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Education Tag

Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, the wife of Prince Harry, is backing a campaign to "decolonize" the British curriculum by getting more women and ethnic minorities to join the faculties instead of "male, pale, and stale" professors, the UK newspapers report. Getting endorsement from the newly-minted Duchess of Sussex is more than a publicity coup for the leftist campaigners who are calling to purge Britain of its distinct cultural and historic legacy by replacing it with their politically correct worldview. The newest member of the royal family has a great sway over the academic policy making since she is the Patron of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, with over 500 member institutions in the UK and former British colonies.

If I'd never send my children to political rallies, it's partly because I expect something like the Covington boys pile-on to be the outcome.  I protect my kids from political ephemera and encourage them to read the great works of fiction. In the minds of deep blue America, if some children can headline the anti-gun rallies in the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, surely other children can be held responsible for smirks and MAGA hats.  If David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez can organize (well, allegedly) nationwide grade school protests last year, then how come Nick Sandmann is attending March for Life?  He has to face an adult consequence.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order to end Common Core standards in the schools. From WPTV:
"One of things we would constantly hear about on the campaign trail is frustration from parents with Common Core and the testing," said Gov. DeSantis at a news conference at Ida S. Baker High School in Cape Coral.

Newly sworn in Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh recently visited Georgetown Prep, where he was welcomed with open arms. It's a feel-good story, which provides a stark contrast to the circus that played out in recent months.

The Atlantic wrote an article about teenagers protesting in-class presentations after a tweet went viral that said "stop forcing students to present in front of the class and give them a choice not to." Students said this experience can be traumatic and permanently scar them. As someone with severe anxiety, I understand where they're coming from. I refuse to use the word snowflake in this situation because there is a stigma around anxiety and it's not well understood, but at the same time, learning to speak in front of people is a valuable lesson.

In several posts we have described how biased teaching materials about the Arab-Israeli conflict and the history and practice of Islam were used for years in the curriculum of two public high schools in the Boston suburb of Newton, Massachusetts:

A couple of weeks ago, we covered New York City mayor Bill de Blasio's "two-pronged plan" to "diversify" NYC's elite public high schools.  These schools are considered elite not only for exceptional academic rigor but because they accept only those who excel on a standardized test. De Blasio's plan requires that these schools reserve 20% of their seats for students from low-income minority middle schools who do not pass the test, let alone excel on it.  Instead, the schools are required to admit these particular students if they manage to almost score the lowest possible passing score.  The second part of his plan is to eliminate the standardized test altogether.

The Student Council at Germany's prestigious Heidelberg University has passed a resolution rejecting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement for being antisemitic. Last Tuesday, the student body voted in favor of severing ties with groups engaged in anti-Israel boycott campaign, barring them for getting university funding and venues for staging events.

Signs were recently posted in hallways and bathrooms at Grant High School in Oregon which read "trigger warning: sexual assault" then the word "BEWARE" followed by the names of five male students. This story is an example of the perpetuation of "rape culture" we have often covered on college campuses. Now it's trickling down to high schools, apparently.