Generational Dynamics World View News

[The Peanut Gallery]

A valid observation:

When criticized during congressional testimony last week for his absolute failure to secure the border, Homeland chief Mayorkas played the Holocaust card as a defense. I don't honestly know what the Jewish Holocaust has to do with open borders, but to me, and everyone else online, it was BS response. This is the DEI response. Outrageous. Mayorkas should have been fired immediately.

But Biden won't do that.

So when he reminded the Republican congressman that he was Jewish and the the child of Holocaust survivors, are we supposed to beg forgiveness and say open borders are alright? Are we supposed to treat tens or even hundreds of millions of economic migrants like Jews fleeing Hitler? Is that what this debate has come down to?

If this is the case, then the American government has TOTALLY ABANDONED the American people and America is toast.

What a BS answer.

And white Americans are supposed to join the US army and die defending this of garbage?!!!

NO WAY! NO WAY! NO WAY, Jose!

[Guest]

How is DEI making our lives better?

Scientists warn: Declining academic standards mixed with DEI recipe for disaster

DANIEL NUCCIO - NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY •FEBRUARY 1, 2024

The continued embrace of diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM combined with a broad decline in academic standards is producing a generation of scientists who are less capable than their predecessors, warned some scientists in recent interviews with The College Fix.

From easier math classes in high school to the elimination of standardized tests to extreme grade-inflation to DEI tropes that elevate lived experiences and ways of knowing over facts and data, the trend represents a pressing problem for science professors working to protect STEM and preserve its standards and meritocracy.

Alex Small, chair of the physics and astronomy department at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, said it starts early in a student’s education.

“The K-12 system is walking away from standards at all levels,” he told The College Fix in a recent phone interview.

For example, he said while most of his students took some sort of calculus class their senior year of high school, “at least a third of them test into a class that’s lower than calculus because what happens is the schools will push people through the pipeline.”

“Even if someone hasn’t mastered algebra, they’ll get some sort of generous grade in their prerequisite math classes and then be put into calculus their senior year,” he said.

Similar trends concerning the inability of college students to do high school math have been reported nationally post-COVID, with educators lamenting how incoming freshmen no longer can be expected to know how to add fractions or subtract a positive number from a negative number.

Yi-Zen Chu, an associate professor of physics at the National Central University in Taiwan, who was educated in the U.S. and has been a harsh critic of DEI, stated in a recent email to The Fix that he believes practices such as “grade inflation and lowering the bar” contribute to the lack of preparation exhibited by American college students.

The concern circles back to the “‘everyone gets a prize’ philosophy that has been around for quite a while now,” he said, referring to what’s sometimes called the “Participation Trophy” phenomenon.

Chu suggested one way to combat these practices at the college level “is to staunchly defend the use of standardized tests like the SAT.”

“Students have to compete on the same test to prove their ability relative to others,” he said. “This way, schools know that hyper-grade-inflation will only count against the integrity of the school in the medium/long run.”

Small said what these students need is supplemental instruction, time, extra problem solving sessions, and extra practice.

“There’s no such thing as too much practice, and that’s especially true when you haven’t yet had enough practice,” said Small.

However, although some educators and institutions have embraced remedial summer programs and additional tutoring services, others work toward ideological goals related to DEI that ultimately may prove detrimental to students, as well as the field of physics more broadly.

Lawrence Krauss, one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists, noted in a 2022 interview with The College Fix, “I have written many articles about the absolutely ludicrous ways in which DEI is … enforcing ridiculous notions about both keeping people out of physics who should be in, and trying to interfere with meritocracy and interfere [with] and take over the appointment process so that merit isn’t the crucial factor.”

Small, in a November 2023 article published by Heterodox STEM, discussed the column “Just Physics?” It appears in the physics education journal The Physics Teacher and regularly features discussions from different physics educators exploring alternative pedagogies and the place of DEI in physics education.

Highlighting one recent article, Small wrote in his critique that it “focused on the putative anti-Blackness of the physics community” but offered little in terms of what “changes can or should be implemented” beyond spending “more time in physics class discussing social issues.”

In December, The College Fix reached out to Deepak Iyer, one of the co-editors of “Just Physics?” for comment. Iyer replied he would need to get approval from his editor-in-chief before formally responding. On Jan. 24, Iyer notified The Fix he had still not received a response.

“Some sort of discussion of wider social issues…in moderate doses has its place,” Small told The Fix. “Oppenheimer got a lot of people asking questions again about one of the sort of pivotal moments of the American physics community.”

“If DEI is brought in just as an occasional discussion topic that doesn’t really crowd out the fundamentals, then I don’t have a fundamental objection to it,” he added.

However, Small said, when too much time is spent discussing social issues in physics classes, the fundamentals get crowded out, which, as he pointed out in his Heterodox STEM article, could “hurt students with weak prior preparation, as they need even more focus on fundamentals.”

Peter McCullough of the physics and astronomy department at Johns Hopkins argues there are times when discussions of DEI topics in STEM may be called for or even beneficial.

In the comments section of Small’s article, McCullough highlighted issues with fingertip pulse oximeters, describing the devices as “a technology that works better on lighter skin than darker skin.”

In an email to The College Fix, McCullough also noted claims that some facial recognition programs have difficulty in accurately identifying black faces or recognizing them as faces at all. According to McCullough, such examples might get students thinking about unintended effects of different technologies on society.

Yet, Small noted, a certain number of instructors spending too much time discussing DEI in physics class is not the biggest threat posed by DEI to physics education.

“Where DEI really comes into a lot of discussion among physics educators,” said Small, “is in discussions about standards.”

“It’s not really … so much a discussion of ‘Oh, should we talk about representation during class time’ and more about what can we reasonably expect and if a student can’t meet the standard, is it unfair of us to nonetheless insist on that standard,” he said. “And that’s a much more complicated and dangerous discussion, because … it just perpetuates under preparation.”

MORE: Math professors: Incoming students can’t even add fractions, subtract

[Erasmus]

The K-12 system is walking away from standards at all levels

Not surprising. I've had several teachers in my family, mostly women. All have quit. American classrooms are unsafe, especially for white teachers. I don't think I have to explain that to any of you. It's apparent that the Left has decided to dumb down the youth to the point where people are inept, unskilled, unqualified, self-entitled, and unemployable. They will be useless and dependent on welfare to survive.

My sister got a job teaching overseas at a private school. She has remarked how bifurcated society has become overseas too. About 5-10% of the children are educated correctly, eat healthy, and exercise. They learn to code and play intramural sports. They are really isolated from the rest of society. My sister now lives on an island.

The illegal immigrants wandering the streets of the US are a public menace. No one is safe anymore, anywhere. The illegals are unskilled and expect handouts, free housing, and not to pay any taxes. I have had several bad encounters with them across the country. Illegals are EVERYWHERE now. Three million homeless Americans, tens of millions out of work, and we are supposed to house, cloth, feed, and take care of 30-50 million illegal immigrants forever? There is blood in the streets now. America will collapse at this rate.

This is the Democratic party's end game?

Time to find a new country.

[Guest]

My sister got a job teaching ..... in America at a private school. She has remarked how bifurcated society has become in the United States. About...1% of the children are educated correctly, eat healthy, and exercise. They learn to code and play intramural sports. They are really isolated from the rest of society. My sister now lives on a private island.

The American version.

[Guest]

Musk is falling for the libertarian misconception that globalism and free trade (including free migration) drive innovation. The rationale is that the most innovative people in the world can be brought together and put their collective talent towards a common goal. Much like how Musk moved from South Africa to America.

The problem is that these individuals (even the ones who actually are bright) have no common ethnic, national, or religious identity. So, their efforts are put into shallow material pursuits, not taking civilization to new heights. This is why the greatest minds of our time are wasted trying to get you to look at more ads on the internet.

In reality, it's not a vague notion of a universal humanity, but competition between nations which brings out the best in man. It wasn't a "global effort" which brought humanity to space and the moon, but the USA and USSR trying to outdo each other.

Musk will have to decide whether he wants to take humanity to Mars or support immigration. He can't have both.

[Cool Breeze]

I'm gone. Enjoy the failed predictions.

[Navigator]

I have been reading the arguements regarding Trump and his possible disqualification for office based on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

The following is by the prominent Conservative lawyer J Michael Luttig. I hold both him and former Attorney General Barr in high regard, both as individuals who do not bend the truth to fit the wind direction.

Luttig wrote:
[Groups that filed lawsuits to bar Trump from the ballot] do not yet understand what disqualifies the former president, namely an insurrection or rebellion against the constitution. They have argued the cases as if he is disqualified because he engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States. That's why they have, unfortunately, focused their efforts on establishing or not that the former president was responsible for the riot on the Capitol. The riot on the Capitol is incidental to the question of whether he engaged in a rebellion against the constitution."

The meaning is that in his view, as in the view of other Conservatives, is that Trump engaged in a rebellion against the constitution by telling VP Pence to invalidate electoral college votes. In his opinion, the Jan 6 incidents and his possible involvement with that are a different matter.

Based on the opinions of Luttig and other top conservative legal minds, the conservative faction of the Supreme Court may very well see it the same way. They are not beholden to Trump the way elected officials are.

The Constitution must be upheld no matter what else. If the choice is Trump or the Constitution, I would go with the Constitution. I think the Supreme Court will go the same way.

I can only guess what Trump would do if the Supreme Court says he is ineligible for office again.

Then there are the other charges against Trump. The Georgia AG has done a pretty good job of screwing up the election interference case, but the one regarding classified material at Mar A Lago is probably the one that gets him in the end.

BTW, I am no fan of Biden and his administration either. It has been an ongoing disaster, especially in regards to the open border. This is FAR worse than the Biden family graft / corruption.

[Another guest]

BTW, I am no fan of Biden and his administration either. It has been an ongoing disaster, especially in regards to the open border. This is FAR worse than the Biden family graft / corruption.

And when Biden extends Roman, I mean American citizenship, to all of Central America, America will be dead.

[Guest]

I'm gone. Enjoy the failed predictions.

Don't be like that, Cool Breeze. We need a contrarian voice here.

[Tom Mazanec]

I'm gone. Enjoy the failed predictions.

Don't be like that, Cool Breeze. We need a contrarian voice here.

I second that!