Patterico's Pontifications

6/15/2015

Teacher: I Don’t Teach Shakespeare Because He Is White

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:43 am



Hooray for public education:

The Washington Post has published a guest article by a California teacher arguing that American high school students shouldn’t read Shakespeare because he’s a dead, white man.

Dana Dusbiber, who teaches English in Sacramento, says she avoids Hamlet and all the rest because her minority students shouldn’t be expected to study a “a long-dead, British guy” (Dusbiber herself is white). And while Shakespeare is widely regarded as the premier writer of the English language, able to timelessly portray themes central to the human experience, Dusbiber says he only is regarded that way because “some white people” ordained it and he can easily be replaced.

Lovely, eh?

121 Responses to “Teacher: I Don’t Teach Shakespeare Because He Is White”

  1. Ding.

    Patterico (3cc0c1)

  2. High school would be a lot easier if they only teach math and chemistry and physics developed by Sub-Saharan Africans. Even better if they restrict it to Sub-Saharan African females.

    No more of that icky calculus stuff. Yeah….. let’s go to the mall.

    anchovy (545946)

  3. i love shakespeare more than beans and milton too

    but is too hard for most failmerican children, especially the public school ones

    bless their hearts they should focus more on designing their dream tattoos in their trapper keepers and learning fun new food stamp recipes

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  4. Welcome to the Hotel California
    Such a lovely place, such a lovely place

    We want to get the daughter into a Catholic high school, so we hired a teacher form there as a tutor to help her with the skills tested on the school’s entrance exam. The first work was “Romeor and Juliet”. The second was “Animal Farm”.

    nk (dbc370)

  5. Preparing her students for the AP English exam, is she? Preparing her students for college? Teaching her students how to think? Form judgments?

    LTMG (94c4c3)

  6. “easily be replaced”?!?

    seeRpea (0cf003)

  7. We’re in trouble and have been in trouble for a long time. Why hasn’t this teacher been fired for not doing her job? Oh, I forgot, unions and public schools. I feel sad for the children of America.

    Tanny O'Haley (c674c7)

  8. And he writes weird, too.

    So what if nobody but Winston Churchill had his command of the English language?

    So what if few people this side of the authors of the Bible had his understanding of human psychology?

    You’re demanding teachers actually work.

    And read.

    And make their little charges work.

    And read.

    formwiz (6b3a5a)

  9. Diversity doesn’t mean diversity anymore.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  10. I actually don’t care that much about Shakespeare in “minority” urban schools. The question is whether those kids can read. Whether they can read anything. Many teachers are bored by teaching kids to read and do arithmetic. They would rather pontificate on poetry or some other subject. That is what we see with Common Core.

    My fourth grade grandson has trouble with the math they are being taught. His teacher told my daughter-in-law that she can’t do the math problems using the new methods either. She told his mother to teach him herself using traditional math methods. The teachers aren’t allowed to use them.

    Shakespeare can wait until the kids can read food labels.

    Mike K (90dfdc)

  11. I am considered a reactionary pest on my high school campus because I call bullshit whenever someone pulls that cultural ghetto shit.

    We aren’t doing our poor and minority students any favors by putting them into these cultural ghettos. We need to prepare them to compete by teaching them Western Civilization. You cannot teach Western Civilization without teaching Shakespeare.

    gahrie (12cc0f)

  12. I should add that there should be classes that kids who can read and who do want Shakespeare can attend without being called “acting white.”

    Mike K (90dfdc)

  13. And make their little charges work.

    And read.

    This is harder than you think, and becoming harder everyday. If you give an assignment where the kids have to read a textbook passage, and either do a worksheet, or write a brief essay, 75% of them will immediately pull out their cellphones and start Googling the answer. In class.

    gahrie (12cc0f)

  14. Along with literature I have a similar complaint that most grade schools and high schools are not teaching even the most basic music appreciation anymore. Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, –old dead white guys. I imagine kids today can get through life without knowing what Chopin or Puccini sounds like or without knowing what Shakespeare and Dostoevsky had to say about society and societies’ universal truths. But I don’t think theirs will be as interesting and fulfilling as life will be for those who do know.

    I also think that many younger teachers have not themselves been trained on these things (lit, music) so they would not be able to teach it even if parents, school boards and administration demanded it as part of their job description and planned curriculum.

    elissa (fb85e8)

  15. I was struck last night by how similar the death of Jon Snow was to the Shakespearean depiction of the death of Julius Caesar. Hell, Shakespeare should have got writer’s credit for last night’s Game of Thrones.

    gahrie (12cc0f)

  16. I agree with Mike K that reading –anything– should be priority one. But that’s supposed to happen shortly after kids learn the alphabet–not in high school.

    elissa (fb85e8)

  17. Dana Dusbiber, who teaches English in Sacramento, says she avoids Hamlet and all the rest because her minority students shouldn’t be expected to study a “a long-dead, British guy” (Dusbiber herself is white).

    Somewhere a college professor is saying to himself or herself, “Good. Those years of indoctrination worked.”

    JVW (8278a3)

  18. 9.Diversity doesn’t mean diversity anymore.

    Kevin M, diversity means exactly what it’s always meant: the left gets to dictate what and who is “diverse and we get to agree or be racist. Nothing’s changed, my friend.

    War! What is it good for?

    Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27)

  19. What if they taught Shakespeare in “minority” schools in a minority language?
    I , for one, would be all for teaching kids to read Shakespeare in the original Klingon.

    seeRpea (0cf003)

  20. Sheet4brains is a union obligation.

    DNF (208255)

  21. if she’d ever read King Lear … maybe she’d appreciate and teach Ran.

    htom (4ca1fa)

  22. She could read “Othello” and pretend all Moors were negroes.

    CrustyB (69f730)

  23. I don’t want to defend this teacher’s argument, but could we all agree with the following:

    1. It’s nice to know some Shakespeare.
    2. HS students really can’t appreciate the wisdom in Shakespeare.
    3. There’s nothing magical about Shakespeare, and many works of literature in varied cultures contain wisdom that’s worth reading about.
    4. The key goal for a HS teacher should be to expose his/her students to something that ignites in those students an interest (at least, although a passion would be better) in reading.
    5. Different students will respond to different source material, and some kids might indeed feel more connected with a book about or by someone of a particular culture.

    Jonny Scrum-half (b17d66)

  24. Very nice Johnny Scrum-half. But as a newly transformed negro I can assure you there is absolutely noting in Shakespeare, or any other cracker writer, that can help my people one iota. Put out some rap about hoe’s and b!tches and we got somethin’ useful. A good cop shootin’ song warms our hearts.

    BET forever!

    Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27)

  25. he was the popular entertainment of the day, however it deals with universal truths about life death, love, the acquisition and wielding of power,,

    narciso (ee1f88)

  26. there’s just something magical about shakespeare

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  27. Johnny S-H –my great grandparents were taught to read Shakespeare in a one room school house and quoted it into their old age. I am quite sure you are incorrect that 17-18 year olds when properly nudged can’t “appreciate” the eternal wisdom in Shakespeare. And even if some can’t, all the more sad if they are never even given the opportunity to do so.

    elissa (fb85e8)

  28. While you’re at it, avoid Orwell as well. Heaven forbid anyone learn to consider the axiom “who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past” as more than a clever turn of phrase.

    Lorem Ipsum (cee048)

  29. Elissa my dear, hope springs eternal. When I was Caucasian I loved Shakespeare. I even acted in three of his plays and enjoyed every minute. But now I’ve fallen for Tupac you must understand the fault, dear elissa, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. For a viral, hot stud like myself to even consider anything deeper than an IUD is not good for my baby-papa image.

    Freedom!

    Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27)

  30. Is there any leftist nonsense that half-sack won’t be an apologist for?

    JD (e21475)

  31. #4: nk, Good luck! Our boys went to a Catholic high school, and we have no regrets about any part of it. The friends they made there are still friends 10 years later, and they are doing many interesting things. I’m a little concerned about the current Pope. His inclinations seem to align with “social justice” and autocratic rule by elites via “Climate Change”. I’d be worried that this sort of indoctrination will become more prevalent in the curriculum, to the exclusion of more important things. I’ve also noticed that some of the staff members at the boys’ school have become a bit arrogant. Which is to say that the success of their students hasn’t gone unnoticed. But I attribute that success more to the students, their teachers, the curriculum, and the top administration for avoiding a lot of trendy stuff, rather than the front office staff. But that will vary from school to school. The Jesuit schools have a good reputation, but we found them to be overly “multi-disciplined”, weren’t impressed, and went elsewhere. The Principal of one school we avoided died of AIDs a year or two after our decision, and I suspect we were reacting to a lot of subtle clues that never quite rose to the surface. If the school’s in your city have open houses, attend all you can schedule. There are huge differences within the Catholic system.

    bobathome (f50725)

  32. Responses to NOAA’s study: Watt’s Up With That with a comment from Judith Curry, Daily Caller, and Cato.

    DRJ (e80d46)

  33. JD@30 – In all seriousness, JD, for what reason do you read anything, including this blog? And for what purpose do you comment on this blog? Is it simply to parrot a party line, or to cast insults at people who have a different opinion? Or perhaps is it to learn about different points of view, and maybe even to challenge your own viewpoint?
    As you know, I disagree with the politics of this site, but I nevertheless read it regularly because despite the insults I still get enough of a substantive response that it’s worthwhile to try to engage in a discussion.
    Again, I’m not defending the teacher’s arguments, which struck me as poorly articulated. But I also don’t see any reason why we have to treat Shakespeare as required reading, any more than we need to require HS students to listen to classical music because it’s “better” than popular music.

    Jonny Scrum-half (b17d66)

  34. I need not justify my existence to a sniveling leftist like yourself. I enjoy pointing and laughing at clowns like you when you drop your turdlets around here. I guarantee I read and watch more than challenges my point of view than you would ever believe. Regardless, my desire to justify myself to you ranks up there with my desire to get junk-punched by Mike Tyson.

    JD (e21475)

  35. It wasnt a good idea poorly articulated. It is an awful idea.

    JD (e21475)

  36. elissa @26, I bet they learned Shakespeare before they graduated elementary school.

    Steve57 (48418e)

  37. If you are anywhere near the Shenandoah Valley, you need to visit the American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton: there are lots of Globes in the world, but it’s the only reproduction of Shakespeare’s smaller indoor theater. Amazing (authentic and accessible) performances of Shakespeare and contemporaries at reasonable prices ($20 to $40 or so, $14 for student rush). As it happens, this week a new season is starting with ‘pay what you will’ performances of Midsummer Night’s Dream and Antony and Cleopatra, 7:30 every night from tomorrow through Saturday. No, they don’t pay me to write this: I’m just a happy paying customer.

    Dr. Weevil (4bb490)

  38. http://bullittcountyhistory.org/bullitthistory/bchistory/schoolexam1912.html

    The mattress carriers of Columbia couldn’t pass this test.

    Steve57 (48418e)

  39. Time was that a literature curriculum had heavy emphasis on the Old Testament and Shakespeare. One of the main reasons for this was that it gave everyone a common frame of reference. Even the uneducated could relate to the Old Testament, because they had heard those stories in church. So when you said that someone had the patience of Job or the wisdom of King Solomon or that they could read the writing on the wall it was understood what was meant because everyone had that frame of reference. Shakespeare is much the same. When we hear someone speak of a “band of brothers” or someone who “protests too much” or “slings and arrows” we can place it in the proper context because we know where those words come from.

    But if you have a group of kids who grow up only reading James Baldwin and Toni Morrison and Alice Walker you are going to miss out on that shared experience of literature. Does anyone doubt that Baldwin and Morrison and Walker (along with Amy Tan, Mario Vargas Llosa, and just about any other celebrated non-white author) are well-versed in Shakespeare? There is something vaguely racist — I think it has been called “the soft bigotry of low expectations” — with the notion that minority kids won’t like or relate to Shakespeare.

    JVW (8278a3)

  40. steve57@36. You’re right about that. That one room school house and one single teacher served grades 1-8 for the surrounding rural families.

    elissa (fb85e8)

  41. Malcolm X’s writings would be more relevant then the politics of dead english kings!

    sage (fa8968)

  42. 39. …One of the main reasons for this was that it gave everyone a common frame of reference…

    JVW (8278a3) — 6/15/2015 @ 12:47 pm

    This is why Abu Bakr al Baghdadi chose the nom de guerre Abu Bakr. It had something to do with Islam. Common frame of reference. Nobody should be surprised.

    Sorry for tediously hijacking the thread. Again.

    Steve57 (48418e)

  43. > But if you have a group of kids who grow up only reading James Baldwin and Toni Morrison and Alice Walker you are going to miss out on that shared experience of literature.

    To be fair, they’ll have their own shared frame of reference arising from those stories.

    It seems to me that the real problem arises when there is no commonly shared frame of reference. But then the question I would have, as a libertarian-leaning leftist, is: is it an appropriate use of state power to *ensure* the existence of the shared frame of reference?

    aphrael (5d993c)

  44. Elissa, at 26: I was an unusually bright teenager.

    I find today that when I look back at Shakespeare and other things I read in school as a teenager, much of their meaning was lost on me, because of what I’ve learned about the human condition *since* then. So I expect the same is true for other people. 🙂

    aphrael (5d993c)

  45. They need to know where their language comes from. And that Shakespeare would be writing for cracked today.

    I’m such a fine lady for having studied him, that I am fixing my own broken sink and getting superglue in my eye.

    SarahW (6f3980)

  46. It was true. I thought I made it up.

    SarahW (6f3980)

  47. good ole shakespeare

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  48. aphrael–I completely agree that later-in-life readings of literature that was also read earlier as a teen or as a young adult are richer and often more meaningful the second time around when additional life experiences of the reader have been thrown into the mix. But you have to sort of already know as a middle aged person that those books even exist, and that you *want* to read them again– and I believe that early school exposure to classics is critical to that.

    Robert Penn Warren’s classic book All the President’s Men was required reading in college. It was an especially compelling read, A Pulitzer Prize winner, and I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned some horrifyingly realistic stuff about politicians. The book even has a Shakespearean feel to it. But man! when I re-read it a couple years ago as part of a group discussion it knocked my socks off at its power and relevance to today even though it was set in the 1930’s and Penn wrote it in 1946.

    http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/all-the-kings-men-robert-penn-warren/1102543100?ean=9780156004800

    elissa (fb85e8)

  49. All the President’s Men is so good. Soooo good.

    Leviticus (f9a067)

  50. is it an appropriate use of state power to *ensure* the existence of the shared frame of reference?

    Do you apply this standard to other issues?

    JD (e21475)

  51. 44. We read MacBeth, Hamlet and a couple comedies in college prep along with simpler fare like The Pearl. Doubtless the practice hepped me draw a B+ at St Olaf in Shakespeare with all the English majors when The Tempest & King Lear were on the card. Outside school I’ve added to the total now standing at 17.

    Tennyson dissed Shakespeare as “Lightness sans Light”, perhaps too severe but clearly you are reaching.

    DNF (208255)

  52. Robert Penn Warren’s All the KING’s Men is what I meant to write, and obviously what the link is for. I hate when I do something stupid like that! (I liked Bernstein and Woodward’s All the President’s Men, too. But it is in an entirely different league.)

    elissa (fb85e8)

  53. you can read it for free if you have the amazon primes

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  54. oh. nononono

    you have to pay like $10 a month

    that’s not value

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  55. 31. I share your concern with Francis. Not that he ain’t a solid Xian but he’s an intellectual lightweight, a far cry from John Paul II.

    Then again we elected SmegmaBreath twice.

    DNF (208255)

  56. OT: The Norwegian ladies’ is really very good for a nation of 4 million.

    Perhaps i’ve been too hard on the old country? Nah!

    DNF (208255)

  57. 58. Ladies’ play.

    DNF (208255)

  58. uff da!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  59. 60. Fram, fram Kristmenn, Crossmenn.

    DNF (208255)

  60. #31, #57

    Let me try to put your concerns to rest. I suggest that your (I’ll call it) “discomfort” with Pope Francis is MFM induced. It is the MFM’s willful misinterpretation of Francis’ words that trouble you. One case in point, is the Pontiff’s use of the word “iniquity” that was reported as “inequety” that allowed the MFM to declare the Pope’s support for all thing liberal, when It was just not true.

    When Francis said “who am I to judge?” His words were trumpeted by the secular media as a major shift in the Church’s position on everything “gay.” This Pope is completely faithful to the deposit of faith as it was left by Jesus. It is the secular world that twists his words to fit their agenda. So whom will you believe? The MFM, or your lying eyes of faith?

    felipe (56556d)

  61. 50. All the President’s Men is so good. Soooo good.

    Leviticus (f9a067) — 6/15/2015 @ 2:06 pm

    For whom the Bell Tolls or The Sun Also Rises are better.

    Even parodies of Hemingway are better.

    The Running of the Grunion

    Hills like White Heffalumps

    Pooh looked down at the smooth expanse of fur between his legs and thought of the war

    In the afternoon we made love on the billiard table and the balls ran everywhere

    Steve57 (48418e)

  62. #14: You would think everyone knew not to post major spoilers to day-old shows in a DVR age, but apparently not. Grrrr.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  63. Gratuitous spoilers at that.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  64. 52. Abysmal, but lets give Kevin a chance to turn this thing around. Whaddayasay?

    DNF (208255)

  65. Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/15/2015 @ 3:02 pm

    Col., During the 80’s Some friends introduced me to a “their” grandmother who used that phrase during our conversation on current events. When I boldly asked what that meant, she blushed and changed the subject. I still don’t know for sure what it means – I’m just sheltered that way.

    felipe (56556d)

  66. Colonel Haiku’s link shows this high school is dismal, so I understand this teacher’s opposition to using Shakespeare. It’s possible many of her students can’t read at a high school level. What I don’t understand is why she thinks her experiences are so common that she should be setting national educational standards. Then again, I have a feeling her experiences are common enough for some cities that she may have a point.

    DRJ (e80d46)

  67. The argument that it is racist to demand Shakespeare exposure to all is poisonous. Absurd, too.

    However, on a practical level, it is pointless to insist our illiterate youth have the Middle English of WS foisted upon them. They have no shot of grasping it. Cramming such down their throats only fuels their seething resentments against school masters.

    I’d be absolutely fine with teaching the genius storytelling of WS. Just do so using modern English so the chilllllldren have at least a ghost of a chance at recognizing the core human natures of which WS wrote.

    WS once wrote, “The play’s the thing.” To me, the stories are the thing. The language is a nice option to pursue, but not the core concern.

    Ed from SFV (3400a5)

  68. Steve57 (48418e) — 6/15/2015 @ 3:15 pm

    In that spirit, Steve67, I’m partial to Gravity’s rainbow.

    Uh, I just promoted you (67).

    felipe (56556d)

  69. But I also don’t see any reason why we have to treat Shakespeare as required reading

    The language of our civilization is English, and the greatest author of English is Shakespeare. If you want to teach African spoken-word and Asian poems, do it in a world literature class.

    We do poor and minority students no favors by putting them in academic and cultural ghettos.

    gahrie (12cc0f)

  70. is it an appropriate use of state power to *ensure* the existence of the shared frame of reference?

    It used to be. it was called Americanization.

    gahrie (12cc0f)

  71. 67. Don’t know an explicit translation, may depend on the individual, but the expression is an ‘ejaculation’ on some weighty effort noted by the issuer, e.g., “Holy shaving cream”.

    DNF (208255)

  72. you have to pay like $10 a month

    that’s not value

    Amazon prime is much more than free books, and one of the best deals out there.

    gahrie (12cc0f)

  73. Colonel’s link also shows that while they seem to sort of brag about having 26% of their students in International Baccalaureate (IB)–something that is supposed to be a fairly prestigious and intensive high achievement program, they only have a 21.8 “College Readiness” average. WTF???

    elissa (41a9a3)

  74. 66. Mayor Kevin Johnson, molester of office personnel.

    DNF (208255)

  75. “the expression is an ‘ejaculation’ ”

    Right you are! I was taught that “glory be,” and “thanks be to God,” were holy ejaculations. This knowledge completely deprived me of hours of snickering upon hearing the word “ejaculation” in any context. Or so I am to understand.

    felipe (56556d)

  76. Comment #74 is a blatant advert and a micro-aggression! I denounce you!

    felipe (56556d)

  77. Just to show I’m keeping my priorities in place—the Stanley Cup has passed through airport security and is safely in Chicago in anticipation of tonight’s game.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/stanley-cup-passes-airport-security-chicago/story?id=31778033

    elissa (41a9a3)

  78. “A cup by any other name would still hold water.” – Will.I.am Shakespeare

    felipe (56556d)

  79. I wonder if president fore could name a Blackhawk?

    mg (31009b)

  80. 70. …Uh, I just promoted you (67).

    felipe (56556d) — 6/15/2015 @ 3:24 pm

    Thank you. And like most of my promotions and medals, I am confident I don’t deserve it.

    Steve57 (48418e)

  81. No I mean the books are separate from prime

    happyfeet (685671)

  82. I am a very wet pikachu

    happyfeet (685671)

  83. @84 I could have lived my whole life without hearing about your state of wetness.

    Steve57 (48418e)

  84. 79. I think its done travelling for a bit.

    DNF (208255)

  85. Did you know that every team’s hockey goal horn is different? I only found this out recently when I saw this website. You can listen to every one of them and compare. It also has each team’s goal song/anthem and rated them.

    http://www.si.com/nhl/2014/10/17/ranking-all-30-NHL-goal-songs-and-horns

    elissa (41a9a3)

  86. ==I think its done travelling for a bit.==

    I hope you’re right, DNF. The last two Stanley Cups the Hawks won were on the opponents’ ice (Flyers 2010 and Bruins 2013) It would be very nice for the Blackhawks, their families, and fans to win it tonight on home ice. But you never know. It is horrible weather here though. All day rain, thunderstorms, crazy looking skies, and even some isolated tornado watches and warnings around the area. Glad I’ll be watching the game on TV.

    elissa (41a9a3)

  87. #75: elissa, the 21.8% refers to the entire District. Burbank High manages a rather meagre 13.7%, which makes their 26% participation in IB even more puzzling.

    Jaime Escalante knew the answer, and you won’t find it in any of our Teachers “Universities”. The 1988 Stand and Deliver video is an inspirational viewing experience.

    If you are able to view the world without union and PC blinders, and are appalled by racist low expectations, there are solutions all over the place. Most have been run over by one popular craze or another, but they are still viable, if tried. Begin by hiring someone competent in the field to teach the class. Exclude anyone with a teacher’s credential unless they also have a real BA/BS from a real university in that subject. My Math teachers in high school included a UCLA grad student working toward a (real) math PhD (and he was pretty good with a bullwhip, which was a day one introduction favorite,) and my Chemistry teacher was a Caltech grad (BS in Chemistry.) They were both gone within a year of the school’s unionization in 1964. And if a student dares to disrupt the class, he’s gone unless the teacher takes pity on him. And by gone, I mean off school grounds forever. Education is valuable, and the subject matter and the teacher should be given the respect they deserve.

    bobathome (f50725)

  88. 87. I likes the Packers song more.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XZxCpnoce-Y

    The Wild open with an impressive full-house anthem celebrating ‘the State of Hockey’ the only thing Scandis can raise their pulse over.

    So when are the Blackhawks gonna let the upstarts pass to the finals?

    DNF (208255)

  89. The last of the original Navahajo code talkers has died.

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/04/us/navajo-code-talker-obit/index.html

    Steve57 (48418e)

  90. Navajo. Jeesus.

    Steve57 (48418e)

  91. Bard is hard…

    Gazzer (be559b)

  92. 90. My crossfit coach(actually a German Catholic) just had her 2nd and 1st grade boys at a four-day tourney in the Cities.

    It is summer is it not?

    DNF (208255)

  93. DNF–Always remember the famous quote–“It ain’t over ’til it’s over” (and no, that ain’t Shakespeare)

    elissa (41a9a3)

  94. “That place is so crowded, nobody goes there anymore.”

    Gazzer (be559b)

  95. I think it has been called “the soft bigotry of low expectations” — with the notion that minority kids won’t like or relate to Shakespeare.

    Black kids are not expected to read and the “shared culture” is anathema to them. However, that culture is what would allow them to earn a pretty good living and raise an intact family.

    The political left is doing them harm by pretending that “all cultures are equal.”

    Robert Penn Warren’s classic book All the President’s Men was required reading in college.

    Too bad it is fiction. The Watergate affair was a coup d’etat by Mark Felt in revenge for being passed over by Nixon for Director of the FBI. It was superlative revenge but wrecked the country.

    Mike K (90dfdc)

  96. The anti-white crowd is winning, if they haven’t already won.

    DN (78a7ed)

  97. If they’re going to cut out teaching stuff because a white guy invented it, that would reduce the curriculum to stone spears and cave drawings pretty quick.

    Oh and they would have to pass down this knowledge of spears and giraffe hide curing by word of mouth.

    Africans never had a written language.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  98. “I don’t do cursive.”

    navyvet (c33501)

  99. “All the President’s Men” was by Woodward and Bernstein about Nixon.

    “All the King’s Men” was by Warren Penn about Huey Long, thirty years earlier.

    nk (9faaca)

  100. Maybe for assemblies and larger lectures they could augment the first person narrative with hollow log drum language.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  101. “I didn’t really say everything I said”

    mg (31009b)

  102. 101- yes. again, sorry for the confusion I caused. I clarified that above @54. The classic I was raving about @49 was definitely All the Kings Men.

    elissa (41a9a3)

  103. She is a self-hating white.

    Michael Ejercito (d9a893)

  104. My wife and I talk about this a great deal. We both had very good educations growing up. My parents moved to the edge of a district with great schools so I could attend. My wife was the same. We are going to send our daughter to private school here in Texas. We have also discussed that if we find the private education is lacking at that time then we will home school.
    I am not about to “leave” my child to those that “know” what is good for them. Education is to be well rounded, rigorous, insightful, historical and down right challenging. it is not to “program” good citizens of the state.
    We have even discussed with friends the idea of pooling resources to home school a few kids with help of a teacher. It is sad what is going on with our children and how many will be lacking due to progressive ideals.
    My hope is that through our long swing to the “left” Americans wake up and we take an equally hard swing back to the “right”

    Jk (129a70)

  105. For those with the interest and gumption, Hillsdale College has been partnering with local groups to set up charter schools with curriculum based on their local k-12 school on their campus.
    Often some of the teachers are recent Hillsdale grads.

    In states where they have done it, the advantage is a charter school is funded like a public school, so their is no tuition as a private,

    many times charters are little more than an entrepreneurial front for people to make money, but they don’t have to be.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  106. Sacramento Unified School District – specialized in peanut butter churning and elephant hunts.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  107. I recall learning about Shakespeare from a black teacher named Mr. Prince in the 6th grade.

    What a giant step backward this is.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  108. Max Holland uncovered the real story re atpm,
    While researching the felt bio

    narciso (5faaf8)

  109. Ed from SFV – there are some amazingly well done retellings of Shakespeare in modern settings, and if I were trying to get a class of high schoolers to *like* Shakespeare, that’s where I’d start.

    The 2012 adaptation of Coriolanus was incredible.

    aphrael (69b4f7)

  110. Jk, you efforts at ensuring a good education for your kids are commendable. As a homeschooler, your child will still be eligible for extra-curricular activities (sports, music, etc.) and even the advanced placement classes in your local community colleges. One kid I coached got her Associates Degree at age 17 after a hoped for scholarship at a premier 4-year institution didn’t materialize at age 16. Disregard pretty much anything a “professional” educator will tell you. They are just fulfilling a union duty, and once they retire at age 50 and get on with their lives, they’ll try to forget everything they ever did while dancing to music.

    bobathome (f50725)

  111. JVW–earlier on this thread you reminded us how common his phrases are and how very often we see and hear Shakespeare in our daily language. I thought that was really a good point.

    == Shakespeare is much the same. When we hear someone speak of a “band of brothers” or someone who “protests too much” or “slings and arrows” we can place it in the proper context because we know where those words come from. JVW (8278a3) — 6/15/2015 @ 12:47 pm>==

    Just a few minutes ago I saw this headline in a local paper and I immediately thought of you:
    Blackhawks’ band of brothers brings it home

    elissa (41a9a3)

  112. I find today that when I look back at Shakespeare and other things I read in school as a teenager, much of their meaning was lost on me, because of what I’ve learned about the human condition *since* then. So I expect the same is true for other people

    aphrael, since you’re still of the left — and presumably well past your teenage or college years — I really question whether you’ve learned anything, or much at all, about the human condition.

    Mark (a11af2)

  113. Dusbiber says he only is regarded that way because “some white people” ordained it and he can easily be replaced.

    She’d want nothing but white authors — as white as the driven snow — if, by comparison, the black authors or writers she had to assign her students to read were along the lines of a Thomas Sowell or Ben Carson. Merely another illustration that ideology for such dopey liberal educators truly trumps race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, etc, etc.

    Mark (a11af2)

  114. Get federal taxpayer money out of education at all levels, including institutions, faculties, and students. The free market has a proven process for sorting wheat from chaff – if it is allowed to.

    Estragon (ada867)

  115. I agree completely minority students should not be taught Euroepan oppressor music, math, history, or literature. Let them develop their own culture and civilization in their own way. Stop interfering. You can’t help them.

    ErisGuy (9e86c1)

  116. yes yes they are liars, and quite cowardly, these senate republicans

    cowardly useless jew-hating liars

    happyfeet (831175)

  117. except for dimbulb tom cotton

    happyfeet (831175)


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