I remember how it was -- JR
Monday, January 03, 2022
NY School Replaced Popular Christmas Song 'Jingle Bells' Over Racist Origins
A New York state public school did not sing the Christmas song, "Jingle Bells," due to its origins being linked to 19th-century minstrel shows in which white people wore blackface.
Council Rock Primary School replaced the Christmas classic with other songs that did not have "the potential to be controversial or offensive," principal Matt Tappon told the Rochester Beacon, which first broke the story on Dec. 23.
Tappon and other school staff confirmed to the local paper that the decision to nix the song was based, in part, on a 2017 article by professor Kyna Hamill, director of Boston University’s Core Curriculum, who detailed her research into the origins of "Jingle Bells," its composer, James L. Pierpont, and other mid-19th century songs about sleighs.
She obtained documents revealing that the song’s first public performance may have been in 1857 at a Boston minstrel show, a type of entertainment at the time that included white performers sporting blackface.
Hamill, however, does not believe her findings should have led to the school replacing the song.
When informed by the Beacon that her research was partly the reason why the school removed the song, she said that she was "quite shocked the school would remove the song from the repertoire" and that she did not recommend that it stop being sung by children.
"My article tried to tell the story of the first performance of the song, I do not connect this to the popular Christmas tradition of singing the song now," Hamill said.
"The very fact of (“Jingle Bells’”) popularity has to do (with) the very catchy melody of the song, and not to be only understood in terms of its origins in the minstrel tradition. … I would say it should very much be sung and enjoyed, and perhaps discussed," she continued.
Brighton Central School District Superintendent Kevin McGowan addressed the decision on Dec. 28, writing in a letter posted to the district’s website that "we couldn’t be more proud of our staff and the work they continue to do to reflect on what they teach and how they teach in an ongoing effort to be more culturally responsive, thoughtful, and inclusive."
"Choosing songs other than 'Jingle Bells' wasn’t a major policy initiative, a 'banning' of the song or some significant change to a concert repertoire done in response to a complaint," McGowan wrote. "This wasn’t 'liberalism gone amok' or 'cancel culture at its finest' as some have suggested. Nobody has said you shouldn’t sing 'Jingle Bells' or ever in any way suggested that to your children. I can assure you that this situation is not an attempt to push an agenda."
"We were not and are not even discussing the song and its origins, whatever they may be," he continued. "This was very simply a thoughtful shift made by thoughtful staff members who thought they could accomplish their instructional objective using different material. The change in material is also not something being forced on children or propaganda being spread. The teachers have never taught about the song in any way when it was being used then or in the midst of deciding not to use it."
McGowan also wrote that the first performance of 'Jingle Bells' occurred in minstrel shows where white actors wore blackface "does actually matter when it comes to questions of what we use as material in school."
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UK: Group of girls’ schools says they will not accept transgender pupils and 'jeopardise' their status as single-sex institutions
The Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), which represents 23 private schools as well as two academies, updated its gender identity policy guidance document last month to include a new section on admissions.
It is rare for a group of single-sex schools to take a public position on the issue of admissions, and it could pave the way to others to follow suit.
The guidance states that GDST schools do not accept applications from pupils who are legally male, even if they identify as female.
Having an admissions policy based on “gender identity rather than the legal sex recorded on a student’s birth certificate would jeopardise the status of GDST schools as single-sex schools” under the Equality Act, it says.
A female pupil who begins to transition while already at school should be supported to remain at the school for as long as they wish to do so, it adds.
Updated guidance
The guidance, first published in 2016, was updated and shared with member schools just before the Christmas break. The GDST said that they always keep their policies under review, adding that their latest guidance was drawn up “in collaboration with experts, teachers and students”.
It comes as headteachers urge the Government for national guidance on transgender issues to be published for schools, saying that education leaders are “struggling” to cope.
School leaders have said that in the absence of any official guidance from the Department for Education (DfE), they are left with advice from lobby groups as they decide how to react when a pupil identifies as the opposite gender.
Julie McCulloch of the Association of School of College Leaders (ASCL) said that as more and more children “come out” as transgender, heads are forced to wade into the fraught debate between biological sex and gender.
“It is a really big issue and the lack of formal guidance for schools is something that we are concerned about,” she told The Telegraph.
“This issue has grown quite rapidly over the past few years and it certainly feels like something that has become much more common. It is increasingly something that almost all schools are having to think about, but particularly single sex schools.”
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Dumbing Down Education Key to Dismantling America
Critical race theory together with gender ideology and the manmade global warming hypothesis that’s now being taught to young children, all have the goal of dismantling the United States as a free society, said Alex Newman, investigative journalist and Epoch Times contributor.
There is a global effort coming from the United Nations and from China to build a single world system, where individual liberty will be abolished, Newman told EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program.
This new system is described as a multipolar world order as opposed to the current unipolar world order where the United States is the undisputed sole superpower and the hegemonic force in world affairs today, Newman explained. To achieve this goal the United States must be undermined not just economically, but also intellectually and militarily.
“[This will] allow other nations to be built up, other governments, especially the Communist Chinese government, to grow in prestige and influence in economic prowess for the purpose of really drastically reshaping the world order into this, what they call the multipolar order, where Russia and China and the so-called BRICS [five countries] like Brazil and India will be kind of on an equal standing with the United States.”
“But America, at least the ideas and the essence of what America is, has stood as an obstacle to that agenda. So if you want to make this agenda possible, … you’re going to have to undermine the principles that the United States was founded on.”
According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) “8 predictions for the world in 2030,” which are summarized in a video posted on Twitter, the United States will no longer be the leading superpower, but the world will be dominated by a handful of countries.
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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)
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