Education thread

[O Really]

"Trump made false claims... " is also true, accurate, backed by solid evidence, and a more complete unbiased statement.

Whoever made that assignment in Bradenton is a poorly educated fool. Also true, accurate, and backed by solid evidence.

[billy.pilgrim]

Hillsdale went to Florida, and he did go, Uh-huh

Hillsdale went to-Florida, and he did go, Uh-huh

Hillsdale went to-Florida', and he did ride.

On their DeSantis with an AK 47 by his side, Uh-huh.


https://slate.com/human-interest/2022/0 ... higan.html

"Mary Harris: It’s not just the passage of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Florida also passed something called the “Stop WOKE Act,” which bans the teaching of “critical race theory.” DeSantis and his commissioner of education now exert more control over the state’s curriculum and textbooks too"


"Do you know when Ron DeSantis first reached out to Hillsdale or anyone associated with the college?

Around 2014.

At the time, DeSantis was in the House of Representatives.

Yeah, and that just goes to show that while their relationship hasn’t been so public, it definitely dates back a number of years. One story we did includes the president of the college calling DeSantis one of the most important people living, that “we need him,” that the most important work is ahead of him. DeSantis looks to Hillsdale and says, “I know they have the foundations necessary to be able to be helpful in pursuing conservative policies.”'

[Vrede too]

... DeSantis looks to Hillsdale and says, “I know they have the foundations necessary to be able to be helpful in pursuing conservative policies.”'

A Tiny Christian College in Michigan Is Infiltrating Florida’s Schools



Wiki: Hillsdale College

Visiting faculty and fellows include our favorite SCOTUS justice, the unabashedly corrupt Clarence Thomas.

Notable administrators include Pat Sajak, Wheel of Fortune host, President of the Hillsdale College Board of Trustees. This should have been widely publicized years ago in order to ruin the show.

[O Really]

Did I mention how happy I am not to have any reason to go anywhere close to the state of Florida for the rest of my life?

[billy.pilgrim]

... DeSantis looks to Hillsdale and says, “I know they have the foundations necessary to be able to be helpful in pursuing conservative policies.”'

A Tiny Christian College in Michigan Is Infiltrating Florida’s Schools



Wiki: Hillsdale College

Visiting faculty and fellows include our favorite SCOTUS justice, the unabashedly corrupt Clarence Thomas.

Notable administrators include Pat Sajak, Wheel of Fortune host, President of the Hillsdale College Board of Trustees. This should have been widely publicized years ago in order to ruin the show.

Oh no, I've been groomed, Pat was my favorite weather guy or sports guy at WSM.

[Vrede too]

... Notable administrators include Pat Sajak, Wheel of Fortune host, President of the Hillsdale College Board of Trustees. This should have been widely publicized years ago in order to ruin the show.

Oh no, I've been groomed, Pat was my favorite weather guy or sports guy at WSM.

It's worse than we knew:
viewtopic.php?p=174085#p174085

Speaking of Xtian con extremists:

Schools banned books 2,532 times since 2021. It's all part of a 'full-fledged' movement.

Whenever RWers shriek the loudest about something, like imaginary LW restrictions on speech and thought, it's because it's what RWers are doing.

[O Really]

I'm working on how much outrage I want to spend on this issue. So far, it's not much. Sure they're slimy homophobic racist awful people who are leading the "banning" but let's put it in perspective. The "ban" only prevents their schools from using the books in curriculum or making them available in their libraries, many of which apparently the schools didn't have anyway. Looking at the map, the worst offenders are in places you'd expect, none of which are bastions of progressive education. It's unlikely the absence of a few children's books is going to have much impact on the overall education or lack thereof within those schools. And it's not as if the school library is the only source for books/information. So far, the "banning" has been done by about 1% of US school districts in mostly predictably rabid places.

It was a lot scarier when Texas, using it's purchasing power, was trying to get major textbook publishers to offer only their versions.

[Vrede too]

... It was a lot scarier when Texas, using it's purchasing power, was trying to get major textbook publishers to offer only their versions.

It's not still doing that?

[O Really]

... It was a lot scarier when Texas, using it's purchasing power, was trying to get major textbook publishers to offer only their versions.

It's not still doing that?

Sorta, but apparently without any success/impact nationally and little in-state.
https://thetexan.news/heres-how-texas-p ... ks-to-use/

Tinkering with facts isn't new in Texas, though. When I was doing my grunt with work La Raza, I met a guy (gringo, not chicano) who insisted that in his school in the third-ish grade they taught him that the Brazos River was the biggest in the world. Sure he may have misunderstood and carried around a defective memory, but I wouldn't discard that out of hand. Texas was (and apparently still is) very self-centered. When comparisons are made, it's almost always in-state. "San Antonio's (event) is the biggest outside of Dallas". It's a huge state, we'd probably all be better off if it (and California) were their own countries. Heck, California wouldn't even have to change its flag.

[Vrede too]

Thanks, poor TX education fascists.

... Heck, California wouldn't even have to change its flag.

Yeah, it would, unless it reintroduces grizzles. Probably should do it now.

[O Really]

https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/fre ... s/classics

A list of books everybody has heard of and most have read that have been challenged for "banning" over the years. Apparently the effort was unsuccessful overall even if occasionally locally successful.

List of the 850 books Texas wants to ban
https://bookriot.com/texas-book-ban-list/

[GoCubsGo]

https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/fre ... s/classics

A list of books everybody has heard of and most have read that have been challenged for "banning" over the years. Apparently the effort was unsuccessful overall even if occasionally locally successful.

List of the 850 books Texas wants to ban
https://bookriot.com/texas-book-ban-list/

I hate people.

[O Really]

Thanks, poor TX education fascists.

... Heck, California wouldn't even have to change its flag.

Yeah, it would, unless it reintroduces grizzles. Probably should do it now.

We could rent a couple from Yellowstone.
But flag symbols don't have to be current - or even real for that matter:

[Vrede too]

Thanks, poor TX education fascists.

... Heck, California wouldn't even have to change its flag.

Yeah, it would, unless it reintroduces grizzles. Probably should do it now.

We could rent a couple from Yellowstone.
But flag symbols don't have to be current - or even real for that matter:

Yeah, but dragons have always been mythic. To me the CA grizzly has always been a sad reminder of loss, or of the presumably caged rentals from Yellowstone. How about a success story like the condor?

[Vrede too]

Hey billy.pilgrim

https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/fre ... s/classics

A list of books everybody has heard of and most have read that have been challenged for "banning" over the years. Apparently the effort was unsuccessful overall even if occasionally locally successful.

Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle

List of the 850 books Texas wants to ban
https://bookriot.com/texas-book-ban-list/

16 page spreadsheet
None by Kurt Vonnegut, which is even more outrageous. I wonder how many are by women, LGBTQ+ and non-White authors.

Back to the article:

... Books On Human Rights

Perhaps the most disturbing trend I saw in this list is the challenging of books that teach students their rights. Of all the things to teach in school or for kids to have access to, this is one of the most important. To be clear, I’m not even counting books about reproductive rights or your rights as an LGBTQ person in particular. These are titles like The Legal Atlas of the United States, Teen Legal Rights, Gender Equality and Identity Rights (Foundations of Democracy), Equal Rights, We the Students: Supreme Court Cases for and About Students, and Peaceful Rights for Equal Rights.

What does it say about an elected official that he would want books about students’ legal rights taken out of school libraries? Who considers it dangerous for kids to know their rights? Withholding information from students about their rights is incredibly unethical. Whether a parent or lawmaker agrees with every right students have, they should not be able to deny students’ access to knowing about them.

Sex Education Books

... . Not only is every book on human sexuality disallowed, from The Baby Tree to teen books about STIs, but also anything that mentions teen pregnancy, including YA novels. About 5% of the books banned have to do with pregnancy.

Of course. I just read that TX has one of the highest teen pregnancy and even repeat teen pregnancy rates.

... The list also include books that are warning about the dangers of sex or that are teaching abstinence.

... Not having this information available means that students will only know what they learn from the internet and their peers — not always reliable sources. Keeping these books out of school libraries means students are less educated and are more likely to practice risky behavior because they don’t have all the facts. Teens are going to be curious about sex whether books on sex ed are in the library or not. Withholding information makes them less safe, not more....

Aha:

Any Book That Mentions LGBTQ People ...



... These books have clearly been found using some sort of keyword search, and this list includes both LGBTQ books from the 1980s and ’90s that are very unlikely to be shelved in school libraries anymore as well as books that just mention LGBTQ people. Lots of these books have queer side characters, not main characters....

I wonder if Alexander the Great bios are banned.

... The Books That Aren’t On This List

... Of course, The Hunger Games isn’t listed, and neither is Battle Royale. After all, stories about kids killing each other doesn’t cause students “discomfort,” but a book that mentions a character’s gay uncle is apparently scarring....

A list like this that attempts to be comprehensive backfires, because it implies approval for the books that aren’t on the list. With a list this slipshod, this haphazardly put together, it ends up with very strange implications.

Incomprehensible.

Mistakes

I cannot overstate what a weird, jumbled mess this list is, and after considering it seriously, I can conclusively say it should not be taken seriously....

The Weirdest Books On This List



... And it’s not just trans kids’ books, it’s also Pugdog, which is about a kid realizing it’s okay for his girl dog to be slobbery and messy and not particularly “girly.” Anything that mentions gender, race, culture, or sexuality is up for grabs.

Also, while the Texas State Teacher Association said that a district asking if they had to teach two sides to the Holocaust was an “overreaction,” there is a Holocaust history book on this list: Life, Death and Sacrifice: Women and Family in the Holocaust.

Most Ironic Book On This List

While having books from the Foundations of Democracy and Stop Bullying Now! series on your book ban list is sinister, and challenging 100 Questions You’d Never Ask Your Parents with the expectation that students will learn sex ed in their homes is pretty on the nose, I have to give the irony award to the inclusion of the title The Year They Burned the Books by Nancy Garden.

Originally published in 1999, it’s about a town’s controversy over the high school’s sex ed program, and a school board member tries to get all the sex ed material, including textbooks, removed from the school. The more things change, the the more they stay the same, I suppose....

Conclusion

... So speak out against this kind of censorship and bullying behavior from school and government officials. Request your local libraries and school libraries carry anti-racist, sex ed, trans, and LGBTQ books. Run for your local school board and library board. Join the fight. Because students deserve better than this.

I hate people.

It would be fun to set up banned book fairs or take banned bookmobiles to banning counties in order to provide listed books for free or cheap to kids there.

[O Really]

Great idea! A banned bookmobile. I like it.

[Vrede too]

Great idea! A banned bookmobile. I like it.

I'm not as clever as I thought, which is a good thing.

Scribd And Ryan Holiday Team Up To Bring Banned Bookmobile To Texas Community

Franklin Grand Isle (Vermont) Bookmobile is giving away free books in honor of Banned Books Week

[Vrede too]

https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/fre ... s/classics

A list of books everybody has heard of and most have read that have been challenged for "banning" over the years. Apparently the effort was unsuccessful overall even if occasionally locally successful.

List of the 850 books Texas wants to ban
https://bookriot.com/texas-book-ban-list/

I hate people.

People to love:

How to beat a book ban: students, parents and librarians fight back

... At the next school board meeting, in October, about 400 people, all opposed to the bans, turned up.

“The most compelling speakers were the kids,” Hickson said. “My motto right now is ‘let readers be leaders’, because these kids did an amazing job of standing there, withstanding the taunts and jeers of the people on the other side.

“They were models for public discourse. They were just excellent.” ...

[Vrede too]

Excellent LTE, not mine, NC-specific but could apply in many red states and in some purple ones like NC:

Letter: GOP rejects most important aspects of public education

Here's the article referenced in the first sentence:

Edwards, Republican panel talk ‘leftist agenda’ in schools

Edwards is my state sen and in Jan will be the NC11 US Rep. As I've said all along, he's as bad as MadCaw, just not as immature and nutty. Sigh, you're welcome America, again.

[Whack9]

From reading the comments, the teaching of subject of the teaching of propaganda varies between states, and the US isn't always used year to year, but it's still interesting to note how the US is used as an example of a state using propoganda to sway citizens. I suppose all do it to some extent, but it's definitely noticeable here in the US with the belief in American exceptionalism and so forth.

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasf ... are_button