Chucktshoes
Well-Known Member
This is a really good read from Packer. Lots to chew on, especially for parents.
When the Culture War Comes for the Kids
When the Culture War Comes for the Kids
Political Discussion
- Thread starter David A.
- Start date
Teacher denied loan forgiveness tells Congress why she's suing Betsy DeVos | CNN Politics
A middle school art teacher who was denied loan forgiveness by the Department of Education is going to Capitol Hill Thursday to explain why she's suing Secretary Betsy DeVos over the alleged mismanagement of the program.
The first round of people eligible for forgiveness was in 2017, after the Trump Administration took office.
To date, only just over 1% of people who have applied for the forgiveness have been granted it.
For example, the one teacher mentioned in the Article met all the criteria, but was denied because one of her many student loans was ineligible, so therefor, all of her eligible student loans don't qualify.
Rather than working with people and congress to fix the issue and ensure people who are eligible are getting their forgiveness, DeVos has proposed ending the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
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I'd never send my kids to a private school.
Dtknuckles
Well-Known Member
The idea that you have to apply to a public school is appalling. But I guess that is what you do when you apply for a mortgage or lease.
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Indymisanthrope
Well-Known Member
I didn't read the article, but I don't understand the comparison here.
Dtknuckles
Well-Known Member
Where you live determines the quality of your schools because of the way school are funded.
Indymisanthrope
Well-Known Member
Gotcha, now I’m reading it correctly.
Dtknuckles
Well-Known Member
I see this even in the district I work in.
I worked in a middle school about 15 minutes away from the one I do now. The one I work in is in a middle class neighborhood.
They have a nice music program a STEM magnet program. 3 counselors, special Ed clerk, SPED admin, me (psych), Psych social worker,
This all with less need than the lower class school I worked in last year. There that had 2 counselors, 1 day a week sped admin, 1 day a week attendance worker, me (psych 5 days). For a school about the same size.
I’d abolish them if I had my way. I think I’d turn Eton into a Home Bargains store, that’d be apt...
I thought this was an interesting article. I don’t fully agree but it’s interesting all the same. I know it’ll hugely divide opinion though!
www.theguardian.com
For the sake of life on Earth, we must put a limit on wealth | George Monbiot
Increased spending power leads to environmental damage. It’s time for a radical plan, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
DownIsTheNewUp
Well-Known Member
I thought this was an interesting article. I don’t fully agree but it’s interesting all the same. I know it’ll hugely divide opinion though!
For the sake of life on Earth, we must put a limit on wealth | George Monbiot
Increased spending power leads to environmental damage. It’s time for a radical plan, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
I'm of the belief that being a billionaire should be illegal. NOBODY needs that much money and it'd be better served being split among the workers who helped create that wealth while greasing the mechanisms of social mobility (schools, transportation systems, medicare for all). That said, while many billionaires come into wealth directly at the expense of the working and middle class (Bezos, the Koch brothers), not all of them do-- (Michael Jordan, Bill Gates) and so it's a tricky argument to make.
Unless of course, you consider the role that cheap labor of 3rd world countries plays in even somebody like Jordan (sneakers) and then it becomes a matter of convincing people that all human lives are of value and that nobody needs that much wealth. And good luck with that... the average American seems completely incapable of understanding just how much money a billion dollars is.
The video below- attempts to bridge that gap of understanding via an app called "Spend Bill Gates Money".
jaycee
Well-Known Member
I'll preface this by saying that you and I value the same things and want similar changes made to the way we're governed.
I totally disagree that the amount of money someone has should be illegal. To me a better way to say it is that it should be undesirable. Saying that earnings should be illegal is where socialist principles fail and is easy fodder for the people that want to make conflations about socialism = communism. An important tenet of a successful socialist economy is one that doesn't cripple creative destruction while promoting principles of a shared society instead.
I have no problem if people earn whatever they earn. Part of the problem with the American version of capitalism is that we allow $s to protect $s. In other words, those who have get to influence those who have not through the control of policies and political entities (the police are an example).
I also disagree that the average is too stupid to get it. The average American might be too blinded by real or perceived desperation to get it, but they are capable. Healthcare for all, universal basic income, protection of shared resources (the environment) are not new ideas or concepts the average person can't get behind. The issue is that the average person is too worried about their day to day lives to be able to spend much time considering these fundamental changes.
The propaganda system that protects those who profit most from the for profit system has been very successful in convincing everyone that has been looking for an answer to the eternal question "why is my life so hard" that their neighbors are to blame or this or that conspiracy theory is to blame. Their neighbors being the other political party, or the person of a different religion, or the person that looks different than you, or the person who fucks differently than you., whatever... It's easier to blame the thing that is more easily seen than than the people that have enough $ to hide. It's easier to see some conspiracy as the obvious truth, when the most simple answer is so very simple. That the average person isn't set up to succeed and that the weakest among us are set up to fail.
The bootstraps bullshit is a narrative the average person has bought into and even the political people pushing for social principles use it to demonstrate they are one of us.
I'm not sure how any of this works given the ample amount of poor people available in the world for those with to continue to take advantage of, but I'd love for our country to acknowledge that its wealth has been built on the back of slavery and the false idea that those who are born without have the same opportunity to have as everyone else. I won't live to see a truly equitable world but I hope that I can die someplace where that basic truth makes it into textbooks.
DownIsTheNewUp
Well-Known Member
I agree with virtually all of this. And when I say "should be illegal", I mean it more on a philosophical level.
Also, I never said they were too stupid to get it. More that the gap between even 100 million and 1 billion dollars is so vast that people fail to comprehend that gap. That and they simply desire to that wealthy themselves and thus justify it.
And the later (the desire for and worship of extreme wealth) is so ingrained into American culture that I don't know that we will ever be able to change it... until the resources start to run dry at least.
jaycee
Well-Known Member
Sorry for misinterpreting.
I kind-of root for this scenario and I think it's a more likely scenario than having a society that is truly cooperating... and even when every last natural resource has been fully exploited there will be people to continue to use.
My hope lies in not in people but in the knowledge that we are no better than any other creature that has found a way to dominate this rock... and that time always wins.
DownIsTheNewUp
Well-Known Member
i mean, the 6th great mass extinction is well underway...
18 signs we're in the middle of a 6th mass extinction
Earth is in the midst of a sixth mass extinction due to climate change and human-driven habitat destruction.
www.businessinsider.com
Dtknuckles
Well-Known Member
I have a lot to say about this article. So much that I don’t know where to start.
I find hyper competitive nature the NYC school appalling. Espically they way he evaluates whether a school is a good school or not. The things he talks about, novels kids are reading, smack as milestones that only would valuable to upper class culture. These types of ideas and skills have no relevance to people in different cultures. It’s a huge cultural bias to evaluate a school on.
Second the test bias...this is what happens when a bunch of people get some information but do not delve further to understand what is going on. Yes there is bias, but it’s more complex than the way they see it. The biggest correlation between high standardized test scores is social class. Standardized tests are useful, but not the way most people look at them. They are not a complete picture of the individual and thus the school. It’s a snapshot and doesn’t give the complete picture. Taking them isn’t going to cause any harm. This is up there with other liberal myths like GMO’s and vaccines.
I’ll give an example of cultural bias in the standardized tests I give every day. They type of standardized tests I give are normalized. Meaning they give the test to thousands of people and compare how most people do on that test to what the subject does. The person will do better than most people as good as most people or worse than most people. This is similar to IQ tests.
I give one test to compare language proficiency. Woodcock Johnson Test of Oral Language-IV.
There is an English for and a Spanish form. There are two questions on the letter-word ID subtlest. The students are given a picture of an item and they have to name it. One picture is a clothes hanger. Many kids from a Spanish speaking homes do not get this. I’m talking kids in middle school. Another is a picture of the classifieds adds. You ask them what part of the paper is this? How relevant is this in anybody’s life now a days? A lot of kids miss both of these for cultural reasons.
Also the whole culture of the school is weird. It is an extreme outlier. If this is supposed to be some damnation if the public school system because of political correctness they really should take a larger sample size than one school. Every school’s culture is dependent on the culture of the population it pulls from.
A lot of the group think dynamics and pressure to think the same way, I don’t think is specific to liberal culture. This happens in all types of culture where there is a dominant group.
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Indymisanthrope
Well-Known Member
to compare language proficiency. What word would you use to describe this:
Dtknuckles
Well-Known Member
It's been a while since of watched that movie. Sadly I'm forgetting the reference.
Indymisanthrope
Well-Known Member
He asks them what the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow is, but they insist that he clarify whether he means an African swallow or a European swallow, and he can’t answer.
I don’t know why I did this. My original intent was to make a dirty joke about the name Woodcock Johnson.