February 7, 2006
THE LAST CITADEL (via Gene Brown):
Schools of Reeducation? (Frederick M. Hess, February 5, 2006, Washington Post)
For those who have been troubled by the tendency of universities to adopt campus speech codes, a worrisome new fad is rearing its head in the nation's schools of education. Stirred by professional opinion and accreditation pressures, teachers colleges have begun to regulate the dispositions and beliefs of those who would teach in our nation's classrooms.At the University of Alabama, the College of Education explains that it is "committed to preparing individuals to promote social justice, to be change agents, and to recognize individual and institutionalized racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism." To promote its agenda, part of the program's self-proclaimed mission is to train teachers to "develop anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-sexist . . . alliances."
The University of Alaska at Fairbanks School of Education declares on its Web site: "Teachers often profess 'colorblindness' . . . which is at worst patronizing and at best naïve, because race and culture profoundly affect what is known and how it is known."
Consequently, the program emphasizes "the interrelatedness of race, identity, and the curriculum, especially the role of white privilege."
Professors at Washington State University's College of Education evaluate candidates to ensure they exhibit "an understanding of the complexities of race, power, gender, class, sexual orientation, and privilege in American society." The relevance of these skills to teaching algebra or the second grade is, at a minimum, debatable.
Brooklyn College's School of Education announces: "We educate teacher candidates and other school personnel about issues of social injustice such as institutionalized racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism; and invite them to develop strategies and practices that challenge [such] biases."
Democrats fight to keep education in the hands of these incompetents because once they lose their monopoly on students it's all over. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 7, 2006 7:34 PM
... it's all over. And it can't happen a moment too soon.
Posted by: erp at February 7, 2006 8:11 PMIt's amazing how many conservative kids emerge from public schools. Kids can smell stuff.
Posted by: ghostcat at February 7, 2006 9:55 PMFor anyone on this list who has good connections with legislators...
Whisper in their ear about the benefits of rapid assimilation of returning Iraq/Afghanistan vets. Propose "alternative certification" procedures that place vets in schools rapidly. Deny Federal Funding to any District that runs afoul of the rules.
The time is ripe for crushing BIG ED, but only if we all take up the clarion call and fight them on every front.
Posted by: Bruno at February 7, 2006 10:49 PMghostcat:
Kids can generally spot b.s. faster than most adults, and they don't like it.
My impression of Bill Clinton as largely untrustworthy really came to fruition when I was 11-years old and I heard Barbara Walters ask the then-president elect what he would say if Fidel Castro walked into the room. He let a pallor fall over his face and claimed he would say (and I quote him exactly): "Haven't you learned? Give the Cuban people their freedom."
It was all so obviously phony that I probably started laughing, and I never took him very seriously after that.
By the way, Clinton met Castro at a party eight years later, shook his hand, and started a conversation.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at February 7, 2006 11:22 PMThis is why I do not send my kids to public schools.
Posted by: Mike Morley at February 8, 2006 7:10 AMIt's revealing that the two academic guilds the Democrats depend upon so critically are the least accomplished: education and journalism.
Posted by: Luciferous at February 8, 2006 10:08 AMBruno: Great idea about returning vets. I don't remember the details, but a couple of weeks ago, I read something about relaxing teacher certification requirements and allowing schools to hire those with actual knowledge as teachers. It was probably a Florida item if anyone else has a better memory of it. At the time, I thought it was a great idea, but didn't put it together with returning vets -- a marriage made in heaven.
Matt: If you were 11 in 1992, that means you're only 25 or 26 years old. Wow. I'm so relieved to know that our country will be good hands so far into the future.
Posted by: erp at February 8, 2006 11:01 AM"...race and culture profoundly affect what is known and how it is known."
How can anyone not regard such essentialism as the bigotry it is?
Posted by: ted welter at February 8, 2006 11:40 AMI took a few graduate lever education courses a couple of years ago. The university I attended was one which had developed over the years from a convent school, was still runs by nuns, and which, I had hoped, would not be too far off the left edge of the world.
It was not too bad, but the left-bias of the education education establishment extended even to there. There were the obligatory obeisances to multiculturalism, diversity, inclusion and constructivism, as well as, to my surprise, considering the milieu, a distorted and absolutist conception of "separation of church and state."
The level of academic rigor was most disappointing. Comparing notes with teachers taking courses in other instituitions indicated this was not a local phenomenon. A level of performance and preparation which would have been ludicrous in schools preparing for truly learned professions was at the top of the class in teacher college.
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The returning veteran idea is excellent. It should be rammed down their pinko, draft-dodger throats: no substantial veteran's preference, no federal money. We should be writing our legislators on this idea: I certainly intend to.
Posted by: Lou Gots at February 8, 2006 3:33 PM
erp:
Thanks for the compliment. Actually, I'm 24, sharing my age with a popular TV show. I'm currently planning a similar program that would chronicle one year of my life per episode -- all the way from premature birth to almost getting a lead role in a Disney movie to getting a knife pulled me in a Boston subway to telling myself I'll pull myself away from the computer after the next OJ post.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at February 8, 2006 8:23 PMMatt, you are amazing, but you know that "real life" that oj mentions on the nonce, you gotta have one or you'll burn out before your time.
Posted by: erp at February 8, 2006 11:08 PMerp:
Seriously, everything I mentioned there really happened. In fact, here are two more things to add: I attended high school at a Benedictine monastery and I spent two weeks living with the actress who played Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof (as I was only eleven when it happened, don't read too much into that).
Posted by: Matt Murphy at February 9, 2006 12:27 AMDid you looovveeee herrr? Disney movie? Which one?
Posted by: RC at February 9, 2006 8:42 AMRC:
No.
A film called Josh & Sam (unfortunately, it wasn't much of a film). The directors were interested in having me play Josh, but I didn't meet the height requirement. Soon afterwards, I had a growth spurt.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at February 9, 2006 7:41 PM