Nikole Hannah-Jones is one of those parents, inspired by movies, who put
her kid in a terrible situation to make a documentary. Her daughter was enrolled in a poor-performing school and hates her mother for wasting a
decade.

So the mother wrote yet another essay decrying chaos in school, ignoring
that many schools adopted portions of her curricula and truly harm poor children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYcYPKSUIKA

My feed seems to be copied from shawn and rhino, so they may have seen
this.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-09-25 1:58 a.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Nikole Hannah-Jones is one of those parents, inspired by movies, who put
her kid in a terrible situation to make a documentary. Her daughter was enrolled in a poor-performing school and hates her mother for wasting a decade.

So the mother wrote yet another essay decrying chaos in school, ignoring
that many schools adopted portions of her curricula and truly harm poor children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYcYPKSUIKA

My feed seems to be copied from shawn and rhino, so they may have seen
this.

I've seen Birbalsingh interviewed on Triggernometry but didn't know she
had a podcast. I'm quite impressed with this one. She does a brilliant
job of skewering Hannah-Jones over her nonsensical views and staggering arrogance. It's really no less than a tragedy that millions of students
have had these massively mistaken ideas inflicted on them for the past
decade - and may well continue to experience them for many years yet
until the schools choose another ideology, hopefully a saner one.

I think it must be incredibly hard to find good schools when they all
seem to be infested with this garbage, at least to some extent. The
schools that are less loaded down with this thinking may be problematic
in other ways. For instance, I expect that a Muslim school would have a
lot less of this thinking but I could not conceive of sending a child to
a Muslim school for fear of raising a jihadi.

The other option, of course, is home schooling but that would seem a
very big challenge as well. But it would seem to be the strongest
choice. At least you'd have control over the classroom environment and
could set some reasonable standards for discipline. I have no idea how
much woke crap you'd have to teach your kids in order for them to pass
the exams though. I suppose you'd have to teach that stuff to the kids
in such a way that you tell them that this next bit is total crap and
they shouldn't believe it but they will have to parrot it to pass their
exams, then they should immediately forget it.

--
Rhino

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

. . .

I've seen Birbalsingh interviewed on Triggernometry but didn't know she
had a podcast. I'm quite impressed with this one. She does a brilliant
job of skewering Hannah-Jones over her nonsensical views and staggering >arrogance. It's really no less than a tragedy that millions of students
have had these massively mistaken ideas inflicted on them for the past >decade - and may well continue to experience them for many years yet
until the schools choose another ideology, hopefully a saner one.

These schools underperformed with the previous curricula too.

. . .

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-09-25 11:16 a.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

. . .

I've seen Birbalsingh interviewed on Triggernometry but didn't know she
had a podcast. I'm quite impressed with this one. She does a brilliant
job of skewering Hannah-Jones over her nonsensical views and staggering
arrogance. It's really no less than a tragedy that millions of students
have had these massively mistaken ideas inflicted on them for the past
decade - and may well continue to experience them for many years yet
until the schools choose another ideology, hopefully a saner one.

These schools underperformed with the previous curricula too.

. . .

What solutions do you have in mind?

--
Rhino

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

On 2026-09-25 11:16 a.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

. . .

I've seen Birbalsingh interviewed on Triggernometry but didn't know she >>>had a podcast. I'm quite impressed with this one. She does a brilliant >>>job of skewering Hannah-Jones over her nonsensical views and staggering >>>arrogance. It's really no less than a tragedy that millions of students >>>have had these massively mistaken ideas inflicted on them for the past >>>decade - and may well continue to experience them for many years yet >>>until the schools choose another ideology, hopefully a saner one.

These schools underperformed with the previous curricula too.

. . .

What solutions do you have in mind?

I'm with Thomas Sowell's wisecrack on "solutions".

If a student isn't interested or unprepared for high school, let him
drop out early. If he changes his mind, even if it's night school, let
him return. Every student doesn't need specific lessons at a specific
age.

There is a clip of Sowell from the '90s, in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNy8kkXzUto

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SZ0TKpKJayg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6496xo2_H4

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-09-25 2:28 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

On 2026-09-25 11:16 a.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

. . .

I've seen Birbalsingh interviewed on Triggernometry but didn't know she >>>> had a podcast. I'm quite impressed with this one. She does a brilliant >>>> job of skewering Hannah-Jones over her nonsensical views and staggering >>>> arrogance. It's really no less than a tragedy that millions of students >>>> have had these massively mistaken ideas inflicted on them for the past >>>> decade - and may well continue to experience them for many years yet
until the schools choose another ideology, hopefully a saner one.

These schools underperformed with the previous curricula too.

. . .

What solutions do you have in mind?

I'm with Thomas Sowell's wisecrack on "solutions".

If a student isn't interested or unprepared for high school, let him
drop out early. If he changes his mind, even if it's night school, let
him return. Every student doesn't need specific lessons at a specific
age.

If you had said that high school graduates should not be made to feel
that there's anything remotely unsavoury about being a plumber rather
than an engineer, I'd have agreed wholeheartedly and encouraged the
student to go to a trade school instead of university. But if I'm
hearing you correctly, you're okay with letting a kid drop out of school
by the end of middle school - or maybe even sooner, perhaps as soon as
they realize they're not very interested in school. Am I understanding
you correctly?

And what about these kids that you let quit school considerably earlier
than at present: what becomes of them? A great many of them would seem
likely to migrate to criminality if they don't have the basic knowledge
to aspire to a job better than being a DoorDash driver.

Even if you end mandatory attendance at school from an early age, surely
that one thing isn't going to transform the whole school system and make
it massively better.

There is a clip of Sowell from the '90s, in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNy8kkXzUto

Sowell and the host of the podcast aren't offering solutions per se,
they're just condemning the status quo like Birbalsingh does.


--
Rhino

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-09-25 3:04 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SZ0TKpKJayg

I tend to agree with her sense that reading is super-important but maybe that's because I was always a big reader. But one of my oldest friends
is one of the smartest, most capable guys I've ever known and I have the definite impression he's never been a big reader. He's a retired
engineer who has worked on many very famous buildings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6496xo2_H4

That one's almost as long as the Dad Saves America....

It starts with the claim that everyone knows that teachers are
underpaid. I've heard that about American schools and it may well be
true but my strong impression is that Canadian teachers are NOT
underpaid; in fact, it seems like a profession that is quite lucrative
if you can get into it. If salaries are the big issue, I'm not sure why
we have the same issues as you guys do. (Or maybe we don't. I've never
put kids through the school system so I only see the occasional news
story or the odd anecdote from friends who have kids.) I *do* know that
are teachers are chronically belly-aching and every one of the grumbling sessions includes a declaration that more money in salaries and/or more
help (in the form of educational assistants) and/or further reduced
hours needs to be forthcoming.

I think school has to be utterly different now than it was when I was
going through school. I can't remember a single case where a teacher
even had to raise his/her voice other than perhaps to quiet the class
slightly when there was a major hubbub going on. I have never seen or
even heard of a case where a teacher was told to fuck off or was in a
physical altercation with a student, things that are apparently rampant
now. We didn't have kids with every kind of disability in classes. Kids
that were "developmentally delayed" were either in different schools for
the profound cases or different classes for the kids that weren't so
delayed. Deaf and blind kids went to separate schools. All these
syndromes like ADHD hadn't even been invented yet. (I'm not sure if the conditions themselves had even arisen yet although I suppose they
manifested themselves in some kids daydreaming a lot and other kids
quitting.)

I think the whole mainstreaming idea of putting ALL kids of all ability
levels in the same classes is one of the biggest friction points for
both kids and teachers these days. I strongly suspect that if we go back
to putting the kids with the physical and mental disabilities into their
own schools, ALL students and teachers will be better off. There must be
SOME way to integrate these students socially WITHOUT having to merge
them all into the same schools.

A return to discipline where kids are not allowed to disrupt classes
would do a world of good in restoring the ability to learn. If students
can fight, yell, or carry on either with each other or the teacher
during class time, something is very VERY wrong. There need to be
punishments and if students are clear that punishments WILL be meted out
if there are problems, most kids will buckle down and work. That was
always my experience when I was in school. We knew that we could
experience detentions, have our parents called (in which case they would punish us), go to the principal's office and in some cases even get
strapped. In addition, suspensions and expulsions were known to be
possible, even if they were almost unknown. Nowadays, it seems like suspensions get treated like vacations: "Oh boy, I'm off for the rest of
the week!"

The teachers and theorists are constantly bitching about standardized
testing. I'm not remotely convinced that standard tests are a bad thing.
In my high school, there was no reliable way of comparing students even
at the same school if they were taught be different teachers. The idea
that you could compare students from different schools and regions and countries when exams were composed by teachers for their own students
or, at best for teachers of the same subject in the same school, always
struck me as ludicrous. An A from Mr. Jones could be much easier to get
than a B from Mrs. Green. How is a college or university supposed to use grades to decide that I would be better than you as a student when every comparison is apples and oranges? Having said that, I get the impression
that a LOT of class time is spent preparing for the standardized tests
and that seems unfortunate too. Maybe the balance isn't right there; I
just don't know.


--
Rhino

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

On 2026-09-25 2:28 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

On 2026-09-25 11:16 a.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

. . .

I've seen Birbalsingh interviewed on Triggernometry but didn't know she >>>>> had a podcast. I'm quite impressed with this one. She does a brilliant >>>>> job of skewering Hannah-Jones over her nonsensical views and staggering >>>>> arrogance. It's really no less than a tragedy that millions of students >>>>> have had these massively mistaken ideas inflicted on them for the past >>>>> decade - and may well continue to experience them for many years yet >>>>> until the schools choose another ideology, hopefully a saner one.

These schools underperformed with the previous curricula too.

. . .

What solutions do you have in mind?

I'm with Thomas Sowell's wisecrack on "solutions".

If a student isn't interested or unprepared for high school, let him
drop out early. If he changes his mind, even if it's night school, let
him return. Every student doesn't need specific lessons at a specific
age.

If you had said that high school graduates should not be made to feel
that there's anything remotely unsavoury about being a plumber rather
than an engineer, I'd have agreed wholeheartedly and encouraged the
student to go to a trade school instead of university. But if I'm
hearing you correctly, you're okay with letting a kid drop out of school
by the end of middle school - or maybe even sooner, perhaps as soon as
they realize they're not very interested in school. Am I understanding
you correctly?

I made no comment on using high school to prepare for either a vocation
or profession and not just force everyone onto the college track if inappropriate, but yes, I agree. But if a kid really isn't getting high
school for whatever reason and has an opportunity outside school for a vocation, let him work for a few years. If he matures enough to complete school, let him return.

And what about these kids that you let quit school considerably earlier
than at present: what becomes of them? A great many of them would seem >likely to migrate to criminality if they don't have the basic knowledge
to aspire to a job better than being a DoorDash driver.

Bad schools do fuck all keeping kids out of gangs. I see no advantage
to forcing kids to stay in school who aren't benefitting.

Even if you end mandatory attendance at school from an early age, surely >that one thing isn't going to transform the whole school system and make
it massively better.

It's complicated.

There is a clip of Sowell from the '90s, in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNy8kkXzUto

Sowell and the host of the podcast aren't offering solutions per se,
they're just condemning the status quo like Birbalsingh does.

Sowell has written books I don't always agree with on what worked. He
was quite disappointed that the merit-based admission program at his old decrepid high school was eliminated in its shiny new building so it no
longer serves the bright kids.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

. . .

It starts with the claim that everyone knows that teachers are
underpaid.

Lousy math. A full-time teacher works 9 months. There is also 3 weeks of
paid vacation and paid federal and state holidays. Annualize her salary
by * 4 / 3 and then compare. College professors have it much worse, who
are paid only in quarters or semesters they teach and some schools pay
by enrollment.

Chicago teachers have a very generous contract and so do some suburban teachers.

I agree with a lot of what you wrote.

. . .

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-09-25 11:45 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

On 2026-09-25 2:28 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

On 2026-09-25 11:16 a.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

. . .

I've seen Birbalsingh interviewed on Triggernometry but didn't know she >>>>>> had a podcast. I'm quite impressed with this one. She does a brilliant >>>>>> job of skewering Hannah-Jones over her nonsensical views and staggering >>>>>> arrogance. It's really no less than a tragedy that millions of students >>>>>> have had these massively mistaken ideas inflicted on them for the past >>>>>> decade - and may well continue to experience them for many years yet >>>>>> until the schools choose another ideology, hopefully a saner one.

These schools underperformed with the previous curricula too.

. . .

What solutions do you have in mind?

I'm with Thomas Sowell's wisecrack on "solutions".

If a student isn't interested or unprepared for high school, let him
drop out early. If he changes his mind, even if it's night school, let
him return. Every student doesn't need specific lessons at a specific
age.

If you had said that high school graduates should not be made to feel
that there's anything remotely unsavoury about being a plumber rather
than an engineer, I'd have agreed wholeheartedly and encouraged the
student to go to a trade school instead of university. But if I'm
hearing you correctly, you're okay with letting a kid drop out of school
by the end of middle school - or maybe even sooner, perhaps as soon as
they realize they're not very interested in school. Am I understanding
you correctly?

I made no comment on using high school to prepare for either a vocation
or profession and not just force everyone onto the college track if inappropriate, but yes, I agree. But if a kid really isn't getting high school for whatever reason and has an opportunity outside school for a vocation, let him work for a few years. If he matures enough to complete school, let him return.

Sorry, I shoehorned one of my concerns into what you'd said.

And what about these kids that you let quit school considerably earlier
than at present: what becomes of them? A great many of them would seem
likely to migrate to criminality if they don't have the basic knowledge
to aspire to a job better than being a DoorDash driver.

Bad schools do fuck all keeping kids out of gangs. I see no advantage
to forcing kids to stay in school who aren't benefitting.

It's hard to disagree with that. Just keeping them in school until
they're 18 when they don't want to be there doesn't seem to help them
and almost certainly causes them to disrupt their classrooms. There's definitely a logic to letting them learn when they're ready to learn
rather than when "society" *thinks* they should learn. After all,
there's been a lot of talk about lifelong learning for the past 30-odd
years so if we're going to learn all of our lives instead of just
cramming it into our early years, why not allow some breaks for life experience and leave the door open for formal learning whenever the
individual wants it?

Even if you end mandatory attendance at school from an early age, surely
that one thing isn't going to transform the whole school system and make
it massively better.

It's complicated.

There is a clip of Sowell from the '90s, in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNy8kkXzUto

Sowell and the host of the podcast aren't offering solutions per se,
they're just condemning the status quo like Birbalsingh does.

Sowell has written books I don't always agree with on what worked. He
was quite disappointed that the merit-based admission program at his old decrepid high school was eliminated in its shiny new building so it no
longer serves the bright kids.

I suppose education is always going to be a test bed for trying out new
ideas; it certainly has been as long as I can remember. This 1619
Project garbage has certainly been an abject failure as its author's
daughter has proven. The question is how long will it take to abandon it
and try something new? It's genuinely destructive on millions of kids to
keep teaching this BS when just about everyone agrees that it was just well-meaning nonsense. Do we really have to wait until all the
educational theorists have agreed on the next experiment that they want
to try? Could we go back to things that worked pretty well in the past,
even if they weren't perfect?

And why must the entire (Western) world experiment with bad ideas all at
once on a near-global scale? Surely the sensible thing to do with a new
theory of education is to try it on a SMALL SCALE first and see how it
works there? Monitor it closely and see if it is having the desired
outcomes with no untoward negatives. Then, if it actually works, start
rolling it out on a wider basis. Implementing the 1619 Project seems to
have toxified education everywhere at enormous cost to a generation of
kids. That's massively destructive and will hurt us very badly in due
course.

--
Rhino

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

On 2026-09-25 11:45 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

. . .

Bad schools do fuck all keeping kids out of gangs. I see no advantage
to forcing kids to stay in school who aren't benefitting.

It's hard to disagree with that. Just keeping them in school until
they're 18 when they don't want to be there doesn't seem to help them
and almost certainly causes them to disrupt their classrooms. There's >definitely a logic to letting them learn when they're ready to learn
rather than when "society" *thinks* they should learn. After all,
there's been a lot of talk about lifelong learning for the past 30-odd
years so if we're going to learn all of our lives instead of just
cramming it into our early years, why not allow some breaks for life >experience and leave the door open for formal learning whenever the >individual wants it?

I will admit, during the COVID closures, the kids who chose to act like shitheads, hijacking vehicles, were not committing specific violent acts
if that attended school. School hours have lower crime.

. . .

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)