Category: Education

Is It Really A “Cultural War”?

Recently I read an article about the measures that the GOP has introduced at attacks the culture of education in the US….

The right-wing campaign to censor what is read and taught at public schools, colleges, universities, and libraries across the United States is only growing more intense, as state lawmakers introduced dozens of educational gag orders in the first six weeks of 2023.

From the start of the new year through February 13, Republican lawmakers proposed 84 educational censorship bills and their Democratic counterparts unveiled two, according to an analysis published Thursday by PEN America, which updates its “Index of Educational Gag Orders” on a weekly basis.

As the free speech organization previously documented, more than 190 bills aimed at limiting the ability of educators and students to discuss the production of and resistance to myriad inequalities throughout U.S. history—including several proposals to establish so-called “tip lines” that would enable parents to punish school districts or individual teachers—were introduced in dozens of states in 2021 and 2022, with all but one authored by Republicans. In the past two years, 19 laws restricting the teaching of racism, gender, and sexuality were enacted in more than a dozen GOP-controlled states, plus eight measures imposed without legislation.

“The early returns from the 2023 legislative sessions suggest that lawmakers’ fervor to censor and ban content from educational institutions has not abated. Far from it,” four PEN America experts wrote Thursday. “They have outdone one another in a race to the bottom, finding new, more extreme, and more conspiratorial ways to impose censorious government dictates on teaching and learning.”

The analysis highlights trends in educational gag orders across four major categories: efforts to prohibit teaching about race, racism, and U.S. history; expanding censorship of sexuality and gender; legislation targeting higher education institutions; and particularly extreme proposals motivated by the growing influence of conspiracy theories.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/gop-educational-gag-orders-2023

The term ‘cultural war’ has been batted around as a political tactic….it came about when the GOP started attacking everything in the US culture.

A wave of Republican enthusiasm for banning concepts, authors and books is sweeping across the United States. Forty-four states have proposed bans on the teaching of “divisive concepts”, and 18 states have passed them.

Florida’s Stop Woke Act bans the teaching of eight categories of concepts, including concepts that suggest that “a person, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish or other forms of psychological distress because of actions, in which the person played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, national origin, or sex”. Many of the laws also target Nikole Hannah-Jones’s influential 1619 Project.

These laws have already started to take effect. Administrators and teachers have been forced out of their positions on the suspicion of violating these laws, and what has started as a trickle may soon become a flood.

https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/13/african-american-studies-republican-ban-florida

All these attacks on education smacks of something that happened in Germany all those years ago.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Homeschooling Ugliness

If you have been a loyal reader of IST you know I have strong opinions on the phenom known as ‘homeschooling’….to me it is just a way for parents to make sure their children retain the racism that their parents are so proud of….but read it for yourself…..

Home-Schooled And Illiterate

….and a recent story just reinforces my opinion.

Earlier this month, while the rest of the country was celebrating the achievements of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., parents and children in the “Dissident Homeschool” network opened a lesson plan and were greeted with the words: “As Adolf Hitler wrote…”

The contents of the MLK lesson plan would be shocking for almost anyone, but for members of the 2,400-member “Dissident Homeschool” Telegram channel, this was a regular Monday at school. 

Earlier this month, while the rest of the country was celebrating the achievements of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., parents and children in the “Dissident Homeschool” network opened a lesson plan and were greeted with the words: “As Adolf Hitler wrote…”

The contents of the MLK lesson plan would be shocking for almost anyone, but for members of the 2,400-member “Dissident Homeschool” Telegram channel, this was a regular Monday at school. 

VICE News joined the group simply by clicking on a link, though the list of members was not publicly visible.

What’s even more disturbing, however, is that the couple who run the channel are not only teaching parents how to indoctrinate their children into this fascist ideology, they’re also encouraging them to meet up in real life and join even more radical groups, which could further reinforce their beliefs and potentially push them toward violent action.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z34ane/neo-nazi-homeschool-ohio

Just a good illustration how the internet can be used to misinform and promote racism, homophobia, antisemitism and other forms of hate….none of which does anything to heal a fractured country and population.

The state of Ohio has launched an investigation into this assault on decency.

Though state officials are now reviewing “compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements,” CNN reports they don’t actually have authority over homeschool curriculum. Parents of homeschooled students are asked to present a brief outline of the curriculum and a list of teaching materials to the local public school superintendent, but “there’s little to no enforcement mechanism to ensure that parents are actually teaching the curriculum they submitted,” reports HuffPost. Under state law, education officials can only intervene if there is “substantial evidence of cessation of home education,” though people are now calling for change, per CNN.

The outlet found “a number of racist, anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi and homophobic posts that span back to the group’s creation in October 2021.” In the lead-up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day last month, Katja Lawrence, using the pseudonym “Mrs. Saxon,” allegedly posted what she described as “a unit study for elementary ages,” designed “to ensure our children know [MLK Jr.] for the deceitful, dishonest, riot-inciting negro he actually was.” The user went on to describe the civil rights hero as “the face of a movement which ethnically cleansed whites out of urban areas and precipitated the anti-white regime that we are now fighting to free ourselves from.”

“We have our children’s best interest at heart,” Netherlands-born Katja Lawrence, a mother of four, told a neo-Nazi podcast last year, per Vice. “We are so deeply invested into making sure that that child becomes a wonderful Nazi.” According to a Telegram post in December, “Without homeschooling the children, our children are left defenseless to the schools and the Gay Afro Zionist scum that run them.” Vice reports Lawrence recently worked as office manager at a law firm that lists “LGBT law” among its specialties. She has also helped design websites for the local sheriff’s office and a prosecutor’s office, according to the outlet.

I think that homeschooling is a disservice to children….but I guess that matters not as long as the bigotry gets implanted in the minds of the children.

Then there are the closet Nazis in state government…..

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may not want a reputation as a book banner, but that’s not slowing down the Republican’s efforts to knock as many books out of the hands of students, both college-age and younger. In fact, Florida Republicans’ war on reading is only escalating, with the GOP engaged in a full-scale gaslighting project to deny what is clearly a campaign of threats and intimidation to keep teachers from letting kids read. 

Last week, the investigative journalism team at Popular Info published a report showing that teachers in Florida are being told to lock up their classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution. Images of bookshelves being put behind barriers and stories of children crying quickly went viral. That’s when the gaslighting began.

DeSantis’ lieutenant and Florida Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr., called the story “fake news” and accused the teachers of overreacting. But, as Judd Legum of Popular Info confirmed in a follow-up report, “Diaz’s recommendations to teachers directly contradicts the training produced by his own agency,” which requires all books to be prescreened and warns that the censors must “err on the side of caution” when  deciding if a book fits the very right-wing definition of “harmful to minors.” As Legum points out, one author that has been frequently targeted by Republican censors is Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison, making it clear that it’s not “pornography” that is in dispute here — which no one actually thinks teachers were providing — but internationally renowned literature. That explains why books about the Holocaust and Martin Luther King Jr. have also been frequently targeted by Republicans for bans.

https://www.salon.com/2023/02/03/call-the-woke-busters-ron-desantis-sends-volunteer-army-to-snatch-books-from-students-hands/

Almost daily DeSantis proves to  me that he is a fascist at heart and action.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is DeSantis A Racist?

Easy answer for me….yes he is!

Every time Florida’s gov opens his mouth or puts plans into action he proves to me that he is a racist.

His action show a serious dislike for brown and black people.

His newest attempt is to ban Afro-American studies from Florida’s high schools….

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, has rejected a new advanced placement course in African American studies from being taught on high school campuses. He argues that the course violates state law and “lacks educational value”.

This move is the latest in a series of actions to keep conversations and lessons about race, sexuality and gender identity off the state’s school campuses.

DeSantis officially banned the course in a letter from the state education department to the College Board, the organization that administers college readiness exams like the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). They also oversee advanced placement (AP) courses, which allow students to earn college credits in subjects like English and chemistry.

In a 12 January letter to the College Board, the Florida education department said the course is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value”.

In the summer of 2022, the College Board announced a pilot program to “offer high school students an evidence-based introduction to African American studies” would be launching in 60 high schools across the country during the 2022-23 school year and will be set to expand to other campuses the following year.

“Like all new AP courses, AP African American Studies is undergoing a rigorous, multiyear pilot phase, collecting feedback from teachers, students, scholars and policymakers,” the College Board said in a statement.

“The process of piloting and revising course frameworks is a standard part of any new AP course and frameworks often change significantly as a result,” the statement continued.

DeSantis, a one-time Donald Trump ally, plays an active role in stoking social and political anxieties, primarily among white Americans, that stem from conversations about race and gender that occur on K-12 public school campuses. In April 2022, he signed the Stop Woke Act, which severely limits “race-based” discussions at schools.

(theguardian.com)

I think this action answers the question originally asked.

Please I would like to hear from any Floridian reader on this subject.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Are We Failing Our Children?

I say yes and have been saying it for a least a decade.

Instead of teaching our children the fundamentals for insuring their quality of life they are confronted with crap on a daily basis…..bathrooms issues, non-existent mandatory lessons, etc.

Latest study shows just how badly we continue to fail our children….

A federal assessment of US students known as the “nation’s report card” is out, and the results are pretty bleak. Scores are down in reading and math—especially math—across the country, with the pandemic blamed for wreaking havoc on education. Details:

  • The test: The National Assessment of Educational Progress tests fourth- and eighth-graders on reading and math, and the results out Monday are the first since 2019, per the AP. Complete results with state breakdowns are here.
  • The drops: The average math score among fourth-graders fell 5 points since 2019, from 241 to 236 out of 500, per Politico. The score for eighth-graders fell by 8 points, from 282 to 274. In this category, scores dropped in every state but Utah, whose declines weren’t considered statistically significant, per the New York Times. The average reading scores for each group also fell, by 3 points each. “Not a single state saw a notable improvement in their average test scores, with some simply treading water at best,” per the AP.
  • Context: “In NAEP, when we experience a 1- or 2-point decline, we’re talking about it as a significant impact on a student’s achievement,” Peggy Carr, commissioner of the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics, tells the AP. “In math, we experienced an 8-point decline—historic for this assessment.” Eighth-grade test subjects would be high school freshmen this year, and the results suggest nearly 4 in 10 fail to grasp basic math principles.
  • Blame game: Those looking to examine whether red or blue states fared better during the pandemic (in regard to school closings, for example) are out of luck. No clear patterns exist on that front, per the Times and Politico. For example, California was roughly on par with Florida, even though they took very different approaches on school closures. “There are no winners. There are no losers. There are losses among all states and all grades,” former North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue, chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, tells Politico.
  • An alarm: “I want to be very clear: The results in today’s nation’s report card are appalling and unacceptable,” says US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, per the Times. “This is a moment of truth for education. How we respond to this will determine not only our recovery, but our nation’s standing in the world.”

This is what you get when you elect dimwits as education providers.

This is what our children get when elections are about personalities and wedge issues and the important stuff is made light of at every turn.

Do you care about your children?

If so then for christ sake elect people that want to educate your children and not idiots that want to feed bias and bigotry,.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Civics, The Lost Knowledge

In the last few decades the American people have lost the knowledge of civics….and our elections and government illustrates what happens when this knowledge is lost.

I say this because of this type of report….

A recent survey found America may need to go back to civics class.

Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Civics Knowledge Survey found only 2 in 5 American adults – or 39 percent – could correctly name the three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. That figure was the highest in five years, up from 32 percent last year.

One in five adults couldn’t name any branch, the study showed.

“A quarter of U.S. adults can name only one of the three branches of government and more than a fifth can’t name any. The resilience of our system of government is best protected by an informed citizenry. And civics education and attention to news increase that likelihood.”

53% correctly said it takes a two-thirds majority of the House and Senate to override a presidential veto.

83% correctly said it was accurate to say that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that a citizen has a constitutional right to own a handgun.

63% correctly said it was inaccurate to say that the Constitution allows a judge to insist that a defendant testify at their own trial.

55% correctly said that Democrats control the House of Representatives and 61% correctly said that Republicans control the Senate.

(al.com)

Since schools seems to avoid teaching our students the knowledge of civics…..apparently that chore is delegated to us bloggers…..

Let us start with George Washington…..and carry on from there….

In his first inaugural address, George Washington put the fate of this country’s democracy in the care of its people. “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government,” Washington explained, “are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.” 

Yet 233 years later, civic knowledge among Americans is at an appallingly low level. What’s more, a recent Quinnipiac Report finds 67 percent of Americans think our democracy is in danger of collapse. 

None of this is surprising to those of us who have devoted our lives to improving civic education in this country. Americans are finally starting to pay attention to the alarms raised. Thankfully, there are collective calls for improving civic education – not only during school years but as a lifelong endeavor for every person in our self-governing society.

The challenge for those of us in civic education is threefold: (1) there is less classroom time for civics in primary and secondary school; (2) the marketplace of ideas is crowded with misinformation coming from every direction; and (3) there are few resources designed to engage people of all ages.

https://www.realclearpublicaffairs.com/articles/2022/09/16/civic_education_must_innovate_to_deepen_constitutional_knowledge_and_strengthen_the_republic_854000.html

The study of civics is best when we start with the very document that made this country great, the Constitution…..

When we think of the United States Constitution, we probably consider the structure it gives to our national government. We may think of its presence at the center of political controversies past and present. Or we may think of ways in which the document has been neglected.

But as we mark the 235th anniversary of the Constitution’s signing on Sept. 17, 1787, it’s worth noting the positive ways in which our daily lives as individuals – and our shared lives as citizens – are profoundly shaped by that document.

First, the Constitution is a common reference point for American civic life. The Preamble tells us the Constitution’s purpose – one that “We the People” share together. It speaks of the need to maintain our “more perfect Union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” This purpose is as relevant today as it was in 1787. The founding generation certainly bore a heavy responsibility in adhering to these purposes, but each generation must do its part in the ongoing work of self-government. And each individual citizen is a shareholder in the enterprise of democracy. 

https://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2022/09/16/four_things_we_should_teach_children_about_the_constitution_110766.html

We need a more thorough program for teaching civics at every level of our educational system.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

How Did Student Debt Come To This?

I realize this is not a big story these days, especially with the death of the queen….but I post this because this will happen again….greed will make it so.

Since Biden has come up with the debt forgiveness thing for students struggling with their student debt there has been a swell of opinions in blogs and social media….some say it is about time someone did something about this problem and others that say it could end this country once and for all…..and yes I had a post on the Biden decision on student debt….

Did Students Win?

I also gave the reservations that some hold about this decision….

Reservations On Student Debt

Now that both sides have their day….how about the history of how this all began….

My thought is…..
College tuition is a full-on scam in the U.S. The thing I hate about the current educational system in the United States is that it is designed to put a college student in debt. As of 2022-2023, the average a student can expect to pay for one year’s in-state tuition, school-related expenses, and fees is $25,707 at a four-year state university, and for an out-of-state student it’s $43,421. As of 2022, the maximum amount of Federal Pell Grant money a student can get [per year is only $6895. That leaves the in-state student with $18,812 they have to cover somehow–and that almost always means borrowing the money. As a result, it’s common to see a student graduate college with a bachelor’s degree, and well over $50,000-$60,000 in debt that they’ll have to start paying off about six months after they get out of college. The government knows this, and the lending institutions know this. Students are actively getting screwed by this system.

As usual the Old Professor wants to give the history behind this situation…..

With the vociferous debate over President Joe Biden’s announcement that the federal government will cancel a portion of outstanding student debt, it’s important to understand how Americans came to owe the current cumulative total of more than $1.6 trillion for higher education.

In 1970, Ronald Reagan was running for reelection as governor of California. He had first won in 1966 with confrontational rhetoric toward the University of California public college system and executed confrontational policies when in office. In May 1970, Reagan had shut down all 28 UC and Cal State campuses in the midst of student protests against the Vietnam War and the U.S. bombing of Cambodia. On October 29, less than a week before the election, his education adviser Roger A. Freeman spoke at a press conference to defend him.

Freeman’s remarks were reported the next day in the San Francisco Chronicle under the headline “Professor Sees Peril in Education.” According to the Chronicle article, Freeman said, “We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat. … That’s dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow [to go to college].”

“If not,” Freeman continued, “we will have a large number of highly trained and unemployed people.” Freeman also said — taking a highly idiosyncratic perspective on the cause of fascism —“that’s what happened in Germany. I saw it happen.”

https://theintercept.com/2022/08/25/student-loans-debt-reagan/

Could any of this problem have been the doing of the feds?

Until 1965, the cost of college at private and public institutions remained fairly in line with inflation — these were the good old days, when a minimum wage summer job could cover all of one’s annual tuition, and then some. So what happened in 1965? President Lyndon B. Johnson passed the Higher Education Act, which created guaranteed student loans by subsidizing capital for banks that would provide loans to low and middle income students. 

This simultaneously expanded college access, especially for less privileged students seeking to attend private institutions, while keeping loan burdens manageable because private banks still controlled who could receive student loans and for how much. From 1964-77, the tuition at slowly growing private universities grew 11.5% more than inflation, while that at public institutions, it grew 1.6% less than inflation as the government massively expanded public college systems to accommodate an exploding college-age population fueled by the Baby Boom. 

https://www.realclearhistory.com/2022/08/26/credit_feds_for_spiraling_college_costs_850148.html

This is an op-ed but all the hub-bub….

The greed, self interest and racism of US citizens never ceases to amaze and appall me.

President Biden was dragged, against his own wishes, into using his executive authority to cancel a paltry $10.000 in federally insured student college debt for all those former students with current income of less than $125,000, and an extra $10,000 in forgiveness for those former students who had qualified for Pell Grants — a need-based federal scholarship frant limited to students whose families had annual incomes of below the poverty time at the time they were attending college.

Now most Republicans in Congress or running for Congress — an institution known appropriately as a “millionaires’ club” because so many of its elected members either ran for office having millions of dollars in assets or became millionaires in office because of the corruption of the US political system — are opposing this Biden executive order, claiming it will be inflationary, will cost too much, isn’t fair to taxpayers. But perhaps even worse, are many ordinary Americans, most of them upper middle class or wealthier, who are grousing because they paid off their student loans on their own and don’t think their taxes should have to go to fund a cancellation of debt for poorer former students who have not repaid theirs.

How pathetic is that!

Enough With the Unseemly Whining About Student Debt Forgiveness!

A little something to think about (if you have the time)……

Trump had more than $280 million in loans forgiven and failed to pay taxes on most of the money he pocketed.

Why are neoliberals and cultural conservatives opposed to student debt relief? Look no further than the reasons Ronald Reagan ended free-tuition in California’s state university system, when he was governor. Roger Freeman, one of Reagans top advisors in the 60s, who was later to help craft Nixon’s ruinous education policy, spelled it out pretty starkly: “We are in danger of producing an educated proletariate. That’s dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow to go through higher education. If not, we will have a large number of highly trained and unemployed people.”

Personally when it comes to college I think if a student goes to college in their home state then the first 2 years should be free….

But that is just me.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Did Students Win?

For several years there has been a push to do something about all the massive student debt…..like forgive some or all of the debt that going to college has heaped upon the student.

Progressive been at the forefront of the proposals…..and Biden needs a win to boost his numbers and help Dems with the mid-terms.

And presto change-o the Dems come through…..

On Wednesday President Biden made good on his campaign promise to ease the burden of federal student loan debt. Under Biden’s plan, many Americans will be granted $10,000 in debt cancellation; those with the greatest financial need could see an additional $10,000 wiped away. The specifics, per a tweet from the president and the AP:

  • Borrowers who earn less than $125,000 a year, or families earning less than $250,000, will be eligible for the $10,000 loan forgiveness. For recipients of Pell Grants, which are reserved for undergraduates with the most significant financial need, the federal government will cancel up to an additional $10,000 in federal loan debt.
  • Biden also extended a pause on federal student loan payments for what the White House calls the “final time” through the end of 2022.
  • If his plan survives legal challenges that are almost certain to come, it could offer a windfall to a swath of the nation in the run-up to this fall’s midterm elections. More than 43 million people have federal student debt, with an average balance of $37,667, according to federal data.
  • Nearly a third of borrowers owe less than $10,000, and about half owe less than $20,000. The White House estimates that Biden’s announcement would erase the federal student debt of about 20 million people.
  • Proponents say cancellation will narrow the racial wealth gap—Black students are more likely to borrow federal student loans and at higher amounts than others. Four years after earning bachelor’s degrees, Black borrowers owe an average of nearly $25,000 more than their white peers, according to a Brookings Institution study.
  • The Washington Post cites previous estimates that put the cost of canceling $10,000 per borrower at about $230 billion; that doesn’t include the Pell Grant relief.
  • CNN points out the problem of college affordability is a big one that’s unchanged by today’s announcement. To wit, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found total federal student loan debt, currently at $1.6 trillion, will be back at that level within four years of wiping out $10,000 per borrowers

This will be good news for most of those that accrued the massive debt to get their education.

It is a good start but I do think it is not enough.

If they want to protect students then try doing something about the predatory lending practices ….but that is not happening because of the cash that pays for a do-nothing Congress.

At least $10,000 of debt will be canceled…..

Whatcha think?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–19Jul22

Events for the last 4 or 5 months have made it impossible for me to continue a regular feature here on IST……all the war in Ukraine and SCOTUS decisions and mass shootings etc….I will try to resurrect this feature.

This one for the “Can’t Fix Stupid’ files……education is the issue of this moronic statement…..

Vice News reports that a prospective GOP nominee for Maryland attorney general does not fit anything close to the Hogan mold.

Specifically, the publication notes that Maryland AG hopeful Michael Peroutka is a former board member of the neo-Confederate League of the South who says he’s “still angry” that Maryland was not able to secede during the American Civil War.

Additionally, Peroutka believes that LGBTQ marriage and abortion should be outlawed for going against “God’s law,” and he has also criticized the entire concept of public education as a communist plot whose goal is to “transform America away from a Christian worldview.”

(rawstory.com)

A Communist plot?

Seriously?

You can tell he is an old fart…..clinging to the bullshit of socialism/Communism….a tired, very tired piece of crap.

Why do Christian seem to hate an educated person?

Just another fine example that “You Can’t Fix Stupid”!

Any thoughts to share?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Revisionist History

There is a plan under foot, especially in Red States, to teach an sanitized version of history….to the point of banning some of our history from being taught.

These attacks on education is making the Red State citizens a stupid pack of idiots…..non-issues are being used to re-write American history….

Apparently these attempts are successful so successful that even Russia will try there hand at rewriting history…..

After being accused of committing atrocities in Ukraine, and facing global opposition for its invasion, Russia is taking a step to control the narrative among its people early. The Education Ministry has announced the starting age for compulsory history lessons in its schools will be 7, down from 10. It’s part of a campaign to stress patriotic education, the Moscow Times reports. In Russia’s history lessons, Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov said: “We will never allow it [to be written] that we somehow treated other nations—our fraternal nations of Ukraine and Belarus—poorly. We will do everything in our power so that historical memory is preserved.”

Historical education will be added to the teaching of other subjects, as well, per the Times. It’s important that students learn their nation’s history, President Vladimir Putin told “The Power Is in the Truth,” a schools forum. “A deep understanding of our history, and a respectful, thoughtful attitude to the great patriotic, spiritual, and cultural heritage of the Fatherland enables us to draw correct conclusions from the past,” Putin said. As of Sept. 1, schools will begin each week by raising the Russian flag and singing the national anthem, Kravtsov said.

Think about that!

Russia is doing the same thing that our Red States are doing….suppressing history…revising events to suit an ideology…..

Online and offline, digi-fascism thrives from designing an illusionary world of individual experiences and spaces in which the supposedly oppressed and insecure can feel at ease. Now they are protected from an accelerated and ever increasing complexity of modernity.

Right-wing extremist’s propaganda constructs this idyllic and pre- or better: anti-modern world as a place in which an imagined white majority no longer needs to fear the loss of its social privileges. Ideologically speaking, digi-fascism follows an old but proven playbook.

The Rise of Digi-Fascism

States like Texas and Minnesota want to do away with the Public Education Act…that is they do not think they should be educating children….how damn sad is that movement?

All I can do is shake my head at the stupidity and the wholesale ignorance in this world….it is a pandemic and I refuse to let stupidity and ignorance infect me.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Is CRT So Damn Important?

A subject that gets little coverage these day….so who better than me to resurrect the subject.

We all have heard about the Critical Race Theory (CRT)…..ever wonder why this obscure issue has become so damn important in our political discourse?

Red States are spending an inordinate amount of time trying to prevent the teaching of CRT…..the catch is this waste of time is seldom taught and when it is it is a class for law degree.

Like my state of Mississippi…..

The same Mississippi Legislature that proclaimed racial reconciliation after removing the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag nearly two years ago passed a bill Thursday to limit how race can be discussed in classrooms. Several Black legislators said during the six-hour debate that the bill could squelch honest discussion about the harmful effects of racism because parents could complain if history lessons make white children uncomfortable. The Republican-controlled House voted 75-43 to pass Senate Bill 2113. It will go to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who has pledged to sign it into law, the AP reports. All House votes for the bill on Thursday came from white Republicans.

The bill’s short title says it would prohibit “critical race theory.” But the main text of the bill does not mention or define the theory, and many supporters of the bill also have said they cannot define it. The bill says no school, community college or university could teach that any “sex, race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.” Democratic Rep. Zakiya Summers of Jackson said she has been told by some colleagues that the bill does nothing substantial but it gives them a talking point at election time. “Censoring teachers, dismantling education bit by bit, attempting to erase the past, refusing to acknowledge the hurt and the horror and the heinous acts that have been done to my people and then hiding behind this ‘inferior versus superior’ argument—that’s what this bill will do,” Summers said.

No legislators gave speeches in support of the bill. Republican Rep. Joey Hood of Ackerman, who is white, did not define critical race theory as he explained the bill Thursday. “History will continue to be taught—American history, Civil War history, Mississippi history,” Hood said. When the bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate in January, all of the Black senators withheld their votes and walked out in protest. Critical race theory is an academic framework that examines how racism has shaped public policy and institutions such as the legal system, and how those have perpetuated the dominance of white people in society. State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright said critical race theory is not taught in Mississippi schools. The University of Mississippi law school offers an elective class on the theory.

Well after all the energy spent by numerous state legislative bodies…..we know that it is banned from being taught to our children….but why is this?

My state would not surprise me if they started a campaign to ban the US Constitution….I wouldn’t be surprised if the Constitution itself is ultimately banned in states like Mississippi because if students are permitted to read the 3/5s & fugitive slave clauses it will become clear to them that the principles of America’s founding included the idea of people as property.

Texas (go figure) has yet another bill  before the legislature about teaching CRT….

Texas college and university professors may soon lose tenure if they teach critical race theory (CRT) in their classrooms, according to the Lone Star state’s lieutenant governor, who has vowed action by the state.

In a warning message to educators this week, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he will work to strip them of their job security in the state if they teach CRT.

“The critical race theory people are trying to take us back to a divided country,” Patrick told reporters at a press conference.

“Tenure to these professors who voted 41-5 telling the taxpayers and the parents and the legislature, and your own board of regents, to get out of their business that we have no say what you do in the classroom… You’ve opened the door for this issue because you went too far.”

“What we will propose to do is to end all tenure for all new hires,” Patrick said, vowing that the state legislature would take action against those who teach the subject in their classrooms.

“The law will change to say teaching critical race theory is prima facie evidence for good cause for tenure revocation,” he said. In addition to his comments concerning tenure, Patrick said he wants annual reviews for the professors rather than six year reviews.

(FOX News)

Then there is yet another of those ‘go figure’ states that has tried to limit the teaching of race….Georgia (the state not the country)

Legislation prohibiting Georgia schools from teaching nine racial and ethnic concepts it defines as divisive has passed the state Senate. The bill cleared 32-20 on Friday, CNN reports, with Republicans voting yes and Democrats no, and goes next to the House. The measure also would apply to training in state agencies. Republicans in other states are pursuing similar legislation. The movement was sparked by the uproar over “critical race theory,” which isn’t taught in Georgia schools anyway, per WXIA.

The prohibited concepts include that one race or ethnicity is inherently superior to another and that the US and Georgia are “fundamentally or systemically racist.” It specifies that teachers would not be allowed to make students feel demeaned or guilty because of their race, skin color or ethnicity. The legislature has four similar bills before it, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This one would withhold up to 10% of schools’ funding for violations. Colleges and universities also could be docked, but the bill doesn’t specify how much. Another bill would penalize schools up to 20% of their funding.

The sponsor of one of them said history could still be taught but teachers would not be allowed to include their political beliefs. GOP Rep. Bill Wade said he worked with school board and teacher groups on the bill, but they’ve said they’re opposed to his bill. “All this bill does is muzzle our teachers and make them into a straw man for political gain from the true divisive voices in our communities,” said Democratic Rep. Matthew Wilson, a former elementary teacher. “This bill is whiter than the paper it’s printed on,” said the lawmaker, who is white.

These idiots are doing exact what they claim the CRT is doing…..dividing the country.

What are these people so afraid of would be the next logical question….

Maybe there is a good answer after all…..

What nobody is talking about, though, is the why of this particular issue at this particular time. As a result, we’re mistaking the tool for the goal.

Moral panics, when driven by politicians, are usually just tools. This CRT moral panic is a tool being used by a coalition of interests to achieve their own goals, none of which have anything to do with teaching or not-teaching the history of race in America.

  • Imagine you’re part of a group of libertarian billionaires who don’t believe in public education and who see any such sort of taxpayer-funded effort to improve “the underclasses” as an absurd waste of the tax dollars you “worked so hard to earn” and the “gummint” now wants to take away from you “at the barrel of a gun.”
  • Imagine you’re a leader in the Republican Party who’s seeing the average age of the Fox audience — 70 — as a threat to your own political longevity because old white people don’t go into politics and you need 30- and 40-year-olds to learn their basic political skills locally (like on a school board) so you can groom and propel them up into state or federal politics.
  • Imagine you’re a multimillionaire white evangelical preacher who’s looking for an issue you can use to more tightly bind your congregation — your donors — to you by portraying yourself as a crusader who’s going to save their children from a horrible fate.
  • Imagine you’re a white supremacist militia leader who’s looking to expand his base by bringing in white middle-class adults and therefore you need an issue to get yourself into the headlines “taking on authorities” but that won’t also end with you going to jail.
  • Imagine you’re a Republican politician who’s looking at a serious challenge in the upcoming primary elections and you need an issue that’ll be both popular and energizing for your base voters, even if the larger population doesn’t much care, because base voters are all you care about in the upcoming primary.

https://www.rawstory.com/a-disparate-group-of-billionaires-republicans-televangelists-and-white-supremacists-has-found-common-cause/

There you have your answer….it is a wedge issue that does nothing but create chaos and confusion……and these are the two issues that the GOP excel at giving the people of this country.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”