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The Media Wants To Guilt-Trip Parents Over School 'Pods' Worried about how the latest COVID-19 workaround might exacerbate inequality? Maybe open the damned elementary schools instead.
Reason ^ | July 24, 2020 | Matt Welch

Posted on 07/27/2020 2:47:46 PM PDT by karpov

Even before the recent unpleasantness, I have long read The New York Times, at least in part, as an exercise in making upper-middle-class liberals feel guilty about their consumer choices. Those convenient Amazon deliveries? Packaged by exploited laborers. Those cheap manicures? Given by nearly indentured immigrants. (Except not.)

So it does not surprise me that the Times is reacting to the latest creative workaround to dysfunctional governmental coronavirus response—parent-organized teaching pools, or "pods," whereby a small group of kids can receive instruction and supervision for the many days this fall that schools are not in session—with a triple helping of guilt.

"Given that pods can be pricey, complicated to organize and self-selecting," cautions the paper's Melinda Wenner Moyer in an explainer this week, "they are likely to be most popular among families of privilege, experts say, and may worsen educational inequality."

Yesterday, the Gray Lady rolled out a new education podcast with the sardonic title of "Nice White Parents," whose thesis is that, "If you want to understand what's wrong with our public education system, you have to look at what is arguably the most powerful force in our schools: White parents."

And on the Opinion page, educator Clara Totenberg Green makes it even more explicit: "At a time when the Black Lives Matter movement has prompted a national reckoning with white supremacy, white parents are again ignoring racial and class inequality when it comes to educating their children," she writes. "As a result, they are actively replicating the systems that many of them say they want to dismantle."

To those not fluent in contemporary education politics, such race-based insults may seem like an odd way to persuade stressed-out parents about the best personal and policy choices come this coronavirus-compromised fall.

(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: covid19; education; homeschooling; pods; publicschools; reopen
Thread about the cited NYT article: The Latest in School Segregation: Private Pandemic ‘Pods’. If they become the norm, less privileged kids will suffer. (NYT alert). I think the Left is afraid that parents might discover that they could educate children themselves, possibly working with other families. Then where would government schools be?
1 posted on 07/27/2020 2:47:46 PM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

Let the hand-wringing begin, Lefty’s. We aren’t buying into your twisted world view!!!!!!


2 posted on 07/27/2020 2:51:03 PM PDT by RatRipper ( Democrats and socialists are vile liars, thieves and murderers - enemies of good and America.)
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To: karpov

Sounds like the next best thing to homeschooling.

If you are planning to homeschool next year, by all means join Home School Legal Defense (HSLDA.org)

As these school districts and union lose money, I mean students, I expect they are going to step up harassment of those who choose to think for themselves.

We were members for the 20+ years we homeschooled and still support them today. We never had to call them but rested easy in the knowledge that if we ever got a knock on the door our answer would be “Here’s my lawyer” and hand them the phone. Followed soon after by “get off my porch.”


3 posted on 07/27/2020 2:55:39 PM PDT by cyclotic (The most dangerous people are the ones that feel the most helpless)
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To: karpov

There were community schools before there were government schools.

Everything government touches turns to excrement.

Time to get rid of them and go back to parents being in charge.


4 posted on 07/27/2020 2:57:40 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (You are in far greater danger from authoritarian government than you are from a seasonal virus.)
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To: karpov
My mother grew up barefoot and ragged and got all her learning at a one room schoolhouse. Even in her 90s she could quote verbatim the classics of literature and poetry.

She knew the works of Kipling practically by heart. Kipling was a revered name in our house, and for our stories mom would tell us her own "Cliff's Notes" versions in her own style. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was one of her favorite Kipling characters, and ours too.

But now, no matter how much money and accouterments you provide, some people are genetically incapable learning much beyond their primitive tribal instincts.
 

5 posted on 07/27/2020 3:03:56 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (Guide me, O thou great redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land.)
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To: karpov

Better yet, triple or quadruple the consortium of home schooling groups and teach the children from home or a common place.

It’s funny to me how the teacher unions are all against re-opening school but some in education are *horrified* that children have to learn from their parents who might not be on-board with all the socialism and gay norming going on in the schools.

I say, find another way to teach them than the failed public school system. Don’t think your school is a failure? How many of them are protesting and rioting today?


6 posted on 07/27/2020 3:04:38 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (Face masks are simply mouth diapers for liberals.)
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To: karpov
Keep schools closed ===> keep the unemployment rate up ===> hurt the President in November.

Saul Alinsky would be pleased.

7 posted on 07/27/2020 3:08:47 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Rats Just Can't Get Over The Fact That They Lost A Rigged Election!)
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To: karpov

My son is using Raspberry Pi to teach his elementary school kids. He’s a software developer.

I think having parents school their kids, especially those who are in STEM is going to result in changes in education.

IOW, why are the kids being held back so badly? Why are they teaching garbage?


8 posted on 07/27/2020 3:14:32 PM PDT by OpusatFR
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

“My mother grew up barefoot and ragged ...”

My mother graduated the 8th grade in 1922, and promptly went to work at age 14. Her education was absolutely stellar compared to today’s grades.


9 posted on 07/27/2020 3:17:53 PM PDT by OpusatFR
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To: karpov

They will reopen schools only if Joe Biden wins the election.


10 posted on 07/27/2020 3:20:37 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: cyclotic

Don’t hand them your phone, they may have covid. Are you crazy?

And don’t tell them to get off your porch until they give your phone back.

My four-year-old grandson’s mom and his long-time daycare provider are not liking the mask and distancing nonsense the local schools are putting forth for attendance this year, so the daycare provider going to run a school in her house. She’s a great lady and a good conservative. She’s not bad lookin’ either. I’ll pass on the info about HSLDA.


11 posted on 07/27/2020 3:46:37 PM PDT by NorthWoody (A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user. - Theodore Roosevelt)
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To: karpov

Sounds like what we call a “homeschool co-op.”
And of course the NYT adopts a patronizing tone, suggesting that minorities are incapable of setting one up. Who are the racists again?


12 posted on 07/27/2020 4:13:47 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: karpov

It looks like what they’re saying is that the key to equality is equal misery. Anyone trying to escape their own misery is a Racist. Apart from Party leaders, of course.


13 posted on 07/27/2020 4:19:06 PM PDT by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: karpov

If doctors and nurses can be on the front lines, so can the teachers. Give them some PPE and make them essential.

I do agree that this could be a blessing in the end as the state run schools are hate-America propaganda machines.


14 posted on 07/27/2020 5:21:09 PM PDT by stonehouse01
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To: karpov

Expand school choice and waivers...less “pods”

LOL


15 posted on 07/27/2020 5:43:09 PM PDT by Hypo2
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To: karpov
I think the Left is afraid that parents might discover that they could educate children themselves, possibly working with other families.

Probably.

And home school associations can put these families in touch with each other.

That has been one of the biggest problems with the "small school" idea is that people find it difficult to find other people who want to do the same thing. But if you have some way that they can get in touch with each other the problem goes away.

16 posted on 07/27/2020 5:51:46 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (And lead us not into hysteria, but deliver us from the handwashers. Amen!)
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To: rightwingcrazy

“The presumption behind this is that parents going outside of the public school system to educate their children is white supremacy because the parents with the means to do so are most likely white. The whole logic of tht train of thought is anti-individual, colectivist and racist. It is also harmful to children since it assumes that not allowing your child to have the lowest common denominator education is somehow immoral“


17 posted on 07/27/2020 7:01:36 PM PDT by griswold3 (Democratic Socialism is Slavery by Mob Rule)
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To: karpov

Shut down the government schools. Let teachers compete for students in the free market. Commie teachers should not have an advantage that’s supported by big government.


18 posted on 07/28/2020 1:04:51 AM PDT by familyop ( "Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy".)
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