SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2022
Nicolle Wallace fakes it on schools: It was Thursday afternoon. midway through the 4 o'clock hour. Nicolle Wallace kick-started two segments of "cable news" fakery as shown:
WALLACE (11/17/22): Outrage today, from Virginia educators and Democrats, over what they are calling politically motivated changes to elementary school curriculum proposed this week by Governor Glenn Youngkin's new school board.
Just one of their proposals, according to reporting in the Washington Post, included removing Martin Luther King Jr. from holidays that students in kindergarten should learn about.
After lots of criticism, it appears they have added that back in, but here's one they're yet to reverse. From the Washington Post, "the new guidelines delete a suggestion from the previous version that kindergartners be taught 'respect for diversity' by learning how to work collaboratively with 'people of diverse backgrounds, viewpoints and experiences.' "
Thanks to the Internet Archive, you can watch the whole thing here.
For the record, we never taught kindergarten ourselves. (Fifth grade was as young as we got.) In part for that reason, we aren't real sure about this:
Should kindergarten kids be taught about the holiday which honors Dr. King? If so, what should they be taught?
Also, should kindergarten kids "be taught respect for diversity by learning how to work collaboratively with people of diverse backgrounds, viewpoints and experiences?" Should kindergarten kids be taught that, whatever on the face of the earth that word salad is supposed to mean?
In the encyclopedic Post report from which Wallace was quoting, reporter Hannah Natanson notes that the original K-12 guidelines for the state of Virginia totaled 402 pages in all. The new, Youngkin-affiliated guidelines are, at least at present, just 52 pages in length.
You have to drop a lot of material to get from 400 pages to 50. Natanson included this account:
NATANSON (11/16/22): The new version is shorter partly because it no longer offers “curriculum frameworks,” suggestions for instructional resources, student activities and lines of classroom inquiry that were included in the old version of the guidelines. An Education Department spokesman said the agency will release a separate “curriculum frameworks” document in late summer 2023, and it will undergo a separate board approval process. The framework document may include some of the content present in the old guidelines but deleted from the new version.
[...]
In a fact sheet circulated among legislators by the education department over the weekend, staffers wrote that the old guidelines were clunky, “inaccessible” and “difficult for educators to understand and implement”—while the new version will “restore excellence, curiosity and excitement around teaching and learning history.”
Is it possible that the original, 402-page documents really was difficult to understand and implement?
Answer: Of course that's possible! Anyone who has ever dealt with such materials will understand that fact.
That, of course, doesn't mean the new, Youngkin-affiliated proposed guidelines are better. It means that blue tribe members should be careful about accepting the kind of propaganda which comes at them from soft-core propagandists like Wallace, who used to offer her propaganda in favor of the war in Iraq and in favor of referendums which sought to ban same-sex marriage.
The impulse to peddle propaganda hasn't appreciably changed. The propaganda is pure blue now, but it's propaganda all the same.
In the course of the two segments which followed, Wallace didn't display the slightest sign of having the first idea what she was talking about. Lucky for us, she was able to throw to Heidi Przybyla, one of our favorite reporters and friends, who was introduced as shown:
WALLACE (continuing directly): Joining our conversation is Heidi Przybyla, an investigative correspondent with Politico these days. We miss her from when she was here.
She's reported extensively on how state legislatures have been trying to change what can be taught about race and history in schools. Donna and Alicia are still here as well. [Edwards and Menendez]
Heidi, take me inside what's happening, not just in Virginia, but where conservatives are trying to reach into curriculum.
For starters, let's state the obvious—conservatives have every right "to try to reach into curriculum," just as liberals do.
In some cases, conservatives' ideas may be quite bad. On other occasions, such people may have a valid point. It could even turn out that they seem to be right about something!
If you think there are no dumb ideas floating around in our own blue tribe concerning what should happen in schools, you've been living on the dark side of Neptune lately. But let's not worry our little heads about such possibilities! Wallace will keep us blue tribe rubes from confronting such unpleasant notions.
Wallace will keep us on message! During her second segment with Przybyla, she even pleasured us with this, pretty much out of nowhere:
WALLACE: It's hard to fathom that the depths of depravity on the right would extend into all the areas they do, right?
Given Wallace's know-nothing status in this area, that struck us as a truly repulsive remark.
At the time, Wallace's panel was discussing some recent actions by the newly-elected, conservative school board of Berkeley County, South Carolina.
The panel had made zero attempt to present the possible pros and cons concerning the school board's actions. Instead, their pseudo-discussion was pure propaganda—sloganeering all the way down.
For ourselves, we struggled with a voluminous social studies curriculum back in the 1970s. When we read about the Viginia guidelines, we find ourselves wondering thusly:
Are there textbooks and other materials which will let Virginia's fourth and fifth graders have extensive reading experiences concerning the voluminous material they will allegedly be taught?
To what extent will students be able to read and reason and debate and write about these various topics on their own? Or will they simply be lectured to by their teachers, droning in front of their classrooms?
Thoughts like those will never intrude on a cable news pseudo-discussion. Meanwhile how much did Przybyla actually know about the great debate in Virginia? The analysts came right out of their chairs when this exchange occurred:
WALLACE: Heidi, just finish this sentence for me. The goal of not teaching students all the continents is what?
PRZYBYLA: Look, I'm just reading this myself—
WALLACE (chuckling): I know!
PRZYBYLA: —and I don't, I don't want to make a sweeping statement that they couldn't learn about the other continents. But they would just have a Eurocentric—that was what I took away from reading the article, OK? I'm not the original reporter on it.
She only knew what she'd read in the Post! Wallace knew even less!
It's very, very, very hard to create a K-12 social studies curriculum. Also, people who have strong beliefs will often get out over their skis when they create 400 pages of such material, a great deal of which may be hard to interpret and implement.
Especially in such sensitive areas, people may tend to get carried away on both "the right" and "the left!" If you still don't understand that fact, it's possible that you've ingested too much propaganda during these cable news years.
Wallace is extremely good at what she does, but what she does isn't journalism. Blue tribe members are propagandized when they watch her TV show, just as the red tribe frequently was when it followed her work in the past.
Way back in the age of Roots: We go all the way back to the late Dr. Sam Banks, one of the nicest people we've ever met—and the creator of a stupendously unteachable social studies curriculum back in the 1970s.
Dr. Banks was widely loved in black Baltimore. In our (frequent, brief) interactions with him, we quickly saw why. That said, the curriculum he had lovingly built was completely unteachable, in several major ways.
Dr. Banks was a spectacularly courteous person. He believed, very deeply, in what was then called multiculturalism. That said, his curriculum, as devised, couldn't be taught in real schools.
It called for the use of a million different books at each grade level. Few of those books were in the schools; even the richest public school system couldn't afford to buy them. Also, almost all of the assigned books were too hard for public school kids, often by as many as four or five grade levels.
Dr. Banks wanted kids to learn about the history of all us Americans, but he had gotten way out over his skis. He had devised a gigantic, sprawling, heartfelt curriculum—a curriculum which couldn't be taught.
Wallace and her panel showed few signs of knowing what they were talking about in Thursday's public school segments. They did know what our tribe's bumper stickers say, and they recited each one.
Virginia's kids deserve better than this. But in a time of tribal war, does anyone care about them?
"Also, should kindergarten kids "be taught respect for diversity by learning how to work collaboratively with people of diverse backgrounds, viewpoints and experiences?" Should kindergarten kids be taught that, whatever on the face of the earth that word salad is supposed to mean?"
ReplyDeleteI find it offensive that Somerby would characterize an entirely coherent sentence about kids working with other kids of different backgrounds as "word salad".
He knows perfectly well, as does anyone reading such a sentence, that it means not allowing kids to self-segregate but assigning them to work with other kids who may be different from themselves.
Back when education was considered an important tool of the American melting pot, and the point of public education was to acculturate immigrant families, teachers were taught to help kids mix, not allow the town kids to huddle together apart from the farm kids (think of My Antonia). Today it refers to immigrant and racial diverse kids, but it also refers to boys not self-segregating from girls as well.
It is possible for minority kids to be isolated from those in the majority all the way up through university level, graduate with a degree in some useful field, and yet not seek a job in that field due to discomfort working in the mainstream culture, beside those who are different. Mixing is an important school experience, needed to ensure that minority and majority kids feel sufficiently comfortable with each other that they will not be limited in what they feel they are able to do, after leaving school.
In Chicago, working in a jobs program, I met Mexican American young adults who had never left their South side neighborhoods, never been to the Loop (less than 5 miles away). No doubt Somerby encountered black kids in his classes who were similarly limited in their experiences. Had he worked with white kids, he would have met white kids afraid to venture into black communities or businesses.
Word salad is a disrespectful term when applied to the methods needed to permit diverse people to interact comfortably together. Somerby knows what is being said. His use of such a term implies foot-dragging when it comes to integration of diverse people into the mainstream of our culture. There is no excuse for a former teacher not to recognize the value in that -- and this is yet another example of incipient bigotry on Somerby's part.
"Word salad is defined as “a jumble of extremely incoherent speech as sometimes observed in schizophrenia,” and has been used of patients suffering from other kinds of dementia, such as Alzheimer's."
It has become an annoying cliche
Deleteon both sides.
word salad or respect for diversity?
DeleteThat sentence is grammatically correct and meaningful. Bob went astray when he called it "word salad."
DeleteSince the whole point of the post is to gage if their is anything valid in what he is saying, one suspects there probably is. News flash Bob: one is often struck by the depravity of The Daily Howler, it’s weekly attempts to rationalize a twisted maniac who attempted to take over the United States by force, etc.,Yet we soldier on.
ReplyDeleteIt’s easy to declare those who disagree with you as living on the “dark side of Neptune”, it’s a lot easier than making a case. When
Bob chastises Wallace for laziness you gotta laugh a bit, I can’t
remember Bob checking an
outside source in years.
Is Fox News and the right better
on this stuff than Wallace was in
this instance? I’ve seen worse
stuff on MSNBC attacking the
left (Bill Clinton never raped
anybody) but this is time wasting
gum flapping, a problem that
hardly starts and ends with
Nichole Wallace.
We don't know that Clinton never raped anybody, but the widely publicized accusations were bogus.
DeleteI think it is better to give everyone the benefit of the doubt on that, until there is evidence otherwise.
DeleteShould read “whole point of the post is to bash Wallace”
ReplyDelete"Should kindergarten kids be taught about the holiday which honors Dr. King? If so, what should they be taught? "
ReplyDeleteThis is presumably what the curriculum frameworks will explain. Somerby was a teacher. he knows what teaching materials look like. There are many books about MLK aimed at various age levels that would give a teacher some idea of what to say about him on the holiday honoring his contribution to our country's history.
But just the simple fact of teaching about him will convey to children that he was important enough to be honored on his birthday, and that black people in general have contributed to our country in important ways. That symbolic significance is as important as any specific thing said about him. Children will also take inferences from the teacher's attitude about the holiday and learn either positive or negative messages from that.
The states that do not honor MLK Day are sending a message to everyone that they don't feel that black people are important, not just that MLK wasn't important. In CA, we celebrate Cesar Chavez's birthday with a state holiday. That is because he made a huge contribution to improving conditions for largely Mexicano farmworkers, but also because those diverse people are an important part of the entire economy and culture of CA.
To refuse to honor these holidays is a slap in the face aimed at diverse people in whatever state is taking such action. Gov. Youngkin fools no one with the intent of this action aimed at MLK. Neither does Somerby when he pretends this is just a muddle over what to say about race. The failure to deal with race speaks volumes in itself, about both Youngkin and Somerby, who is being excessively squeamish about the subject.
Again, I find myself wondering how well Somerby related to his black students with these sorts of underlying attitudes.
"like Wallace, who used to offer her propaganda in favor of the war in Iraq and in favor of referendums which sought to ban same-sex marriage"
ReplyDeleteA statement like this (which I do not know to be true or false) does not invalidate whatever Wallace might be currently saying about education. That stands or falls on its own merits. But Somerby cannot resist trying to bias our opinions, before stating his actual criticism of Wallace.
As She makes no attempt to hide, She worked in the W White House. She probably argued less in defense of W than Bob did.
DeleteBoth Hillary and Obama were opposed to legalizing same-sex marriage. We forget, but Gavin Newsom forced the issue in CA by legalizing such marriages in San Francisco. The state then followed suit by making same-sex marriages legal statewide. Do we call Hillary and Obama red-sate propagandists because of these earlier positions? Of course not. Both times and people change. If Wallace changed because she spent time hanging out with liberals, so what? Tucker Carlson changed from being moderate to being batshit crazy. Trump changed from being a Democrat to being even crazier. What does any of that prove about the validity of what Wallace said on 11/17/22?
DeleteSomerby is arguing that those school board members may have had valid reasons for the changes they made. Wallace showed that some of the changes are politically motivated. Somerby doesn't seem to want to deal with that, calling it propaganda. But it is obvious to his readers that these are political changes. No one is objecting because they cut the document down to 54 pages. Somerby is evading the issue raised by Wallace and it seems like he is trying to pretend there is no racial motivation involved. Come on! This is VA and they are trying to erase MLK. Does Somerby think we were all born yesterday?
Somerby has no problem quoting from David Brooks or Andrew Sullivan, both rabid cheerleaders for the Iraq War.
DeleteAnd aren’t large percentages of the right against same-sex marriage? You know, the right wingers, the “Others”, that we’re supposed to respect?
Is Somerby suggesting a liberal purity test for commenters on MSNBC? A purity test he himself would condemn and would not pass.
"WALLACE: It's hard to fathom that the depths of depravity on the right would extend into all the areas they do, right?"
ReplyDeleteGiven Wallace's know-nothing status in this area, that struck us as a truly repulsive remark."
And yet Wallace had just described Youngkin's attempt to remove MLK from the curriculum. That does strike me as depraved and not at all "know-nothing" on Wallace's part.
And of course conservatives have the right to do their job while in office, including revising curriculum and setting school priorities, but this is plainly racist. Somerby's unwillingness to understand what Wallace was objecting to is once again deliberately obtuse.
The definition of the word depraved is: "morally corrupt; wicked".
Erasure of MLK from the curriculum fits that definition, in my opinion, not simply because the information about him will be harder for everyone to find, but because of what it says to both white and black kids about the importance of black people in our culture. Such implicit messages were part of the basis for the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v Board of Education.
Somerby's defense of conservative attempts to roll back civil rights progress is another reason why I consider him to be bigoted, in this case racist. Under the guise of criticizing Wallace, Somerby gives support to Youngkin's efforts to please his racist right wing constituents, by reassuring bigoted parents that their children won't be made uncomfortable by having to treat black kids with respect and dignity, which would conflict with their own teachings about the proper place for minorities in our society.
"Are there textbooks and other materials which will let Virginia's fourth and fifth graders have extensive reading experiences concerning the voluminous material they will allegedly be taught?
ReplyDeleteTo what extent will students be able to read and reason and debate and write about these various topics on their own? Or will they simply be lectured to by their teachers, droning in front of their classrooms?"
None of this has anything to do with Youngkin's desire to remove MLK from the curriculum. These mechanics of teaching are part of the training of teachers. Yes, there are textbooks, and no, teachers aren't expected to include everything in the guidelines. Somerby was a teacher. Why is he disingenuously pretending that removing MLK was just an attempt to make the bulky curriculum easier to implement? No one would have suggested removing George Washington or even Christopher Columbus despite his controversial actions. This is a racially motivated excision of a black role model, and it is obvious why it is occurring, given the affiliation of the Republican party with white supremacist groups, and Youngkin's need to give his own wink wink nod nod to those voters, whether MLK remains in or out of the curriculum.
Somerby's desire to stick to the most superficial reading of Youngkin's action (e..g, the standards book was just too damned long) illustrates his own unwillingness to include the viewpoints of diverse people in his understanding of how politics is affecting education.
"Especially in such sensitive areas, people may tend to get carried away on both "the right" and "the left!" "
ReplyDeleteSomerby wants to both-sides this issue, but where are his examples of left-wing extremes and bad ideas? Is he really meaning to say that teaching about MLK is one such left-wing bad idea? If so, that is a pretty clear statement of where he is coming from, and I consider it racist, especially coming from a teacher, who should understand why MLK is currently part of most school curricula.
"Blue tribe members are propagandized when they watch her TV show, just as the red tribe frequently was when it followed her work in the past."
ReplyDeleteI don't need to be "propagandized" to know that deleting MLK from the VA curriculum is a racially motivated attack on black people (and their kids).
Note that Somerby has not quoted any statements by Wallace that would qualify as red-state propaganda. She may have said the things Somerby is claiming, but he needs to provide some example of it -- that should be easy to find if she was as bad as he claims, in the old days. Merely saying she supported the Iraq war doesn't do it, given that many Democrats voted to authorize the war.
"It called for the use of a million different books at each grade level. Few of those books were in the schools; even the richest public school system couldn't afford to buy them. Also, almost all of the assigned books were too hard for public school kids, often by as many as four or five grade levels."
ReplyDeleteFirst, a curriculum doesn't require that ALL suggested books be used in each classroom. It offers choices and examples of what would be consistent with the goals of the curriculum.
Second, courts have consistently found that the expense and inconvenience of implementing appropriate curriculum for ALL children is not an excuse for allowing a racially biased system to continue to operate. Schools are under-funded and under-resourced in many areas but schools and parents address that via supplemental fund-raising. How else would bands get their uniforms? There is no reason a teacher couldn't buy one copy of a recommended book and then use the approach and info to enrich a lesson plan.
It's too hard to be multicultural is no excuse for the perpetuation of racism -- and Somerby knows that. Or he should, if he were any kind of teacher. I suspect that are seeing misunderstandings that perhaps arose from his lack of training (6 weeks of Teach for America in the summer before his first job doesn't cut it), and he appears to have no creativity, which is a prime qualification for teaching. But it seems likely to me that his lack of training was combined with a lack of motivation to address the goals of this curriculum. He has clearly let the difficulties of change become an obstacle to any effort,
VA is not Baltimore. It is wrong from Somerby to project his own frustrations with his state's curriculum (back in the 1970s) with this current effort to rewrite the VA curriculum to exclude whatever might benefit minority children.
Why would a curriculum exclude mention of other continents? Because immigrant children these days come from those continents never mentioned. That's why so many white kids grow up thinking that Africa is a country or that there is a place called Nambia (which Trump said), or believe that all immigrants are from Mexico and come here by swimming a river. The goal of education is to address ignorance, not perpetuate it by excluding relevant material that might help people understand our immigration problems, or help immigrant children feel like their own heritage is important too. But Somerby says there isn't time for that. That is clearly because it isn't important to him, and that is part of bigotry and the lack of respect for diversity.
There remain some points concerning the interpretation Somerby has made here to be noted, or rather to be recapitulated, for most of them have been already stated by other commenters. These I proceed to discuss the so-called Banks incident, and I am led to do so lest anyone should, by wrongly interpreting the comments here or rashly suspect that he has found something of relevance contrary to Martin Luther King and how he related to children. When they see or hear anything new, they are, unless strictly on their guard, so occupied with their own preconceived opinions that they perceive something quite different from the plain facts seen or heard, especially if such facts surpass the comprehension of the beholder or hearer, and, most of all, if he is interested in their happening in a given way, Somerby relates in chronicles and histories his own opinions rather than actual events, so that one and the same event is so differently related by two men of different opinions, that it seems like two separate occurrences; and, further, it is very easy from historical chronicles to gather the personal opinions of the blogger.
Deleteso-called Banks incident
Deleteskip this one…
Delete"Wallace and her panel showed few signs of knowing what they were talking about in Thursday's public school segments. "
ReplyDeleteSomerby says this because he disagrees with their reaction, not because they have made any factual errors, that he has described.
Somerby says that if they leave MLK in the curriculum, next thing you know everyone will want to be included, and there just isn't time to teach everything. That's complete nonsense. He just doesn't want to see MLK included, because when there isn't time to teach everything, then the curriculum must be limited to only the things important to white kids. That's what it boils down to.
The choice isn't between teaching "everything" or "millions of books" but between teaching Euro-centric bullshit and a curriculum that includes all of the people who have affected our history and culture, from the first days of this nation. The idea of teaching any aspect of history independent of context is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteSomerby was an elementary grade teacher, then a middle school math teacher and only briefly taught social studies. Apparently, he didn't like it. If he didn't take many courses at Harvard outside philosophy and his general ed requirements, it is understandable that he wouldn't know how to create lesson plans from a curriculum framework. I suspect that the problem today isn't Wallace but Somerby's lack of preparation for the job he was asked to do. Other teachers know they aren't required to read, much less use a million books in order to teach a unit about a particular topic in history or social studies. Back in the 1970s, teachers complained that they didn't have the background knowledge to include more multiculturalism in their lessons. I suspect that is why those extensive book lists were included in the curriculum guide.
Teachers in my department at the college level are given a curriculum guide to use to create their syllabi. These contain resource lists too, but no professor is expected to use all of them in their course. I think Somerby is trying to pull the wool over our eyes with this complaint.
Somerby knows goddamn well what's going on. It wasn't too many years ago that the confederate state of Virginia determined that the Federal holiday celebrating MLK wasn't quite good enough for VA, and they cynically had to add Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson as a sweetener to help the medicine go down easier.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first acts of the demagogue Gov. Youngkin was to install a "tip line" for parents to report any teachers who stepped out of line and started teaching CRT to their innocent babes and scaring them with spooky stories about slavery and such. Just another fucking attack on school teachers.
As the parent of an underpaid public school special education teacher in Virginia, who has to use her personal money to buy supplies for her classes, I would like to tell Glen and Bob to go fuck themselves.
Yesterday, Somerby suggested that ticket-splitting might account for the disparity in votes between the Governor's race and the Attorney General's race in Kansas. Politico suggests that is an unlikely explanation:
ReplyDelete"Politico: “The results are enough to make it look like this year’s midterms represented a return to the old days of de-polarized statewide politics, when large numbers of voters would support one party’s candidate for Senate and the other party for governor.”
“But it was actually the opposite. A Politico analysis of the results shows that ticket-splitting in those races declined to the lowest point of any midterm since at least 1990.”
More MAGA violence:
ReplyDelete""North Carolina insurance salesman and semi-pro musician Stephen Jike Williams, who performs simply as Jike Williams, allegedly vowed to execute fact-checkers for the 'defamation and slander' of the ex-president," The Daily Beast reported. "When the FBI showed up at his door, Williams threatened the life of a female agent assigned to investigate, according to a criminal complaint first obtained by The Daily Beast."
After a visit from authorities, Williams reportedly posted a TikTok video titled, "f*ck the FBI."
"Williams, 42, is now charged with threatening to murder a federal law enforcement officer and transmission of interstate threats," The Beast reported. "The complaint against him, which was unsealed Friday in North Carolina federal court, says that Williams was incensed over, variously, the 2020 'stolen' election, vaccine mandates, his TikTok account getting suspended, and liberals pushing 'anti-Trump propaganda.'" From Rawstory
Even Somerby's daily diatribes against journalists provide fuel to nutcases like this guy, convincing them that the media is full of "propagandists" like Nicole Wallace. Somerby isn't the only one targeting journalists for telling them the truth about their MAGA candidates.
ReplyDeleteAh, Nicolle Wallace, aka the Typhoid Mary of Disinformation.
...well, as always, thank you, dear Bob, for documenting this small portion of the latest liberal atrocities.
No one has said don’t teach Western Civ. They want to exclude other continents. You can’t even teach about the Greeks & Romans without Northern Africa & the Middle East. If you talk about the crusades, where were they to? Eurocentric is a euphemism for white.
ReplyDeleteMany would dispute whether this is an exclusively European culture. Consider the influence of Asia and Latin America on large parts of Los Angeles, and Afican influence on Southern culture. If you don’t recognize them, it illustrates the deficiencies of your own education.
David, it’s never to late to convert. Go to a church and tell the pastor that you want to accept Jesus Christ.
ReplyDelete“WALLACE: It's hard to fathom that the depths of depravity on the right would extend into all the areas they do, right”
ReplyDeleteSomerby complains that Wallace once was a right wing operative. Has he considered that that gives her first-hand knowledge of the depths of their depravity?
It’s a cheap, creepy ploy. Bob lacks the moral common sense to write seriously about the Trump crisis, so he has to rub his betters face in the dirt.
DeleteThe first time Somerby talks about education in months and it is to declare he doesn’t think kids should be taught about MLK.
ReplyDeleteJust don't call Bob a "Right-winger".
DeleteLOL.
That's so fucking magnanimous of David, the self- hating Jew. He's willing to learn Christian history, and therefore blacks should accept erasing MLK from elementary curriculum.
ReplyDeleteGo crawl back under your rock, David.
From Digby:
ReplyDeleteOther powers of the federal government, which have grown beyond their first proportions as to have marred very seriously the symmetry of the "literary theory" of our federal system, have strengthened under the shadow of the jurisdiction of Congress over commerce and the maintenance of the politically-motivated tariff wars that have punished American workers, antagonized our allies, and benefited our adversaries. For instance, the Supreme Court of the United States has declared that the powers granted to Congress by the Constitution to regulate commerce and to establish that our military has no peer. We owe it to our men and women in uniform and to the American public to spend our defense dollars wisely and strategically to adapt ourselves to new developments of times and circumstances. They are intended for the government of the business to which they relate, at all times and under all circumstances. It is not only the right but the duty of Congress to see to it that the intercourse between the States and the transmission of intelligence are not obstructed or unnecessarily encumbered by legislation.
Of course it morphed from not talking about MLK to kindergarteners, into nixing it in elementary grades, with some anonymices complaining MLK is being disappeared from all curriculum.
ReplyDeleteKindergartners are taught about Jesus and his gruesome death by the same parents who don’t want them to hear about MLK or slavery.
ReplyDeleteNot from digby
ReplyDeleteMaybe it’s some other digby.
DeleteNot cute.
DeleteDigby was shadow banned. In response to the fingerling potatoes hype.
Delete“that struck us as a truly repulsive remark.”
ReplyDeleteSomerby is free to tell us when, or if, he ever finds a right wing remark about liberals repulsive.
We’re waiting…
Cecelia, there are picture books about MLK -- a picture book is a book intended to be read by parents to children too young to read themselves, e.g., those in kindergarten.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Kids/s?k=Martin+Luther+King+Jr+for+Kids
See for instance, this one, for ages 2-5:
https://www.amazon.com/Brave-Little-Martin-Luther-Ordinary/dp/1984814249/ref=sr_1_24?keywords=Martin+Luther+King+Jr+for+Kids&qid=1668965907&sr=8-24
I’m not arguing that MLK shouldn’t be discussed as a great man to kindergarteners.
ReplyDeleteAnonymices don’t read things as much as they assume them.
And there are positions that have NOT posited, such as the bullshite that MLK should not be introduced in elementary school or that he should left out public school curriculum entirely.
ReplyDeleteYou know…the Virginia educators’ position that you’re supposedly discussing.
Learning to refute what has actually been stated shouldn’t be that difficult for anonymices.
Cecelia, the concern is obviously not that kids are too young to hear about MLK. This is a racist ploy to dis minorities. There is no point in arguing the developmental readiness of kids to hear about MLK, when that was never the concern for those trying to get rid of him in the curriculum, much as they tried to get rid of the holiday itself.
ReplyDeleteWe are not stupid. When racists bring up such issues it is clear what their intent is. Addressing the intent is valid, because the idea that there is no way to talk about MLK without traumatizing kids is ridiculous.
Now you pretend this is a matter of "debate skills" and not a refusal to engage with the subterfuge.
Oh, yes. You know the real and nefarious plot is to have MLK stricken from all primary and secondary learning, therefore you aren’t required to remain within in the boundaries of addressing what has actually been stated.
ReplyDeleteYou can have a ball running off at the mouth over all your hate and paranoia and then call other people ill-intentioned and corrupt.
AnonymousNovember 20, 2022 at 6:52 AM -- Your comment makes no sense. MLK is a part of American history. All Americans should learn about him and about the civil rights movement in general.
ReplyDeleteI would be the last person here to advocate not teaching MLK because as a teen-ager I went to Washington D.C. to hear MLK speak.
Cecelia, you are the one who is confused. The original article in the Washington Post said that the MLK holiday was to be removed for all students. They changed their minds about that under pressure.
ReplyDeleteIt was Somerby who objected to kindergarteners being taught "'respect for diversity' by learning how to work collaboratively with 'people of diverse backgrounds, viewpoints and experiences,"
which Somerby called word salad. The point about deleting MLK's holiday applied to all students.
So, your point about commenters not sticking to the subject results from your own confusion about what was being proposed. And now you heap a bunch of abuse on us for supposedly changing the topic, when it was you who did that.
I think you need to take a time-out.
Anonymouse 4:23pm, the article reports that the proposed change was confined to kindergarten students.
ReplyDelete“Just one of their proposals, according to reporting in the Washington Post, included removing Martin Luther King Jr. from holidays that students in kindergarten should learn about.
After lots of criticism, it appears they have added that back in, but here's one they're yet to reverse. From the Washington Post, "the new guidelines delete a suggestion from the previous version that kindergartners be taught 'respect for diversity' by learning how to work collaboratively with 'people of diverse backgrounds, viewpoints and experiences.' "
Anonymices here broadened that to the entire student body, even after reading that the educators had rethought that move.
“It was Somerby who objected to kindergarteners being taught "'respect for diversity' by learning how to work collaboratively with 'people of diverse backgrounds, viewpoints and experiences,"
which Somerby called word salad. The point about deleting MLK's holiday applied to all students.”
There’s nothing here that suggests that older students would not be exposed to the history of MLK.
I don’t find the “respect for diversity” comment to be ”word salad”, but it is arguable that such a undertaking is better addressed in this age group by doing something more than what is generally done with age group (in kindergarten and in Sunday School) by emphasizing cooperation with their peers in general. Group dynamics, rather than the fierce “me” outlook of that cohort.
It is not instinctive for this age group to reject others in play or group learning on the basis of skin color or gender. It would be hard to undermine that fact, at that age, via family prejudice.
Again, it’s arguable, and you don’t help discussion with your all-or-nothing- approach to these things, let alone the sheer misconstruing of the facts.
Go back and read what Somerby quoted. It does not say the MLK holiday ban was for kindergarten only. We are not responsible if Somerby posts a misleading excerpt. The Washington Post is behind a paywall so the article cannot be checked by those who do not subscribe. you owe us an apology.
ReplyDeleteIf you have access to what is behind a firewall, then you and copy and paste the whole thing here.
ReplyDeleteIf Virginia wants to deny the entirety of its student any mention of King then I am entirely on board with you.
Read what Somerby quoted.
ReplyDeleteAnonymouse 7:08pm, I have. You read me what the WP said behind a firewall.
ReplyDeleteCecelia, I live in Virginia and I know for a fact what was reported everywhere on the original proposals from the demagogue Youngkin.
ReplyDeleteYou're full of shit that it was confined to kindergarten. And I really resent you making accusations of me lying about it.
Here for example:
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It initially did not include lessons on Martin Luther King Jr., Day, and Juneteenth in elementary school, and lessons on lynching were drafted to not start until sixth grade.
"I have a first-grader and since we get off on MLK’s birthday we talked about the celebration of him and what he does, and she talked about it in class and I think age-appropriate education is such a vital thing," said Jessica Berg, a parent and teacher in Loudoun County.
https://www.fox5dc.com/news/virginia-drafts-new-policy-for-teaching-history-in-schools
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Anonymouse 7:32 pm, oh, really.
ReplyDelete“The full statement from Macaulay Porter, spokeswoman for Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Office is below:
"The August 2022 draft policies developed under the previous Administration had significant errors in their standards, including omitting key historical references to hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, and Sen. Hiram Revels of Mississippi, the first African American to serve in Congress, and more, which have now been incorporated into the new draft. Despite various claims to the contrary, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is included in the revised standards and, in fact, they have expanded the depth of content required on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Through public comment, review, and input from Virginians, state and national historians, and various community organizations since January 2021, the draft standards are being molded to ensure our students learn all our history - the good and the bad. The draft history standards are in the initial stages of the State Board of Education's review process and will continue to undergo revisions informed by public engagement sessions and Board hearings. This process is focused on ensuring Virginia has the best history standards and curriculum for our students."
https://www.fox5dc.com/news/virginia-drafts-new-policy-for-teaching-history-in-schools.amp
This is obviously not what Somerby quoted or what Wallace was working from. And you are now being intellectually dshonest. You falsely accused anonymous commenters here and you owe us an apology.
ReplyDeleteWe know the school board backtracked after public outcry. This documents the backtracking, not the original elimination of MLK Day from the list of holidays, for all students, as discussed by Wallace.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI’m not being intellectually dishonest.
ReplyDeleteYou are.
“The standards being discussed are only a draft and overview, not the final framework.
That version will be released in August 2023.”
Until then, there will be public hearings for people to weigh in, and several changes could come about.
Virginia's new standards for history education have been criticized.
The Virginia Department of Education put out new standards for teaching history and social science on Friday.
“Parents and teachers in the Commonwealth are divided on the topic but agree on one thing -- they want politics out of the classroom.”
No one is being dishonest as to the facts, but you.
The process was allowed to be questioned.
It’s still in dispute. It’s not autocratically decided.
My condolences.
Like I said, dishonest. The anonymous commenters were right and you were confused and made false accusations. Now it is time for you to apologize, not move the goalposts. Show some character.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on Colorado Springs, Bob. Couldn't have done it without you tireless waving away of the bigotry of the Right.
ReplyDeleteNo. You lied as to what was definitely decided.
ReplyDeleteI won’t apologize for the Youngkin Admin being more malleable than you.
Everyone can read this exchange and Somerby’s essay for themselves. Big lies don’t work here. We know you for what you are, by your own words.
ReplyDeleteYou judge your opposition by the words you put in their mouths
ReplyDeleteYour opposition judges you in Virginia by THEIR ELECTED constituency ( in which they’ve already have made concessions to you).
They are your betters. In all ways. they’re your betters.
What the hell is an "elected constituency"?
ReplyDeleteYou moved the goal posts, the issue was what was originally proposed.
Yeah, they made concessions. How magnanimous of them.
What was initially proposed had to do with kindergartners.
ReplyDeleteThe process isn’t about magnanimity or “all or nothing”.
That’s true in any deliberate body, and that fact is quite beyond you.
You're full of shit, Cecelia.
ReplyDeleteIt initially did not include lessons on Martin Luther King Jr., Day, and Juneteenth in elementary school, and lessons on lynching were drafted to not start until sixth grade.