I'm traveling for work today and will not be able to put up the next part of The True Believer piece, but I have enough time to vent about an incredibly stupid email I just received from my daughter's school.
I just received an email from the school about a day of celebration for our brave and creative teachers. This email talks about a day where the kids and their parents get to create "Thank You signs" to put them up in the school lawn to show appreciation for how well the teachers handled this school year during the pandemic. I've never witnessed a group with less humility and self-awareness than the people running this school district (it was a school district email). Let me explain.
My daughter has been learning under the hybrid model where she is in in-person school for 2.5 hours a day on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. She has a few virtual classes (recorded and not live) on the mornings of those days, and she has a virtual live class on Wednesday for an hour or so. A virtual class takes her around 15 minutes to complete, and I, effectively, act as her teacher when she needs help (on most days). This means, at best, she's obligated to do 3 hours of school each day. I would supplement her education by giving her more work on the side, which I do on occasion, by I also have to work during the day too (luckily I already work from home).
Before I go on, I do want to note: My ire is not directed at the teachers and general educators in any way. They are doing the best they can with what they are allowed to do. Moving on...
The 5-day school week has been a rarity even considering the already light workload. Days for "internal teacher training" still occur which keeps kids out of school, in-person and virtual, for an entire day. It feels like they have gotten a day off every other week for this internal training or something else. They also get "snow days" which were frequent this winter that forced the school to cancel not only in-person class but virtual class as well. Yes, I know, that makes no sense. Honestly, in the last few months, they've had more 4-day and 3-day school weeks than 5-day. It's been very frustrating.
Yet, we are to celebrate their bravery. A special day for the school, organized by the school, to celebrate a sub-par year in education. This really rubs me the wrong way because they act as if no one else is brave enough to do what they did. Like the average person didn't take risks to do their job. I've always been told, typically by people who are big fans of teacher unions, that teachers don't get enough respect. I never really saw that. To me, a person in any profession (politicians might be exempt from this) gets my respect when they do their job. Maybe if education was looked at as a commodity, rather than a right, they would be incentivized to create real innovation to serve their effective customers, the kids. To celebrate people who openly avoided doing their job, even and especially when considering the science, is nonsensical. If we ought to make any "Thank You signs," it should be thanking the kids for giving up on a year of their education because of the fear and/or stupidity of the gatekeepers to their formal education.
Sorry for the rant, but between this and indoctrination in education, I've had enough of this virtue signaling nonsense.
I was listening to some news updates when I heard this CNN clip about the potentially hazardous water in East Palestine, and as soon as I heard her ask the question about whether or not her guest would drink the water, I IMMEDIATELY thought of this clip from South Park. Enjoy.
In this special episode of The Engineering Politics Podcast, Truman from Return To Reason is back for a new video and podcast series titled ‘Revisiting The Road To Serfdom’ where we review F.A. Hayek’s classic work, The Road To Serfdom. This episode covers ‘Chapter 15: The Prospects of International Order’.
This will be an ongoing series that covers the entire book. We put a ton of work into making this insightful and relevant, so we hope you enjoy watching/listening as much as we enjoyed reading and recording.
Become a subscriber of the Engineering Politics Locals Community to support this content. Also, consider joining the @ReturnToReason Locals Community to show Truman some support.
In this episode of The Engineering Politics Podcast, I team up with Truman from @ReturnToReason to interview one of the most intelligent and influential creators in the space of philosophy today. Stephen R.C. Hicks is a Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, Executive Director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship, and Senior Scholar at The Atlas Society. He has written many books including Explaining Postmodernism and Nietzsche and the Nazis. We bring him on to talk about the social and political issues we are currently facing in America, and the West more broadly, and what the collectivist ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau might have to do with it.
Become a subscriber of the Engineering Politics Locals Community to support this content. Also, consider joining the @ReturnToReason Locals Community to show Truman some support.
In this special episode of The Engineering Politics Podcast, Truman from Return To Reason is back for a new video and podcast series titled ‘Revisiting The Road To Serfdom’ where we review F.A. Hayek’s classic work, The Road To Serfdom. This episode covers ‘Chapter 15: The Prospects of International Order’.
This will be an ongoing series that covers the entire book. We put a ton of work into making this insightful and relevant, so we hope you enjoy watching/listening as much as we enjoyed reading and recording.
Become a subscriber of the Engineering Politics Locals Community to support this content. Also, consider joining the @ReturnToReason Locals Community to show Truman some support.
In this episode of The Engineering Politics Podcast, I team up with Truman from @ReturnToReason to interview one of the most intelligent and influential creators in the space of philosophy today. Stephen R.C. Hicks is a Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, Executive Director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship, and Senior Scholar at The Atlas Society. He has written many books including Explaining Postmodernism and Nietzsche and the Nazis. We bring him on to talk about the social and political issues we are currently facing in America, and the West more broadly, and what the collectivist ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau might have to do with it.
Become a subscriber of the Engineering Politics Locals Community to support this content. Also, consider joining the @ReturnToReason Locals Community to show Truman some support.
In this special episode of The Engineering Politics Podcast, Truman from @ReturnToReason is back for a new video and podcast series titled ‘Revisiting The Road To Serfdom’ where we review F.A. Hayek’s classic work, The Road To Serfdom. This episode covers ‘Chapter 14: Material Conditions and Ideal Ends’.
This will be an ongoing series that covers the entire book. We put a ton of work into making this insightful and relevant, so we hope you enjoy watching/listening as much as we enjoyed reading and recording.
Become a subscriber of the Engineering Politics Locals Community to support this content. Also, consider joining the @ReturnToReason Locals Community to show Truman some support.
