This article should be republished at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, even my local San Diego Union Tribune. Lots of hand wringing could be ended simply by telling it like it is. My favorite come to Jesus moment is: "I joined a large black homeschooling Facebook group whose front page announced “need not apply if white.” If a goal is to share teaching resources that diversify lesson plans, why wouldn’t you want white parents buying in? If racism is a major concern, white parents should be a target audience." Yes, let's be able to listen and learn from each other. Waiting to hear more from (following jt) M. Morgan.
“Black schools are some of the worst in America. In 2017, 19 out of the 20 lowest performing schools in America were either majority or disproportionately black.”
Why is this acceptable to anyone? Government schools (I refuse to call them public schools as they do not serve the public) continue to suck for decades on end because (a) they cannot go bankrupt no matter how badly they fail their students, and as a result have no incentive to innovate or improve, and (b) teachers’ unions make it difficult or impossible to fire incompetent teachers. As such, I applaud parents who have the guts and wisdom to take matters into their own hands, as they will surely do a better job than the bloated cesspools of inefficiency and mediocrity that are government schools. If I had my way all government schools would be abolished and all the money currently wasted on them would be allocated directly to parents, to either allow them to homeschool, or to pay tuition at private schools -- where, if they suck, they will go out of business, thus giving them an incentive not to suck.
Coco - you couldn't be any more correct, how could this be acceptable to anyone?
I'd complain that we should not fund schools based on the local tax base - which I don't think we should - but that wouldn't solve the problem. Some of the worst performing districts spend the most money per student e.g. Baltimore.
Public teachers unions are a huge part of the problem - if I could I would abolish them. All of them. Based on the evidence, one might conclude that the unions are targeting lower income, predominantly black school districts with lower standards (academic and behavioral) and victim narratives in an effort to sow chaos and societal division. While they self righteously claim to be "inclusive" and "anti-racist" they are enabling the destruction of generations of American children.
And it goes well beyond black neighborhoods. 1000's of young girls are being led into "gender affirming care" by social justice gender warrior educators. Thankfully, the data suggests black culture is not as susceptible to that particular brand of insanity.
I use “M.” like the French do, for Monsieur but ALSO for Madam and Mademoiselle EQUALLY. That’s just me.
Thank You, M. Morgan! This was a *great* article which brought some *great* news. I can't think of much that I like better than the idea of home-schooling. Especially if it gets kids away from CRT and all that other Wokeness. (Although I'm sorry to "hear" that a number of Black homeschoolers prefer a segregated environment.)
All-in-all, just makes my mouth water from more articles from You in the future. TYTY!
Connie, fascinating, well-written piece. i'm an atheist. But if religion is having a positive or enlightening impact on kids, I (mostly) have no objections.
This computer education system began being developed in the 1960s and development was discontinued in the mid 70s. In 1980 an IBM 3033 mainframe with 8 megabytes of memory cost $3,000,000. Can you imagine giving every elementary school student a three million dollar computer?
But now it is common for a $200 tablet computer to have 500 times as much memory as that old top of the line mainframe. The issue is not classical education but how to implement cyber-education. I think traditional educators should be very worried about it. Maybe governments should be also.
How much of "education" is really about psychologically conditioning children to be subservient to authority? Do black kids get more of that than most.
When I was in 8th grade a white nun said to me, "You will get into a good high school but you won't do well." She was mad because I refused to be a patrol boy.
The nitwit nuns never taught science. I searched the above article for 'science' no hits. The Laws of Physics do not care about people, be they black, white, red, brown, yellow or purple. Science and technology have affected power games on this planet for a few centuries. The British used the steam ship Nemesis against the Chinese in the Opium War. The Chinese called it the Devil Ship.
I got addicted to science fiction in 4th grade. I cannot remember a single book assigned by any teachers from grammar school.
Star Surgeon by Alan E Nourse was my first SF book. I was really shocked to learn that the Sun was a Star and all of the stars are suns and no adults told me. It totally blew my mind.
Star Surgeon is now available for free in Project Gutenberg, along with:
Black Man's Burden by Mack Reynolds
Cosmic Computer by H Beam Piper
Deathworld by Harry Harrison
The Fourth R by George O Smith
I see almost no mention of Project Gutenberg by home schooling sources. I do not know how I would have gotten through grade school without science fiction. It was soooo BORING!
This article should be republished at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, even my local San Diego Union Tribune. Lots of hand wringing could be ended simply by telling it like it is. My favorite come to Jesus moment is: "I joined a large black homeschooling Facebook group whose front page announced “need not apply if white.” If a goal is to share teaching resources that diversify lesson plans, why wouldn’t you want white parents buying in? If racism is a major concern, white parents should be a target audience." Yes, let's be able to listen and learn from each other. Waiting to hear more from (following jt) M. Morgan.
“Black schools are some of the worst in America. In 2017, 19 out of the 20 lowest performing schools in America were either majority or disproportionately black.”
Why is this acceptable to anyone? Government schools (I refuse to call them public schools as they do not serve the public) continue to suck for decades on end because (a) they cannot go bankrupt no matter how badly they fail their students, and as a result have no incentive to innovate or improve, and (b) teachers’ unions make it difficult or impossible to fire incompetent teachers. As such, I applaud parents who have the guts and wisdom to take matters into their own hands, as they will surely do a better job than the bloated cesspools of inefficiency and mediocrity that are government schools. If I had my way all government schools would be abolished and all the money currently wasted on them would be allocated directly to parents, to either allow them to homeschool, or to pay tuition at private schools -- where, if they suck, they will go out of business, thus giving them an incentive not to suck.
Coco - you couldn't be any more correct, how could this be acceptable to anyone?
I'd complain that we should not fund schools based on the local tax base - which I don't think we should - but that wouldn't solve the problem. Some of the worst performing districts spend the most money per student e.g. Baltimore.
Public teachers unions are a huge part of the problem - if I could I would abolish them. All of them. Based on the evidence, one might conclude that the unions are targeting lower income, predominantly black school districts with lower standards (academic and behavioral) and victim narratives in an effort to sow chaos and societal division. While they self righteously claim to be "inclusive" and "anti-racist" they are enabling the destruction of generations of American children.
And it goes well beyond black neighborhoods. 1000's of young girls are being led into "gender affirming care" by social justice gender warrior educators. Thankfully, the data suggests black culture is not as susceptible to that particular brand of insanity.
Please consider reading https://www.amazon.com/Race-Bottom-Uncovering-Destroying-Education/dp/0063056720.
Forgive my outburst but this is just such an utterly reprehensible situation.
Vouchers are the way.
Thank you for this informative, helpful, and essential piece, Connie.
Thank you for reading Mr. Washington!
Very interesting! Thank you!
I found this inciteful and useful.
<3
I use “M.” like the French do, for Monsieur but ALSO for Madam and Mademoiselle EQUALLY. That’s just me.
Thank You, M. Morgan! This was a *great* article which brought some *great* news. I can't think of much that I like better than the idea of home-schooling. Especially if it gets kids away from CRT and all that other Wokeness. (Although I'm sorry to "hear" that a number of Black homeschoolers prefer a segregated environment.)
All-in-all, just makes my mouth water from more articles from You in the future. TYTY!
Connie, fascinating, well-written piece. i'm an atheist. But if religion is having a positive or enlightening impact on kids, I (mostly) have no objections.
What's more is that homeschooling allows you to impart atheism to your children if that is your desire. To each their own!
Synthesis is an incredible enrichment activity for kids aged 7-14: https://synthesis.is/
Ivy League colleges like Professor Loury's employer are grooming and indoctrination centers: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-groom-commissars
Could you please tell us some more about sythesis.is?
Their website does better than I ever could https://www.synthesis.com/
Super-interesting, thank you! Much of this was completely new to me and has given me a lot to think about.
Ever heard of PLATO?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)
This computer education system began being developed in the 1960s and development was discontinued in the mid 70s. In 1980 an IBM 3033 mainframe with 8 megabytes of memory cost $3,000,000. Can you imagine giving every elementary school student a three million dollar computer?
But now it is common for a $200 tablet computer to have 500 times as much memory as that old top of the line mainframe. The issue is not classical education but how to implement cyber-education. I think traditional educators should be very worried about it. Maybe governments should be also.
How much of "education" is really about psychologically conditioning children to be subservient to authority? Do black kids get more of that than most.
When I was in 8th grade a white nun said to me, "You will get into a good high school but you won't do well." She was mad because I refused to be a patrol boy.
The nitwit nuns never taught science. I searched the above article for 'science' no hits. The Laws of Physics do not care about people, be they black, white, red, brown, yellow or purple. Science and technology have affected power games on this planet for a few centuries. The British used the steam ship Nemesis against the Chinese in the Opium War. The Chinese called it the Devil Ship.
I got addicted to science fiction in 4th grade. I cannot remember a single book assigned by any teachers from grammar school.
Star Surgeon by Alan E Nourse was my first SF book. I was really shocked to learn that the Sun was a Star and all of the stars are suns and no adults told me. It totally blew my mind.
Star Surgeon is now available for free in Project Gutenberg, along with:
Black Man's Burden by Mack Reynolds
Cosmic Computer by H Beam Piper
Deathworld by Harry Harrison
The Fourth R by George O Smith
I see almost no mention of Project Gutenberg by home schooling sources. I do not know how I would have gotten through grade school without science fiction. It was soooo BORING!
A few years ago I asked some high school teachers about Project Gutenberg. Most of them had never heard of it.
Free SF in Project Gutenberg by:
Mack Reynolds
Black Man's Burden (1961) http://sfgospel.typepad.com/sf_gospel/2008/08/mack-reynolds-on-africa-islam-utopia-and-progress.html
http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/25744
=== author/# ===
Randall Garrett /25267
H Beam Piper /8301
Alan E Nourse /25579
Harry Harrison /25395
K Laumer /24817
M Leinster /7321
Robert E Howard /36031
R Silverberg /28358
R Sheckley /2960
M Clifton /25374
Poul Anderson /25203
Fritz Leiber /25421
Clifford Simak /25185
Frederik Pohl /25413
Ray Bradbury /41269
Leigh Brackett /25398