I remember how it was -- JR
UK: Schools admit white working-class pupils ARE rapidly being left behind
White working-class pupils are rapidly falling behind other children and are the group that top school leaders are the 'most concerned' about, according to a new Government report.
The bosses of the top academy trusts, which run nearly 300 schools across England, were surveyed by Department for Education (DfE) chiefs for a new study about how to improve results for groups of ethnic-minority children.
But the discussions revealed that the bosses' main worry was the dire progress of poorer white pupils, rather than their non-white classmates, according to the report.
It said: 'For the majority of trust and school leaders to whom we spoke, the group of pupils about which they were most concerned was white British working-class pupils. This message was consistent across trusts and schools working in ethnically diverse areas, where white British pupils did not represent the majority of pupils, and for schools and trusts where the majority of the pupils were from white British working-class.'
The report said these pupils were hit by a 'combination of issues linked to deprivation, inter-generational poverty, attitudes to and experiences of education, and aspirations'.
The study echoes the findings of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which was blasted by anti-racism activists when it was published in 2021.
The 'Left Behind' inquiry by MPs also questioned the concept of 'white privilege' when data shows that white boys eligible for free school meals are getting the worst grades. GCSE results show that white students were outperformed by all major ethnic groups on the proportion achieving at least grade 4 in maths and English last year. For the first time ever last year, official data revealed that white students were the cohort least likely to attend a top university, following a national drive to make intakes more diverse.
Last night, Professor Matthew Goodwin, from Kent University, said: 'White working-class pupils have consistently been overlooked or ignored outright by much of our education establishment. It is good to see, finally, some in the sector taking this challenge seriously.'
Steve Chalke, chief executive of Oasis Community Learning academy trust, which runs more than 50 schools, warned some white working-class families had histories of educational failure going back generations.
He contrasted the troubled Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey in Kent, where the vast majority of pupils are white and where bad behaviour has prompted some teachers to go on strike, with Oasis schools in more ethnically diverse areas of inner-city London, where pupils get better grades across the board.
'It's wrong to say that all white, working-class pupils are struggling but the problems on the Isle of Sheppey go back 50 to 70 years,' he told The Mail on Sunday.
'There is inter-generational unemployment, poverty, family breakdown and neglect.' A spokesperson for the Harris Federation, which runs 54 schools in London and Essex, said that it had hundreds of examples of students from white British working-class backgrounds progressing to elite universities.
A DfE spokesman said: 'We are focused on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and supporting all children to succeed through high-quality teaching, a knowledge-rich curriculum and targeted support.'
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UK: A school trust has backed down and apologised over plans to introduce a transgender education programme for children as young as four – after a huge backlash from parents
The Golden Thread Alliance Trust, which runs nine academies across Dartford and Gravesend, was spearheading the pilot scheme at Meopham Community Academy before rolling it out to other schools in the trust.
Youngsters from the ages of four to eleven were set to learn about terms such as transgender, non-binary, and assigned sex when they returned to school after the Christmas break.
Children in Years 1 and 2 were to be taught how to combat negative gender stereotypes, while those in Years 5 and 6 were to learn about issues relating to transgenderism and gender identity – and look at understanding, identifying, and defining different sexual orientations.
But the trailblazing scheme met considerable resistance, with some parents threatening to take their children out of lessons.
One parent hailed a decision to back down as a ‘triumph for common sense and parent power’.
The mother, who spoke to MailOnline on the condition of anonymity, said: ‘This is on the Golden Thread Alliance Trust, not the poor school or the classroom teachers.
'The school is part of our community and we want to love it and nurture it, but felt this was being pushed on us from above against our will, staff, parents and students’ will by the Trust. At least a hundred parents were against it, if not more.’
Parents first heard about the plans in a ‘heated’ online forum between parents and school leaders held over Zoom last Thursday.
They were introduced to Pop ‘n’ Olly, an external provider and one of the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ educational resources which was due to come and provide the teaching in the school.
The Pop ‘n’ Olly characters feature in a book which teaches children that a person’s sex is ‘assigned’ to them at birth by a doctor.
Copies of What Does LGBT+ Mean? also claims that gender is a ‘sliding scale between male and female’ and that a doctor or nurse ‘looked at our body and gave us a label based on what they could see’.
After the forum there was a Q&A session. ‘Apart from one parent who agreed with the scheme, and who was from the LGBT community, all the other parents were strongly against the scheme,’ said the mother.
‘I don’t think Pop ‘n’ Olly were prepared for the response, they kept reverting to "well it’s the Government guidelines" and then abruptly ended the meeting even though parents asked for it to continue.’
She claimed a video link of the meeting intended for parents unable to attend was then edited to remove some of their views.
‘We are not anti anything. We just feel as parents our primary-age children do not need exposure to this. I don’t want my child confused and thinking about things that they don’t need to worry about. Ultimately I, as a parent, should have the final say on what my children learn.
‘It is not age appropriate to be teaching children about LGBTQ+ matters, my children still play with soft toys and colouring-in, they are not ready for adult matters.
‘This is a form of indoctrination of false gender ideologies and changing the social norms for young children. The material is not based on scientific evidence but presented as fact.
‘Our children are behind due to Covid so they should be putting their energy and resources into helping their academic lessons. I really think the leadership team should resign, their positions are untenable.’
The Golden Thread Alliance Trust, headed by Garry Ratcliffe, today retreated and issued a grovelling apology to parents.
‘Through the Parent Forum and the discussions yesterday we have heard many different views both from those strongly in support and from those who have significant concerns. We want to assure you that we are absolutely listening and determined to get this right.
‘To be clear, there will be no further teaching of Sex Education or LGBT+ content within the RSE curriculum at MCA until after the consultation period.
‘I would like to apologise for the upset the pilot has caused. It was absolutely our intention to open the conversation to ensure you, as parents and carers, are part of the decision making process and ensure you are well informed not to cause any anxiety or upset.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12842317/school-apologises-trans-education-backlash.html
**************************************************How Were the Universities Lost?
Americans knew previously they were intolerant, leftwing, and increasingly non-meritocratic.
But immediately after October 7 — and even before the response of the Israeli Defense Forces — the sheer student delight on news of the mass murdering of Israeli victims seemed akin more to 1930s Germany than contemporary America.
Indeed, not a day goes by when a university professor or student group has not spouted antisemitic hatred. Often, they threaten and attack Jewish students, or engage in mass demonstrations calling for the extinction of Israel.
Why and how did purportedly enlightened universities become incubators of such primordial hatred?
After the George Floyd riots in 2020, reparatory admissions — the effort to admit diverse students beyond their numbers in the general population — increased.
Elite universities like Stanford and Yale boasted that their so-called “white” incoming student numbers had plunged to between 20 and 40 percent, despite whites making up 68-70% of the general population.
The abolition of the SAT requirement, and often the comparative ranking of high school grade point averages, have ended the ancient and time-proven idea of meritocracy. Brilliant high school transcripts and test scores no longer warrant admissions to so-called elite schools.
One result was that the number of Jews has nosedived from 20-30% of Ivy League student bodies during the 1970s and 1980s to 10-15%.
Jewish students are also currently stereotyped as “white” and “privileged” — and thus considered as fair game on campus.
At the same time, the number of foreign students, especially from the oil-rich Middle East, has soared on campuses. Most are subsidized by their homeland governments. They pay the full, non-discounted tuition rates to cash-hungry universities.
Huge numbers of students have entered universities, who would not have been admitted by the very standards universities until recently claimed were vital to ensure their own competitiveness and prestige.
Consequently, they are no longer the guarantors of topflight undergraduates and professionals from their graduate programs.
Faculty are faced with new lose/lose/lose choices of either diminishing their course requirements, or inflating their grades, or facing charges by Diversity/Equity/Inclusion commissars of systematic bias in their grading — or all three combined.
The net result is that there are now thousands of students from abroad, especially from the Middle East, far fewer Jewish students, and student bodies who demand radical changes in faculty standards and course work to accommodate their unease with past standards of expected student achievement.
And, presto, an epidemic of antisemitism naturally followed.
In such a vacuum, advocacy “-studies” classes proliferated, along with faculty to teach them.
“Gender, Black, Latino, feminist, Asian, Queer, trans, peace, environmental, and green”-studies courses demand far less from students, and arbitrarily select some as “oppressed” and others as “oppressors.” The former “victims” are then given a blank check to engage in racist and antisemitic behavior without consequences.
Proving to be politically correct in these deductive gut-courses rather than pressed to express oneself coherently, inductively, and analytically from a repertoire of fact-based knowledge explains why the public witnesses faculty and students who are simultaneously both arrogant and ignorant.
At some universities “blacklists” circulate warning “marginalized” students which professors they should avoid who still cling to supposedly outdated standards regarding exam-taking, deadlines, and absences.
All these radical changes explain the current spectacle of angry students citing grievances, and poorly educated graduates who have had little course work in traditional history, literature, philosophy, logic, or the traditional sciences.
Universities and students have plenty of money to continue the weaponization of the university, given their enormous tax-free endowment income. Nearly $2-trillion in government-subsidized student loans are issued without accountability or reasonable demands that they be repaid in timely fashion.
Exceptions and exemptions are the bible of terrified and careerist administrators.
Faced with an epidemic of antisemitism, university administrators now claim they can do little to curb the hatred. But privately they know should the targets of similar hatred be instead Blacks, gays, Latinos, or women, then they would expel the haters in a nanosecond.
What is the ultimate result of once elite campuses giving 70-80% of their students As, becoming hotbeds of dangerous antisemitism, and watered-down curricula that cannot turn out educated students?
The Ivy league and their kindred so-called elite campuses may soon go the way of Disney and Bud Light.
They think such a crash in their reputations is impossible given centuries of accustomed stature.
But the erosion is already occurring — and accelerating.
At the present rate, a Stanford law degree, a Harvard political science major, or a Yale social science BA will soon scare off employers and the general public at large.
These certificates will signify not proof of humility, knowledge, and decency, but rather undeserved self-importance, vacuousness, and fanaticism — and all to be avoided rather than courted.
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/102740-how-were-the-universities-lost-2023-12-08
******************************************************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)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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