An Ohio teacher, who was reading The Sneetches to her Grade 3 class, was abruptly cut off by an admin when a student said "It's almost like what happened back then, how people were treated. Like, disrespected. Like, white people disrespected Black people.” dispatch.com/story/news/edu…
There's a bit more context, but none of it is exculpatory. The occasion was a visit from NPR's Planet Money, which was recording an episode about how economics gets discussed and taught in children's books. One of the readings that day was The Sneetches. And you can see why.
Robek, the teacher, is just a page or so in when the following exchange takes place.
If you're a teacher, this is gold. Noah, a 3rd grade student, has connected the book to something else he knows. He's thinking things through, analyzing a text, applying what he's learned. Parents, you know what I'm talking about. It's magic.
Suddenly, Beeman, a school admin present for the recording, starts waving her hands and interrupts Robek. "I just don't think it might be appropriate," she says of The Sneetches.
But the kids still really want to know how The Sneetches ends! Beeman tries to fend them off with some nonsense about standing up for your bellies, but they remain unsatisfied. So she says to go ask your parents.
Bear in mind that this was a comment initiated by the student, not the teacher. And note that the teacher was already moving on before the interruption. But as Beeman explained, parents should be warned before any conversation about discrimination takes place.
And that, said Jeffrey on Twitter that day
Is the stupidest thing I've heard anyone say.
Should teachers need parents to give their consent
Before any second of class time is spent
On answering students with questions on race?
My God. How'd we ever wind up in this place?
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It’s gotta be said: much of the Jewish response to the Bibas family is flat-out insane. Genocidal, psychopathic, murderous, cruel, and out-of-control. And not just from the usual precincts of Jtwitter, either. It’s everywhere.
Stop. Step back from the Kahanism.
I logged on after Shabbat and found nothing but bloodlust. Dressed in a rueful “they forced us into this” fatalism, of course, but you could sense the eagerness. It’s understandable but still inhuman.
Obviously plenty of pro-Palestinian accounts are vomiting up their own brand of bile. Psychopaths like Saeed, Kiswani, El-Kurd. But I expect that sort of shit from them. They have precisely one rhetorical speed and we can all see how successful THAT’S proven to be.
Angry about Katherine Franke's "retirement"? Good, you should be. But if people are serious about stopping something like this from happening again, they need to get serious about the cause. Because the precedent was set loooong ago.
A big-ish 🧵
In fact, all of the tools now being used against pro-Palestine faculty (the DEI apparatus, Title VI complaints, collegiality discourse) were developed years ago to quash speech opposed by the left. And I have receipts to prove it.
Here's your imperial boomerang, folks. 2/
This prof worries about DEI being weaponized as a tool of repression. Buddy, that die was cast years ago. In fact, I'd wager that the use of DEI as a weapon is *less* effective now than it was five years ago. It's just that the target has (partially) changed. 3/
🚨The IHRA definition of antisemitism, if adopted and enforced by public universities, is unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. So says a federal judge in Texas. A terrific (if, for reasons I'll explain in a second, somewhat inconclusive) decision. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Here's the gist. Last March after a series of protests by SJP and related groups on college campuses, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed GA-44, an executive order requiring public colleges and universities to prohibit and punish antisemitic speech. gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/…
To define antisemitic speech, TX higher ed was told to use the IHRA definition and its attendant examples, which the legislature adopted in 2016. At the time, it was framed as simply a diagnostic tool for spotting antisemitic speech in the state. statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/GV/htm/GV…
I've gotten accused of being snarky and self-righteous lately, which tbf is probably warranted. So let me try this one with some sincerity: Everyone upset about the Muhlenberg should acknowledge the long line of tenured faculty fired for protected speech after leftwing outrage.
I'm talking about people like Charles Negy, who was fired after sending out these tweets. foxnews.com/media/central-…
Or Tim Boudreau, who was fired for using the n-word in class *as part of a lesson on language, journalism, and the law.* He also was tenured. mlive.com/news/saginaw-b…
This is actually part of a much larger and quite significant story. The entire “anti-woke” strategy in Florida is in full retreat. @PENamerica noticed it fairly early on and put together a good piece on it.
There is no person on earth with a stronger claim to my house than me because when I am in it, I remember that it is where my daughter took her first steps. No theory of Indigeneity or ethno-religious descent is more powerful than that.
IOW, what matters is community.
A rant:
It's important to keep in mind what the real crime of settler colonialism is. Not "theft" per se. No single ethnic group or cultural lineage can own the land, and if your political theory claims otherwise, it is evil and I want nothing to do with it.
The real crime of settler colonialism is the destruction of communities, the loss of one's home, the denial of self-determination. After all, that's what really matters to you, right? The freedom to move through the world how you like and in the company of those you love.