Midwest Chick's Place

(A.K.A. Non-Original Rants)

–Co-opting good stuff from all over the ‘Net and maybe some original thoughts—ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE

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Forced Inclusion, how lovely

 The University of Illinois is making activism, specifically diversity/equity/inclusion (as they define it), a requirement of receiving tenure.  What this will ultimately mean is a sideways belief litmus test.  Even more than that, it means that all research, hiring, and interactions will be skewed towards this particular mindset.

So let’s go a little further.  If this is the campus culture, then of course colleges of education (the folks who teach our teachers) will be steeped in it.  That means that courses will all have this divisive ideology as integral to materials taught to the students.

Then these students will go out to pre-K-12 schools with this indoctrination and will continue to spread it like a cancer.

And folks, U of I is just codifying this.  It’s existed for decades and we’re seeing just the beginnings of it.  Florida is leading the way (they published some materials from the math textbooks they rejected and I can see why they said ‘no thanks’).

The candy coated terms they use:  diversity (except whites), equity (nope, we want superiority), inclusion (except for whites), social justice (getting rid of the rules that create a functioning society) are already endemic.

There is a movement on the federal level to get rid of the Department of Education.  I agree–it should die with fire.  But because the pathway to becoming a teacher runs right through individual colleges of education, there is no way to stem the tide unless alternate paths are opened and the stranglehold is released.  Colleges of education also need to be dismantled. Make teachers people who have subject knowledge, not indoctrination and ‘teaching’ knowledge.

ht-B

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Midwest Chick

14 responses to “Forced Inclusion, how lovely”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I agree with everything you say with one of exception. Subject knowledge is not enough. Many smart people cannot “teach”. There is an art to it. For instance there are great salespeople out there but they could not tell you how they are successful. Knowing how to do complex math doesn’t give one the ability to explain it. Some aspects of teacher training are essential. Not everyone can stand in front of a group of nine year olds and teach them all day. There are techniques and skills needed to do this.Sheesh, I rarely comment and here I spout off two days in a row.

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  2. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Joe–You have an excellent point. But I think that teaching methods should be an add-on, not the entire curriculum with subject matter as an add-on. And I'm thinking that maybe there would be a natural weeding process so tenure would have to go bye-bye also. Teaching is definitely a skill set but there are a lot of natural teachers who don't do it because of the roadblocks in place (teachers unions being part of the problem).It's good to hear from you!! 🙂

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  3. Avatar
    Anonymous

    An example of some of this is the Anchorage Alaska school district. They are going to run some kind of training program for advancement, only people of color may apply!

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  4. Avatar
    Anonymous

    To continue Joe's thoughts (above), there are any number of people who can design very technical stuff but cannot explain how to do it or train others to learn how; the skill sets to “do” and “teach” overlap but it's a variable Venn, not concentric circles. I think you're right in that “teaching” should be an add-on function to the foundational knowledge of “do” but it has to be approached with a large degree of care. Consider how many managers in business come from the “do” ranks but perform poorly in the “lead and manage” areas, and how many with “lead and manage” skills display inadequacies in the “understand how to do” area; dealing with any large American company today at any level above “grunt retail” reveals the current structural inadequacies. One good first step, IMHO, would be to completely and with prejudice terminate any government financial support of higher education, and by any I mean prohibit any amount and degree of money from federal, state and local sources. I don't think government has any business being involved in education at any level, but higher ed is low hanging fruit for financial reform (and by “reform” I mean “nuke it,” not “diddle around the edges with stuff that makes good soundbites.”). The EDU arena is a “hothouse” area of higher education incest that the elites have created for themselves and as such it serves them, not us. Once the self corrupting infrastructure EDU is eliminated, the overall EDU playing field will begin some sort of leveling process which, hopefully, can lead to implementing a rational set of performance metrics driven by the customers of the EDU production output, not the incestuous practitioners. That it will also lead to a substantial reduction of organizations engaged in so-called “higher education” and, by extension, many of the program choices in secondary education that benefit only the providers rather than the consumers, is also a plus; as the saying goes “you may not be interested in reality but reality is interested in you.” Elrod

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  5. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Howard–And that's happening all over the place. When they say 'equity', they really mean marginalization of anyone not BIPOC.Elrod–I do understand Joe's and your comments and have seen it in action–doing does not equal teaching. And .EDU is corrupt on many levels and the government has a lot to do with it. To get back to my point though, the government is the one that sets a lot of 'standards' for colleges of education so that needs to stop. The government also causes administrative bloat by ever-increasing and complex reporting requirements. We're already seeing the smaller schools fall by the wayside. One thing though is that I'd hope that there would be a contraction in the larger schools as well rather than them becoming a central indoctrination point.

    Like

    Reply
  6. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I should posit there are many many good teachers out there. The issue often is the curriculum they are forced to teach. Not always, but often. The beef is with the administration and the school board (who rarely has a clue what is going on). Confession: my daughter is a teacher and now a principal in the biggest school system in Indiana. You would not believe the stuff she is FORCED to put into the curriculum. And yes, she would like to get another job in a more reasonable school district. Not all teachers are leftist pedophiles intent on shaming white kids for slavery. Most aren’t.Unfortunately, some are.

    Like

    Reply
  7. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Joe–I agree that there are many good teachers out there. Like there are many good priests. If half of what I am seeing was being done by any religious institution, the outcry would be deafening. But no one is doing anything internally to fix it.The key this is making public from whence this curriculum is coming. If someone in your daughter's position could get the public to stand with her, then good things would happen. Moving to another place just means that the problem still exists at the old one. Easy for me to say, but really hard for someone to do, I know.

    Like

    Reply
  8. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I agree with everything you say with one of exception. Subject knowledge is not enough. Many smart people cannot “teach”. There is an art to it. For instance there are great salespeople out there but they could not tell you how they are successful. Knowing how to do complex math doesn’t give one the ability to explain it. Some aspects of teacher training are essential. Not everyone can stand in front of a group of nine year olds and teach them all day. There are techniques and skills needed to do this.Sheesh, I rarely comment and here I spout off two days in a row.

    Like

    Reply
  9. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Joe–You have an excellent point. But I think that teaching methods should be an add-on, not the entire curriculum with subject matter as an add-on. And I'm thinking that maybe there would be a natural weeding process so tenure would have to go bye-bye also. Teaching is definitely a skill set but there are a lot of natural teachers who don't do it because of the roadblocks in place (teachers unions being part of the problem).It's good to hear from you!! 🙂

    Like

    Reply
  10. Avatar
    Anonymous

    An example of some of this is the Anchorage Alaska school district. They are going to run some kind of training program for advancement, only people of color may apply!

    Like

    Reply
  11. Avatar
    Anonymous

    To continue Joe's thoughts (above), there are any number of people who can design very technical stuff but cannot explain how to do it or train others to learn how; the skill sets to “do” and “teach” overlap but it's a variable Venn, not concentric circles. I think you're right in that “teaching” should be an add-on function to the foundational knowledge of “do” but it has to be approached with a large degree of care. Consider how many managers in business come from the “do” ranks but perform poorly in the “lead and manage” areas, and how many with “lead and manage” skills display inadequacies in the “understand how to do” area; dealing with any large American company today at any level above “grunt retail” reveals the current structural inadequacies. One good first step, IMHO, would be to completely and with prejudice terminate any government financial support of higher education, and by any I mean prohibit any amount and degree of money from federal, state and local sources. I don't think government has any business being involved in education at any level, but higher ed is low hanging fruit for financial reform (and by “reform” I mean “nuke it,” not “diddle around the edges with stuff that makes good soundbites.”). The EDU arena is a “hothouse” area of higher education incest that the elites have created for themselves and as such it serves them, not us. Once the self corrupting infrastructure EDU is eliminated, the overall EDU playing field will begin some sort of leveling process which, hopefully, can lead to implementing a rational set of performance metrics driven by the customers of the EDU production output, not the incestuous practitioners. That it will also lead to a substantial reduction of organizations engaged in so-called “higher education” and, by extension, many of the program choices in secondary education that benefit only the providers rather than the consumers, is also a plus; as the saying goes “you may not be interested in reality but reality is interested in you.” Elrod

    Like

    Reply
  12. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Howard–And that's happening all over the place. When they say 'equity', they really mean marginalization of anyone not BIPOC.Elrod–I do understand Joe's and your comments and have seen it in action–doing does not equal teaching. And .EDU is corrupt on many levels and the government has a lot to do with it. To get back to my point though, the government is the one that sets a lot of 'standards' for colleges of education so that needs to stop. The government also causes administrative bloat by ever-increasing and complex reporting requirements. We're already seeing the smaller schools fall by the wayside. One thing though is that I'd hope that there would be a contraction in the larger schools as well rather than them becoming a central indoctrination point.

    Like

    Reply
  13. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I should posit there are many many good teachers out there. The issue often is the curriculum they are forced to teach. Not always, but often. The beef is with the administration and the school board (who rarely has a clue what is going on). Confession: my daughter is a teacher and now a principal in the biggest school system in Indiana. You would not believe the stuff she is FORCED to put into the curriculum. And yes, she would like to get another job in a more reasonable school district. Not all teachers are leftist pedophiles intent on shaming white kids for slavery. Most aren’t.Unfortunately, some are.

    Like

    Reply
  14. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Joe–I agree that there are many good teachers out there. Like there are many good priests. If half of what I am seeing was being done by any religious institution, the outcry would be deafening. But no one is doing anything internally to fix it.The key this is making public from whence this curriculum is coming. If someone in your daughter's position could get the public to stand with her, then good things would happen. Moving to another place just means that the problem still exists at the old one. Easy for me to say, but really hard for someone to do, I know.

    Like

    Reply

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