History

Halifax2TheMax

We're living in interesting times, a twice impeached former POTUS holding sway over one of the two major political parties, facing multiple lawsuits and criminal probes, including violations of the Espionage Act and threatening to run for POTUS again. We also have a large swath of the repub party faithful, and some dems and indies, believing that Brandon wasn't legitimately elected POTUS. The US Capitol was attacked by violent mobs, determined to stop a legitimate election. Add on the influence of social media and mis and dis-information, putin on the ritz's invasion of Ukraine, a highly partisan and corrupted SCOTUS, obscene amounts of wealth held by individuals that spend lavishly to amplify their viewpoints and influence society, whether through social media and/or politics, the war on wokeness and the rise of authoritarianism and Christian Nationalism, and we have the makings of some pretty remarkable history.

How will this time, 2015-2024/5 be remembered by historians? How should it be remembered? Referred to as? Will it be a stain or referenced as some "epic" or "great" time in US history? Will it be remembered fondly? How will it be taught to the next generations, in 20 to 30 years from now? How should it be taught? What lessons might be drawn from it? How will the rest of the world teach and/or refer to this time in US history? How might the southern or red states refer to this time period versus the coastal elite or blue states? Keep in mind that Tejas has an outsized influence on what content gets into history books that are used in public schools throughout the US. Thoughts?

static111

Halifax2TheMax said:

We're living in interesting times, a twice impeached former POTUS holding sway over one of the two major political parties, facing multiple lawsuits and criminal probes, including violations of the Espionage Act and threatening to run for POTUS again. We also have a large swath of the repub party faithful, and some dems and indies, believing that Brandon wasn't legitimately elected POTUS. The US Capitol was attacked by violent mobs, determined to stop a legitimate election. Add on the influence of social media and mis and dis-information, putin on the ritz's invasion of Ukraine, a highly partisan and corrupted SCOTUS, obscene amounts of wealth held by individuals that spend lavishly to amplify their viewpoints and influence society, whether through social media and/or politics, the war on wokeness and the rise of authoritarianism and Christian Nationalism, and we have the makings of some pretty remarkable history.

How will this time, 2015-2024/5 be remembered by historians? How should it be remembered? Referred to as? Will it be a stain or referenced as some "epic" or "great" time in US history? Will it be remembered fondly? How will it be taught to the next generations, in 20 to 30 years from now? How should it be taught? What lessons might be drawn from it? How will the rest of the world teach and/or refer to this time in US history? How might the southern or red states refer to this time period versus the coastal elite or blue states? Keep in mind that Tejas has an outsized influence on what content gets into history books that are used in public schools throughout the US. Thoughts?

It won't be remembered if things go nuclear in Ukraine. Or global warming. Or if Texas writes the history books.

josevolution

Yep leave it to Republicans they will erase it from history books!

lastexitlondon

We ARE history 

brianlux

lastexitlondon said:

We ARE history 

If we are careful... and soon!... we may be toast. 
If the history of humanity were boiled down to one life time, it would be as someone who started out naive and innocent, scraping by to evolve to adulthood, and then living a long life comprised of an oddly mixed history of creativity, foolishness, brilliance, and brutality, finally in old age to become completely insane and engaging in self-defeating acts, destroying everything around them that made their life possible and then stabbing their eyes out so as to not have to face their folly.
World wide suicide indeed.

what dreams

The textbook industry is not what it used to be. The article linked below was published in 2010. Since then, practically all textbooks  have gone online, and publishers adapt content toward 50 different state standards and the end of year standardized tests that accompany them in each invidual state. It's time to end the "Texas writes the history books" trope.

https://www.texastribune.org/2010/03/26/texas-textbooks-national-influence-is-a-myth/

Halifax2TheMax

what dreams said:

The textbook industry is not what it used to be. The article linked below was published in 2010. Since then, practically all textbooks  have gone online, and publishers adapt content toward 50 different state standards and the end of year standardized tests that accompany them in each invidual state. It's time to end the "Texas writes the history books" trope.

https://www.texastribune.org/2010/03/26/texas-textbooks-national-influence-is-a-myth/

Is it? Time to end the “Texas writes the textbooks” trope?

The "differences in ideologies" can have far-reaching consequences, even beyond the scope of individual states. Texas has frequently faced scrutiny for its state curriculum standards (called Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS). In 2014, NPR reported on some of the curriculum controversies, one of which included listing Moses as one of the original Founding Fathers. But because Texas has one of the highest populations of public school students (approximately 5 million) it carries undue influence on national textbook publishers and the content that they include — or do not include — in their textbooks. The narratives that they feature, which are then taught to millions of middle and high school students, have at times come under fire for being racist and xenophobic.

In July 2020, students petitioned Texas’ Board of Education to revise its educational standards in order to adopt an anti-racist curriculum. An article from Houston Public Media about the petition drew attention to a particularly egregious incident where a McGraw-Hill textbook referred to enslaved people as “workers” and compared the Atlantic slave trade to other “patterns of immigration."

https://www.today.com/tmrw/who-chooses-history-textbooks-t190833

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/12/us/texas-vs-california-history-textbooks.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/19/conservative-activists-texas-have-shaped-history-all-american-children-learn/

josevolution

https://apple.news/Aqg1TzlbfTLmKi__Kzufd5w   Good read & scary too, just wanted to see what you all think about his take on state of affairs in the country! 

tempo_n_groove

josevolution said:

https://apple.news/Aqg1TzlbfTLmKi__Kzufd5w   Good read & scary too, just wanted to see what you all think about his take on state of affairs in the country! 

This civil war thing I hear all the time.  Are we really going to go up against the government?  How many people are imbedded in the govt that would turn?

I would see a coup ending very quickly.

Edit: I have said I want to be ready in case that does happen.  A lot of people said I was nuts/paranoid.  Am I?

josevolution

tempo_n_groove said:

josevolution said:

https://apple.news/Aqg1TzlbfTLmKi__Kzufd5w   Good read & scary too, just wanted to see what you all think about his take on state of affairs in the country! 

This civil war thing I hear all the time.  Are we really going to go up against the government?  How many people are imbedded in the govt that would turn?

I would see a coup ending very quickly.

Edit: I have said I want to be ready in case that does happen.  A lot of people said I was nuts/paranoid.  Am I?

It won’t be like that from article! It would be citizens and against each other, Red vs Blue as I see it 

tempo_n_groove

josevolution said:

tempo_n_groove said:

josevolution said:

https://apple.news/Aqg1TzlbfTLmKi__Kzufd5w   Good read & scary too, just wanted to see what you all think about his take on state of affairs in the country! 

This civil war thing I hear all the time.  Are we really going to go up against the government?  How many people are imbedded in the govt that would turn?

I would see a coup ending very quickly.

Edit: I have said I want to be ready in case that does happen.  A lot of people said I was nuts/paranoid.  Am I?

It won’t be like that from article! It would be citizens and against each other, Red vs Blue as I see it 

Well, that won't accomplish anything.  Those that would stand off each other would just be in vein.  Might as well just have a football game to decide it or flip a coin.

brianlux

I think we are more likely to see a continued break down in civility as more likely than civil war.  People are going to start going, "Fuck that guy, I don't like the way he looks," or "Eat shit Prius driver", or "Hey, suck my exhaust pipe."  That's pretty much how I see people acting these days and it ain't gonna get better. 

Oh oh oh ohhhh, I'm in hiding!

Gern Blansten

brianlux said:

I think we are more likely to see a continued break down in civility as more likely than civil war.  People are going to start going, "Fuck that guy, I don't like the way he looks," or "Eat shit Prius driver", or "Hey, suck my exhaust pipe."  That's pretty much how I see people acting these days and it ain't gonna get better. 

Oh oh oh ohhhh, I'm in hiding!

agreed...the uninformed just get more uninformed...it truly is all spelled out in the prophetic movie titled Idiocracy. 

brianlux

Gern Blansten said:

brianlux said:

I think we are more likely to see a continued break down in civility as more likely than civil war.  People are going to start going, "Fuck that guy, I don't like the way he looks," or "Eat shit Prius driver", or "Hey, suck my exhaust pipe."  That's pretty much how I see people acting these days and it ain't gonna get better. 

Oh oh oh ohhhh, I'm in hiding!

agreed...the uninformed just get more uninformed...it truly is all spelled out in the prophetic movie titled Idiocracy. 

Great film.  It's been a while.  I might just have to see that one again soon!

"I thought your head would be bigger." 

what dreams

Halifax2TheMax said:

what dreams said:

The textbook industry is not what it used to be. The article linked below was published in 2010. Since then, practically all textbooks  have gone online, and publishers adapt content toward 50 different state standards and the end of year standardized tests that accompany them in each invidual state. It's time to end the "Texas writes the history books" trope.

https://www.texastribune.org/2010/03/26/texas-textbooks-national-influence-is-a-myth/

Is it? Time to end the “Texas writes the textbooks” trope?

The "differences in ideologies" can have far-reaching consequences, even beyond the scope of individual states. Texas has frequently faced scrutiny for its state curriculum standards (called Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS). In 2014, NPR reported on some of the curriculum controversies, one of which included listing Moses as one of the original Founding Fathers. But because Texas has one of the highest populations of public school students (approximately 5 million) it carries undue influence on national textbook publishers and the content that they include — or do not include — in their textbooks. The narratives that they feature, which are then taught to millions of middle and high school students, have at times come under fire for being racist and xenophobic.

In July 2020, students petitioned Texas’ Board of Education to revise its educational standards in order to adopt an anti-racist curriculum. An article from Houston Public Media about the petition drew attention to a particularly egregious incident where a McGraw-Hill textbook referred to enslaved people as “workers” and compared the Atlantic slave trade to other “patterns of immigration."

https://www.today.com/tmrw/who-chooses-history-textbooks-t190833

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/12/us/texas-vs-california-history-textbooks.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/19/conservative-activists-texas-have-shaped-history-all-american-children-learn/

Direct copy and paste from one of the articles you have linked (make sure you read your own sources) :

"Publishers and developers of content are developing products for the Common Core market primarily and then for other states, including Texas, on a secondary basis, where in the past it probably would have been the reverse," says Gates Bryant, a partner with Education Growth Advisors."

This is my 30th year teaching. I've sat on textbook adoption committees in my Commonwealth of Virginia and in South Carolina where I first started. Not once has any publisher or educator in the room said, "That damn Texas. Why do they get to tell us what to do?" Because they don't -- especially now that everything is digital and easily modifiable to reach a targeted customer. Since every state was tasked by the feds to write its own standards (Virginia did not adopt Common Core) and then test them, the testing companies need to create tests for thise standards. The textbook has to target the individual state standards. The Virginia textbooks are not the Texas textbooks.

I'm not saying Texas isn't crazy. I'm just saying that what happens in Texas mostly stays in Texas because of the way NCLB education works these days. California doesn't have to buy a textbook that Texas uses, and textbook publishers -- who have basically become large hedge-funded technology corporations -- wouldn't even try to sell it to them. They wouldn't make any money if they did. The industry has changed. Read your own sources, all the way to the end, not just cherry pick the parts that fit your outdated perception. 

Halifax2TheMax

what dreams said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

what dreams said:

The textbook industry is not what it used to be. The article linked below was published in 2010. Since then, practically all textbooks  have gone online, and publishers adapt content toward 50 different state standards and the end of year standardized tests that accompany them in each invidual state. It's time to end the "Texas writes the history books" trope.

https://www.texastribune.org/2010/03/26/texas-textbooks-national-influence-is-a-myth/

Is it? Time to end the “Texas writes the textbooks” trope?

The "differences in ideologies" can have far-reaching consequences, even beyond the scope of individual states. Texas has frequently faced scrutiny for its state curriculum standards (called Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS). In 2014, NPR reported on some of the curriculum controversies, one of which included listing Moses as one of the original Founding Fathers. But because Texas has one of the highest populations of public school students (approximately 5 million) it carries undue influence on national textbook publishers and the content that they include — or do not include — in their textbooks. The narratives that they feature, which are then taught to millions of middle and high school students, have at times come under fire for being racist and xenophobic.

In July 2020, students petitioned Texas’ Board of Education to revise its educational standards in order to adopt an anti-racist curriculum. An article from Houston Public Media about the petition drew attention to a particularly egregious incident where a McGraw-Hill textbook referred to enslaved people as “workers” and compared the Atlantic slave trade to other “patterns of immigration."

https://www.today.com/tmrw/who-chooses-history-textbooks-t190833

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/12/us/texas-vs-california-history-textbooks.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/19/conservative-activists-texas-have-shaped-history-all-american-children-learn/

Direct copy and paste from one of the articles you have linked (make sure you read your own sources) :

"Publishers and developers of content are developing products for the Common Core market primarily and then for other states, including Texas, on a secondary basis, where in the past it probably would have been the reverse," says Gates Bryant, a partner with Education Growth Advisors."

This is my 30th year teaching. I've sat on textbook adoption committees in my Commonwealth of Virginia and in South Carolina where I first started. Not once has any publisher or educator in the room said, "That damn Texas. Why do they get to tell us what to do?" Because they don't -- especially now that everything is digital and easily modifiable to reach a targeted customer. Since every state was tasked by the feds to write its own standards (Virginia did not adopt Common Core) and then test them, the testing companies need to create tests for thise standards. The textbook has to target the individual state standards. The Virginia textbooks are not the Texas textbooks.

I'm not saying Texas isn't crazy. I'm just saying that what happens in Texas mostly stays in Texas because of the way NCLB education works these days. California doesn't have to buy a textbook that Texas uses, and textbook publishers -- who have basically become large hedge-funded technology corporations -- wouldn't even try to sell it to them. They wouldn't make any money if they did. The industry has changed. Read your own sources, all the way to the end, not just cherry pick the parts that fit your outdated perception. 

I did read my sources all the way to the end and yours as well, for that matter. Your source relied on an "industry insider" of a whole three years and was from 12 years ago. As the more recent articles pointed out, textbooks are not "one and done," many remain in circulation for longer than a decade and its not too unreasonable to believe that some cash starved purchasing agent in some school district far removed from Tejas, may realize a savings by glomming on to a production run of textbooks for Tejas (still the largest market). If the digital revolution is so vast and grand, why do I see tons of middle and high school students with overstuffed backpacks full of books? Is it not possible that like minded legislatures and Dept's. of Education in like-minded states, Tejas and Oklahoma, say, may share the same, or many of the same "standards?" No one said Tejas had to buy a textbook developed for California or vice versa, just that market forces, like-mindedness and budget constraints are still in play and that Tejas' influence on the market hasn't disappeared. Reduced, maybe, but not eliminated, particularly as some school districts may still be using 20+ year old textbooks.

To my bold of the Virginia/Tejas, I'll bet they're similar or that there is overlap in how particular material is presented.

Thanks for teaching, its a thankless job and you probably are not paid nearly what your time and effort entails.

How'd your lesson plan on Moses as a founding father go over? I kid.

How will this period of time in history be explained in the textbooks of the future? In Tejas or California?

what dreams

It will be portrayed as the period in time where Americans completely lost their minds over Twitter arguments that have very little resemblance to the actual world people live in.

You seriously underestimate the way tech ed companies have reshaped American education. I could argue all day -- but won't because I've got papers to grade -- that the crisis isn't what people think it is. There is in fact a crisis in education. I won't deny that. It's true there are some marginal nutters pushing their culture war into schools. But that's not why our graduates are dumber than they have ever been. We are where we are because the whole standards based movement -- pushed by the tech companies who make BILLIONS in profits -- has narrowed the curriculum to a mind numbing set of "skills" that involve nothing more than regurgitation. The education consultant industry that has grown up around the testing industry has reduced teaching to a scripted performance of: diagnose (with an electronic test), teach (everything in a group where nobody has to do any work on their own), test again (to see if they got it), reteach (if they didn't), -- rinse, repeat. Kids get 50% for literally doing NOTHING because an actual zero, the truth, will hurt their poor little feelings and make them so demoralized they'll stop trying; they can turn in anything whenever they feel like it for full credit, nobody assigns actual reading or writing anymore -- when it's not a multiple choice test on a laptop, or a Kahoot on their phone, it's all coloring diagrams and cutting out and gluing vocabulary into an "interactive notebook."

I could go on and on about how utterly, horrificly terrible the system has become, and not a word about any of this reality on Twitter. It's all Texas and CRT and bathrooms that may or may not be happening in a small number of schools. In just about every school in America, though, the reality is that Big Tech has taken over, and the "accountability movement" has driven the expectations lower and lower every year because it's easy to look good when you don't ask for much. I will go so far as to say that all the crap that is now being done in the name of "equity" has absolutely nothing to do with equity at all. I've seen more Hispanic and African American teachers than white ones leave the profession because of non-existent discipline in the schools. You gotta stop the "school to prison" pipeline, you know, because "equity." One recent principal at an almost 100% Hispanic school relaxed the dress code so girls can walk around in their bras and said out loud because "It's their culture." A Latina teacher said, "Um, no, it's not." She quit before the year was out. If you disagree and talk about what's really happening, you get called a racist or end up on TikTok and have your career wrecked. I had to endure a white privilege lecture in the same principal's office for telling an African American student to quit calling a classmate an "f-ing n-word" during the middle of a silent reading session. It's their culture, you know. I put my hand up, said stop, and also resigned. I'm in a better place this year -- still woke as hell around here, but people leave me alone and let me teach. I had my first evaluation last week and was told "It’s been a long time since I've seen a good old-fashioned reading lesson" and it was a compliment, not a smack down, for making kids read out loud, take notes with a pen and paper, and actually discuss the ideas on the page and think about hard questions.

The vast majority of teachers just make sure they say the words right and nod their heads yes, just to survive. I'm about to vote for Republicans at the state level for the first time in my voting life because I can't stand this shit anymore. I did not vote for Glenn Youngkin for governor but he is 100% correct in pointing out the joke that our education system has become. If he were able to run again, I would have no problem bubbling in for him. (Plus, he just sent me a $250 check because of the abundance of Covid money they can't even find ways to spend out of the treasury . . . )

So history? This will be the era that America collapsed because they got distracted by the wrong things. Texas, for example. Who cares about Texas, if you don't actually live there, it doesn't freaking matter what they do!

Now I really gotta get back to work....

Gern Blansten

what dreams said:

It will be portrayed as the period in time where Americans completely lost their minds over Twitter arguments that have very little resemblance to the actual world people live in.

You seriously underestimate the way tech ed companies have reshaped American education. I could argue all day -- but won't because I've got papers to grade -- that the crisis isn't what people think it is. There is in fact a crisis in education. I won't deny that. It's true there are some marginal nutters pushing their culture war into schools. But that's not why our graduates are dumber than they have ever been. We are where we are because the whole standards based movement -- pushed by the tech companies who make BILLIONS in profits -- has narrowed the curriculum to a mind numbing set of "skills" that involve nothing more than regurgitation. The education consultant industry that has grown up around the testing industry has reduced teaching to a scripted performance of: diagnose (with an electronic test), teach (everything in a group where nobody has to do any work on their own), test again (to see if they got it), reteach (if they didn't), -- rinse, repeat. Kids get 50% for literally doing NOTHING because an actual zero, the truth, will hurt their poor little feelings and make them so demoralized they'll stop trying; they can turn in anything whenever they feel like it for full credit, nobody assigns actual reading or writing anymore -- when it's not a multiple choice test on a laptop, or a Kahoot on their phone, it's all coloring diagrams and cutting out and gluing vocabulary into an "interactive notebook."

I could go on and on about how utterly, horrificly terrible the system has become, and not a word about any of this reality on Twitter. It's all Texas and CRT and bathrooms that may or may not be happening in a small number of schools. In just about every school in America, though, the reality is that Big Tech has taken over, and the "accountability movement" has driven the expectations lower and lower every year because it's easy to look good when you don't ask for much. I will go so far as to say that all the crap that is now being done in the name of "equity" has absolutely nothing to do with equity at all. I've seen more Hispanic and African American teachers than white ones leave the profession because of non-existent discipline in the schools. You gotta stop the "school to prison" pipeline, you know, because "equity." One recent principal at an almost 100% Hispanic school relaxed the dress code so girls can walk around in their bras and said out loud because "It's their culture." A Latina teacher said, "Um, no, it's not." She quit before the year was out. If you disagree and talk about what's really happening, you get called a racist or end up on TikTok and have your career wrecked. I had to endure a white privilege lecture in the same principal's office for telling an African American student to quit calling a classmate an "f-ing n-word" during the middle of a silent reading session. It's their culture, you know. I put my hand up, said stop, and also resigned. I'm in a better place this year -- still woke as hell around here, but people leave me alone and let me teach. I had my first evaluation last week and was told "It’s been a long time since I've seen a good old-fashioned reading lesson" and it was a compliment, not a smack down, for making kids read out loud, take notes with a pen and paper, and actually discuss the ideas on the page and think about hard questions.

The vast majority of teachers just make sure they say the words right and nod their heads yes, just to survive. I'm about to vote for Republicans at the state level for the first time in my voting life because I can't stand this shit anymore. I did not vote for Glenn Youngkin for governor but he is 100% correct in pointing out the joke that our education system has become. If he were able to run again, I would have no problem bubbling in for him. (Plus, he just sent me a $250 check because of the abundance of Covid money they can't even find ways to spend out of the treasury . . . )

So history? This will be the era that America collapsed because they got distracted by the wrong things. Texas, for example. Who cares about Texas, if you don't actually live there, it doesn't freaking matter what they do!

Now I really gotta get back to work....

be careful voting GOP....they love to cut education funding

Halifax2TheMax

Texas, for example. Who cares about Texas, if you don't actually live there, it doesn't freaking matter what they do!

Sure. It doesn't matter what happens in Tejas? Tejas ain't Vegas and what happens in Tejas doesn't stay in Tejas. I'd just as rather give Tejas back to Mexico or let them secede so we can build a wall around that state. 

I'm sorry you're so jaded but what you describe is much bigger than the outsized influence Tejas has on textbooks that find their way around the nation. I'll be looking forward to reading up on the Proud Boys and the attack on our capitol by homegrown traitors, terrorists and insurrectionists, all initiated by the loser POOTWH, in a decade or so. And I hate to break it to you but the repubs don't have an education plan other than to turn it all over to the Betsy DeVoses of the world. Good luck.

what dreams

Politicians of both parties have already turned over education. We have the old lefty Ted Kennedy to thank for co-sponsoring No Child Left Behind and its successive disasters. Obama and his Race to the Top which only drilled down on testing. Party doesn't matter anymore on this particular issue. They are all awful.

brianlux

what dreams said:

Politicians of both parties have already turned over education. We have the old lefty Ted Kennedy to thank for co-sponsoring No Child Left Behind and its successive disasters. Obama and his Race to the Top which only drilled down on testing. Party doesn't matter anymore on this particular issue. They are all awful.

I agree.  I've seen a lot of schools- student teaching, visiting schools, subbing, teaching a 5/6 combo- and in all those years I had only ever once seen a school that (in my opinion) did it right.  It was a private school that used integrated curriculum used it at it's most fulfilled level- using all forms of learning- reading, writing, math, discussion, etc., AND combining all the school desk stuff with real life stuff- cooking, gardening, building and repairing things, music, art, EVERYTHING!  It was amazing. All schools should work that way and damn few do.  It's tragic.

tempo_n_groove

what dreams said:

It will be portrayed as the period in time where Americans completely lost their minds over Twitter arguments that have very little resemblance to the actual world people live in.

You seriously underestimate the way tech ed companies have reshaped American education. I could argue all day -- but won't because I've got papers to grade -- that the crisis isn't what people think it is. There is in fact a crisis in education. I won't deny that. It's true there are some marginal nutters pushing their culture war into schools. But that's not why our graduates are dumber than they have ever been. We are where we are because the whole standards based movement -- pushed by the tech companies who make BILLIONS in profits -- has narrowed the curriculum to a mind numbing set of "skills" that involve nothing more than regurgitation. The education consultant industry that has grown up around the testing industry has reduced teaching to a scripted performance of: diagnose (with an electronic test), teach (everything in a group where nobody has to do any work on their own), test again (to see if they got it), reteach (if they didn't), -- rinse, repeat. Kids get 50% for literally doing NOTHING because an actual zero, the truth, will hurt their poor little feelings and make them so demoralized they'll stop trying; they can turn in anything whenever they feel like it for full credit, nobody assigns actual reading or writing anymore -- when it's not a multiple choice test on a laptop, or a Kahoot on their phone, it's all coloring diagrams and cutting out and gluing vocabulary into an "interactive notebook."

I could go on and on about how utterly, horrificly terrible the system has become, and not a word about any of this reality on Twitter. It's all Texas and CRT and bathrooms that may or may not be happening in a small number of schools. In just about every school in America, though, the reality is that Big Tech has taken over, and the "accountability movement" has driven the expectations lower and lower every year because it's easy to look good when you don't ask for much. I will go so far as to say that all the crap that is now being done in the name of "equity" has absolutely nothing to do with equity at all. I've seen more Hispanic and African American teachers than white ones leave the profession because of non-existent discipline in the schools. You gotta stop the "school to prison" pipeline, you know, because "equity." One recent principal at an almost 100% Hispanic school relaxed the dress code so girls can walk around in their bras and said out loud because "It's their culture." A Latina teacher said, "Um, no, it's not." She quit before the year was out. If you disagree and talk about what's really happening, you get called a racist or end up on TikTok and have your career wrecked. I had to endure a white privilege lecture in the same principal's office for telling an African American student to quit calling a classmate an "f-ing n-word" during the middle of a silent reading session. It's their culture, you know. I put my hand up, said stop, and also resigned. I'm in a better place this year -- still woke as hell around here, but people leave me alone and let me teach. I had my first evaluation last week and was told "It’s been a long time since I've seen a good old-fashioned reading lesson" and it was a compliment, not a smack down, for making kids read out loud, take notes with a pen and paper, and actually discuss the ideas on the page and think about hard questions.

The vast majority of teachers just make sure they say the words right and nod their heads yes, just to survive. I'm about to vote for Republicans at the state level for the first time in my voting life because I can't stand this shit anymore. I did not vote for Glenn Youngkin for governor but he is 100% correct in pointing out the joke that our education system has become. If he were able to run again, I would have no problem bubbling in for him. (Plus, he just sent me a $250 check because of the abundance of Covid money they can't even find ways to spend out of the treasury . . . )

So history? This will be the era that America collapsed because they got distracted by the wrong things. Texas, for example. Who cares about Texas, if you don't actually live there, it doesn't freaking matter what they do!

Now I really gotta get back to work....

Bravo!

I talk w my GF about teaching everyday and how kids don't give a shit.  I applaud the few parents that reach out to her and it's not many.  The parents have thrown up their hands for the most part too and school is just a babysitter for them while they work...