Toadlick Games

Reaching a higher consciousness

Recent Posts

  • Ukraine Timeline
  • Inflation
  • Rule by the HR Witches
  • Gab roundup
  • Legal Snooze

About

Powered by Genesis

Blank Slate-ism

June 14, 2020 by L. Bane. Leave a Comment

Over at the (very) nominally conservative web site Washington Examiner they have an opinion piece titled To Save Black Children, Abolish Teachers Unions. The post serves as a great example of BigCon siding with the left on all of their talking points in order to try and score points against a political enemy (in this case teacher’s unions).

Now, there’s A LOT wrong with that article, but it boils down to the turn of phrase “Accidents of birth” used in the article. Does the writer really believe that? That there is no difference between his own kid and that of some stranger? The fact that he cites absolutely nothing to back up his claim that teacher’s unions are the cause of failed schools makes the whole article even more hollow.

Of course facts don’t matter much in this regard, just “feeling” and the feeling goes that with just the correct inputs any racial group can achieve whatever any other racial group desires to achieve. Never mind that they’ve been playing with the stupid inputs for decades to no avail (blacks haven’t been turned into whites, and whites haven’t been turned into Koreans, not that anyone even asked if they desired to do so). And what do they hope to achieve, what does the author of the Washington Examiner piece hope will happen by eliminating teacher unions? The writer points out that “[Failed Baltimore city schools] actually got 50% more funding than the world’s widely agreed-to-be-best school system in the world, in Finland“.

Let’s…first ignore the fact that he fails to mention that teachers in Finland are also unionized. Beyond that, is it his contention that if we switched the students in Baltimore with those in Finland that the black American students will succeed and the Finnish students will fail? Does anyone actually believe such a thing? Well, yes they do obviously, but still isn’t it easier to believe that it’s not funding, or teachers, or administrators that make a school “bad”, but that it’s the students, and by extension, the parents (and their parents and so on)? That’s even sitting aside the possible fact that both groups are getting what they desire from the system that they use (thus muddying the idea of “failing” and “succeeding”).

An additional quibble along those lines, blank slate-ism is flat out demeaning to higher achieving people (and it’s meant to be). Do Chinese students succeed because they go to school on Saturday? Or is it because they are descended from generations of people who prioritized such achievements? Are (native) German engineers the result of some trade school program, or thousands of years of efforts to make a better people? It’s just insulting to say that “magic dirt” is all it takes in order to make a people that are more likely to be exceptional, rather than the long history of efforts by their ancestors to make a better people.

Filed Under: education

Completely Unrelated

January 28, 2013 by L. Bane. Leave a Comment

On a completely incompetent judge that even her liberal peers say should be sacked:

I’ve detailed complaints about her before, in a 2009 story and 2011 column. In the latter, I urged voters to look past her political name and support her opponent in her re-election bid. I pointed out that Stokes had received a zero rating in the fall of 2011 from four separate legal groups, which go to great lengths to vet judges.
Stokes, on the bench since 1996, easily won another term.

On a (pointless) drive to make testing in Ohio public schools more difficult:

If the cut score were set where it’s expected to be, 77 percent of Rocky River eighth-graders — instead of 96 percent — would pass the math test. At the other extreme, 4 percent of East Cleveland eighth-graders — instead of 37 percent — would pass.

Even more fun in that last story is the high-to-low pass chart listing the school districts. Locals will immediately notice the demographic differences between the top and bottom, though everyone else can make a pretty good guess.

Filed Under: Cleveland, education, law and order, politically incorrect

Exchange Student Notes

August 27, 2009 by L. Bane. Leave a Comment

    • Our Exchange student starts school today and I’m hoping for the best. I’ve gotten the impression that she’s sick and tired of sitting around the house and would rather be anywhere else; if nothing else than to take her mind off of her home sickness.
    • I can now feel my brother-in-laws pain with his new daughter. How does a dad treat his daughter? If you’re like me, you treat your daughter like a different kind of son. For instance, a good boy gift might be some fancy bacon, and a good girl gift would be….maple flavored fancy bacon. I came to this realization when I was sitting through ‘Twilight’* with Mrs. Sandmich and ‘Sally’. They were both glued to the screen while I played ‘God of War’ in my head to try and escape the pain of the two hour long teen-angst-athon. I’d never think to get that movie for anyone I know, ever.
    • Mrs. Sandmich went clothes shopping with Sally a couple of times and after she related the experiences I’ve come to the conclusion (again) that American girls dress like whores. JCPenny, Macy’s, Walmart, it matters not. For instance, when I was in Walmart last night they sold girl skirts that looked like they were part of a Japanese stripper school girl Halloween costume.
    • Speaking of Walmart, they were packed last night with parents and kids buying school supplies for the school year that was to start in less than twelve hours.
    • Chinese exchange student food hits: Chicken, rice, Japanese BBQ sauce. Misses: Mexican, drinks other than water.
  • It’s been tough to reign in my normally un-PC self. We have a cat that meows pretty loud when he wants someone to check his food bowl, I affectionately would refer to him as our ‘Chinese opera puss cat’. As well, it’s now an American past time to refer to substandard household goods as ‘Chinese made crap’, I’ve had to catch myself a few times on that. I’ve also had to take it easier on the pet eating ‘jokes’.

It’s rough dropping her off for her first day of school, at a school that our own son doesn’t go to out of quality concerns. I’ve never cared so much about the quality of the local schools but in some ways it’s worse to be completely entrusted with the care of someone else’s child. Parents know the acceptable shortcuts with their own kids, but there’s some pressure to not let down her very trusting parents who I will never meet. If it makes them feel any better I share their concerns.

I should point out that when we were awaiting our student I was expecting some type A ass. This would be someone who got too big for their own country and had to go to a completely different country to find room for their ego, someone who we couldn’t stand to be around and vice versa. I couldn’t figure out how else a teenager could undergo such a trial. I went to a boarding school, but I could at least assuage myself with the fact that I’d see my family every six to eight weeks. However, in what I’ve found to be the best hypothesis, I couldn’t foresee a student from a well-to-do family who’s only ‘in’ for higher education for their child was a forced (in a career sense) sojourn to the U.S.**

In a magazine put out by a missionary organization that I occasionally keep track of, a priest said that teenagers are teenagers the world round. So it is with Sally. She’s just a normal,reserved, modest, and respectful teen stuck in extraordinary circumstances.

*Kid Sandmich ran out when the movie was being turned on saying that he “wasn’t going to watch any chick flick”. “Silly boy”, I thought “it has vampires in it, how can it be a chick flick?”. Needless to say, the joke was on me.

**Sally’s sister has undergone the same trial I take it (?), and her sister now attends the university of Arkansas.

Filed Under: china, education

Nearby Ponds

  • Ace
  • AmRen
  • Church Militant
  • Counter Currents
  • Dissident Mag
  • Gab
  • Market Ticker
  • National Vanguard
  • Unz
  • Unz (Derb)
  • Unz (Sailer)
  • Unz (SBPDL)
  • Vdare
  • W. R. Shooters
  • Zero Hedge
  • Zman

Distant Waters

  • Breitbart
  • Instapundit
  • Liberty’s Touch
  • Other McCain

Archives

Categories

  • anime
  • art
  • books
  • Booze
  • car
  • china
  • Cleveland
  • corporate welfare
  • education
  • election
  • Fascism
  • food
  • football
  • gaming
  • health care
  • immigration
  • islam
  • Japan
  • Korea
  • law and order
  • Minnesota
  • movies
  • music
  • Obamanation
  • Ohio
  • pets
  • politically incorrect
  • politics
  • science fiction
  • snow
  • space
  • sports
  • technology
  • travel
  • TV
  • Uncategorized
  • unions
  • work

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org