Race

To a Leftist, Even Math is Racist

The false bill of goods that far Left groups peddle will haunt their advocates and apologists for decades

Published

2 years ago

June 18, 2021

Jeff Davidson

Imagine that a young Isaac Newton, Madame Curie, Henri Poincare, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Albert Einstein, Alan Turing, or, for that matter, Pythagoras, Euclid, or Archimedes was newly enrolled in a Portland, Oregon grade School.

Exposed to this state’s absurd edict regarding how math is to be taught – to make it less “white,” and to remove the onus of showing your work and reaching the right answer — would any of them have achieved prominence?

Would the world be the same?

Racism, Under Every Rock!

Consider the ladies profiled in the movie Hidden Figures, including Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughan. Without them, we probably still would have made it to the Moon, but maybe with more difficulty and more delay.

What is it about the Left that keeps looking for ways to dumb down education so that anybody, at any time can get a passing grade regardless of what they know? ‘Progressives,’ BLM advocates, and ‘social justice warriors’ detect racism, real or not, everywhere they look, particularly in education.

Achievement tests, end-of-grade testing, report cards, and assigning letter grades to a student’s performance are under attack by the Left. Yet, as Freakonnomics proved, even in ‘poor’ schools, a decent teacher and a motivated student can yield academic success

Tests are Useless?

Those on the Left prefer to cast aspersions on American education, stop all testing, apparently for all students, for all time. After all, the tests are hopelessly biased against anything but the Caucasian majority… although Asians seem to do well…

Curiously, the Left never pushes for more rigorous standards. “Why are tests needed at all?” they demand to know. “Learning takes place on many different levels. Why conform to the white man’s version of what represents academic achievement?”

Let’s assess the ramifications of such assertions.

Take the Long Way Home

How confident would you be driving across a high bridge, over a wide river, knowing that the bridge was designed by engineers who ‘learned’ math in Oregon, or didn’t take any final exams in college? Knowing the academic credentials of the bridge designers, or lack thereof, could change your driving habits.

What if you need of brain surgery? Among a handful of brain surgeons in your region, you learn that some never took final exams in medical school, or any exams for that matter. These same surgeons turned in no college papers, took no quizzes, and spent little time in class.

Suppose they’re all excellent surgeons and have successfully operated on others many times?

Still, you’ve got this nagging suspicion that your best choice would be among the brain surgeons who attended class, did well on quizzes and tests, passed final exams, and proved to be academically superior.

Would anyone find you to be discriminatory? Can we find fault with your decision to seek a formally trained and tested brain surgeon?

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Whether it’s receiving change at the grocery store, having your car fixed at the repair shop, hiring a masseuse, or any of dozens of other product and service options, as Ghostbusters fans would say, “Who ya gonna call?”

A mind is a terrible thing to waste. The false bill of goods that far Left groups peddle will come back to haunt their advocates and apologists, not merely for years, but for decades.

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Jeff Davidson

Jeff Davidson is the world's only holder of the title "The Work-Life Balance Expert®" as awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He is the premier thought leader on work-life balance, integration, and harmony. Jeff speaks to organizations that seek to enhance their overall productivity by improving the effectiveness of their people. He is the author of Breathing Space, Simpler Living, Dial it Down, and Everyday Project Management. Visit www.BreathingSpace.com for more information on Jeff's keynote speeches and seminars, including: Managing the Pace with Grace® * Achieving Work-Life Balance™ * Managing Information and Communication Overload®

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economy

America in the Hands of Arrogant Fools

The field is tilted, and top officials have been paid off; still, we must win

Published

2 months ago

July 22, 2023

Jeff Davidson

As retail crime sprees proliferate across the U.S., this civil and social catastrophe is roundly ignored by the mainstream media as usual. Hundreds of youths marauded through the Chicago’s Loop and Lakefront, for example, breaking into stores, stomping on vehicles, lighting fires, and thoroughly pulverizing defenseless people. Similar occurrences have taken place in New York, San Francisco, Portland, and Minneapolis, among other cities.

A Dubious Future?

I circulated some links about such mayhem to some of my Conservative high school classmates. One wrote back saying, “Maybe we’ll win back power and save this country. Maybe we won’t. I don’t know anymore. Whereas I used to be a little bummed about getting older, I am now glad my shelf life isn’t that long…”

She continued, “The turmoil, though, isn’t just about my feelings or the feelings of our generation. While it hurts my heart to watch America being destroyed by arrogant fools, it’s about what is going to remain of this good and great country for the next generations if the progressives aren’t stopped. I keep vowing to turn off the news, but I won’t allow myself to become ignorant. Too many have.”

Another classmate wrote back and said, “I read that incoming (in Chicago) Mayor Brandon Johnson and outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot each essentially said the weather was warm… and the kids have been denied, so it’s all understandable. Ridiculous excuses for lawlessness. The Left is trying to destroy the country with all the Soros-appointed DA’s.”

What America Was

Another classmate, Tony, a perceptive individual with numerous grandchildren, wrote back, “Our country is in steep decline. I don’t know how to help. My grandchildren will never know what America was. What’s good is bad and what’s bad is good. We have to stop rewarding the worst of us.”

His words shook me to the core. What will our children and grandchildren experience in a declining America as they grow up? Will they ever know that most communities, most of the time, were peaceful? That the law mattered? That elected officials intended to serve, not to generate personal wealth?

What will anyone know if no traces remain? If truth no longer matters? A case in point: some school districts now issue textbooks which claim that Donald Trump did collude with Russia to win the 2016 election.

From the Durham report on down, this assertion has been so completely disproven over the last five years, it is astonishing that any author or publisher would have the gall to print such lies in books, let alone in textbooks. Such falsehoods are being stamped into precious young minds, intentionally poisoning them and molding them to adopt far Leftist causes.

We Have No Choice

As parents and grandparents, we need to be as vigilant as the law allows. As citizens, in a still-free society, we must uphold what it means to have a democracy, to hold public office, and to be accountable.

As we’ve witnessed too often, for years now, the Left seems to be above the law. Regardless of their crimes, from the highest levels of government to small towns, no appropriate redress is made.

The U.S. Department of Justice constantly delays or avoids issues. Consider the countless revelations being exposed about the Biden Crime Family and how they massively sold out America to line their own pockets. Maybe action will be taken this time, but it seems doubtful. The nation’s chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Merrick Garland, is corrupt and complicit. He belongs in prison, but still he rules.

Have whistleblowers now started to come forward because they’ve been anointed by the Left? Have the Democrats determined that by dooming Biden, they can install someone else as president? They are fairly sure that he and the inept, widely unpopular Kamala Harris, certainly useful puppets, will lose big time, even with the Democrats’ massive cheating.

Preventing the Tragedy

We have no choice but to expose and circulate the facts about the lawlessness of the Left, the manipulation, the unending crimes, and the election tampering. Indeed, exposing their sheer evil is a mission we cannot shirk.

If we want to prevent the tragedy of kids growing up never knowing the true America, the clock is ticking. There are no timeouts, the field is tilted, and top officials have been paid off; still, we must win. Not just for ourselves or our children and grandchildren, but for the entire world. Yes, the ramifications are enormous.

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Life

Let Freedom Ring And Make Merit Matter

You and I don’t want to live in a meritless based society

Published

3 months ago

July 4, 2023

Jeff Davidson

On Independence Day let us keep in mind that among the many factors that have made America great is one’s ability to rise to great heights based on merit: the effort, the brilliance, and the results that you generate. Of late however, an insidious trend has been looming. Allow me to illuminate via this story:

When I was ten years old, I got a trial with a Little League team, but I was cut by the coach just before the season started in favor of his 9-year-old son. The son wasn’t nearly as good at baseball as I was, but I understood the situation and accepted it without much fanfare. I figured at age 11, I’d have no problem making the Little League, and I’d be on some team for two years.

Much to my chagrin, at age 11, I wasn’t even considered for a team and went straight to what was called the farm team. This irked me. I had many friends in the Little League, and they wanted to know why I hadn’t been selected.

At age 12, the last year I could be in the Little League, I was selected by the Maple Hill Dairy team. This team had superstars who had won the crown the year before. They had lost a couple of players due to age but were still the best team on paper.

A Season of Distinction

During the 12-games, I made six hits in 14 official at-bats, plus two walks and two sacrifice flies, for 18 total plate appearances. My batting average was .429. I didn’t know that this average put me near the top of team batting for that season.

When did I learn of my feat? During the season-ending awards ceremony, our coach was handing out trophies at the League banquet. He gave the first eight trophies, one by one, to players on the team. Then he announced that the remaining six were the pillars of our championship season. I was among them.

I had no idea. Apparently, neither did the coach until he had compiled the season’s statistics. In announcing my name, he said he wished he had understood earlier how well I had been hitting: he would have played me more. His words were the highest praise I could have received following the season.

Singled Out for Merit

Today, if you attend a Little League awards banquet, the champions are given awards along with all others. Everybody receives an award for participation, much like what occurs in the larger society. Merit counts for little because the mentality today is that simply participating earns you an award.

To hand out participation trophies is a sham, however, the same sham that’s taking place in many aspects of our culture. The Leftists among us are seeking to quash merit-based testing everywhere. Out with Scholastic Aptitude Tests, they’re racist. They’re sexist. They’re transphobic. Out with the Graduate Record Exam. Out with writing an essay to get into college. Out with letter grades. So it goes in too many aspects of society.

Alas, you and I don’t want to live in a meritless based society. I guarantee that given the information, you’d prefer not to be operated on by a brain surgeon who went to a medical school where grades were not important.

Factors That Matter

Likewise, you wouldn’t want to fly in a plane with pilots who have not proven both in testing and in flight simulation that they are fully capable. And, you don’t want to drive over a bridge constructed by an engineer who went to a school where testing was deemed to be worthless or racist, or biased.

We’ve come too far in human civilization to resort to a time when anybody could pick up a scalpel and perform surgery or where anyone could construct a bridge because in the early days, perhaps, almost anyone had to.

Credentials matter. Academic performance matters. Competence matters. Demonstrating intellectual capabilities is among the vital signs that you’re being served by a professional.

Whom You Can Trust?

What other possible criterion would you suggest in place of merit? Participation? Ethnicity? Time on the job? Having friends in high places?

With many activities in life, merit is not a factor, but these are usually personal and private, contained, local, and not forced upon the public. Suppose it comes to a life-threatening situation, public safety, public health, the orderly flow of vehicular traffic, the health and welfare of children, etc? In that case, I’ll take the high-performance testers every time.

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