Tag: dumbing down

Burma’s Conscription Law: Destroying Education and Accelerating Brain Drain

The Burma (Myanmar) military junta activated its conscription law on February 10, 2024, requiring men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 to serve in the military. Professionals, including doctors, engineers, and technical specialists, can be conscripted up to age 45 for men and 35 for women.

Those conscripted are required to serve a minimum of three years. This includes educated adults with engineering, medical, and technical skills, further draining Burma’s already collapsing education and professional sectors.

Conscription means serving a junta that seized power in 2021 by overthrowing the elected government and arresting pro-democracy leaders. It also means being forced into a civil war in which as much as 80 percent of the population opposes military rule.

For ethnic minorities, who make up roughly 40 percent of the population, conscription is especially devastating. It means being ordered to participate in widespread atrocities, including murder, rape, and the burning of villages, directed against their own families and communities.

The International Labour Organization estimates hundreds of thousands have fled Burma to escape conscription since February 2024. Fear of being drafted drove so many young men to flee to Thailand in 2024 that they set a record for the highest annual number of undocumented Burma migrants to arrive in Thailand. The International Organization for Migration estimates over 4 million Burma migrants live in Thailand, about half of whom are undocumented. In addition to the personal hardship, they face as undocumented aliens in Thailand, separated from their families, the conscription law is decimating Burma’s education system.

At the beginning of the revolution, thousands of students walked away from junta-run universities and schools as part of the civil disobedience movement. Many shifted to alternative education options, including community-run higher education institutions in ethnic minority areas and online programs. The conscription law, however, made it unsafe for them to remain in Burma while completing these programs.

As a result, the Thailand Education Fair held in April 2024 saw overwhelming attendance, and the November 2024 fair was extended to two days as attendance doubled. Students whose families can afford it, or who secure scholarships, are fleeing to study at Thai universities. As Burma’s economy collapses, however, this option has become increasingly out of reach. Annual tuition of roughly $3,000 represents about two years’ salary for Burmese families fortunate enough to still have employment.

The law has exacerbated a brain drain that was already causing young people to leave Burma, impacting education and the labor market.

The United States Agency for International Development funding freeze suspended the Development and Inclusive Scholarship Program, affecting more than 400 Burma students pursuing degrees in the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Inside Burma, parents are pulling children out of school and sending them to neighboring countries to look for work, driven by fear of conscription. Both inside Burma and across the region, child labor violations involving children aged 12 to 16 have increased as youth fleeing the country or joining resistance forces have created labor shortages.

The crisis extends beyond students. Teachers and professors have either fled to the jungle to join the resistance or escaped the country altogether in search of work. As a result, educated adults and former professionals now find themselves in Thailand and other countries working as day laborers alongside young people who fled before finishing university, or in many cases, even high school.

Keep reading

Too On Brand: School Purges 1984, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, and Others to Promote ‘Diversity’

You really can’t make things like this up. 

Seriously. Liberals may want to purge libraries of “wrongthink,” but you would expect that anybody with an IQ above room temperature could have figured out that tossing out more than half your books in a school library, including 1984 and Animal Farm, would be a bad look. 

But no. Not in Canada, apparently. And certainly not at the Thames Valley School District in London, Ontario. Out of a High School library of 18,000 books, 10,000 were “deselected” and tossed into the trash because they didn’t fit the vision of having an “inclusive” library. Presumably, that explains why they tossed out books by J.K. Rowling, which I assume were quite popular with the kids; she engages in wrongthink about gender, and needs to be purged. 

A London, Ontario, secondary school binned more than 10,000 library books between January and March this year under the Thames Valley District School Board’s “inclusive libraries revitalization project,” eliminating more than half of the school’s 18,000-book collection.

H.B. Beal’s library once held one of the largest collections in the board. Today, fewer than 8,300 books remain. The estimated value of the discarded materials exceeds $180,000.

Education Minister Paul Calandra moved quickly to halt further library culls while the ministry investigates the Beal revitalization project. A spokesperson for the ministry confirmed last week that “the minister has directed that all current and future library collection reviews be paused, pending further evaluation.”

According to board documentation, the project aims “to revitalize the collections of Thames Valley schools to ensure they are culturally responsive, reflect our diverse student population, and contain accurate and up-to-date information.” The project adds that it will focus on “deselecting texts with harmful images, messaging, slurs, and racial epithets to facilitate the safety and well-being of all students.”

Some of the books “deselected” blow your mind, not because it would surprise you that radical leftists would want to hide them, but because it makes their goals of purging the library of any ideological diversity so blatant. They literally purged books about…book banning. 

Keep reading

Federal probe sought to refocus school districts’ priorities

A public watchdog has filed a federal complaint against a Wisconsin school district that prefers to hire “diverse” and “culturally competent” teachers rather than effective ones.

Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, says the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District’s 2025-2030 strategic plan details goals of “increasing staff diversity” and prioritizing “hiring and retaining a diverse workforce that better reflects our student population.”

His team, which monitors public officials and institutions for ethics, transparency, and accountability, filed this federal complaint after taking similar action against another school district in Vermont.

“We received a tip from a concerned citizen … and what we discovered when we looked into it was yet another school district that was prioritizing politics and ideology over the civil rights and the needs of students,” Chamberlain summarizes.

They are setting goals for certain ethnicities and using terms like “equity,” which Chamberlain says is wrong.

“People in education know … that means putting the needs of certain students above the needs of others based upon certain characteristics that the students can’t control and using criteria like that rather than merit and looking to improve student achievement overall,” he details.

Though the strategy does include plans to increase student success as well, the Daily Caller says the district admits that only 33% of its third grade students are testing proficient or advanced in literacy and 33% of its eighth graders are earning the same status in mathematics on the state exam.

Keep reading

The Dumbest Year by Far (Until the Next One)

Merry Christmas and all that. We’ve just a few days left in what has been by far the dumbest year on record. Don’t worry—the next one will be even dumber, and 2028 is going to reach forbidding heights of stupidity for which none of us are adequately prepared. Enjoy this while it lasts.

Come, friends and haters. Join us on a journey through time and space. Take a moment to reflect on some of the dumbest (and not so dumb) moments of 2025, most of which you’ve probably forgotten by now.

JANUARY — Corpse Removed from White House

• Sleepy Joe Biden was finally evicted from his taxpayer-funded care facility. Kamala Harris was also forced to leave, but not before humiliating herself one last time by pledging allegiance to “the United States of the United States of America” and certifying her own defeat, to joyous applause from members of Congress. Jeff Bezos’s wife-to-be, Lauren Sánchez, flaunted her tits at President Donald Trump’s second inauguration.

• Former senator Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), a.k.a. “Bullion Bob,” was sentenced to 11 years in prison following his conviction on corruption charges. His daughter continues to host a show on MSNBC.

• As wildfires ravaged California, ABC News anchor David Muir leapt at the chance to show off his chiseled bod on national television. In one of the most egregious acts of journalistic narcissism, Muir used a clothespin to achieve a form-fitting silhouette on his network-branded safety jacket while reporting live from the smoldering wreckage.

Keep reading

Artificial Intelligence In The Classroom Destroys Actual Intelligence In Students

Ialways assumed that before AI destroyed our humanity, we’d at least put up a fight. No, I’m not talking about AI gaining consciousness and physically enslaving us (though I’m certainly not ruling that out as a possibility) — but it is alarming how quick many are to accept AI usage not just in their daily lives, but in education.

As an educator, I’ve heard high school teachers and college professors alike defend teaching AI usage in the classroom: “The technology isn’t going away, so kids have to learn how to use it responsibly.” “AI can be a useful tool.” “Learning how to write the right prompts is a marketable skill.” They say we should not only allow but encourage students to use AI to brainstorm ideas, write outlines, and provide feedback on their work.

On the surface, these suggestions can seem benign. Our society is pushing the idea that AI usage is not only inevitable but good. “You’re a writer,” a silky tone on an advertisement for AI software sings, “even if you are the kind who relies on AI.” Okay, so that’s not the exact verbiage, but that’s the idea we’re being sold. We’re reassured that AI can simply be a legitimate “tool.” You are a writer even if you use an AI generator. You are an artist just by instructing prompts. You are a creator, although it’s the algorithms doing the creating.

If the goal is simply to produce outcomes, one could argue that AI usage should not just be tolerated but encouraged. But education shouldn’t be about producing outcomes – whether it be a sparkling essay or a gripping short story – but shaping souls. The purpose of writing isn’t to instruct a prompt or even to produce a quality paper. The purpose is to become a strong thinker and someone who enriches the lives of everyone, no matter their profession. 

Each and every step of the struggle it takes to write is essential. Yes, it can all be arduous and time-consuming. As a writer, I get how hard it is and how tempting it might be to take shortcuts. But doing so is cheating oneself out of growth and intellectual payoff. Outsourcing parts of the process to algorithms and machines is outsourcing the rewards of doing one’s own thinking. Organizing ideas, refining word choices, thinking about tone are all skills that many citizens in this nation lack, and it’s often apparent in our chaotic, senseless public discourse. These are not steps to be skipped over with a “tool,” but rather things people benefit from learning if they value reason. Strong writing is strong thinking.

But these thoughts aren’t just my own opinions. A recent MIT study shows that AI usage decreases cognitive function like critical thinking. Seems rather odd to insist that something proven to weaken our brains should be introduced to places where institutions of learning, isn’t it?

Many argue that in order to thrive in today’s job market, young people need to master the skill of “writing prompts.” The assumption is that it’s a great skill to learn how to tell a robot to do a job for you; a skill so great, in fact, that we need to send kids to school for it.  For decades, educators have argued kids need screen time to prepare them for today’s job market. They acted as if using the internet were a skill that needs years of training when in reality three-year-olds naturally become experts. Let us first focus on developing the minds of the youth — something best done without AI assistance — and then let them use those skills in the workplace as needed. Students should aspire to be more than mere “prompt writers,” but minds capable of thinking, reasoning, and perseverance.

Keep reading

NYC teachers discover teens can’t read clocks after school cellphone ban

Time got away from them!

New York City teachers have found that scores of teenagers can’t read traditional clocks after a cellphone ban in schools statewide — because students figured the skill would be useless in the digital era, according to a report.

“The constant refrain is ‘Miss, what time is it?’” said Madi Mornhinweg, who teaches high school English in Manhattan.

“It’s a source of frustration because everyone wants to know how many minutes are left in class,” she told Gothamist. “It finally got to the point where I started saying, ‘Where’s the big hand and where’s the little hand?’”

Many tech-minded teens have no clue what time it is during the course of the school day because classrooms generally only have analog clocks on the walls, teachers told the outlet.

Keep reading

Judge rules against UCLA prof suspended after refusing lenient grading for black students

A judge has issued a tentative decision against a professor who sued UCLA after he was suspended in the wake of the George Floyd-Black Lives Matter riots after refusing a request to grade black students leniently.

Superior Court Judge H. Jay Ford’s recent ruling against UCLA accounting lecturer Gordon Klein sides with UCLA on all three causes of action: breach of contract, false light, and negligent interference with prospective earnings. 

Klein’s legal team has filed an appeal, and Judge Ford is scheduled to consider that request, or enter a decision finalizing his tentative ruling, at a hearing scheduled for Jan. 9. 

If the judge does not amend his tentative ruling, Klein will receive nothing in a case in which he sought a $13 million dollar award, alleging the university and a former UCLA business school dean destroyed his lucrative expert witness practice when it publicly suspended him. 

“It’s a bloodbath against Klein. It rewards him nothing,” said documentarian Rob Montz in a documentary on the controversy he published last week first reporting on Ford’s Dec. 1 ruling titled “When a Professor Took His Cancellation to Trial.”

“No punitive damages, no compensatory damages,” Montz said. “Gordon doesn’t get a dollar.”

Klein, who has now taught at UCLA for about 45 years, argued in his lawsuit he averaged about $1 million annually as an expert witness in many high-profile corporate cases. 

But he argued his suspension meant he would have to disclose that administrative punishment, hurting his credibility with jurors and effectively making him undesirable as an expert witness. 

Ford, in his 30-page ruling, agrees UCLA had the contractual right to place Klein on administrative leave while it investigated the massive controversy surrounding Klein’s email to a student rejecting his request to grade black students leniently and the viral uproar it created. 

“UCLA had the right to determine what public response was necessary to address and mitigate the immediate [and] extraordinary public outrage toward both Klein and UCLA arising from the public disclosure of Klein’s email,” Ford wrote.

Keep reading

Germany: Over 1,100 teachers sign explosive letter stating many schoolchildren cannot tie their shoes or use toilet paper anymore

More than 1,000 teachers in the German state of Hesse have called for comprehensive changes in an incendiary letter, which has been delivered to the state’s Ministry of Culture. In the letter, they state that many elementary school children are not able to complete simple tasks such as tying their shoes or use toilet paper.

“Keeping order, recognizing and adhering to rules, using the toilet independently,“ are all listed as tasks students cannot do in the new resolution, which includes using toilet paper themselves.

Students can also no longer “cut, glue, sit (upright), or tie their shoes,“ the report reads, which was reported widely in the German media, including Welt.

Citing the letter, Junge Freiheit also reports that “independent personal hygiene is not always a given – colleagues even reported students who did not know how to use toilet paper.”

The letter also states that the children feature serious attention deficits, with the teachers writing: “Many children are no longer able to listen or follow instructions for long periods of time.”

The damning letter comes at a time when Hesse is experiencing unprecedented mass immigration, including into its school system. Already in 2022, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration reported that an estimated 50 percent of all children under the age of 6 were foreigners or had a foreign background. In the last three years since the report, many of these children have entered the elementary school system.

Teachers also report in the letter that they need to spend an enormous amount of time teaching children simple skills, many that were once taken for granted.

Keep reading

UC-San Diego Report Indicates Shocking Number of Students Entering College in California Lack 8th Grade Math Skills

A new report from the University of California San Diego indicates that a shocking number of students entering the University of California system lack the math skills one would expect from a middle school student.

Some of this can be blamed on school closures during Covid, but not all of it. At the end of the day, this is a failure of the schools and teachers that failed to impart these basic skills.

It’s also an excellent reminder that not everyone needs to go to college. If you can’t do high school level math, why should you even be considered?

Newsweek reported:

Students at California University Without 8th Grade Math Skills Skyrockets

A sharp rise in students entering the University of California system without middle school-level math skills is raising alarms among educators.

A new internal report from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) reveals that the percentage of incoming students scoring below Algebra 1 on placement exams—a math course typically completed by the end of eighth grade—has tripled over the past five years.

Why It Matters

In 2020, just 6 percent of first-year students at UCSD placed below Algebra 1. By 2025, that number had surged to 18 percent, according to the UCSD Senate Admissions Working Group (SAWG) report.

The findings reflect a growing disconnect between high school transcripts and actual college readiness. The SAWG report links the increase to pandemic-era learning disruptions, long-standing inequities in California’s K–12 system, and the elimination of standardized testing requirements in UC admissions.

What To Know

The number of UCSD students requiring Math 2, a course originally designed for less than 1 percent of the incoming class, surged from under 100 students annually to over 900 by fall 2024.

This example of an easy question failed by many students is just stunning.

Keep reading

One in FIVE students entering UC San Diego can’t write properly, new data reveals

Roughly one in five Americans entering UC San Diego cannot write at an entry level standard, a new report revealed. 

About 20 percent of incoming students to the California university had to be placed in analytical writing courses after failing to meet the requirements of a writing placement exam, which forced them into specialized courses called ‘AWP’.

The report published by a UC San Diego admissions committee added that writing skills and literacy are in decline across the entire US. 

According to the university’s faculty, freshmen students’ vocabulary was ‘increasingly’ limiting their ability to engage with longer and harder texts. 

As a whole, the school had seen a ‘steep decline in the academic preparation’ of its domestic freshmen students.

The November 6 report read: ‘Admitting large numbers of students who are profoundly underprepared risks harming the very students we hope to support, by setting them up for failure.’

One possible solution offered was ‘moving beyond GPA and course titles’ in high school to evaluate how ready students actually are for writing at a college level.

Keep reading