I remember how it was -- JR
'History is now a niche subject': Princess Diana's brother Earl Spencer says children 'miss out on so much' and teachers should teach more than just 'Hitler and Henry VIII'
Earl Spencer has criticised 'niche' history taught in schools, claiming children 'miss out on so much'. The historian and younger brother of Princess Diana said he would like to broaden the way the subject was taught because pupils learn only about 'Hitler and Henry VIII'.
'This is one of my bugbears, how history is taught,' he said at the Henley Literary Festival. 'I'm 58 and I'm probably the last generation who was brought up on a very wide arena of British history just as standard fare because history was compulsory when I was at school.
'Now it's a niche subject and history teachers quite rightly have to attract people to their subject, so what they're going to do is give you Hitler and Henry VIII and I'm afraid things like Henry I just drop off the chart.
'I don't know if I would dare change [the curriculum] but I do think history is such an important subject, not in itself necessarily but for perspective and context. 'So I would broaden the way this is taught because I think you miss out on so much if you don't have it.
'But I realise I would be up against a lot of resistance.'
The peer was speaking to promote his latest book, The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I's Dream.
He described the sinking of the vessel as 'the greatest maritime disaster in British history', adding: 'There's not been a shipwreck that has changed a dynasty and I think that's where it wins gold.'
The White Ship sank in the Channel in 1120, killing William Adelin, Henry I's son and the heir to the throne. It prompted a succession crisis and a period of civil war between 1138 and 1153 known as The Anarchy.
Earl Spencer said it was extraordinary that so few people knew about the story yet in 1956 Winston Churchill felt it was too well known to put in his History of the English-Speaking Peoples.
He added: 'My first history book was incredibly non-PC, it was called Our Island Story and it was a Victorian look back at how wonderful Britain has always been, and the Henry I chapter is basically about the White Ship because it was such a hackneyed subject up until the Seventies.'
He also lamented the lack of understanding of the history behind road names. 'Out of all my education, the thing I'm most excited by is being able to see bits of history still alive,' he said.
'If you put Blenheim Road up now they'd think what the hell are you on about.'
A survey by academics at Oxford and Reading universities last year found that a small number of schools said they had 'reduced the attention given to certain topics – specifically medieval British or Tudor history – in order to accommodate new ones or a new kind of emphasis'.
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Vermont High School Under Fire as Girls, Parents Push Back Against Biologically Male Trans Student Using Female Locker Room
Two Vermont high school girls did what few of their peers have dared: When a biological boy who identifies as a transgender girl entered their locker room, they asked that student to leave.
The Randolph, Vermont-based Randolph Union High School told the community in a Sept. 23 email that it is “launching a harassment investigation” —apparently into the girls’ conduct rather than the 14-year-old trans-identify student’s behavior, parents suggested. The Daily Signal has chosen not to name these students due to their youth, though local outlets have reported some of their names.
Since then, The Daily Signal has spoken with a number of parents who are outraged that the school and Orange Southwest School District allowed such an incident to occur. These parents do not want biological boys in their daughters’ locker rooms, and they are bewildered as to why the school system apparently prioritizes the needs of students who identify as transgender over the needs of their daughters.
“We allowed a child who is biologically the opposite sex, male, go in a locker room where biologically girls were getting fully changed,” one of the girls’ mothers told The Daily Signal. “The biological child was not changing and sat in the back and watched girls getting changed. That made girls feel uncomfortable, made girls feel violated and not protected.”
“When parents and kids went to the school principals they were told it was a law—nothing they could do about it,” she added. “The law gives them room to protect all and they did not.”
Beginning Friday afternoon, The Daily Signal has unsuccessfully attempted to reach the student who identifies as transgender or the student’s mother via social media and email.
Girls Speak Out
Female student A, who is 14 years old, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview that she was dressing for a game when the trans-identifying student began to enter the locker room. She shared that she was not wearing a shirt, only a bra, and was halfway through putting on her shorts.
“Please don’t come in here, we’re still changing,” she says she called out, as she struggled to clothe herself.
But the trans-identifying student allegedly told her that it was fine, entered the locker room, and stood in the corner “watching” as the other girls finished dressing. Female student A said that the interaction made her incredibly uncomfortable, and her mother compared the incident to “voyeurism” in a phone interview with The Daily Signal.
Asked why she took issue with the trans-identify student entering the bathroom, female student A answered slowly, as if surprised she must explain: “It’s a dude.”
“He was born a boy,” she said. “I don’t care if he’s on my team, he can join any team, I don’t care. But when I’m undressing and there’s a male in the girls locker room or in the bathroom with me, I feel very uncomfortable.”
Female student B told The Daily Signal in a phone interview that she also unsuccessfully told the student that identifies as transgender that the girls needed their privacy.
“I think everyone feels this way about going into a locker room, you shouldn’t be uncomfortable,” said female student B, who is also 14. She joked that since all the girls have the same body parts, they are comfortable changing around one another. “But then when [the trans-identifying student] comes through, it doesn’t feel that way. It’s like, a male is in here. Everyone feels so awkward.”
Female student B said that though she asked the trans-identifying student to leave the locker room, the student stayed. When she and her fellow teammates tried to bring the matter to school officials, she said, they were told that they had to comply with state law (which allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding with the gender they identify with).
Most of the girls’ teammates agreed that biological boys should not be allowed in the girls’ locker rooms, both female students told The Daily Signal. Female student A said that she only knew of their two volleyball teammates who said they were fine with the student who identifies as transgender being in the locker room while they changed.
“Everyone was telling me they were happy that I did the thing on the news to get awareness about it,” female student B said, referencing an interview she did with a local outlet. “They don’t like it either.”
But female student B said that on Thursday, during a math class, some of her friends showed the news hit to the trans-identifying student. According to female student B, the student allegedly reacted to the video by allegedly saying, “I’m going to f—ing kill someone,” before allegedly adding, “I f—ing hate” female student B.
Female student B said she headed to the principal’s office as soon as she heard what the trans-identifying student had allegedly said. Co-principal Lisa Floyd reportedly told her that the school would conduct a threat assessment, she said, police arrived, and she was ultimately sent back to class (Floyd did not address The Daily Signal’s request for comment on the trans-identifying student’s alleged remarks but stressed that “student safety is our District’s highest priority”).
On Friday afternoon, the girls said, both female student A and B played in their volleyball game with the trans-identifying student.
Female student A and B both told The Daily Signal that the student had allegedly also said, “my male instincts are kicking in,” referring to another female students’ breasts (though neither female student A nor female student B heard the remarks made herself).
In a comment on a local outlet’s Facebook post about the incident, a woman who claims to be the trans-identifying student’s mother denied that any such comments were made.
“I am the mother of the trans student in question and my daughter did not make any comments at all. The entire team can back this up, other than the girl that made up the story for attention,” Facebook user Mo Sivvy posted (she did not immediately respond to a request for comment).
“This is slander, defamation of character, and we have secured a lawyer,” the comment continued. “My daughter has no interest in anything other than being accepted for who she is and playing volleyball. What inappropriate comments would she have made, I’m curious? This is outrageous. The ACLU has been enlisted. There will be a thorough investigation and truth will prevail.”
The ACLU did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal.
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NYU Students Failed Organic Chemistry, Got Prof Fired
In the field of organic chemistry, Maitland Jones Jr. has a storied reputation. He taught the subject for decades, first at Princeton and then at New York University, and wrote an influential textbook. He received awards for his teaching, as well as recognition as one of N.Y.U.’s coolest professors.
But last spring, as the campus emerged from pandemic restrictions, 82 of his 350 students signed a petition against him.
Students said the high-stakes course — notorious for ending many a dream of medical school — was too hard, blaming Dr. Jones for their poor test scores.
The professor defended his standards. But just before the start of the fall semester, university deans terminated Dr. Jones’s contract.
The officials also had tried to placate the students by offering to review their grades and allowing them to withdraw from the class retroactively. The chemistry department’s chairman, Mark E. Tuckerman, said the unusual offer to withdraw was a “one-time exception granted to students by the dean of the college.”
Marc A. Walters, director of undergraduate studies in the chemistry department, summed up the situation in an email to Dr. Jones, before his firing.
He said the plan would “extend a gentle but firm hand to the students and those who pay the tuition bills,” an apparent reference to parents.
The university’s handling of the petition provoked equal and opposite reactions from both the chemistry faculty, who protested the decisions, and pro-Jones students, who sent glowing letters of endorsement.
“The deans are obviously going for some bottom line, and they want happy students who are saying great things about the university so more people apply and the U.S. News rankings keep going higher,” said Paramjit Arora, a chemistry professor who has worked closely with Dr. Jones.
In short, this one unhappy chemistry class could be a case study of the pressures on higher education as it tries to handle its Gen-Z student body. Should universities ease pressure on students, many of whom are still coping with the pandemic’s effects on their mental health and schooling? How should universities respond to the increasing number of complaints by students against professors? Do students have too much power over contract faculty members, who do not have the protections of tenure?
And how hard should organic chemistry be anyway?
Dr. Jones, 84, is known for changing the way the subject is taught. In addition to writing the 1,300-page textbook “Organic Chemistry,” now in its fifth edition, he pioneered a new method of instruction that relied less on rote memorization and more on problem solving.
After retiring from Princeton in 2007, he taught organic chemistry at N.Y.U. on a series of yearly contracts. About a decade ago, he said in an interview, he noticed a loss of focus among the students, even as more of them enrolled in his class, hoping to pursue medical careers.
“Students were misreading exam questions at an astonishing rate,” he wrote in a grievance to the university, protesting his termination. Grades fell even as he reduced the difficulty of his exams.
The problem was exacerbated by the pandemic, he said. “In the last two years, they fell off a cliff,” he wrote. “We now see single digit scores and even zeros.”
After several years of Covid learning loss, the students not only didn’t study, they didn’t seem to know how to study, Dr. Jones said.
To ease pandemic stress, Dr. Jones and two other professors taped 52 organic chemistry lectures. Dr. Jones said that he personally paid more than $5,000 for the videos and that they are still used by the university.
That was not enough. In 2020, some 30 students out of 475 filed a petition asking for more help, said Dr. Arora, who taught that class with Dr. Jones. “They were really struggling,” he explained. “They didn’t have good internet coverage at home. All sorts of things.”
The professors assuaged the students in an online town-hall meeting, Dr. Arora said.
Many students were having other problems. Kent Kirshenbaum, another chemistry professor at N.Y.U., said he discovered cheating during online tests.
When he pushed students’ grades down, noting the egregious misconduct, he said they protested that “they were not given grades that would allow them to get into medical school.”
By spring 2022, the university was returning with fewer Covid restrictions, but the anxiety continued and students seemed disengaged.
“They weren’t coming to class, that’s for sure, because I can count the house,” Dr. Jones said in an interview. “They weren’t watching the videos, and they weren’t able to answer the questions.”
Students could choose between two sections, one focused on problem solving, the other on traditional lectures. Students in both sections shared problems on a GroupMe chat and began venting about the class. Those texts kick-started the petition, submitted in May.
“We are very concerned about our scores, and find that they are not an accurate reflection of the time and effort put into this class,” the petition said.
The students criticized Dr. Jones’s decision to reduce the number of midterm exams from three to two, flattening their chances to compensate for low grades. They said that he had tried to conceal course averages, did not offer extra credit and removed Zoom access to his lectures, even though some students had Covid. And, they said, he had a “condescending and demanding” tone.
“We urge you to realize,” the petition said, “that a class with such a high percentage of withdrawals and low grades has failed to make students’ learning and well-being a priority and reflects poorly on the chemistry department as well as the institution as a whole.”
Dr. Jones said in an interview that he reduced the number of exams because the university scheduled the first test date after six classes, which was too soon.
On the accusation that he concealed course averages, Dr. Jones said that they were impossible to provide because 25 percent of the grade relied on lab scores and a final lab test, but that students were otherwise aware of their grades.
As for Zoom access, he said the technology in the lecture hall made it impossible to record his white board problems.
Zacharia Benslimane, a teaching assistant in the problem-solving section of the course, defended Dr. Jones in an email to university officials.
“I think this petition was written more out of unhappiness with exam scores than an actual feeling of being treated unfairly,” wrote Mr. Benslimane, now a Ph.D. student at Harvard. “I have noticed that many of the students who consistently complained about the class did not use the resources we afforded to them.”
Ryan Xue, who took the course, said he found Dr. Jones both likable and inspiring.
“This is a big lecture course, and it also has the reputation of being a weed-out class,” said Mr. Xue, who has transferred and is now a junior at Brown. “So there are people who will not get the best grades. Some of the comments might have been very heavily influenced by what grade students have gotten.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/us/nyu-organic-chemistry-petition.html
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