America Has An Existential Civics Education Crisis That More ‘Civics Education’ Will Only Make Worse
“So 'allowing alternative teacher certification' and banning CRT may be the best recommendations in the report. But we need a heck of a lot more. Republicans have been appointed watchmen against these kinds of threats by their voters for decades, only to sleep while anti-American barbarians have taken over the country.” - The Federalist, 6/14/21
The Revolt against Left-Wing Schooling
“For conservatives, too, this newer revision of American history threatens their own view of what good public schools can do, which is to help students from diverse backgrounds cohere as a people. Instead, this education is taken to be an attempt to further enjoin students into mutual antagonisms, or to pronounce that they are permanently locked into these by the American system itself. No wonder conservatives find it 'demoralizing.' That seems to be the point.” - National Review, 6/14/21
Supreme Court Seeks Biden Administration Views on Harvard Admissions Policies
“The Supreme Court asked the Biden administration to weigh in on a legal challenge to Harvard University’s race-conscious undergraduate admissions policies. The justices, in a brief written order on Monday, asked the U.S. Solicitor General’s office to submit the federal government’s views on an appeal that argued Harvard unlawfully discriminated against Asian-American applicants.” - Wall Street Journal, 6/14/21
Why It’s Impossible To Teach History Only Using ‘The Facts’
“There’s not anything essentially wrong with spending more time discussing racial or social history. If done professionally and factually, it’s still history. But it also means students will get less of other forms of history (typically political, military, religious, or economic), many of which are necessary to understand their nation’s story as it relates to their duties as citizens.” - The Federalist, 6/14/21
The Money Not Everyone Wants
“California Community College system budget officers are at odds with faculty members and their union over what is usually a cause for celebration -- an increase in state funding. Faculty members are in favor of a budget proposal by the state Legislature that includes $170 million for the hiring of 2,000 full-time faculty members, which would make the system less reliant on adjunct instructors. But the system’s number crunchers are wary about the long-term implications of such a funding decision.” - Inside Higher Ed, 6/14/21
Stith: “The Best Community College System In the Country”
“In the past year, the North Carolina Community College system said goodbye to one president and gained another. After former president Peter Hans took up his new role as the head of the University of North Carolina system, the community college system began its search for a new leader. In December 2020, Thomas Stith was elected to be that new leader. Stith officially began his work as the community college system president on January 11.” - The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, 6/14/21
Loudoun County Parents Rally Against Critical Race Theory ‘Indoctrination’
“There is a war in Loudoun County, Virginia, but no troops are on the ground. Instead, parents and teachers are fighting for the next generation amid a critical race theory clash that has boiled over into a national controversy. Like-minded community members, with planning help from The Heritage Foundation and Parents Against Critical Race Theory, came together Saturday to sign petitions, wave signs, deliver speeches, and connect with one another for an 'Education, Not Indoctrination' rally.” - The Federalist, 6/14/21
The Imperative of A Boring Judiciary
“If we really are in a jurisprudential or political crisis, the answer lies among our laws’ authors: our legislators and, frankly, us, the people who elect them. Our failures have been aggravated by judges who think they know better, engaging in illegitimate lawmaking masquerading as textual interpretation. But the solution is not more illegitimate lawmaking.” - Law & Liberty, 6/14/21
Anatomy of the Woke Madness
“Do we revert to the norms of the civil rights movement where the content of our character alone matters, not the color of our skin? Or have we sunk so deeply into the woke quicksands, that we cannot thrash our way up to the air, and thus suffocate from the ancient pressures of the bog that have always destroyed civilizations?” - American Greatness, 6/13/21
We can’t fight racism if Whites see any remedy as a threat and an insult
“But the racial equity controversy also illustrates the unwillingness of many Whites to tolerate even modest efforts to account for racial discrimination in America, past and present. It’s an unmistakable example of 'White fragility,' the intense discomfort that many Whites feel at any suggestion that we have benefited from our race, or that we harbor unconscious racist attitudes instilled by a predominantly White culture.” - Washington Post, 6/13/21
“Balanced Representation!”
What’s not to like??
Don’t we apply that rule to ordinary life… in all ways….at all times? And aren’t the results of “balanced representation” always superior to outcomes which are demographically unbalanced? Of course they are!
I used to prefer good, well-trained dentists….dentists who were good at dentistry….but then I read this study from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which told me: “The underrepresentation of Blacks, Hispanics or Latinos, and American Indians or Alaska Natives among dentists raises concerns about the diversity of the dental workforce, disparities in access to dental care and in oral health status, and social justice.” And now I am convinced that social justice and diversity (which flow only from “balanced representation”) are vastly more important than being good with cavities and teeth. Huzzah!
I used to think that being a Basketball Wizard was and should be the primary qualifier for being in the NBA, but I have seen the light and have come to despise those incredibly unbalanced and unrepresentative teams which are filled to overflowing with really good players who all — dare I say it — look the same and display, always, the same incredible level of talent. Where are the short, uncoordinated Hispanics and Native Americans? Where are the fat White Guys who can’t dribble? Where — for God’s sake — are the women??? Women comprise 50% of the population and yet there’s not a single one on any NBA team? Can’t we trade a Stephen Curry to get, say, a Nancy Pelosi or a Kim Kardashian in the Golden State uniform? And just wait until that “balanced representation” team plays Houston next year!
And what about plumbing? Every time I hire a plumber, they all look like they grew-up in the exact same Plumbing Family (they all certainly buy the same gap-waist pants)! What’s up with that? Of course, they all have done a great job with all those plumbing things, but c’mon! What’s really important here? Great, cost-effective plumbing solutions installed by expert plumbers….or balanced demographic representation among all those who drive plumbing trucks? All I know is next time a pipe bursts, I’m gonna wait until I get a trans-gendered Black immigrant (I just hope he knows something about plumbing) before I accept an unrepresentative solution in my flooded basement.
And sadly, as I look back at all the women I dated, they were — in retrospect — pathetically unrepresentative of all the various demographic possibilities which are out there. I just hope my wife understands as I seek to — belatedly — make that population sample significantly more balanced.
“THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.” That totally balanced, totally representative, totally equal future — it can’t get here fast enough. Vonnegut would be so proud!
You sir — or madam — are a gifted wordsmith.