Well, this was a primary election--one thing I've seen in Virginia is that in the Trump era, state GOPs will seem to increasingly double-down on going hard-right even in swing states where at least the appearance of moderation would help in the general. Youngkin figured that out in 2021, but the rest of his party can't seem to follow the script.
Of course--there's a real good chance he would not have won the primary on his own merits. It didn't hurt that the political media largely allowed him to pivot during the general without pushback; and McAuliff ran a terrible campaign.
That and Youngkin set the tone of parents involved in local school boards removing books when the GOP was all in on it early in the Biden administration. I can't remember the exact wording, but you could pinpoint when McAuliffe lost the governorship when he responded to a bill he vetoed that parents shouldn't dictate to the school board what to teach. He ran a terrible and undisciplined campaign.
I like most of his stuff. I have read two books. Though he occasional ventures into Sam Harris territory. I love this point about the Ivy League
It's been a couple of months so lots of updates. I have started politicking and make connections. I am working on locating funding because I plan to run a campaign like if I was running for city council and not school board. So my community group got to convince the school board a few months back to create a committee focused on literacy. So we did a presentation on the committee at one of the twice a month meetings and what we're trying to do and why it's important and I spoke as a parent and my wife wrote the speech and from the feedback I got from the people that were there and some people who heard it they loved my speech. Tbh, that once again goes to the singer-songwriter combo that me and my wife make. The problem is it looks like School district is basically lied to us because they are really not on board, they're not really trying to get the other stakeholders involved. The committee was supposed to include Parents, community leaders and teachers and admin but it seems like there's been no teachers and admin, except the one person we did get a job. Tangent: after telling us that they're just not getting minority applicants, a member of our group was friends with a black teacher from the area who was teacher of the year in her school in the New York city suburbs who wanted to move back to our area and she said she had submitted her resume and hadn't heard back and once we got on it, everybody was like oh yeah yeah, we don't know how this happened but of course we made enough of a stink that she was hired and wrapped up before the school year started but it was just amazing how they were just going to let her application languish.
Continuing from my above post so on top of that my wife is head of the Special Education PTA got them to listen to a thing about autism but we're finding out from people that we talk to more and more, that they're special ed program really is just an absolute joke. There's no structure, they are not really telling people they hire ,what they're doing. They're just hiring people and then people find out that they're dealing with really high level autistic kids with almost no training and no preparation. Back to the reading issues after thise tangents. We brought in a volunteer program where people are trained in the science of reading and will come into the classrooms while the teachers teaching to help the kids read and give one-on-one attention. So you know, you're retired Executives and grandparents with time on their hands, kind of program. The school district, led by the school curriculum director, who I totally got wrong because he's a real Meek looking guy,I didn't think he was just devious but should have seen it; is saying it was the teachers union and they were worried about a grievance. The leader of the volunteer program that we brought in and said we've done this in other cities and there's never had a grievance so we're still pushing on with this one and trying to show that you know it's a good idea. The superintendent sent us an email like saying he had spoken with all the superintendent until it had the volunteer program and they had good reviews so we'll see if they come to their senses. And finally we had this lady from Missouri was a principal who is now a superintendent or was in Missouri and was hired to work her magic in Wisconsin l, Angie Hamlin isnher name. She took over the meth capital of Missouri, well her school district was considered that and just by changing their instruction technique of being more repetitive there was change. The technique goes you repeat what you're saying 10 times until it gets fully grasp it, then you show them what to do a bunch of times till they fully grasp it and then you let them do a little bit double check and then finished it with them she got there read and scores from an average of 13 out of 100 to almost a hundred and their math scores from 0, that's right zero to the highest in the state. But again the meek looking curriculum director was lukewarm to it and when one of our people talk to him about our literacy group he felt attacked because we we mentioned stats and we werent supposed to mention stats in our presentation and he doesnt trust ohaving an outside group involved in the process which means he doesn't want the world to know they suck. So they're supposed to have their own presentation on what they're doing literacy wise in November but it seems they're comfortably going to run out the clock until New York State tells them what to do and then the change can be made whereas they never have to be responsible for it.
For those who haven't seen it, The Guardian did an article on education and the upcoming presidency based on what the orange Hitler-loving felon has said, promised, hinted at, etc. It could go in several different threads, including the Leopards eating faces thread, but this seemed the most appropriate. I'll provide some highlights, starting with the Leopards eating faces: I'm sure they won't have second thoughts about not voting for Kamala because [reasons]. Other possibilities based on the campaign, Project 2025, etc: Privatize financial aid (and eliminate student loan forgiveness) Screw LGBT+, and not in a fun way "He says he would tax, fine and sue private university endowments, which fund those universities" - the money would be used to start a new Trumpy MAGA Academy with no "wokeness" allowed Change how accreditation works (no doubt he's bitter that Trump Uni was recognized for the scam it was) and fire all the mean liberal accreditors because [Marxists] "pull billions of dollars of federal funding from some of the most prestigious universities in the country, and to strip them of accreditation to punish them for allowing pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses" "the Republican president-elect says he would go after schools with diversity, equity and inclusion practices – what he calls “explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity” – and schools allowing pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses" "ending programs that research mis- and disinformation" because if there is one thing we don't want is a well-informed public that sees mis- and disinformation for what they are
Pssst!! Of course bro!! I am torn between laying into the school board again or saying g minimal and just adding it to my campaign speech
Lol, no, not yet. I sat with a group at a fancy dinner the other night and somebody said, I should definitely run for office. I believe I can win. They are just so bad at this, it's crazy.
Since this thread is on the front page... I can't believe I hadn't seen this until about 10 minutes ago.
@Deadtigers @Kryptonite From my personal experience, I think this depends on the severity of the disability. I am quite sure I have mild dyslexia (one reason I read slow), mild ADHD, had a mild speech impediment until it was worked out of me by 3rd grade, and had eye surgery (lazy eye?) when I was 3 or 4 (hence one eye being much stronger than other). With all that, I am able to read just fine and do have a master's degree. That said, I have encountered students who had undiagnosed dyslexia until high school, and lots of behavioral issues, all of which were masked because the student moved schools a lot and just couldn't be tested/assessed (or paperwork didn't get processed in time to follow the student). The White Savior part definitely applies to minority schools (and I, personally, had to ask myself if I was part of that fairly often. I'm sure there was part of me that was). But I also think it is a larger issue throughout the whole education system, effecting underfunded schools and school districts far more than wealthier ones.
the Algo is breeding stupidity https://bsky.app/profile/swiftonsecurity.com/post/3lehyymvjl22k The third-most popular podcast on Spotify is entirely about telling parents their kids are not autistic – they're telepathic. https://www.theamericansaga.com/p/the-telepathy-tapes-is-taking-america
Oh.My.Fcvking.God. Its the facilitated Communication bullshit again. 100 percent of the communication is the input of the person holding the board, not the kid.
Yeah, it doesn't explain how the kids know immediately how to spell. It just seems to pray on a parents need to communicate with their child.
Parents ,teachers,aides...the list goes on. Ironically,no o e wants to try to grok the child's non verbal or non grammatical communication,which is typically crystal clear if you're paying attention.
Yeah. I like to watch that non verbal body language toddlers show. Especially their legs, these are kind of working like a dog's tail. They show exactly how a toddler/dog feels.