12 Comments
Feb 17, 2023Liked by Andrew Gutmann

I have no threshold for gibberish anymore. Thank God I am retired and am able to say what I think.

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Interesting that KIPP's CEO used the word "effort", seems ideologically close to "hard work" to me. Rules gonna keep changing 'til we are left without any language at all. Pun intended.

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Feb 16, 2023Liked by Andrew Gutmann

Great point about effort. Their own word soup will eventually bite them back with such observations. I helped to open (minor role) several KIPP's in post-Katrina New Orleans. They were great schools that definitely embraced hard work. You have no idea how good 7th grade band can be until you attend a 7th grade jazz concert at a charter school in New Orleans. Those kids didn't make that impression on me because they didn't work hard.

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Hard work plus the secret sound sauce of New Orleans! I've seen some itty bitty babies play a horn in The Big Easy that made it clear the mix for achievement includes the expectations.

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I'm pretty sure my beliefs--be enthusiastic about literature! Enjoy the reading! Ask yourself whether you've understood it! Spend time thinking about how you'd teach it yourself--filter down into my classroom--because personality exists and shows itself in every human interaction. I'd assume hard work is a trait students can't avoid seeing me display; even if I said, "look, kids, just be lazy and don't bother working hard," the ones who wanted to learn would feel disappointed and wonder what the heck I was up to and why was I suddently against something I obviously value? In other words, I can't avoid who I am--that really goes for my criticism and anything else I write; personality sticks out all over a person if you know what to look for. Teachers who work hard, who say "hard work is good" and who appear to enjoy working hard have more influence, I suspect than tiredly defeated crabby teachers who slouch around, never make an effort, and tells classes to "work hard." One's values are always on display.

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Feb 18, 2023Liked by Andrew Gutmann

Thank you and God bless you for your courage to fight for this country and protecting us from the evil of wokism!

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Saw this priceless item in some class notes (2017) from my very liberal college's alumni mag: So-and-so "has started her . . . dual degree program at the U of CA, Berkeley! She's changed genders, changed coasts, and continues to try to change the world." Is this not a perfect encapsulation of our current problem?

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Feb 16, 2023Liked by Andrew Gutmann

Yep. Be on the lookout for "Belong" and "Belonging" as the new word of the moment. Schools around my neighborhood have had "BE HERE, BE YOU, BELONG" on their signs for months. My initial hunch was this was both a signal to the "victims" and "marginalized" they seek to connect with as well as a signal to those who are dropping out or not returning to school. Turns out, the operative part of the statement is BELONG, according to this morning's Chronicle. https://www.chronicle.com/article/everyone-is-talking-about-belonging?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_6200349_nl_Academe-Today_date_20230216&cid=at&source=&sourceid=

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author

Agreed. I have written about the word belonging. It means to create a safe space, which is code word for shutting down speech.

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Maybe the joke these communist flunkies have been playing on the Nation is coming to a head. People have found out they don't like flying in airplanes piloted by people hired on race/sex/whatever and not natural ability and skill. Fetterman has found out that Peter Sellars made it look too easy to be a fake politician . But NYC , Chicago and half the West Coast will be the last to smarten up. I wish the poor folks in Ohio didn't have their home destroyed by these fools running the country.

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When the agitators somehow made math a symbol of systemic racism, then any sanity to the argument of merit and hard work was lost.

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Nice & concise. Easy read. Straight to the point. Pertinent info.

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