I remember how it was -- JR
Maryland Schools Spend $1 Million on Anti-Racism Consultants
An increased focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools has led to exorbitant spending on outside consulting groups to implement diversity training.
In Maryland, Montgomery County Public Schools paid the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, an equity consulting group, over $1 million since 2020 to implement an anti-racism curriculum in their schools, according to an investigation from Parents Defending Education.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that, while spending on diversity, equity and inclusion training for kids has skyrocketed, test scores have gone down.
Literacy readiness in Montgomery County has dropped 30 to 40 percent since 2020, and only 54 percent of high school students test at or above a proficient level for reading.
Former Montgomery County school administrator Dee Reuben told the Free Beacon, “Parents are livid. I hear this every day — parents are afraid to speak out because they're afraid of the repercussions that will happen to their kids. Academics is going down the tube, and I think that is a shame considering we were one of the top school systems around — it breaks my heart.”
One of the projects that the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium has sponsored is a survey emailed to parents, asking, “To what extent does [Montgomery County Public Schools] support racial equity and disrupt systemic racism through its policies, procedures, structures, and practices?”
It also asks if parents think their children should be taught to “recognize, understand and interrupt racism,” according to the Free Beacon.
One thing everyone should agree on is that consulting firms shouldn’t be able to charge millions in taxpayer dollars meant for education while students’ grades suffer.
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Commentary: Exhuming the Academy
On the East Coast, many have been following the suspension of Ilya Shapiro from Georgetown University, now lasting longer than an entire SCOTUS confirmation process. His accusers, law students, have called him “racist” and demanded that the university reserve for them a space to cry. Meanwhile, on the West Coast, a similar assault on free speech has resulted in a lawsuit, but that story, despite a relative lack of coverage, displays a much deeper problem facing the academy today: the politicization of scientific research.
Elizabeth Weiss, a tenured professor of anthropology at San Jose State University, is the plaintiff in this case. Her story is lamentable. In 2020, Weiss and James Springer published a critique of repatriation laws, which govern the return of Native American skeletal remains, a topic Weiss discussed at length with the National Association of Scholars. Activists denounced the book as “scientific racism” and shortly after its publication Roberto Gonzalez (Weiss’s department chair) and Dean Walter Jacobs of the SJSU College of Social Sciences held a symposium in response to the book: “What to Do When a Tenured Colleague is Branded a Racist.” Gonzalez called Weiss his “racist colleague,” adding that her work “borders on professional incompetence.”
Weiss wrote an op-ed in August arguing against a proposed mandate to re-bury skeletal remains. Once again, she was denounced as a “racist” and there were many demands that Weiss be punished for her position. A month later, excited to return to the university’s skeletal collection after the COVID-19 pandemic, Weiss tweeted a photograph of herself holding a skull, with the caption: “So happy to be back with some old friends.”
The university’s provost, Vincent Del Casino, was outraged by the photo. He wrote that it shocked the university’s indigenous community and claimed that there were “many things in the image itself that do not align with the values of SJSU.” The claim is dubious, as a similar photo of another professor was shared for a recent faculty award—although the original page appears now deleted—and Weiss’s photo on the department’s webpage shows her working with the skulls. Regardless, Weiss was barred from accessing the collection of which she was curator.
As bad as the assault on Wiess’s free speech is, there lies a deeper problem in the politicization of scientific research. Weiss understands this problem all too well and wrote about it in a recent article for Aero. She explained that social justice activists have intruded in her field of biological anthropology (probably for funding more than anything else) and are insisting that scientific researchers work towards political goals such as decolonization by “writing back” against “colonial mentalities.” As an example, Weiss criticized one paper recently published in a peer-reviewed journal, which argued for changing taxonomic names honoring discoverers. Why? Generally, those discoverers were white men. Continued use of the names supposedly perpetuates “colonialism” and “white supremacy.”
In another example, two anthropologists called for a moratorium on the use of cranial traits in estimating ancestry. Again, why? “Their use serves to bolster the debunked biological race concept,” the authors wrote, despite evidence that race (or ancestry, if you will) can often be determined by such features. Transgender activists have even argued against identifying the sex of human remains, as this could offend the victims of anti-trans violence. The fact that biological sex is an immutable characteristic useful in identifying homicide victims—transgender or not—is discarded.
All of this raises a question: what is the “professional incompetence” Gonzalez attributed to Weiss? Is it Weiss’s rational defense of contrary opinion? Or is it the scientific research which Gonzalez and many others intend on politicizing? Embracing the politicization of science is reprehensible, and entirely detrimental to the field. As Weiss points out in her Aero article, archaeologists Kent V. Flannery, Joyce Marcus, and others warned in 1994 that no matter how noble the political agenda, the science serving as its host always suffers.
“Today, more than 25 years later,” Weiss laments, “we’ve reached a point at which political ideology seems to be nearly decimating scientific research: within a few years, whole fields of study may be off limits. I hope that this is not the case for biological anthropology.”
Let us hope this is not the case for all scientific fields, not just for biological anthropology. Otherwise, when the academy is eventually exhumed, the remains of those who made it their crypt will leave future anthropologists utterly baffled. How the pusillanimous professoriate ever survived this long is mysterious enough, but intentionally starving themselves by making their own fields of study off-limits is truly inexplicable.
https://heartlanddailynews.com/2022/04/commentary-exhuming-the-academy/
*********************************************How teachers in an Australian territory could soon be forced to call students 'crew' instead of 'boys and girls' and encouraged to organise 'non-gendered' sports teams
Teachers calling students 'boys' and 'girls' may soon be a thing of the past under plans to create a more welcoming environment for gender diverse children.
In draft guidelines on gender identity from the Northern Territory's Education Department, a variety of steps would be taken to ensure those questioning their gender weren't being offended in the classroom.
School sport days would not be split between boys and girls while students on overnight excursions and school camps would be allowed to sleep in rooms and use bathrooms of their 'affirmed gender', Sky News reported.
'Using gendered language such as 'girls and boys' or 'ladies and gentlemen' confirms gender stereotyping and roles and can be alienating for gender questioning and gender diverse children,' the document says.
'Avoid this by using vocabulary such as 'students', 'class', 'crew', 'everyone', people' or 'year X' that are more inclusive.'
Schools have also been encouraged in the guidelines to organise 'non-gendered' sport days, teams and events.
Rules around tight-fitted clothing should also be changed to cater to gender diverse children such as during swimming events, the document says.
'Many transgender and gender diverse children often withdraw from taking part in sport and physical activities because they feel highly uncomfortable or are forced into teams that do not match with their gender identity,' the guidelines say.
LGBTIQ students on school camps who require 'increased privacy' may be allowed to be given private rooms.
The guidelines also include a warning that concerns from other kids may be seen as bullying.
'If a child, or their peers, do not agree that they would feel safe and comfortable sharing, seek alternative solutions and acknowledge that this is an indication of possible exclusionary behaviour and potential bullying toward the LGBTQI child,' the guidelines say.
Labor NT Education Minister Lauren Moss stressed the document which has surfaced has not been finalised and said the terms 'boys' and 'girls' would not be banned in the classroom.
She did not comment on the specifics of the guidelines but said the department was looking at creating more inclusive environments for LGBTQI children.
'We know that often these students are young people and children who experience greater levels of harm or greater levels of isolation or greater levels of bullying and we need to make sure that we are working together as a school community to support all of our students and make sure that they all feel welcome,' she told the publication.
But the draft wasn't well received by everyone in the state with Country Liberal Party Senate candidate Jacinta Price labelling it 'utterly ridiculous'.
'I'm stunned the (Chief Minister Michael Gunner) Gunner government would even consider attempting to apply any Marxist ideology into our schooling system,' she said.
'It infuriates me. This government think that they can go ahead and make these decisions on behalf of teachers, on behalf of the Indigenous community. To suggest that terms like girl and boy are gender stereotypes and can be offensive is utterly ridiculous.'
She said the focus should instead be on lifting attendance rates in schools in remote communities.
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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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