Maggie's Farm

I suppose one of the functions of education is to transmit the accumulations of a culture/civilization, but it's not that simple. If you can't do Persian arithmetic, or ancient Greek trig, you are in trouble in life. Western civilization  has always been open to interesting new ideas. Case in point: Christmas tree.

In "modern times", ie, say, that includes other world cultures too. Perhaps "modern times" in the West sort of began with the Roman Empire.

Modern Western civilization has borrowed much from the entire world, and made something wonderful out of it all.  Sometimes I wonder that Christianity could only have emerged from the Middle East with its hodge-podge of cultural and religious history. Mostly Jewish of course, but far more than that.

I think it's great to learn about other civilizations and cultures, but I think Western people need to know their own first. Like a language.  Or, including the language.

My feeling is that Western civ contains astonishing wisdom and thought - more than anybody's brain can contain. I include Jacques Barzun and Einstein in that.  Legal theory, math, literary adventures, philosophy, religion, etc. You can read about Canadian aborigine medicine on your own time but it's not so easy to get a grip on Biochem.

If the kiddies can't get it through their parents, they have to learn it all from schools.  The Greatness the Professors Denied

The War Against Academic Freedom

It seems crazy nowadays that you can get in trouble without aligning with Marxist theories. How many times have I posted about this? 

SAT exams are a good measure of preparedness for higher education. 

(They also seem to be a pretty good proxy for IQ, but of course not always. If raised illiterate in the Guatemala jungle, speaking only Mam, probably not.) 

I do not know to what extent various talents of interest correlate with IQ.  I'd be interested, because some people have areas of extraordinary talent, and areas with none so an LA higher ed might not be right for them.

Still, in an America in which some are obsessed with racial measures, the SATs, statistically, seem to favor Asians first, Ashkenazi Jews second, non-Jewish Europeans third, and American Blacks and Hispanics last.

Regardless of that, I feel it makes sense to try to discern what kids are prepared for a rigorous plan for advanced education. Admittedly, much of higher ed these days is an industry seeking customers, but that is another topic.

Via Bari Weiss' selections,  You Aren't Actually Mad at the SATs - you're mad at what they reveal.

I want to add that many of the best people I have known would have been terrible with SATs, and could never have done college physics or ever aspired to read the Iliad in Greek. 

Former Staffer Jodi Shaw Sues Smith College Alleging Anti-White Racially Hostile Workplace

 A professor at Loyola University New Orleans has been accused of spouting racist, sexist comments in the classroom.

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.