#School Curriculums

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lois Beckett at The Guardian:

Attacks targeting American public schools over LGBTQ+ rights and education about race and racism cost those schools an estimated $3.2bn in the 2023-24 school year, according to a new report by education professors from four major American universities. The study is believed to be the first attempt to quantify the financial impact of rightwing political campaigns targeting school districts and school boards across the US. In the wake of the pandemic, these campaigns first attempted to restrict how American schools educate students about racism, and then increasingly shifted to spreading fear among parents about schools’ policies about transgender students and LGBTQ+ rights.

Researchers from UCLA, UT Austin, UC Riverside and American University surveyed 467 public school superintendents across 46 US states, asking them about the direct and indirect costs of dealing with these volatile campaigns. Those costs included everything from out-of-pocket payments to hire to lawyers or additional security, to the staff member hours devoted to responding to disinformation on social media, addressing parent concerns and replying to voluminous public records requests focused on the district’s teachings on racism, gender and sexuality. The campaigns that focused on public schools’ policies about transgender students often included lurid false claims about schools trying to change students’ gender or “indoctrinating” them into becoming gay. This disinformation sparked harassment and threats against individual teachers, school board members and administrators, with some of the fury coming from within local communities, and even more angry calls, emails and social media posts flooding in from conservative media viewers across the country.

In addition to the financial costs of responding to these targeted campaigns, the study revealed other dynamics, the researchers said. “The attack on public officials as pedophiles was one I heard again and again, from people across extremely different parts of the country: rural, urban, suburban. It speaks to the way that this really is a nationalized conflict campaign,” said John Rogers, an education professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the lead author of the study. The frequency with which both school board members and school superintendents were “being called out as sexual predators – it was really frightening”, Rogers said. Superintendents from across the country told the researchers how these culture battles had affected their schools, and cut into resources they would have preferred to spend on education.

[...] While disagreement, debate and dealing with angry parents are a normal part of local public school administration, the researchers noted, the political campaigns that schools have faced in recent years have been anything but normal. Many of them have been driven by “a small number of active individuals on social media or at school board meetings”, and fueled by misinformation. The school-focused campaigns, which started with claims that elementary and middle schools were harming white students by teaching critical race theory and later shifted to attacks on schools’ policies for transgender students, were nationally organized, with “common talking points” that could be traced back to conservative foundations and rightwing legal organizations, and were intensely amplified by rightwing media coverage, Rogers said.

Public schools across the US burned up nearly $3.2BN worth of money fending off right-wing culture war items such as book bans, anti-LGBTQ+ extremism, anti-student inclusion, and anti-racial equity policies.

See Also:

The Advocate: U.S. public schools lost $3.2 billion fighting conservative culture wars: report

[socialjusticeinamerica]

Because culture wars are the most important problem is facing right now.

[inkprilled]

Just before covid hit my brother and I at 15 and 19 found our selfs homeless. I had a choice, my brother would go into care or we could stay together, but only if I took responsibility for him and had somewhere to live. So I applyed for social housing, the guy that processed my case was sympathetic and at some points I was holding it together better than him, do you have any other family? No, Do you know where your mother is? I wish I did, how old is your brother? 15 are you in any fulltime education? Not anymore. He looked at me like I was something tragic and I suppose I was, there isn't a metaphor for what I looked like that works any better than just what his naked eyes saw; a girl abandoned by her mother, her life in a bag on her back completely thrown on how to deal with everything, and all he could do was fill out a form and send it and me off. it's going to be okay.

Somehow despite the odds we where given emergency accommodation and a year later a property to rent, I suspect we where pushed up the list because of my brothers age, we where lucky, some people wait years in hotels or streets all over the country, living out of suitcases and rucksacks.

As lucky as we where, luck didn't cover all the things I suddenly had to know. I had no idea how bills worked or paying my taxes, I didn't even really understand what "taxes" meant until the final notices where piling up in front of us. It's something they don't teach you in school or at least mine didn't. They never taught us how to survive in a world like this, they assume our parents would be there to explain or we'd be much older before it mattered. what's more useful in real life, how to formally address someone in an email or how to keep the lights on or how to find food when a tin of beans is too expensive.

Though I suppose the email ettique lesson was useful for something in the end,

To whomever it may concern, I'm writing to you regarding my payment plans and how I'm choosing to fork over alot of money and won't be buying enough food to live off this month. My regards.

[stargirl230]

interlude

Lost focus and drew a consensual workplace relationship (the inherent intimacy of hanging out in an artist's studio to watch them exist in their element got to me)

Zoom in for details I poured my soul into <3

(no reposts; reblogs appreciated)

[fayvpor]

how dare u articles not include the date it was last modified and the full authors names

do you not know.

the PAIN!

and TORMENT!!! youve caused readers of your stupdi article to feel????

do you REALIZE!

that 87% of your readers are students desperately searching for sources for a randomly specific topic for a project??????!!!!!!!!!!

do you not know how we have SOBBED and SUFFERED after finding that our perfect source couldnt have a perfect citation??????

DO YOU KNOW HOW WE KNOW WE NEED TO BRUSH OUR TEETH TWICE A DAY BUT WE ONLY NEED THAT BECAUSE WE NEED PROOF TO JUSTIFY OUR STATEMENTS????

*sobs in ib student*

[whalehouse1]

Jason coming back as Red Hood.

Tim: Wait, this is Jason? Little shrimp noddle of a kid? How’d he get so jacked?

Dick, I may have let him put some of the bigger books in his backpack.

Bruce: You did? So did I. Alfred?

Alfred: Don’t look at me Master Bruce, I told you this would happen if you let the boy read War and Peace and The Count of Monte Cristo at the same time in their original bindings.

[hummingbird-hunter]

Tankies really have one argument to defend their genocide denial and that is "western sources are propaganda and you can't trust them". Ah, yes, the most westernest of sources, my Ukrainian grandma.

[emotionaloof]

Wearing my KNIFE t-shirt to college and Vyncent Sol posseses me (my brain loses all its thoughts and I stab a guy).

[alpaca-clouds]

"Why didn't I learn this in history class?"

Lemme talk about something a bit more serious today. Because ever since I started to ramble once more about historical context for Castlevania Nocturne I have gotten asked this one so often:

"Why did I not learn this in school?" Or: "Why did I not learn this in history class?"

And I shall tell you why: Because school sucks.

I do not mean this in some exaggerated way or hyperbolic way or anything. School sucks. And you do not go to school to learn anything useful, you go to school for two reasons: a) So that you are out of the hairs of your parents and they can be exploited at their work place. b) So that you learn to listen to authority from a young age on and get some basic skills that you will ideally be able to leverage for your own exploitation.

I am sorry for sounding so darn Marxist right now, but that it is it.

And here is the thing: Because the entire school system is build towards exploitation, nobody actually wants you to learn about actual history. It could give you ideas, and that would be very tragic, wouldn't it?

Depending on the country you live in, history class mainly is concerned with two things. Teach you a bit about the bad stuff, and then also get some nice patriotic propaganda into your head. The latter stuff is especially strong in the US. I mean, pretty much every kid learns some variation of the entire darn "thanksgiving" bullshit. I just will leave you with the Adam's Family Values scene about this.

I mean, this is especially noticable right now of course, where everyone is crying about kids maybe learning just a little bit of real history in school - and so many people trying to forbid it.

In Germany, our history class basically goes like this: We note everything that has happened until 1900 in about three hours, only doing a very, very rough overview, and then we will talk about the Weimar Republic, First World War, Third Reich and Second World War at nauseum. Which could be good, if we actually talked about how the Nazis came into power. But if you ever talk with any random German who has not studied history, you will notice that most of them are of the opinion that the Nazi party was not elected in the popular vote, and that at least 40% of all people in the Third Reich were in fact against Hitler. Both of those things are not true. Nazis were elected - and they used some trickery to stay in power - and more than 90% of Germans were in full support of Hitler.

And the French Revolution? Obviously you will not learn about that. It might give you ideas. You know. Ideas what to do with unelected people who rule your country. And if you learn about the French Revolution, you might see how there are certain parallels to modern times.

You see, those who do not learn from history, are fated to repeat it.

Which kinda brings me to the even more radical part of this. You know what you can do to really fucking annoy those in power? You can learn about history. And you can teach others about history.

They will often tell you, that history is not as important as STEM. And in some way, sure: History will not cure cancer, and it will only do so much to help with climate change. But... It will teach you about how to recognize tyranny. And how to fight it. And frankly, under tyranny you will most likely not get cured of the cancer, let alone climate change. So yeah, tyranny - and getting rid of it - is important.

And, how did a wise man once say?

[rocketbirdie]

check out how my local elementary school is teaching multiples of ten to their 3rd graders

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Judd Legum at Popular Information:

In May 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed Florida House Bill 1069, a law that requires sex education classes in the state to conform to right-wing ideology. Specifically, the law requires all sex education classes to teach students that sex is binary, "either male or female," even though that is inaccurate. It also mandates that students are instructed that sex is defined exclusively by "internal and external genitalia present at birth," and these sex roles are "binary, stable, and unchangeable." This requirement erases the existence of trans and nonbinary people. Schools also must "teach abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage as the expected standard for all school-age students" and "the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage."

To enforce these new rules and other aspects of the DeSantis administration's political agenda, HB 1069 also requires "all materials used to teach reproductive health" to be approved in advance by the Florida Department of Education (FDE) or use textbooks pre-approved by the state. Previously, sex education curricula were approved by district school boards. Florida parents can opt-out of sex education lessons on behalf of their children. 

The FDE instructed school districts to submit their materials for sex education by September 30, 2023. The school districts met the deadline, but the FDE never responded. Florida counties were placed in a no-win situation as not teaching sex education, a mandatory course, at all is a violation of state law.  Several Florida school districts — including Hillsborough, Orange and Polk Counties, three of Florida's largest — decided not to teach sex education at all during the 2023-24 school year, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Other counties, including Broward and Seminole Counties, taught sex education classes without getting the legally required approval. 

The FDE has ignored requests for comment and public records requests seeking an explanation for the delay.  Now, a new school year is underway in Florida, and the FDE still has not approved any of the submitted sex education materials — or provided any response at all. Orange County hoped to make up for last school year's missed lessons when school started this August, "but now those plans are on hold."  Schools are reluctant to use the state's pre-approved texts because they are glaringly incomplete. For example, one textbook "preaches abstinence as the only effective way to prevent STDs and pregnancy and does not mention contraception." To avoid issues, the textbook advises students to "go on group dates rather than spend one-on-one time with a partner."

Popular Information takes a deep dive into why Florida students at several school districts aren’t being taught sex ed at all, even though it is a a mandatory course.

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

At a certain point blaming the school system for failing to teach you every fact becomes an excuse to absolve yourself from learning on your own time as an adult. Maybe you had bad teachers and curricula, maybe you never did the assigned reading, maybe you were taught propaganda, but it’s okay to start now. It’s okay to learn geography from online games. It’s okay to get entry level books from the library on a subject. It’s okay to explore Wikipedia and other reputable websites as a start. You can learn as an adult. You should continue learning as an adult.

[uwmspeccoll]

Milestone Monday

April 15th is National American Sign Language (ASL) Day, observed annually to celebrate the ASL community and its contributions to inclusivity, and to encourage folks to learn the language. Regarded as a natural language, sign language has likely existed for as long as there has been a need to communicate, however, the emergence of ASL is largely credited to Thomas Gallaudet (1787-1851) founder of the American School for the Deaf. Uniting deaf children from the western hemisphere the American School for the Deaf was fertile soil for language contact, developing ASL from French Sign Language, village sign languages, and home sign systems. Today, more than a half-million people throughout the United States use ASL to communicate as their native language. 

In recognition of the day, we’re sharing another book from our Historical Curriculum Collection the Basic Pre-School Signed English Dictionary published by Gallaudet College Press in 1973. Signed English features drawn signs with written instructions to represent 975 words most frequently used by and with pre-school children. The editors also include sign markers and the American Manual Alphabet to be used in conjunction with the vocabulary, encouraging a language that is adaptable and offers a more complete English model of communication. 

Signed English was edited in part by Harry Bornstein and Karen Saulnier who worked on several signing books for young readers throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and illustrated by Jack Fennell and Ann Silver. 

Read other Milestone Monday posts here! 

– Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

[selamat-linting]

my friend is a teacher and i always think its super sweet how she play online games with her students and would have fun with them while stopping them from saying slurs or misogynistic insults when gaming. and she did in a way that are kind but firm enough they kept going back and see her as the fun teacher. she also reposted her student's art sometimes on insta.

i dont think people in our generation ever have that kind of teacher who cares and would be a peer for you. i mean, i have a bunch of teachers who did take me to a doctor and give me hand me down clothing (my parents were neglectful and poor lmao) but it always feel like something they do because i was a problem or someone they would have called the cps on if we have them in this country. like, they dont engage with you if youre doing okay. i think the first teacher i have who really cared and treats us all like a peer instead of just some subject to teach is my homeroom/history teacher in highschool. she was cool and i aspire to have a home like hers.

[iamnmbr3]

Harry: Try for some remorse. I've seen what you'll be otherwise.

Voldemort: What do you mean you've seen what I'll be?

Harry: You know. In the afterlife. Dumbledore says hi btw.

Voldemort: THERE'S AN AFTERLIFE?! AND NO ONE TOLD ME?! I didn't even need to make Horcruxes?

Harry: yeah. i mean now you'll just suffer eternally bc your soul is damaged. you could put yourself together again except i killed all the pieces. sorry about that.