Maggie's Farm

Who decides?

At City Journal

Standards-Based Grading Will Ruin Education

A Canadian Academic Case Study

It is a sad story: The Demoralization of the American Teacher. He begins:

 Ten years ago, I showed up for my first day as a high school teacher. I had landed a job in the best school of what is often called a “destination district.” Still, I knew I was facing an uphill battle. Warnings abounded of an American public school system in decline. But I was undeterred. I had that youthful sense that education needed change and I was just the one to change it...

The “Permanent Crisis” of the Humanities

Initially, the term studia humanitatis didn’t signify the pursuit of theological, metaphysical, or philosophical knowledge, or, as some contemporary commentators claim about the modern humanities, the cultivation or training of the soul as an end in itself. But they propounded a more modest notion: that the kinds of technical skills and knowledge that humanists taught—reading, writing, and speaking about ancient Latin and Greek texts—helped prepare students for study in the higher faculty, as well as for lives as active citizens.

It is that modest notion which eventually led to the devaluation of the studia humanitatis in the 17th and 18th centuries. According to Wellmon, scholars began to look down on the humanities because they didn’t prepare students to do anything in particular—but rather just imparted generalized knowledge intended to groom the elite...

Hate hoaxes are on the rise to meet the demand for racism

Here's a witch hunt:  A theater professor wasn’t sufficiently outraged about a list of names on a whiteboard. The college’s next act: probable termination.

Not from the Babylon Bee. Yale Law goes full Maoist on a free-speech black student. 

Somehow, he recorded it, here. The tone and uptalk of the dean or whoever is pathetic but laughable, but they threaten his future career.

This is sick. Imagine if they were interrogating a white or Asian guy. Listen to those idiots:"I want to guide and nurture your social and intellectual development."

It is no surprise that some people do not get their brains around math and statistics, but civilization is at the point at which such topics are basic education for understanding the world.

I like the example once used on CNN when they reported that your risk of death from COVID had doubled. True: at some point months ago it had gone from something like 0.01 to 0.02. Something like that. 

 Student Math Grades Vary in UNC System

Half of college students fear expressing ideas in the classroom

I do not think that that is anything new.  

Men abandon higher education in droves, trail female student enrollment by record levels

Maybe they do not wish to enroll in Intro to Trans Studies 

A Telescope for Social Justice

Via Gateway:

 Boyle said in an emailed statement that suspending the reading, writing and math proficiency requirements will benefit “Oregon’s Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of colour.

I doubt that anybody thinks so, so here's this: Do we still need math? We spend much of our early years learning arithmetic and algebra. What's the use?

And elite universities deserve a huge share of the blame.

Story at Quillette: How All My Politically Correct Bones Were Broken:

... after a decade of teaching students from minimally educated, working poor families, I was thoroughly familiar with the difficulty of bringing unprepared or unmotivated students of any color or background up to anything like a college level. Many students lacked even middle-school reading competence. Many could not write a complete sentence. Some skipped classes and failed to turn in assignments—or just dropped out. But the college mission was to educate everyone. We were an “open door” institution, with a high school diploma or GED sufficient for admission. We were here to give students the chance none in their families had ever had before, and we believed in our mission. Toward the end of the meeting I raised my hand and asked how, given reading and preparation levels, we could possibly increase grades and graduation rates without lowering standards. “What do you teach?” he asked. “English,” I offered. “You don’t teach English,” he corrected me. “You teach White Studies.”

I had no idea how to respond, so I fell silent.

Tyler Cowen: Abolishing tenure is the least of my proposals

When I was young, "strivers" were looked down upon. The "natural talents" were most admired, whether in math, using words, athletics, the arts, etc. Before my time, Jews were the "strivers," but in my time they could be anybody.

I believe that the elite schools seek special talents and qualities in a variety of areas. Of course, IQ and academic potential also. Elite schools could easily fill their classes with kids with perfect SAT scores. There is the issue with meritocracy with college admissions. 

Asian-Americans are the strivers of today. They, on some average, study twice as hard as "white" kids. I do not know whether they are also "resume-builders" like many kids used to be. The sterotype is that Asian kids are all math and violin geniuses.

With ethnic issues dominating the news these days, I'd like to ask a question. Are people with Indian (India) heritage "Asian"? 

MATH IS HARD—HARDEST OF ALL FOR THE LEFT

Some smart comments there. Somewhat related, what are the UK's A Level Exams? 

 More colleges rejecting SAT/ACT scores that are apparently racist

I do not see how we can eliminate exams for everything.

...and are seeking academic success or just mental challenges, there are many resources available for kids who want to advance at their own levels. Kids in "bad schools" can learn all they want, thanks to the internet.

Online classrooms have not proven to be very useful. Probably better than nothing, but barely, but Khan has it figured out for motivated kids.  

Khan Academy is excellent, and free. 

NYC has used tests, some at 5 years old, to determine who is admitted to the city's public accelerated schools. 5 years old seems a bit young to me for that, but the general idea was the same that drove the creation of the SAT: to prevent discrimination other than about intellectual potential.

In NYC, Gifted and Talented enrollment is 43 percent Asian, 36 percent white, 8 percent Hispanic, and 6 percent black.

NYC has many desirable private, parochial, and charter schools too, but, of the latter, only the private schools tend to have entry standards. 

Related,  Kids will pay a steep price for this War on Merit in schools

I was a bright kid without any particular talents, no genius and not entirely dedicated to school. I grew up in an entirely non-diverse neighborhood and town. Lily-white. Every boy wanted to be an Eagle Scout.

The notion of racial disparity did not exist, but there were clear distinctions between the smart kids and the slow kids, the athletically talented kids and the not, etc. I doubt I would have been admitted to a public NYC accelerated school, but I was forced to learn discipline when I went to a private high school with high demands and expectations.

I think what is going on in NY is about skin tone and ethnicity. 

Leftists Rewriting History Week in Higher Education, at Legal Insurrection