Your kid’s school has become just another bureaucratic nightmare and you must dance through automated systems and virtual helpers just to find out what grade your kid got in his Social Justice During the Byzantine Empire class. From Restoring Truth at restoringtruth.substack.com:
But an “F” for 21st Century Education
A couple days ago, I received an email informing me that I had a message in a special app called “ParentSquare”. In this special app—not in regular, low-tech email—the teacher had written an important message about my daughter’s schoolwork So, the email was a digital middleman that informed me of a message in a completely separate digital system. The email then repeated the contents of the app’s message anyways, making the separate app completely unnecessary. Confused? Me too.
You might wonder why an important message to or from a teacher could not be delivered through old-fashioned, direct email, without the redundancy of the fancy gatekeeper app. You might wonder what’s wrong with regular email—that breakthrough invention that supposedly enabled quicker business communication. If so, you wouldn’t be alone; most parents wonder these things, too.
Alas, things have changed for American education, and copious data suggests none of it is for the better. I’m not statistician, but I’ve noticed a couple things. First, schools are more expensive and tech-driven than ever, with textbooks and attention spans slowly disappearing from classrooms. Second, students are dumber and more out-of-shape than ever, belying the promises of special taxes and funding drives for the new technology and fancy gyms now nearly ubiquitous in American schools.
Something real has been lost in the rush to upgrade K-12 schools into campuses that rival community colleges. I’d say they’re a bit too smart for their own good. Members of the football team now look like sponsored athletes, with an array of warm-up gear suitable for a Nike campaign. It’s not just the kids getting fancy, though; where are the wrestling coaches wandering campus in their double-knit polyester shorts? These guys once doubled as physical education teachers and had us running the mile and climbing wooden walls in street shoes—feats many students are able to avoid nowadays. Most P.E. teachers now resemble NCAA coaches in quick-dry, school logo regalia, and the sweaty outdoor feats can be achieved through “online P.E.”
I love the local school with smoke free zone sign and a teacher enjoying a cowboy killer there on break during 9 to 5 hours…maybe that was her crackpipe. (rimshot)
There was a fabulous simply divine rainbow table there last summer for SMH moment and some attempts at indoctrination with pamphlets and buisness cards, at least they weren’t pornographic.
I do support it when it’s But I’m A Cheerleader from 1999 which probably couldn’t be made now in the Woke Leap Forward. (/s)
So glad I got out right when Mommy Has Two Heaters and egalitarian equity participation trophies started.
We threw any trophy that wasn’t first place in the trash as youngsters and got ready for the next season.
There were some rainbow rangers but they were never flamboyant or in your face about it.