Education Issues - Actions / Reactions

[LightRoasted]

For your consideration ...

Feral College Students Destroy a Bible at a TPUSA Event​

Is the punishment for destroying the Bible the same as destroying the Quran? Asking for a convert.

 

[GURPS]

Fraudulent Studies Withdrawn as Professor Is Caught Faking the Racism Narrative​

Six of Stewart’s studies have been retracted. Stewart himself has been on leave from the college since mid-March because a new investigation into his work drew attention to years of allegations that he manipulated sample sizes to produce results that made America appear more racist.

“Stewart was first accused of falsifying data by Justin Pickett, a University of Albany criminology professor who co-authored a report on race and crime with Stewart in 2011,” reports the New York Post. “In the study, the criminologists were looking to test if the public was increasingly demanding longer sentences for black and Hispanic criminals as those minority populations grew. In his 2019 complaint, Pickett said that their findings showed no relationship between the growth of minority groups and the severity of criminal sentences handed to them.”

Pickett claimed that the published paper contained manipulated data to suggest a correlation, despite contradicting results. He stated that sample sizes were expanded, and data was cherry-picked to achieve the desired outcome. Pickett’s complaint and four others were disregarded by the university, as two committee members had co-authored studies with Stewart. Despite retractions of studies, the committee found insufficient proof of fraud and ended the investigation. However, a new allegation surfaced in June 2020, shortly after Stewart accused Pickett of damaging his academic reputation.

 

[GURPS]

Should College Come With Trigger Warnings? At Cornell, It’s a ‘Hard No.’​

https://news.yahoo.com/college-come-trigger-warnings-cornell-182908656.html#

For a Korean American literature class, the woman was reading “The Surrendered,” a novel by Chang-rae Lee about a Korean girl orphaned by the Korean War that includes a graphic rape scene. Ting’s friend had recently testified at a campus hearing against a student who she said sexually assaulted her, the woman said in an interview. Reading the passage so soon afterward left her feeling unmoored.

Ting, a member of Cornell’s undergraduate student assembly, believed her friend deserved a heads-up about the upsetting material. That day, she drafted a resolution urging instructors to provide warnings on the syllabus about “traumatic content” that might be discussed in class, including sexual assault, self-harm and transphobic violence.

The resolution was unanimously approved by the assembly late last month. Less than a week after it was submitted to the administration for approval, Martha E. Pollack, the university president, vetoed it.

“We cannot accept this resolution as the actions it recommends would infringe on our core commitment to academic freedom and freedom of inquiry, and are at odds with the goals of a Cornell education,” Pollack wrote in a letter with the university provost, Michael I. Kotlikoff.

To some, the conflict illustrates a stark divide in how different generations define free speech and how much value they place on its absolute protection, especially at a time of increased sensitivity toward mental health concerns.

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

California's Bakersfield College has fired a tenured history professor formally charged with "dishonesty" for disagreeing with colleagues on diversity issues, including a proposed "racial climate task force" to supersede the gridlocked diversity committee on which he served.

The secretive move against Matthew Garrett followed a contentious public meeting on his fate Thursday.

[clip]

The professor filed a "notice of objection" with the district Monday that suspends his termination pending a hearing by an administrative judge. He told officials about "my deep sadness that the district disregarded my clear request for an open and public hearing" at Thursday's meeting by shutting out the public from the vote.

"I look forward to hearing the report of how each Board member voted at our next scheduled Board meeting, as required by the California Brown Act" on public participation in government meetings, Garrett wrote in the email, shared with Just the News.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which warned KCCD the morning of the meeting that terminating Garrett would violate the First Amendment, told Just the News Monday the secret vote was "a surprise to us" and it wasn't sure when trustees actually voted. Friday's termination letter says the board "took action to terminate" the previous day.

Tenured professor who challenged social justice funding fired in secret board vote

California's Kern Community College District didn't act on termination recommendation during public portion of meeting dominated by Matthew Garrrett's supporters, including black pastor.

justthenews.com

 

[GURPS]

An end to the reading wars? More US schools embrace phonics​

For decades, two schools of thought have clashed on how to best teach children to read, with passionate backers on each side of the so-called reading wars. The battle has reached into homes via commercials for Hooked on Phonics materials and through shoebox dioramas assigned by teachers seeking to instill a love of literature.

But momentum has shifted lately in favor of the “science of reading.” The term refers to decades of research in fields including brain science that point to effective strategies for teaching kids to read.

The science of reading is especially crucial for struggling readers, but school curricula and programs that train teachers have been slow to embrace it. The approach began to catch on before schools went online in spring 2020. But a push to teach all students this way has intensified as schools look for ways to regain ground lost during the pandemic — and as parents of kids who can’t read demand swift change.

 

[GURPS]

Reporter warns Stanford students' free speech 'double standard' could become mainstream among lawyers, judges​

Texas delivers consequences to disruptive law school protesters​

Regular readers of Twitchy know about how students at Stanford shouted down conservative Federal Judge Kyle Duncan and how students at Yale Law School did something similar to a panel on civil liberties (because irony is dead).

(Full disclosure: this author is an alumnus of Yale Law School and is embarrassed for these chuckleheads.)


Now it seems that the chickens might be coming home to roost in Texas.

In order to be licensed to practice law, Texas (like most states) requires a person to have good character—which in our experience is mainly a matter of not having anything in one’s record that shows poor character. And the State Bar of Texas has some bad news for disruptive protesters:

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

Video shows student being told to eat his own vomit with a spoon as staffers watched​

The Hendricks County Prosecutor’s Office filed criminal charges against five staff members in connection with an incident in which a special education student was mistreated during lunch. Brownsburg Community School Police learned about the incident on April 12, although it occurred during a lunch period in February, according to the investigation.

The prosecutor’s office identified the staff members and charges as:

• Brown Elementary Life Skills teacher Sara Seymour, 27; neglect of a dependent as a Level 6 felony, and failure to report, a Class B misdemeanor.
• Brown Elementary Life Skills instructional aide Debra Kanipe, 63; neglect of a dependent as a Level 6 felony, and failure to report, a Class B misdemeanor.
• Brown Elementary Life Skills teacher Julie Taylor, 48; failure to report, a Class B misdemeanor.
• Brown Elementary Life Skills instructional aide Kristen Mitchell, 38; failure to report, a Class B Misdemeanor.
• Kids Count registered behavioral technician Megan King, 24; failure to report, a Class B misdemeanor

 

[GURPS]

Why then—after hundreds of cases of sexual assault cover-ups, student abuse, lying administrators and innappropriate curriculums, disparagement, and other problematic actions all too common in American public schools—are parents prevented from wielding that same market influence?

At this point, public schools receive state and federal money whether parents and students attend or not. Regardless of a school’s decisions, whether praiseworthy or horrific, the administrators continue to receive and spend money—all while ignoring parental concerns in the process.

Why should a public school be free of the same opportunities for consequences that we face in society at large? Competition in a market system allows for individuals to attempt to win over the market with better ideas and products. If School A chooses to adopt The New York Times’ deeply flawed 1619 Project as a curricular addition to its social studies department, parents should be able to take their children to School B, which advertises that it doesn’t use historically inaccurate materials.

As Connor Boyack and Corey DeAngelis elaborate in their new book, “Mediocrity: 40 Ways Government Schools Are Failing Today’s Students”:

The government school system is a one-size-fits-all substandard system that will never be able to meet the diverse needs of individual families and their children. Parents may have different ideas about how to raise and educate their children, and the government school system does not provide the flexibility needed to accommodate these differing views. Those wanting something different for their children are compelled to look elsewhere.
— “Mediocrity,” Page 183

Bud Light Suffers Consequences for Bad Idea. Why Don't Public Schools?

The recent Bud Light scandal points to the lack of accountability public schools have—and why parents need that same free market leverage.

www.dailysignal.com

 

[GURPS]

Toward the goal of social justice, the district recently made a noteworthy move: In order to fight white supremacy, it canceled music instruction. During a meeting with parents, School Board Director Scott Clifthorne explained the improvement. Evidently, blowing into a flute — like participation in church — is a violent act:

“There’s nothing about strings or wind instrumental music that is intrinsically white supremacist. However, the ways in which it is, and the ways in which all of our institutions, not just schools — local government, state government, churches or neighborhoods — inculcate and allow White supremacy culture to continue to be propagated and cause significant institutional violence are things that we have to think about carefully as a community. And I think that we have to do that interrogation.”

Back to Olympia, the district’s 86’ing of instrumental instruction may have been somewhat budget-based — after all, it only has $11.5 million.

Local mom Alesha Perkins isn’t impressed by the musical moratorium. She made such clear to Fox & Friends:

“We have reached a level of absurdity in our school district, among our school board and our leadership that is just hard to ignore at this point.”

As for contentious acts, this isn’t OSD’s first rodeo. From Fox News:

The struggling district has had a history of controversial policies, including appointing a radical Black Lives Matter activist to fill a vacant board position and an elementary school creating a “safe space” club that excluded White students.

In Olympia, Washington, they’re trying to clean up America — at least at the fourth grade level. Curiously, fifth graders will still be offered music lessons. But at least they’re delaying white supremacy by a year.

10,000-Strong School District Cancels Music Lessons to Fight White Supremacist Violence

redstate.com

 

[GURPS]

 

[Hijinx]

Making kids stupid is actually required to keep them voting democrat.
It's a political agenda to keep people who are purveying this agenda in office.

The dumber you are the more likely you are to vote for a democrat.
I believe that situation has been proven by the Biden Administration.
Other than stupid and ignorance why else would anyone vote for a man who is clearly not well and a woman who is dumb as a rock.

 

[stgislander]

Not many parents at that meeting and it doesn't look like any pushed back.

 

[LightRoasted]

For your consideration ...

Toward the goal of social justice ....

All these social justice types will be in for a rude awaking when societal justice comes into play. An it ain't gonna be pretty. Well, pretty being relative and all that.

 

[GURPS]

 

[stgislander]

Who needs White or Asian students stinking up the grading curve.

 

[herb749]

Stupid liberals. How many times do they need to be told they hate Latinx .

 

[GURPS]

Sullivan also talks about teachers enduring false accusations of racism. She also points out that things that were considered standard classroom management practices a year ago now leave teachers open to charges of bias. She commented, “There is a strong anti-capitalism, anti-conservatism, and anti-American bias in the DEI curriculum, with an emphasis on ‘white fragility’ and how to be ‘antiracist.'” Discussions among the faculty have included how best to incorporate the 1619 Project into the curriculum while trying to leverage Orwell’s 1984 against members of a certain political party. I think we all know the party in question. Sullivan has also been called a Nazi and a fascist for holding views that countered those of another teacher.

But it isn’t just Sullivan’s peers who oppose her. The students of Shawnee Mission High School were also affronted, offended, and appalled that she had the temerity to publish her thoughts and experiences. Standing in solidarity and indoctrination with the prevailing mindset, a cadre of students decided to stage a walk-out on Wednesday over Sullivan’s views. The Blaze reported that students commented:

“It’s not acceptable that she’s still here, and that she can post all that stuff on the internet, and that’s OK.”
“I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but when it’s so controversial like that, it can be uncomfortable for other people, especially if they’re teachers.”

Another student said she did not want Sullivan teaching her siblings, commenting “I don’t want them to be taught by her if that’s what she’s doing. Especially being a black student in her class and being in the LGBTQ+ community, I feel like she’s not respecting us. And we want to be heard. While you’re educating us, someone needs to educate you about what’s going on in the world now.”

The students want administrative action taken against Sullivan, or Sullivan even to be dismissed.

Inmates Take Over the Asylum at a Kansas High School

pjmedia.com

 

[LightRoasted]

For your consideration ...