I remember how it was -- JR
A Canadian school has cancelled an event with ISIS survivor Nadia Murad, saying her visit would be offensive to Muslims and foster 'Islamophobia'
Murad was scheduled to sit down with students from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) - the largest school Board in Canada with nearly 600 schools - to discuss her book The Last Girl: My Story Of Captivity in February 2022.
Murad's graphic exposé detailed how she escaped the Islamic State, where she was ripped from her home and sold into sexual slavery aged just 14 years old, according to The Telegraph.
She uses the book to talk about how she was raped and tortured before finding her way to a refugee camp in Durhok, in northern Iraq, and then to Germany where she now lives.
But before the event could happen the superintendent of the Board Helen Fisher said that her students would not participate.
She has since issued an apology but refused to allow her students to attend.
Fisher expressed that she believed the book would 'promote Islamophobia' and cited how offensive the book was to her Muslim students as her reason for cancelling the event.
The decision enraged TDSB parent Tanya Lee, who wrote an email to the superintendent about the decision.
Lee also founded the book club - called A Room Of Your Own Book Club - which allows teen girls aged 13 to 18 from secondary schools around the country to hear from female authors, and was hosting the event set to feature Murad.
'This is what the Islamic State means. It is a terrorist organization. It has nothing to do with ordinary Muslims. The Toronto school board should be aware of the difference,' she wrote, as reported by The Telegraph.
The next day Lee told the news site that Fisher sent her a copy of the school board's policy on selecting fair, culturally-relevant reading materials, which a TDSB spokesperson said was 'a misunderstanding'. 'The equity department does not review and approve books for book clubs,' they added.
The Board later issued a statement stating they 'wanted to provide some clarification'.
'An opinion that did not reflect the position of the Toronto District School Board was shared with the organizer of the book club prior to staff having an opportunity to read the books - something that is routinely done before giving them to students,' it read.
The statement added that 'staff are currently reading' the book and the Board 'sincerely apologizes to Ms Murad (who) has powerful stories to tell,' adding that they 'believe students would learn a great deal (from)'.
Murad is a leading advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence also became a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and UN Goodwill Ambassador.
Lee, who opened the book club up to young girls from the UK, told The Telegraph: 'The book club event for A Room Of Your Own Book Club with Nadia Murad will go ahead across Canada in February.
'The TDSB has not committed to letting their students attend. This is unfortunate for all involved. A great loss to the students, community, and educators at the TDSB.'
However, this isn't the first time Fisher banned a book from a book club event.
Back in October, A Room Of Your Own Book Club featured author and lawyer Marie Henein, who defended Canadian radio host Jian Ghomeshi while he was being faced with sexual assault charges.
Although Ghomeshi was acquitted on all charges in 2016, the TDSB sill refused to let its students attend the event.
In response, dozens of users took to Twitter to express their fiery discontent towards TDSB's decision.
One user referred to when Holocaust survivors spoke to TDSB schools and sarcastically said: 'I guess all the Holocaust survivors who have spoken at schools were promoting hatred of Germans - any response to your idiotic position on Nadia Murad???'
Meanwhile, another user said the school's choice to cancel Murad's event is 'sad (because) she is being de-platformed'.
Yet another response said the decision is the 'opposite' of cancel culture, 'where incompetent professionals face no consequences for bungling their jobs, because their errors are seen as being committed in the (nominal) service of social justice'.
**********************************************
‘Woke’ London headmaster leaving school amid charges of anti-Semitism
The headmaster of England’s most expensive private day school is leaving her post after a revolt from parents who claim an “ultra-woke” curriculum lead to anti-Semitic incidents.
Robin Appleby, who has led the prestigious, $50,000-a-year American School in London since 2017, is allegedly exiting to “focus on her own wellbeing and that of her family,” but insiders tell the Daily Mail she is being booted from the star-studded school — and her $550,000-a-year position — because of her controversial curriculum.
Parents, who include Salma Hayek and soccer coach Thierry Henry, received notice of her abrupt departure last week.
Appleby’s staff allegedly used the words “Nazi,” “swastika” and “Hitler” to describe the reaction parents had to the school’s lessons on race, a claim the school denied, the Mail reported.
The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, an influential Jewish organization that documents hate crimes told the Mail: “We have been receiving disturbing reports about the American School in London. There are claims that terms like ‘Nazis’ were used at a staff meeting. Although the school denies this extreme language referred to Jewish parents, it apparently does not dispute that these terms did appear in their discussion, which allegedly also featured language suggesting that anti-Semitism and racism are different.”
Last year, Appleby announced a “detailed action plan” involving sweeping changes to the school’s “diversity, equality and inclusivity” curriculum. Parents were instructed via email on how to “raise anti-racist children” and “recognize their own implicit biases” — and were then told the school was adopting a critical race theory curriculum.
Gym classes were replaced with debates on “politics in sport” and CRT infiltrated all academic subjects, with reports circulating that teachers were accusing students of “white fragility” and of having inherited “white guilt.”
According to messages seen by the Mail on a parental WhatsApp group, students were told they were “either oppressors or oppressed,” depending on their ethnicity and the school then decided to “introduce racially segregated after-school clubs, in an initiative one parent branded ‘offensive and immoral’, arguing that it breached UK equalities law,” the Mail reported.
Some Jewish parents complained of a “culture of fear” in which their children had been ostracized by peers following lessons focusing on Israel, according to the Mail.
One parent accused the school of “institutional racism,” while another parent compared the school to a “woke cult,” adding in a letter of complaint that “every subject, from art to literature to history, is now being taught through a prism of race and gender, at times to very young children.”
Regarding the “woke” curriculum the rep said: “We are committed to building and sustaining a diverse, equitable and inclusive school community and firmly believe this will lead to a better future for all our children,” a school rep told the Mail in regard to the curriculum.
https://nypost.com/2021/11/27/ultra-woke-asl-headmaster-in-leaving-amid-charges-of-anti-semitism/
*******************************************Australia: Another 10 million students under education growth plan
Australia should shake up its $40 billion international student sector to shift the focus to teaching online and offshore, the government says, arguing that an extra 10 million students could benefit from an Australian education over the next 20 years.
In its new 10-year international education strategy, the government says Australia should look to Britain which in 2019 taught 407,000 students in offshore arrangements, compared to 117,000 – or 22 per cent – by Australian education providers.
The new strategy says Australia must diversify where students come from and what and where they study. Louie Douvis
Experts, however, say the prospect of living and working in Australia is a strong drawcard for students.
“We know that the vast majority of international students still want to study onshore in Australia for a significant proportion of their studies,” said Jake Foster, chief commercial officer with education consultancy AECC Global.
“The government is actively encouraging and supporting students to start their studies offshore, which could help grow the Australian international education sector in the years ahead.”
The international education strategy for 2021-2030 also says Australia must diversify the number of countries from which students are sourced and diversify the courses in which they study.
While China and India are the highest source countries for all major international education destinations, Australia has the highest concentration of them, with 58 per cent of students arriving from those two countries. That is compared to 50 per cent for the US and Canada and 36 per cent for Britain.
The strategy argues that study for an Australian qualification and the right to live and work in Australia for a time following graduation should be linked as a means of driving skilled workers into the economy.
Alignment with skills priorities
The strategy notes that almost half of all international students who study in Australia are enrolled in business and management courses, but there would be greater benefit for the country if they were to graduate in priority skills areas such as computing.
“Better aligning program choices with priority employment fields will delivery more job-ready graduates in the disciplines and regions where they are most needed,” the strategy reads.
The strategy argues that the diversification of source countries and study areas will improve the educational experience for international and domestic students.
Brett Blacker, chief executive of English Australia, which represents the country’s English language, or ELICOS, colleges, said teaching students online and offshore required a trade-off with the soft diplomacy and flow-on economic benefits of teaching students onshore.
“But that doesn’t mean they have to be mutually exclusive. We can build some pipelines through students doing some of their program offshore and then coming to Australia,” Mr Blacker said.
Vicki Thomson, chief executive of the Group of Eight, said concentration of Chinese students in the group’s universities was higher still at 68 per cent, with just 5 per cent from India.
Students, skilled migrants are next priority entrants
“Clearly, diversifying into alternative markets is going to take time,” Ms Thomson said.
She also said most international students in Go8 universities were postgraduates in fields such as engineering and science.
“These are precisely the skills that we need to address our current skill shortages and research demands,” she said.
Over the past two years, the number of international students enrolled in Australian institutions has dropped by 150,000. The sector was valued at $40 billion to the economy in 2019 and is expected to be worth half that by the end of the year.
***********************************
My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
*******************************
No comments:
Post a Comment