This Week’s School Shooting

The 19-year-old gunman who killed a teacher and a 15-year-old girl at a St Louis high school on Monday was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and 600 rounds of ammunition. Back in July, the House passed a bill that would raise the age of ownership of such assault weapons to 21. A similar bill has languished in the filibuster-plagued Senate, thanks to Republicans.

Monday’s school shooting was the 40th this year resulting in injuries or death, according to Education Week.

Missouri, which allows open or concealed carry of firearms without a permit or background check, has one of the highest gun death rates in the nation.

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School Book Bans Are Rising

“From July 2021 to June 2022, PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans lists 2,532 instances of individual books being banned, affecting 1,648 unique book titles.

The 1,648 titles are by 1,261 different authors, 290 illustrators, and 18 translators, impacting the literary, scholarly, and creative work of 1,553 people altogether.”

— “Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools,” Jonathan Friedman and Nadine Farid Johnson, PEN America

“While book bans have long been a part of America’s education fabric, the Pen report suggests they are now driven less by the complaints of individual parents and more by organized, ideological groups and overt pressure from politicians.

About 40% of the book bans in the past year have been connected to political pressure or legislation designed to restrict and reshape teaching, the report estimates.”

— “‘Rapid acceleration’ in US school book censorship leads to 2,500 bans in a year.” Oliver Milman, The Guardian

More:

“Who’s Behind the Escalating Push to Ban Books? A New Report Has Answers,” Eesha Pendharkar, Education Week

“Over 1,600 Books Were Banned During the Past School Year,” Ella Feldman, Smithsonian Magazine

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The Biggest Myth In Education

You’ve surely heard of “learning styles” and perhaps been tagged as a “visual learner,” “kinesthetic learner,” or such. “Learning styles” are pure pedagogy poppycock, education “neuromyths.” A Veritasium video by Derek Muller and Petr Lebedev.

More:

“The Stubborn Myth of ‘Learning Styles,’” William Furey, EducationNext

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February: Virginia Celebrates White Fragility Month

While the rest of the nation observes the Lunar New Year and Black History Month, the Commonwealth of Virginia celebrates White Fragility Month by urging parents to inform on educators who teach the actual history of the United States, which, of course, included centuries of Black enslavement, legally enforced racial segregation, and disinvestment.

Two weeks ago, as Republican Glenn Youngkin moved into the Virginia Governor’s Mansion, built by enslaved laborers in 1813, he signed a stack of executive orders, including the Orwellian “rat on teacher” edict. “Negative” books are being removed from Virginia school libraries. Maybe book bonfires will be part of the state’s 2022 high school pep rallies. Go team.

Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to reduce the number of classes that teach civics, democracy and American history?

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) January 31, 2022

Like-minded update:

“Glenn Youngkin’s No-Guilt History of Virginia for Fragile White People,” Dana Milbank, Washington Post

More:

“Where Things Stand: Trolls Flood Youngkin’s Teacher-Reporting Tip Line, As They Should,” Nicole Lafond, TalkingPointsMemo

“‘It’s Jim Crow, it’s not reform’: Concerns raised over Virginia governor’s new ‘divisive’ learning tip line,” Jim Dowding, WAVY-TV

“A GOP proposal targeting ‘negative’ U.S. history is cause for renewed alarm,” Greg Sargent, Washington Post

Updated:

“Youngkin Rescinds Racial Equity Resources For Schools,” Margaret Barthel, DCist

Related:

“Glenn Youngkin didn’t mind if some kids got an anti-racist education: His own,” Dana Milbank, Washington Post

“From slavery to socialism, new legislation restricts what teachers can discuss,” Terry Gross, NPR

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Spare the Rod

“Spare the Rod,”a 1954 Terrytoons theatrical cartoon featuring Mighty Mouse, directed by Connie Raskinski, with music by Philip A. Scheib.

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Trump Administration Back-to-School Special

This summer, White House officials pressured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to play down the risk of sending children back to school. White House Coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah L. Birx, and Marc Short, chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, and Paul Alexander, a senior adviser to HHS assistant secretary Michael Caputo, tried to get CDC scientists to downplay the danger of COVID-19 to children, teenagers, and young adults in a political effort to get schools to reopen.

More:

“Behind the White House Effort to Pressure the C.D.C. on School Openings,” Mark Mazzetti, Noah Weiland and Sharon LaFraniere, New York Times

“Trump official pressured CDC to change report on Covid and kids,” Dan Diamond, Politico

“We Can’t Allow the CDC to Be Tainted by Politics,” Richard E. Besser, Scientific American

Related:

“COVID-19 Cases Rising Among U.S. Children as Schools Reopen,” AP via Education Week

“‘Children have become acceptable carnage,’” Andrew Atterbury, Nicole Gaudiano, Mackenzie Mays, Juan Perez Jr., and Madina Touré, Politico

“Children’s role in spread of virus bigger than thought,” The Harvard Gazette

“10 facts about school reopenings in the Covid-19 pandemic,” Anna North, Vox

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Mommy’s Little Virus Vector

There are  56 million K-12 students in the United States, and school districts, politicians, some and parents are anxious for them to get back to schoolrooms and off the kitchen table virtual classroom. But information on COVID-19 in children is just coming to light, and attempts at safely re-opening schools have been spotty and uneven.

Though Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and other Trump idolators prefer to operate in the absence of facts, a new study of 85,000 people with COVID-19 and their 575,000 contacts found that children contract and transmit the coronavirus as frequently as their elders. That means kids, especially the super-spreaders among them, can infect each other, their teachers, and their parents and caregivers. Teachers, understandably, are concerned. And while infected children are less likely to suffer fatalities, there appear to be long-term consequences of COVID-19 infection.

Until September, child sacrifice in the U.S. was a weird QAnon conspiracy theory. Opening schools in a pandemic without real planning makes it reality.

More:

“COVID-19 Cases Rising Among U.S. Children as Schools Reopen,” AP via Education Week

“‘Children have become acceptable carnage,’” Andrew Atterbury, Nicole Gaudiano, Mackenzie Mays, Juan Perez Jr., and Madina Touré, Politico

“Children’s role in spread of virus bigger than thought,” The Harvard Gazette

“10 facts about school reopenings in the Covid-19 pandemic,” Anna North, Vox

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How Isaac Newton spent his year in quarantine

When the plague hit England in 1665, Cambridge University sent students away and didn’t offer Zoom classes. Isaac Newton explains how he spent his time back home.

More:

“During a pandemic, Isaac Newton had to work from home, too. He used the time wisely.” Gillian Brockell, Washington Post

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Commencement Address, Class of 2020

Felicitations! Greetings to all of you joining us today on Zoom (and later on YouTube) on this glorious occasion! Graduates of the Class of 2020, you have passed a final test like no other, the test of coronavirus quarantine, and will now confidently stride, a prudent six feet apart, jaws set firmly under your surgical masks, into the post-pandemic ruins of the world of adulthood.

Each and every one of you has downloaded the distilled wisdom of Western Civilization in a grand adventure in online enlightenment, receiving the best education allowed within the limits of your broadband service contract. You are well-prepared for the long, vacant road ahead, a road of online job searches, Animal Crossing and, for the lucky few, Working From Home. For the rest, you who will deliver our meals and Amazon purchases, we salute you! Please ring the bell when you leave packages at the door.

As you log off now, if you remember anything, make it this: wash your hands, and don’t touch your face. Excelsior!

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Teaching in America doesn’t have to be this tough.

Teachers in America have a much tougher job than their peers in other developed countries, like Sweden (which is mispelled in this video- oops). A Vox video by Liz Scheltens.

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