Former lawyer with 16 years of f/t teaching foreign language at a nationally-ranked "elite" private school. The UATX rosters of speakers at the June 2022 summer school program is incredible Please consider offering a similar program geared toward high school teachers and administrators. It would sell out.
Former lawyer with 16 years of f/t teaching foreign language at a nationally-ranked "elite" private school. The UATX rosters of speakers at the June 2022 summer school program is incredible Please consider offering a similar program geared toward high school teachers and administrators. It would sell out.
I am reminded of my university experience in the early 90s studying political science at a CA state college. My favorite professors couldn’t have had more diverse ideas. They all made me think, challenged whatever I thought I understood, and did everything they could to teach me to really understand important issues. That is what universities are supposed to do. Universities today are seminaries of radical ideas and group think. That has to change if our nation is to survive.
My Econ professor had me read a paper by Irving Fisher, "The Debt Deflation Theory of the Great Depression." Fisher was an early Monatarist, Milton Friedman's mentor. I was supposed to find the paper unconvincing, and return to Keynesian orthodoxy. Instead, I liked the paper, and became a Monatarist. After that, I had to remember to give the "correct" Keynesian answer, not what I actually thought.
Another great piece. Don't think I've ever read a bad one here. I may disagree from time to time but that's what I love about this site. The $5.00 monthly charge is a pittance for what I garner in return. I remember the day I heard you on Dennis Prager's show and learned about your resignation letter from the NY Times. So grateful I tuned it that day
I've been drawn to Bari because she seems like a truth-teller. In our current society we must listen to uncomfortable truths. As a high school teacher for the past 19 years, I can argue that the main issues of our public school systems are not being discussed. I feel like I've been watching the slow death of public education in front of my eyes, and I am trying to speak up because I truly believe that our education system sets the tone for the country at large. Please subscribe to our free Substack if you care about education as the majority of posts this summer will revolve around education. For now, check out my farewell letter to my seniors as I urge them to fight for their minds: https://teachtounite.substack.com/p/a-farewell-to-the-class-of-2022?s=r
Check out Jordan Peterson's thinking on credentials university students. Within ten years Harvard graduates will be describing themselves as pre-woke (based on class year) or hiding the fact altogether. I also predict that in ten years less than half of SCOTUS clerks will be from today's elite law schools.
Williams College, now an epicenter of the current insanity, was started for reasons similar to the founding of Yale. It sent missionaries around the world and there is a great monument to them in a neglected part of campus. If you cringe at the notion of missionaries, let me make a comparison between Bush’s War in Iraq and the non-violent transformation by missionaries (including women) of vicious cannibals into the wonderful and loving people of Fiji.
Love this: “Here’s something worth remembering: The founders of Yale were Congregationalists who believed that Harvard had become too theologically lax. Princeton was started by men who were frustrated with Harvard and Yale’s opposition to a Presbyterian movement—frustrated enough to settle their new school in New Jersey. The point is that everything we now regard as institutional and prestigious started as something scrappy built by people who were pissed off about the status quo and decided they weren’t going to wait around for someone else to fix it.”
"Exhibit A: Suzy Weiss’s story last week on the destruction of David Sabatini, the world-renowned molecular biologist who, until recently, was a star at MIT’s Whitehead Institute. Now he’s unemployed. Sabatini is a symbol of a system and culture that has eaten its own."
Apologies but Sabatini's experience is not a symbol of a system and culture that has eaten its own. To the contrary, it's a rather banal example of a man in a relatively powerful position having regular sex with a reasonably attractive woman who is more than 20 years younger than him who is in a work adjacent position. The woman (in this instance, this role can be played by a person of any sex) ended up having a screw loose coupled with no respect for honesty. The relationship/ sexual arrangement ended and she decided to make his life miserable. She was very effective in doing so. This happens all the time. Bottom line, Sabatini stepped on a landmine (of his own making; fifty something soon to be divorced men should know that a person like her is existential risk personified. And throwing in his predilection for alcohol tastings only makes the situation more risky) and it blew up. End of story.
I no longer contribute to my Alma mater and I grieve to see it become another woke cesspool. The work you are doing is so important to the future, and maybe, just maybe your project will help other institutions curb their devolvment and again become places of free speech and thoughts.
Yesterday, I attended a ceremony acknowledging the completion of my Master's degree program. I completed my degree in 2020 and I was very grateful to be welcomed to participate in this year's ceremony. The speaker was awful. Her intent was not to inspire. She gave a brief speech, which began with several awkward moments of silence, for Native Americans and enslaved Africans. Then, she began trying to pump up certain groups in the crowd and repeated her efforts when the volume wasn't enough. Her speech had a transparent agenda. It was, basically, a list of every controversial political event of the last 2 years. She squeezed everything in there, from George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, to immigration, all as the things that had made it particularly hard for this class to endure. She managed to work in the word "systemic", but didn't pair it with racism. But, her main point was for people to think of themselves, "learn to say no", and to tell them that they were being held to standards that they had nothing to do with creating. She focused on "radical self-care" and social justice. But, there was no compassion or warmth or empathy, when she talked about self-care. She sounded edgy and resentful. She didn't tell anyone to use their skills to make a difference in the world. It was not, even, an empowering speech. Just another angry and divisive person, who doesn't speak for me. Her speech did not match the heaps of praise that were shared with us, as she was introduced.
She was speaking to the College of Education and Human Development. The largest group, graduating, were people who received their degree in Special Education; like me. This woman is part of the campus faculty. Apparently, she has a Phd in Counseling or something similar. She is licensed as a School Counselor and her new role is being in charge of... Equity and Diversity.
Former lawyer with 16 years of f/t teaching foreign language at a nationally-ranked "elite" private school. The UATX rosters of speakers at the June 2022 summer school program is incredible Please consider offering a similar program geared toward high school teachers and administrators. It would sell out.
Former lawyer with 16 years of f/t teaching foreign language at a nationally-ranked "elite" private school. The UATX rosters of speakers at the June 2022 summer school program is incredible Please consider offering a similar program geared toward high school teachers and administrators. It would sell out.
I am reminded of my university experience in the early 90s studying political science at a CA state college. My favorite professors couldn’t have had more diverse ideas. They all made me think, challenged whatever I thought I understood, and did everything they could to teach me to really understand important issues. That is what universities are supposed to do. Universities today are seminaries of radical ideas and group think. That has to change if our nation is to survive.
My Econ professor had me read a paper by Irving Fisher, "The Debt Deflation Theory of the Great Depression." Fisher was an early Monatarist, Milton Friedman's mentor. I was supposed to find the paper unconvincing, and return to Keynesian orthodoxy. Instead, I liked the paper, and became a Monatarist. After that, I had to remember to give the "correct" Keynesian answer, not what I actually thought.
Another great piece. Don't think I've ever read a bad one here. I may disagree from time to time but that's what I love about this site. The $5.00 monthly charge is a pittance for what I garner in return. I remember the day I heard you on Dennis Prager's show and learned about your resignation letter from the NY Times. So grateful I tuned it that day
I've been drawn to Bari because she seems like a truth-teller. In our current society we must listen to uncomfortable truths. As a high school teacher for the past 19 years, I can argue that the main issues of our public school systems are not being discussed. I feel like I've been watching the slow death of public education in front of my eyes, and I am trying to speak up because I truly believe that our education system sets the tone for the country at large. Please subscribe to our free Substack if you care about education as the majority of posts this summer will revolve around education. For now, check out my farewell letter to my seniors as I urge them to fight for their minds: https://teachtounite.substack.com/p/a-farewell-to-the-class-of-2022?s=r
Check out Jordan Peterson's thinking on credentials university students. Within ten years Harvard graduates will be describing themselves as pre-woke (based on class year) or hiding the fact altogether. I also predict that in ten years less than half of SCOTUS clerks will be from today's elite law schools.
Williams College, now an epicenter of the current insanity, was started for reasons similar to the founding of Yale. It sent missionaries around the world and there is a great monument to them in a neglected part of campus. If you cringe at the notion of missionaries, let me make a comparison between Bush’s War in Iraq and the non-violent transformation by missionaries (including women) of vicious cannibals into the wonderful and loving people of Fiji.
The parcel of land upon which my former university was built had been a golf course. Longing for the day it returns to its roots.
Thank you Bari Weiss!!
Love this: “Here’s something worth remembering: The founders of Yale were Congregationalists who believed that Harvard had become too theologically lax. Princeton was started by men who were frustrated with Harvard and Yale’s opposition to a Presbyterian movement—frustrated enough to settle their new school in New Jersey. The point is that everything we now regard as institutional and prestigious started as something scrappy built by people who were pissed off about the status quo and decided they weren’t going to wait around for someone else to fix it.”
Insightful!
"Exhibit A: Suzy Weiss’s story last week on the destruction of David Sabatini, the world-renowned molecular biologist who, until recently, was a star at MIT’s Whitehead Institute. Now he’s unemployed. Sabatini is a symbol of a system and culture that has eaten its own."
Apologies but Sabatini's experience is not a symbol of a system and culture that has eaten its own. To the contrary, it's a rather banal example of a man in a relatively powerful position having regular sex with a reasonably attractive woman who is more than 20 years younger than him who is in a work adjacent position. The woman (in this instance, this role can be played by a person of any sex) ended up having a screw loose coupled with no respect for honesty. The relationship/ sexual arrangement ended and she decided to make his life miserable. She was very effective in doing so. This happens all the time. Bottom line, Sabatini stepped on a landmine (of his own making; fifty something soon to be divorced men should know that a person like her is existential risk personified. And throwing in his predilection for alcohol tastings only makes the situation more risky) and it blew up. End of story.
I no longer contribute to my Alma mater and I grieve to see it become another woke cesspool. The work you are doing is so important to the future, and maybe, just maybe your project will help other institutions curb their devolvment and again become places of free speech and thoughts.
We need honest and brave people like you in leadership, Bari.
Yesterday, I attended a ceremony acknowledging the completion of my Master's degree program. I completed my degree in 2020 and I was very grateful to be welcomed to participate in this year's ceremony. The speaker was awful. Her intent was not to inspire. She gave a brief speech, which began with several awkward moments of silence, for Native Americans and enslaved Africans. Then, she began trying to pump up certain groups in the crowd and repeated her efforts when the volume wasn't enough. Her speech had a transparent agenda. It was, basically, a list of every controversial political event of the last 2 years. She squeezed everything in there, from George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, to immigration, all as the things that had made it particularly hard for this class to endure. She managed to work in the word "systemic", but didn't pair it with racism. But, her main point was for people to think of themselves, "learn to say no", and to tell them that they were being held to standards that they had nothing to do with creating. She focused on "radical self-care" and social justice. But, there was no compassion or warmth or empathy, when she talked about self-care. She sounded edgy and resentful. She didn't tell anyone to use their skills to make a difference in the world. It was not, even, an empowering speech. Just another angry and divisive person, who doesn't speak for me. Her speech did not match the heaps of praise that were shared with us, as she was introduced.
She was speaking to the College of Education and Human Development. The largest group, graduating, were people who received their degree in Special Education; like me. This woman is part of the campus faculty. Apparently, she has a Phd in Counseling or something similar. She is licensed as a School Counselor and her new role is being in charge of... Equity and Diversity.