I know we talk about how numb we have become but I still cannot believe they invite a white guy who kills a mentally ill black guy on a subway and is treated like a hero to the Army-Navy football game.
And let’s not even talk about the insane hero worshipping of a man who kills the CEO of an insurance company.
As a public school teacher in a rural district, I have to say that it has become more and more difficult to stay in the profession. The level of disrespect is appalling, and some parents don’t really care how their kids are doing academically or behaviorally. It’s disheartening to say the least. Of course there are still lots of great kids and families, but the behavior of some make me feel defeated more often than not.
"Instead, Wray, like so many Republicans who couldn’t stomach Trump’s demands, decided to go gentle into that good night. Nobody except Wray will remember where they were when Christopher Wray resigned." Do you read what you write? You've made up a reason for Wray's resignation that has no basis in reality.
It will be interesting to see how Texas and Florida - neck and neck on the race to the bottom - will fare in Trump 2.0. Florida is hampered by the president’s dislike of its governor. But Texas - Abbott, Paxton, Dan Patrick - is New MAGA. Expect to see big investments in concentration camps, armaments (against future protesters) and other rewards.
YES, TRUMP IS LIKE HITLER, BUT NOT IN THE WAYS YOU THINK
Beyond the caricatures lies a chilling blueprint: how both leaders exploited grievances, scapegoated the vulnerable, and built myths of strength to dismantle democracy.
On one hand Mr. Sykes argues that the incoming regime (no other word can apply) has an agenda of being overbearing. At the end of his essay detailing exactly why government shouldn’t be overbearing, he allows that corporations in the US can affect US lives to the point of death, but that, apparently, is okay with Mr. Sykes. It is wrong to take another’s life, regardless of any rationale, other than they would have killed me. Yet, corporations taking lives by denying coverage is okay with Mr. Sykes? Why? This the US dichotomy, US has a superb economy, but do they use those funds for healthcare for all…”are you kidding me, get your own healthcare, I don’t owe you anything.”
Amazing that our ancestors in the 19th century knew that education was important and free schools up through college became the norm in many states, including rural and now red states. And voted to pay for them. Then came St. Ronnie, educational experimentation, the parents who failed to care about their kids' education and cared more about the poor kid's feelings if he got a "D", the Tea Party, Norquist, increasing selfishness (the "me" generation), and the billionaires who quickly figured out that the way to keep their wealth was to keep the populace stupid with 'reality" shows, emphasis on entertainment, lies on social media, etc.
The dumbing down of America, as Noam Chomsky, Carl Sagan and, more recently, you, have warned us about has the eerie feel of premeditation. Ignorant people are easier to manipulate. Ignorant people aren’t aware of what they don’t know, so don’t realize they are ignorant. There goes any motivation for improvement. Inflating grades and test scores frightens me because parents hear what they wish to hear. In 35 years as a psychotherapist, almost every parent I’ve ever seen has regaled me with tales of how “incredibly bright” their children are. I want to scream, “not possible! The average IQ is still 100 with a standard deviation of 15. It is simply not statistically possible that EVERY child of the thousands of people I’ve seen is intellectually gifted.” I do not do this. I mostly feel inwardly sad that our arrogance causes us to become complacent.
I swear, "Teacher Unions" must be the free space on conservative bingo cards.
We've been in the trenches for YEARS, screaming about what's happening in our schools, but we're still always listed as a problem. Our refusal to fall on our swords during COVID-19 ("Yeah, you might die, but THINK OF THE KIDS!"). Newsflash: The issues in education go far beyond teachers wanting to earn a decent salary and have decent working conditions, which many lawmakers see as "unreasonable."
The vast majority of parents see education as just another consumer product, a viewpoint encouraged by conservatives harping about "school choice." No attention is paid to the national interest of having a broadly educated electorate. Civics and government take a back seat to math and reading.
Do charter schools have higher test scores? Some do. However, many cherry-pick their students, denying entry to students who require special services. We have a quarter century of data from the school choice movement, and I think it's time for a comprehensive national study of the data. Does school choice work for all students? What lessons can be drawn?
In the classroom, we see the results of a societal shift in social media consumption. Kids no longer read for pleasure. They spend hours outside school surfing TikTok or Instagram and not reading a book. The intellectual muscles need to sit down and pay attention to a task for over five minutes have attrophied. Even high school students have the attention spans of toddlers.
Kids today are in serious trouble; that problem doesn't end with the final school bell. Until we, as a society, decide that kids are not miniature adults and shouldn't have unfettered access to social media from the minute they can hold a tablet, we're not going to see an improvement.
Or we can just keep screaming about litterboxes in school bathrooms.
Of course Trump and the Republicans don't care about education. In 2016 Trump said he "loves the poorly educated." They've been his ace in the hole, delivering him to the White House twice now.
I don't have nearly enough time in my schedule today, or nearly enough space in this forum, to address the education issue in full. (Also something about having final exams to grade, and semester grades to turn in, by a firm deadline.) I'm sure I could write a book twice as long as Charlie's, drawing upon my upward of 40 years of personal experience teaching, serving, and mentoring, with far more branches off of each of those trees than I can count. So let's cut to the chase and talk about where we are now, and why -- a (relatively) brief user's guide to the core reasons why our educational infrastructure is failing, at both the K-12 and university levels. Note that this is off the top of my head, so some omissions are inevitable. These are highlights, things I see every day along with their impact.
1) Laziness. Too many kids simply do not care about their education, lack sufficient ambition and motivation, and believe it is someone else's job -- teachers, mostly -- to pound it into their heads and do their work for them. That simply is not possible.
2) Lack of appreciation. Most students take for granted the blessings of good to great educational opportunities, with excellent and caring teachers, good facilities, technological modernity, and other assets that in some countries are not available. We should value more what we have when the alternative could be so much worse.
3) Lack of parental oversight. Too many parents farm out the responsibility for the care of their children to teachers and school administrators as opposed to getting more involved personally and ensuring that their children put sufficient time and labor into their education. Accountability begins at home, and as long as they see that foremost as someone else's job to do, the results always will underachieve.
4) Selfishness. Budget cuts too often reflect an indifference by the public to the greater good, the rising tide that floats all boats when a well-educated populace brings tangible benefits to more than just the self. We willfully, even eagerly, elect legislators who are too eager to impose tax cuts that weaken the infrastructure and too shortsighted to see adequate funding as an investment when it is done right. We all pay the bill in the aftermath, and not just in dollars and cents.
5) Too much administration, especially at the university level. I've never once seen a student who paid tuition to watch an administrator work. Too often we are told that we cannot hire needed instructors for the classroom, yet there always seems to be enough money for an additional assistant dean of X, vice chancellor of Y, or compliance official of Z.
6) The technological slippery slope. As if it weren't difficult enough to detect academic dishonesty already, along comes AI, right on schedule. Cheating on assignments, projects, and tests has become the new normal and harder than ever to detect. It is no longer seen by kids as wrong behavior, rather as an alternative way to do a job in less time and with less work, so that they can spend that much more time on TikTok, X, Discord, or whatever they are using to create their own realities on demand and tune out the rest of the world -- including their teachers, in the classroom, in real time.
I could go on. And on. You get the point. What most of these issues have in common is a fundamental lack of personal responsibility and accountability. Yet we blame the schools and the teachers for not getting better results with largely uncooperative students and parents. Taking the liberty of speaking for all hardworking educators of integrity: please stop asking us to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. Make something of yourselves first, through which the educational process is placed on equal footing with the outcomes that people say they want. Simple math: you can't get a dollar's worth of benefits out of a dime's worth of effort and by making it someone else's responsibility to take care of you and your own more than you are willing to do yourself.
2. Elon believes the best procreating males have autism. This clashes with Kennedy’s concern that vaccines for demonstrably lethal diseases could with no proof lead to autism. No! Could lead to autism. That means Kennedy has a negative view of autism, and Elon is on the spectrum. Whoops.
3. I am terrified that Isis-K is just licking its chops. On the other hand, perhaps they think Trump is destroying us just fine without their help.
All nominations are pointedly ludicrous. He is purposely appointing the worst possible pick for each job. Tiffany’s father-in-law will make an untrained mess of the Middle East. And Kari Lake as lead of VOA will not provide comfort to those in terror. Quite the contrary. It would be like being in aCIA black op sight. It is absolutely horrendous and I am outraged.
I know we talk about how numb we have become but I still cannot believe they invite a white guy who kills a mentally ill black guy on a subway and is treated like a hero to the Army-Navy football game.
And let’s not even talk about the insane hero worshipping of a man who kills the CEO of an insurance company.
Help!!!!
As a public school teacher in a rural district, I have to say that it has become more and more difficult to stay in the profession. The level of disrespect is appalling, and some parents don’t really care how their kids are doing academically or behaviorally. It’s disheartening to say the least. Of course there are still lots of great kids and families, but the behavior of some make me feel defeated more often than not.
"Instead, Wray, like so many Republicans who couldn’t stomach Trump’s demands, decided to go gentle into that good night. Nobody except Wray will remember where they were when Christopher Wray resigned." Do you read what you write? You've made up a reason for Wray's resignation that has no basis in reality.
I WROTE ABOUT TRUMP AND HITLER—THEN A NAZI SHOWED UP
A chilling (and almost predictable) reminder of who Trump really appeals to
https://open.substack.com/pub/patricemersault/p/i-wrote-about-trump-and-hitlerthen?r=4d7sow&utm_medium=ios
It will be interesting to see how Texas and Florida - neck and neck on the race to the bottom - will fare in Trump 2.0. Florida is hampered by the president’s dislike of its governor. But Texas - Abbott, Paxton, Dan Patrick - is New MAGA. Expect to see big investments in concentration camps, armaments (against future protesters) and other rewards.
YES, TRUMP IS LIKE HITLER, BUT NOT IN THE WAYS YOU THINK
Beyond the caricatures lies a chilling blueprint: how both leaders exploited grievances, scapegoated the vulnerable, and built myths of strength to dismantle democracy.
Read more…
https://open.substack.com/pub/patricemersault/p/yes-trump-is-like-hitler-but-not?r=4d7sow&utm_medium=ios
On one hand Mr. Sykes argues that the incoming regime (no other word can apply) has an agenda of being overbearing. At the end of his essay detailing exactly why government shouldn’t be overbearing, he allows that corporations in the US can affect US lives to the point of death, but that, apparently, is okay with Mr. Sykes. It is wrong to take another’s life, regardless of any rationale, other than they would have killed me. Yet, corporations taking lives by denying coverage is okay with Mr. Sykes? Why? This the US dichotomy, US has a superb economy, but do they use those funds for healthcare for all…”are you kidding me, get your own healthcare, I don’t owe you anything.”
Amazing that our ancestors in the 19th century knew that education was important and free schools up through college became the norm in many states, including rural and now red states. And voted to pay for them. Then came St. Ronnie, educational experimentation, the parents who failed to care about their kids' education and cared more about the poor kid's feelings if he got a "D", the Tea Party, Norquist, increasing selfishness (the "me" generation), and the billionaires who quickly figured out that the way to keep their wealth was to keep the populace stupid with 'reality" shows, emphasis on entertainment, lies on social media, etc.
The dumbing down of America, as Noam Chomsky, Carl Sagan and, more recently, you, have warned us about has the eerie feel of premeditation. Ignorant people are easier to manipulate. Ignorant people aren’t aware of what they don’t know, so don’t realize they are ignorant. There goes any motivation for improvement. Inflating grades and test scores frightens me because parents hear what they wish to hear. In 35 years as a psychotherapist, almost every parent I’ve ever seen has regaled me with tales of how “incredibly bright” their children are. I want to scream, “not possible! The average IQ is still 100 with a standard deviation of 15. It is simply not statistically possible that EVERY child of the thousands of people I’ve seen is intellectually gifted.” I do not do this. I mostly feel inwardly sad that our arrogance causes us to become complacent.
All is well in Eli’s kingdom.
Our kingdom is verrrrrrry shaky.
I swear, "Teacher Unions" must be the free space on conservative bingo cards.
We've been in the trenches for YEARS, screaming about what's happening in our schools, but we're still always listed as a problem. Our refusal to fall on our swords during COVID-19 ("Yeah, you might die, but THINK OF THE KIDS!"). Newsflash: The issues in education go far beyond teachers wanting to earn a decent salary and have decent working conditions, which many lawmakers see as "unreasonable."
The vast majority of parents see education as just another consumer product, a viewpoint encouraged by conservatives harping about "school choice." No attention is paid to the national interest of having a broadly educated electorate. Civics and government take a back seat to math and reading.
Do charter schools have higher test scores? Some do. However, many cherry-pick their students, denying entry to students who require special services. We have a quarter century of data from the school choice movement, and I think it's time for a comprehensive national study of the data. Does school choice work for all students? What lessons can be drawn?
In the classroom, we see the results of a societal shift in social media consumption. Kids no longer read for pleasure. They spend hours outside school surfing TikTok or Instagram and not reading a book. The intellectual muscles need to sit down and pay attention to a task for over five minutes have attrophied. Even high school students have the attention spans of toddlers.
Kids today are in serious trouble; that problem doesn't end with the final school bell. Until we, as a society, decide that kids are not miniature adults and shouldn't have unfettered access to social media from the minute they can hold a tablet, we're not going to see an improvement.
Or we can just keep screaming about litterboxes in school bathrooms.
Of course Trump and the Republicans don't care about education. In 2016 Trump said he "loves the poorly educated." They've been his ace in the hole, delivering him to the White House twice now.
I don't have nearly enough time in my schedule today, or nearly enough space in this forum, to address the education issue in full. (Also something about having final exams to grade, and semester grades to turn in, by a firm deadline.) I'm sure I could write a book twice as long as Charlie's, drawing upon my upward of 40 years of personal experience teaching, serving, and mentoring, with far more branches off of each of those trees than I can count. So let's cut to the chase and talk about where we are now, and why -- a (relatively) brief user's guide to the core reasons why our educational infrastructure is failing, at both the K-12 and university levels. Note that this is off the top of my head, so some omissions are inevitable. These are highlights, things I see every day along with their impact.
1) Laziness. Too many kids simply do not care about their education, lack sufficient ambition and motivation, and believe it is someone else's job -- teachers, mostly -- to pound it into their heads and do their work for them. That simply is not possible.
2) Lack of appreciation. Most students take for granted the blessings of good to great educational opportunities, with excellent and caring teachers, good facilities, technological modernity, and other assets that in some countries are not available. We should value more what we have when the alternative could be so much worse.
3) Lack of parental oversight. Too many parents farm out the responsibility for the care of their children to teachers and school administrators as opposed to getting more involved personally and ensuring that their children put sufficient time and labor into their education. Accountability begins at home, and as long as they see that foremost as someone else's job to do, the results always will underachieve.
4) Selfishness. Budget cuts too often reflect an indifference by the public to the greater good, the rising tide that floats all boats when a well-educated populace brings tangible benefits to more than just the self. We willfully, even eagerly, elect legislators who are too eager to impose tax cuts that weaken the infrastructure and too shortsighted to see adequate funding as an investment when it is done right. We all pay the bill in the aftermath, and not just in dollars and cents.
5) Too much administration, especially at the university level. I've never once seen a student who paid tuition to watch an administrator work. Too often we are told that we cannot hire needed instructors for the classroom, yet there always seems to be enough money for an additional assistant dean of X, vice chancellor of Y, or compliance official of Z.
6) The technological slippery slope. As if it weren't difficult enough to detect academic dishonesty already, along comes AI, right on schedule. Cheating on assignments, projects, and tests has become the new normal and harder than ever to detect. It is no longer seen by kids as wrong behavior, rather as an alternative way to do a job in less time and with less work, so that they can spend that much more time on TikTok, X, Discord, or whatever they are using to create their own realities on demand and tune out the rest of the world -- including their teachers, in the classroom, in real time.
I could go on. And on. You get the point. What most of these issues have in common is a fundamental lack of personal responsibility and accountability. Yet we blame the schools and the teachers for not getting better results with largely uncooperative students and parents. Taking the liberty of speaking for all hardworking educators of integrity: please stop asking us to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. Make something of yourselves first, through which the educational process is placed on equal footing with the outcomes that people say they want. Simple math: you can't get a dollar's worth of benefits out of a dime's worth of effort and by making it someone else's responsibility to take care of you and your own more than you are willing to do yourself.
Charlie, thanks for a perfect summary of the madness so I don’t have to do my own. I’ll keep sharing yours. Thanks & Stay safe.
Enjoy all your copy. The pictures of the pups at the end each fay give a needed peaceful moment.
So:
1. I understood Wray was trying to save a deputy.
2. Elon believes the best procreating males have autism. This clashes with Kennedy’s concern that vaccines for demonstrably lethal diseases could with no proof lead to autism. No! Could lead to autism. That means Kennedy has a negative view of autism, and Elon is on the spectrum. Whoops.
3. I am terrified that Isis-K is just licking its chops. On the other hand, perhaps they think Trump is destroying us just fine without their help.
All nominations are pointedly ludicrous. He is purposely appointing the worst possible pick for each job. Tiffany’s father-in-law will make an untrained mess of the Middle East. And Kari Lake as lead of VOA will not provide comfort to those in terror. Quite the contrary. It would be like being in aCIA black op sight. It is absolutely horrendous and I am outraged.
Everyone else will do an horrendous job.