as "Since we're unwilling to do anything about our gun problem, let's at least teach kids how to keep each other from bleeding out when they inevitably get shot in a school shooting."

Yeah I read that into it too. 

 

If you asked me for my opinion, I'd say, let's teach first aid AND sex ed,  AND let's improve gun control until our kids are safe. 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

13 year old boy has sex with a 22 year old hot blonde teacher:

 

"People are making too big a deal out of this. That kid was lucky, I wish I had teachers like that when I was his age!"

 

13 year old boy reads about sex in a book:

 

"Teachers are indoctrinating and grooming our kids!!"

 

 

[TD_washingtonredskins]

15 hours ago, Califan007 The Constipated said:

13 year old boy has sex with a 22 year old hot blonde teacher:

 

"People are making too big a deal out of this. That kid was lucky, I wish I had teachers like that when I was his age!"

 

13 year old boy reads about sex in a book:

 

"Teachers are indoctrinating and grooming our kids!!"

 

 

 

Eh, that's a false narrative though. The social media comments don't truly reflect how an individual parent would react if his 13-year old son was having sex with his teacher. I can both say "damn, I wish 13-year old me could have boned a hot teacher" and "I'd be livid if my 13-year old's teacher boned him...it could severely F him up." 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

5 minutes ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

 

Eh, that's a false narrative though. The social media comments don't truly reflect how an individual parent would react if his 13-year old son was having sex with his teacher. I can both say "damn, I wish 13-year old me could have boned a hot teacher" and "I'd be livid if my 13-year old's teacher boned him...it could severely F him up." 

 

And that part in bold is a flawed comparison. I was clearly talking about popular narratives being given by certain demographics of people, not individuals...and the lack of consistency. We had a thread on this very topic years ago and I pointed it out then, too.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

59 minutes ago, Califan007 The Constipated said:

 

And that part in bold is a flawed comparison. I was clearly talking about popular narratives being given by certain demographics of people, not individuals...and the lack of consistency. We had a thread on this very topic years ago and I pointed it out then, too.

 

But my biggest issue whenever people do that type of comparison you did above is that you never know that the same people are making those same arguments. Just because hundreds of people say one thing then hundreds say the next thing, how do you know they are the same hundreds of people to make them hypocrites? It's a strawman argument unless you know that @twitterguy11 thinks it's cool when teens bone teachers but a travesty when they read porn in schools.