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Virginia Education Scandal: Merit Matters
We live in a society that no longer values merit. Work hard, get ahead is no longer true. Cynical as that sounds, it seems true. Teenage scholars discovered that in Virginia, their high schools delayed informing students of National Merit Awards – so they could not add these awards to their college applications.
It’s difficult to keep track of all of this but that brings us to 13 schools in all, seven in Fairfax County, four in Loudoun County and two in Prince William County. The Daily Mail created this list.
Fairfax County Superintendent Michelle Reid has claimed all of the failures in her district were the result of individual failures, not an organized effort. But Reid has expressed her commitment to equity from her start on the job. In this clip put out by FCPS she said, “I’ve made it my life’s work to ensure equitable opportunities and equal outcome for each and every student that I’ve had the opportunity to serve
When we no longer value merit, nothing is earned and nothing is deserved. You’re left with a soviet population that aspires to mediocrity. Crippled by an achievement-free lifestyle that destroys their self-esteem, too timid to demand what they’ve earned, and easily bullied.
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Published in General
Living in northern Virginia, I just can’t believe that parents will continue to sacrifice their children on the Democrat/Left altar of equity. But then families with children in school are becoming the minority in this country. Maybe Republicans are losing because that’s who we’re representing rather than pet parents?
Brilliant paragraph.
But it won’t last. They get conquered.
Let’s take a step back. The problem is not that the system isn’t working or has been corrupted or has been co-opted – the problem is that there is a system at all. Abolish compulsory schooling and get the government out of education. (And let’s end the middle class obsession with tax-payer-funded universities while we’re at it.)
If one lives in Fairfax or Loudoun, one sees the school boards dominated by Democrats. This is a consequence of that. Your point as to who keeps voting in this manner is well taken.
This is attributed to a Fairfax Country schools strategic planning meeting. Note the “equal outcomes”, aka. “equity”, line. The possible equal outcome is a poor outcome. As I have been saying for 20+ years now, “no child left behind” is the same as “no child moves ahead”. This is bad, because dumb people need doctors.
To me the most outrageous part of the scandal is that I heard a couple of the involved school administrators speak of the goal of “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.” I could not believe that any person who has ever had contact with actual children could think that was a reasonable, or even achievable goal, let alone a desirable goal. I had heard political commentators take such a position, but they were as idiotic as commentators come, and clearly had no real world contact with actual students. Have these administrators ever met more than one student? Students are different. They have different innate abilities, different interests, different levels of energy and motivation. Even with the same genetic material and living in the same house, our son and daughter were wildly different in their academic achievements. My younger brother and I (very close in age and also born to the same two parents and living in the same house) had very different academic outcomes. We both were pretty good students, but the subjects at which we each excelled were quite different from each other. Some teachers tried to push my brother into the same boxes in which I had excelled, which greatly annoyed him. Fortunately, he was able to escape most of those boxes and demonstrate his capabilities in his own boxes. Equal outcomes is a terrible (and in my opinion, evil) goal for an “education” system.
Which aligns with my “it’s wrong to insist that all children take piano lessons” position.
Joel Kotkin has an article about the rise of singles (especially women) in the electorate. Again, are they going to care about education other than being progressive/woke, etc? Parents really need to start understanding that their children are not important to the nonparent voters. And the education establishment for that matter.
Yes. No contact/relationship with children let alone students. You would think even ‘pet parents’ get that no 2 dogs and cats are the same let alone people.
The Woke crowd hasn’t yet gotten around to “equity” for all pets, no matter what they are.
No. Please stop it with the libertarian fantasies, and let’s try to solve the problems presented by the radical Leftists.
Even the first Congress, and the government under the Articles of Confederation, provided for government-supported education in the Northwest Ordinance. There’s nothing odd about it, and it is in accordance with American tradition. It is not in accordance with the juvenile fantasies of Atlas Shrugged.
Another example of unrealistic libertarian ideas helping the other Leftists.
How bad is the dissonance rolling around in the heads of people that promote 3,000 genders and 1 education outcome?? And they are in charge! Of education!!!!
If everyone has merit then nobody does.
You prefer the violin?
Brutal, but accurate . . .
Source of the Kotkin article?
This also hearkens back to another piece of wisdom:
“Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.” – Mark Twain
That’s not the direction they are going, though. Some kids out there did well enough did well enough on their test to earn a particular honor, and some “equity consultant” prevented them from knowing about it.
Is it “equity” for an equity consultant to have a job when there is anyone else who lacks one?
Or for them to be paid more than anyone else.
They are pulling down $450k for that nonsense.
Link at Powerline to New York Post article titled Single Woke Females or something like that.
This is it. Some quotes:
I prefer to use the term AWFL (Affluent White Female Leftist). She wants what a man provides, but from government.
Because a man is likely to expect some responsibility and even reciprocity?
Thank you.
I put it to you that this proposal is far more realistic than some medieval fantasy about the system being taken over by and for the Godly.
I reject its characterization as “libertarian” or even “Randian”. It is pragmatic. Government education has not only failed the most vulnerable, it is antithetical to the project of the Republic. Not in theory. Not in principle. In practice. Generations of conservatives have convinced themselves that if only they could set education policy, if only they could choose the textbooks, if only they could write the curricula, then the “education” system would be a force for good. Never worked. Not gonna’ work.
That the first Congress provided for government education is of zero relevance to the actual facts on the ground. Or are we to take the fact that the Post Office is in the Constitution as license for complete state control of the means of distribution?
So. Many. Likes.
There are no non-racist synonyms for “achievement” or “better”.
Comparison and even quantification itself is hegemonic and supremacist, like physics. You might try to be cute (as white supremacists often do) and say that if that were true, there would be no way to quantify the socioecominic results of racism and the effects of slavery. But we know such things by doing the work to escape whiteness and developing an awareness that does not rely on white numerals… sometimes even satire triggers the gag reflex… give me a sec…
Northern Virginia likely has more lawyers per capita than most places. If this brain-dead action by the schools (and it is clearly systemic) affected college admissions chances, the county will get hammered.