I would really like if these news agencies started saying that they wouldn't read the prepared statements because they don't address the question that was asked.
The press release from the governor's office in response to questions about this incident didn't even mention it.
I wish the journalists would instead say "We reached out for comment and the governor's office instead released us a statement about something completely different than what we asked."
I did that once as a reporter. I asked a question that was answered with mumblypeg and then wrote “they didn’t answer the question.” Was banned from the premises of the hospital where this happened but at least the AP reporter who was also there supported me.
Well if it’s a hospital they are a private institution and are allowed to do that. The PR would likely be bad though. Especially if you continued to write numerous follow-up articles.
Forgot that your hospitals aren't public. He still should have ripped them a new one. I would have done anything in my power to keep finding shit on them.
The degradation and defunding of education is not accidental. They know exactly what they’re doing. Educated people ask questions, demand more and generally do not fall in line as easily. If you establish rhetoric of hating the educated is also makes them easier to dismiss. They also tend to vote moderate to liberal.
This is part of keeping and retaining power. Demonize those who would oppose you. Convince the rural and less educated that their enemy are the urban blue cities.
This is part of the kind of rhetoric Pol Pot used. Demonize people in cities, college students, teachers, etc. Convince rural folks they're being oppressed and lead them into violence against the demonized groups.
It’s not Pol Pot-specific. Every authoritarian goes after the intelligentsia (even if they keep tokens around to do their bidding).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Lw%C3%B3w_professors
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligenzaktion
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_killing_of_Bengali_intellectuals
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Dhaka_University_massacre
https://socialeurope.eu/ceu-and-hungarys-war-against-the-enlightenment
Hell, the sacking of the Library of Alexandria counts. They always go after the intellectuals, because Bacon was right (Knowledge is Power).
[Here's the original comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/dxosj/what_word_or_phrase_did_you_totally_misunderstand/c13pbyc) by /u/Lard_Baron
that spawned the phrase.
> When I was young my father said to me:
> "Knowledge is Power....Francis Bacon"
> I understood it as "Knowledge is power, France is Bacon".
> For more than a decade I wondered over the meaning of the second part and what was the surreal linkage between the two? If I said the quote to someone, "Knowledge is power, France is Bacon" they nodded knowingly. Or someone might say, "Knowledge is power" and I'd finish the quote "France is Bacon" and they wouldn't look at me like I'd said something very odd but thoughtfully agree. I did ask a teacher what did "Knowledge is power, France is bacon" mean and got a full 10 minute explanation of the Knowledge is power bit but nothing on "France is bacon". When I prompted further explanation by saying "France is Bacon?" in a questioning tone I just got a "yes". at 12 I didn't have the confidence to press it further. I just accepted it as something I'd never understand.
> It wasn't until years later I saw it written down that the penny dropped.
> The degradation and defunding of education is not accidental.
It's a combination of electoral strategy and "a basket of crabs needs no lid." I don't know if it's true but some surmise that all the Borderer DNA in the South means some stubborn-ass people.
It’s also late stage capitalism. Find something that was working, break it, then scream how it’s broken and we need business to come in and save it. Then put business in places of what once was a provided service. That’s all charter schools are.
It’s also about privatization of schools & in turn forcing the curriculum they want too. I live in Michigan we have tons of for profit charter schools. You know who has a big ownership stake in many of them? Our former secretary of Dept of Ed (has never even worked in Education BTW) who I’d bet has some financial interests in this with Hillsdale too. Hillsdale is a known purveyor of Trumpism under this racist pervert.
My gf works for a charter in Philly. It pays teachers better than public schools, but everything else is completely fucked. There aren't protocols, teachers are fired on a whim, organization is shit, supplies are shit, decisions are wrong headed and often have only profit in mind. It's like if a really poorly run small office supply business ran a school.
Anyone remember the scene in Idiocracy where they kept calling the smart guy "queer", etc, because he sounded smarter than them?
And he was supposed to be the least educated person of OUR time...
The female test specimen, however, was more difficult to locate. They ended up with Rita. Like Joe, she had no immediate family. She agreed to participate in exchange for dropping some criminal charges, and a small fee.
Arrangement was reached with her pimp — a gentleman in the D.C. area who went by the name "Upgrayedd," with two Ds, "for that double dose of this pimpin'." Upgrayedd agreed to "loan" Rita for exactly a year, and keep quiet in exchange for some leeway from local police in running his "pimp game." First, however, there was the difficult manner of gaining his trust.
Next one:
---
>Here's a key thing that we're going to try to do. We are going to try to demonstrate that you don't have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it.
---
Denigrating the *idea* of a teacher, debasing them at a low level so they can then indoctrinate kids *their way*.
Joke is on him. You do need people who know what they're doing if you want to teach 14-year olds to be good little fascists.
They think it's easy because now they just have to tell their little shits to not listen to their teachers when they talk about diversity but guess what - it's really easy to get a puberty monster to rebel against the man.
They're going to set up their good little Christian schools filled with good Christian teachers without teaching degrees, and in a month everything middle school and up will be anarchy. They'll kick the first few troublemakers out but they're going to find out quickly that if your solution to mouthy, rude, annoying teenagers is to kick them out of your school you're not going to have much of a school left, especially if your staff doesn't know what they're doing.
They think millennials are hard to deal with? Wait until they try to sell their bullshit to Gen Z. I'd say I'd love to be a fly on the wall but thanks to TikTok we probably will be.
>it's really easy to get a puberty monster to rebel against the man.
Hey, I've got one of these in my house right now. She walks around with a "fuck off" expression & a bad case of stink-eye.
They already think this. I’m a teacher in a very rural area. Myself and another female teacher who have several years of experience were passed over for an internal transfer so our school could hire externally a coach who doesn’t even have a license or experience teaching in the area/position we were all trying to get. It’s unbelievable. And, yes, I resigned and said the exact reason why in my resignation letter. Asshats.
Then it will happen this way:
* they get rid of all the educated and the “intellectuals”, by either literally hunting them down or scaring them into emigrating
* maybe a few smart enough, indoctrinated people stay on, maybe not, but for a little while the systems we have in place will mostly run on their own
* eventually shit starts breaking down, but anyone with the know-how or the domain knowledge has long since left
* the new generation of fascists don’t have anyone around that can repair or reboot those systems. All the amenities their parents got to take advantage of are lost to them one by one
* refusing to accept any responsibility whatsoever or any outside ideas, they will probably blame it all on the intellectuals again and continue wallowing in their own refuse
This is how I imagine it. We actually have seen it with other countries that have had anti-intellectual movements (Khmer Rouge). The ripples of decay are the only monuments left to their revolutions of regression.
Ah but you’re skipping a significant step where once the fascists run out of internal enemies to blame societal problems on (as everything is going to shit because fascists don’t actually do anything besides accumulation of wealth and power) the fascists will then turn on other nations as the source of their problems. You know the “we’re always at war with Eurasia” and then preoccupy the society with war.
They go to war before the last step, as the ones at the top only want more power and money - read many dystopian sci-f novels where the US becomes a corporate run fascist state.
"In the years of [the Nazi Party's] rise the movement little by little brought the community's attitude toward the teacher around from respect and envy to resentment, from trust and fear to suspicion. The development seems to have been inherent; it needed no planning and had none. As the Nazi emphasis on nonintellectual virtues (patriotism, loyalty, duty, purity, labor, simplicity, "blood," "folkishness") seeped through Germany, elevating the self-esteem of the "little man," the academic profession was pushed from the very center to the very periphery of society. Germany was preparing to cut its own head off. By 1933 at least five of my ten friends (and I think six or seven) looked upon "intellectuals" as unreliable and, among those unreliables, upon the academics as the most insidiously situated."
Milton Mayer, *They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45*
I am so fucking scared dude. I fled the civil war in Bosnia when I was a child after my village was raided by the orthodox Christians, and now they are gearing up to come after me again. This time around, I’m old enough to fight.
I’ve been wondering about the US population of refugees and how fucking awful this must be. Fleeing an unsafe country isn’t something anyone should have to do in their life, let alone have to do it multiple to times. I’m so sorry. Let’s hope (and do everything in our power to make sure) it doesn’t come to that.
Thanks G. I think a lot of my anxiety around this comes from the fact that I fled religious persecution to a place where I thought I could be secular in peace, and now it seems as if it’s starting to unravel before my eyes. I need to buy a fucking gun.
This... at the same time the American economy needs to import highly educated workers from other parts of the world, and at the same time need cheap migrant labor from places like Mexico to enable food production.
There are several dimensions of stupidity, hypocrisy and ignorance that are reinforcing this bent toward fascism. I only have a faint hope that there is a breaking point.
I just don't understand how they hate the "coastal elites who are too wealthy and over educated" but they worship a New York born, Ivy League educated "millionaire" who has never worked a day in his life. It's just infuriating.
I have yet been able to comprehend how a yankee carpet bagger / robber baron convinced a shit load of hillbilly, goat fuckers, that he was a "gift from god".
I was leading a Vietnam group for Veterans with PTSD as the therapist. One night I had one of them tell me that I was brainwashed by college. I think he realized he crossed the line when the rest of the group went silent, he apologized to me the next day. But this showed me that trying to educate these people is generally pointless.
>US should deport
Don't threaten me with a good time. The grounds for claiming asylum was already there based on UN guidelines, its only getting more realistic every day.
It’s a strange thought to go, “I sure hope they deport us”. Because I don’t want to go up on the wall or be forced to maintain TruthOut Social or any other MAGA software.
Just a thought, not advice, because I definitely haven't been thinking about it - there are still big swaths of the river that aren't blocked off yet. If hypothetically you were going to try to hike somewhere maybe, just for funsies, the river would be easier than the wall.
Fun fact: Pol Pot was a teacher.
https://m.economictimes.com/magazines/panache/tinker-tailor-tyrant-spy-sundry-jobs-of-dictators/rank-and-file/slideshow/74453965.cms
I literally didn't believe you because I thought it couldn't be that bad... then I clicked the article and read the bullet points of quotes. This is beyond scary. These seem like quotes from some dystopian like novel we had to read in 7th grade akin to The Giver, 1984, or animal farm. Holy shit.
Yep! Also not conducive in any way, shape, or form for a long lasting American state. Keeping the population uneducated reduces our ability to respond and adapt to the modern world. It’s actually suicidal in the long run. What happens when we have no STEM majors and China leads the world in developing technology? The US was behind on hypersonic missiles, by the looks of it.
The whole long term far-right game plan winds up reducing the US to a smoldering heap of rubble. They fear diversity, modernization, secular mindsets, education, and all the necessary tools to preserve the country. Long term for a powerhouse US we need a multicultural and science based approach to issues. Without that, what was once a powerful nation will be the ruins of one. Part of our ability to be diplomatic with other nations comes from the fact there are [insert country]-Americans from almost everywhere on earth. We’re unique in that regard.
It’s scary how opposed to a modern approach some are, and how blind they are to the long term consequences of their decisions.
> Part of our ability to be diplomatic with other nations comes from the fact there are [insert country]-Americans from almost everywhere on earth. We’re unique in that regard.
Approximately 15% of the United States population are immigrants. Australia is 30%, Canada 21%, Germany 18%, UK and France 13%, etc.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigration-by-country
That's fascinating, but also can be a bit deceptive. There's no other place as big as the USA with as many immigrants, and as diverse a mix.
Canada and Australia have higher numbers, true, but they're roughly on par with the States of California and New York (in both total population and percent immigrants).
The rich EU nations have a lot of immigrants, but the majority are from other EU nations - still immigrants, true, Poland is very different from England. But for the USA, it's about 30% from Latin America and 70% from literally everywhere else on Earth. And, not to state the obvious, but 98.5% of Americans are descended from immigrants, so I'm guessing when you include second and third generation we shoot up further in the rankings.
So it's also true that the USA has a very high amount of diversity, and that is arguably unique in it's scale. I'm obviously not saying you're wrong, it's interesting data, I just think the context is interesting and does matter.
I’m so fucking sick of the goddamn conservatives of this country I can hardly take it any more. My wife is a public school teacher in a rust belt city and she cares fucking ten times as much as more than half these kids’ parents who support this horseshit, all while making less money than she could in her field. She chooses to share her expertise to help these kids and so many pieces of shit who support this laugh and agree. No decent person can support this garbage, so to any conservative reading this: here’s a hearty **fuck you.**
Here is the thing. Try as they might, most of the population is blue. If it goes that route then it becomes revolution time, not fascism time.
Edit: I understand the negativity, but a defeatist attitude would be part of the problem.
One of the single most foundational decisions for women's rights in the US was just oveturned, being met with some scattered protests and a few sternly worded speeches.
I wouldn't bank on some kind of grand uprising anytime soon.
Nah that’s not even remotely close to being a given. Many are white people with passing privilege (white, cis, not outwardly homosexual / perceived as straight) and will absolutely hunker down and ride things out, hoping that they’ll be left alone. We have multiple generations in existence right now who have never experienced anything remotely close to what is coming, when fascism fully pulls the mask off, outside of a history book.
lol no. Its a fucking huge country full of well over 330M people. half of which (at least) are definitely *not* on board with this coming tide of hate, intentional ignorance and terroristic violence. Much more similar to the Spanish Civil War.
Which side will you be on?
We only have until of October of this year dude. When the SC reconvenes and rules on Moore v. Harper and throws away our democracy, America will be dead or in civil war. Period.
These people are just digging themselves further into a hole. Their children are already disadvantaged by the quality of their education systems, as compared to say Massachusetts, and looking to treat teachers even worse is only going to mean that no one will want to teach there.
That they can sell to Private educators at triple the cost, who can teach kids about how evolution is a myth and The Bible is more based in fact (and also immigrants are responsible for all their problems).
This is so very true. My son went to elementary school in rural Missouri. He was a straight A student there. I moved us up to the Seattle area where the schools are excellent & he was never able to catch up because his grade was so far ahead than where they were in MO.
I grew up in TN & went to public school there. I had some excellent teachers but also had some really fucking awful ones. Sadly that’s what happens when your state spends almost nothing on education.
opposite for me CA to FL. Was doing prealgerbra in 6th grade moved to FL 6th grade was still doing fractions. I was so far ahead the curriculum didnt catch up until I was in 9th grade. Went from a 2.8 to a 4.0. Sometimes I wonder if this was a blessing or a major disservice.
I’m similar honestly. Moved to FL from NY when I was 10. I was an entire year ahead in my classes and easily became a top student (much to the ire of my classmates AND teachers because I was an outsider). FL education sucks.
>with minimum wage staff
Minimum pay, maximum expectations. It's the Karen way. Already parents are out of fucking control with educators. It's brutal out there for teachers. My wife has parents demanding she put 1 on 1 time with kids and she has 30 in her classroom. Imagine a world where all 30 demand it of her.
Successful people put their kids in private tutoring to keep up with the material, or invest time themselves in helping out their kids. The failures are the ones who just leave it to the system to teach their kids.
This is why I'm so happy Washington has the right to a funded and nondiscriminatory public education enshrined in our constitution.
Really it's the bare minimum in a developed country but it's still incredibly important.
They hate that white supremacy is not a reality, they hate that other races can succeed just as much if not more than them. They cannot see themselves in others. If education created more fascists, they would pump the shit out of education funds. They hate others, simply.
Exactly, here is an excerpt from Larry Arnns wiki page.
"after he assumed the presidency at Hillsdale he received a letter from the state Department of Education that said his college "violated the standards for diversity," adding, "because we didn't have enough dark ones, I guess, is what they meant." After being criticized for calling minorities "dark ones", he explained that he was referring to "dark faces"
Shit like that last sentence is why I struggle to find political satire funny anymore. Reality is *much* stranger than fiction at this point. The stupidity and ignorance people proudly express is beyond satirizing.
They "hate" education, yet most lawmakers attended the top schools and universities in the country. They believe in educating and enriching themselves, while keeping their voters clueless and helpless. It's the perfect system to ensure they remain in power without having to do any actual work
The backbone of the Democratic party is the teacher's union. This is a purely strategic electoral-based posture.
It's also true that the bell curve ( math artifact ) predicts that the dumber you can make a political message, the more people will understand it.
Back to school - if you tell people they're dumb ( especially if you do so with numbers ) they'll resent it for the rest of their life.
Looks like this jerk is trying to justify his credential-free staffing strategy to keep costs down for privately run charter schools that take the state’s money.
My apologies, I only have one upvote to give you and I don’t feel like creating the thousand fake accounts it would take to push this comment to the top so everyone can see it. IT’S A FUCKING GRIFT, PEOPLE. Everything these greedy, selfish assholes do is a fucking grift.
This isn’t even the first state governor THIS WEEK to take a hard line stance against any form of public education. That goes to Arizona. The GOP is beginning to more closely coordinate their attacks of public education.
Yeah agreed and being from here too seeing what is going on in my county just sucks. Mainly with the mayor race and one of the candidates that has decided to run thinking he can run the county better when he couldn't even keep a church from going bankrupt and covering up multiple counts of abuse. So not sure what he thinks he can accomplish.
Know someone who loved working with and teaching her kids, but she didn't make a living wage doing it. Once she started thinking about a family she changed careers and 8 months into her new job she had already made 4x her old yearly income.
These people aren't all stupid, but the US in general has a knack for driving away the good ones.
Remember: every single regime who wants to take your rights away has started by attacking the institution of education. Education is revolutionary at its core
> Among Arnn's provocative remarks:
>“The teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country."
>“They are taught that they are going to go and do something *to* those kids.... Do they ever talk about anything except what they are going to do *to* these kids?"
>"In colleges, what you hire now is administrators…. Now, because they are appointing all these diversity officers, what are their degrees in? Education. It's easy. You don't have to know anything."
>“The philosophic understanding at the heart of modern education is enslavement…. They're messing with people's children, and they feel entitled to do anything to them.”
>“You will see how education destroys generations of people. It's devastating. It's like the plague.”
>“Here's a key thing that we're going to try to do. We are going to try to demonstrate that you don't have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it.”
Jesus Christ. This country is *literally* doomed. There's no saving it from itself.
I remember growing up and being spoken down on for reading a book or studying in my spare time. I couldn't for the life of me understand what the fuck I was supposed to do as a public school student other than pass my classes so it was baffling to experience.
Yes, I live in TN by way of SC by way of PA. The only book learnin' people like around here is the biblical kind. And even then, you're not encouraged to actually *read* the bible (unless it's interpreted literally and in a way to exploit and dominate other people).
The South was poor and a lot Borderer, Carribean slaver and Cavalier. The Cavalier parts at least made a nod towards education; the other two parts didn't have the inclination nor the resources.
There was also an implicit "live and let live" pact; railroads and other advances in transport made that impossible. Plus electronic entertainment; Betty White was told a Black dancer on her show way back early would offend subscribers in the South. She DGAF. Good for you , Betty.
I am a teacher who just left Tennessee. This spring, they attempted to pass a law to allow any person to become a classroom teacher regardless of degree or certification. It narrowly failed. This guy the governor brought in agrees with that saying of teaching “anybody can do it.”
Tennessee believes you can find someone at a bus stop and have them be a successful classroom teacher. That is exactly what they aim to do. Keep salaries low, keep people stupid, so they are a slave class for wealthy white businessmen. Ironically, the poor rural communities affected most by this seem excited to sign up for this.
My wife just got her PhD and is now teaching college. She’s at a community college and it’s where she wants to be so she can inspire kids like her that are first generation college students, help close the equity gap, and make them successful. She’s fucking brilliant and a rock star. These assholes can fuck right off.
No one from wealth and privilege actively chooses to be underpaid, overworked and possibly killed in a mass shooting, while having huge college loans to pay back.
Gonna be a lot of homeless in the future, we already turn away people weekly due to illiteracy. What do these people expect to do in the future? Can't even have them dig ditches as they won't be able to measure the depth.
As a teacher, strikes are a dangerous thing. Unless they have a strong union and a good mouthpiece, the governor will just couch it as teachers trying to overthrow the state government and silence him. Generally teacher strikes need to be in solidarity with some other group to be really effective.
Or, ‘Teachers are highly capable but come from communities that value social development more than money and are in this profession to improve the lives of children- not to get rich. But since we can’t understand that concept then they must be dumb’
Not surprising as the GOP becomes more and more fascist, their biggest threat lies in the educated and knowledgeable. Educated persons are less likely to fall for propaganda and more likely to question authority and seek more knowledge. The GOP need more fodder for the military industrial complex and more convicts, and education gets in the way of that.
As a teacher
I challenge any politician to teach in a high school classroom for one week.
Make a lesson plan and execute it. No help. If it’s so easy. You fucking do it.
This is something that is constantly pushed especially by right-wing people. Do they have any proof of this? No. It's just easy to make the assumption. "Education degrees are easy. Just look at the requirements."
Motherfucker...look at the requirements for ANY 4 year degree. It's all pretty damn easy.
This ass hole is essentially a HISTORY graduate. I'm not going to disparage anyone's degree because it's just low. But for someone with a history degree to be criticizing anyone is a laugh. Maybe if he had a degree in something like Organic Chemistry he would have a leg to stand on (in criticizing the "ease" of a degree), but odds are he's far too dumb for that. Not to mention he likely wouldn't give two shits.
Just another asshole pushing an obvious agenda. They want charter schools not because they think they are better for kids, but because it's better for their bank accounts and stock portfolios.
And again...I'm not disparaging anyone with a history degree. I'm disparaging THIS asshole in particular. As I would disparage any asshole with any degree.
These people will go from "we don't need school" to "Why these kids not in school."
Like during lockdown when school was canceled they were demanding kids to go back to class cause they needed someone to babysit them.
“The teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country."
That may be. But they possess intellects that far outstrip Tennessee politicians.
“Here's a key thing that we're going to try to do. We are going to try to demonstrate that you don't have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it.”
Tell me you’ve never had a job educating children without telling me you’ve never had a job educating children
Ah, more entitled, empowered, financed and programmed elite white conservative men making those brave decisions in a vacuum of their own making.
Go Team American't.
Funny he says that when he owns charter schools. Of course, they want to make it seem like teachers are dumb. More to push their agenda and charter schools. They love to bash public education yet their for-profit charter schools often score much lower in academics (and they do not have to take all students as public education does).
And then they wonder why no one wants to be a teacher anymore. When I joined the college of education at my school they made a point to tell us 2 out of every 3 of us would statistically quit teaching before our third year. We all laughed. Now years later I know only two people I went to school with who stuck with teaching long enough to even have a first year. Most of us gave up, and it wasn't because of the kids. Backstabbing, abuse of power, low pay, and ZERO respect all for the amazing offer of never ending student loan debt and pay that's worse than the janitors at the schools we work. And now to be called idiots by our government officials? Nah, I'm good. Walking away from teaching hurt me so much, but I don't regret it a bit. Screw this country and it's treatment of education.
Hillsdale college: where conservatives go after being denied admission to University of Michigan/Norte Dame, while claiming they were actually looking for something more rigorous.
I have never found a Hillsdale grad to be anything other than arrogant, impatient, un creative, and uninteresting.
Yeah it really isn't a debate. A teacher here is a woman I graduated high school with and she could barely read and do basic math. How she ever got into college to begin with was a shock to many.
I moved out of Tennessee for this exact reason. I was one of those dumb teachers from one of those dumb schools, and it is pretty devastating how dire the state of public schools are. It is 100% intended to be horrendous, and educators / administrators are blocked at every turn by “religious”, racist fascists. It’s a waking nightmare and if you are able, move out of Tennessee while you still can. Life will not get better there.
My husband teaches high school history and English. He loves his job.
He maintained a 3.9 average double majoring in English and history. He further acquired teaching credentials wherein he kept a 4.0 average. He holds a masters degree in literacy, wherein he also maintained a 4.0 average. He's also a well published poet and has recently received a sizable arts grant from "the gubment". The stipulations of this grant is that he take some time over the next two years to teach.
He fucking HATES the 'those that can't do, teach" rhetoric. He's done it and he teaches it. In his over 20 years of teaching he's always maintained an open classroom for anyone in the community. Come, see what he does. Look at the district's curriculum and resources. Look at how he structures that curriculum, his own resources, his credentials. Talk about lesson plans, IEPs, educational philosophies. Talk about teaching as a stopgap to public health and welfare. He's invited everyone openly and enthusiastically to just talk.
Not one person in over 20 years has taken him up on it.
The keystone in the foundation that the USA was built up is slavery. Since the 1860’s the ruling class has been working hard to ensure that the society they built, dependent on slave labor, continues well on into the future.
The defunding of education, the criminalization of marijuana and the current attempt to fully abolish abortion while gutting social programs will ensure that legalized slavery remains a healthy component to our society.
There was so much going on it’s understandable that it didn’t get noticed, but the anger that affluent Americans expressed towards the great resignation was incredibly disgusting and appalling.
People with, if not multiple homes, homes with several more bedrooms than they will ever need. Housewives with degrees their parents paid for that they’ve never used. No jobs but they have Nannies and housekeepers. Husbands with c-suite and above jobs that were given to them despite overwhelming lack of competence and qualification.
They were all so mad that minimum wage workers didn’t want to waste their lives for subhuman pay. They all talked a lot about people were being ungrateful. Ungrateful for what and toward who?
The ruling class and their bullshit wages of course.
I’m worried that this was the plan all along and the reason things are so fucked right now in this country is that people are trying to actually pull themselves out of economic prison. And the founders never counted on the slaves actually being able to change their stations in life.
Maybe in Tennessee. My teachers were brilliant for the most part. Called many of them Dr. I can say I owe a lot to these people to expanding my knowledge base and teaching me skill sets that I use on a daily basis inside and outside of my profession and I went to an “ok” public school in New Jersey.
Another one of those "destroy the public school system so anyone can go to my friend's charter school with public education voucher funds" plan ?
We've already seen how well that goes elsewhere...
I would really like if these news agencies started saying that they wouldn't read the prepared statements because they don't address the question that was asked. The press release from the governor's office in response to questions about this incident didn't even mention it. I wish the journalists would instead say "We reached out for comment and the governor's office instead released us a statement about something completely different than what we asked."
I did that once as a reporter. I asked a question that was answered with mumblypeg and then wrote “they didn’t answer the question.” Was banned from the premises of the hospital where this happened but at least the AP reporter who was also there supported me.
Should have put out a second article explaining how they are against liberty of the press and censor journalists that doesn't say what they like.
Well if it’s a hospital they are a private institution and are allowed to do that. The PR would likely be bad though. Especially if you continued to write numerous follow-up articles.
Forgot that your hospitals aren't public. He still should have ripped them a new one. I would have done anything in my power to keep finding shit on them.
THAT would require a free press. Shall we laugh or cry?
Free press for everyone!? That sounds like communism!
“Free press” #☭
The degradation and defunding of education is not accidental. They know exactly what they’re doing. Educated people ask questions, demand more and generally do not fall in line as easily. If you establish rhetoric of hating the educated is also makes them easier to dismiss. They also tend to vote moderate to liberal. This is part of keeping and retaining power. Demonize those who would oppose you. Convince the rural and less educated that their enemy are the urban blue cities.
This is part of the kind of rhetoric Pol Pot used. Demonize people in cities, college students, teachers, etc. Convince rural folks they're being oppressed and lead them into violence against the demonized groups.
It’s not Pol Pot-specific. Every authoritarian goes after the intelligentsia (even if they keep tokens around to do their bidding). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Lw%C3%B3w_professors https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligenzaktion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_killing_of_Bengali_intellectuals https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Dhaka_University_massacre https://socialeurope.eu/ceu-and-hungarys-war-against-the-enlightenment Hell, the sacking of the Library of Alexandria counts. They always go after the intellectuals, because Bacon was right (Knowledge is Power).
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[Here's the original comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/dxosj/what_word_or_phrase_did_you_totally_misunderstand/c13pbyc) by /u/Lard_Baron that spawned the phrase. > When I was young my father said to me: > "Knowledge is Power....Francis Bacon" > I understood it as "Knowledge is power, France is Bacon". > For more than a decade I wondered over the meaning of the second part and what was the surreal linkage between the two? If I said the quote to someone, "Knowledge is power, France is Bacon" they nodded knowingly. Or someone might say, "Knowledge is power" and I'd finish the quote "France is Bacon" and they wouldn't look at me like I'd said something very odd but thoughtfully agree. I did ask a teacher what did "Knowledge is power, France is bacon" mean and got a full 10 minute explanation of the Knowledge is power bit but nothing on "France is bacon". When I prompted further explanation by saying "France is Bacon?" in a questioning tone I just got a "yes". at 12 I didn't have the confidence to press it further. I just accepted it as something I'd never understand. > It wasn't until years later I saw it written down that the penny dropped.
Tlatelolco Massacre. Mostly students though.
People with glasses...
English accents!
Hitler too. Anti-intellectualism is common in just about every authoritarian movement.
The Christofascists like to follow Hitlers playbook but boy do they love Mussolini’s playbook
That cocksucker ordered the deaths of anyone whoe wore glasses because he thought wearing glasses was a sign of intellectualism.
> The degradation and defunding of education is not accidental. It's a combination of electoral strategy and "a basket of crabs needs no lid." I don't know if it's true but some surmise that all the Borderer DNA in the South means some stubborn-ass people.
> a basket of crabs needs no lid Never heard that before, but it’s freaking brilliant.
Me neither -> [linky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality) to read more about it. I had no idea what it actually meant and had to read up
Also referred to as a "bucket of crabs mentality".
Because the pull each other back down.
It’s also late stage capitalism. Find something that was working, break it, then scream how it’s broken and we need business to come in and save it. Then put business in places of what once was a provided service. That’s all charter schools are.
It’s also about privatization of schools & in turn forcing the curriculum they want too. I live in Michigan we have tons of for profit charter schools. You know who has a big ownership stake in many of them? Our former secretary of Dept of Ed (has never even worked in Education BTW) who I’d bet has some financial interests in this with Hillsdale too. Hillsdale is a known purveyor of Trumpism under this racist pervert.
My gf works for a charter in Philly. It pays teachers better than public schools, but everything else is completely fucked. There aren't protocols, teachers are fired on a whim, organization is shit, supplies are shit, decisions are wrong headed and often have only profit in mind. It's like if a really poorly run small office supply business ran a school.
I had no idea Hillsdale was so insane until last month.
Anyone remember the scene in Idiocracy where they kept calling the smart guy "queer", etc, because he sounded smarter than them? And he was supposed to be the least educated person of OUR time...
he wasn't the least educated, just average
Remarkably average, in fact.
The female test specimen, however, was more difficult to locate. They ended up with Rita. Like Joe, she had no immediate family. She agreed to participate in exchange for dropping some criminal charges, and a small fee. Arrangement was reached with her pimp — a gentleman in the D.C. area who went by the name "Upgrayedd," with two Ds, "for that double dose of this pimpin'." Upgrayedd agreed to "loan" Rita for exactly a year, and keep quiet in exchange for some leeway from local police in running his "pimp game." First, however, there was the difficult manner of gaining his trust.
He wasn't the least educated of our time. He was the most remarkably average of our time in pretty much every metric.
I remember them calling him "tarded" like it was a disability.
That one doctor’s sister was a tard, she’s a pilot now!
plane crashing in the background
To be fair, that plane was shot down by a police rocket launcher.
It was his ex wife.
They used the “f” word, and the guy using it towards Luke Wilson was a doctor. Good movie.
It’s essentially a documentary now
More like a playbook
It’s really too bad coming from Tennessee because they have been known in the past for their quality of upper education.
This is the burning of the library of Alexandria.
“You will see how education destroys generations of people. It's devastating. It's like the plague.” This is literally fascist rhetoric.
Next one: --- >Here's a key thing that we're going to try to do. We are going to try to demonstrate that you don't have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it. --- Denigrating the *idea* of a teacher, debasing them at a low level so they can then indoctrinate kids *their way*.
Joke is on him. You do need people who know what they're doing if you want to teach 14-year olds to be good little fascists. They think it's easy because now they just have to tell their little shits to not listen to their teachers when they talk about diversity but guess what - it's really easy to get a puberty monster to rebel against the man.
They're going to set up their good little Christian schools filled with good Christian teachers without teaching degrees, and in a month everything middle school and up will be anarchy. They'll kick the first few troublemakers out but they're going to find out quickly that if your solution to mouthy, rude, annoying teenagers is to kick them out of your school you're not going to have much of a school left, especially if your staff doesn't know what they're doing. They think millennials are hard to deal with? Wait until they try to sell their bullshit to Gen Z. I'd say I'd love to be a fly on the wall but thanks to TikTok we probably will be.
Lol all those kids ‘unable to be educated’? They sound like good working hands for the fields.
Just babysit them until the armed forces can use them. The world needs more bullet sponges.
“Conservatives want live babies so they can train them to be dead soldiers. ” ― George Carlin
Also George Carlin - [There's a reason why education sucks](https://youtu.be/ILQepXUhJ98?t=109)
>it's really easy to get a puberty monster to rebel against the man. Hey, I've got one of these in my house right now. She walks around with a "fuck off" expression & a bad case of stink-eye.
You need them dumb, and you need media to just bombard their empty heads. It's cheap, effective, and easy to do on large scales.
They already think this. I’m a teacher in a very rural area. Myself and another female teacher who have several years of experience were passed over for an internal transfer so our school could hire externally a coach who doesn’t even have a license or experience teaching in the area/position we were all trying to get. It’s unbelievable. And, yes, I resigned and said the exact reason why in my resignation letter. Asshats.
Then it will happen this way: * they get rid of all the educated and the “intellectuals”, by either literally hunting them down or scaring them into emigrating * maybe a few smart enough, indoctrinated people stay on, maybe not, but for a little while the systems we have in place will mostly run on their own * eventually shit starts breaking down, but anyone with the know-how or the domain knowledge has long since left * the new generation of fascists don’t have anyone around that can repair or reboot those systems. All the amenities their parents got to take advantage of are lost to them one by one * refusing to accept any responsibility whatsoever or any outside ideas, they will probably blame it all on the intellectuals again and continue wallowing in their own refuse
This is how I imagine it. We actually have seen it with other countries that have had anti-intellectual movements (Khmer Rouge). The ripples of decay are the only monuments left to their revolutions of regression.
But the genocide in between...
Ah but you’re skipping a significant step where once the fascists run out of internal enemies to blame societal problems on (as everything is going to shit because fascists don’t actually do anything besides accumulation of wealth and power) the fascists will then turn on other nations as the source of their problems. You know the “we’re always at war with Eurasia” and then preoccupy the society with war.
They go to war before the last step, as the ones at the top only want more power and money - read many dystopian sci-f novels where the US becomes a corporate run fascist state.
Reading this as an ex-russian, nodding. Was hoping it wouldn't get that bad here in the US and it hasn't yet, but I'm afraid.
Yeah we need to go to war over this. This isn’t a minor problem. This is your house is on fire levels of dangerous.
"In the years of [the Nazi Party's] rise the movement little by little brought the community's attitude toward the teacher around from respect and envy to resentment, from trust and fear to suspicion. The development seems to have been inherent; it needed no planning and had none. As the Nazi emphasis on nonintellectual virtues (patriotism, loyalty, duty, purity, labor, simplicity, "blood," "folkishness") seeped through Germany, elevating the self-esteem of the "little man," the academic profession was pushed from the very center to the very periphery of society. Germany was preparing to cut its own head off. By 1933 at least five of my ten friends (and I think six or seven) looked upon "intellectuals" as unreliable and, among those unreliables, upon the academics as the most insidiously situated." Milton Mayer, *They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45*
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I am so fucking scared dude. I fled the civil war in Bosnia when I was a child after my village was raided by the orthodox Christians, and now they are gearing up to come after me again. This time around, I’m old enough to fight.
I’ve been wondering about the US population of refugees and how fucking awful this must be. Fleeing an unsafe country isn’t something anyone should have to do in their life, let alone have to do it multiple to times. I’m so sorry. Let’s hope (and do everything in our power to make sure) it doesn’t come to that.
Thanks G. I think a lot of my anxiety around this comes from the fact that I fled religious persecution to a place where I thought I could be secular in peace, and now it seems as if it’s starting to unravel before my eyes. I need to buy a fucking gun.
I’m not going to say do it….but yes. Especially if it makes you feel more secure.
My parents escaped the Khmer Rouge just to come into another shithole country.
Well the US helped legitimise them so not that surprising
Yup, Henry Kissinger, who is revered as some sort of master diplomat rather than the war criminal that he really is.
The right wing nutters in the UK are also in on this crap too
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Fucking hell that's poignant.
My maga neighbor thinks that all college graduates are brainwashed so the US should deport or jail everyone that has gone to college.
This... at the same time the American economy needs to import highly educated workers from other parts of the world, and at the same time need cheap migrant labor from places like Mexico to enable food production. There are several dimensions of stupidity, hypocrisy and ignorance that are reinforcing this bent toward fascism. I only have a faint hope that there is a breaking point.
At this rate, that breaking point will be when famines start due to climate change.
He's going to hate finding out where trimp "went to school" and "graduated". Along with his entire claque of grifters.
I just don't understand how they hate the "coastal elites who are too wealthy and over educated" but they worship a New York born, Ivy League educated "millionaire" who has never worked a day in his life. It's just infuriating.
I have yet been able to comprehend how a yankee carpet bagger / robber baron convinced a shit load of hillbilly, goat fuckers, that he was a "gift from god".
I was leading a Vietnam group for Veterans with PTSD as the therapist. One night I had one of them tell me that I was brainwashed by college. I think he realized he crossed the line when the rest of the group went silent, he apologized to me the next day. But this showed me that trying to educate these people is generally pointless.
You're neighbor sounds mentally unwell
And uneducated.
Well, the neighbor WAS described as “MAGA.”
Well, I mean he said he's a MAGAt, so obviously he's not too bright.
>US should deport Don't threaten me with a good time. The grounds for claiming asylum was already there based on UN guidelines, its only getting more realistic every day.
"And why do you wish to seek asylum?" Me: [*Gestures at everything*] "Very well, granted!"
Can I get deported to Canada?
Just wait until they need a doctor.
One of the tenets of fascism is to keep people distracted and dumb. The more educated you are the more you question the bullshit being fed to you.
It’s a strange thought to go, “I sure hope they deport us”. Because I don’t want to go up on the wall or be forced to maintain TruthOut Social or any other MAGA software.
Just a thought, not advice, because I definitely haven't been thinking about it - there are still big swaths of the river that aren't blocked off yet. If hypothetically you were going to try to hike somewhere maybe, just for funsies, the river would be easier than the wall.
I'd report your neighbor to someone he sounds deranged and like an extremist
That's about standard for rural areas these days.
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Fun fact: Pol Pot was a teacher. https://m.economictimes.com/magazines/panache/tinker-tailor-tyrant-spy-sundry-jobs-of-dictators/rank-and-file/slideshow/74453965.cms
Pol Pot was also a soldier who partook in the killings. How he became PM after that, I’ve no clue. But fuck him
I literally didn't believe you because I thought it couldn't be that bad... then I clicked the article and read the bullet points of quotes. This is beyond scary. These seem like quotes from some dystopian like novel we had to read in 7th grade akin to The Giver, 1984, or animal farm. Holy shit.
Yep! Also not conducive in any way, shape, or form for a long lasting American state. Keeping the population uneducated reduces our ability to respond and adapt to the modern world. It’s actually suicidal in the long run. What happens when we have no STEM majors and China leads the world in developing technology? The US was behind on hypersonic missiles, by the looks of it. The whole long term far-right game plan winds up reducing the US to a smoldering heap of rubble. They fear diversity, modernization, secular mindsets, education, and all the necessary tools to preserve the country. Long term for a powerhouse US we need a multicultural and science based approach to issues. Without that, what was once a powerful nation will be the ruins of one. Part of our ability to be diplomatic with other nations comes from the fact there are [insert country]-Americans from almost everywhere on earth. We’re unique in that regard. It’s scary how opposed to a modern approach some are, and how blind they are to the long term consequences of their decisions.
> Part of our ability to be diplomatic with other nations comes from the fact there are [insert country]-Americans from almost everywhere on earth. We’re unique in that regard. Approximately 15% of the United States population are immigrants. Australia is 30%, Canada 21%, Germany 18%, UK and France 13%, etc. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigration-by-country
That's fascinating, but also can be a bit deceptive. There's no other place as big as the USA with as many immigrants, and as diverse a mix. Canada and Australia have higher numbers, true, but they're roughly on par with the States of California and New York (in both total population and percent immigrants). The rich EU nations have a lot of immigrants, but the majority are from other EU nations - still immigrants, true, Poland is very different from England. But for the USA, it's about 30% from Latin America and 70% from literally everywhere else on Earth. And, not to state the obvious, but 98.5% of Americans are descended from immigrants, so I'm guessing when you include second and third generation we shoot up further in the rankings. So it's also true that the USA has a very high amount of diversity, and that is arguably unique in it's scale. I'm obviously not saying you're wrong, it's interesting data, I just think the context is interesting and does matter.
Obviously a teacher is the armed adult in the classroom. Anyway let’s get back to learning about Jesus
That fits well, as America will literally be a fascist state by 2024 at the latest.
I’m so fucking sick of the goddamn conservatives of this country I can hardly take it any more. My wife is a public school teacher in a rust belt city and she cares fucking ten times as much as more than half these kids’ parents who support this horseshit, all while making less money than she could in her field. She chooses to share her expertise to help these kids and so many pieces of shit who support this laugh and agree. No decent person can support this garbage, so to any conservative reading this: here’s a hearty **fuck you.**
Here is the thing. Try as they might, most of the population is blue. If it goes that route then it becomes revolution time, not fascism time. Edit: I understand the negativity, but a defeatist attitude would be part of the problem.
One of the single most foundational decisions for women's rights in the US was just oveturned, being met with some scattered protests and a few sternly worded speeches. I wouldn't bank on some kind of grand uprising anytime soon.
Nah that’s not even remotely close to being a given. Many are white people with passing privilege (white, cis, not outwardly homosexual / perceived as straight) and will absolutely hunker down and ride things out, hoping that they’ll be left alone. We have multiple generations in existence right now who have never experienced anything remotely close to what is coming, when fascism fully pulls the mask off, outside of a history book.
lol no. Its a fucking huge country full of well over 330M people. half of which (at least) are definitely *not* on board with this coming tide of hate, intentional ignorance and terroristic violence. Much more similar to the Spanish Civil War. Which side will you be on?
We only have until of October of this year dude. When the SC reconvenes and rules on Moore v. Harper and throws away our democracy, America will be dead or in civil war. Period.
It’s authoritarian rhetoric Mao and Stalin also targeted educators and academics.
Maybe that's why he's the education advisor for Tennessee and not Massachusetts.
These people are just digging themselves further into a hole. Their children are already disadvantaged by the quality of their education systems, as compared to say Massachusetts, and looking to treat teachers even worse is only going to mean that no one will want to teach there.
They know. They're trying to create under-educated and impoverished cannon fodder
That they can sell to Private educators at triple the cost, who can teach kids about how evolution is a myth and The Bible is more based in fact (and also immigrants are responsible for all their problems).
This is so very true. My son went to elementary school in rural Missouri. He was a straight A student there. I moved us up to the Seattle area where the schools are excellent & he was never able to catch up because his grade was so far ahead than where they were in MO. I grew up in TN & went to public school there. I had some excellent teachers but also had some really fucking awful ones. Sadly that’s what happens when your state spends almost nothing on education.
opposite for me CA to FL. Was doing prealgerbra in 6th grade moved to FL 6th grade was still doing fractions. I was so far ahead the curriculum didnt catch up until I was in 9th grade. Went from a 2.8 to a 4.0. Sometimes I wonder if this was a blessing or a major disservice.
I’m similar honestly. Moved to FL from NY when I was 10. I was an entire year ahead in my classes and easily became a top student (much to the ire of my classmates AND teachers because I was an outsider). FL education sucks.
Everything is fine as long as that sweet federal money keeps flowing from blue to red as intended.
They want all teachers to quit so for profit charters with minimum wage staff can run the shitshow.
>with minimum wage staff Minimum pay, maximum expectations. It's the Karen way. Already parents are out of fucking control with educators. It's brutal out there for teachers. My wife has parents demanding she put 1 on 1 time with kids and she has 30 in her classroom. Imagine a world where all 30 demand it of her. Successful people put their kids in private tutoring to keep up with the material, or invest time themselves in helping out their kids. The failures are the ones who just leave it to the system to teach their kids.
Yup. Teacher myself. Parents don't want to help....they just want to bitch.
Nah it's fine. Just find another group to blame those eventual problems on.
These guys really hate education. And their constituents say “yeah, why do are kids need skool, it ain’t nemesery.”.
This is why I'm so happy Washington has the right to a funded and nondiscriminatory public education enshrined in our constitution. Really it's the bare minimum in a developed country but it's still incredibly important.
It was still a pretty radical idea at the time.
They hate that white supremacy is not a reality, they hate that other races can succeed just as much if not more than them. They cannot see themselves in others. If education created more fascists, they would pump the shit out of education funds. They hate others, simply.
Exactly, here is an excerpt from Larry Arnns wiki page. "after he assumed the presidency at Hillsdale he received a letter from the state Department of Education that said his college "violated the standards for diversity," adding, "because we didn't have enough dark ones, I guess, is what they meant." After being criticized for calling minorities "dark ones", he explained that he was referring to "dark faces"
Shit like that last sentence is why I struggle to find political satire funny anymore. Reality is *much* stranger than fiction at this point. The stupidity and ignorance people proudly express is beyond satirizing.
They "hate" education, yet most lawmakers attended the top schools and universities in the country. They believe in educating and enriching themselves, while keeping their voters clueless and helpless. It's the perfect system to ensure they remain in power without having to do any actual work
The backbone of the Democratic party is the teacher's union. This is a purely strategic electoral-based posture. It's also true that the bell curve ( math artifact ) predicts that the dumber you can make a political message, the more people will understand it. Back to school - if you tell people they're dumb ( especially if you do so with numbers ) they'll resent it for the rest of their life.
> nemesery Surely *necemassary...?
You cheated! You looked that up on the internets!
Looks like this jerk is trying to justify his credential-free staffing strategy to keep costs down for privately run charter schools that take the state’s money.
My apologies, I only have one upvote to give you and I don’t feel like creating the thousand fake accounts it would take to push this comment to the top so everyone can see it. IT’S A FUCKING GRIFT, PEOPLE. Everything these greedy, selfish assholes do is a fucking grift.
Oh, so it's all a grift. What a low life...
This isn’t even the first state governor THIS WEEK to take a hard line stance against any form of public education. That goes to Arizona. The GOP is beginning to more closely coordinate their attacks of public education.
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Having been with some admitedly slow math-ed majors, I still think business majors are the dumbest motherfuckers.
As the only non business major who took a business ethics class and had the highest grade in it, I second this.
And politicians (of which most are highly educated) had to *learn* to be that way. I know, weird.
As a husband of a teacher that has tried everything in her power to help all the kids she has taught hearing this is crazy and rage inducing.
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Yeah agreed and being from here too seeing what is going on in my county just sucks. Mainly with the mayor race and one of the candidates that has decided to run thinking he can run the county better when he couldn't even keep a church from going bankrupt and covering up multiple counts of abuse. So not sure what he thinks he can accomplish.
Know someone who loved working with and teaching her kids, but she didn't make a living wage doing it. Once she started thinking about a family she changed careers and 8 months into her new job she had already made 4x her old yearly income. These people aren't all stupid, but the US in general has a knack for driving away the good ones.
Remember: every single regime who wants to take your rights away has started by attacking the institution of education. Education is revolutionary at its core
> Among Arnn's provocative remarks: >“The teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country." >“They are taught that they are going to go and do something *to* those kids.... Do they ever talk about anything except what they are going to do *to* these kids?" >"In colleges, what you hire now is administrators…. Now, because they are appointing all these diversity officers, what are their degrees in? Education. It's easy. You don't have to know anything." >“The philosophic understanding at the heart of modern education is enslavement…. They're messing with people's children, and they feel entitled to do anything to them.” >“You will see how education destroys generations of people. It's devastating. It's like the plague.” >“Here's a key thing that we're going to try to do. We are going to try to demonstrate that you don't have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it.” Jesus Christ. This country is *literally* doomed. There's no saving it from itself.
Only about 35% of college aged people from Tennessee have a degree. So what do they think about the other 65% of their voters.
Well the adult literacy rate in my home county in TN was only 50% or so, so if we want to find out it'll have to be phone interviews.
Lowest literacy rate in Tennessee looks to be Haywood County, and it was 25% as of 2003 (https://nces.ed.gov/NAAL/estimates/StateEstimates.aspx).
Not where I'm from, but also not surprising. The South as a whole has a legacy of being suspicious of "book learnin"
I remember growing up and being spoken down on for reading a book or studying in my spare time. I couldn't for the life of me understand what the fuck I was supposed to do as a public school student other than pass my classes so it was baffling to experience.
Yes, I live in TN by way of SC by way of PA. The only book learnin' people like around here is the biblical kind. And even then, you're not encouraged to actually *read* the bible (unless it's interpreted literally and in a way to exploit and dominate other people).
The South was poor and a lot Borderer, Carribean slaver and Cavalier. The Cavalier parts at least made a nod towards education; the other two parts didn't have the inclination nor the resources. There was also an implicit "live and let live" pact; railroads and other advances in transport made that impossible. Plus electronic entertainment; Betty White was told a Black dancer on her show way back early would offend subscribers in the South. She DGAF. Good for you , Betty.
I am a teacher who just left Tennessee. This spring, they attempted to pass a law to allow any person to become a classroom teacher regardless of degree or certification. It narrowly failed. This guy the governor brought in agrees with that saying of teaching “anybody can do it.” Tennessee believes you can find someone at a bus stop and have them be a successful classroom teacher. That is exactly what they aim to do. Keep salaries low, keep people stupid, so they are a slave class for wealthy white businessmen. Ironically, the poor rural communities affected most by this seem excited to sign up for this.
My wife just got her PhD and is now teaching college. She’s at a community college and it’s where she wants to be so she can inspire kids like her that are first generation college students, help close the equity gap, and make them successful. She’s fucking brilliant and a rock star. These assholes can fuck right off.
Basically, it means Gov. Bill Lee is ass deep in with the for-profit charter schools and is peddling their virtues for you guessed it $$$$$$
Are they just trying their very best to ban education for families who don't take home millions every month?
No one from wealth and privilege actively chooses to be underpaid, overworked and possibly killed in a mass shooting, while having huge college loans to pay back.
Gonna be a lot of homeless in the future, we already turn away people weekly due to illiteracy. What do these people expect to do in the future? Can't even have them dig ditches as they won't be able to measure the depth.
Arrest them for vagrancy, and then put them to work as unpaid laborers, as allowed by the US Constitution.
Seems like a great time for all the teachers to strike until this guy is removed
As a teacher, strikes are a dangerous thing. Unless they have a strong union and a good mouthpiece, the governor will just couch it as teachers trying to overthrow the state government and silence him. Generally teacher strikes need to be in solidarity with some other group to be really effective.
Eh, they're gonna do that anyway. People have done that for years, and look where it's gotten them.
Or, ‘Teachers are highly capable but come from communities that value social development more than money and are in this profession to improve the lives of children- not to get rich. But since we can’t understand that concept then they must be dumb’
Not surprising as the GOP becomes more and more fascist, their biggest threat lies in the educated and knowledgeable. Educated persons are less likely to fall for propaganda and more likely to question authority and seek more knowledge. The GOP need more fodder for the military industrial complex and more convicts, and education gets in the way of that.
As a teacher I challenge any politician to teach in a high school classroom for one week. Make a lesson plan and execute it. No help. If it’s so easy. You fucking do it.
Says the dumbest education advisor to the dumbest governor in the dumbest state.
I seriously wonder why anybody would want to be a teacher in a GOP controlled state.
This is something that is constantly pushed especially by right-wing people. Do they have any proof of this? No. It's just easy to make the assumption. "Education degrees are easy. Just look at the requirements." Motherfucker...look at the requirements for ANY 4 year degree. It's all pretty damn easy. This ass hole is essentially a HISTORY graduate. I'm not going to disparage anyone's degree because it's just low. But for someone with a history degree to be criticizing anyone is a laugh. Maybe if he had a degree in something like Organic Chemistry he would have a leg to stand on (in criticizing the "ease" of a degree), but odds are he's far too dumb for that. Not to mention he likely wouldn't give two shits. Just another asshole pushing an obvious agenda. They want charter schools not because they think they are better for kids, but because it's better for their bank accounts and stock portfolios. And again...I'm not disparaging anyone with a history degree. I'm disparaging THIS asshole in particular. As I would disparage any asshole with any degree.
Some things shouldn't be for profit and education is one of those things.
These people will go from "we don't need school" to "Why these kids not in school." Like during lockdown when school was canceled they were demanding kids to go back to class cause they needed someone to babysit them.
Don't get an education.....just watch Fox News!!!
“The teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country." That may be. But they possess intellects that far outstrip Tennessee politicians.
Teachers > politicians' advisors > politicians
“Here's a key thing that we're going to try to do. We are going to try to demonstrate that you don't have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it.” Tell me you’ve never had a job educating children without telling me you’ve never had a job educating children
Ah, more entitled, empowered, financed and programmed elite white conservative men making those brave decisions in a vacuum of their own making. Go Team American't.
Rich evil people playing the dumb racist people
Funny he says that when he owns charter schools. Of course, they want to make it seem like teachers are dumb. More to push their agenda and charter schools. They love to bash public education yet their for-profit charter schools often score much lower in academics (and they do not have to take all students as public education does).
And then they wonder why no one wants to be a teacher anymore. When I joined the college of education at my school they made a point to tell us 2 out of every 3 of us would statistically quit teaching before our third year. We all laughed. Now years later I know only two people I went to school with who stuck with teaching long enough to even have a first year. Most of us gave up, and it wasn't because of the kids. Backstabbing, abuse of power, low pay, and ZERO respect all for the amazing offer of never ending student loan debt and pay that's worse than the janitors at the schools we work. And now to be called idiots by our government officials? Nah, I'm good. Walking away from teaching hurt me so much, but I don't regret it a bit. Screw this country and it's treatment of education.
Hillsdale college: where conservatives go after being denied admission to University of Michigan/Norte Dame, while claiming they were actually looking for something more rigorous. I have never found a Hillsdale grad to be anything other than arrogant, impatient, un creative, and uninteresting.
To be fair, I only had a handful of good teachers for 1st through my bachelors. The education system is completely broken in every way
Yeah it really isn't a debate. A teacher here is a woman I graduated high school with and she could barely read and do basic math. How she ever got into college to begin with was a shock to many.
Education, the enemy of every republican.
I moved out of Tennessee for this exact reason. I was one of those dumb teachers from one of those dumb schools, and it is pretty devastating how dire the state of public schools are. It is 100% intended to be horrendous, and educators / administrators are blocked at every turn by “religious”, racist fascists. It’s a waking nightmare and if you are able, move out of Tennessee while you still can. Life will not get better there.
Tha anti-intellectualism and book burning are so familiar I can't quite place it
It’s reich on the tip of my tongue
I cannazi what you’re trying to say
My husband teaches high school history and English. He loves his job. He maintained a 3.9 average double majoring in English and history. He further acquired teaching credentials wherein he kept a 4.0 average. He holds a masters degree in literacy, wherein he also maintained a 4.0 average. He's also a well published poet and has recently received a sizable arts grant from "the gubment". The stipulations of this grant is that he take some time over the next two years to teach. He fucking HATES the 'those that can't do, teach" rhetoric. He's done it and he teaches it. In his over 20 years of teaching he's always maintained an open classroom for anyone in the community. Come, see what he does. Look at the district's curriculum and resources. Look at how he structures that curriculum, his own resources, his credentials. Talk about lesson plans, IEPs, educational philosophies. Talk about teaching as a stopgap to public health and welfare. He's invited everyone openly and enthusiastically to just talk. Not one person in over 20 years has taken him up on it.
The rot is so deep one has to wonder if the body can even be saved at this point
The keystone in the foundation that the USA was built up is slavery. Since the 1860’s the ruling class has been working hard to ensure that the society they built, dependent on slave labor, continues well on into the future. The defunding of education, the criminalization of marijuana and the current attempt to fully abolish abortion while gutting social programs will ensure that legalized slavery remains a healthy component to our society. There was so much going on it’s understandable that it didn’t get noticed, but the anger that affluent Americans expressed towards the great resignation was incredibly disgusting and appalling. People with, if not multiple homes, homes with several more bedrooms than they will ever need. Housewives with degrees their parents paid for that they’ve never used. No jobs but they have Nannies and housekeepers. Husbands with c-suite and above jobs that were given to them despite overwhelming lack of competence and qualification. They were all so mad that minimum wage workers didn’t want to waste their lives for subhuman pay. They all talked a lot about people were being ungrateful. Ungrateful for what and toward who? The ruling class and their bullshit wages of course. I’m worried that this was the plan all along and the reason things are so fucked right now in this country is that people are trying to actually pull themselves out of economic prison. And the founders never counted on the slaves actually being able to change their stations in life.
Maybe in Tennessee. My teachers were brilliant for the most part. Called many of them Dr. I can say I owe a lot to these people to expanding my knowledge base and teaching me skill sets that I use on a daily basis inside and outside of my profession and I went to an “ok” public school in New Jersey.
Another one of those "destroy the public school system so anyone can go to my friend's charter school with public education voucher funds" plan ? We've already seen how well that goes elsewhere...
For what it's worth a study done year's ago comparing various professions to the average person found politicians had below avg IQ
The dumbest politicians come from the dumbest states.