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This woman makes me sympathise with Governor Gavin Newsom Not, obviously, to the extent of wanting him to escape being thrown out on his ear in the coming California gubernatorial recall election, but reading about Newsom’s “epic battle” with Cecily Myart Cruz, President of United Teachers Los Angeles, the major LA teachers’ union, gave me a soupçon of sympathy with the man.
This is how Ms Myart Cruz responded to a question from Jason McGahan of Los Angeles Magazine about children falling behind in their education while Los Angeles schools were closed during the pandemic:
âThere is no such thing as learning loss. Our kids didnât lose anything. Itâs OK that our babies may not have learned all their times tables. They learned resilience. They learned survival. They learned critical-thinking skills. They know the difference between a riot and a protest. They know the words insurrection and coup.â
From Cecily Myart-Cruzâs Hostile Takeover of L.A.âs Public Schools by Jason McGahan.
Via Ed Driscoll at Instapundit and Mike Antonucci of the Education Intelligence Agency, which I shall look at again.
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Entitled insanity coupled with zero fear of negative consequences. Brainwash the children into future Antifa rioters. Screw the actual responsibility for educating rational adults. Only obedience and submission to The Narrative is permitted.
This has been happening in classrooms across the country from pre-school to Uni. Itâs only with remote zoom classes that parents are discovering this situation and coming to understand the source of their childrenâs alienation and attitude. The school boards are NOT happy with the furious parents demanding answers.
But it’s not new.
I remember back in 1970. I was in the 9th grade, 14 years old. I had to select amongst several English classes. One was basic grammar – what is a noun?, etc. Another choice was studying the pronouncements and philosophy of Bob Dylan through his music, and what it all meant in our political system. Several other choices were of that ilk. (These were justified as “English” classes because they involved interpretation of words.)
Guess which choices were made by almost all students? You could get a guaranteed A if you actually showed up for the political classes. You had to study for the grammar class. I doubt more than 10 students chose the grammar class amongst the several hundred kids in my group.
Point is, US education has been on this path for at least 50 years.
The mostly peaceful protests!!
Of legend and lore!
It was from my school teachers that I first learnt the mantra
I assume modern cancel culture has now weeded out of Edinburgh schools the kind of teacher whose response to the brave new insights of Moray House School of Education in Edinburgh was to teach their pupils that mantra. Or at least is trying to as hard as it can – Bobby b’s description of a drunken teachers’ conversation in a recent thread suggests that, over the years, even the well-weeded may ‘regress’ a bit. In particular
and surely sometimes practice them in the classroom. Reports from Mao’s China suggest being the teacher of a class full of red guards was not always a bundle of laughs. Under these circumstances, I can well understand why L.A. teachers prefer to teach remotely if at all.
Snakehandlers suffer the same sort of stress, waiting for that inevitable strike . . .
I’ve known some good people go into teaching, but few emerged/survived unscathed (even those of a leftish persuasion) – a litany of early retirement, breakdowns, etc. One erstwhile Head of English became a truck driver, and found that more satisfying.
I am obviously of the same age as bobby b. One could tell the politics of most of the younger teachers (it was not necessary to ask). One might guess at the politics of the older ones, but nothing was explicit.
I would ‘home school’ and try to avoid university (I have three degrees). I am deeply disappointed that I could not persuade a young acquaintance to take the apprenticeship on offer. Instead, he will pursue Business Studies at a lesser ‘university’.
This is good news. We can now shut all our schools and fire all the teachers like Ms Myart Cruz since they’re obviously not needed. She can go off and do something useful like, oh, I don’t know, flipping burgers or something.
I think the time is coming, if it has already arrived, when people such as the L.A. Teachers Union boss go from screaming “McCarthyite” and “Conspiracy Theorist” to openly (indeed proudly) stating that they are Marxists.
But I am baffled as to why this makes Natalie sympathise with Governor Newsom.
It is rich “liberals” such as Newson (and his kinswoman Nancy Pelosi) who have allowed the Marxists to take over the institutions – most importantly the education system. Indeed they have done everything, over many decades now, to GIVE the Marxists power-and-control.
Without the “liberals” the Marxists would have been no great problem – it was the “liberals” (and their Corporations) who gave the Marxists the power they have.
So if the Marxists turn on the rich “liberals” (which they will) the rich “liberals” deserve no sympathy at all.
When the Marxists come to feast on the “liberals” why should anyone care?
The rich “liberals” chanted eat-the-rich when they were students – forgetting that they were the rich. Now they are senior Corporate Managers and other such (positions which they did NOT get on merit – for they have no merit) their own words are going to be put into practice – they are going to be eaten.
What are they going to do? Scream “Rednecks, please SAVE US Rednecks” – sorry, but the “Rednecks” left California long ago. No Kit Carson, or other such, is going to come and save Gavin Newsom and the other “liberals” – and why should they?
I am told that the family of Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi own vineyards – perhaps their own vineyards will produce the wine that will be drunk when their Marxist associates eat them.
I repeat – the “liberals” did this, they gave the Marxists the power they now have.
“You sound very bitter – talking of the Marxists physically eating people and so on”.
A few days ago one of the largest banks in the United States sent a letter to General Michael Flynn – telling him that he could no longer bank with them, “potential damage to our reputation” you see.
General Flynn spent his life protecting these rich “liberals” – he was repaid by the FBI and the “Justice” system trying to FRAME him (they even threatened his family – to get him to “make a deal” and plead guilty to a charge that was total NONSENSE).
Now they want to deny him banking services – and it will not just be General Flynn, under the ESG (Environmental and Social Governance) system, any conservative is going to eventually end up denied banking services or a job. They will not be employed by the Corporations (who are “Woke” – even though their managers are so pig ignorant they do not even know that “Woke” is Frankfurt School Marxism) and they will find running their own business made impossible.
Assuming any conservatives survive (deep in the woods or hills) why should these “Rednecks” (as the “liberals” charmingly call them) come to try save the rich “liberals” from being robbed and murdered (if not physically eaten) by the Marxists? The Marxists who only have power because the “liberals” gave it to them.
Why care?
Ask Gavin Newsom about General Flynn. Go on ask him. Listen to him SMEAR someone who spent his entire life defending rich “liberals” such as Gavin Newsom.
I have no sympathy for Gavin Newsom, or any of his kind, none.
Even going all the way back to John Stuart Mill “liberalism” was not really an opposing force to socialism.
Labour Theory of Value? Supported by the Mills – father and son.
De facto opposition to large scale private ownership of land? J.S. Mill.
Hostility to private ownership of large scale industry? J.S. Mill again.
If the “liberals” such as Newsom and Pelosi are sincere – then let them hand over their property to “the masses”.
As for the good side of J.S. Mill – his opposition to endless deficit spending and fiat money. Modern “liberals” reject the good side of Mill – they are print-and-spend people. Or, these days, create money that is only lights on a computer screen – and spend that. That is why Governor Newsom thought he could lock down California – they Federal Reserve would create money (from nothing) and fund it all, no need for people to actually WORK.
Even Karl Marx mocked that (see Hunter Lewis – “Where Keynes Went Wrong”) – when he mocked the monetary cranks that existed long before J.M. Keynes was even born.
A couple of observations.
Firstly, were parents previously so unaware of what their children were being taught in school? Did they not care? (I don’t have children, so it’s not an issue for me.)
Secondly, I followed the link and absolutely agree with Glenn Reynolds’ observation that these people need to be purged, but how? They are entrenched and powerful. An interesting article in City Journal describes the adoption of Critical Race Theory in Lower Merion Township, near Philadelphia. Parents are furious, but afraid to speak out, for fear of the consequences, which can be significant.
People like Ms. Cruz remind me of the stories where a Downs Syndrome kid gets nominated to be prom queen, only without the heartfelt kindness aspect of the gesture. One wonders how someone that stupid gets elevated to President of United Teachers Los Angeles, unless it is meant to be some kind of punishment or cruel joke. I guess I tend to underestimate the huge intellectual deficit of most education majors.
This imbecile being in charge of so much of your children’s education is a perfect rationalization for pulling your children out of public schools. It is a shame that parents are afraid to speak out, when people like this are not.
[Last sentence deleted. Future comments in a similar vein, as interpreted by me, will get you banned. – NS]
NS – It’s only a bloody song!
đ
If it’s being sung in my living room, different rules apply.
I suggest, apart from being an appropriate rhetorical flourish, those are sentiments a spectator might have when looking at a relationship between a henpecked husband and his wife, once you’ve overcome the sense of revulsion, you might tend to sympathise with the husband. But not his politics, which in Newsom’s case would make the sense of revulsion, insurmountable. At least for me.
Natalie, clearly a fully paid up member of the Patriarchy, (Neurolinguistic programming division).
Of course they aren’t and they won’t ( don’t when they have the opportunity to do so ).
Socialism for such people, is a means to harness the deep financial reserves of the State, for their own benefit. For example, Castro’s grandson, but also the bovine Pelosi itself, boasting on Twatter or where-ever, about the refrigerator she keeps especially for ice cream. And, if she hasn’t already spent an obscene amount of tax payers dollars on plastic surgery, then she should have been given a grant to do so.
Re APL just above,
Just as Natalie “paid up member of the Patriarchy” Solent ‘sympathises’ with Governor Newsom, so Niall “paid up member of the Feminazis” Kilmartin would ‘defend’ Nancy Pelosi’s right to see Truman’s using the word ‘man’ as grossly unfair to the capacity of woman – especially her.
BTW, further to my comment above, if anyone feels the need for Niall âpaid up member of the Feminazisâ Kilmartin to provide a slightly less mocking (slightly more OP-style) kind of ‘sympathy’, try reading Are white feminists evil? (h/t Guido). Readers’ temptation simply to endorse such a title whole-heartedly (save for seeing no need to mention colour) may be sensibly modified by its description of whom the accusation is coming from and how it is being justified, while the less ‘sympathetic’ amongst us may find themselves smiling, albeit grimly, as it describes in some trenchant phrases how the woke are eating their own.
(The otherwise somewhat-sensible-sounding author swallows Floyd BS whole – but she shares that folly with many.)
APL – I repeat the “liberals” gave the Marxists the power, so I do not care if they are “hen pecked”. Why should anyone care?
In California it was the “liberals” who supported the unionisation of government employment (even Franklin Roosevelt warned that this would be a conspiracy against the taxpayers) and they supported “Progressive” Collectivist brainwashing in the schools and universities for DECADES – denouncing anyone who opposed it.
So WHY? Why care about Newsom and co? Why?
Just for completion, I note that the informative Truman saying I quoted above (September 3, 2021 at 10:08 am) does not necessarily exonerate President Truman himself. FYI and FWIW,
– Harry Truman conned us all
– The Truman Show: The Fraudulent Origins of the Former Presidents Act
I have not yet researched these. They report that examination of Truman’s financial papers (which finally came into the public domain ten years ago) reveals that yet another mainstream media flattery campaign for a Democrat president was greatly exaggerated.
Hopefully, it’s clear that I don’t, nor do I expect anyone who shares something approximating to my world view, to do so either.
I’m afraid the political right, have been entirely on board (co-opted) with the scheme. Always and everywhere, slightly less, slightly slower than Labour or (in the US) the Democrats. But I don’t think I can recall even one instance in the last thirty years where the Tory party stood up and pushed it’s agenda through, against the BBC or the Labour party ( that there is a difference ! ).
SD and Glenn Reynolds “these people will have to be purged”.
Why use their language? And it is THEM who will be doing the purging.
Even if Larry Elder wins the Governorship he will have no power to “purge” teachers – and nor would he want such power. It is the SYSTEM that is wrong. A system by which parents have no real CHOICE about where their children are educated.
When the other “saint” of mid 19th century liberalism, Walter Bank Bailout Bagehot, was pushing his ideas for “national education” in the election he stood in (1868 – he came bottom of the poll) he may not have wanted Collectivist Brainwashing to be what the system was about – but OF COURSE that is what eventually happens.
Perhaps poor parents just do not have the money to educate their children – in which case HELP THEM. But do not set up a vast government bureaucratic system (first created by Frederick “The Great” of Prussia in the late 1700s) and expect it not to be Collectivist.
OF COURSE it is going to be Collectivist.
And “purging” individuals is not going to change that.
“Were the parents unaware?” “Do the parents not care?”
THE PARENTS DO NOT HAVE ANY CHOICE.
Even ultra moderate Milton Friedman understood that such a system would be a disaster – of course it is a disaster. And NO “purging” individuals is not going to change that.
“Concede whatever is safe to concede” (Walter Bagehot, editor of the Economist magazine, in “The English Constitution” 1867) – not an inspiring vision Walter, no one is going to die for a political philosophy summed up by “concede whatever is safe to concede” – and it is NOT safe to make endless concessions to the Collectivists (still less to try and set up a vast bureaucratic system yourself – in the deluded hope that it will somehow “educate” people to be anti Collectivist, rather than teach them to be Collectivist).
Frederick “the Great” was not the nice chap that Niall Ferguson sometimes implies he was – his regime was a Collectivist one, an extreme Collectivist one, and if you copy his ideas that is what you are going to get (Collectivism). When Horace Mann brought these education organisation ideas (and other ideas to) to the United States – the results should not have been hard to predict.
People like Walter Bagehot or Gavin Newsom do not want their own personal wealth confiscated (they want to keep their comfortable lifestyles – thank you very much), but they have real commitment to liberty – quite the contrary.
I am NOT saying that Walter Bagehot was as bad as Gavin Newsom (most certainly not) – but Walter is the start of a road that ends in Gavin.
And the Economist magazine complaining about the “illiberal left” (what a weak way of putting it – you mean the Frankfurt School MARXIST left, so say so or shut up) is a bit much – when it was “liberals”, such as the Economist magazine crowd, who GAVE THE MARXISTS THE POWER THEY NOW HAVE.
You gave them the power – and now you complain about what they do with it.
Marxists acting like Marxists. How astonishing! Who could possibly have predicted that?
Now the Economist magazine will prove me wrong – by, for example, denouncing the rigged American Presidential Election of November 2020.
I am open to such refutation – indeed I would welcome it.
But while the “liberals” (including Corporate Big Business – hoping that Saint-Simon style Collectivism will win out over Marxist style Collectivism, but still cooperating with the Frankfurt School Marxist “Diversity and Inclusion” agenda – which means uniformity and exclusion) continue to hand power to the Marxists, no I have no sympathy for them.
Ask Gavin Newsom what he thinks of “hate speech”.
The Marxists could burn us alive – and Gavin would just warm his hands. Because we are “racists” or “transphobes” – or whatever else “liberal” Big Business is persecuting this week (in order to please the Frankfurt School Marxists).
So, again Natalie, why should anyone care about him – if the Marxists turn on him?