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Post by artraveler on Oct 26, 2019 6:17:23 GMT -8
On occasion National Review manages to publish something that is informative. This article by Victor Davis Hanson is on of those. It is not that there are stunning revelations about the current sad state of academia, there aren't, but VDH has a way of putting perspective on what the issues are. It is worth reading for anyone who has children approaching college age, or grandchildren. The one year I spent at Stanford tuition was less than $2,000 and I could not afford it. When I went to CSU tuition was less than $300 and my employer picked that up. Times have changed. www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/universities-breed-anger-ignorance-ingratitude/Here is a related article from Front-page www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/academia-and-spirit-fear-jack-kerwick/ |
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Post by timothylane on Oct 26, 2019 6:47:35 GMT -8
Many years ago, I referred to the various identity-group "studies" programs as leftist madrassas. Today that applies to most colleges in general. Remembering that Bakunin referred to Communism as a pedantocracy, we can say that the intelligentsia (a Russian word) as a class may be the most dangerous internal enemies in the European world, and have been for a LONG time, though there have always been exceptions.
One can also note that there's a hierarchy of villainy here. The studies courses are worst, probably even worse than education. Humanities are also almost uniformly bad. Social sciences are more variable, with economics and history (both of which I minored in at Purdue) often featuring conservative views (much more often than sociology and anthropology, which are better than political science and psychology). The hard sciences tend to be the least bad, though they're being increasingly corrupted by leftist intellectual pathologies.
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Post by artraveler on Oct 26, 2019 8:52:47 GMT -8
This is not a new problem. Since the student rebellion of the 60s the inmates are running the institution. We had the great good fortune of being educated by people who had lived through the depression and WWII and understood exactly how fragile liberty is in the face of concerted assault from this, on both sides, whose only goal is power. We decry the loss of the virtues of the republic, but that republic is dead and not likely to return to this world. Any chance it had died on the battlefield of Gettysburg, Vicksburg and others. If it were not for the massive task of settling the west from 1865-1900, we would have been in 1920 where we are today. William F. Buckley once commented, "the job of the conservative is to stand in front of history and yell, STOP" We are still. yelling stop, but no one is listening and fewer and fewer are even bothering with the fight.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 26, 2020 9:05:19 GMT -8
Here’s an article that appeared in The Federalist: Why Public Schools Are So Likely To Teach Leftist Propaganda by Auguste Meyrat. I found the concept of “skills vs. content” to be a bit obtuse as an explanation. But it made more sense when it was explained that emphasis on “skills” was a sly way to dumb-down the process of education and pander to “identity and empowerment” in order to make students “feel good” aided by the fact the the curriculum is “light on actual rigor and imagination.” I didn’t find this to be an easy read. Nor did I find it to be comprehensive. But he did make some good points. |
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Post by kungfuzu on Feb 26, 2020 10:20:55 GMT -8
I found the piece to be very poorly written. It lacked clarity and clear definitions regarding "skill and content," although I did finally understand what he was trying to say. I was surprised to read that he is an English teacher and has a Master's degree.
Unfortunately, the writer would appear to be a victim of the process he is describing.
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Post by artraveler on Feb 26, 2020 10:23:03 GMT -8
How about instead of more programs, teacher training, studies, and throwing money at a problem. We have a draft for teachers. Perhaps a 4 year term of service but instead of drafting among those just out of their teens we draft only people 50+.
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Post by kungfuzu on Feb 26, 2020 10:38:28 GMT -8
Education in the USA has become a yuge (thank you Brad) boondoggle. In 2016, almost US$600 billion was spent on elementary and secondary public education. That averaged out to almost US$12,000 per student. It appears about 60% of that amount is spent on teachers' salaries and benefits and the balance on admin and other things. Much of that amount probably goes to school busing.
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Post by timothylane on Feb 26, 2020 11:13:48 GMT -8
There are several reasons for this excessive sum wasted on public miseducation. For one thing, everyone wants to provide children with a good education, and the easy way to convince yourself that you've done that is to spend more money (and more . . . and more . . . and more . . . ad infinitum). Much easier than actually getting good teachers and a suitable curriculum.
And of course, we have unions to mulct more taxpayer money, with one party (the Demagogues) as a major subsidiary. This is especially useful in school board races, which they dominate. Not surprisingly, this can lead to school boards committed to a failed status quo rather than new policies that might not further enrich the teachers' unions.
It also doesn't help that teachers are increasingly dominated by leftist activists, selected from the wretched education schools that teach them. "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. And those who can't teach, teach teachers."
KFZ got further than I did on that article. I may know what he means by skills (there have been complaints that schools are teaching kids jobs rather than educating them), but I don't see how teaching people to do practical things leads to schools becoming leftist propaganda organs, though it can be a good explanation for why they fail to teach regular skills such as math and grammar.
And what is "content" supposed to mean? I would gather it's the materials they use to teach with -- such as problems for math and stories/books/poems for English. (D. H. Hill, later a Confederate general, wrote an antebellum math text with problems dealing with such items as the different speeds of two Indiana soldiers running away from the battlefield of Buena Vista to the city of Saltillo, the year in which the governors of Massachusetts and Rhode Island sent treasonous measures to their respective legislatures, and the numbers of wooden and real nutmegs sold by a Connecticut merchant. I get the impression he wasn't just teaching math.) It also includes what texts are used for history.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 26, 2020 13:12:27 GMT -8
Geez, were we separated at birth or what? That’s exactly how I felt. I had to double-down my attention just to try to understand what an insider said he understood. I’ll grant you that trying to pin down “What went wrong in American education” could easily carry the weight of a two-week seminar. But one of top comments mentioned the babysitter aspect of education. I don’t think any article is anywhere near comprehensive without mentioning that. Still, the gentleman speaks only of more proximate causes, not ultimate causes. There was water on the deck of the Titanic. Why? Because water was rushing in over the bow. But why was that so? Because there was a hole in the boat. How did that happen? Because it hit an iceberg. How could this come to be? Because the captain was under pressure to keep up a fast time and couldn’t bother to prudently slow down. Where is the chain of events in this article? It’s pretty much gone missing. Where does the infection come from? Why, for instance, isn’t the school system an authoritarian prison-like system of total discipline, a challenging curriculum, and the best and the brightest (drafted, even) teachers to make it all work? Teacher’s unions. Lazy parents. Racism against whites while treating “people of color” like they are victims. The smartest thing George W. Bush ever said was something about “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” Why did universities give themselves over to the left? Why aren’t there a bunch of right-wing dogmatists in charge? Why did things go one way and no another? I’m not saying I have the answer. I think there are a whole lot of contributing factors. But at the end of the day, we lack the men (and women) with the guts to stand up to this nonsense, whether inside the system or outside of it.
I certainly agree with the author that school choice/vouchers is probably the way out. But even then, look at the money parents spend on higher education to have theirs sons and daughters thoroughly indoctrinated into Leftist nonsense. These are school-of-choice. Will they be any choosier about an elementary school or high school chosen with a voucher? I’m skeptical. But at least there should be that option. The public school system is a failure in anything but as a babysitting service. And it’s over-priced even at that. |
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Post by kungfuzu on Feb 26, 2020 13:32:47 GMT -8
Ah Swami, Carnac the Magnificent says we were twinned in a previous life.
I have to say that ST still had some of the best pieces and commentary on American education I have yet read. In fact, the pieces on ST were generally much more informative and insightful that those one sees being spewed out by the "conservative" commentariat.
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Post by timothylane on Feb 26, 2020 14:19:10 GMT -8
I used to watch Johnny Carson when I was young, especially during the summers when I didn't have to get up early. Carnac the Magnificent was fun.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 26, 2020 15:53:38 GMT -8
The Carnac the Magnificent shtick was great. Zis. Boom. Bah.
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Post by timothylane on Feb 26, 2020 18:59:00 GMT -8
This use of "Sis Boom Bah" is actually appropriate. According to a story I read, a Union regiment visited Princeton once, and gave some sort of demonstration. This included a motto or saying or whatever that reflected target shooting. It started with a hiss to represent the sound of the powder being lit, then "Boom" for the explosion as the gun fired, and ended with "Ah" as the shooter admired his shot. This became the cheerleading cry we all know.
I checked this on wikipedia, and they didn't have much on it (though wiktionary gave a dated meaning of the cheer as the sound of a firecracker). However, they did have a brief section that mentioned that particular Carnac sequence (and also one from a Bugs Bunny cartoon).
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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 23, 2020 12:53:18 GMT -8
I admit that I am not sure exactly what this means. I have never watched the ESPY Awards and don't quite know why they are giving awards to people. But if the numbers mean that people are getting fed up with the constant leftist virtue signaling which has been broadcast daily, then this is not good for the left. ESPY Awards audience tanks |
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 1, 2021 8:41:23 GMT -8
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 1, 2021 12:18:29 GMT -8
The problem with 50% of San Francisco's residents leaving the city is that they will spread like the KFF and bring their leftist infection with them. Too many of these people are dumb asses who will not be able to connect the dots between their leftwing ideology/vote and the collapse of San Fran.
I would much rather they stay where they are and have the city implode upon them, burying their disease with them. Unfortunately, the more likely scenario is that they will carry their ruin with them, wherever they may slither to.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 1, 2021 12:58:31 GMT -8
I quite agree. The will carry their ruin with them.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 15, 2021 21:46:49 GMT -8
I wish I could protest this shit by no longer watching any NFL games, but I already stopped watching them. T he announcement they recently made saying the NFL was queer simply re-enforced my decision not to watch the NFL this year. But this rubbish is really over the top. I think they are doing themselves lasting damage. At least I hope so. What is a Black National Anthem? |
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 16, 2021 6:57:25 GMT -8
I quite agree. Anyone who watches an ounce of the NFL is a passive traitor to our nation. Those who attend a game and give these people money are active ones.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 12, 2022 21:32:52 GMT -8
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