#Missouri schools

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jess Piper at The View from Rural Missouri:

George Orwell has been on my mind a lot and I am sure on yours as well. I taught “1984” in a Brit Lit class. The kids were always shaken at the authoritarianism and the cruelty of Oceania. You understand deeply why I mention Orwell at this moment. As of late, I could scream. I knew these next four years would be difficult, but I didn’t imagine the absolute chaos on day one. And two. And three. And every damn day. It never stops and we aren’t even two weeks in.

Besides the obvious cruelty, it’s the language of this administration that drives me mad…the lack of civil and academic and professional language. The feeling that we all get a little dimmer every time we listen to a lackey or toady or the President spouting lies and demeaning journalists. Demeaning anyone with any sense who listens to what is coming out of the White House. It’s torture to know that what we see is what we get. The dumbing down of a country, one presser at a time. One Cabinet pick at a time. One Department at a time. “It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.” ~George Orwell, 1984

Orwell would likely call the current state of the Department of Education as the Department of Uneducation. Remember Newspeak? It was Orwell’s fictional language designed by a totalitarian government to control the population by limiting vocabulary and manipulating the meaning of words, restricting the range of thought and critical thinking.

[...]

Many states, just like mine, are using vouchers to pay for private religious schools who may discriminate on nearly any basis. Our taxes are funding religious education for a small percentage of American students and the majority of vouchers go to families who already have their children in private schools. [...] Book bans are not a hoax — they did not originate in the Biden administration and they very much existed during the first Trump presidency. From July 2023 to June 2024, there were 10,046 instances of book bans in 220 public school districts across 29 states. The states with the most book bans are red states including: Florida, Iowa, Texas, Missouri, and Utah. But, I bet you already knew that. [...] I haven’t even mentioned the Department of Education’s new Secretary, WWE Queen, and Trump loyalist, Linda McMahon — a massive proponent of “school choice.” I don’t mention her because she doesn’t really matter. She will do exactly as she is told. She has little experience in schools. She has never been a teacher. She has never been an administrator. She served on a School Board for a time. The new Secretary is an entertainer like her President— she also plans to gut public education and that is exactly why she was chosen for the position.

Jess Piper wrote on her Substack blog that the US Department of Education under the Trump/McMahon regime is engaging in deceitful doublespeak that will harm education.

[federer7]

July 1942. "Dunklin County, Missouri. Children leaving school."

Photo by Arthur Rothstein for the Office of War Information

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[avantguardisme]

i have exactly one (1) beef with chappell roan and its that i dont think anyone from missouri gets to call themself a “midwest princess” bc theres no universe in which missouri is a midwestern state to me. however as a bitch from eastern kansas (the midwest, to me) i recognize that i have no leg to stand on in this argument so she can live i guess

[easthighseblos]

Joe Serafini at the Blue Strawberry St Louis Night One

27th October 2023, Missouri

[hxad-ovxr-hxart]

ITS SUPPOSED TO BE (-15°) NEGATIVE FIFTEEN FUCKING DEGREES (Fahrenheit) TOMORROW WHEN I GO TO WORK AT 0530

THIS IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS

[lily-onher-grave]

oh my goodness hi! i just discovered your ao3 account like a month ago and i’ve been reading learn me right and oh my GOD it’s amazing??? Actually the first thing i’ve ever read that’s made me like audibly go “aww” and occasionally gasp. anyway your writing is incredible and i love the song lyrics that you put at the beginning of each chapter. I know that the fic was published a while ago but i wanted to say that i keep hearing songs and thinking “these are really learn me right coded!”

One that jumps out at me is love me anyway by chappell roan, especially like this chunk:

autumn came and december went

turned you down at your high school dance

you still la-love me anyway

you still la-love me anyway

like you can’t tell me those lyrics weren’t CATERED to learn me right. it’s just too good and i only associate that song with your fic now, just wanted to tell you that and see what you thought of it. keep up the wonderful writing!

ahhh this is so sweet, thank you! also 10/10 song choice, i absolutely adore it. one of the silliest and most fun things to come out of the wicked movie (for me) is people looking at LMR and going 'you know what fits here? chappell roan.' you're all 100% right and she'd probably be somewhere in the chapter lyrics if i was writing LMR today

[haute-lifestyle-com]

Choosing among 1,371 entries, the 27 judges at the University of Missouri School of Journalism conferred 120 awards on editors, writers, photographers, podcasters, social media experts and videographers in the 2024 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jess Piper at The View from Rural Missouri:

In a classroom, on tribal land, I learned to complete and turn in my homework on time. I was in 4th grade, and usually one of the best students, but for whatever reason, one day… I forgot my homework. I really did love the school. I have written about the no-questions-asked cafeteria policy and how I was able to eat every day without the shame of charging when I didn’t have money or not eating if I had charged too often. The Cherokee Nation fed every kid and I am forever grateful. But my math homework. You should know that I am very bad at math. It never was my strong suit, but I always completed my homework, even in a chaotic home. I must have left it at home that day.

My 4th grade teacher had grown irritated at us for not finishing homework and this day must have pushed her to the limit. I can remember at least three of us without our homework that day. My teacher grabbed her paddle and herded all three of us into the hallway. She told us she was going to “light us on fire,” which meant we were about to get swats from her wooden paddle. I was a rule follower for most of my life. The Jess you know today bears little resemblance to the girl and woman I was in my younger days. I have been paddled exactly twice in my life. I will never forget them — forever singed into my memory. My dad spanked me once and then never again. I was four and my babysitter always seemed to be pregnant or nursing. She was also always out of patience. She watched me and my three-year old sister every day in the summer. It was Mississippi in the late 70s.

One day, the sitter gave us our lunch on the back porch and then proceeded to lock us outside for several hours. She lived in a trailer with a slider off the kitchen. We knocked and knocked and could see her inside the living room watching TV and folding laundry. She acted like she couldn’t see or hear us. She let us back in before my dad came to pick us up. When Daddy arrived, he looked at me and asked me why I was so red — I have a very fair complexion and any exercise or time in the sun still turns my cheeks bright red. I told him the babysitter locked us out all afternoon. He looked at her. She denied it. She also told my dad I lied a lot, and we were only in the backyard for a few minutes before he arrived. On the way home, Daddy told me he was going to spank me for lying. He did indeed spank me and sent me to bed crying. That was the first time I realized my dad wasn’t a god…he was just a man. Fallible. [...]

Corporal punishment is legal to this very day in Missouri schools. Teachers and Administrators can dole out swats to children as young as five. Giving students swats is legal in too many states: As of 2024, corporal punishment is legal in 17 states and practiced in 14. An additional six other states have not expressly prohibited it. I “witnessed” swats as a first-year teacher. I was an 8th Grade Reading teacher at the time and my classroom was directly across from the Principal’s office. He administered a lot of swats. Too many swats. My administrator came into my classroom during my prep period one day. He told me he needed me for just a minute. I obliged and walked into his office and saw a 7th grade boy sitting in a chair. The boy had racked up five tardies and could choose ISS or swats. The boy chose the swats.

The Principal told me I was a witness to the swats. Oh my god — I wanted to witness no such thing. I did not want to see this happen, but I also didn’t want to be in trouble as a first-year teacher. The Principal told the boy to pull up his shirt to make sure the swats landed on his rear rather than on his back or legs…the boy was also instructed to lean over and place his hands on the desk. The Principal “warmed him up” with a light tap on the boy’s rear. Then my administrator delivered three of the hardest swats I have ever seen in my life. I am positive the paddling could be heard in the hallway. With the first swat, tears sprang from the boy’s eyes. The second swat had the boy give out a little yelp. And the third had the boy jump in pain. When it was over, the boy rubbed his behind and wiped his eyes and walked out. I had never been a witness before and that would be the last time. I was horrified. I walked back to my room and fought back tears. I knew the boy’s homelife — he was tardy because he missed the bus too often. He didn’t have an alarm and his mom didn’t get up until noon. He took the swats rather than the ISS because it was a quicker punishment and he was accustomed to being hit. Damn it. “Nationwide, Black students and students with disabilities are twice as likely to receive corporal punishment in school as white students without disabilities. Boys are four times more likely to be hit than girls. The majority of students who received corporal punishment were in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas.” I have lobbied my Representatives to end corporal punishment in Missouri public schools. If you happen to be in a state with this practice, I hope you will contact your State Rep and Senator to ask them to ban the practice as well.

Corporal punishment should be banned in every state and district in the nation. No child should be hit in school. Especially by adults they trust.

Jess Piper is right: “Corporal punishment should be banned in every state and district in the nation.”

Corporal punishment produces instant obedience out of fear with long-term harmful side effects.

[schokoleibniz]

a kid today told me in all seriousness that “Trump cooked last night” and I just looked at him and said auf deutsch “Trump was cooked.”

Like my dude, did we even watch the same debate?

[archivlibrarianist]

Created by the Missouri Library Association, via PENAmerica's methodology, for books banned by Missouri SB775, which went into effect November 2022.

[trivialbob]

The best thing since sliced bread

I wonder what superlative people uttered before July 7, 1928, the day the bread slicer was invented in Chillicothe, Missouri.

This weekend I find myself in Chillicothe. My dad and I are here for a wedding. My sisters and brother, their significant others, and even some of the kids are here too.

Last night we had a bit of a family reunion dinner which I enjoyed. This branch of my family shares my enthusiasm for Australian Shepherds. My aunt even brought her young pup to dinner. One cousin and another cousin’s daughter (the one getting married) have more Aussies.

This morning I visited the Chillicothe Banking Co. The scent of freshly baked (and sliced!) bread is long gone. The building is now a museum and visitors center. It’s called the Sliced Bread Innovation Center. There’s also an Escape Room attached to the building. But why would anyone want to leave?

A big old bread slicer (I don’t think the original) is on display. Another visitor I saw mentioned the enormous loaf of slice bread on the roof. I’m glad she did, as I had overlooked it. I rushed out for a picture.

Afterwards I walked around the downtown square area. I got my picture in front of the big “Home of Sliced Bread” mural. The Donut Palace is misleadingly named. Oh they have donuts, but in a one story red brick building. Then I met some of our group at Shooter’s Taproom and Kitchen for a snack and cocktail.

Now it’s time to get dressed for the wedding. The dress code pleases me greatly: jeans. The venue is a farm that’s been converted into an event center. I saw it last night and it’s neat.

[easthighseblos]

Joe at the Blue Strawberry, St Louis Night Two

28th October 2023, Missouri

[denisenini]

Le vrai Charles Ingalls

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lauren Brennecke at St. Louis Public Radio:

The Francis Howell School District board on Thursday introduced seven controversial measures, including one that would prohibit classroom discussion on gender identity and another that would require a district committee’s approval of all books and classroom materials. The board’s decision came despite the objections of more than 100 students, parents, teachers and others who held a rally before its meeting to decry the proposals. “A society grows great when elders plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in,” said Nathaniel Basset, a Francis Howell parent who opposes the board's plans. “But the actions taken by the majority of this board are those of arsonists burning down forests to eliminate what they don't understand and fill up the world with emptiness inside of them. The proposed policies … spell the death of curiosity.”

Another proposal would allow any resident or employee in the district to ask that a book be removed from school libraries and classrooms. The book wouldn’t return to shelves until it received approval from a nine-person review committee that would include the school’s principal, teachers, a school board member and four laypeople. District employees also questioned whether school board members are qualified to make decisions on banning books. Jeff Bargielski, lead library media specialist for the district, said the book bans would create learning barriers for students.

“Some of the students face heavy, complicated issues at home,” Bargielski said. “As such, our age-appropriate book collections should sometimes address those complicated issues.” School board Treasurer Jane Puszkar said the board’s 5-2 conservative majority aims to protect students from “brain propaganda.” “We are removing the politics contained that disparage … conservative leaders and exalt those who are liberal,” Puszkar said. “Children are very impressionable at that age.” Board members had planned to include a measure barring teachers from discussing partisan, political or social issues but decided Wednesday to wait until teachers union representatives could review it.

[...] But students and parents still want school board President Adam Bertrand and Vice President Randy Cook to withdraw all of the proposals. Chelsea Freels, a 2023 graduate of Clayton High School, said she hopes her LGBTQ peers in Francis Howell schools can continue to have supportive conversations with teachers. “A threat to queer students in one place is a threat to queer students in every place,” Freels said. “We need to support each other. If we don't support each other, what are we doing?” Carolie Owens and Steven Blair, board members who are not members of the conservative majority, used the start of the meeting to ask fellow board members to introduce the policies at a later date. Four other board members declined, voting to move forward with a first reading of the proposals. Final votes could come in July.

The right-wing majority on the Francis Howell School District board have introduced several lighting-rod proposals, such as a "Don't Say Gay or Trans" rule and book-banning proposal that require a district committee’s approval of all books and classroom materials.