I remember how it was -- JR
Universities Symptom of Much Bigger Problem
I have written in the past about the similarities of the stress and tensions in our country today to the stress and tensions that were taking place in the years before the Civil War.
A free country will always have debate and differences of opinion. But that debate becomes dangerous and destructive when the differences strike at the core premises that define the very existence of the nation. When we can no longer agree about who we are, what we stand for, and why we exist, our very existence comes into question.
As Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Then the basic premises of our free country were challenged by the existence of slavery.
The country is divided today by those who see injustice as a problem to be defined and solved by politics and those who continue to see injustice as evil defined by Scripture and dealt with through repentance and self-correction.
When the issue of slavery tore apart our nation, most Americans were church-going citizens. The dividing line then was between those who saw slavery as a sin and those who did not.
As Lincoln said in his second inaugural address, delivered as the Civil War raged, “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other.”
But today the division is between those for whom religion is relevant and those for whom it is not. The latter, overwhelmingly, are on the political Left.
The recent Wall Street Journal/NORC polling on national values shows the picture clearly.
Of those who say religion is personally “very important,” 27% of Democrats say yes and 53% of Republicans say yes.
Of those who say patriotism is “very important,” 23% of Democrats and 59% of Republicans say yes.
Of those who agree that schools and universities have gone “too far … taking steps to promote racial and ethnic diversity,” 6% of Democrats agree and 55% of Republicans agree.
Of those who agree that “Businesses taking steps to promote racial and ethnic diversity” have gone “too far,” 7% of Democrats agree and 52% of Republicans agree.
Many are now shocked to see how politicized our universities have become. But the data shows that this is not a problem limited to our universities; it reflects broader, deep changes in our society.
Injustice has become a problem relegated to politics as religion has increasingly been purged from our society.
DEI—diversity, equity, inclusion—is a tool designed by secularists, who produce their own definition of injustice and then design their own quantitative tool to solve the problem they have themselves defined.
This is one slice of ideology that is a subset of broader godless movements in social engineering—communism and socialism.
President Ronald Reagan gave one the nation’s great speeches in March 1983 to the National Association of Evangelicals in which he called the Soviet Union an “evil empire.”
Reagan said then, “But we must never forget that no government schemes are going to perfect man. We know that living in this world means dealing with what philosophers would call the phenomenology of evil or, as theologians would put it, the doctrine of sin.”
Speaking about the then-Soviet Union, Reagan said, “Let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man … they are the focus of evil in the modern world.”
With the surge to the left in our country, and the purge of the influence of religion, we have produced our own “government schemes,” pretending they will “perfect man” and solve our social challenges.
The result is the ongoing expansion of government and a burden of national debt and government spending that is crushing us.
Reagan quoted William Penn saying, “If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by tyrants.”
This is where we are today.
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Oregon high school cancels 'all-ages family friendly' drag festival featuring local queen 'Poison Waters'
An Oregon high school was forced to cancel it drag festival featuring local queen 'Poison Waters' after the school allegedly received alarming threats.
The event labeled as 'family-friendly' was scheduled to take place on Sunday afternoon in the school's auditorium at Lakeridge High School located in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
It was presented by the school's Gender and Sexualities Alliance with hopes of bringing 'visibility' to the community.
The drag queen performer, known as 'Poison Waters' that was set to perform is entertainer, Kevin Cook, who also describes himself as a community activist, who has been around since the 1980s.
Earlier this week, the school issued a statement stating that the event was postponed out of concern for the safety of the students, teachers and staff, after the school claimed that 'alarming threats were made by known violent and hate-driven organizations.'
On Tuesday, Libs of TikTok shared the drag show for student event on their site being held by @lakeridgepacers claiming that 'a bunch of parents reached out to them about this.'
'Parents are very upset...school doesn’t care,' the post read, in part. They also alleged the school 'completely disregarded all parents’ concerns.'
It remains unclear what groups sent the threatening messages to the school claiming they would incite violence.
When DailyMail.com reached out to Lakeridge High School to get more information about the incident, they were unavailable for comment at the time of publication.
The event flyer, 'Oswego Drag Fest,' shows a photo of Poison Waters. A $15 donation was suggested where proceeds go towards the Trevor Project, Story Time, Drag Show and Performer.
The school's full statement reads: 'With a heavy heart and deep concern for the safety of our students, teachers, and staff, we must regrettably announce the postponement of the DragFest event scheduled for January 7.
'This decision has been driven by the alarming threats made by known violent and hate-driven organizations.
'These threats have arisen due to invitations extended to such organizations by individuals within and outside our learning community who do not align with our core values of inclusivity and belonging.'
The Libs of TikTok post garnered more than a million views with many expressing relief that the event was canceled with many outraged that a drag show was taking place at the school in the first place.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12922835/Oregon-high-school-cancels-drag-threats.html
*********************************************NY Gov. Kathy Hochul announces plan to get school reading instruction ‘back to basics’
New York needs to get back to the basics when it comes to teaching kids how to read, Gov. Kathy Hochul says.
The Governor announced Wednesday that she wants to ditch the trendy “whole language” method of teaching English and get back to drilling kids on phonics and reading comprehension.
“Despite the best efforts, it’s showing that it’s not working anymore,” Hochul said of the state’s new reading plan, dubbed “Back to Basics,” at an elementary school in Watervliet, NY.
“I think every child should have the best shot in life, the best shot to learn how to read, the best shot to become completely literate by the time they leave school.”
The whole language approach teaches children to read entire words and try to understand their meaning within context. Proponents of whole language thought that by battering kids with words again and again, they would pick up the meaning within context. The children’s series “Dick and Jane” being a prime example.
Phonics teaches by piecing together or decoding parts of words to connect them together and understand their meaning, but that style was ditched by mainstream educators in the early 2000’s.
“About 20 years ago, they thought ‘it’s whole different way of learning, why don’t we just put kids in a room with books and they’ll figure it out?’ Do you think that’s very smart?,” Hochul asked the audience at her announcement, which included some fourth graders in the front row.
“No,” one tot retorted.
A growing swath of researchers and activist organizations agree with the fourth grader.
An NAACP chapter has gone as far as petitioning Oakland, Ca. schools, demanding they teach traditional phonics, framing it as a civil rights issue, citing disproportionately lower literacy rates amongst Black, Latino and Asian American Pacific Islander students.
“It’s not just science, it’s common sense,” Hochul said.
The Governor’s proposal is backed by the powerful state teacher’s union, school administrators, and the New York State Parent Teachers Association.
“These policies are not merely the results of the latest fad,” NYSUT President Melinda Person said. “I want to be really clear about this. This is the result of decades of research, brain science information from 10s of 1000s of studies, that is driving us toward this change in instructional practice.”
“NYS PTA is excited that Governor Hochul is supporting our great educators, schools, families and children in this important work,” New York PTA President Helen Hoffman wrote in a statement. “The science of reading instruction has certainly changed over the years, and with this new infusion of resources, support for the important work classroom teachers do each day will be expanded.
The proposed state legislation builds off a sweeping overhaul of elementary literacy instruction rolled out by the Adams’ administration in half of the Big Apple’s school districts in May last year.
The program known as NYC Reads requires city schools to choose between three sets of approved curriculums that focus on reading education for elementary school students.
“New York City has begun doing this and is learning that implementation requires buy-in from teachers and principals,” Nicole Brownstein a spokesperson for NYC Public Schools told the Post.
“[The Governor] is also right in her attempt to require teacher training programs at SUNY and CUNY to emphasize reading instruction that has been proven to be effective.”
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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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