Beyoncé Country Songs Get Banned by Country Stations & Texas Gov's Border Force Is Actually Farce
Caitlin Clark Sets New Scoring Record, Black People Watch More TV Than Any Other Group, GOP Punishes Their Own for Trying to Solve Border Problem, Paramore Slams TN GOP for Racism, Suzanne Vega Sings
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: The wisdom of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes is always hilarious and incisive. Today, he gets to the heart of what’s wrong with education.
Black audiences consume more media and TV than any other group, but they want better representation: Blacks watch more TV yet believe they are poorly represented on TV shows. Fact or perspective?
Operation Lone Star Soldiers Say They’re ‘Putting On A Show’: Texas Governor Abbott is directing some major political theater at the border. The situation has all the integrity of the plot of Mel Brooks’ classic The Producers.
GOP Senator Punished by His Own Party for Doing His Job on Border Deal: Trump has commanded the GOP to stall on fixing the border problem until after the election. His minions obeyed to the point of censuring one of their own for actually trying to solve the issue now. How can it be a “crisis” if it can wait a year to fix?
Country Music Stations Already Refusing to Play Beyoncé's Country Songs: Black musicians were key to the origin of contemporary country music, yet some in the business want to ignore those roots.
Paramore Slams Tennessee GOP for ‘Blatant Racism’ After Grammy Controversy: The Tennessee GOP decided to honor the White Grammy winner and snub the Black Grammy winner. Welcome back, 1950s.
Caitlin Clark soars into history, breaks NCAA women’s scoring record: Watch this amazing athlete who is the Furiosa of basketball.
Kareem’s Video Break: This dog does something so funny that you can’t help but smile.
Suzanne Vega Sings “Tom's Diner”: This song is a powerful musical poem, a meditation on alienation that is even more relevant now than when it first came out.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
As you can see, I have memorized this utterly useless piece of information long enough to pass a test question. I now intend to forget it forever. You’ve taught me nothing except how to cynically manipulate the system. Congratulations.
Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes (by Bill Watterson)
Once again, I turn to comic strips for worldly wisdom and sage insight. There is no wiser nor more insightful philosopher than Calvin. Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes is the smartest, most entertaining, and most touching comic ever written.
In today’s example, Calvin perfectly skewers the rigidity of the education system. This is especially important given the current crisis in education caused by right-wing politicians and their unqualified, clueless followers like Moms for Liberty. Together they have tried to eviscerate children’s education. They want to turn it into the “memorize facts and spit them back” machine that Calvin is lampooning. Once you’ve strip-mined education to that simplistic mechanism, it’s easier to control what the children learn and how they form their opinions by merely manipulating which “facts” you feed them.
It’s astounding to me that the very people sabotaging schools are those who have no expertise in education. They think they do because they attended school. That’s like thinking that because you watch Grey’s Anatomy you’re ready to perform surgery. The discipline of education is the study of techniques of teaching, the methods of learning, and creating an atmosphere that is conducive to both. It is a sad irony that those attempting to hobble education are the same people who have contempt for experts who have studied the subject. It is a disturbing irony that in the name of protecting their children, they are actually making them less educated and therefore less prepared for college and less competitive in jobs. Thanks, Mom and Dad.
Calvin is suggesting that education should be much more than a torturous routine of memorizing facts. Yes, learning facts is important. I’ve given myself whiplash shaking my head at the ignorance some people have of basic history. For example, one poll found that 10% of American college graduates thought that television’s Judge Judy is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. A few other disturbing findings: Less than 20% knew the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation, less than half knew George Washington was the American general at Yorktown, and 58% didn’t know the Battle of the Bulge took place during WWII. Another poll found that residents in 49 of the 50 states couldn’t pass a citizenship test (only Vermonters passed). About 25% didn’t know that freedom of speech was guaranteed under the First Amendment.
While I advocate for learning facts, the real key to education is the application of facts to a better understanding of the world. The key ingredient to education—the ingredient the right is so desperate to suppress—is critical thinking. The ability to understand and apply logical fallacies is crucial to prevent children from being brainwashed by anyone. My dream educational system would start to teach critical thinking from elementary school throughout college. Every course would have a mandated critical thinking component that requires students to analyze competing arguments for logical fallacies and rhetorical manipulation. I would also institute a strict policy that discouraged teachers from expressing their own political or social opinions. Just teach students how to arrive at their own well-reasoned opinions.
Of course, that’s not the kind of education some politicians and parents want. They want obedient citizens and children who are taught to agree with their conservative values and never question them. That’s because those children are most easily manipulated as voters, relying on their gut feelings (which they’ve been trained to have) rather than their intellect. MAGA is fueled by lies rather than logic, emotion rather than intellect, and profit rather than principle. Any schoolchild should be able to see right through its dunce-like contradictions—if only they had a proper education.