Category: Education & Schools

The author is a Harvard Professor, so you can see the low level that a university education has sunk to, when you have teachers who so openly lie. And what’s amazing is that they still lie in the age of the internet where just a little searching can find the facts of a matter.

While I have had my problems in the past in conversation with Attorney Branca on a gun control related subject (in reference to the definition of a ‘bullet core’ in relation to M855 ‘green tip’ ammo and federal law definitions of ‘armor piercing’ handgun ammo), his video reply to this article is on point.

Rittenhouse Verdict Flies in the Face of Legal Standards for Self-Defense

In a two-week trial that reignited debate over self-defense laws across the nation, a Wisconsin jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse for shooting three people, two fatally, during a racial justice protest in Kenosha.

The Wisconsin jury believed Rittenhouse’s claims that he feared for his life and acted in self-defense after he drove about 20 miles from his home in Antioch, Illinois – picking up an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle in Kenosha – in what he claimed was an effort to protect property during violent protests. The lakeside city of 100,000 was the scene of chaotic demonstrations after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, an unarmed, 29-year-old black man, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

In delivering its verdict, a Wisconsin jury decided that Rittenhouse’s conduct was justified, even though the prosecution argued that he provoked the violent encounter and, therefore, should not be able to find refuge in the self-defense doctrine.

As prosecutor Thomas Binger said in his closing argument: “When the defendant provokes this incident, he loses the right to self-defense. You cannot claim self-defense against a danger you create.”

The Wisconsin jury disagreed, and its decision may portend a similar outcome in another high-profile case in Georgia, where three white men are on trial for the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery after they claimed the Black man was a suspect in a rash of robberies. Like Rittenhouse, the three men claimed they were acting in self-defense.

Self-defense arguments are often raised during trials involving loss of life. Juries are then asked to determine whether a defendant’s conduct is justified by principles of self-defense or whether the offender is criminally liable for homicide.

Complicating matters is that each state has its own distinct homicide and self-defense laws. Some states observe the controversial “stand your ground” doctrine, as in Georgia – or not, as in Wisconsin – further clouding the public’s understanding on what constitutes an appropriate use of deadly force.

Five elements of self-defense

As a professor of criminal law, I teach my students that the law of self-defense in America proceeds from an important concept: Human life is sacred, and the law will justify the taking of human life only in narrowly defined circumstances.

The law of self-defense holds that a person who is not the aggressor is justified in using deadly force against an adversary when he reasonably believes that he is in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. This is the standard that every state uses to define self-defense.

To determine whether this standard is met, the law looks at five central concepts.

First, the use of force must be proportionate to the force employed by the aggressor. If the aggressor lightly punches the victim in the arm, for example, the victim cannot use deadly force in response. It’s not proportional.

Second, the use of self-defense is limited to imminent harm. The threat by the aggressor must be immediate. For instance, a person who is assaulted cannot leave the scene, plan revenge later and conduct vigilante justice by killing the initial aggressor.

Third, the person’s assessment of whether he is in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury must be reasonable, meaning that a supposed “reasonable person” would consider the threat to be sufficiently dangerous to put him in fear of death or serious bodily injury. A person’s own subjective view of this fear is not enough to satisfy the standard for self-defense.

Fourth, the law does not permit a first aggressor to benefit from a self-defense justification. Only those with “clean hands” can benefit from this justification and avoid criminal liability.

Finally, a person has a duty to retreat before using deadly force, as long as it can be done safely. This reaffirms the law’s belief in the sanctity of human life and ensures that deadly force is an option of last resort.

‘Stand your ground’

The proliferation of states that have adopted “stand your ground” laws in recent years has complicated the analysis of self-defense involving the duty to retreat.

Dating back to early Anglo-American law, the duty to retreat has been subject to an important exception historically called the “castle doctrine”: A person has no duty to retreat in his home. This principle emerged from the 17th-century maxim that a “man’s home is his castle.”

The “castle doctrine” permits the use of lethal force in self-defense without imposing a duty to retreat in the home. Over time, states began to expand the non-retreat rule to spaces outside of the home.
“Stand your ground” laws came under national scrutiny during the trial of George Zimmerman, who was acquitted in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

In that case, Martin, 17, was walking home after buying Skittles from a nearby convenience store. At the time, Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch volunteer who called police after spotting Martin. Despite being told by the 911 operator to remain in his car until officers arrived, Zimmerman instead confronted Martin.

It remains unclear whether a fight ensued, who was the aggressor and whether Zimmerman had injuries consistent with his claims of being beaten up by Martin. Zimmerman was the sole survivor; Martin, who was unarmed, died from a gunshot wound.

In the Zimmerman case, for example, under traditional self-defense law, the combination of first-aggressor limitation and duty to retreat would not have allowed Zimmerman to follow Martin around and kill him without being liable for murder.

But, in a stand-your-ground state such as Florida, Zimmerman had a lawful right to patrol the neighborhood near Martin’s home. As a result, during his trial, all Zimmerman had to prove was that he was in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury.

In Wisconsin, Rittenhouse was also able to put in evidence that he was in reasonable fear of death. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” Rittenhouse testified. “I defended myself.”

The prosecution was unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Rittenhouse was not reasonably in fear for his safety. This represents a high bar for the prosecution. They were unable to surmount it.

Ronald Sullivan is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

If you haven’t figured this out yet for yourself, you’re behind.

THEY ARE AFTER OUR CHILDREN

The precepts of Critical Race Theory are only taught to law school students, right? Sure. And also to pre-schoolers. Check out this new program from the University of Texas called GoKAR!. KAR stands for Kids Against Racism. UT is looking for parents “caregivers” who have preschool children ages four to five. They must “identify as white.” This is so the four and five year olds can be subjected to an “anti-racism” curriculum. In particular, “GoKAR! creates opportunities for caregivers to engage in dialogue about anti-Black racism with their preschool-aged children at home.” How about if we read them Winnie the Pooh instead? Please?

Click to enlarge, via Minding the Campus:

One stated objective of the GoKAR! program is to “increase awareness of racism.” I have no doubt that this goal will be achieved. These four and five year olds probably have little or no awareness of racism, but when the University of Texas is done with them, race will be front and center in their lives. Liberals think that is a good thing. God knows why.

That’s race. Now on to gender. In California, public school teachers’ union members are stalking middle-school kids on the internet, identifying potential 12- to 14-year-old kids whom they can groom into the LGBTQ life through school organizations. Seriously. Abigail Shrier has the story, obtained through audio recordings from a conference of California’s largest teachers’ union. Here, as is generally the case, the teachers’ union is a source of great evil.

Last month, the California Teachers Association (CTA) held a conference advising teachers on best practices for subverting parents, conservative communities and school principals on issues of gender identity and sexual orientation. Speakers went so far as to tout their surveillance of students’ Google searches, internet activity, and hallway conversations in order to target sixth graders for personal invitations to LGBTQ clubs, while actively concealing these clubs’ membership rolls from participants’ parents.

You really should read Ms. Shrier’s post in its entirety. It includes lengthy quotes from union members that support that summary. For example:

Middle school kids, apparently, did not have endless interest in sitting around with their teachers during lunch discussing their sexual orientations and gender identities. “So we started to brainstorm at the end of the 2020 school year, what are we going to do? We got to see some kids in-person at the end of last year, not many but a few. So we started to try and identify kids. When we were doing our virtual learning – we totally stalked what they were doing on Google, when they weren’t doing school work. One of them was googling ‘Trans Day of Visibility.’ And we’re like, ‘Check.’ We’re going to invite that kid when we get back on campus. Whenever they follow the Google Doodle links or whatever, right, we make note of those kids and the things that they bring up with each other in chats or email or whatever,” Baraki can be heard to say. Beyond electronic surveillance of kids’ internet use, “we use our observations of kids in the classroom—conversations that we hear—to personally invite students. Because that’s really the way we kinda get the bodies in the door. Right? They need sort of a little bit of an invitation,” Baraki says in the clip.

It turns out that very few middle school kids are actually interested in being gay, trans or whatever. So radical teachers “stalk what they [are] doing on Google”–their words, not mine–and “use [their] observations of kids in the classroom” to identify children who might be vulnerable to the gay message, and entice them into the queer–their word–“movement.” All of this is at taxpayers’ expense, and, as one of the teachers caught on audio tape exults, they can’t be fired for stalking and grooming children.

However concerned you may be about the Left coming after your children, you can’t be paranoid enough.

And on the local front:

Violations of Missouri ‘Sunshine Law’ can result in some pretty heft fines. For the people who continually say ‘We don’t teach CRT!” they sure do a lot of complaining about people wanting proof.

Missouri Attorney General Sues Springfield School District Over Refusal To Turn Over Critical Race Training Records.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed suit against Springfield Public Schools for violating the state’s sunshine laws, saying SPS failed to provide documents his office requested after parents complained of lessons and curriculum based on Critical Race Theory (CRT).

On November 16, 2021, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed suit against Springfield Public Schools for violating the state’s sunshine laws. Schmitt says Springfield failed to provide documents his office requested after parents complained of lessons and curriculum based on Critical Race Theory (CRT).

In a press release announcing the action, the AG’s office said, in part:

Upon questioning by the Attorney General’s Office, Springfield Public Schools admitted that they’ve provided equity training to students in the GO CAPS program for the past three school years. In May of 2021, Springfield Public Schools reported that it had formed a “Culturally Relevant Curriculum Review” and adopted a Culturally Responsible Scorecard to implement a social justice evaluation of core curriculum, including math.

After the Springfield Public Schools School Board limited public comments and Springfield Public Schools announced that they would not release training materials to the public, the Attorney General’s Office filed a Sunshine Law request on behalf of concerned parents to find out exactly how frequently critical race theory and antiracism materials and teachings were supplied or taught to students.

In response, Springfield Public Schools provided a fee estimate that demanded an initial deposit of $37,000. The lawsuit alleges, “Springfield Public Schools violated § 610.026.2 [the Sunshine Law] by demanding a deposit for items or services other than copies as a precondition to making public records available to the Attorney General’s Office.”

Schmitt also put together a lengthy thread on twitter sharing details his office had learned about the teacher trainings.

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Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves Calls for Elimination of Critical Race Theory in Budget Proposal

Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves released his Fiscal Year 2023 budget proposal on Monday, recommending that the teaching of critical race theory be eliminated from taxpayer-funded schools.

Under a section in the budget proposal titled “Improving Education,” Reeves headlined a section “Eliminate Critical Race Theory” and outlined how he believed the teaching to be a “vicious lie.”

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Indiana Educator Warns Parents: ‘We’re Lying’ About Not Teaching CRT, ‘Keep Looking’

On Thursday, a science coach who works in the Indiana public school system issued a video in which he countered the narrative that Critical Race Theory is not being taught in schools, warning parents, “When we tell you Critical Race Theory isn’t being taught in our schools, we’re lying. Keep looking.”

 

UC Berkeley Students Happily Pledge Money to Help the Taliban Kill Americans Inside the U.S

Anyone who may still be skeptical about the assertion that today’s college students are taught to hate America should take three minutes to watch this video from filmmaker Ami Horowitz, in which he asks students at the University of California, Berkeley to pledge money to the Taliban so that the jihad terror group can strike inside the United States and kill Americans.

“We’re trying to raise money for the Taliban,” Horowitz tells student passersby, and as if that wasn’t hard enough in itself to believe, he piles on more absurdities: “Tax deductible. I mean, if you earn money in Afghanistan, so that’s probably less helpful to you guys.” Horowitz explains to one man: “We’re Taliban 2.0. We’re kinder, gentler. Not really, but okay. You know, it’s our, it’s the way, it’s the way we roll.”

Those who stand there and take all that seriously get even more: “We want to be able to train our fighters to fight back against American interests. There’s a lot of weapons that were left there, we need money to train them how to use it against American forces.” It gets even worse: “We want to train our fighters to strike back against American interests around the world and in the homeland.”

Horowitz knows just what to say to move woke Berkeley students to open their wallets: “Before America got there, we used it as a base to strike against America. We want to do that again….We got to fight back, you know? And America’s destroying the world, and we want to secure it for striking against the American homeland.” He tells another student: “So we want to be able to create a bulwark against America in Afghanistan, to fund and help its enemies around the world strike back against American interests, both abroad and in the homeland.” And: “Basically we want to create a safe space for enemies of the United States….9/11 was a lesson, but this is, they didn’t learn their lesson from 9/11. We want them to do that again like we did it in 2001.”

The pitch couldn’t have been clearer that the money was going to go for jihad massacres on American soil. Horowitz tells a student that he wants to “create a safe haven for America’s enemies.” To another avidly listening young woman, he says, “We want to strike the US both abroad and in the homeland, to teach them a lesson. Life means nothing to them, and America needs to be brought to heel.” The student replied: “Very true.”

Other students in the video respond enthusiastically as well. To one young woman, Horowitz says, “I don’t know if you know that much about American imperialism.” She responds, “Oh, yes, yeah.” Horowitz continues: “So you know how damaging the US is.” Her reply: “Definitely!”

One student hears Horowitz’s pitch and responds, “Okay, that sounds great!” Another tells him, “Appreciate what you’re doing here.” A third says, “What you’re talking about is really important and I agree with you fully.” One young man tells Horowitz, “I would work for you.” One student pledges $50; Horowitz gives him a hug and exclaims, “Do you know how many Taliban fighters we can train on that?”

Horowitz told the New York Post: “Every time I dream up an idea for a new video, I always have the same conversation with myself: ‘I’ve gone too far, this is too insane.’ There’s no way that people will accept the premise I’m going to present them with. I thought, ‘How can I go to a major American university and ask people to give me money for the Taliban, specifically to kill Americans? What universe do I have to be in to find American kids willing to give me money to kill Americans?’ But that’s exactly what we found….This is probably one of the only times where if someone punched me in the face, I’d be happy. Not a single person told me to go to hell or go f–k myself….The majority of people who stopped and talked to me decided they’d give me money for this — to fund the Taliban and specific use of proceeds to kill Americans, and strike back at America, and fund a new 9/11 on the US homeland.”

Even the cameraman, whom the Post describes as “a left-of-center San Franciscan,” was shocked, and asked Horowitz, “Am I being punked right now? Are these actors? I don’t understand what’s happening.”

I do. So do you. Every day at UC Berkeley, these students’ professors regale them with propaganda about how America is an evil agent of imperialism, colonialism, and racism, and that the Americans among them should regard their American nationality with shame. This relentless indoctrination bears the fruit it was intended to bear: a generation of Americans who not only wouldn’t fight to defend this country but would cheerfully aid in its destruction. That fruit is what this video shows us.

 

School Board Refuses to Fire Employees Who Don’t Comply With Washington State Vaccine Mandate

The Eatonville School Board voted Thursday afternoon in a vote of 2-1 not to terminate employees who would not comply with Democrat Governor Jay Inslee’s mandate for Washington state.

In August, Inslee implemented what was then the strictest vaccine mandate for state workers in the US and provided no option for workers to submit frequent testing in place of the COVID-19 vaccine. Since then, Mayor Bill de Blasio in New York City has done the same. Inslee also announced a vaccine requirement for all employees, on-site contractors and on-site volunteers in K-12 schools.
On Tuesday, Inslee fired nearly 1,900 state workers, including hundreds of first responders, that did not submit vaccination records, a requirement ordered by Inslee that had an October 18 deadline. Those numbers don’t include workers that were fired by their local governments or those that opted to quit or retire early after hearing about the mandate. Those numbers combined are predicted to be in the thousands.

The meeting was called to order at 3:39 PM and lasted barely four and a half minutes. Only one agenda item was discussed a motion to approve the non-disciplinary termination in accordance with the Governor’s proclamation mandating vaccination for state employees.

Ronda Litzenberger said she made the motion “with a heavy heart.” After the motion was seconded, Litzenberger said during a brief discussion, “…just for public record, to know that we have done everything in our ability as a school board to try to accommodate, and hopefully offer multiple opportunities for these individuals to really work with them. That is my understanding as a school board director, and it’s my hope that that has been the experience of every individual on this list. And we’re very grateful for the service that they’ve given to Eatonville School District.”
Paulette Gilliardi, assistant to the chair, concurred and turned out to be the only ‘yes’ vote after Litzenberger voted no. Before the vote, the other director Matt Marshall said, “I understand that we have a proclamation, but at some point, I can’t stand to watch us lose employees. And I know none of you want to see us lose employees either. And this is painful to put us between a rock and a hard place.”

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Virginia Parents Announce ‘Not a Domestic Terrorist’ March in Washington

Homeschooling Growing by Leaps and Bounds

Homeschooling numbers have increased over 300% in the last two years, according to federal government Census data.  This spike does not include Americans engaged in virtual learning through a public or private school program due to COVID protocols.  These are full-time homeschoolers.

The United States Census Bureau has been tasked with collecting data through nationwide surveys for over 80 years.  The data are intended for use by other government agencies and elected officials for policy decisions.  This is the first time the Census Bureau has sought to identify the total number of homeschoolers in America.  Previous surveys only marked children who were un-enrolled from public or private schools.  That rate usually hovered around 3.3% and was as high as 5.4% in 2019.

Homeschool families have been traditionally seen as a small minority and have been largely ignored by elected representatives.  In 2020, due to the COVID school closures, Census questions were modified to specifically identify the number of homeschoolers, and the results were shocking for many.  In October 2020, 11.1% of 22–23 million U.S. households reported being full-time homeschoolers, without any enrollment in a public or private school.  Besides Alaska, which reported 27.5% of households dedicated to full-time homeschool, Oklahoma led all states at 20.1%.  Other notable states included Florida at 18.1%, Vermont at 16.9%, Georgia at 16.0%, and Tennessee and Arizona at 13.0%.

There was little surprise at the exodus from public and private schools due to COVID mask mandates and health concerns in 2020.  What has been surprising is that many of these students did not re-enroll for the 2021–2022 school year.  No doubt the push for Critical Race Theory, and the loss of confidence in the traditional institutions’ ability to teach children via virtual technology, played a significant role in a shift toward full-time homeschooling.  The number of homeschool kids grew from 11.1% in 2020 to 16.5% in May 2021.  Homeschool numbers are continuing to rise, along with their potential political influence.  Homeschooling parents will undoubtedly have a larger impact on their local and state policymakers, and this is a good thing for America.

Two common points advocated by opponents of homeschooling are that homeschooling is inferior to a public-school education and that homeschooled children lack the social skills that other children learn in public- and private-school extracurricular activities.  However, one reason for the record growth in homeschool is due to the dispelling of some of these negative assumptions through social media connections and support groups.  All colleges and universities, including the Ivy League, accept homeschooled students and homeschooled students have traditionally performed better in college than public- and private-school students.

Not all pro-homeschool data have been published by homeschool advocacy groups.  For example, one study, published in the Journal of College Admissions, found that homeschoolers who attended the College of St. Thomas averaged 26.5 ACT scores versus 25.0 for private- and public-school students.  The researchers also found that homeschoolers finished their freshman year of college with an average GPA of 3.46 compared to 3.16 in the alternate group.

Communities around the country continue to dispel the popular misconception of a lack of socialization among homeschoolers.  Increased opportunities have come with the rising number of students.  Homeschoolers can partake in co-ops, organized sports, and any extra-curricular activity imaginable.  At least 29 states allow homeschool students to participate in public school interscholastic activities.  For example, in Oklahoma City, there are even homeschool junior high and high school football teams.

Homeschooling has many beneficial impacts on communities and public school districts.  More homeschoolers mean lower teacher-to-student ratios.  Smaller class sizes make it easier for teachers to address the needs and unique challenges of individual students.  Fewer students lowers the overhead for school transportation and administrative functions.  This should lead to a reduction in administrative faculty and drastically reduce education expenses, which homeschool proponents argue is the real reason why teacher unions are so opposed to homeschool growth.

Homeschoolers still pay public school taxes, which usually account for the greatest portion of state and county property taxes.  The purpose of these taxes is to ensure the proper education of future American citizens.  It seems reasonable that homeschool, private school, and charter school parents should be granted a reduction in education taxes.  Redirecting these funds to parents who are seeking alternative forms of education would help cover the costs of curricula, computers, technology, and other educational resources.

There are also many reasons why parents should be given the freedom of school choice.  Homeschools offer an alternative solution for parents whose children face situations like bullying (including cyber-bullying), poorly performing school districts, a need for flexibility and personalized education, chronic illness, and military moves.  Many parents have argued that the right of school choice is more important than ever, as public curricula veer away from traditional teaching methods toward Critical Race Theory and other forms of political and immoral indoctrination.

There is a definite rallying cry for the freedom of school choice, and many Americans are advocating for policy change.  Perhaps the 300% nationwide increase in the number of homeschool families will finally encourage policy change to protect parents’ right to homeschool their children.

Identity, Opposition and Hate.

Say hello to Shardé Nabors, Oregon project manager for a Seattle-based activist organization called Social Justice Fund NW. Curious readers may ask, “What sort of ‘social justice’ does Shardé advocate?” And the answer is, the destruction of the United States of America.

“So, earlier this week I made a post saying that it doesn’t sit right with me that there are white people who own property — multiple properities, at that — in the United States of America while black and indigenous people are experiencing homelessness. And I want to expand on that, especially for my new followers who are white, who followed me because of my anti-racist content. I’m glad that you’re listening to me, but I really want to make sure that you’re hearing what I’m saying. There will never be black liberation or indigenous sovereignty as long as the United States of America exists. If you want black folks around the globe and in this country liberated, if you want indigenous folks to be able to have sovereignty over the lands that their indigenous to, then the United States of America needs to cease to exist. And I don’t know if y’all are ready for that, I don’t know if that’s what y’all signed up for. I’m not sure if anti-racist work is just something you do to lessen the inconvenience of racism in your life, but I hope you’re ready for this. It’s not for the weak.”

That’s the kind of 501(c)3 tax-exempt “activism” she gets paid for. This is where the logic of the “social justice” narrative leads — hatred and destruction, advocating genocide as the Final Solution.

Saving Your Child From The Village

A reader comments on the “Gender Identity And Your Kids” thread:

There’s a certain kind of conservative who looks at this trend [the corruption of fandom by gender ideology obsessives — RD] and says, “Good riddance. Unplug it all. Now your lazy nerd kids can spend all day at the gym lifting weights, or learn to play a musical instrument, and won’t be wasting time on the fandom of some media-marketed TV show or book series.”

I totally understand this impulse as a utopian ideal, but I also think there’s a horrible lack of appreciation for how difficult it is to raise kids in a world where they are uncomfortable with participating (or forbidden to participate) in popular franchise fan culture. My children are homeschooled and constantly desperate for more peer interaction. When they meet other kids at the park, or the roller skating rink, or on vacation, they are bombarded with aspects of pop culture from which they are being excluded — and they know it. Last month my brother passed along a collection of books and comics that my nephew was reading, and within a few weeks my 9-year-old came to us to confess that one of the books had “the f-word” in it. It ended up featuring a protagonist who was a pre-op transgender boy. At at this point I’m not even sure if her uncle gave it to her out of ignorance, or if he knew but did it anyway as a way to subvert our overly protective parenting style. I don’t have the heart to start a confrontation over it, given the cultural and ideological stress I have with my siblings already. Do you have any idea how wretched I feel that I can no longer trust my own brother as a screen for children’s literature content?

Right now my girls are super-enthusiastic about a book series… and I know they are just a few books away from the one that introduces a lesbian character. We started watching a TV show… and I already know which season has the gay wedding. Every new property (whether it’s original or the rebooting of a Gen X classic) is simply obligated to pay out a wokeness tax now. I’ll let my children watch this stuff with my supervision sometimes, when we can talk about it along the way. But I can’t let them enjoy unsupervised spaces with peers, certainly not in virtual spaces, since those peers are not going to exercise similar discretion. I essentially have to ban my kids from having friends unless those friends are very carefully vetted and supervised, and now I feel trapped in a helicopter-parenting Defcon-alert holding pattern.

It’s hard to exaggerate how besieged the current culture makes me feel as a parent of two daughters leaving elementary school age. I have unceasing dread of a giant industry devoted to prying my children away from my world, my culture, and my values, and to convince them that I’m the sociological equivalent of the stock villains being defeated weekly in their prepackaged media products. I want to give my children the freedom to explore and discover friends without oppressive surveillance, but all of the friends they meet want to create secretive phone-driven modes of contact with them for private conversations. Am I doomed to become a CIA operative, using spyware to catch my preteen daughter having illicit chats about testosterone and top surgery? Will I be the stereotypical killjoy parent, demanding that my girls stop seeing any friends I regard as “a bad influence”? I’m staring into an abyss that has swallowed so much of my world and the things in it that I once loved already, and has designs on my girls as well.

I’ve given up on having any kind of fandom myself, except of a few retro franchises that I can pretend are “closed”. But even that no longer feels safe. What’s LGBT representation going to look like in the new Tolkien-verse show on Amazon? After feeding that fandom for years, do I suddenly have to start telling my own children to avoid interacting with anyone who acts too enthusiastic about Middle Earth? Is there any safe ground left? Will they come for Narnia next?

This devouring of a formerly apolitical childhood and adolescent culture of organic fan enthusiasm to transform it into a catechism for woke cant is an act of unspeakable cruelty to families.

Well said. This is what totalitarianism means: the infiltration of politics (cultural and otherwise) into every aspect of life. In Huxley’s Brave New World, the Savage was the only sane person there because as an exile, he had been raised ignorant of the corrupt totalitarian culture and its values. I heard the other day about a family — a conservative Christian family — that has been devastated by gender ideology wreaking havoc in the lives of their children. It sneaked up on them. Catastrophe. I mean, honest-to-God destruction of young people’s bodies and souls, and of family relationships.

It used to be that it takes a village to save a child. Now, you have to work hard to save your child from the village.

Anti-CRT Parents Sweep Connecticut School Board Primary, Besting GOP Incumbents

Five parents hell-bent on keeping critical race theory (CRT) out of the Guilford, Conn. school district swept the Republican school board primary Tuesday night, advancing to the general election in November.

Fending off a challenge from three old-guard Republican incumbents — who the anti-CRT parents accuse of rubber-stamping the racialized curriculum favored by the board’s progressives and the district superintendent — the cabal of five dominated the competition Tuesday, walking away with bids for the November ballot.

Political novices Timothy Chamberlain, Nick Cusano, Aly Passerelli, Bill Maisano, and Danielle Scarpellino outperformed their intra-party rivals by a three to one margin, according to figures provided to National Review.

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Comment O’ The Day

I remember when all the best people were ready to turn America upside down over nonexistent Russian collusion claims.

Probable Chinese spies claim ‘Raycissss!’

Stanford professors ask DOJ to stop looking for Chinese spies at universities in US.

While acknowledging that is important for the U.S. to address concerns of intellectual property theft and economic espionage, the Stanford educators wrote in their letter that the program has since “deviated significantly from its claimed mission.”

The professors stated that the China Initiative is “harming the United States’ research and technology competitiveness and it is fueling biases that, in turn, raise concerns about racial profiling.”

They pointed out that the program disproportionately targets researchers with Chinese origins, choosing to investigate them not based on evidence but simply for having a connection to China.

The program was started in 2018 to combat Chinese espionage but has since been criticized for investigating Asian individuals falsely accused of committing crimes.

“In many cases the federal response seems disproportionate and inappropriate. In some cases, federal agents associated with the China Initiative have prosecuted researchers without solid evidence,” the professors wrote. “Moreover, racial profiling – even when undertaken in pursuit of justice – is both inconsistent with U.S. law and with the principles underlying our society.”

Apparently some parents have been listening

BLUF:
Roy Speed, in Bethel, noted that many of those behind the most radical political experiment in history studied in little, rickety houses, in medium-sized, mostly uncultured cities or on the edges of sprawling farmlands. They read with the aid of candlelight. They were Zoom-less. They squeezed their studies in between milking cows and learning how to use a rifle. They were steeped in the greatest minds of the ancient world and the Enlightenment. 

The Founders did not have the benefit of any playground or tablet or teachers union, but they were free thinkers. The Constitution, Speed pointed out, “was largely the work of people instructed at home.” 

American Homeschooling Goes Boom: Meet the parents yanking their children — some five million of them — from schools that they say aren’t working.

In March 2020, as the coronavirus engulfed America, Kristen Wrobel got the news: “We heard on Friday that there would be no school for two weeks. Which just turned into no school.”

That was the last time her children — one in third grade, one in first —  were in a classroom.

In the beginning, they did the remote-school thing. Wrobel, a 42-year-old stay-at-home mom with a bachelor’s degree in software engineering, called it a “nightmare.” The Zoom sessions, the Italian lessons on Duolingo, the stuff she had to print out, the isolation, the tears, the nagging, the shuttling the kids between her house, near Burlington, Vermont, and their dad’s, a half-hour away.

“Everyone was freaking out all the time,” she said.

By May, at the risk of violating state truancy laws, Wrobel had stopped fighting and let her kids log on (or not) whenever they felt like it. It was, she said, “the darkest hour before dawn.”

That September, she started homeschooling. She didn’t like all the restrictions her kids’ private school had implemented: Students seated six feet apart. Masked. In wedding tents. Outside.

She figured she’d send her kids back to the school in 2021, after everything had gone back to normal.

That was then. Now? “There’d have to be a revolution in schooling.”

She’s hardly alone. Wrobel is one of hundreds of thousands of moms and dads across the nation who have decided to become the principals of their very own, very small elementary schools. 

The number of kids going to school at home nationwide has doubled over the past two years. In 2019, there were about 2.5 million students learning at home. Today there are nearly 5 million. That means more than 11 percent of American households are educating their children outside of traditional schools.

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Bill to Ban Teaching Critical-Race Theory Goes Into Effect in Texas

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Going into effect Wednesday is HB 3979. The bill abolishes teaching critical-race theory in public schools.

So how will this affect your child or your child’s teacher?

Administrators in the largest school district in the area, CCISD said not much is going to change and, like any other day, it’s business as usual.

“Our teachers will be teaching business as usual in line with our state standards,” said Kimberly James, Deputy Superintendent for CCISD.

State standards set by the Texas Board of Education via TEKS, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.

The district also says it’ll continue to also follow CCISD board policy that’s already in place which includes that “the board relies on staff to present various sides of controversial issues….So that students can develop and make informed judgments in their daily lives.”

House Bill 3979 has been referred to as a critical race theory bill because, among other things, it bans teachers from teach anything that says a race or sex is inherently racist or oppressive, that an individual by virtue of their race is racist or oppressive, and that an individual bears responsibility for actions committed in the past and that no one should be made to feel guilty for their race or sex.

The bill is still being amended in the special session which ends next week. If not signed, it will keep House Bill 3979 as is.

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SEGREGATON NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER!
-Alabama governor George Wallace, 14 January 1963 inaugural speech.

What did Kipling write?
“And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire”

American University offers separate classroom, saying it’s a ‘safe space for Black Students.’

American University [Washington D.C.] has created a Black-only course section, or classroom, for a class on racism, which freshmen are required to take.

Many universities use course sections to break larger cohorts into smaller-sized classrooms.

According to The Eagle, the university added a Black affinity course section to AUx2, a class where students learn about “race, social identity, and structures of power.” In the course, students will “evaluate how racism intersects with other systems of oppression.”

The student newspaper states that all-Black sections of the course began during the spring 2020 semester, an addition that had been considered for a few years.

“We’ve definitely heard from Black students and other students of color that the material can be a lot for them because it is part of their lived experiences,” Izzi Stern, the AUx program manager told the student newspaper. “And we wanted to create a space where they could be together in community and have an overall positive experience with the course.”

On the university’s webpage, a former AUx2 peer said this:

“The AUx Program is fundamentally shifting the culture, and students, of American University, while simultaneously fulfilling the institutions’ commitment to social justice and equity. I could not be more enthusiastic about my support for the transformative impact of the AUx2 course.”

Julien Hector a sophomore at American University, told The Eagle, “Having an all-Black space truly changes the way you interact in that space and the level of comfort you feel.”

Hector later on in the student newspaper article, went on to question why American University had not added more affinity groups based on race. The article goes on to say that AU might be adding affinity groups not just based on race, but based on other defining characteristics such as gender identity.

SloJoe believes POTUS possesses powers that he doesn’t have

Biden threatens action against governors who refuse to force masks on school children

During a speech given by President Joe Biden on Wednesday regarding COVID-19 response and vaccination programs, Biden slammed states that have banned the requirement of masks in school, announcing that government action will be taken against these states and their governors.

Oregon students next

Leaked documents show Baltimore high schoolers perform math, reading at grade school level

Baltimore (WBFF) – An alarming discovery out of Baltimore City Schools. Project Baltimore has obtained student assessment data that North Avenue does not release publicly. That data shows some students who could soon graduate, are performing at an elementary school level, academically.Project Baltimore, over the years, has heard from many parents who say their children are being pushed through Baltimore City Schools without getting the education they need. Julie Gaskins told us back in 2018 that her seventh grader was doing math and reading at a second-grade level.Project Baltimore also spoke with Gregory Gray, a Baltimore City Schools father, back in 2019.

“My son is really in desperate need of tutoring in math,” Gray told Project Baltimore. “And, how did my son pass if he didn’t know none of this math?”

Now, Project Baltimore has obtained student assessment scores from just one class, in one high school, that show how widespread the problem appears to be.

iReady is a system schools use to measure at which grade level a student is performing. In Baltimore City Schools, iReady assessments are given in math and reading, three times a year, to measure a student’s progress. The scores we obtained show some students are performing 10 grade levels below their age.

Fox45 News is not disclosing the school or the class to protect student identities. But we can report the iReady scores are for 11th graders in math and reading. Nine students completed the reading assessment, but only two scored at a high school level. One scored at a seventh-grade level. The other six scored at an elementary school level. In math, seven students completed the assessment. Two scored at a high school level. The rest, who are high school juniors in Baltimore City Schools, scored at an elementary level, including one student doing math at a first-grade level.

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