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Post by robeiae on Mar 9, 2021 8:13:02 GMT -5
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Post by robeiae on Mar 12, 2021 7:53:27 GMT -5
Fascinating--and very long--read: Private Schools Have Become Truly Obscene: Elite schools breed entitlement, entrench inequality—and then pretend to be engines of social changeToo long to quote from, but a few observations: 1) The piece is mostly critical of parents at these schools (and how the schools kowtow to parents' demands, fail to support teachers, etc.). And in that regard, I don't think the writer does enough to explore the politics and motivations of these parents, given some of the conclusions she draws. 2) The writer also acts like some of these entitled attitudes were shocking to her, which is hard to accept, given that she attended UVA in the 80's, very possibly the most preppy and elite place on the planet in those days, outside of the Harvard Yard (Duke was pretty bad too, to be fair). 3) I'd like to see if any lines can be drawn from her observations to a good chunk of the younger professional media, because I'm guessing that would be an easy thing to do. 4) She opens with the issue of private schools whose parents and students want to be opened for in person learning but are currently not, acting like this is an issue of entitlement, but I don't think it is and she certainly never makes that case. Still, there's a lot in the piece and I enjoyed reading it.
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Post by Optimus on Mar 12, 2021 11:26:28 GMT -5
I'm not convinced that private schools have a monopoly on this lunacy.
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Post by robeiae on Mar 16, 2021 8:10:23 GMT -5
Least shocking development of the year: California school districts using Covid relief money to give bonusesMaybe it would be okay if it weren't for the fact that these are the same people fighting tooth and nail against reopening schools. Then there's this: Probably not the time or place for that kind of "playful" comment, huh? And "laser focused"?!?! Please.
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Post by robeiae on Apr 17, 2021 14:07:25 GMT -5
How to get dragged on twitter:
Weingarten is the president of the American Federation of Teachers (though clearly not of math teachers). It takes a special kind of douchy-ness to highlight a problem that one helped to make, as if it were a problem that one was deeply concerned with solving. Plus, the math...
ETA: To be clear, she effed up her decimal. According to the article, 11.5% of mothers with young children left their jobs in 2020 because of childcare needs (I'm guessing there's a survey to back this up, somewhere). Not sure how this compares with other years.
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Post by robeiae on Apr 22, 2021 8:14:00 GMT -5
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Post by robeiae on May 13, 2021 9:29:34 GMT -5
Ballsiest op-ed I've ever read: www.cnn.com/2021/05/12/opinions/schools-reopening-equity-cardona/index.htmlBiden's Sec. of Education--Miguel Cardona--is actually taking credit for have schools that have re-opened: The only reason those numbers are where they are is because of States like Florida and Texas. Take them out of the equation and we're nowhere near Biden's goal, because of States like California and New York. Ballsy.
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Post by robeiae on May 14, 2021 8:39:22 GMT -5
This is sooooo disingenuous:
Teachers' unions have blocked and lobbied against reopening plans at every turn. Now that it has become clear that a) schools were unnecessarily shuttered in many places for far too long and b) the remote learning approach has royally fucked over children all across the country, but particularly ones with limited resources, union leaders are trying to rewrite their own histories.
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Post by robeiae on May 19, 2021 8:13:54 GMT -5
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Post by robeiae on May 29, 2021 13:41:42 GMT -5
This kind of shit isn't helpful, at all:
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Post by robeiae on Jun 4, 2021 14:07:30 GMT -5
Insanity is alive and well in Canada, it would seem:
And what kind of douchey elected official names his twitter account "@fordnation"? Ass.
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Post by robeiae on Jun 5, 2021 7:12:41 GMT -5
This guy is really a top-drawer douchebag:
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Post by robeiae on Dec 20, 2021 16:27:28 GMT -5
This twitter thread is a rolling epic takedown of the op-ed being pimped:
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Post by Optimus on Dec 20, 2021 19:03:43 GMT -5
This guy is really a top-drawer douchebag: Just now saw the Doug Ford posts. Yeah, he's kind of a douchebag (he is a conservative politician, after all ) but the situation wasn't the dystopian hellscape that you seem to think it was (can't speak for the situation now since I've moved). As Premier, Ford's authority in situations of public health crises is somewhat tenuous, in that if he doesn't act in a way that the province's chief medical officer feels is appropriate, then the CMO has the authority to overrule him and issue shutdown decrees. Most provincial CMOs take their cues from the Health Minister's office, in particular the federal Chief Public Health Officer (Dr. Tam, in this case), and most Premier's take their cues from the CMOs, lest they look weak and get embarrassed by having the CMO take over. But, that doesn't ever happen. Or, at least, I'm not sure if it ever actually has. As such, if the Premier and CMO are politically/ideologically aligned, or if the CMO is rather weak-willed, a province can buck the federal recommendations and do what they want, like what happened in Alberta with Jason Kenney. He and other political leaders in the province pretty much pushed the CMO around and cut her legs out from under her, and their response to COVID has pretty much been a complete clusterfuck. Alberta - How it started: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-covid-19-response-tension-recordings-1.5814877How it's going: globalnews.ca/news/8348574/premier-jason-kenney-denies-scapegoating-chief-medical-officer-hinshaw-covid-19-failures/Canadians, as a people, tend to be overly cautious (my opinion) and Ford is under even more pressure given that he's Premier of the province that houses Ottawa. So, if he does something that is viewed not only as jeopardizing the public health of his province, but also the public health of the federal government, he could find himself in deep shit, politically speaking. And, yeah, it is a pain in the ass for parents/families when schools close, but unlike the US, the Canadian government has given much more financial assistance to its citizens throughout the pandemic and any Ontario school student who doesn't have access to a computer at home is given a laptop to take with them. Ford's a douchebag but more so for things other than his COVID response...like firing about 3,500 teachers for no reason, eliminating free tuition for low-income families, eliminating the Green Fund, and of course his stupid "buck-a-beer" farce. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck-a-beer
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Post by robeiae on Jan 18, 2022 8:55:30 GMT -5
Here's a piece from Jonathan Chait, a guy who's usually more than happy to carry water for dems and progressives (my boldface): School Closures Were a Catastrophe. Progressives Still Haven’t Reckoned With It.I bet he's not getting much love for this piece... Some more: Personally, I feel totally vindicated, as I've been saying this stuff for a year and a half. But the damage that's been done...well, it's just heartbreaking.
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