Assault on education

[Destino]

55 minutes ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

 

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. 

Theres some validity to this.  Those astroturf moms that are taking over school boards and banning books strike me as unlikely to offer a 13 year old boy a high five for being raped by his female teacher.  

[China]

On 5/1/2023 at 5:51 PM, China said:

 

 

On 5/1/2023 at 7:06 PM, 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."

 

 

[ixcuincle]

i've been doing some research on conservative media and the old 2016 debates, Trump is always asking to remove the DoE. What is the point? He's been blabbing about this since 2016 lol

[Larry]

Just an anecdotal story.  

 

I'm looking for a job as a nurse, following an "unplanned rapid deconstruction" of my previous job.  

 

And I'm seeing lots of job listings, for nursing agencies, wanting to hire school nurses.  

 

Now, 4 years ago, when I was in LPN school, we did some clinical rotations with school nurses in elementary schools, in town.  It struck me as easy work.  And a lot of advantages compared to other nursing jobs.  It's a 9-5 M-F job.  You're off for every imaginable holiday, and quite a few others.  Mostly, you hand out medications to the kids who need them, and you fix booboos.  

 

And the pay absolutely sucked.  I was making more money, working as a CNA, than the school nurse who was training me.  

 

Well, now I'm seeing these job listings.  And the pay is like triple what I remember from 5 years ago.  And I like kids, at least in theory.  I enjoy watching their faces, when I'm at Disney.  (Even the cranky temper tantrum ones.)  

 

And I applied.  Got called back.  Have a Zoom interview scheduled for 3:30.  

 

And I just emailed them, and said I was going to have to withdraw.  

 

Partially, because of my lack of experience with children.  My experience with children is about as close to zero as it's possible to be.  

 

But also, because of the current political climate.  

 

I'm scared of working as a medical professional, and as a government employee, and for a public school, around children.  

 

I mentioned, in my withdrawal letter, that I'm having mental images of being told that Ron DeSantis is prosecuting me for felony child abuse, (or being shot in the parking lot), because I told a 13 year old that the Covid vaccine works.  

 

I'm applying for a job in a locked mental health unit.  For less money.  And worse shifts.  

[TheGreatBuzz]

38 minutes ago, Larry said:

But also, because of the current political climate. 

 

I assumed it was because you didn't want to be a a first-responder to a school shooting.  And this is no judgment for your decision, everyone should do what is right for them.  But I have found the things I'm willing to fight for have changed as I've aged.  Someone has to take the school job.  You or some MTG follower secretly giving kids invermectin?  Good people are needed on the ground for the good fight.

 

Just my $.02

[Larry]

I actually think I'd be very good as a first responder in a school shooting. 
 

Well, maybe. I could easily see myself deciding that my duty to my patients overrides my judgement of the risk of entering. 
 

Just as another anecdote, I have a 100% success rate (1 out of 1) when I have performed CPR on actual people. We literally restarted the patient's heart, using CPR. (Well, CPR, and the Narcan that I gave him, 5 minutes prior). 

[TheGreatBuzz]

1 hour ago, Larry said:

actually think I'd be very good as a first responder in a school shooting. 

 

I think I'd be good also but I don't need more nightmares.   That's why I said everyone has to do what's right for them.  Just food for thought. 

[China]

Newton’s top students get award from Gov. Reynolds, send her a message

 

Governor Kim Reynolds targeted public education this session and hit it with multiple shots. From funding to curriculum to the books on the shelves. So it wasn’t surprising to see some of the brightest products of our public schools give her some peaceful feedback when they got the chance.

 

At the Governor’s Scholar Program on Sunday, Reynolds honored 422 of the highest-achieving students in the state. She greeted them with a handshake and posed for a picture.

 

One of those students was Newton senior, Leo Friedman, who, along with his classmate, Marin Pettigrew, decided to wear Raygun t-shirts to send a subtle message to Reynolds.

 

Hers read “Public Money For Public Schools.” His read, “I Read Banned Books.”

 

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

National test scores show decline in history and civics proficiency

 

Knowledge of civics among the nation’s eighth-graders fell for the first time since the federal government began testing children under the current framework in 1998, according to new results that come amid a broader concern about pandemic-era learning loss.

 

The National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, known as the Nation’s Report Card, also show a 5-point decline in average scores in history.

 

Poor performance: Results from exams administered in the spring of 2022 offer a window into the state of academic performance in social studies following pandemic disruptions to learning, a bleak look regarding the level of understanding of the nation’s history, government and democratic processes. The tests are administered every four years by the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics.

 

“The latest data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress further affirms the profound impact the pandemic had on student learning in subjects beyond math and reading,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement, noting the abysmal math and reading NAEP scores released last fall.

 

“It tells us that now is not the time for politicians to try to extract double-digit cuts to education funding, nor is it the time to limit what students learn in U.S. history and civics classes,” the secretary said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Utah State Board of Education considers removing ‘climate change’ from curriculum

 

When the Utah State Board of Education meets on Thursday, May 4, they will have a controversial topic to discuss — whether the term “climate change” is too politically charged to be taught to students.

 

The discussion would affect core standards for elective high school courses, specifically for a meteorology course. According to the board, they want to avoid language they feel may be politically charged.

 

In a video conference on Monday, a committee of board members discussed this implementation in potential new core standards. However, not all members of the committee agreed.

“Would there be anything wrong with using ‘changing climate’ instead of climate change?” Board of Education Dist. 13 Rep. Randy Boothe said. “Because everybody sees that there is a change in climate and that’s really what these meteorologists are wanting to talk about.”

 

“We’re not interacting with the weather, we’re just reacting to it,” said another member of the board, Dist. 9 Rep. Natalie Cline. “It’s happening to us, and we’re responding, and that’s different than interacting with weather as if what we do can change the weather.”

 

On social media, an image of a section from the potential new standards has the words “climate change” crossed out. According to board members, while they appreciate the engagement of the public, they would encourage them to look at the whole process.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

OEA responds to State Supt. after he called them a ‘terrorist organization’

 

The Oklahoma Education Association has responded after State Superintendent Ryan Walters called teacher unions “terrorist organizations.”

 

“It’s not OK to call educators terrorists, especially when you’re trying to do everything we can to recruit and retain the brightest and the best,” said Cari Elledge, Vice President of OEA.

 

“You know I don’t negotiate with the teachers union. They’re a terrorist organization,” said Walters.

 

The room began to boo and groan at the comments.

 

Walters sat there smirking at lawmakers.

 

The Superintendent later said it had to do with the COVID outbreak and how unions advocated for keeping kids at home.

 

“We had kids struggling tremendously at home. We had suicide rates going through the roof,” said Walters.  

 

Elledge said the comment was “disgusting” and tone deaf.

 

“Well we live in a state where we’re quite sensitive to issues on terrorism because of the Murrah Bombing,” said the OEA vice president.

 

The FBI labels terrorism, in part, as “violent, criminal acts.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Spaceman Spiff]

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/desantis-florida-trump-education-politics.html

 

Quote

What sets the current movement apart from these previous efforts is not merely its greater intensity but its focus. Academic-achievement levels are incidental to Republicans’ concern. Their main preoccupation is not the ways in which Chinese and Swedish kids may be outpacing their American counterparts. They are instead accusing schools of carrying out an insidious indoctrination campaign that, they believe, poses an existential threat to their party’s future and their way of life.

 

Quote

The nature of these fights is raw. Schools are a foundational institution for inscribing the value system of the state. Nothing enrages parents more than the idea that their children are being turned against them, and few things worry a partisan more than the fear the opposing party is using schools to inculcate its beliefs in the young. “Wherever two or more groups within a state differ in religion, or in language and in nationality, the immediate concern of each group is to use the schools to preserve its own faith and tradition,” wrote Walter Lippmann in 1928. “For it is in the school that the child is drawn toward or drawn away from the religion and patriotism of its parents.”

 

 

Quote

The Republican Party emerged from the Trump era deeply embittered. A large share of the party believed that Democrats had stolen their way back into power. But this sentiment took another form that was not as absurd or, at least, not as clearly disprovable. The theory was that Republicans were subverted by a vast institutional conspiracy. Left-wing beliefs had taken hold among elite institutions: the media, the bureaucracy, corporations, and, especially, schools.

 

This theory maintains that this invisible progressive network makes successful Republican government impossible. Because the enemy permanently controls the cultural high ground, Republicans lose even when they win. Their only recourse is to seize back these nonelected institutions.

 

Quote

A recent study by the Manhattan Institute illustrates why the right finds this cause so urgent. The paper surveys 18-to-20-year-olds about what it calls “critical social justice” concepts they learned in school, such as “America is a systemically racist country,” “white people have unconscious biases that negatively affect nonwhite people,” “America is built on stolen land,” or “America is a patriarchal society.” The survey proposes that adults exposed to these concepts develop liberal beliefs: “CSJ and school ideology appear to be having a major impact in converting young people to left-wing beliefs and Democratic partisanship.”

 

The report finds that these concepts are being taught in private, religious, and charter schools and spread through social media and entertainment. Therefore, the old conservative method of promoting choice between public and private schools stands little chance of holding back the progressive tide. The biggest shift among young people seems to have occurred among those whose parents were Republicans or independents.

 

[dfitzo53]

To be fair, good education probably does pose an existential threat to the republican party. 

[Larry]

2 minutes ago, dfitzo53 said:

To be fair, good factual education probably does pose an existential threat to the republican party. 

 

FTFY

[Cooked Crack]

 

[mcsluggo]

another quiet request for the "barf emoji"  

[MartinC]

A recent poll taken after Biden announced he would run for re-election showed that just over 40% of registered voters considered it likely they would vote for Trump in the next election. Biden was mid 30’s.
 

I get legitimate concerns with Bidens age - but it’s baffling to me that 40% of this Country can look at Trump and think ‘Yep, that’s the man I want leading this nation’. Baffling. 

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

13 minutes ago, MartinC said:

I get legitimate concerns with Bidens age - but it’s baffling to me that 40% of this Country can look at Trump and think ‘Yep, that’s the man I want leading this nation’. Baffling. 

 

From discussions I've had face to face with friends and online (Facebook groups, discussion boards, etc.) over the last 4-5 years, it's less about voting for Trump and more about voting for a Republican instead of a Democrat.  They will vote for whomever wins the Republican primary.  This is not counting the MAGA group that's obviously going to vote Trump no matter what and is a small sample size.

 

 

[The Evil Genius]

36 minutes ago, MartinC said:

A recent poll taken after Biden announced he would run for re-election showed that just over 40% of registered voters considered it likely they would vote for Trump in the next election. Biden was mid 30’s.
 

I get legitimate concerns with Bidens age - but it’s baffling to me that 40% of this Country can look at Trump and think ‘Yep, that’s the man I want leading this nation’. Baffling. 

 

Which poll?

[Destino]

On 5/8/2023 at 1:54 PM, Spaceman Spiff said:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/desantis-florida-trump-education-politics.html

 

The nature of these fights is raw. Schools are a foundational institution for inscribing the value system of the state. Nothing enrages parents more than the idea that their children are being turned against them, and few things worry a partisan more than the fear the opposing party is using schools to inculcate its beliefs in the young. “Wherever two or more groups within a state differ in religion, or in language and in nationality, the immediate concern of each group is to use the schools to preserve its own faith and tradition,” wrote Walter Lippmann in 1928. “For it is in the school that the child is drawn toward or drawn away from the religion and patriotism of its parents.”

and few political blunders were as immediately devastating as when Terry McAuliffe said on stage “I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach". Yet some democrats have been slow to recognize how destructive this framing is for them.
 

Educators aren’t viewed by the general public as moral leaders.  Republicans have seized on this and framed it as if schools are trying to assume that role.

 

 

[MartinC]

26 minutes ago, The Evil Genius said:

 

Which poll?

It’s an ABC/Washington Post poll. It’s way too early to take these polls seriously but it still shows that a willingness to vote for Trump exists in a sizable section of the population. 
 

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/broad-doubts-bidens-age-acuity-spell-republican-opportunity/story?id=99109308

 

 

[Simmsy]

No one is taking this poll seriously. Its the ONLY poll even like this, media needs to shake things up to have something to talk about.

[The Evil Genius]

7 minutes ago, MartinC said:

It’s an ABC/Washington Post poll. It’s way too early to take these polls seriously but it still shows that a willingness to vote for Trump exists in a sizable section of the population. 
 

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/broad-doubts-bidens-age-acuity-spell-republican-opportunity/story?id=99109308

 

 

 

It wasn't registered voters being polled though. It was 1006 adults via phone. 

 

Quote

This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone April 28-May 3, 2023, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,006 adults. Partisan divisions are 26-25-41%, Democrats-Republicans-independents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percentage points, including the design effect. Sampling error is not the only source of differences in polls.

 

If I am not mistaken,  this poll also showed younger voters favoring Trump. 

 

Edited May 9, 2023 by The Evil Genius

[MartinC]

26 minutes ago, Destino said:

Educators aren’t viewed by the general public as moral leaders.
 

That’s a very broad statement. Not sure if there is any data to support this?

I think views on this would be heavily dependent on a persons political and religious beliefs. I certainly think of educators having a role (but certainly not the sole role) in helping children develop a sense of morals. I would put teachers WAY ahead of say politicians and even clergy in that respect (but appreciate the later is a function of my own lack of religious beliefs).  

4 minutes ago, The Evil Genius said:

 

It wasn't registered voters being polled though. It was 1006 adults via phone.

Good point. But it’s still a relative - and to me at least - sobering data point. It’s says far more to me about the general population than it does about Trump or Biden.