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EDUCATION

Forbidden Campus Speech Who decides what words can and cannot be used in teaching? Richard L. Cravatts

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/forbidden-campus-speech-richard-l-cravatts/

As difficult as it is to believe that someone on a contemporary university campus could be so socially tone-deaf that they would publicly utter an ethnic slur, professors do regularly find themselves the target of indignant parties they have “harmed” with their careless, often inappropriate speech.

Consider, for instance, the case of Jackie Buell, an assistant professor in Ohio State University’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, who made an outrageous anti-Semitic slur when she referred to “Jewing down” people in an October 18th online lecture.

“Anybody been to Mexico?” Buell said in a video leaked by a student.

“You know, I mean, Jewing down is a way of the world down there, right? You want to buy a blanket and (it) has $5 on it, and you say, ‘I’ll give you $2 for it.’ They say, ‘No.’ You just start walking away. They say ‘Three dollar,’ right? They just want to get what they can out of it. But now they come to this country. We get people that come in the market all the time that want to Jew us down on the vegetables, right?” [Emphasis added.]

This may well be an example of irresponsible, unconscious anti-Semitism, especially given the fact that professor Buell offered up a lame, almost unbelievable excuse for her utterances when she weakly apologized by saying that she had not intended “to be offensive to any particular group,” presumably meaning Jews in particular, and that, she stupefyingly contended, “I have never associated the word ‘Jew’ with any particular person or group.” 

The Middle East Studies Association: Why We Should Call It MESA Nostra Can you guess who is running the organization now? Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/middle-east-studies-association-why-we-should-call-hugh-fitzgerald/

“MESA” is the acronym of the Middle East Studies Association, the professional group of those at American universities and colleges are who are charged with the responsibility of teaching the American young, those trusting, innocent, infinitely malleable young, about the Middle East, which mostly means the history of Islam, and the Islamicate world of Muslims, and the non-Muslim peoples and lands they conquered.

As an organization, MESA has over the past two decades slowly but surely been taken over by apologists for Islam. Many of these are Muslims, and many are non-Muslims. The latter includes a great many who, to get along with their colleagues (and remember, the most political place in the entire universe is a university faculty, and that institution which deserves to be immortalized by a gifted satirist, the Departmental Meeting) follow their apologetic lead. Junior faculty owe everything to, and therefore must curry favor with, senior faculty. If that means signing a BDS declaration, or denouncing the colonial-settler apartheid state of Israel, still harboring its dream of expanding from the Nile to the Euphrates, and responsible or everything that has ever gone wrong with the Muslim and Arab states and peoples, then so be it. The funny thing about being a trimmer or a Vicar of Bray, however, is that the mere act of signing something you really don’t believe can help convince you that you really do believe it, otherwise you would have to come to terms with your own cravenness, your own pusillanimity. And no one wants to do that.

What Will it Take to Convince Democrats That School Choice is a Worthy Endeavor? Blue state resistance to parental choice – the battle is on. Larry Sand

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/what-will-it-take-convince-democrats-school-choice-larry-sand/

During the 2020–21 school year, approximately 608,000 students used a voucher, tax-credit scholarship, or education savings account (ESA) to educate their children, according to policy experts Jason Bedrick and Ed Tarnowski. They wrote in August that as a result of the legislation enacted so far in 2021, at least 3.6 million additional students are eligible to participate in the new educational choice programs in seven states, and an additional 878,300 additional students will be eligible in 14 other states. In all, 22 states expanded or created school choice initiatives in 2021.

While this is certainly good news for the still small percentage of lucky families, there is a disturbing, though not exactly surprising reality. As detailed in a study released in the fall by researchers Jay Greene, James Paul, and Lindsey Burke, very few Democratic state legislators vote for school-choice proposals, “and the few that do almost never make a difference in whether those bills receive support of at least 50% of the legislators.” The researchers conclude, that the “empirical evidence is clear that the historical practice of courting Democratic policymakers has not been effective. Indeed, it has likely been counter-productive. Proponents of school choice should make a values-based appeal for choice that could attract more families, and elevate choice as a solution to some of the most pressing education policy fights of the day.”

It is no secret that the teachers unions are Choice Enemy #1, and are a big part of the problem in blue states. With only a handful of organized private schools nationwide, the unions are willing to spend big to advance their self-serving agenda, no matter how family-unfriendly it may be. And that outlay goes almost exclusively in one direction, of course. In 2020, the National Education Association contributed almost $15 million to candidates across the country, handing over 96% of it to Democrats. The American Federation of Teachers spent over $20 million, 99.6% of it going to Dems.

Melbourne University Circles the Green Drain Tony Thomas

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2022/01/melbourne-university-circles-the-green-drain/

About 6200 final-year secondary students from 700 schools have been invited to start at Melbourne University (UoM) this year, UoM being a world 30-40th top-ranked university. Good luck to the kids. They’ve suffered eleven school-years of climate doomism; the university will dish out more of it. Two professors in UoM publication Pursuit, for example, see the prospect of another 0.5degC warming by 2030 as a “shrieking emergency siren”.

UoM’s 2020 annual report (p88) says (emphasis added)

Planning for a suite of online modules for all commencing undergraduate students … commenced in 2020 … The Sustainable campuses and communities module, developed in 2020, explores the impact of humans on climate and the environment.

UoM is awash in “sustainability”, code for anti-conservative politics and zero-emission fantasies. A few months after the toothless 2015 Paris accord, the university adopted its “Sustainability Charter” , and then came the 2017-20 plan “Integrating action on sustainability across all areas of institutional activity for the first time”. UoM’s goal is to force Sustainability dogma across every campus, every faculty, every subject and every cafeteria (vegan synthetic steaks, anyone?).[i] Faculty who resist this politicising of their subjects – and the university admits such hold-outs exist (p2) – are being counselled on right-think.

Virginia Shuts Down Plans for Race-Based Math Curriculum By Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2022/01/25/virginia-shuts-down-plans-for-race-based-math-curriculum/

On Monday, the Virginia Department of Education (DOE) canceled plans to roll out a new form of math curriculum that would focus heavily on race relations.

As reported by the Daily Caller, the DOE website no longer has a page for the planned Virginia Math Pathways Initiative (VMPI), which was previously set up by the administration of Governor Ralph Northam (D-Va.). All that remains on the page now is a message saying that “The Virginia Department of Education has ended the Virginia Math Pathways Initiative (VMPI) project. Please see the Mathematics Instruction page, if your browser does not refresh.”

The move was applauded by parents’ rights groups in the state of Virginia, including the watchdog group Parents Defending Education (PDE), which released a statement explaining how “ideologues of critical race theory, including Ibram X. Kendi, target advanced education, including math and advanced diploma programs, as emblematic of ‘systemic racism,’ and thus they are being targeted by activists around the country for elimination.”

“For the last year, local school boards and the media have insisted that critical race theory is not in our schools, dumbing our kids down,” said PDE’s Asra Nomani. “But it is in our schools, putting us in a race to the bottom, especially with math and sciences.”

“Thankfully, the Youngkin administration with Superintendent Jillian Balow and Assistant Superintendent Elizabeth Schultz have eliminated the Virginia Math Pathways Initiative, which was going to deny students advanced math in middle school,” Nomani continued. “This war on merit must end.”

Money for Indoctrination How consultants spread Critical Race Theory. John Stossel

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/money-indoctrination-john-stossel/

Glenn Youngkin recently was elected Virginia’s governor partly because he promised to ban teaching of CRT.

CRT stands for critical race theory, which argues that every American institution upholds white supremacy.

Before Youngkin’s surprise victory, the media mocked him for complaining about CRT.

NBC’s Nicolle Wallace said it isn’t even taught in public schools. “That is like us banning the ghosts!” she laughed.

She is wrong.

In my new video, journalist Asra Nomani reveals some rather creepy CRT lessons that are taught in many schools.

Nomani filed Freedom of Information Act requests that forced school districts to reveal how they pay consultants to spread critical race theory.

Youngkin Taps Anti-CRT Leader as Virginia Diversity Officer By Caroline Downey

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/youngkin-taps-anti-crt-leader-as-virginia-diversity-officer/

Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin tapped prominent anti-critical race theory activist Angela Sailor as the state’s new director of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“The people of Virginia elected the most diverse leadership in the Commonwealth’s history. Virginia is big enough for the hopes and dreams of a diverse people. Angela Sailor’s experience in government, nonprofits and the private sector will guide us as we ensure that the government is working for all Virginians across our diverse Commonwealth, especially when it comes to economic opportunity for all Virginians,” Youngkin said.

In appointing her to the position, Youngkin also issued an executive order that will reorient the office away from realizing racialized equality-of-outcome objectives. Instead, the office will focus on creating economic opportunity for disadvantaged Virginians, enforcing “free speech and civil discourse” in academia, and ensuring that students receive an “honest, objective, and complete” civic education,” Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

The governor also announced that he would introduce legislation to change the word “equity” in the office’s name to “opportunity.”

Without specifying racial background, the executive order reads: “…too many of our citizens have not received the equal opportunity they deserve, and we recognize that diversity when genuinely embraced strengthens our Commonwealth.”

Jordan Peterson: Why I am no longer a tenured professor at the University of Toronto

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jordan-peterson-why-i-am-no-longer-a-tenured-professor-at-the-university-of-toronto

The appalling ideology of diversity, inclusion and equity is demolishing education and business.

“And it’s not just the universities. And the professional colleges. And Hollywood. And the corporate world. Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity — that radical leftist Trinity — is destroying us. Wondering about the divisiveness that is currently besetting us? Look no farther than DIE. Wondering — more specifically — about the attractiveness of Trump? Look no farther than DIE. When does the left go too far? When they worship at the altar of DIE, and insist that the rest of us, who mostly want to be left alone, do so as well. Enough already. Enough. Enough.”

I recently resigned from my position as full tenured professor at the University of Toronto. I am now professor emeritus, and before I turned sixty. Emeritus is generally a designation reserved for superannuated faculty, albeit those who had served their term with some distinction. I had envisioned teaching and researching at the U of T, full time, until they had to haul my skeleton out of my office. I loved my job. And my students, undergraduates and graduates alike, were positively predisposed toward me. But that career path was not meant to be. There were many reasons, including the fact that I can now teach many more people and with less interference online. But here’s a few more:

First, my qualified and supremely trained heterosexual white male graduate students (and I’ve had many others, by the way) face a negligible chance of being offered university research positions, despite stellar scientific dossiers. This is partly because of Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity mandates (my preferred acronym: DIE). These have been imposed universally in academia, despite the fact that university hiring committees had already done everything reasonable for all the years of my career, and then some, to ensure that no qualified “minority” candidates were ever overlooked. My students are also partly unacceptable precisely because they are my students. I am academic persona non grata, because of my unacceptable philosophical positions. And this isn’t just some inconvenience. These facts rendered my job morally untenable. How can I accept prospective researchers and train them in good conscience knowing their employment prospects to be minimal?

A Hollowed-Out Democracy An interview with author and educator Jeremy Adams. Mark Tapson

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/hollowed-out-democracy-mark-tapson/

It is no secret that America’s education system has been failing our children and our country for over a half-century now, ever since the radical left realized that subverting American institutions from within was more effective than outright domestic terrorism. But thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and remote-learning mandates, parents have gotten a glimpse of just how insidious and shocking the dumbing-down and ideological indoctrination are. Parental outrage has led to confrontations with bullying teachers unions, hostile school boards, and tone-deaf political leaders who declare openly that parents shouldn’t have a say in their children’s education.

A recent book from Regnery Press addresses this hot-button topic and laments a whole generation or more of American youth whose brains as well as souls have been “hollowed out” by ideological brainwashing, technological distraction, the disintegration of families, and the collapse of moral and civic virtues. Hollowed Out: A Warning about America’s Next Generation, by Jeremy S. Adams, explores the different facets of this disheartening crisis, but also concludes with a rallying cry for action from a California teacher writing from within the very belly of the beast.

A graduate of Washington & Lee University and CSU Bakersfield, Jeremy Adams was the first classroom teacher inducted into the California State University, Bakersfield, Hall of Fame. He has written on politics and education for the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Sacramento Bee, and many other outlets. Our mutual friend Evan Sayet, conservative political commentator and himself the author of The Woke Supremacy: An Anti-Socialist Manifesto and KinderGarden Of Eden: How the Modern Liberal Thinks, put me in touch with Adams to talk a bit about Hollowed Out.

Mark Tapson:           Jeremy, thanks for the insightful dissection of the state of our culture you’ve put forth in this book. Lamenting the divide that partisan politics has created in our country, you write, “Our democracy is hollowed out because the habits, the relationships, the institutions, and the values that allow us to become thoughtful, compassionate, magnanimous, and informed citizens no longer shape and define us in the ways they once did.” Can you give us a couple of key examples?

Jeremy Adams:       I wish I could go back and add the word “content” or “fulfilled” or “joyful” to that list because every day the evidence is mounting about just how miserable—uniquely miserable, in fact—our young people have become. As to their civic deficiencies, the basic problem is a profound lack of knowledge and awareness of what went in to creating the institutions of our civilization. Almost everything they see is a consequence, they believe, of malevolent power being exercised against innocent bystanders in society.

Critical Race Theory: Wrong for K-12 Education By Walter Myers III

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/01/critical_race_theory_wrong_for_k12_education.html

Critical Race Theory (CRT), a relatively young legal theory that has been circulating in legal academic circles since the 1980s, suddenly burst on the scene of public consciousness in the past year.  It continues to be a topic of controversy due to its being advocated for inclusion in K-12 instruction. As with other subjects that become political footballs, CRT elicits very strong views — especially among those with minimal understanding of the theory. Unless a person has taken the time to earnestly read source materials from CRT’s original authors, it is all too easy to fall into one camp or the other — while still remaining in the dark about its meaning.

Here I would like to provide some insights about CRT and encourage reading original source materials by authors such as Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado. A great start would be Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement by Crenshaw, et al. What you will find is that CRT writings are not light reading by any means, but scholarly and heavily academic, as the expected audience is other legal scholars and academics. Yet grappling with these works is a necessary investment if you truly want to have an informed perspective regarding CRT.  You will likely come away with a conclusion that what has been labeled and promoted as “CRT” in K-12 education has virtually nothing to do with the theory as put forward in the key writings of its authors.

Last year we heard the continual refrain, even from the highest levels of government, that CRT is needed for K-12 students because it teaches about slavery and racism in our history.  The problem with this assertion is CRT is not something you would look for in a history book because it is not an account of specific events of the dark history of slavery and Jim Crow in America. Rather, CRT is based on legal theory from the perspective of the role of law in the treatment of people of color. Specifically, CRT examines how the law, since the founding of the country, has been both central and complicit in upholding white supremacy throughout its history in terms of social domination and subordination of people of color.