Tiffany’s Reviews > Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation > Status Update

There are no citations, not even for quotes.
This bothers me.

Rollout of common core was a mess, I do remember that. That was right when I started teaching. And since the standards were written by academic experts in each individual field, I can understand why Pete would hate them. As a mathematician and former math teacher, and with a third grader now, I actually love them. I think they provide great structure for understanding more complicated concepts within each discipline.

I’m so confused. He was talking about cultural as opposed to economic Marxism on the progressive left, but not he’s talking about socialism and capitalism and the economy.
Is this about money? Or is it about faith? Shared values? What are we really upset about here?
Listen, there are valid criticisms of both the left and the education system in the US. I’m just not sure this is it.

“…the Left, from the very beginning of their takeover, have assumed the least of average citizens-trying to shift the classroom from a place of virtuous living & liberated minds to a place where basic skills are bestowed on future workers. The latest iteration of this trend is the push for STEM…the aim (is) pumping out workers, not thinkers.”
Scientific method? Critical thinking? Logic? This IS STEM…
…

The conflation of faith and political preference is really worrisome to me. I could get on board with what he’s saying - I do think the political left endorses beliefs and behaviors that contradict God’s ways, and they can be cruel in their “criticism”.
And also.
It’s not like they’re “the world” and the right is “the elect”…
It’s politics, not the church. The separation is important.

Pete’s mom had every right to pull him from instruction that was inconsistent with family values & to supplement his education with her own curriculum that taught things ps lacked. We do this too!
I don’t think that necessarily means that school should change (because of course it won’t, we agree there) but perhaps that parents should be able to exercise their responsibility to participate actively W/ the pss.

“‘As a public institution, we are charged w/ respecting the rights and civil liberties of all individuals who have children in our school system-& because that encompasses a variety of different people, faiths and belief systems, it would be impossible for us to focus specifically on any one religion w/o the possibility of upsetting or offending someone else…’”
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Politics downstream of culture, culture downstream of religion is what I figured he’d say as I was reading Anxious Generation knowing this book was next!

Ok - this feels like he’s being quite alarmist HOWEVER I do remember in Ed school when I was getting my teaching cert being made to both “‘confess when being racist’ & that ‘whiteness is a bad deal.’” I remember writing in a paper as a very earnest future math teacher, “I don’t want to be racist!” And my prof wrote, on that very paper, I know, too bad, this is why we confess.” Yikes McGikes!