A couple of parents don’t think kids calling each other “comrade” is appropriate school? Get with it parents. Your kids are not yours. They belong to the collective. They are being trained for the revolution. You will be sent to labor camp so you can unlearn the oppressive behaviors you exhibit. Those kids will stop by about 16 years to make sure you’ve learned correct behaviors.
Very true! It's funny Bari and friends are now labeled as far right, but something tells me they won't be voting for anyone on the right. I don't know how much more insanity needs to happen with the leftists running things before people finally stop voting for them.
Well, I am not sure what that statement by Jackie Kennedy/Onassis stands for. She didn't exactly do a great job of raising her two. One foolishly plan ged his plane into th4e ocean and the other is a gadfly Democrat appointee to various showtime ambassadorships.
Not to worry, public schools cannot indoctrinate kids with the three Rs, reading, riting and rithmatic. I think that getting them to understand anything about radical leftist concepts would be near impossible.
If only it were so. But ideologies, at the simplified rank and file level, not expanded with graduate level verbal filigree, are comprehensible to almost anybody.
Much of it is as simple as variations on "these people good, those people bad". Or "your problems not your own fault at all and are all due to <insert scapegoat>".
That's far easier to convey than adding fractions, or detecting logical fallacies, or the difference between an adverb and an adjective.
It’s all ideology- nothing based in fact. Furthermore, imagine being a Jewish student at a school that teaches the BLM at School Action Week curriculum! Their statement in the wake of the October 7th attacks was:
“BLM@School wants to be clear in our recognition that this unfolding loss of Palestinian and Israeli lives is the direct result of decades of Israeli settler colonialism, land dispossession, occupation, blockade, apartheid, and attempted genocide of millions of Palestinians. Palestinians are reminding us that decolonization is not a metaphor or abstraction, but requires real, daily struggle.
Education should be wielded in service of struggle. The ongoing fight to #TeachTruth in the U.S. must include Palestinian existence, resistance, culture, global contributions, and the ongoing struggle to realize a free Palestine. It also must directly name the ways that U.S. imperialism has fueled and supported apartheid and war crimes. Educators need resources, support, and protection that honor the enduring struggle for realizing Palestinian justice. This is our offering at this time.“
Time to stop referring to this as “Education”. This is Marxist indoctrination, pure and simple. It now appears to span the entire teaching cycle, from kindergarten through college, as evidenced by elite college students screeching “from the river to the sea” without being able to identify neither river nor sea. The more important questions are how pervasive is this indoctrination and can it be reversed? Hitler said: “Capture the children and control the future.” These young people will soon be in charge. Ready for re-education camp, comrade?
The universities are captured by the ideology and it’s extremely pervasive in the Education schools within the universities. They teach this crap, graduate those students and we end up with woke education from K-12. Some smart, normie capitalists will figure this out and start new schools everywhere school choice is available, and hire kids from Liberty and Hillsdale and parents will flock to those schools. Leaving the kids of crazy progressives alone spewing this nonsense. At least in a perfect world that will happen!!
Hats off to Bari who, along with others, co-founded the University of Austin in Texas - UATX. Apparently they were flooded with applications from teachers trying to escape the Education gulag and actually teach. First year begins this Fall, I believe. A ray of hope.
Yes!!!! It’s unfortunate but in some ways the rot is so deep that you have to start anew. But there is hope in our young men who are balking at all of the wokeness…unfortunately our young women are way too gullible. Hopefully the Riley Gaines of this generation will break through to them. Go UATX!! (Although my son is a Longhorn and that’s who I root for🤣)
UATX appears to be ready to challenge the ideology being taught at many universities. It will be a long time before UATX will challenge UT on the athletic field.
A bit of shortsighted thinking goes along with this indoctrination - these kids and teachers seem to imagine they are special enough to avoid the horrors of Communism... in a few years their image will be wiped from the photographs and they'll be freezing away in a gulag, wondering where they had a wrong thought, with no actual thinking skills to discover the truth themselves.
Agree that "can it be reversed" is the important question.
Sometimes spreading salt and light means telling The Powers That Be where they can go and what they can do when they get there. And That could kill you. Saying NO I Refuse to go along with you. There's Nothing you can do to me.
Any large scale killing of people is not happening in the US in the near or medium term.
Digital censorship, unemployment, social shunning, refusal of business and other non-lethal tools are quite effective enough today to keep the outrage down to a manageable level. Dissent doesn't have to be suppressed to zero, just to a level to keep it from having mass impact.
Fear of being homeless, broke, sick and nearly friendless weighs quite heavily, and doesn't build mass opposition the way that killing people would.
The Tom Clancy book/movie Patriot Games centers around a group whose radicals splintered off into a group even more radical. The construct is something we witness in real life quite often. It is how legit criticism of Israel morphs into widespread antisemitism and demonization. Social media and the like add fuel to the terrible fire. But at the core, it is the teaching of lies which turn into hate. It is a terrible thing they are doing to these children. And to Jews.
It has amazed me how terms and words are re-purposed to condemn Israel. it is incredibly dishonest abd BLM is among the worst liars, errr, offenders.
Apartheid is practiced by Palestinian society. Jews are not allowed to vote or to own property -- the same core restrictions placed on Blacks in S. Africa under apartheid. While Arabs own property and vote in Israel. So apartheid needed a new definition so it could apply to Israel.
Genocide is a form of mass murder where a population is attempted to be wiped out. it happened in the Holocaust, in Rwanda, in pol pot's killing fields. But it has to be redefined to fit the use of the term against a growing population. It is almost certain the Palestinian population in the Palestinian territories will grow again this year, even despite the war. Like every year, it'll be at an all-time again this year. So genocide needed a new definition just for Israel. And for good measure, there were genocidal attempts against Israel in 1948 and 1967. The hamas charter openly calls for genocide as well. Without needing a redefinition.
Ethnic cleansing is another widely used term. 2 million Arabs live in Israel. Zero Jews live in Palestinian Territories. Which area is cleansed? Jews have a 4,000 year old history in Jerusalem, Samaria and Judea. But they were ethnically cleansed from this area in the 1920's to 1940's by local Arabs. In places like Hebron, where violent riots cleansed the population (it was about 10% Jews). In Jerusalem, where the majority Jewish population was forced out at gunpoint. In Gaza, where Jews lived in small numbers and were cleansed twice -- most recently about 20 years ago after Israel decided it couldn't maintain security for those living there. And you can also look at the rapid decline in Christian populations in Palestinian administered areas in both Gaza and West Bank. Once again, people had to redefine ethnic cleansing so it fit Israel, and not all the obvious ethnic cleansing done by local Arabs.
it is sickening, and teaching these lies to kids is going to harm a whole lot of innocent people. Including the kids themselves
I'll add another word to the redefined words list: refugee. By every other definition, few Palestinians alive today are actual refugees. But for that one group of people, refugee is redefined to make refugee status inheritable from one generation to the next to the next, essentially forever. Of course, that definition isn't really about Palestinians, its really about Israel. And having claims which can be pressed against Israel which can stretch into forever. In direct contrast, among the 700,000 or so Jews forced out of Islamic lands, you never hear the next generations being referred to as refugees.
Grievance politics and victimhood......the least interesting and laziest way of assesing conditions. I guess it's easier than looking in the mirror and owning who you really are.
The Goal (As James Lindsay points out) of Modern Education is NOT to produce Well Educated/Balanced Citizens capable living a good life and Running the county. Its to produce Activists. The Progressives have been Very Successful at this project. Just look at any University/College campus, for that matter *Corporate Boards/HR, Journalists, Entertainment, City Councils?
*Before I retired my boss would give me the day off when we had HR meetings. Because I would ask inconvenient questions, and then he's get yelled at by his bosses, and he didn't want to lose me.
During the pandemic our first grade grand son zoom schooled with us. His teacher would say on a daily bases that she wanted to raise ‘little activists.’
" Well in in Minnesota Gov Tim Walz has taken care of that little problem...by shutting down All Bars & Restaurants. The question is, 1. How long will this ban be in place 2. how many bars and restaurants will go under? All because of 14 cases (out of a population of 5.6 Million)
Let me see if I understand this (not being all that bright I..Could..Be..Wrong) The media pushes the Panic Button in order to get Ratings/Clicks. A certain number of people go (for lack of a better word) Insane. Politicians in response to the Media and the Insane, react by shutting down large parts of society/the economy...(249 people in a group, you're safe, 251 Everyone dies. If you want a drink or dinner out...You're gonna die.). Then to (try) a solve the problem they created by panicking and reacting to the insanity they say they are going to Give me $1,000. Where we might reasonably ask will they get this money? Why from the magical money tree of course!
Now I'm gonna go hide in my closet in case the Covid-19 (or maybe Covid-20!) comes marching down my street, slaughtering everyone in sight. "
I am so happy to be out of the workforce. My mouth would get me into a heap of trouble. Just living each day, running errands, etc. , it is hard to believe what has happened to our country. Political correctness was just the beginning.
Yep. Lindsay has hours of vids and commentary on this topic. There are people attempting to have this conversation but the American national narrative remains captured and "gee what can I do" learned helplessness remains in place.
Yes those are always there but thee are also the Trouble Makers who show up, at school board meetings, town halls, city council meeting and asking Questions.
The BLM statements on Oct 7th in general are heinous. Anyone who is curious about this can go check out BLMChicago instagram page. BLM at school is a joke. BLM or any other political organization has no place in the schools, period. End of discussion.
I like this statement: "When I taught, high school government especially, my students routinely asked me to reveal my political and voting preferences and my approach was to not share that information. I took it as a source of pride that they were unable to accurately discern my leanings."
Thanks Scott, in our workshops with schools and teachers we emphasize that approach along with a clear understanding of illiberal authoritarianism and how they show up both left and right. Objective Pluralism helps us recognize a variety of viewpoints and perspectives while not losing site of the accepted truth and knowledge of a reality-based community. These are also principles of our ThoughtStretchers Education Community. https://thoughtstretchers.org/
It’s not a good sign when people assert that education is something to be “wielded.” Such a dangerous usurpation is the antithesis of education, a word which from the Latin means “to draw out” from what is within the child, not indoctrinate with political rejoinders.
People interviewed are complaining about the school teaching their kids this ideology. Why is the school teaching 𝗮𝗻𝘆 ideology? Is there not enough math, language, history, science, geography and literature to fill their days? Who asked for this? What is the thinking that leads to faculty taking it on themselves to instruct kids about right and wrong? (And yes, there's a core of moral education that we presume; the basic building blocks like renouncing violence, theft vandalism and lying. There's more, but these are all consensus things that can actually come up in school. Why would I want the faculty stating its ideas about the nuclear family to my kid as if its gravity?)
"Is there not enough math, language, history, science, geography, and literature to fill their days?"
There is. There is enough math, language, etc., to fill all our days until the day we die. However, teaching those subjects effectively is a lot harder than persuading a captive audience of children that they are either a revolutionary vanguard (if of the correct group) or an evil that needs to be eradicated from the world (if of the incorrect group).
I meant to add, by the way, that many parents are complicit in this. Even while they disagree with some of the indoctrination, they expect, and often demand, that the school take an active role in their children's moral formation, thus relieving them of the burden and given them someone else to blame.
I've had this conversation with progressives. Sometimes the excuse is that if the school fails to indoctrinate the kids with progressive sexual mores, then trans and gay kids will be bullied. I counter that their job is prevent and punish bullying, not to teach the kids an ethic with which their parents may not agree.
Absolutely. One reason I've invested 27 years of my life (so far) in homeschooling is that I did not want my children to experience what I did: being the target of bullies when all I wanted was to get an A and get out.
And coincidentally, reading scores continue to drift downward. Truth is, teaching this is probably easier and fulfils some missionary sense of self worth missing from the current crop of teachers and administrators. A need to feel belonging for these adults has taken common sense elementary education out to the trash cans in the alley.
You're very kind, but I know plenty of excellent people in academia. Not only are they in agreement with us about these matters, but their expertise in their chosen fields is worthy of respect, as is the expertise of a plumber or a banker. Schools should teach, rather than indoctrinate; academics should pursue and transmit truth, rather than rabble-rouse.
When all the BLM signs started going up in 2020 I kept telling everyone I knew that this was a communist organization and that the rubes who are putting the signs up better know what they are supporting. Of course they didn't know or didn't care to know. They wanted to be on the bandwagon. However, those signs all quietly came down about half way through 2021. People are so very ignorant to their own and our detriment.
The article states that some of the parents were surprised, worried and unhappy with this BLM material being taught. The article didn't say that any of them had stormed the principle's office, confronted the school board or taken their children out of the school. Therein lies the problem. If you take this shit lying down and don't take radical measures to shut it down, it will just keep happening. At some point, it will be too late.
Our daughter was given the same material in a kindergarten in a public school in Seattle 6 years ago. I met with the principal, explained my concerns, and made the mistake of explaining that our family's values were in keeping with MLK's vision of a colorblind society. Ha! At the time, I had no idea that was a red flag to a bull. I got a lecture about how naive that sentiment was.
The whole conversation was a complete waste of time. We were one family in a district with 50,000 kids. On the Friday that material was introduced, the kids were encouraged to buy and wear BLM t-shirts. Probably half did so. There was no way we could make a difference there. We sold our house and moved to a small town in New Hampshire where our voice can actually be heard.
We visited my brother in a Colorado suburb shortly after my daughter brought this coloring workbook home last year. Everything seemed so normal compared to the joylessness we were experiencing in the bubble that is Ithaca, NY. We moved last summer and have no regrets. My 6th grader is learning about Frederick Douglass and MLK this month. It's so refreshing. She is also are reading a mix of books in English, including Tom Sawyer, that Ithaca schools would never touch.
This is surprising considering this is in Park Slope, a lefty bastion of Pro-BLM during the riots and those stupid virtue-signaling signs (In This House We Believe blah blah blah). I remember years ago they decided to boycott Sabra (who makes my favorite hummus) and other Israeli products because of some Palestinian crap. And now they complain about what they themselves have wrought?
Yeah, they’ll be pissed about the time their school gyms are used for illegals bedrooms and their playgrounds are trashed and war zones. No midnight basketball for your kids homey.
I think that apathy and indifference of the parents is a big part of the problem. Parents need to be engaged from the beginning not just when they see this type of insane propaganda. Our schools are not a substitute for good parenting. If your kids were spending 8 hours a day at the same friends house every day, I would hope that the parents would take the time to know who lives at that house and what goes on there. Schools are not supposed to be outsourced parenting. Show me a school system where parents are heavily involved and I will bet you see high expectations, better performance, and less bullshit.
City schools, particularly in less affluent or immigrant majority neighborhoods, are pretty adept at putting parents in their place and discouraging engagement or suggestions. What you describe is more typical of suburban schools where most parents are of means, college educated and cannot be bullied. And those same schools, as you suggest, are better.
Part of your assessment is accurate. The experience of my 4 kids is what you suggest - a suburban school district with a fairly well educated parent pool. However, my own school experience (70's and 80's) was in a city school district. My parents did not have money and they were not well educated. What they were was actively engaged - my father was active in the PTA throughout my elementary school years and my mother (who worked full time) made sure to attend parent information nights and stay in touch with teachers when needed until I graduated. I have a few neices that are teachers in urban schools now and they tell me that parent participation is minimal. If you are a parent that can be bullied by teachers and politicians and shy away from conflict when needed then I think your priorities are a big part of the problem.
In our experience, at a Brooklyn middle school the principal acted with complete freedom and impunity. We Expressed many times concerns with curriculum etc only to be met with a double down scolding or more often, silence.
Schools have ways of making parents obey. It's always risky to go in with guns blazing. These are usually thin skinned adults with an absolute belief in the rightness of whatever cause they have adopted. They'll see you as evil and they have access to your kid for more waking hours than you.
Agree that there's power in numbers and cameras BUT guns blazing is also a good idea. You must fight fire with fire and the school administration bullies are usually cowards when confronted.
Not sure I agree, but I guess every situation is different. Sometimes I think it's a good tactic to scare the shit out of these self-satisfied bastards. They are mostly cowards and deep inside they know that much of what they're teaching is crap.
Once you empty a child’s mind, you can easily fill it with garbage. The dumbing down of our K-12 educational system, begun in earnest with the bi-partisan “ No Child Left Behind,” was purposeful and effective.
This reminded me of a good quote from George Orwell's novel "1984", in which O'Brien explains to Winston Smith what the Thought Police intend to do to him. It's an extreme case of your point, but the same general idea:
"Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves."
Brooklyn parent here- PS 321 is one of the most in demand public schools in the area. People move just for this school.
My daughter is at private school and in first grade she is already telling me I have the same name as the nasa scientist Katherine Johnson who she learned about this month.
I’m fortunate to have the resources but we need to demand more of our educators. Last I checked NYC public schools spend $38k per student!
I can't think of many more harmful things to society than an ideology that discourages "nuclear families." How they cannot see that this will actually lead to worse outcomes for black people is beyond me.
When our children were given this material in a Seattle public school, this was the piece that drove me the most insane. The message was terrible enough, but the nonsense that nuclear families are "Western-prescribed" left me feeling like I was in a Kafka novel. Half of their classmates were Chinese or Indian, and statistically much more likely to be living in a nuclear family structure than any of the "Western" kids.
This is an interesting excerpt from a 2019 article by Rob Henderson (TFP contributor) in the NY Post:
"A former classmate from Yale recently told me “monogamy is kind of outdated” and not good for society. So I asked her what her background is and if she planned to marry.
She said she comes from an affluent family and works at a well-known technology company. Yes, she personally intends to have a monogamous marriage — but quickly added that marriage shouldn’t have to be for everyone.
She was raised by a traditional family. She planned on having a traditional family. But she maintained that traditional families are old-fashioned and society should “evolve” beyond them."
***
Gist of the article is that rich people embrace progressive beliefs for status, but ignore their real life toll on the lower class.
The white Leftists who support this know it will lead to worse outcomes. That's what they want. Keeping black people down (while pretending to help them) is how they ensure that they'll keep getting votes for being "compassionate."
I’m about midway through “America’s Cultural Revolution” by Christopher Rufo, where he does a deep dive into the how this went from fringe ideology to mainstream educational theory. It’s absolutely shocking how deep and widespread this critical theory mind rot has become.
To the question of “where did all the 60s radicals go?”, the answer seems to be into education, where they have done their own long march that has now infected all our once trusted institutions.
Even though more Americans are waking up to this, I wonder if it’s too little too late? Our schools have been steeped in anti-white, anti-western, and anti-capitalist indoctrination for nearly 60 years. Are there enough of us “normies” willing to speak up and stem the tide?
It took a while to get here, but none of this is really new. My feeling is there are more people developing awareness of this than not. Don’t throw the towel in yet.
I think it's too late. Not only do these people control education, from pre-K to post-grad, they also control the media, the justice system, and the bureaucratic state. Any attempt to resist will be met with punishment from one or more of those institutions.
There is going to be a pendulum swing back because of children’s lack of fluency in reading and math. Look at all the tutoring enterprises , both the franchise and private, and the cost of their services to obtain a “standard” education along with the cost of taxes. An education is becoming a huge financial burden for many in the middle class and there will be and is anger about it. This is why, it is circling the drain situation rather than a down the drain situation. I hope!
I don't think this is a pendulum situation. The Left has hold of the pendulum and they are not about to release it.
I think we will see much more homeschooling and people pushing for school choice/vouchers. But the Left is so determinedly against school choice/vouchers that this will probably only pass in a handful of places.
The sad reality is that most American parents don't have the time or energy, let alone the money, to meaningfully resist the Left's corruption of our education system.
Looking at San Francisco where residents threw fits when the school board was focused on school names & a mural instead of shut schools during Covid and poor performance of schools. Two woke board members lost in the election. A proposal for a high school that was merit based to go DEI caused a huge ruckus and remains merit based. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote a negative article about the Woke Kindergarten contract. The west coast is the Left coast and yet there are these sparks. Not blazes but fragile sparks that suggest some hope. There are also disappointments that threaten the sparks ie Oakland school teachers teach in on Palestine.
Agree that there will be pushes for charter and improving home school options with coop teaching and ever evolving and improving curriculum materials available along with more community support for home schoolers thru programs at museums, parks & rec, etc.
The pushback is fueled by the expense of Russian math class, Kumon, etc. when the child comes home from school with more coloring than proof of learning writing or math. Anger that the child’s peak hours to learn are routinely frittered away with movies, coloring books, ceremonies, etc and you are teaching multiplication (not reviewing but teaching!) an exhausted 8 year old after dinner. Recognizing that a child’s once cute creative spelling as a 5 yo is illiteracy in a 10 yo.
Respectfully, I think a lot of what is happening in all kinds of industries is a kind of "we'd better" thinking - basically, people trying to dream up what they can do to make everything more captured and more beholden to their fanaticism.
It makes me wonder how much they really want this or are just doing what they think they should out of fear of someone calling them out.
I think for the most part the masses in these cultural movements are not brilliant and terrible geniuses, but go-along-get-along types who will bend and sway in whatever wind is blowing. Once the wind changes and people start pushing back more, others felt free to drop it.
I guess I think this give-and-take is the way ordinary Americans enforce our social order. And I think these people are largely weak-minded, or wouldn't have fallen for this utterly stupid and insulting, conflicting, incoherent, emotional way of thinking.
The only answer is for the non-leftist states to secede - now, before the rot gets worse. If this upcoming election is as rigged as I think it will be, that could very well be the trigger.
There is reason for encouragement. Prominent individuals are pulling funding from universities. In today's Free Press headline, it stated that Yale has reinstituted test scores for admission.
Remember the following, which applies to all of the ludicrous ways in which radicals are attempting to re-engineer 6,000 years of organized human civilization:
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." ---Unknown
W.T. -- Part of the psyop is preventing the average citizen from having a clear view of the reality surrounding his life. Tyranny always works toward convincing the citizen of his powerlessness. Remove the MSM boogie man smokescreen and I think "we the people" are pretty evenly matched against the fascist DNC/CCP/WEF/EU Davos crowd.
"...where did all the 60's radicals go?..." To jail.
The "drug war" was specifically put in place and used to destroy the lives and futures of Americans of every stripe and color. Today's bureaucratic surveillance state made it's bones violating American civil liberties, introducing drugs into American cities and building the very profitable corporate prison industrial complex that houses more prisoners than the rest of the world combined. Silence is indeed golden. Ask Julian.
all those people in jail and you still can't walk vast areas of most large cities at night and some (b'more, etc ) during the day. I guess all the wrong people are locked up.
There are names behind all of this. How about a little effort smoking these people out and publish their names and backgrounds. Just who are the authors behind these materials? Betcha many are White Communist radicals.
We've all become lazy as well as disillusioned that posting a comment equates to any actual change. On the contrary, people guilty of this wrongdoing are well aware of this, and know they can EASILY get away with their agenda
Check out Bret Weinstein's report on the special Chinese immigration camps (military aged men) in Panama headed north to our southern border. Likewise understanding that what's happening in America is also happening in Europe. Across Substack any depth report on the issue points to criminal financiers hiding behind and financing well paid poseur Marxists who are dismantling the culture and institutions free peoples of the West have built.
I just read through the transcript of an interview he gave. It's chilling. Especially when so many useful idiots in the US conflate border security with immigration policy.
I see so many similarities between the BLM educational material and the Palestinian educational material. Which gives a whole new (?) dimension to their alliance. It's as if the same minds are driving these movements. Something tells me that if we follow the money, we'll reach a similar source.
This is not a monetary issue but one of pathetic victimhood being the driving force behind agitation, self-loathing, and destructive cultures that destroy versus build.
Both movements are showered with money to fuel their agenda - training, printed material in classrooms and rallies, online presence and marketing etc. The social aspect is as you say, but the practical machinations and motivation behind these two movements, in my suspicion, is of common sort.
Behind every agenda that focuses on victimhood and oppression as opposed to individual excellence and accountability lies the accumulation of money and power.
My daughter went to MS 447 in Brooklyn. When she was in 8th grade two years ago they changed Black History month to Black Lives Matter month. The principal sent a multi page email to parents schooling us on why the important change. In fact it was the longest email the school ever sent to parents in our time there. The principal never responded to my concerns. Needless to say, daughter now goes to a catholic high school.
Ha! Of course it's P.S. 321-- the zoned public school so sought-after by yuppie parents that it drives the price of Park Slope brownstones even higher into the stratosphere. "Luxury beliefs" like "restorative justice" and "counselors, not cops" are beloved by those whose kids don't get pummeled by gang members on the way home from school. Outside 321 at dismissal, BIPOC nannies await to whisk the little comrades to their next enrichment experience. You know a woke artifact is bad if even Park Slopers are wrinkling their noses.
I was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Brooklyn, attending PS 161, and got married in Brooklyn. It was such a great place to grow up until the Dodgers left Brooklyn! After we left in 1966, Brooklyn started to go downhill in the 70s. BLM has been a discredited organization by every decent black or otherwise person. It’s inconceivable that any of their material should be in our schools. The silent majority better speak up now or forever lose their voice.
Brooklyn began going downhill in the late 1960s. I remember the first time Mom asked my father if he'd locked the front door. It sounded weird.
We remained. New steel doors replaced our old half-windowed basement doors, bars went up on basement windows, and our beautiful leaded-glass first-floor windows were nailed shut. But we kept our doors unlocked during the day because we had family living about, and they visited at will.
Our wrought-iron porch furniture was stolen. My aunt's ceramic flower pots were stolen; even her peony was stolen! But Brooklyn was our home, it's still mine, and hope springs eternal.
Driving west on the Belt Parkway, I get the most beautiful view of Jamaica Bay on one side and Mill Basin on the other. The steep hills of Green-Wood Cemetery and Prospect Park are lovely. Squill and snowdrops bespeckle my patch of front garden. Things are as they are.
Loved reading that you stayed and still find much to enjoy. When I went back to visit in the 70s, my parents had about 4 locks on the front door, and when I was going to take the subway up to Manhattan, my mother told me to take the exact change out before so that you don’t take your wallet out in the subway. WOW had things changed!
Haha! Well, those cautions are still advised, only we keep the Metrocard, not change, handy but safe, and locked doors (with deadbolts) are still a good thing.
When a dysfunctional family moves into a middle-class building and makes noise all night and the sons hang out smoking in the hallways during the day, the neighbors, the old-time tenants, move out.
The newcomers invite dysfunctional friends, and then the incinerator room becomes their urinal, and hallway lightbulbs get broken just for fun, and the apartments next door, above, and below are uninhabitable. When the old families move out, more (usually subsidized) dysfunctional families move in.
One building goes, then the next, then the whole block. Then the neighborhood. Then other neighborhoods become affected. The schools go bad and then everyone blames the teachers.
It wasn't white flight, everyone who could left; black families did too. But we and our relatives stayed because the dysfunction wasn't at our door. Our neighborhood didn't go that way.
Spouse's aunts and uncles all left because theirs did. They went to Long Island and upstate New York. My friends' families left for Westchester and New Jersey as soon as the children graduated high school.
After a few decades, no one remembered how city life used to be, or could be again if we didn't tolerate or encourage or abet dysfunction. It's sad. These new New Yorkers said to people who object to crime and filth, It's a city, if you don't like it, move! And after sixty years, if we don't have yet another turn-around, they might be right this time.
When I'm gone, it'll be one less person who remembers when Brooklynites didn't lock their doors at night.
It’s so sad to learn that the place where you were born and grew up in, that you loved and felt safe in has disappeared. Yes I feel sorry for this generation and probably future generations will never know this other Brooklyn! Even our Brooklyneze accent is changing!
A couple of parents don’t think kids calling each other “comrade” is appropriate school? Get with it parents. Your kids are not yours. They belong to the collective. They are being trained for the revolution. You will be sent to labor camp so you can unlearn the oppressive behaviors you exhibit. Those kids will stop by about 16 years to make sure you’ve learned correct behaviors.
And parents who push back against this by complaining at school board meetings will be investigated by the DOJ as terrorists.
And then a sizable number will run to the polls and vote for more of the same.
Very true! It's funny Bari and friends are now labeled as far right, but something tells me they won't be voting for anyone on the right. I don't know how much more insanity needs to happen with the leftists running things before people finally stop voting for them.
Jackie Kennedy once said, "If you bungle raising your children, then nothing else you do matters."
People who would vote for the crowd that supports elective mastectomies for 15-year-olds can't really have much else to give them pause.
Well, I am not sure what that statement by Jackie Kennedy/Onassis stands for. She didn't exactly do a great job of raising her two. One foolishly plan ged his plane into th4e ocean and the other is a gadfly Democrat appointee to various showtime ambassadorships.
So PARENTS... what're you going to do???? Collectively protest? Get it banned? Home school? Change schools? What???
Not to worry, public schools cannot indoctrinate kids with the three Rs, reading, riting and rithmatic. I think that getting them to understand anything about radical leftist concepts would be near impossible.
If only it were so. But ideologies, at the simplified rank and file level, not expanded with graduate level verbal filigree, are comprehensible to almost anybody.
Much of it is as simple as variations on "these people good, those people bad". Or "your problems not your own fault at all and are all due to <insert scapegoat>".
That's far easier to convey than adding fractions, or detecting logical fallacies, or the difference between an adverb and an adjective.
It’s all ideology- nothing based in fact. Furthermore, imagine being a Jewish student at a school that teaches the BLM at School Action Week curriculum! Their statement in the wake of the October 7th attacks was:
“BLM@School wants to be clear in our recognition that this unfolding loss of Palestinian and Israeli lives is the direct result of decades of Israeli settler colonialism, land dispossession, occupation, blockade, apartheid, and attempted genocide of millions of Palestinians. Palestinians are reminding us that decolonization is not a metaphor or abstraction, but requires real, daily struggle.
Education should be wielded in service of struggle. The ongoing fight to #TeachTruth in the U.S. must include Palestinian existence, resistance, culture, global contributions, and the ongoing struggle to realize a free Palestine. It also must directly name the ways that U.S. imperialism has fueled and supported apartheid and war crimes. Educators need resources, support, and protection that honor the enduring struggle for realizing Palestinian justice. This is our offering at this time.“
Time to stop referring to this as “Education”. This is Marxist indoctrination, pure and simple. It now appears to span the entire teaching cycle, from kindergarten through college, as evidenced by elite college students screeching “from the river to the sea” without being able to identify neither river nor sea. The more important questions are how pervasive is this indoctrination and can it be reversed? Hitler said: “Capture the children and control the future.” These young people will soon be in charge. Ready for re-education camp, comrade?
The universities are captured by the ideology and it’s extremely pervasive in the Education schools within the universities. They teach this crap, graduate those students and we end up with woke education from K-12. Some smart, normie capitalists will figure this out and start new schools everywhere school choice is available, and hire kids from Liberty and Hillsdale and parents will flock to those schools. Leaving the kids of crazy progressives alone spewing this nonsense. At least in a perfect world that will happen!!
Hats off to Bari who, along with others, co-founded the University of Austin in Texas - UATX. Apparently they were flooded with applications from teachers trying to escape the Education gulag and actually teach. First year begins this Fall, I believe. A ray of hope.
Yes!!!! It’s unfortunate but in some ways the rot is so deep that you have to start anew. But there is hope in our young men who are balking at all of the wokeness…unfortunately our young women are way too gullible. Hopefully the Riley Gaines of this generation will break through to them. Go UATX!! (Although my son is a Longhorn and that’s who I root for🤣)
UATX appears to be ready to challenge the ideology being taught at many universities. It will be a long time before UATX will challenge UT on the athletic field.
A bit of shortsighted thinking goes along with this indoctrination - these kids and teachers seem to imagine they are special enough to avoid the horrors of Communism... in a few years their image will be wiped from the photographs and they'll be freezing away in a gulag, wondering where they had a wrong thought, with no actual thinking skills to discover the truth themselves.
Agree that "can it be reversed" is the important question.
"Ready for re-education camp, comrade?"
A couple of years ago for my birthday a niece gave me some business cards hat said "I Don't Give A Damn."
+ Being a Christian, what are they gonna do? Kill me...Great I Get To Go Home.
There's an old saying "If You Want to Make God Laugh, Tell Him Your Plans."
Yes, but not that Christian, bro - we're supposed to be in the world, but not of it, spreading salt and light, not checking out.
Sometimes spreading salt and light means telling The Powers That Be where they can go and what they can do when they get there. And That could kill you. Saying NO I Refuse to go along with you. There's Nothing you can do to me.
Any large scale killing of people is not happening in the US in the near or medium term.
Digital censorship, unemployment, social shunning, refusal of business and other non-lethal tools are quite effective enough today to keep the outrage down to a manageable level. Dissent doesn't have to be suppressed to zero, just to a level to keep it from having mass impact.
Fear of being homeless, broke, sick and nearly friendless weighs quite heavily, and doesn't build mass opposition the way that killing people would.
The issue is never the issue, the issue is always the revolution.
Exactly.
They are teaching Jew-hatred and you are already seeing the results in your streets.
I wish you were wrong. But you're correct.
The Tom Clancy book/movie Patriot Games centers around a group whose radicals splintered off into a group even more radical. The construct is something we witness in real life quite often. It is how legit criticism of Israel morphs into widespread antisemitism and demonization. Social media and the like add fuel to the terrible fire. But at the core, it is the teaching of lies which turn into hate. It is a terrible thing they are doing to these children. And to Jews.
It has amazed me how terms and words are re-purposed to condemn Israel. it is incredibly dishonest abd BLM is among the worst liars, errr, offenders.
Apartheid is practiced by Palestinian society. Jews are not allowed to vote or to own property -- the same core restrictions placed on Blacks in S. Africa under apartheid. While Arabs own property and vote in Israel. So apartheid needed a new definition so it could apply to Israel.
Genocide is a form of mass murder where a population is attempted to be wiped out. it happened in the Holocaust, in Rwanda, in pol pot's killing fields. But it has to be redefined to fit the use of the term against a growing population. It is almost certain the Palestinian population in the Palestinian territories will grow again this year, even despite the war. Like every year, it'll be at an all-time again this year. So genocide needed a new definition just for Israel. And for good measure, there were genocidal attempts against Israel in 1948 and 1967. The hamas charter openly calls for genocide as well. Without needing a redefinition.
Ethnic cleansing is another widely used term. 2 million Arabs live in Israel. Zero Jews live in Palestinian Territories. Which area is cleansed? Jews have a 4,000 year old history in Jerusalem, Samaria and Judea. But they were ethnically cleansed from this area in the 1920's to 1940's by local Arabs. In places like Hebron, where violent riots cleansed the population (it was about 10% Jews). In Jerusalem, where the majority Jewish population was forced out at gunpoint. In Gaza, where Jews lived in small numbers and were cleansed twice -- most recently about 20 years ago after Israel decided it couldn't maintain security for those living there. And you can also look at the rapid decline in Christian populations in Palestinian administered areas in both Gaza and West Bank. Once again, people had to redefine ethnic cleansing so it fit Israel, and not all the obvious ethnic cleansing done by local Arabs.
it is sickening, and teaching these lies to kids is going to harm a whole lot of innocent people. Including the kids themselves
I'll add another word to the redefined words list: refugee. By every other definition, few Palestinians alive today are actual refugees. But for that one group of people, refugee is redefined to make refugee status inheritable from one generation to the next to the next, essentially forever. Of course, that definition isn't really about Palestinians, its really about Israel. And having claims which can be pressed against Israel which can stretch into forever. In direct contrast, among the 700,000 or so Jews forced out of Islamic lands, you never hear the next generations being referred to as refugees.
Grievance politics and victimhood......the least interesting and laziest way of assesing conditions. I guess it's easier than looking in the mirror and owning who you really are.
Great observation Ken. Victimhood… it’s the name of the game
Hear, hear.
The Goal (As James Lindsay points out) of Modern Education is NOT to produce Well Educated/Balanced Citizens capable living a good life and Running the county. Its to produce Activists. The Progressives have been Very Successful at this project. Just look at any University/College campus, for that matter *Corporate Boards/HR, Journalists, Entertainment, City Councils?
*Before I retired my boss would give me the day off when we had HR meetings. Because I would ask inconvenient questions, and then he's get yelled at by his bosses, and he didn't want to lose me.
During the pandemic our first grade grand son zoom schooled with us. His teacher would say on a daily bases that she wanted to raise ‘little activists.’
Exactly! This one of (maybe the Only) good things to come out of Covid.
It was a real eye opener. There was definitely an agenda. I could go on.
" Well in in Minnesota Gov Tim Walz has taken care of that little problem...by shutting down All Bars & Restaurants. The question is, 1. How long will this ban be in place 2. how many bars and restaurants will go under? All because of 14 cases (out of a population of 5.6 Million)
Let me see if I understand this (not being all that bright I..Could..Be..Wrong) The media pushes the Panic Button in order to get Ratings/Clicks. A certain number of people go (for lack of a better word) Insane. Politicians in response to the Media and the Insane, react by shutting down large parts of society/the economy...(249 people in a group, you're safe, 251 Everyone dies. If you want a drink or dinner out...You're gonna die.). Then to (try) a solve the problem they created by panicking and reacting to the insanity they say they are going to Give me $1,000. Where we might reasonably ask will they get this money? Why from the magical money tree of course!
Now I'm gonna go hide in my closet in case the Covid-19 (or maybe Covid-20!) comes marching down my street, slaughtering everyone in sight. "
A Skinny Old Wise Ass March 19 2020
I am so happy to be out of the workforce. My mouth would get me into a heap of trouble. Just living each day, running errands, etc. , it is hard to believe what has happened to our country. Political correctness was just the beginning.
"I am so happy to be out of the workforce"
I don't really miss working although I Do Miss Hanging with co-workers, the social aspects.
At some point (maybe its happening) people will say ENOUGH!
Yep. Lindsay has hours of vids and commentary on this topic. There are people attempting to have this conversation but the American national narrative remains captured and "gee what can I do" learned helplessness remains in place.
Yes those are always there but thee are also the Trouble Makers who show up, at school board meetings, town halls, city council meeting and asking Questions.
But then choose to be an optimist.
Being a Christian its pretty much required. :-)
Should have said: The Progressives, led by Barack Obama, have been very successful....
I understand, but Goes back farther than that.
You're right. Herbert Marcuse and Angela Davis. Both human slime.
The BLM statements on Oct 7th in general are heinous. Anyone who is curious about this can go check out BLMChicago instagram page. BLM at school is a joke. BLM or any other political organization has no place in the schools, period. End of discussion.
Want to teach the truth? Use Objective Pluralism. https://wegrowteachers.com/teach-the-truth-objective-pluralism/
I like this statement: "When I taught, high school government especially, my students routinely asked me to reveal my political and voting preferences and my approach was to not share that information. I took it as a source of pride that they were unable to accurately discern my leanings."
Thanks Scott, in our workshops with schools and teachers we emphasize that approach along with a clear understanding of illiberal authoritarianism and how they show up both left and right. Objective Pluralism helps us recognize a variety of viewpoints and perspectives while not losing site of the accepted truth and knowledge of a reality-based community. These are also principles of our ThoughtStretchers Education Community. https://thoughtstretchers.org/
It’s not a good sign when people assert that education is something to be “wielded.” Such a dangerous usurpation is the antithesis of education, a word which from the Latin means “to draw out” from what is within the child, not indoctrinate with political rejoinders.
People interviewed are complaining about the school teaching their kids this ideology. Why is the school teaching 𝗮𝗻𝘆 ideology? Is there not enough math, language, history, science, geography and literature to fill their days? Who asked for this? What is the thinking that leads to faculty taking it on themselves to instruct kids about right and wrong? (And yes, there's a core of moral education that we presume; the basic building blocks like renouncing violence, theft vandalism and lying. There's more, but these are all consensus things that can actually come up in school. Why would I want the faculty stating its ideas about the nuclear family to my kid as if its gravity?)
"Is there not enough math, language, history, science, geography, and literature to fill their days?"
There is. There is enough math, language, etc., to fill all our days until the day we die. However, teaching those subjects effectively is a lot harder than persuading a captive audience of children that they are either a revolutionary vanguard (if of the correct group) or an evil that needs to be eradicated from the world (if of the incorrect group).
I meant to add, by the way, that many parents are complicit in this. Even while they disagree with some of the indoctrination, they expect, and often demand, that the school take an active role in their children's moral formation, thus relieving them of the burden and given them someone else to blame.
That was my first thought: this is blatant ideological propaganda, so why is it being taught in school?
I've had this conversation with progressives. Sometimes the excuse is that if the school fails to indoctrinate the kids with progressive sexual mores, then trans and gay kids will be bullied. I counter that their job is prevent and punish bullying, not to teach the kids an ethic with which their parents may not agree.
Like teaching trigonometry, preventing bullying is a lot more difficult than pushing a belief system on people who are forced to be there.
But like trigonometry, more effective, more useful and more in line with what parents want.
Absolutely. One reason I've invested 27 years of my life (so far) in homeschooling is that I did not want my children to experience what I did: being the target of bullies when all I wanted was to get an A and get out.
Great observation, Michael
Thank you.
And coincidentally, reading scores continue to drift downward. Truth is, teaching this is probably easier and fulfils some missionary sense of self worth missing from the current crop of teachers and administrators. A need to feel belonging for these adults has taken common sense elementary education out to the trash cans in the alley.
Michael. You are clearly too bright, rational, and loaded with common sense to work in academia.
You're very kind, but I know plenty of excellent people in academia. Not only are they in agreement with us about these matters, but their expertise in their chosen fields is worthy of respect, as is the expertise of a plumber or a banker. Schools should teach, rather than indoctrinate; academics should pursue and transmit truth, rather than rabble-rouse.
BLM is and always was a communist revolutionary movement.
During Cuba's protests against their communist government, BLM publicly supported the white communists over the black protestors.
Believe people when they say who they are.
It is undeniable fact that Democrats rioted for months during a pandemic on behalf of a communist revolutionary group.
The left really does hate black people. Always has, always will.
The Left is not too fond of women, either. They would be happy to wipe out women in general and lesbians in particular.
Condescension is the lefts greatest characteristic for anyone outside of their class or race
I think hatred is the Left's greatest characteristic.
Hatred of Love.
Hatred of Freedom.
Hatred of Family.
Hatred of Achievement.
Hatred of Success.
Hatred of Money.
Hatred of Joy.
Hatred of Fun.
Hatred of Heteroexual Intercourse.
Hatred of Children.
Hatred of Life.
Hatred of Everything.
No group hates like the Left. It's what the Left does. It's raison d'etre is hate.
They don't hate money. And they certainly don't hate power.
They hate intelligent, accomplished black people. The rest are easily controlled with hand-outs.
When all the BLM signs started going up in 2020 I kept telling everyone I knew that this was a communist organization and that the rubes who are putting the signs up better know what they are supporting. Of course they didn't know or didn't care to know. They wanted to be on the bandwagon. However, those signs all quietly came down about half way through 2021. People are so very ignorant to their own and our detriment.
The article states that some of the parents were surprised, worried and unhappy with this BLM material being taught. The article didn't say that any of them had stormed the principle's office, confronted the school board or taken their children out of the school. Therein lies the problem. If you take this shit lying down and don't take radical measures to shut it down, it will just keep happening. At some point, it will be too late.
Our daughter was given the same material in a kindergarten in a public school in Seattle 6 years ago. I met with the principal, explained my concerns, and made the mistake of explaining that our family's values were in keeping with MLK's vision of a colorblind society. Ha! At the time, I had no idea that was a red flag to a bull. I got a lecture about how naive that sentiment was.
The whole conversation was a complete waste of time. We were one family in a district with 50,000 kids. On the Friday that material was introduced, the kids were encouraged to buy and wear BLM t-shirts. Probably half did so. There was no way we could make a difference there. We sold our house and moved to a small town in New Hampshire where our voice can actually be heard.
We visited my brother in a Colorado suburb shortly after my daughter brought this coloring workbook home last year. Everything seemed so normal compared to the joylessness we were experiencing in the bubble that is Ithaca, NY. We moved last summer and have no regrets. My 6th grader is learning about Frederick Douglass and MLK this month. It's so refreshing. She is also are reading a mix of books in English, including Tom Sawyer, that Ithaca schools would never touch.
Good for you!!
This is surprising considering this is in Park Slope, a lefty bastion of Pro-BLM during the riots and those stupid virtue-signaling signs (In This House We Believe blah blah blah). I remember years ago they decided to boycott Sabra (who makes my favorite hummus) and other Israeli products because of some Palestinian crap. And now they complain about what they themselves have wrought?
Yeah, they’ll be pissed about the time their school gyms are used for illegals bedrooms and their playgrounds are trashed and war zones. No midnight basketball for your kids homey.
I think that apathy and indifference of the parents is a big part of the problem. Parents need to be engaged from the beginning not just when they see this type of insane propaganda. Our schools are not a substitute for good parenting. If your kids were spending 8 hours a day at the same friends house every day, I would hope that the parents would take the time to know who lives at that house and what goes on there. Schools are not supposed to be outsourced parenting. Show me a school system where parents are heavily involved and I will bet you see high expectations, better performance, and less bullshit.
City schools, particularly in less affluent or immigrant majority neighborhoods, are pretty adept at putting parents in their place and discouraging engagement or suggestions. What you describe is more typical of suburban schools where most parents are of means, college educated and cannot be bullied. And those same schools, as you suggest, are better.
Part of your assessment is accurate. The experience of my 4 kids is what you suggest - a suburban school district with a fairly well educated parent pool. However, my own school experience (70's and 80's) was in a city school district. My parents did not have money and they were not well educated. What they were was actively engaged - my father was active in the PTA throughout my elementary school years and my mother (who worked full time) made sure to attend parent information nights and stay in touch with teachers when needed until I graduated. I have a few neices that are teachers in urban schools now and they tell me that parent participation is minimal. If you are a parent that can be bullied by teachers and politicians and shy away from conflict when needed then I think your priorities are a big part of the problem.
In our experience, at a Brooklyn middle school the principal acted with complete freedom and impunity. We Expressed many times concerns with curriculum etc only to be met with a double down scolding or more often, silence.
Parents should not allow themselves to be bullied. I don't even understand that dynamic.
Nobody wants to be doxxed and then lose their job because they weren't supportive enough of BLM.
This comment is perfect. Extremism must be met with an equal and opposite reaction.
Schools have ways of making parents obey. It's always risky to go in with guns blazing. These are usually thin skinned adults with an absolute belief in the rightness of whatever cause they have adopted. They'll see you as evil and they have access to your kid for more waking hours than you.
Bring friends and cameras.
Agree that there's power in numbers and cameras BUT guns blazing is also a good idea. You must fight fire with fire and the school administration bullies are usually cowards when confronted.
Peaceful at first but guns blazing if results are unsatisfactory. Walk softly but carry a big stick.
Not sure I agree, but I guess every situation is different. Sometimes I think it's a good tactic to scare the shit out of these self-satisfied bastards. They are mostly cowards and deep inside they know that much of what they're teaching is crap.
When I was in public schools a little under a decade ago, they were next to worthless.
Now they’re just like most colleges: Marxist indoctrination centers.
Once you empty a child’s mind, you can easily fill it with garbage. The dumbing down of our K-12 educational system, begun in earnest with the bi-partisan “ No Child Left Behind,” was purposeful and effective.
Roberta L:
This reminded me of a good quote from George Orwell's novel "1984", in which O'Brien explains to Winston Smith what the Thought Police intend to do to him. It's an extreme case of your point, but the same general idea:
"Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves."
This book was removed from the California curriculum in 1985 or 6 because it was outdated. (Sigh)
Brooklyn parent here- PS 321 is one of the most in demand public schools in the area. People move just for this school.
My daughter is at private school and in first grade she is already telling me I have the same name as the nasa scientist Katherine Johnson who she learned about this month.
I’m fortunate to have the resources but we need to demand more of our educators. Last I checked NYC public schools spend $38k per student!
Now there’s a role model- Katherine Johnson … amazing story and woman! Talk about inspiring young kids!
BLM has one principle - buy large mansions. For the grifters who run it.
That this filth is taught in NYC schools says all you need to know about the mindset of the evil clowns who run this sewer.
I can't think of many more harmful things to society than an ideology that discourages "nuclear families." How they cannot see that this will actually lead to worse outcomes for black people is beyond me.
When our children were given this material in a Seattle public school, this was the piece that drove me the most insane. The message was terrible enough, but the nonsense that nuclear families are "Western-prescribed" left me feeling like I was in a Kafka novel. Half of their classmates were Chinese or Indian, and statistically much more likely to be living in a nuclear family structure than any of the "Western" kids.
I know, I work with a lot of new Immigrants from Asia and almost all of them would be classified as White Supremacist.
This is an interesting excerpt from a 2019 article by Rob Henderson (TFP contributor) in the NY Post:
"A former classmate from Yale recently told me “monogamy is kind of outdated” and not good for society. So I asked her what her background is and if she planned to marry.
She said she comes from an affluent family and works at a well-known technology company. Yes, she personally intends to have a monogamous marriage — but quickly added that marriage shouldn’t have to be for everyone.
She was raised by a traditional family. She planned on having a traditional family. But she maintained that traditional families are old-fashioned and society should “evolve” beyond them."
***
Gist of the article is that rich people embrace progressive beliefs for status, but ignore their real life toll on the lower class.
https://nypost.com/2019/08/17/luxury-beliefs-are-the-latest-status-symbol-for-rich-americans/
The white Leftists who support this know it will lead to worse outcomes. That's what they want. Keeping black people down (while pretending to help them) is how they ensure that they'll keep getting votes for being "compassionate."
yup, god bless a single parent but a two parent household provides immeasurable benefits.
I’m about midway through “America’s Cultural Revolution” by Christopher Rufo, where he does a deep dive into the how this went from fringe ideology to mainstream educational theory. It’s absolutely shocking how deep and widespread this critical theory mind rot has become.
To the question of “where did all the 60s radicals go?”, the answer seems to be into education, where they have done their own long march that has now infected all our once trusted institutions.
Even though more Americans are waking up to this, I wonder if it’s too little too late? Our schools have been steeped in anti-white, anti-western, and anti-capitalist indoctrination for nearly 60 years. Are there enough of us “normies” willing to speak up and stem the tide?
It took a while to get here, but none of this is really new. My feeling is there are more people developing awareness of this than not. Don’t throw the towel in yet.
I think it's too late. Not only do these people control education, from pre-K to post-grad, they also control the media, the justice system, and the bureaucratic state. Any attempt to resist will be met with punishment from one or more of those institutions.
There is going to be a pendulum swing back because of children’s lack of fluency in reading and math. Look at all the tutoring enterprises , both the franchise and private, and the cost of their services to obtain a “standard” education along with the cost of taxes. An education is becoming a huge financial burden for many in the middle class and there will be and is anger about it. This is why, it is circling the drain situation rather than a down the drain situation. I hope!
I don't think this is a pendulum situation. The Left has hold of the pendulum and they are not about to release it.
I think we will see much more homeschooling and people pushing for school choice/vouchers. But the Left is so determinedly against school choice/vouchers that this will probably only pass in a handful of places.
The sad reality is that most American parents don't have the time or energy, let alone the money, to meaningfully resist the Left's corruption of our education system.
Looking at San Francisco where residents threw fits when the school board was focused on school names & a mural instead of shut schools during Covid and poor performance of schools. Two woke board members lost in the election. A proposal for a high school that was merit based to go DEI caused a huge ruckus and remains merit based. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote a negative article about the Woke Kindergarten contract. The west coast is the Left coast and yet there are these sparks. Not blazes but fragile sparks that suggest some hope. There are also disappointments that threaten the sparks ie Oakland school teachers teach in on Palestine.
Agree that there will be pushes for charter and improving home school options with coop teaching and ever evolving and improving curriculum materials available along with more community support for home schoolers thru programs at museums, parks & rec, etc.
But the $64,000 question: are there enough parents (or others) who have the time and drive to push back?
The pushback is fueled by the expense of Russian math class, Kumon, etc. when the child comes home from school with more coloring than proof of learning writing or math. Anger that the child’s peak hours to learn are routinely frittered away with movies, coloring books, ceremonies, etc and you are teaching multiplication (not reviewing but teaching!) an exhausted 8 year old after dinner. Recognizing that a child’s once cute creative spelling as a 5 yo is illiteracy in a 10 yo.
Respectfully, I think a lot of what is happening in all kinds of industries is a kind of "we'd better" thinking - basically, people trying to dream up what they can do to make everything more captured and more beholden to their fanaticism.
It makes me wonder how much they really want this or are just doing what they think they should out of fear of someone calling them out.
I think for the most part the masses in these cultural movements are not brilliant and terrible geniuses, but go-along-get-along types who will bend and sway in whatever wind is blowing. Once the wind changes and people start pushing back more, others felt free to drop it.
I guess I think this give-and-take is the way ordinary Americans enforce our social order. And I think these people are largely weak-minded, or wouldn't have fallen for this utterly stupid and insulting, conflicting, incoherent, emotional way of thinking.
The only answer is for the non-leftist states to secede - now, before the rot gets worse. If this upcoming election is as rigged as I think it will be, that could very well be the trigger.
There is reason for encouragement. Prominent individuals are pulling funding from universities. In today's Free Press headline, it stated that Yale has reinstituted test scores for admission.
Remember the following, which applies to all of the ludicrous ways in which radicals are attempting to re-engineer 6,000 years of organized human civilization:
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." ---Unknown
W.T. -- Part of the psyop is preventing the average citizen from having a clear view of the reality surrounding his life. Tyranny always works toward convincing the citizen of his powerlessness. Remove the MSM boogie man smokescreen and I think "we the people" are pretty evenly matched against the fascist DNC/CCP/WEF/EU Davos crowd.
It definitely is too late.
"...where did all the 60's radicals go?..." To jail.
The "drug war" was specifically put in place and used to destroy the lives and futures of Americans of every stripe and color. Today's bureaucratic surveillance state made it's bones violating American civil liberties, introducing drugs into American cities and building the very profitable corporate prison industrial complex that houses more prisoners than the rest of the world combined. Silence is indeed golden. Ask Julian.
all those people in jail and you still can't walk vast areas of most large cities at night and some (b'more, etc ) during the day. I guess all the wrong people are locked up.
Asange is the exception to the rule
There are names behind all of this. How about a little effort smoking these people out and publish their names and backgrounds. Just who are the authors behind these materials? Betcha many are White Communist radicals.
We've all become lazy as well as disillusioned that posting a comment equates to any actual change. On the contrary, people guilty of this wrongdoing are well aware of this, and know they can EASILY get away with their agenda
Betcha the people behind the people who are behind these materials are foreign governments trying to destabilize our country.
Check out Bret Weinstein's report on the special Chinese immigration camps (military aged men) in Panama headed north to our southern border. Likewise understanding that what's happening in America is also happening in Europe. Across Substack any depth report on the issue points to criminal financiers hiding behind and financing well paid poseur Marxists who are dismantling the culture and institutions free peoples of the West have built.
Peter Boghossian has a similar interview with Chris Martenson about illegal immigration and the southern border. It's very good.
I just read through the transcript of an interview he gave. It's chilling. Especially when so many useful idiots in the US conflate border security with immigration policy.
💯 %
Betcha this is not taught in the progressive gated neighborhood schools!
I see so many similarities between the BLM educational material and the Palestinian educational material. Which gives a whole new (?) dimension to their alliance. It's as if the same minds are driving these movements. Something tells me that if we follow the money, we'll reach a similar source.
This is not a monetary issue but one of pathetic victimhood being the driving force behind agitation, self-loathing, and destructive cultures that destroy versus build.
Both movements are showered with money to fuel their agenda - training, printed material in classrooms and rallies, online presence and marketing etc. The social aspect is as you say, but the practical machinations and motivation behind these two movements, in my suspicion, is of common sort.
Behind every agenda that focuses on victimhood and oppression as opposed to individual excellence and accountability lies the accumulation of money and power.
How is BLM still a thing? They were caught using donations to buy mansions in Malibu for themselves, and their "peeps".
No one was ever charged with misusing BLM funds. It's all a grift, so it's better that the money went to mansions rather than "educational materials."
My daughter went to MS 447 in Brooklyn. When she was in 8th grade two years ago they changed Black History month to Black Lives Matter month. The principal sent a multi page email to parents schooling us on why the important change. In fact it was the longest email the school ever sent to parents in our time there. The principal never responded to my concerns. Needless to say, daughter now goes to a catholic high school.
Glad you were able to pull her out of there.
Ha! Of course it's P.S. 321-- the zoned public school so sought-after by yuppie parents that it drives the price of Park Slope brownstones even higher into the stratosphere. "Luxury beliefs" like "restorative justice" and "counselors, not cops" are beloved by those whose kids don't get pummeled by gang members on the way home from school. Outside 321 at dismissal, BIPOC nannies await to whisk the little comrades to their next enrichment experience. You know a woke artifact is bad if even Park Slopers are wrinkling their noses.
I was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Brooklyn, attending PS 161, and got married in Brooklyn. It was such a great place to grow up until the Dodgers left Brooklyn! After we left in 1966, Brooklyn started to go downhill in the 70s. BLM has been a discredited organization by every decent black or otherwise person. It’s inconceivable that any of their material should be in our schools. The silent majority better speak up now or forever lose their voice.
Brooklyn began going downhill in the late 1960s. I remember the first time Mom asked my father if he'd locked the front door. It sounded weird.
We remained. New steel doors replaced our old half-windowed basement doors, bars went up on basement windows, and our beautiful leaded-glass first-floor windows were nailed shut. But we kept our doors unlocked during the day because we had family living about, and they visited at will.
Our wrought-iron porch furniture was stolen. My aunt's ceramic flower pots were stolen; even her peony was stolen! But Brooklyn was our home, it's still mine, and hope springs eternal.
Driving west on the Belt Parkway, I get the most beautiful view of Jamaica Bay on one side and Mill Basin on the other. The steep hills of Green-Wood Cemetery and Prospect Park are lovely. Squill and snowdrops bespeckle my patch of front garden. Things are as they are.
Loved reading that you stayed and still find much to enjoy. When I went back to visit in the 70s, my parents had about 4 locks on the front door, and when I was going to take the subway up to Manhattan, my mother told me to take the exact change out before so that you don’t take your wallet out in the subway. WOW had things changed!
Haha! Well, those cautions are still advised, only we keep the Metrocard, not change, handy but safe, and locked doors (with deadbolts) are still a good thing.
So glad to hear that Prospect Park is still lovely. I used to take my niece and nephew to ride the merry go round!
I wonder what it was, exactly, that changed?
When a dysfunctional family moves into a middle-class building and makes noise all night and the sons hang out smoking in the hallways during the day, the neighbors, the old-time tenants, move out.
The newcomers invite dysfunctional friends, and then the incinerator room becomes their urinal, and hallway lightbulbs get broken just for fun, and the apartments next door, above, and below are uninhabitable. When the old families move out, more (usually subsidized) dysfunctional families move in.
One building goes, then the next, then the whole block. Then the neighborhood. Then other neighborhoods become affected. The schools go bad and then everyone blames the teachers.
It wasn't white flight, everyone who could left; black families did too. But we and our relatives stayed because the dysfunction wasn't at our door. Our neighborhood didn't go that way.
Spouse's aunts and uncles all left because theirs did. They went to Long Island and upstate New York. My friends' families left for Westchester and New Jersey as soon as the children graduated high school.
After a few decades, no one remembered how city life used to be, or could be again if we didn't tolerate or encourage or abet dysfunction. It's sad. These new New Yorkers said to people who object to crime and filth, It's a city, if you don't like it, move! And after sixty years, if we don't have yet another turn-around, they might be right this time.
When I'm gone, it'll be one less person who remembers when Brooklynites didn't lock their doors at night.
It’s so sad to learn that the place where you were born and grew up in, that you loved and felt safe in has disappeared. Yes I feel sorry for this generation and probably future generations will never know this other Brooklyn! Even our Brooklyneze accent is changing!