Tag: education

A Teacher Writes: Too Many Teachers See the Indoctrination of Children With Leftist Ideology as Fundamental to Their Role

“Aren’t we supposed to be agents of societal change?” were the words which greeted a colleague of mine recently during a meeting with his line manager. And it is true that teachers are agents of change, but the issue is what that change actually is. It is one thing to help children understand mathematical problems or show them ways in which to structure their writing, but it is another matter entirely to embark on some moral crusade in the name of social justice and political activism. I have worked in education for several years, having taught in both secondary schools and universities, and it has been ever more apparent that so-called professionals see the indoctrination of children with Leftist ideology as fundamental to their role. The woke brigade is, I can assure you, on the march in education and it is winning more ground over time. This article stems from a series of experiences and observations, though the core of it was triggered (as one might say in woke world) by a recent experience with PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education). It is intended in the first instance to provide a snapshot of some of the work which happens in schools, though I am sure readers here could very well already have a good idea about that. In the second instance, it outlines why that work is (to use another woke word) problematic before theorising why such problems arise in schools.

Whilst there is plenty of evidence that Leftist ideology either has permeated or is permeating academic subjects, my focus here is on some teaching resources which were recently sent out by management to all form tutors at my school for use in PSHE. In times gone by, this tended to focus on issues like drugs and drug abuse. However, over time it has increasingly covered issues like sex education, bullying and relationships (one might wonder how previous generations managed to get by just fine without being specifically ‘educated’ about such matters). In still more recent times, PSHE has been used to teach children about the hundreds of different genders which supposedly exist and which defy biology, and it has also been used to scare them about the impending doom which awaits us all with climate change. It might come as no surprise that, yes, PSHE was also used to put the fear of Covid into children by instructing them on the dangers of not wearing a face mask. It was not, of course, used to warn children about the risks of wearing face masks or indeed of the risks of mRNA vaccines (even though PSHE used to educate children to, in the words of Nancy Reagan, ‘just say no’ to drugs).

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Americans’ IQ Declining for First Time in Almost a Century, Study Finds

Americans’ average IQ is in decline for the first time in nearly a century, according to a new study, a finding that comes as many schools gut curricula standards to promote so-called equity and inclusion.

Young Americans between the ages of 18 and 22 saw the biggest decline in IQ, according to a new study published in the psychology journal Intelligence and reported on by Campus Reform. The study’s authors suggest that these IQ declines occurring between 2006 and 2018 may be due to poor-quality education.

The findings could indicate “that either the caliber of education has decreased across this study’s sample and/or that there has been a shift in the perceived value of certain cognitive skills,” according to the report.

The study comes as school districts across the country eliminate honors curricula from high schools in the name of racial equity. Culver City School District in Los Angeles caught backlash from parents of honors students who lost opportunities to enroll in accelerated programs.

“It’s not working and we’ve thrown the baby out with the bathwater,” said one Culver City parent.

Universities have also lowered their standards for admission, with the University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University removing their entrance exam requirements.

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Progressive Mantra: Choice For Me But Not For Thee

When it Comes to Options that are Actually Good for Children, Progressives Pick Mandates over Choice EVERY Time

It’s a puzzle, an irony, a conundrum. Progressives, the party of “you do you” and “my body, my choice,” have once again proven that they hate choice when it comes to programs and actions that are actually GOOD for children.

Want to abort your child seven days after it’s born? Your choice. Want to allow your minor child to have body parts removed and be put on hormone blockers/therapy? Your choice. Want to take your child to a drag queen show in an adult bar and expose them to overly sexualized and inappropriate entertainment? Your choice.

Want to get your child out of a failing school and take him/her to a good school where he/she can succeed? Whoa, wait a minute. Progressives can’t have that. They think that is dangerous.

It makes me wonder why.

When I was teaching, the argument was always the same. “If we take kids out of some public schools and allow them to go to better public or private schools, it will leave the public schools decimated.“

And the people who said this always followed it up with, ” School choice is racist and elitist.”

Here’s a sample of that opposition from the Baltimore Sun Op-Ed section: Md. BOOST program helps private schools at the expense of public ones – Baltimore Sun

The “best” argument of all was “public schools can’t succeed if we take the best kids out.” Wow. And they called those who believe in school choice racist and elitist? It’s kind of like when Joe Biden said, “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as White kids.” Biden says ‘poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids’ (nbcnews.com)

But he’s not racist. No. Never. But you people who support school choice, shame on you.

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Neo-Nazi Homeschoolers Defend Their ‘Wholesome’ Pro-Hitler Network

The Ohio couple at the center of the Nazi homeschooling scandal have spoken publicly about their online community of Hitler-loving parents and have defended their actions as “just extra fun” and “so wholesome.”

Predictably, they have also blamed “antifa” for negative coverage of their pro-Hitler homeschooling network.

Katja and Logan Lawrence were unmasked last month as the couple running the Dissident Homeschool network from their home in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, in reports from VICE News and HuffPost, which were based on a report from the anti-fascist research group known as the Anonymous Comrades Collective.

Starting in late 2021, the couple ran a now-deleted Telegram channel with over 2,500 members, and shared their own classroom resources, weaving  Hitler quotes, antisemitic themes, and white supremacist ideologies into their math lessons and homework assignments.

In their first public comments since they were unmasked, the Lawrences staunchly defended their actions.

“The chat was so wholesome,” Katja Lawrence told the Nazi-promoting website Justice Report in an interview published on Monday. “It was mostly homeschooling moms that were lifting each other up when things got difficult.”

In reality the content shared in the channel was deeply racist, including a lesson plan to mark the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. last month that described the assassinated civil rights leader as a “deceitful, dishonest, riot-inciting negro.” 

The Lawrences blasted the mainstream media for “cherry-picking” the neo-Nazi aspects of their lesson plans, claiming that these were “just fun extras” they added to the regular curriculum they taught their four young children.

“We were deliberately made to look very unappealing,” Katja Lawrence said.

Since the news broke, the Lawrences have departed their home and are currently living in a house provided by another local family with close ties to Logan Lawrence, according to residents of Upper Sandusky who have spoken to VICE News on the condition of anonymity over fears of retribution by the family involved.

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Critical race theory is all about conformity

Proponents of critical race theory continue to frame resistance to it in the classroom as racist. In an interview with Education Week, Margaret Thornton, an assistant professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia, characterized opposition to critical race theory as a “whitelash” and a “racist attempt to silence educators.” She insists that in spite of these attacks, she’ll keep teaching the “truth about oppression” in the United States.

The problem with this sort of attack is that there’s a lot more to critical race theory than just teaching historical oppression such as slavery or Jim Crow. It’s this “more” that should worry parents of any race, especially parents of aspiring entrepreneurs.

Of particular concern: Critical race theory activists often reject the idea of individuality. In her blockbuster critical race theory book White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo rejects the “ideolog[y] of individualism.” What does she mean by individualism? “Briefly, individualism holds that we are each unique and stand apart from others, even those within our social groups.”

The problem is that an individualistic streak is essential to being an entrepreneur. In ” Individualism: A Deeply American Philosophy ,” Patrick Carroll and Dan Sanchez pointed out that the greatest entrepreneurs in U.S. history were deeply individualistic. They were “mold-breakers.”

This individualistic mindset was perfectly captured by Steve Jobs with Apple’s 1997-2002 ” Think Different ” ad campaign. But if you’re told that it’s wrong to see yourself as “unique” or “standing apart” from your social group, what are the odds that you’re going to grow up to think differently?

The odds get even lower when you factor in how critical race theory is actually taught. If the essence of entrepreneurship is “think different,” the core of critical race theory might be described as “make sure you think like us.”

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These Community Schools Aren’t What You Think They Are

Community School. It sounds so quaint, so nice, so comforting.

If you ask most people to describe a “community school,” they would probably create a picture of a local school in a town, a school that served the children of that community, that was paid for by local taxes, and was a matter of local pride. Parents had access to the school, volunteered there, knew the teachers, etc.

The town I live in once had such a school, The Oxford School. It has long been closed because it was too small and too expensive to keep open. But it was a true community school where kids walked to school in the morning, went home for lunch, walked back, and walked home after dismissal. My husband attended that school when he was a child. It was a community school in the truest sense.

The community schools I am going to describe for you are not that community school. They are something much more invasive and insidious. And they will cost state taxpayers millions.

The new definition of “community schools” is posted on many websites, but let’s start here in Maryland. From MSDE:

“Community schools are schools that develop and utilize partnerships that connect the school, students, families, and the surrounding community to the resources needed to thrive. They highlight the assets in traditionally underserved communities and leverage partnerships, ultimately providing students, families, and communities with essential services and support. Through strategic partnerships, community schools work to provide access to high-quality academics, health services, mental health support, academic enrichment, out-of-school time programming, crisis support, adult education classes, leadership development, and more.”

State educators like to call these “full-service schools” with “wraparound services.” Sounds great, huh?

But let’s break this down. The same school systems that cannot account for all their Covid relief funds cannot find all their students (Baltimore City can’t find 1,300 students), don’t have enough teachers and auxiliary staff for schools, and can’t get state testing scores out in a useful and timely fashion because they are SO bad, locked down and cost our children up to two years of learning, now want to provide “one-stop shopping” community schools. Even worse, these are the schools that are so focused on social justice, CRT, and SEL that they don’t adequately teach basic academic content. Yet they promise they will provide all these other services efficiently and expertly while teaching content. It’s a scam, and they know it.

Who is pushing this and why?

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Grade School Used To Be About Math, Science, And Growing Up. Now It’s About Sex, Drag, And Obesity

Government grade school isn’t what it used to be. More than two years after America’s ruling classes used coronavirus as a reason to shut down schools indefinitely, it’s clear that left-wing activism throughout public education became even more unhinged in hibernation.

Earlier this month, teachers in a western suburb of Columbus, Ohio, welcomed back students to the classroom with lessons on “anal sex” and “fisting.”

Badges worn by teachers in the Hilliard school district featured QR codes linking to a union-sponsored website with resources from gender-bending activist organizations. Resources include information on “gender identity,” “body positivity,” and a guide on “Queering Sexual Education.” That 10-page pamphlet offers instructions on “anal sex,” “bondage,” “rimming,” “domination,” “fingering,” “muffing,” and “outercourse.”

The badges sported by teachers were sponsored by none other than unions such as the National Education Association and the Hilliard Education Association. The former represents more than 3 million public school teachers across 14,000 school districts, making the organization the largest teachers union in the country.

While, in a statement to a local ABC affiliate, Hilliard Superintendent Dave Stewart stressed that the QR codes are “on the back of the badge” and are “not to be shared with students,” the front of the badges reads “I’m here,” to signal to students that those who wear them are supposed allies of the radical gender movement.

Lisa Chaffee, a Hilliard parent with Ohio Parents Rights in Education, called the badges “extremely inappropriate” in a classroom setting.

“As a parent that crosses the line,” Chaffee told ABC6.

More than 2,000 miles west, Los Angeles teachers are taking “body positivity” to a whole new level, encouraging students to abandon traditional concepts of “bad” food.

In a video posted on Instagram, the Los Angeles Unified School District promoted childhood obesity by pushing students to eat donuts. The clip features a corporate nutritionist named Kéra Nyemb-Diop whose LinkedIn identifies her as an employee at Mondelēz International.

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New Jersey schools must teach middle schoolers about anal sex, pregnancy options or risk ‘disciplinary action’

New state-wide sex ed standards in New Jersey teach students as young as 13 years old about anal sex and their pregnancy options, and school districts that fail to comply could face “disciplinary action,” or even a loss of funding.

The standards were adopted by the New Jersey Board of Education in June 2020, and schools are required to implement them beginning this month. Amid concern from parents and school districts, the state Department of Education has warned that schools who fail to implement the new standards may face discipline. 

The state standards describe what students should learn by each grade level, and it is up to the districts to design a curriculum to adhere to the standards. By eighth grade, according to the New Jersey standards, students should “describe pregnancy testing, the signs of pregnancy, and pregnancy options, including parenting, abortion, and adoption;” and “Define vaginal, oral, and anal sex.”

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Idaho Elementary Students Are Being Taught ‘Porn Literacy’, How To Hide Pornography Consumption From Parents

The Idaho state government is encouraging K-12 minors to consume pornography without any shame.

Even though it is illegal for adults to show children under the age of 18 pornographic material, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) is reportedly purchasing so-called “porn literacy” materials from ‘Education, Training and Research’ (ETR) a nonprofit progressive organization.

The Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF) first exposed the IDHW for its radical agenda. By purchasing materials from ETR, Idaho students will be subject to a curriculum that pushes instruction of “kink and power, pleasure, sexual identity, sexual acts, and sexual exploration in relation to pornography.”

The IWW said ETR is an “interest group that promotes queering education and normalizing the consumption of pornography.”

In ETR materials, pornography is a “required topic” that must be talked about. One ETR-recommended training video shows animated cartoon characters professing sexual innuendos.

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