Category Archives: Education

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When he says we must listen to students, it needs to be all that the students say!

The Great Valley Middle School case in Malvern, Pennsylvania, has mostly faded from the news. As The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, some students created 22 faked TikTok accounts, “some depicting racist, homophobic, or sexually inappropriate content” that were attributed to teachers.

On Monday morning, Inquirer columnist Jonathan Zimmerman, pondered how to maintain freedom of speech for students and still avoid the ‘disruption’ student speech can sometimes cause. We need to listen to the students, he told readers, but missed an important point. Continue reading →

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The part the media didn’t mention Sometimes kids notice things that adults think they don't..

I do spend too many hours on Twitter — sorry, Elon Musk, but I refuse to call it “X” — and occasionally use Facebook, though not for politics, but I’ve never created a TikTok account. One of the people I follow on Twitter is Chaya Raichik and her wildly popular Libs of TikTok, where she made a name for herself by checking through TikTok and reposting to Twitter the most inane and insane things that the left were posting there.

So, while I haven’t checked out any of these things, this story in The Philadelphia Inquirer greatly amused me:

Malvern middle schoolers created more than 20 TikTok accounts that impersonated teachers and posted inappropriate content

Great Valley Middle School students set them up to impersonate, and demean, staff members.

Continue reading →

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#Antisemitism at Columbia University How can educated administrators be so calm and complacent about it?

My old Bible, using an Israeli ₪20 note as a bookmark.

Catholics the world over have just completed a series of liturgical readings from the Gospel of John, and Gospel readings at Sunday Mass now come from Mark. But the Gospel of John is disturbing in its language, with its frequent reference to “the Jews.” From the foreword to The Gospel According to John, The New American Catholic Bible:[1]© Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 1970. This has been the Bible I’ve had and used since the 1970s, purchased sometime between 1976 and 1978, and is the one pictured at the top of this … Continue reading

The polemic between the synagogue and the church[2]At the time. John is believed to be the last of the Gospels written, with editing into its final form being completed between 90 and 100 AD. influenced Johannine language toward harshness especially by reason of the hostility toward Jesus manifested by the authorities — Pharisees and Sadducees — who are referred to frequently as “the Jews”.

Yes, I wince at some of the readings from John, even though I know the real meanings of the language used.

I attribute a significant amount of anti-Semitism among Christians to just such language, and I hate that. Jews are our religious forebears, and the hostility of some, hopefully few, Christians toward Jews is simply wrong. Sadly, the tradition of anti-Semitism seems to be festering again. From The Times of Israel:

In newly revealed texts, Columbia deans discuss Jewish student ‘privilege’ and ‘$$$$’

US House panel probing antisemitism at universities publishes exchange between administrators who called Hillel official a ‘problem’ during May event on campus

Continue reading →

References

References
↑1 © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 1970. This has been the Bible I’ve had and used since the 1970s, purchased sometime between 1976 and 1978, and is the one pictured at the top of this article. It is a true hard-cover publication, but the spine is broken, and a couple of forward pages are missing. I broke down and bought a newer, larger-print Bible several months ago, because it’s easier for me to read.
↑2 At the time. John is believed to be the last of the Gospels written, with editing into its final form being completed between 90 and 100 AD.
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If the public schools were performing well, there’d be no push for helping people to use private schools.

If Helen Gym Flaherty, the former Philadelphia City Councilwoman and now failed mayoral candidate reads The Philadelphia Inquirer, she must be foaming-at-the-mouth angry at a story in Monday’s newspaper. Mrs Flaherty based her campaign on her support for public schools, and had a campaign appearance in front of the Edward T Steel Elementary School, which she claimed to have saved from “going charter.”

We noted, at the time, that Steel Elementary, was ranked 1,205th out of 1,607 Pennsylvania elementary schools, 1% of students scored at or above the proficient level for math, and 8% scored at or above that level for reading. Another respondent had the charts.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, Mrs Flaherty, and the city’s political left are aghast that state money could be used to private schools, but there’s an obvious point to be made: if the public schools were doing a good job, there’d be no real pressure for private schools! Continue reading →

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Once again, the hoitiest and the toitiest rally in favor of #Hamas So, what happens to the Stanford grads when it comes to their employment prospects?

Stanford University, 2024-25 tuition only: $21,709 per quarter, a private university in the Pyrite State, has a joyous image of commencement featuring a pretty, blonde girl openly smiling and cheering and clapping her hands in the California sunshine headlining the university’s website main page, or at least they do on Monday, June 17th, at 7:42 AM EDT. Stanford, one of the truly prestigious universities in the United States, sort of an Ivy League of the West school, attracts students from around the world, applying in a highly selective environment.

One would think that, as savvy and smart as those students are, they’d occasionally check the news, and ought to have seen stories noting that corporations which recruit top students are wary of hiring those who’ve been taking part in the pro-‘Palestinian,’ pro-Hamas demonstrations which have taken place. Continue reading →

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The pro #Hamas protests seem as though they are withering away

I do so love being proved right, I have said, both on this site and Twitter, it’s a bit pointless to use force to break up the protest encampments, because, with the semester ending, these encampments will just wither away.

Swarthmore College’s pro-Palestinian encampment disbands after 4 weeks and stalled negotiations

Student activists began voluntarily clearing the encampment on Parrish Lawn Thursday morning.

by Beatrice Forman | Friday, May 24, 2024 | 5:48 MP EDT

Swarthmore College’s pro-Palestinian encampment officially came down Friday morning, marking the end of the longest campus protest over the war in Gaza in the Philadelphia area.

About three dozen student activists began packing up their belongings from Parrish Lawn voluntarily Thursday, said organizer Ragad A., a sophomore, who declined to share their full name out of privacy concerns. Continue reading →

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The Golden Rule

Have you heard of the Golden Rule? “He who has the gold makes the rules!”

We have noted, many times, how deep-pockets donors have reacted very badly to the tolerance of anti-Semitism on campus. Several major corporate CEOs have said that they would not hire Harvard students who signed a stupid document blaming Israel for Hamas’ October 7th attack, and at least one CEO has said he will never again hire anyone from Harvard, MIT, or Penn following the three presidents’ debacle. Continue reading →

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How interesting that inclusive places like Haverford College allow discrimination against Jews on campus

Haverford College was founded in 1833, as a men’s college, by members of the Religious Society of Friends, more colloquially known as Quakers. According to the school, 98% of the 1,472-member student body live on campus, and the college claims a six-to-one tree to student body ratio. Full disclosure: I did some work on the Haverford campus in the early 2000s.

A liberal arts college, they are most definitely liberal, as they have proudly posted about their student body ‘diversity,’ telling us that the Class of 2027 is 52.5% “identify as people of color”. No mention was made concerning whether Rachel Dolezal was a student. 🙂

Haverford isn’t cheap, as tuition, fees, and housing for the 2024-25 academic year totals $89,568, though they also say that 49% receive some sort of financial aid, 44% receive outright grants, with the average grant being $62,237.

So, you’d think that Haverford College is an inclusive and welcoming place, right? The college certainly advertises itself that way! Unless, of course, you’re a Jooooo! From The Philadelphia Inquirer: Continue reading →

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Noooo! It’s not #AntiSemitism at all, just opposition to Israeli government policies!

When the pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas protesters tell you that they aren’t anti-Semitic, but simply opposed to Israeli government policies, they are lying to you! It is intellectually possible to be opposed to Israeli policy, but not be a Jew-hater, but it’s a trick I have yet to see accomplished.

Florida imam and dentist calls for ‘annihilation’ of Jews, says Israeli military ‘worse than the Nazis’

The imam — who is also a licensed dentist in Florida — called Jews ‘apes and pigs’ and accused the Israeli military of trafficking organs

By Michael Dorgan Fox News | Tuesday, May 14, 2024 | 2:03 PM EDT

An antisemitic-laced video has emerged of a Florida imam calling for the annihilation of Jews and describing the Israeli military as being “worse than the Nazis.”

The video, which was live-streamed to Facebook on April 26, shows Florida Imam Dr. Fadi Kablawi making the remarks during a sermon at Masjid As Sunnah An Nabawiyyah in North Miami.

“Oh Allah, support our oppressed brothers in Palestine. Oh Allah, annihilate the tyrannical Jews. Oh Allah, annihilate them, for they are no match for you,” Kablawi can be heard saying in the sermon, according to a translation by MEMRI TV, the media arm of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“Oh Allah,” Kablawi continued, “annihilate the brothers of apes and pigs. Oh Allah, demonstrate upon them the wonders of your might. Oh Allah, cut off their seed. Oh Allah, break up their fellowship. Oh Allah, disperse them and rend them asunder.”

The video is embedded below the fold. Continue reading →