Friday, May 23, 2014

DOES THIS GUY REALLY DESERVE TO BE THE RIGHT'S LATEST ANTICHRIST?

On Monday, at a forum in Manchester, New Hampshire, Dr. David Pook explained why he participated in the development of the Common Core educational standards:
The reason why I helped write the standards and the reason why I am here today is that as a white male in society, I've been given a lot of privilege that I didn't earn.
That got a few jeers, but the rest was listened to respectfully:
And as a result, I think it's really important that all kids have an equal opportunity to learn how to read. I think I had decided advantages as a result of who I was, not (inaudible) of mine. And when I walk into places like Roberto Clemente High School on the West Side of Chicago, I think it's really important those kids learn how to read just as well as I had the opportunity to read. And in creating an equitable educational opportunity for all kids, I think this is actually the greatest civics lesson we could teach our kids.
This guy is now the embodiment of evil on the right, because a group called Campus Reform posted a video of this statement under the title "VIDEO: Teacher Says He Helped Write Common Core to End White Privilege."

(A word about Campus Reform: it's a project of the Leaership Institute, a group formed to "train conservatives." It was founded by Morton Blackwell, the guy who handed out Purple Heart Band-Aids at the 2004 Republican convention to mock John Kerry.)

Fox Nation is pushing this, as are Glenn Beck's Blaze and NewsBusters.

Now, maybe you don't like Dr. Pook either, or Common Core. But he's being attacked for an earnest effort to improve lousy schools.

And while he's being chided for wanting to end white privilege, he's also being attacked for hating black people. Thus, Breitbart quotes an Examiner.com writer named Kimberly Morin:
As Morin observes, the leftist thinking behind "white privilege" actually does a disservice to minority and lower income students.

"This man believes that minority kids aren't as smart as white kids so the standards have to be lowered in order for them to be able to read," she said.
Pook thinks kids will learn if their schools are good enough, so this, obviously, is the pretty much the opposite of what he said.

Pook is easy for the wingers to attack because, as Campus Reform notes, he teaches at the fancypants Deerfield Derryfield School, which, we're told, costs $28,535 a year, is 91% white, and doesn't follow the Core standards itself. But a school that's succeeding presumably has decent standards already. And the people who are attacking his employer's elitism are the same people who, when you propose taxing the rich or raising the minimum wage, rush to the defense of the wealthy, proclaiming that "no poor person ever gave me a job."

And wait -- it's bad that the Deerfield Derryfield School is 91% white? So right-wingers support racial quotas now? Besides, the school is in New Hampshire -- which is 94% white. So the school is more diverse than the state.

Here's the video for your Two Minutes' Hate. Fire up the telescreens.



3 comments:

Jeff said...

It's Derryfield School. You're mixing it up with Deerfield Academy. Actually, Derryfield is cheap for a New England prep school. The elite ones, like Deerfield, go for around $38,000 for day students.

Steve M. said...

Thanks -- fixed now.

Dave Pickering said...

Wait a minute...there's a school in Chicago named after Roberto Clemente??? Isn't that like naming a school in Pittsburgh after Ernie Banks?