I remember how it was -- JR
UCLA medical school's 'structural racism' class featured 'quite disturbing' prayer to pagan god
Another episode in the relentless Leftist attempt to make mainstream people feel uncomfortable about who and what they are. They hate what they call "complacency" -- when people feel pleased and comfortable to be part of something successful and flourishing. When crowds proudly chant "USA, USA" that is anathema to them. It's "structural racism", apparently. Very twisted
A mandatory "structural racism" class at The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA led a prayer to Mother Earth, which disturbed some who attended the lecture.
The UCLA Jewish Faculty Resilience Group spoke to numerous witnesses from the lecture and penned a letter to the administration Friday, calling for an "urgent and thorough external review" of its curriculum to put an end to "political indoctrination."
"We write to bring to your attention disturbing events that unfolded two days ago on the UCLA campus… based on the first-hand eyewitness reports presented to us by multiple first-year students," the letter, signed by Professors Kira Stein and Elina Veytsman from the medical center as well as David Mimmer from the law school, said.
The letter went on to describe that an invited speaker "instructed students to touch the floor, 'mama earth with a fist' while she made a 'non-secular' prayer to ‘mama earth’ and our ‘ancestors,'" the letter said.
The end of the class featured an additional prayer to the pagan deity, this time asking them to stand up. According to the faculty's letter, the speaker "instructed students to get out of their seats and stand upright with her for a closing prayer, once again to ‘mama earth’ and the ‘ancestors.’ Of those gathered, a handful of students who were visibly uncomfortable declined to participate, remaining seated throughout."
A witness of the event who spoke to Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity described experiencing intense feelings about the "idolatry." "I was very deeply offended and disgusted," the witness said.
"She starts with like ‘Thank you, Creator. Thank you for this day of life.’ And then she starts praying to like the spirits mom and stuff," the witness said. "It was crazy."
The witness went on to say the speaker asked the class to get on to the floor to participate in the prayer.
"It's quite disturbing but also hilarious, actually," the witness said.
The witness – who has monotheistic religious beliefs – said the presentation to "pagan gods" made for an uncomfortable situation.
"I think even probably all students who stood up there [during the prayer], a good number felt unsettled regardless of your religious persuasion," the witness said. "I think a lot of students have the sense that this is weird or out of place."
UCLA began implementing a new curriculum called HEALS in 2020. The entire first year of medical school has a particular focus on "Structural Racism and Health Equity." The curriculum was "redesigned" "to empower students to become physicians committed to… advocac[y] and humanistic care."
"Diversity isn't a buzzword. It’s a requirement to treat our communities with clinical excellence. Our community is made up of talented leaders who care deeply and work to impact the world for good. We have a collective commitment to combat structural racism. That commitment spans healthcare, education, and our society at large," UCLA says about the equity classes.
The invited speaker also chanted for Palestinians, the UCLA letter alleged, sparking accusations of antisemitism from the professors.
Elan Carr, the former Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism under the Trump administration, responded to the incident. He called the class "indoctrination."
"Many universities have become intolerable places for Jews," he said on X, referring to the pro-Palestinian element of the presentation. "Here is yet one more example of the vile, poisonous indoctrination to which students are forced to submit, this time at UCLA Medical School."
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Seattle Public Schools shuts down gifted and talented program for being oversaturated with white and Asian students
More Seattle craziness
Seattle Public Schools is dismantling its gifted and talented program, which administrators argued was oversaturated with white and Asian students, in favor of a more “inclusive, equitable and culturally sensitive” program.
The district began phasing out its Highly Capable Cohort schools and classrooms for advanced students in the 2021-22 school year due to racial inequities, the school district notes.
It will now completely cease to exist by the 2027-28 school year, with a new enrichment-for-all model available in every school by the 2024-25 school year.
“The program is not going away, it’s getting better,” school officials said on the district website. “It will be more inclusive, equitable and culturally sensitive.
“In particular, students who have been historically excluded will now have the same opportunities for services as every other student and get the support and enrichment they need to grow.”
The enrichment program currently only allows students who placed in the top 2 percentile on standardized exams would be placed in the Highly Capable Cohort to receive enriched learning.
The students would then be sorted into one of three elementary schools, five middle schools and three high schools.
But in 2020, the Seattle school board voted to terminate the program, after a 2018 survey found that the students in the Highly Capable Cohort were 13% multiracial, 11.8% Asian, 3.7% Hispanic and just 1.6% black. Nearly 70% of the students were white.
“Numbers would suggest that within our city … predominantly white children are more gifted than other cultures and races, and we know that is absolutely not true,” Kari Hanson, the district’s director of student support services, told Parent Map at the time.
Under the new program, dubbed the Highly Capable Neighborhood School Model, teachers will be required to come up with individualized learning programs for all 20 to 30 of their students — a task they argue they do not have the time and resources for as the district faces a $104 million budget deficit, according to the Seattle Times.
The district said it is working to provide teachers with curriculum and instruction on how to make it work, but an estimate from 2020 suggested an enrichment-for-all program would cost the district $1.1 million over the first three years.
One teacher said she worries it will become more difficult under the new program to teach math to students with a range of abilities, and that the whole-classroom approach won’t properly prepare students for Advanced Placement math and science courses.
Parents also expressed their concerns that the new model could lead to children getting overlooked.
“It seems to me that kids on maybe both extremes are going to be underserved,” Erika Ruberry told the Seattle Times.
Karen Stukovsky, who has three children in the gifted program, added that each teacher “can only do so much differentiation.
“You have some kids who can barely read and some kids who are reading ‘Harry Potter’ in the first grade or kindergarten,” she said.
“How are you going to not only get those kids up to grade level, and also challenge those kids who are already easy above grade level?”
Some parents of black students in the program even argued against ending it.
“My request is that you please consider the disservice you would be doing to the minorities that are already in the HCC program,” one father said at the school board meeting to approve the new program in 2020, according to The Stranger.
“The program does more for black children, particularly black boys, than it does for their peers.”
But then-school board vice president Chandra Hampson shot back: “This is a pretty masterful job at tokenizing a really small community of color within the existing cohort.”
Over the past few years, though, more and more minority students have joined the ranks of the Highly Capable Cohort.
In the 2022 – 23 school year, 52% of the students were white, 16% were Asian and 3.4% were black, according to the Seattle Times.
Supporters of the new program say it will create a stronger sense of community because all of the students are from the same geographic area.
“They bring their home experience and their culture, and that is really unique,” View Ridge Elementary School Principal Rina Geoghagan told the Seattle Times.
“Is it going to be perfect? No. But any time there is a change, it’s not perfec
https://nypost.com/2024/04/03/us-news/seattle-public-schools-shuts-down-gifted-and-talented-program/
************************************************************Australian School Principals Report Record Near 50 Percent Jump in Student Attacks
Australian school principals are experiencing a record-high surge in physical attacks from students, driving many perilously close to the brink of self-harm.
A survey conducted by the Australian Catholic University (ACU) of 2,300 school principals found 48.2 percent experienced physical violence in 2023, up 76.5 percent from 2011.
Students perpetrated almost all (96.3 percent) of the attacks, followed by parents (65.6 percent).
“It is deeply concerning that offensive behaviour towards school leaders and teachers persist and appears to be on the rise,” ACU co-lead investigator Professor Herb Marsh said.
Nearly all principals who were attacked (42.6 percent) triggered a “red flag” email, indicating they were at risk of self-harm, occupational health issues, or a significant impact on their quality of life.
One in five school leaders reported moderate to severe depression, particularly among early career leaders, with others facing risks of serious mental health issues such as anxiety, burnout, stress, and sleep problems.
Growing Teacher Shortage
Around 60 percent of those with six to ten years of experience want to exit the profession, and experienced school leaders with over 15 years of experience are at the forefront of the impending departure.
“Assuming only half of those who agreed or strongly agreed to quit acted on this response, there would be an exodus of more than 500 school leaders—the data strongly suggests this would be experienced school leaders,” Ms. Marsh said.
The upcoming departure would add to the existing shortage of teachers nationwide.
Education Minister Jason Clare recently mentioned that while there are around 300,000 teachers currently working in our schools, there are an additional 100,000 registered teachers with qualifications who have chosen not to teach but maintain their registration.
Urgent Call for Action
Despite challenges, the survey revealed that some school leaders still exhibit strong dedication, commitment, and commendable resilience.
Their grit was independent of state education department policies or other regulatory body policies, indicating that these entities’ formal policies or guidelines failed to aid their ability to cope.
Paul Kidson, ACU investigator, and former principal, called on education ministers to urgently take collective action to address the significant threats facing principals.
“We’ve had a national spotlight on teacher education and workloads, disruptions in the classroom, campaigns to boost the profession’s status, and a continued focus on students’ mental health and academic outcomes—all noble and necessary,” Mr. Kidson said.
However, he said, “Principals are being asked to do more with less.”
“It’s been over a decade since the Gonski Review, and we still do not have full funding based on student needs. It is naïve to think this does not translate into the increasing stress among school leaders today,” he explained.
The Australian government commissioned the Gonski Review in 2010 to comprehensively review school funding in the country.
Businessman David Gonski led the review to address inequalities in school funding.
The review’s final report, released in 2011, recommended reforms to improve the quality and equity of education across the country.
A new funding model was proposed called the “Gonski model,” which advocated for needs-based funding to ensure that all students, regardless of their socio-economic background, receive the support they need to succeed in school.
However, leading school wellbeing expert Associate Professor Theresa Dicke said there is an urgency for education ministers to make a priority of responding to the data in this report.
She proposed a national summit to coordinate strategies and resources, warning that failure to address these issues could lead to a mass exodus of school leaders.
“Many of them will act on their intention to leave and it will make achieving important policy initiatives very unlikely,” she said.
Since 2011, this survey has aimed to understand and support the health and well-being of school leaders by providing personalised reports based on data collected from a large sample of participants.
This year’s report categorises data by different career stages and represents nearly a quarter of all Australian school leaders.
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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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