Great article. The only way to preserve your child's intelligence and enable him/her to really learn is to avoid modern schools, generally. The modern pedagogy on 'teaching' is virtually 180 degrees away from actual education. That's why I'm an education freedom advocate.
Identity Politics is noxious but it's finally nearing the line of hard resistance. Note to wokesters: keep misrepresenting what you are doing. When it comes to people's kids, parents have all the cost and all the risk related to raising healthy, educated kids. Mess around some more and find out what happens. The games are over...
Bari Weiss published a fine article by a teacher who rebelled against hyper-woke insanity. Schools are using kids as therapeutic proxies for badly damaged, lamentably stupid adults. It's a crime.
It’s definitely a view that’s embraced by the current zeitgeist. I wonder, though. “Failure to launch is also a product of that same cultural current. What if we’ve been getting it wrong, all this time? What if school is the worst place to socialize children, but we’ve been lulled into complacency by a coercive system? What if stronger home ties foster greater resilience and independence? That’s been my personal experience - schools deprive both parents and children of the family bonds that forge strong individuals.
That's an articulate reply to the madness and nice (sardonic?) irony. You can't make this up. I'm betting your daughter will thank you for those trips!
I love the travel stories! I started hauling my kids to ghost towns when they were babies. They roll their eyes at me now, but I still make them do it. 😆
Got up the courage to visit a specific massacre site last year. It’s when I really learned how my older son, who is autistic, is intensely sensitive to these things. For a kid who doesn’t speak much, or well, he was eerily verbal about what he sensed from the place. But it prompted some hard conversations about history. (Guess I need to write about that one, if I can convince myself to revisit the episode in my head.)
Kids can handle hard history lessons. In appropriate context. They need it. But this current movement attempts to take the past and make it the present...and future, too. It’s nonsense.
Apr 29, 2022·edited Apr 29, 2022Liked by Chris Bray
Love this^ bc you properly highlight the "killer app" of WokeOS: effortless esoteric snobbery utilities for instant deployment on dirty commoners not hip to the smoothest knowledge. I think Ross Douthat defined wokery as "political correctness as a social weapon" (paraphrase). The conceit that one J. Rubin of DMV is not only transfixed but mentally detained more than a minute by a riot in Tulsa in 1921 that she just learned about today from the holy telescreen is what will be immortalized from our transient culture in future comedies & satires of post-nuclear-war mutant ape playwrights
Why do schools agree to promote this transgender nonsense? On the one hand, as a retired teacher I understand there are non-performing teachers on every staff. They do not follow the curriculum. Many non-performers are narcissistic and undereducated. It’s easier for them to talk about themselves and their interests then instruct, since they often don’t have a grasp of their subject matter. I’ve seen this behavior from a handful of teachers in every school which I’ve worked. On the other hand, administrators know who these teachers are, and generally they’re eventually moved into buildings where parents are less vocal. Sadly, these are often schools with lower income families—children who can least afford an education in fake science. However, fewer and fewer qualified individuals stay in the classroom for long. The pandemic hysteria has taken a toll on many schools and the misguided focus on racism and sexual deviancy has convinced many good teachers that it’s not worth the effort. School administrators know this, but districts also know that lawsuits abound out there and just try to discipline children, limit “free speech” by making a student turn off her phone, or suggest “LGBT” kids don’t have special rights. Your district will be settling a case out of court. So why are schools acquiescing? That’s why.
Chris, I cannot tell you how much I enjoy your writing. So witty, intelligent, and random! As far as today’s topic, I want to assure you that you are doing the right things with/for your daughter, and we (society)will all be grateful and better for it in another 10-12 years or so, when she has fully grown into a responsible, thoughtful, contributing member of society. That will happen because you realized one fundamental thing early on: raising that type of future adult is a parent’s #1 duty, NOT becoming bestest besties with your kid and cementing your reputation as “coolest parent ever” because you’re the one who lets the friend group drink and do drugs at your place, have boy-girl sleepovers , and provides alibis when your kid’s friends are doing things their parents don’t allow. Keep up the great work!
I believe school choice is the solution. Don't let the left fool you into thinking they are against it, they're not. There are thousands of "scholarship programs" that transplant inner city students (almost exclusively girls) to wealthy suburban towns to attend public high schools. It is school choice disguised as a "scholarship".
Great article. The only way to preserve your child's intelligence and enable him/her to really learn is to avoid modern schools, generally. The modern pedagogy on 'teaching' is virtually 180 degrees away from actual education. That's why I'm an education freedom advocate.
Identity Politics is noxious but it's finally nearing the line of hard resistance. Note to wokesters: keep misrepresenting what you are doing. When it comes to people's kids, parents have all the cost and all the risk related to raising healthy, educated kids. Mess around some more and find out what happens. The games are over...
My guess is too, Ms Rubin of WaPo is wailing and gnashing her teeth about Twitter being controlled by a (wrongthink) billionaire.
Bari Weiss published a fine article by a teacher who rebelled against hyper-woke insanity. Schools are using kids as therapeutic proxies for badly damaged, lamentably stupid adults. It's a crime.
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/i-refuse-to-stand-by-while-my-students?s=r
It’s definitely a view that’s embraced by the current zeitgeist. I wonder, though. “Failure to launch is also a product of that same cultural current. What if we’ve been getting it wrong, all this time? What if school is the worst place to socialize children, but we’ve been lulled into complacency by a coercive system? What if stronger home ties foster greater resilience and independence? That’s been my personal experience - schools deprive both parents and children of the family bonds that forge strong individuals.
That's an articulate reply to the madness and nice (sardonic?) irony. You can't make this up. I'm betting your daughter will thank you for those trips!
I love the travel stories! I started hauling my kids to ghost towns when they were babies. They roll their eyes at me now, but I still make them do it. 😆
Got up the courage to visit a specific massacre site last year. It’s when I really learned how my older son, who is autistic, is intensely sensitive to these things. For a kid who doesn’t speak much, or well, he was eerily verbal about what he sensed from the place. But it prompted some hard conversations about history. (Guess I need to write about that one, if I can convince myself to revisit the episode in my head.)
Kids can handle hard history lessons. In appropriate context. They need it. But this current movement attempts to take the past and make it the present...and future, too. It’s nonsense.
Love this^ bc you properly highlight the "killer app" of WokeOS: effortless esoteric snobbery utilities for instant deployment on dirty commoners not hip to the smoothest knowledge. I think Ross Douthat defined wokery as "political correctness as a social weapon" (paraphrase). The conceit that one J. Rubin of DMV is not only transfixed but mentally detained more than a minute by a riot in Tulsa in 1921 that she just learned about today from the holy telescreen is what will be immortalized from our transient culture in future comedies & satires of post-nuclear-war mutant ape playwrights
Why do schools agree to promote this transgender nonsense? On the one hand, as a retired teacher I understand there are non-performing teachers on every staff. They do not follow the curriculum. Many non-performers are narcissistic and undereducated. It’s easier for them to talk about themselves and their interests then instruct, since they often don’t have a grasp of their subject matter. I’ve seen this behavior from a handful of teachers in every school which I’ve worked. On the other hand, administrators know who these teachers are, and generally they’re eventually moved into buildings where parents are less vocal. Sadly, these are often schools with lower income families—children who can least afford an education in fake science. However, fewer and fewer qualified individuals stay in the classroom for long. The pandemic hysteria has taken a toll on many schools and the misguided focus on racism and sexual deviancy has convinced many good teachers that it’s not worth the effort. School administrators know this, but districts also know that lawsuits abound out there and just try to discipline children, limit “free speech” by making a student turn off her phone, or suggest “LGBT” kids don’t have special rights. Your district will be settling a case out of court. So why are schools acquiescing? That’s why.
Chris, I cannot tell you how much I enjoy your writing. So witty, intelligent, and random! As far as today’s topic, I want to assure you that you are doing the right things with/for your daughter, and we (society)will all be grateful and better for it in another 10-12 years or so, when she has fully grown into a responsible, thoughtful, contributing member of society. That will happen because you realized one fundamental thing early on: raising that type of future adult is a parent’s #1 duty, NOT becoming bestest besties with your kid and cementing your reputation as “coolest parent ever” because you’re the one who lets the friend group drink and do drugs at your place, have boy-girl sleepovers , and provides alibis when your kid’s friends are doing things their parents don’t allow. Keep up the great work!
I believe school choice is the solution. Don't let the left fool you into thinking they are against it, they're not. There are thousands of "scholarship programs" that transplant inner city students (almost exclusively girls) to wealthy suburban towns to attend public high schools. It is school choice disguised as a "scholarship".
I do the same thing with my son. His historian father has shown him all of the battlefields of America and Normandy. Now he’s a junior historian too.
I'm sure Jenny-poo cares about Ukraine.
So much undeserved privilege these Yentas have.