De Blasio Poised to Solve "Inequality" By Eliminating Gifted and Talented Program From NYC Schools

[rangerrebew]

De Blasio Poised to Solve "Inequality" By Eliminating Gifted and Talented Program From NYC Schools
 By Steve Straub
Published August 27, 2019 at 6:49am
 

The left is getting crazier by the day.

It’s as if they took Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ and George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and turned both books into “how to” manuals rather than the warnings they were meant to be.

The latest example. A De Blasio appointed commission has recommended solving the “inequality problem” in the NYC public school system by eliminating the Gifted and Talented program.

https://thefederalistpapers.org/opinion/de-blasio-poised-solve-inequality-eliminating-gifted-talented-program-nyc-schools

[dfwgator]

And the trees are all kept equal, with hatchet, axe and saw.

[Wingnut]

And the trees are all kept equal, with hatchet, axe and saw.

That is the trouble with maples like Bigbird.
And they're quite convinced they're right.

[PeteS in CA]

So, instead of working to improve the knowledge and abilities of those not in GATE programs, take away opportunities from those who are. How "Progressive"!

[Cyber Liberty]

So, instead of working to improve the knowledge and abilities of those not in GATE programs, take away opportunities from those who are. How "Progressive"!

That's Socialism in a nutshell.  Since it's not possible to elevate un-gifted students, then gifted ones must be stunted.  It's the same with economics.  I see a bright future for private schools in the worm-infested Big Apple.

[Wingnut]

That's Socialism in a nutshell.  Since it's not possible to elevate un-gifted students, then gifted ones must be stunted.  It's the same with economics.  I see a bright future for private schools in the worm-infested Big Apple.

Jimmy Carter created the Dept of Education.  We were ranked #1 in the world in education that year.   We rank something like 16th or 17th now.

I follow Gibbs rule # 39 on this one.

[Cyber Liberty]

Jimmy Carter created the Dept of Education.  We were ranked #1 in the world in education that year.   We rank something like 16th or 17th now.

I follow Gibbs rule # 39 on this one.

Paraphrasing the Cardassian Garek from Star Blech:  I believe in coincidences, they happen all the time!  I just don't trust them.

[Wingnut]

the report acknowledged that the controversial moves could spark an exodus of whites and Asians from the system — making the panel’s goal all but impossible.

“If New York City loses students to private schools or families move to other locations, it will become even more difficult to create high-quality integrated schools that serve the interests of all students,” the ­report said.

Unintended consequences are always intended when you let liberals run the show.

[PeteS in CA]

That's Socialism in a nutshell.  Since it's not possible to elevate un-gifted students, then gifted ones must be stunted.  It's the same with economics.  I see a bright future for private schools in the worm-infested Big Apple.

Unfortunately, NY's laws regarding homeschooling are quite burdensome and enable tyranny-minded school superintendents to target individual homeschooling families by keeping those families on the educrats' radar screens.

[Cyber Liberty]

Unfortunately, NY's laws regarding homeschooling are quite burdensome and enable tyranny-minded school superintendents to target individual homeschooling families by keeping those families on the educrats' radar screens.

I assumed NY is highly restrictive of Home Schooling.  The Rats are in the pockets of the Teacher Unions.

[andy58-in-nh]

Progressives tend to encourage human vices, but they can always be counted on to hate human virtues.

[jmyrlefuller]

Kurt Vonnegut wrote about something like this...

[PeteS in CA]

I assumed NY is highly restrictive of Home Schooling.  The Rats are in the pockets of the Teacher Unions.

Per HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association), the 5 most restrictive states are all in the Mid-Atlantic and New England area. California's teachers union keeps trying - usually through DPSS (= CPS) social workers - but the courts keep smacking them down. The Calabretta case (1998?), in which the Ninth Circus Court ruled that government social workers really are subject to the 4th Amendment is one significant example.

[Ghost Bear]

Tall Poppy Syndrome

Crab Mentality

[Cyber Liberty]

Per HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association), the 5 most restrictive states are all in the Mid-Atlantic and New England area. California's teachers union keeps trying - usually through DPSS (= CPS) social workers - but the courts keep smacking them down. The Calabretta case (1998?), in which the Ninth Circus Court ruled that government social workers really are subject to the 4th Amendment is one significant example.

Tall Poppy Syndrome

Crab Mentality

 

[PeteS in CA]

I haven't been around TBF very long yet ... have I mentioned that my wife (principally) and I homeschooled our kids "K-12"? We also started and co-led a homeschooling support group.

IMO, there are some great teachers and educrats in PSs, but as a whole PSs are heading in a lot of wrong directions and becoming toxic for kids and the great teachers/educrats. I think things have long been at the point where parents have to watch their local PSs like hawks and be prepared to make sacrifices if they have to defend their kids by withdrawing them and enrolling them in private schools or homeschooling them.

[240B]

Kurt Vonnegut wrote about something like this...

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

In the year 2081, amendments to the Constitution dictate that all Americans are fully equal and not allowed to be smarter, better-looking, or more physically able than anyone else. The Handicapper General's agents enforce the equality laws, forcing citizens to wear "handicaps": masks for those who are too beautiful, radios inside the ears of intelligent people, and heavy weights for the strong or athletic. One April, 14-year-old Harrison Bergeron, an intelligent and athletic teenager, is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel Bergeron, by the government. They are barely aware of the tragedy, as Hazel has "average" intelligence (a euphemism for stupidity), and George has a handicap radio installed by the government to regulate his above-average intelligence. Hazel and George watch ballet on television. They comment on the dancers, who are weighed down to counteract their gracefulness and masked to hide their attractiveness.
https://quizlet.com/158284052/harrison-bergeron-kurt-vonnegut-flash-cards/

At the end of WWII, having experience NAZI totalitarianism followed by Stalinism in the USSR, many American authors knew that the fight for freedom was not over. They knew then that the NAZI ethos was not defeated, but merely slumbering. And now, here it is again. Just as they predicted. The "new" Communists are the same thing as the "old" Communists. They are all the same with the same goal. And that goal is, absolute control over every aspect of every citizen's life.

[Cyber Liberty]

I haven't been around TBF very long yet ... have I mentioned that my wife (principally) and I homeschooled our kids "K-12"? We also started and co-led a homeschooling support group.

IMO, there are some great teachers and educrats in PSs, but as a whole PSs are heading in a lot of wrong directions and becoming toxic for kids and the great teachers/educrats. I think things have long been at the point where parents have to watch their local PSs like hawks and be prepared to make sacrifices if they have to defend their kids by withdrawing them and enrolling them in private schools or homeschooling them.

I don't think you mentioned it, but I'm glad you did so I may doff my cap to you and the Missus.  CA was remarkably open to homeschooling, IIRC from a research paper I did back in the 80's.  The most notable quote from the paper was from a parent who was also a Teacher.

"A parent can do better one-on-one than a certified Teacher can, thirty-on-one."

[PeteS in CA]

I don't think you mentioned it, but I'm glad you did so I may doff my cap to you and the Missus.  CA was remarkably open to homeschooling, IIRC from a research paper I did back in the 80's.  The most notable quote from the paper was from a parent who was also a Teacher.

"A parent can do better one-on-one than a certified Teacher can, thirty-on-one."

Thanks for the hat-tip. I brought it up both to acknowledge what could be taken as a bias and as context for being somewhat familiar with homeschooling (we graduated our youngest some 15 years ago, so much I've not been involved with has happened since then).

More on-topic, several months ago the school system in NYC was catching well-deserved flak for changing the criteria for admission to magnet and GATE-type schools toward educrats' "diversity" goals rather than academic/talent merit. East (and possibly South) Asians would have been especially hurt by the shift away academic/talent merit. I wonder if discontinuing GATE programs is a preemptive retaliation in anticipation of their "diversity"-driven criteria being struck down (like the proverbial juvenile twerp who takes his bat home when he doesn't get his way in a baseball game).

[Fishrrman]

The link is already posted above, but "Harrison Bergeron" was the first thing I thought when I read the title.

If you've never read the story, it's worth a few minutes of your time to do so.

Funny, though, that this came from Vonnegut, who ended up being quite a lefty...

[LadyLiberty]

To willfully, by design, take action that prevents someone from growing based on their abilities .. that is no different than smashing their head with a brick and causing brain damage. It affects them for the rest of their life.  It's no different than an assault.  How about we provide every child the opportunity to develop the appropriate skills based on their ability and reach their maximum potential?

[Smokin Joe]

To willfully, by design, take action that prevents someone from growing based on their abilities .. that is no different than smashing their head with a brick and causing brain damage. It affects them for the rest of their life.  It's no different than an assault.  How about we provide every child the opportunity to develop the appropriate skills based on their ability and reach their maximum potential?

Sorry, but while No Child Left Behind offered opportunities for the gifted to help teach others, and for those in the back of the pack to be pulled along, it, too, held back the truly gifted who could not escape such machinations.
When I was in school (public school, anyway) from Junior High upwards, students were grouped into sections depending on their scored on standardized tests, which while not perfect, had those of similar ability in the same classroom and able to move at a significantly more accelerated pace than those whose scores were substantially lower. This is no longer, unless students are in a large enough urban area that has specialized schools focusing on particular educational aspects for the gifted.

Eliminating such programs will only ensure that many will not reach their potential.

[jmyrlefuller]

The link is already posted above, but "Harrison Bergeron" was the first thing I thought when I read the title.

If you've never read the story, it's worth a few minutes of your time to do so.

Funny, though, that this came from Vonnegut, who ended up being quite a lefty...

I read the story in high school and it's been one of those things that actually stuck from that time.

[mountaineer]

When will Mayor Wilhelm eliminate high school basketball? After all, it unfairly and unequally affects black boys.