TJUSD Board Meeting - June 04, 2020

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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 04, 2020

Postby wildrose » Sat Jun 06, 2020 7:31 am

camel wrote:ergot: True. Those are some stupid college majors, but did you read the article about the new superintendent? One of his job titles was Assistant Superintendent, Whole Child Education. What kind of BS job title is that? Is there a school somewhere where they attempt to educate pieces of children? "Whole Child Education" sounds like some kind of new age, libtard, special snowflake, vegan, woke SJW, soyboy cuck terminology to me!

Whole Child Education is one of those cult-like movements that form from time to time and "advocate" for change in public education. Every few years a new one becomes popular and "true believers" become entranced by this "new" approach to education, which generally is nothing new, just old ideas repackaged to appear new. However, less intelligent educators get all excited about these "new" ideas. Some particularly trendy school districts might even create job assignments catering to the fad as we see in the example provided in the above quote.
ergot wrote:
drdesert wrote:It used to be that a PhD actually meant something, but nowadays things have devolved to the point where it's not much more than a little badge indicating that you kissed ass and agreed with the professors. It's worse in soft subject areas than in hard subject areas, but it pervades the entire educational system. Departments of Education attract ideological advocacy types, but any major that ends with the word STUDIES is even worse: Women's Studies, Ethnic Studies, Queer Studies, Religious Studies, etc.

Don't forget Gender Studies, Transgender Studies, Feminist Studies, Black Studies, Multicultural Studies, Film Studies, Islamic Studies, etc.

Unfortunately, advocacy groups tend to target educational institutions and among the results are half-baked courses of study lacking in academic rigor and substance.

Whole Child Education
wholechildeducation.org wrote: Whole Child Tenets

Each student enters school healthy and learns about and practices a healthy lifestyle.
Each student learns in an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for students and adults.
Each student is actively engaged in learning and is connected to the school and broader community.
Each student has access to personalized learning and is supported by qualified, caring adults.
Each student is challenged academically and prepared for success in college or further study and for employment and participation in a global environment.


All this sounds great, but the devil is in the details. It's hard to disagree with these general statements, but once a community agrees to these general statements, that's when the bait and switch occurs and all sorts of little ideological surprises are slipped in behind the scenes. It's the same ole scam, but dressed up a little differently!
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 04, 2020

Postby sandman » Sat Jun 06, 2020 12:58 pm

I've known a number of teachers over my lifetime and although some of them have had their two feet firmly planted on the ground, a few of them have been quick to jump on the latest bandwagon. Educational trends and fads come and go, but they seem to excite some people. I Googled a few half-assed educational fads (some which are old and gone and some that are still with us) and here's what I got: authentic assessment, AVID, mastery learning, backward design, trauma theory, PLCs, differentiated instruction, learning styles, integrated curriculum, scaffolding, restorative justice, emotional intelligence, character education, mindmaps, flipped classrooms, etc. I'm sure people who are in the teaching profession could add dozens more examples, but you get the idea. This edubabble phenomenon is strange, but it's driven by people who either want to change the world (or "the system") or who want to make money. Just as with most cults, most of these fads are associated with a single guru or group of gurus. If teachers and administrators weren't such suckers for these fads and educational bandwagons, they could all just settle down and concentrate on the task of educating children!
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 04, 2020

Postby MojaveMike » Sat Jun 06, 2020 2:59 pm

sandman: Many teachers are not very good at their profession. They are frustrated and these educational fads promise to make things all better, hence the bandwagon effect. Serious teachers are annoyed by the idiots who join in on these fads and sadly often serious teachers are forced by administrators to get on the bandwagon. Not that most teachers are idiots, but enough of them are that it ruins the profession for those teachers with the intelligence to avoid the bandwagon effect.
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 04, 2020

Postby panamint_patty » Sat Jun 06, 2020 3:42 pm

Educational Bandwagons
Good, confident teachers don't jump on bandwagons. They are skeptical of educational fads and trends. Basically, they can think for themselves and don't need a guru guiding them and telling them what to believe!
Do you ever wonder why the education field is so full of bandwagons? A bandwagon is a trend, fad or anything that claims it will solve a problem in the classroom. If you jump on the bandwagon and incorporate the method, activity, or technology, you won’t have that problem again. Teachers are busy and teaching is a challenging job. It’s understandable that bandwagons are appealing. They make us think that all our questions will be answered and all of our problems will be solved. But if that’s the case then why is the next bandwagon so appealing?

http://teachandreflect.com/2019/01/21/reflective-practice-educational-bandwagons/
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 04, 2020

Postby shadylady » Sun Jun 07, 2020 7:23 am

Bandwagon Effect, Virtue Signalling, Group Think, and Herd Behavior
People are social animals and we tend to be influenced by the opinions and attitudes of those around us. Sometimes we even want to impress others by conforming to what we perceive to be their values and attitudes. While we should "to ourselves be true," we often take the cowardly route and just conform. Leaders take advantage of these tendencies to manipulate those in an organization to conform to various policies, trends, or ideological values. Sometimes leaders make unwise decisions and push bad policies or pressure subordinates to promote values which they disagree with. Is it wise to speak up and voice a dissenting opinion? Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. The best advice is to pick your battles wisely and to know when covert action is the best way to combat bad policies. Ultimately one can quit a job where one feels that unreasonable demands are being made, but often that is not a realistic option and employees do have legal rights which they can exercise should a situation become intolerable.

Public organizations, especially educational institutions, are often hijacked by people with strong political and social agendas. The public being served by the organization and employees working for the organization should be aware of this and should stand up to any social manipulation tactics used by the leaders of these organizations. Taxpayer funds should not be spent pushing an agenda of some special interest group. This is always inappropriate and should not be tolerated.
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 04, 2020

Postby BoraxBill » Mon Jun 08, 2020 6:29 am

MojaveMike wrote:sandman: Many teachers are not very good at their profession. They are frustrated and these educational fads promise to make things all better, hence the bandwagon effect. Serious teachers are annoyed by the idiots who join in on these fads and sadly often serious teachers are forced by administrators to get on the bandwagon. Not that most teachers are idiots, but enough of them are that it ruins the profession for those teachers with the intelligence to avoid the bandwagon effect.

That's the way it is in life. It only takes a few idiots to ruin things for everyone.
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 04, 2020

Postby pcslim » Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:31 am

drdesert wrote:It used to be that a PhD actually meant something, but nowadays things have devolved to the point where it's not much more than a little badge indicating that you kissed ass and agreed with the professors. It's worse in soft subject areas than in hard subject areas, but it pervades the entire educational system. Departments of Education attract ideological advocacy types, but any major that ends with the word STUDIES is even worse: Women's Studies, Ethnic Studies, Queer Studies, Religious Studies, etc.

What you say about soft subject areas is very true. In hard subject areas such as chemistry, engineering, computer science, and physics, it's impossible to be seen as productive and relevant without staying in touch with reality. However, this is not the case in soft subject areas (literature, philosophy, liberal arts, social science, etc.) because what is fashionable often departs from reality in a manner which is nothing less than absurd. What we often see in these cases is advocacy instead of academics becoming the focus. Without academic discipline the imagination can run wild and reality can become irrelevant and that's often what we see in departments where devotion to a cause becomes more important than academic rigor. Advocacy should never replace academic discipline and when it does insanity soon fills the void.
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 04, 2020

Postby desertrat » Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:21 am

wildrose wrote:Whole Child Education
wholechildeducation.org wrote: Whole Child Tenets

Each student enters school healthy and learns about and practices a healthy lifestyle.
Each student learns in an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for students and adults.
Each student is actively engaged in learning and is connected to the school and broader community.
Each student has access to personalized learning and is supported by qualified, caring adults.
Each student is challenged academically and prepared for success in college or further study and for employment and participation in a global environment.


All this sounds great, but the devil is in the details. It's hard to disagree with these general statements, but once a community agrees to these general statements, that's when the bait and switch occurs and all sorts of little ideological surprises are slipped in behind the scenes. It's the same ole scam, but dressed up a little differently!

wildrose: You're absolutely right. What do they mean by "healthy lifestyle"? That seems like kind of a loaded term that could include a lot of things. What about "qualified, caring adults"? Who qualifies? Is there a racial quota attached to that little gem? And "connected to the school and broader community"? That's a can of worms if I've ever seen one! There are more examples that we could pick apart, but my favorite is "emotionally safe"! That sounds like the classic SJW tactic for silencing dissent! Definitely a lot to "unpack" here as the "woke" cool kids like to say!
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 04, 2020

Postby drdesert » Fri Jun 12, 2020 7:57 am

The reference to a "global environment" is also a little shaky. Let's face it, change a few letters and you have "global government" and we all know what that means!
:wtf:
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 04, 2020

Postby CrustyOldFart » Fri Jun 12, 2020 9:27 am

There's concern that a second wave of COVID-19 might keep schools shut down. What about domestic terrorism? Communities could be put on lockdown if things get out of hand. ANTIFA and BLM could target schools, knowing that by shutting down schools that the economy would not be able to restart. The way things are going, this looks like a likely scenario.
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