I remember how it was -- JR
The worrisome popularity of sociology in British High Schools
I taught sociology for a number of years in a major university and can say that it is as bad as Rod Liddle (below) says it is
It was bleak despair once again when I read that sociology is shooting up the A-level list, along with its ESN older sister, psychology. These are the two subjects da kidz want to study these days, both shooting up the list of preferences. Psychology is now the second most popular subject (largely for the dweebs who can’t cope with a proper science) and sociology is up from ninth to fifth.
In a sense, we should probably be glad that this mangled subject (Latin prefix, Greek suffix – that alone should give you a clue as to the depths of its idiocy) is proving popular with the young social justice warriors. It might keep them away from proper subjects, such as history and geography. In the past 30 years both of those disciplines have simply become yet another branch of resentment studies – in a sense a mere adjunct to sociology. They have become about real, exaggerated or imagined oppression and little else. Perhaps now, with the radicals turning to sociology, both subjects might be reclaimed.
Sociology is tendentious, half-baked, spuriously scientific, politically biased and – frankly – of no use to man or beast. I should know; I studied it at the London School of Economics and Political Science back in the early 1980s and it was as stupid then as it is now. Much like the altar at which it worships, Marxism, it is a creature of the 19th century and the desperate wish firstly to provide a ‘holistic’ view of everything and secondly to replace religious faith with science. Auguste Comte coined the word ‘sociology’ in between doing much better things with his life. Like Marx and almost every other philosopher of the 19th century, Comte was a social evolutionist: mankind develops in pre-ordained stages. That is the first flaw of the discipline – it doesn’t.
The accusations of political bias are furiously contested by those within the discipline, largely, I suspect, because they know they are true. When I studied the subject the most right-wing sociologist on the curriculum was the American Talcott Parsons, who described himself as a ‘Stevenson Democrat’ (after Adlai) and was suspected by J. Edgar Hoover of being the leader of a ring of communists at Harvard University. The rest of the stuff was pretty much down-the-line Marxism: conflict and oppression. It is remarkable how this subject still clings to the tenets of an ideology which since 1989 has been a byword for catastrophic economic failure and tyranny. But then so do the leaders of Black Lives Matter, who when railing against the concept of the ‘white saviour’ make an exception for good ol’ Karl.
The extent of that bias within the subject? A study by Jose Duarte suggested that 58 to 66 per cent of ‘social scientists’ were liberal (in the US meaning of the term) and only 5 to 8 per cent conservative. But social scientists presumably included economists, where the inherent bias is far less pronounced. A better indication might come from a study by Jon Shields of the Claremont McKenna College in California, which suggested that 12 out of a total of 6,000 sociologists were what one might call conservative.
The impulse within the discipline is always to concentrate on conflict, be it class-based or gender-based or the consequence of racial difference. There is no room for nuance: it is all a Manichaean divide between the oppressor and the oppressed. Anything which might mitigate social divides is dismissed as chimeric, much as Marx once dismissed patriotism, say, or religious faith as deluding. And when equality is reached within one or another sphere, sociology moves the goal posts to demand ever more radical forms of ‘equality’.
Well, if the kids want to spend £40,000 immersed in this liberal fantasy, it’s their call. Although what they will do with their degrees at the end is a moot point.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/08/the-great-sociology-con
*******************************************************NYC charter schools enroll wave of kids from migrant families: ‘We want to help’
New York City charter schools have enrolled a wave of children from asylum-seeking families that have recently arrived in the five boroughs in an effort to help address the ongoing migrant crisis.
Democracy Prep, one of the city’s largest charter school networks with 14 schools in The Bronx and Harlem, has begun taking in arrivals in at least three schools that currently have no waiting lists — including Harlem Prep Middle School, Harlem Prep HS and Democracy Prep Endurance HS.
Other charter schools that have enrolled migrant kids include Family Life Academy in The Bronx, Voice Charter School in Long Island City, Growing up Green in LIC and Jamaica and Hebrew Language Academy in Brooklyn and Staten Island, charter school sector sources said.
There have been 19,000 children enrolled in city shelters since July 2022, and Mayor Eric Adams’ office said most of them are migrant kids.
“We’ve already enrolled 40 [migrant students] across our middle schools and high schools concentrated on the east side of Harlem,” said Democracy Prep regional Superintendent Emmanuel George.
“Since the surge has happened, we want to help. We want to bring kids into our doors.”
“We are a community charter school, you’ve got to serve. You’ve got to act,” George said.
Charter schools with waiting lists of students from prior random lottery drawings are forbidden from enrolling migrants or other students. But schools are permitted to enroll children in cases where there is no backlog.
“Some [grades] have waiting lists and some don’t. “People can apply, they can get in,” George said.
“We want to abide by the state lottery rules but at the same time the wait list will not be a barrier for us in schools where we are still seeking enrollment. If there are migrants entering into our communities, we want to make sure enrollment is not a barrier.”
He said enrollment officers distributed applications in English, Spanish and French to parents of kids in migrant shelters.
“We had people who can speak the language,” George said.
There are 274 charter schools in the city serving 142,500 students. Charter schools are publicly funded, but privately managed and mostly non-union schools that operate independently from the city Department of Education. Many have a longer school day and school year and outperform their neighboring traditional public schools, test data and studies show.
Like traditional public schools, charters have seen a decline in enrollment with a decline in the city’s student-age population. The city’s public school enrollment has plummeted from 1.1 million students a decade ago to under 900,000.
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Trustees for the New College of Florida have voted to end a 28-year-old gender studies program
Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist and Manhattan Institute scholar appointed to New College’s board of trustees by Gov. Ron DeSantis, introduced the motion to direct the school’s president to eliminate the gender studies program.
The board voted 7-3 in favor of the motion at a meeting Thursday.
Rufo said during the meeting that the gender studies program is “wildly contradictory” to the board’s mission to advance a classical liberal arts education at the Sarasota college, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“Removal of gender studies as an area of concentration at New College is fully in accord with its strategic mission to be the state of Florida’s liberal arts honors college,” board member Matthew Spalding, a Hillsdale College professor and dean, told The Daily Signal.
“Not only does gender studies fall well outside this focus, but its ideologically driven and tendentious character render it more a movement of cultural politics than an academic discipline,” Spalding added. “Any substantial topic taken up in gender studies may be found thoroughly treated in the ordinary academic disciplines such as history, psychology, or biology.”
Spalding previously oversaw programs on American principles and political thought at The Heritage Foundation, parent organization of The Daily Signal.
The New School’s board voted in February to eliminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion office in February, which some observers call a testament to the school’s rapid return to focusing on a classical liberal arts education.
The New College of Florida’s gender studies program, established in 1995, included courses such as Women’s and Feminist Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Queer and Trans Studies, and Masculinity Studies.
The gender studies program “intersects with interdisciplinary fields including Cultural, Ethnic, and Africana Studies,” according to a school webpage about it.
DeSantis, a Republican candidate for the presidency, has touted the New College as a way to advance conservative principles and in January named six conservatives to the school’s 12-member board of trustees.
The governor has said he aims to shape the state’s only liberal arts school to become an example of a traditional, conservative education.
Disgruntled students protested Rufo’s visit to New College in May, and one allegedly spat on the trustee. The student was charged with battery, a first-degree misdemeanor, but on Thursday came to an agreement with the school in which she will withdraw from the school and won’t be prosecuted.
Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said that he hopes the new direction will transform the New College of Florida into a sort of “Hillsdale of the South.”
Hillsdale College, in Michigan, is a celebrated liberal arts college with a conservative approach.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/08/11/new-college-of-florida-trustees-vote-to-end-gender-studies
******************************************************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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