A few Gentle Readers have written to ask “Why no 9/11 post, Fran?” Honestly, I thought about it for a while, and decided that I had nothing sufficiently fresh to say on the subject. Anyone who’s been following my screeds will know how the event affected me, and frankly, I can no longer afford …
Category: education
Jun 22 2022
A Useful Observation
As I’ve written before, some of our most urgent problems are “connectedness problems.” Andrea “Bookworm” Widburg comments on one in her latest American Thinker essay: [The Senate compromise ‘gun safety’ bill] promises to expand mental health services, including in schools; open juvenile records for gun customers under 21; stop illegal trafficking in firearms; …
Jun 07 2022
No Competition!
A couple of weeks ago, Daniel Greenfield posted an article on a trend in education that has the educrats wringing their hands: As the New York Times recently noted, “America’s public schools have lost at least 1.2 million students since 2020.” School systems in woke states were hardest hit. “New York City, the …
Jun 03 2022
The Need to Defeat Those Exploiting Insanity to Achieve Total Power — UPDATED
RESISTANCE PRESERVES LIBERTY AND DEFENDS SANITY IN THE PROCESS. Only then does social cohesion stand a chance of returning, and the advance of civilization with it — real progress and not the regression sought by Progs. • Screams for diverse goals are identified by social engineers. • Owning the means to amplify screams, they persuade …
May 30 2022
A Vignette About Government Subsidies
There are a whole lot of people, organizations, and industries fighting for a place at government’s feed-trough. In the main, governments are happy to have them there, for a simple reason: Money Is More Addictive than Heroin. That addiction can be used to control the behavior of nominally independent actors and organizations. Charles …
Apr 24 2022
The Touch-Off
It doesn’t take much to get the Left shrieking as if it were being castrated without anesthesia. But you may be sure that the screams and howls will erupt at maximum volume whenever any executive or legislator dares to “infringe” upon their “academic freedom.” Consider this spate of lunacies from Randi Weingarten of …
Apr 22 2022
The Educracy’s Pincers Are Closing
Only the day before yesterday, I wrote: The escalation in the cost of living, which includes rapidly rising levels of taxation, is making it ever more difficult for families with minor children to forgo public schooling. Just to maintain a decent suburban standard of living practically requires two incomes. There are exceptions; certain …
Apr 21 2022
Concerning Yesterday’s Emission
Make that “mentally disturbed and / or utterly evil adults” and you’ve got the whole of the Left’s educational “project” in a sentence. Once again, applause to Mike Miles at 90 Miles from Tyranny.
Apr 20 2022
I Thought We’d Hit Peak Insanity Already
Ragin’ Dave provides evidence to the contrary: Families that may have turned to homeschooling as an alternative to hastily assembled remote learning plans have stuck with it — reasons include health concerns, disagreement with school policies and a desire to keep what has worked for their children. Maybe it’s because parents actually …
Apr 14 2022
Concerning Grooming
As a follow-on to yesterday’s rant, ponder well this article by Thomas Lifson. It and the other items it links will reinforce your fears. Yes, it is happening. Yes, there’s a lot of it. Yes, it’s across the nation. If your children are in a government school, they are not …
Jan 10 2022
The Lash Indirect
I’ve written on several occasions about the Left’s power-tropism, and how it targets organizations to garner more of it. Every “formally organized” organization – i.e., one with by-laws or a charter, a hierarchy, and a procedure for becoming and remaining a member – offers a kind of power to those who can rise within …
Nov 19 2021
A Very Weak Point
There are many weak points in American life, by which I mean areas or subjects of vulnerability that afflict the majority of American families. These past two years, one that has come under the spotlight – and for more reasons that one – is the education of our children. The nationalization of education …
Oct 16 2021
When Good Figures Trump Bad Facts
I’m beginning to think there’s room in the media universe for a publication, notionally titled The Daily Outrage, which merely catalogues the many horrifying stories that festoon the Web. There have certainly been enough of them lately. The brutal treatment accorded the January 6 Capitol protestors, capped by the murder under color of law …
Oct 01 2021
A Little More On The “Public” “Education” System
This development almost got past me: The leftist National School Boards Association is begging President Joe Biden to use domestic terrorism laws to target parents who oppose anti-science mask mandates for children and the infiltration of racist curriculum in schools. In a letter sent on Wednesday, NSBA asked the Biden administration and …
Oct 01 2021
You Thought It Was Just A Gaffe, Didn’t You?
Not only wasn’t it a gaffe, it goes all the way to the top: So I saw this clip circulating the Twitter interwebs (I don’t think that’s a word but it’s funny to say when referencing the Internet – makes me feel like I’m 90) of Miguel Cardona, President Joe Biden’s Education Secretary, …
Aug 16 2021
The Obscenities Are Peaking
No, your Curmudgeon isn’t talking about Afghanistan. That particular obscenity already has enough commentators piling onto it. Our focus this evening is something closer to home: A group of 162 principals and assistant principals at schools in Minnesota issued a public letter calling for “de-centering Whiteness” and “dismantling practices that reinforce White academic …
May 22 2021
Neutrality
The title word has a checkered history. There are any number of people who’ll tell you that “you can’t be neutral about X,” where X is something they particularly favor or disfavor. And to be fair, there are subjects on which I would view perfect neutrality – i.e. “I’m neither for it nor against …
Apr 01 2021
Two From Bookworm
Our favorite Bookworm has one of her illustrated editions posted this morning. I snagged two items as particularly relevant to a phenomenon I’ve known about for some time, but which other people have a hard time digesting. Here they are: Let’s overlook, just for the moment, that any Gentle Reader of Liberty’s Torch …
Feb 01 2021
Question Thou Not!
When the Left has power, even inquiring into its practices is deemed unacceptable, unconscionable, indefensible…almost (though for the moment, not quite) illegal. The intensity of the Left’s counterblast varies directly with how far from the American norm the practice at issue lies. Critical race theory, which purports to indict and convict (without trial) …
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