RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://spectator.org/rights-high-price-of-historical-illiteracy/

Thomas Jefferson, in an 1816 letter to a member of the Virginia General Assembly, made this observation: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” He wrote this passage to highlight the need for a system of primary schools in the Old Dominion. Eventually, the Commonwealth did establish a public school system, though Jefferson didn’t live to see it. That is just as well, perhaps. He would certainly be horrified by the ignorance of the people who attend and receive diplomas from our public schools.
 
During recent years, numerous studies have found that most Americans don’t know enough about the nation’s history and Constitution to pass the U.S. Citizenship Test. A particularly thorough 50-state survey of 41,000 Americans was published by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in 2019. Nationally, only 4 in 10 passed. In only one state, Vermont, was a majority (53 percent) able to earn a passing grade for U.S. history. This dismal state of affairs was clearly exacerbated by the ill-conceived school shutdowns that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the low 2023 ACT test scores demonstrate.
 

But the problem predates the pandemic, which arrived on our shores a year after the foundation’s survey was conducted. The real explanation can be derived by breaking out the scores by age group: In the 65+ group, 76 percent passed. Only 51 percent of the 45 to 64 group passed. In the under 45 group, a mere 27 percent passed. This suggests that history instruction has been neglected in public schools for decades. As Timothy S. Goeglein explains in his book, Toward a More Perfect Union: The Moral and Cultural Case for Teaching the Great American Story, this neglect of history in public schools comes at a high price:

When there is no historical context to draw upon, no shared history, and no understanding of how government works, it becomes seed to sow division and discord in hearts and minds. When people are not equipped to refute an argument and lack the critical thinking skills to see beyond the rhetoric, they tend to accept it at face value. They become easy prey for demagogues — from the Left and the Right alike. They become tools to be exploited for a certain agenda.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/hamas-and-immorality-decolonial-intellectuals-206933

Left-wing intellectual fads aligned with horrific terrorism do not belong in higher education.

Intellectuals have a deep addiction to terror. From the French revolutionaries of the late 18th century who invoked Jean Jacques Rousseau to the physician ideologues of ISIS like Ayman al-Zawahiri, intellectuals have been at the forefront of justifying and instigating mass violence.

The latest iteration of this intellectual tradition of terror is “decolonization.” The invasion of Israel and the murder of over 1300 Israelis to date have illustrated this mindset at work.

In the wake of the slaughter, Walaa Alqaisiya, a research fellow at Columbia University, wrote “Academics like to decolonize through discourse and land acknowledgments. Time to understand that Decolonization is NOT a metaphor. Decolonization means resistance of the oppressed and that includes armed struggle to LITERALLY get our lands and lives back!”

Likewise, for Uahikea Maile, Assistant Professor of Indigenous Politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, “From Hawaiʻi to Palestine—occupation is a crime. A lāhui [Nation, race, tribe, people, or nationality] that stands for decolonization and de-occupation should also stand behind freedom for Palestine.”

Leave aside the malleable notion of “settler colonialism,” which is regularly leveled at Israel as well as Western states like the U.S. and Australia but never at Muslim, Arab, or African ones. Many pro-Palestinian intellectuals have long claimed that “resistance” may include any means and may not be criticized. For academics, who dominate wide swaths of academia, the notion of “decolonization” has been cited but with little specificity regarding the term’s meaning, at least in practical terms.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/more-pro-hamas-than-hamas

To call someone “more Catholic than the Pope” is to satirize their presumptive piety. What should we call it when someone is more pro-Hamas than Hamas? That is the level to which the terrorist organization’s cheerleaders in the West, most vocal on American university campuses, have sunk.

Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocities imaginable in Israel last weekend, on a scale difficult to fathom. Their barbarities are stomach-churning—and Hamas even admitted as much, in an official statement released on Wednesday, in which it claimed that it did “not target children,” and that those who believed it had done so were blindly siding with “the Zionist narrative, which is full of lies and slander.” In other words, it would be a slander, says Hamas, to claim that its terrorists had massacred children in their beds, beheaded them, burned them alive, or kidnapped them.

Of course, they are lying. They cannot un-publicize the horrific scenes Hamas terrorists gleefully projected across social media. But they are backtracking, because they now recognize that they overplayed their hand, overestimating the world’s tolerance for atrocities against Jews. They have lost their PR edge and now understand that murdering children is wrong, always—even for them.

This about-face catches Hamas’s Western allies in an awkward position. American members of groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) now appear in a uniquely atrocious light. While Hamas has chosen to deny (falsely) its atrocities, thereby confirming them as atrocities, SJP and similar organizations have already accepted that Hamas’s inhumane actions are true—and celebrated them.

When reports of beheaded babies and kidnapped Holocaust survivors first emerged into public awareness, the National SJP organization posted on social media that Hamas’s actions were “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance,” cheering, “this is what it means to Free Palestine: not just slogans and rallies, but armed confrontation with the oppressors.” Drawing on the language of Frantz Fanon-style post-colonial academics and activists, these ostensible progressives went further even than Hamas, celebrating the slaughter of Jewish babies and the rape of Jewish women.

Somehow, campus chapters managed to outdo even the National SJP’s sorry record. At UC–Berkeley, 51 student organizations signed a Bears for Palestine statement offering “unwavering support” for Hamas’s actions. “We honor Palestinians who are working on the ground on several axes of the so-called ‘Gaza envelope’ alongside our comrades in blood and arms, and what is coming is greater,” they wrote. “Victory or martyrdom.” They concluded: “We support the resistance, we support the liberation movement, we indisputably support the Uprising.”

The University of Virginia’s SJP chapter announced that it “unequivocally” supports “Palestinian liberation . . . by whatever means they deem necessary.” Remember that the people writing such statements already had access at this point to many of the details of the pogrom. Reports had circulated widely about mobile killing squads mowing down Jews by the time the UVA chapter of SJP wrote, “by whatever means.” Dozens of SJP chapters, among other “human rights” groups and identity-based organizations, have issued similar statements. They have staked out their positions, justified them with jargon, and proudly declared, in effect: spill more Jewish blood, rape more Jewish women, kill more Jewish children.

University administrators have long tolerated SJP and downplayed anti-Jewish rhetoric couched in academic pseudo-babble coming from pro-Palestinian campus groups. But the stark contrast between Hamas’s disingenuous denial of the mass murder of children and SJP’s even more extreme stance in favor of it makes it clear that SJP as an organization should be considered beyond the pale of decent American society. Yet campus administrators, fearful of blowback from these vocal and ruthless cheerleaders of terrorism, continue to issue mealymouthed statements that try to placate, as always, “both sides.”

Campus administrators should consider making significant changes before the American people realize what they are condoning. Our universities are under no obligation to tolerate groups that have shown themselves to be adherents to a moral code more repugnant than even Hamas’s, and at least equally thirsty for Jewish blood. These organizations are no better than any hate group that our universities routinely (and rightly) condemn and exclude. Indeed, they have revealed themselves as worse.

https://www.mcall.com/2023/10/11/act-test-scores-for-us-students-drop-to-new-30-year-low/

High school students’ scores on the ACT college admissions test have dropped to their lowest in more than three decades, showing a lack of student preparedness for college-level coursework, according to the nonprofit organization that administers the test.

Scores have been falling for six consecutive years, but the trend accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students in the class of 2023 whose scores were reported Wednesday were in their first year of high school when the virus reached the U.S.

“The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career,” said Janet Godwin, chief executive officer for the nonprofit ACT.

The average ACT composite score for U.S. students was 19.5 out of 36. Last year, the average score was 19.8.

The average scores in reading, science and math all were below benchmarks the ACT says students must reach to have a high probability of success in first-year college courses. The average score in English was just above the benchmark but still declined compared to last year.

Many universities have made standardized admissions tests optional amid criticism that they favor the wealthy and put low-income students at a disadvantage. Some including the University of California system do not consider ACT or SAT scores even if submitted.

Godwin said the scores are still helpful for placing students in the right college courses and preparing academic advisors to better support students.

“In terms of college readiness, even in a test-optional environment, these kinds of objective test scores about academic readiness are incredibly important,” Godwin said.

At Denise Cabrera’s high school in Hawaii, all students are required to take the ACT as juniors. She said she would have taken it anyway to improve her chances of getting into college.

“Honestly, I’m unsure why the test was ever required because colleges can look at different qualities of the students who are applying outside of just a one-time test score,” said Denise, a 17-year-old senior at Waianae High School.

She’s looking at schools including the California Institute of Technology, which implemented a five-year moratorium on the standardized test score requirements during the pandemic. Denise said she knows the school is not considering scores but she doesn’t want to limit her options elsewhere.

About 1.4 million students in the U.S. took the ACT this year, an increase from last year. However, the numbers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Godwin said she doesn’t believe those numbers will ever fully recover, partly because of test-optional admission policies.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/10/13/college-students-backtrack-on-hamas-rush-to-hide-connections-and-pro-hamas-statements/

Less than a week after Israel was struck by a devastating mass invasion by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, American college students who initially voiced support for the terrorists have now been forced to recant their statements for fear of being canceled.

As Just The News reports, perhaps the biggest example thus far is the story of Ryna Workman, the president of NYU Law’s Student Bar Association. Workman, a black woman who identifies as “non-binary,” had applied for a job with the law firm Winston and Strawn; after she had initially been accepted, the firm then sent out a public statement revoking her job offer after she stated that Israel “bears full responsibility” for the terrorist attacks, which she described as “Palestinian resistance” and “necessary.”

Elsewhere, students at Harvard are now facing backlash after over 30 student groups signed onto a public letter denouncing Israel as an “apartheid regime,” calling the Jewish state “the only one to blame” for the violence. Three days after the attacks, the list of signatories was removed, although archived versions still exist which include the full list.

After the list’s publication, Harvard alumnus and hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman said that “a number of CEOs” had approached him to ask if Harvard would reveal the identities of the student groups, “so as to insure that none of us inadvertently hire any of their members.”

Members who defend “inconceivably despicable acts” against civilians should “not be able to hide behind a corporate shield,” Ackman added.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/10/12/act-test-scores-fall-to-30-year-low/

A new report shows that the average high school student’s ACT college admissions test scores have fallen to their lowest point in 30 years, reflecting an ongoing decline in the quality of education in the United States after the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic.

As Fox News reports, the average scores for the American College Testing (ACT) exams have fallen for the last six years in a row, with the decline becoming noticeably faster in the years during and after COVID. The average score in 2023 was 19.5 out of 36, which comes out to a percentage of 54%. In 2022, the average score was 19.8.

Furthermore, the average scores for reading, math, and science all fell below benchmark levels that are necessary for students to have a chance at succeeding in their first year of college. The only score that remained above the benchmark was English, which nevertheless also saw a decline compared to last year.

“The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career,” said Janet Godwin, CEO of ACT Inc., the nonprofit organization of the same name which administers the tests.

At least 1.4 million American students took the ACTs this year, which is an increase from the number of students who took them last year. But that number is still below the levels seen before the pandemic. Out of those 1.4 million, only about 21% – roughly 294,000 – reached their benchmark levels for success in college. Of those who succeeded, ACT Inc. determined that there was an approximately 75% chance of students achieving a score of C or higher in the corresponding college courses, and a 50% chance of achieving a B or higher.

Godwin also emphasized the importance of the tests despite numerous college campuses increasingly turning away from standardized test scores as a factor in the admissions process. Some universities, such as the University of California system, are outright ignoring an applicants’ ACT or SAT scores, even if the scores are submitted in the application.

“In terms of college readiness, even in a test-optional environment, these kinds of objective test scores about academic readiness are incredibly important,” said Godwin.