Category: Education

More, Please

Education, Good Stuff

Finally, Florida Man does something right:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced Friday he is officially putting an end to the Common Core Standards in his state and replacing them with standards that “embrace common sense.”

Of all the (many) failures of government and the education establishment, Common Core ranks up there, probably in the top three.

Message to other governors:   keeping this appalling system in place means that you are willing to consign your states’ children to a future of permanent ignorance, and leave them both under-educated and unprepared to be productive members of society.

As an aside, Texas never adopted this stupid and malignant set of standards — thankee, former Gov. Rick Perry.

About That Knife Maker

Advice, Education

You all may recall one of the Christmas presents I got two weeks back:

Well, thanks to Alert Reader Mark D, we learn the truth about “knifemaker” Ed Mehler (my emphasis):

Ed Mehler is a knife seller for Knives Ranch and that he had previously been told to stop representing himself as the maker of Knives Ranch knives he was selling (at least those with the Knives Ranch logo stamp on them).

Note that this dates back to 2014, which means this asshole is still in business.

Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) — in my case, emptor morsus est (the buyer was bitten).

Oh well… at least I have the best-looking boxcutter in Texas.

Would Flogging Be Appropriate?

Education, Nannies

Try this bullshit:

An Iowa middle school principal has apologized for being “overly strict” after he confiscated pizzas that were delivered to a class for an end-of-the-year party over fears that it could make students from other classes feel left out.
…
The principal apologized for his actions in a note to parents later that day, writing that he overreacted in an attempt to be fair to all students.
“That applies to everything from the chances they have to learn in the classroom to rewards and recognitions by our teachers and staff.”

I know what I would have learned from this particular classroom:  authority figures suck.

And by the way, if you read the whole thing (after first moving guns and/or throwable objects out of reach), you’ll see that the self-righteous prick’s “apology” was no such thing.  And:

The situation was made right Friday after Mr. Hoffman said he threw another pizza party for the class and several local businesses also volunteered to donate pizzas for the school’s nearly 750 students.

…thus negating all the incentive for performance — if everyone gets a prize, why bother trying harder?  (No doubt that’s  the lesson they’re trying to teach the kids.)

As His Excellency The Instapundit says so often:  putting kids into the public school system is no less than child abuse.

Water Sports

Education, Men & Women

Here we go again:

A Florida teacher’s aide was arrested for allegedly having sex with two 15-year-old students in a community pool near her condo building, a report said. The aide, 27-year-old Kirstie None Rosa, allegedly had sex with one of the students several times at his house and her condo.

She seems to be quite a babe, judging from her (non-mugshot) pic, which leads me to ask why she would go after 15-year-old boys;  but such is the derangement of Modern Grrrls, I guess it’s pointless to question her motives.

And no, we never had such luck when I was 15… we had to put up with rejection from girls of our own age group, like everyone else.

It’s getting to where I should consider changing the tag from “Men & Women” to “Boys & Women”, FFS.

No Surprises There

Education

Like we couldn’t see this one coming:   we suck.

Results of the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) found American teens showed no actual improvement in reading, math, and science compared to the 2015 results.

Our ranking improved, though. Why?

The ranking of U.S. students improved only because the scores of students in other countries dropped.

So we’re getting dumber at a slower rate than the rest of the world’s kids?  How nice.  And guess what?

As Education Week reported, PISA reading results indicate American teens are able to comprehend the main idea and draw simple inferences in a medium length text, but comprehension and comparison skills when other texts and ideas are introduced – so-called critical thinking skills – are lacking.
Despite a decade of the Common Core State Standards, an Obama-era progressive education reform that was touted as one that would improve students’ critical thinking and eliminate the achievement gap between white and minority students, U.S. public schools appear to be failing in both areas.

So Common Core is failing… along with just about every other nostrum provided by the education establishment, most notably No Child Left Behind, which should now be renamed “Every  Child Left Behind”.  Here’s some more on the topic.

But all is not lost:  I see that SecEd Betsy DeVos has managed to shed 600 useless functionaries from the Education Department in just a couple of years.  Go, Betsy, go!  MOAR reductions!!!!

Educating Immigrants

Education, Immigration

From Gates Of Vienna comes a “tl;mr” (too long / must read”) post by a teacher at the sharp end — probably literally so — of the effort to get newly-arrived immigrant children to integrate into the host society.  As you can well imagine, it’s going to fail dismally:

I know I will be called a “damned whore”, “damned pussy”, and I know I will hear, “You don’t decide for me.” There will be mess and noise in the classroom, the hallways, the schoolyard and the dining room. Changing rooms where classes change for physical education classes will, as usual, be places where girls don’t dare change since boys will show up and sneakily photograph the girls.
Showering is not on the world map for girls and even for some boys in school. It is enough that one or two pupils refuse to follow the instruction and scream “shut up” at me every time I am going to say something; thus is the lesson destroyed for 28 other pupils who want to learn something.When I call parents in for a conversation, I hear that I don’t have the right to tell their children off, that I should be careful so that I won’t be reported to the principal or school inspectors. They know where my family and I live, what car I drive, and I know that the risk is great that my car will get scratched or destroyed in some other way. I know that certain pupils threaten other pupils, but I don’t dare get in the middle because I risk being beaten.

Read it, and don’t weep;  get angry.  Because this (and the mindset which enables it) either has come, or will soon be coming to a school near you.