Sunday, November 21, 2021

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: New Pandemic High Edition (11/21)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: New Pandemic High Edition (11/21)




New Pandemic High Edition

Well, my county has hit its highest COVID numbers since the whole thing started. Now, for us that's still under 200 with rare mortality, but it's still not encouraging. And still plenty of people with their "well, it's my choice" crap about vaccination. Thanksgiving's looking great. For no particular reason, there's a long list this week, just in case you need more reading to tide you through the holiday. 

The book bans will continue until patriotism improves

Don Moynihan runs a pretty good little substack. This post connects a lot of the current culture war panic dots.

Burning Books is Un-American

Paul Thomas offered this op-ed to newspaper across South Carolina; one more good reminder of how wrong book bans are.

Parents coming for mental health programs next

NBC looks at the emerging trend on the list of educational programs that certain parents would like to see the manager about

The teachers here are not okay

A first-person piece at Chalkbeat looks at the many crises that Louisiana teachers have been hit with.

What rational parents must do to combat education conspiracies

Andre Perry at the Hechinger Report looks at how to push back against the culture war attacks on schools

Why there hasn't been a mass exodus of teachers

Has the Great Resignation extended to teaching? There are plenty of anecdotes and stories, but I've been wondering if we aren't just seeing a version of shark attack summer, where something is going on as it always has, but we're just paying more attention? I'm still not sure, but Rebecca Klein has a good story to address the question.

Want to rethink education? It's time to take back kindergarten!

Nancy Bailey points out that now would be a great time to make kindergarten kindergarten again.

4 Reasons to ditch academic preschools

Janet Lansbury offers four great reasons to avoid this assault on littles

Unmasking Moms for Liberty

Olivia Little at Media Matters has a good look at where, exactly, the Moms are coming from.

Toward a more inclusive Williamson County

The good news is that Moms For Liberty is not the only group organizing in Williamson County, Tennessee. Andy Spears has the story.

Authentic Voices

Dad Gone Wild gets all radical and actually listens to what teachers have to say about the current state of affairs.

Lessons of youth activism, climate change, and climate justice

Jose Luis Vilson has some reflections on all three, from a summit he attended.

The art of twisting good things into monsters

Teacher Totter looks at some current vocabulary-- equity, fidelity, critical race theory, etc--and shows how school districts turn them into disaster. One of those painfully funny kind of posts.

I'm a Teacher, and I can't live like this

Ellen Dahlke has a piece that isn't just one more "I Give Up" post, but a look at the toll on teachers that comes from making them act as ad hoc mental health professionals.

How teaching is like blowing leaves and snow

Blue Cereal Education has a two-fer; how is teaching like blowing leaves, and how is it like blowing snow? 

Presidential Timber

Grumpy Old Teacher offers some observations about Ron "Gonna Run For The White House" DeSantis and some of his great ideas in Florida.

Appreciating the Public Schools we take for granted

Jan Resseger offers a Thanksgiving-ready reflection on the many ways in which we should be appreciative of our public schools.

That Old Time Religion Saves The World

Nancy Flanagan offers some meditation about the natures and uses of religion in troubled times. 

And finally-- I didn't post anything to Forbes.com this week, but I did turn up over at the Progressive, responding to Arne Duncan's ideas about how we can bring everybody together over education.


What Democrats Get Wrong about the Fight to Save Public Schools - Progressive.org - https://progressive.org/public-schools-advocate/what-democrats-get-wrong-about-schools-greene-211118/




Six Questions To Evaluate Your State’s Education Savings Account Voucher Program - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2021/11/16/six-questions-to-evaluate-your-states-education-savings-account-voucher-program/?sh=61facb4d7489 by @palan57 on @forbes


New Hampshire And Moms For Liberty Put Bounty On Teachers’ Heads - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2021/11/12/new-hampshire-and-moms-for-liberty-put-bounty-on-teachers-heads/?sh=63282917a4bf by @palan57 on @forbes


The Conversation About Critical Race Theory In Schools Is Over. - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2021/11/05/the-conversation-about-critical-race-theory-in-schools-is-over/?sh=2b3d19e16f04 by @palan57 on @forbes




Introducing the Public Education Hostility Index
by Peter Greene / 1d
Here at the Curmudgucation Institute, we have always realized that we are lacking one thing that every good thinky tank and Institute and Foundation has--reports. So we finally buckled down and created the American Public Education State Hostility Index (APESHI). This report now has its very own website . The goal was to address the question, "Which states are the most hostile to public education
NH Teacher Bounty: Gov Denounces, Moms for Liberty Double Down
by Peter Greene / 2d
New Hampshire instituted a gag order on teachers that could strip them of their licenses for teaching the wrong thing, and Moms for Liberty jumped in by putting a bounty on the heads of teachers whose broke the law. It has been a good-sized flap, as well it should have been. Governor Chris Sununu has come out pretty clearly on the matter. “The Governor condemns the tweet referencing ‘bounties’ and
GOP House Proposed Parents Bill of Rights.
by Peter Greene / 3d
The GOP is ready to do some serious pandering, as the critical race theory panic continues to metastasize. Here comes Kevin McCarthy with an announcement: Over the past nearly two years, we have seen a troubling trend take root in the Democrat Party. Their elected officials want to take power away from parents and hand over more control to politicians and teachers unions to dictate what our child
History is a conversation
by Peter Greene / 6d
, not a declaration, and anyone who says, "This is the Only One True Way to understand this event," is not doing history, but something else. It is ironic that in all this fretting about how history is taught, students generally consider history to be the most pointless class they're asked to sit through. But we humans are hardwired to do history (even if we have trouble imagining that history di
Speaking Of Indoctrination
by Peter Greene / 6d
The Board of Directors was excited when we arrived at the doctor's office because there, on the edge of the reception window, was a row of small figurines. "Look! Paw Patrol!" they said happily. The thing is, we don't watch Paw Patrol. We barely watch tv at all, and what we watch is streamed ad free. And yet somehow, we know Paw Patrol. I've been through this before. My older children also rarely
ICYMI: Good News Edition (11/14)
by Peter Greene / 7d
Happy to let you know that the twins have both tested negative for the Corona Pirates after their exposure to a positive classmate earlier this week. So that's a win. Now here's your reading for the week. Learning Loss or Learning Found A great real teacher view of the whole Learning Loss flap, by Sharon Murchie. Stop Telling Students, "You Belong!" At Education Week, Greg Walton offers an explan
Current Pandemic Update (11/21)
by Peter Greene / 9d
So I was going to tell you how things are going in this neck of the woods. We get so many updates from major cities, I've figured all along that we might as well have updates from rural NW PA , an area that seemed, 20 months ago, to be well-positioned to weather this storm. I was going to tell you that local schools are back to having spot outages. A class sent home to quarantine here, a building
PA: How's "Twenty Strong Men" vs. School Board Guy Doing?
by Peter Greene / 10d
Steve Lynch is a QAnon-quoting, insurrection-joining, Patriot Party-supporting, fully-Trumpified fitnes trainer who, you may recall, made a splash while running for Northampton County executive. He made a national splash by suggesting that the solution to all these Very Naughty School Boards was to take "twenty strong men" into the school board meeting and command the board to either resign or be
Maybe Everyone Doesn't Think Schools Suck
by Peter Greene / 11d
Does it seem as if the Anti crowd-- the one demanding that schools re-open, that masks be discarded, that discussions of race be shut down, that the unions are trying to indoctrinate children, that school board members need to
at