Ruby LaRocca—the winner of our high school essay contest—urges her generation to read old books, memorize poems, and invite senior citizens to parties.
The “taut cable…” sentence caught my eye as well. So Impressive. The wisdom of this 17 year old Ruby is awe inspiring to my, now humbled, 64 year old mind. I would gladly go to her party … so that I might learn something.
TFP/Bari- please launch a young adult branch of TFP, have these talented young people write for their peers. I know my son needs to hear their voices to not feel so alone given his old man spirit. I would love to see a Ms. LaRocca’s recommended reading list for high school students.
My son too!!! I often say he is merely visiting us from the 19th century. Loves Latin, hates phones, no patience for meme-life, draws botanicals. When I showed this essay to him I noted she was his "spirit animal" he replied, "that's weird, just say soul mate." Touché old chap!
It was so good, I hate to say, I was tempted to Google it, to see where it may have been "inspired" from. Well, I could not help myself, and I did....... The result? Bravo Ruby!
“The best moments in reading are when you come across something—a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things—that you’d thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it’s as if a hand has come out and taken yours.” HAHA - this is how I felt reading all of the replies to Joseph Rackman's great comment!!
so wild to me that this line stood out to so many. I read it three times and then paused, to take it in. so eloquent. I would love to read her as a contributor on The FP.
I'm absolutely thrilled that TFP gave this wonderful young lady a forum. I knew our education system was in dire straits but God help our children and their future if Red Guard alumni, masquerading as the National Council of Teachers of English, get their way and "decenter book reading".
“Decenter,” like “problematic,” is a (buzz)word that instantly tells you everything you need to know about the speaker, and is part of a lexicon that, one hopes, will someday soon be a dead language.
"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?"
Instead of seeing Ms. LaRocca's inspiring words and commitment as a mere drop in an ocean, let's celebrate her inciteful thinking at such a young age as a sign of hope for the future.
Well, of course there is hope for the future; not for the near future. We are $35 trillion in debt and a psychotic ideology has full control over the largest organization in human history, the US federal government, along with all of the critical levers needed to change course. People like Ms. LaRocca will never be elevated in such a system so we have to wait for it to collapse, which will be quite painful.
I agree. This is a very smart, astute young woman. However, I disagree with learning dead languages.
You can never translate an ancient language accurately. Hell it is tricky enough translating modern languages accurately. In Madrid they have a Spanish language academy, I don't know if this is the correct name for it. I used to know the proper title but I'm now I'm old.
The point is this academy determines if a word should be entered into the Spanish lexicon as a genuine Spanish word. This academy is necessary because each Spanish province has its own dialect. For example, if a Catalan word is introduced is it purely Catalan or can it also be used as a Spanish word. English doesn't have that problem.
English is the most expressive language in the world. You can say more with less than any other language. About ten years ago the Oxford English dictionary added the one billionth word to the language. English has a larger vocabulary than Spanish, French and German combined.
Having grown up in Latin America, I found Spanish varies in meaning from country to country. A perfectly innocuous word in Panama can be an insult in Costa Rica.
Translating ancient languages is interesting and necessary when studying the ancients. It may not be accurate but it may get you in to the ballpark.
Translating the meaning of a word is often based on its modern and social context which changes over time. How can anyone accurately translate a word that hasn't been used in hundreds or maybe thousands of years?
Sorry. I can't count the often sideways manner in which Latin (Yeah! The door-nailiest of the lot!) has been useful. Like the box of obsolete tools that you inherited from your father, you just never know which one might save the day.
Ooooo, I see this so differently than you, LonesomePolecat. Pragmatism and efficiency of expression in a language, of all things, almost seems antithetical. I also grew up in Latin America, (among a highly-educated group of linguists) and while, yes, words can mean vastly different things from country to country, I am often struck by how much more beautifully the average native Spanish speaker expresses himself than the average native English speaker.
The translation part is why one must be well-versed in a rigorous understanding of linguistics, the cultural context of the time and language to AND from which you are translating, AND dead languages. An idea must be conveyed when an actual word does not exist…either from the dead language or within the modern language.
And the people who learn dead languages, especially Latin, have worked the muscle of their brains in ways that develop sound reason. I used to argue with people who poo-pooed the learning of Latin bc it was impractical, “Latin is weight training for the mind.”
"weight training for the mind" I like that. Colloquiums many times are completely lost to translation and I would believe always lost translating from an ancient language.
Have you ever asked your Spanish speaking friends, "How do you say that In Spanish?" and gotten a blank look because Spanish doesn't have the word you are looking for? I have. The word I remember is log, like in log cabin.
The comments here are, IMHO, top-notch. I found LonesomePolecat's comment quite persuasive. Then I read yours, and now I think they're *both* quite persuasive. What to do, what to do...
Victor Davis Hanson is a proponent of Latin. Here in the Western U.S.A. most Spanish speakers speak English. The reverse would go a long way toward healing the manufactured "divide". And a huge number of Spanish last names have Germanic origins. Consider the number of French speakers on the Gulf Cost. (Listen to the Gypsy Kings for a half-hour and see if your blood boils?)---Keep lifting!!
@LonesomePolecat, I really couldn't find anything in your relatively lengthy post that supports your "disagree[ment] with learning dead languages." None of the reasons you adduce amount to a disagreement that I could see with Ms. LaRocca's recommendation that "the work of learning languages and the difficult art of translation [has been] the most taxing and pleasurable method of training my brain, combining technical rigor with poetic insight."
I speak more than one language. You can't learn enough languages. I am glad people translate ancient texts because I read those translations. However, I take them with a grain of salt.
I have friend who taught ancient Greek and Hebrew at the Vatican University and he taught it to pupils from different countries who spoke different languages. My friend spoke 8 or 10 languages. I asked him and another Biblical scholar if there is or ever was an accurate translation of the Bible. They both without hesitation said no for the very reasons I made in my previous post.
This makes it sound like if the Bible says, "Jesus told the disciples to go find a colt tied up and bring it to him," that it could have actually said, "There was a dude who had a mangy dog and fed him scraps daily outside his door," and that Biblical translators are so bad and so dishonest that we have literally no real clue what the Bible actually says. Maybe what you meant and what they meant is there is no PERFECT translation. Translating IS very difficult...but unbelievably, it is possible to convey stories, ideas, etc accurately across languages with success.
Besides Spain, France also has an official authority, the French Academy, on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of its language. If as you say (and I tend to agree), "English is the most expressive language in the world", it's probably because English is so "promiscuous" -- words can enter the language just by showing up and being used, without having to go through a lengthy bureaucratic procedure. There is no concept of language "purity" for English, although some activities require an authority on what words are considered valid, like "The Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary".
One drawback of English's eclectic nature is that it's not very phonetic. I studied some Spanish, which has a much closer relationship between spelling and pronunciation than English.
1. The frogs have past at least two laws with fines banning English word in their vocabulary. Everybody ignored the laws.
2. Spanish is great. Pronunciation is a snap with Spanish. With very few exception, each letter in a word is pronounced and the letters never vary in their pronunciation..
The one thorny exception I know in Spanish is the letter "x", which is sometimes pronounced like the Spanish "j", as in "Mexico", and sometimes like in English, as in "examen". But I think there are some words in which it's pronounced like English "sh" or even "s". I'm basically a gringo, so you probably know the details better than I do.
I would disagree that English doesn't have words unique to regions. When I moved to Texas in 1974 I heard a lot of words I'd never heard before in the Midwest!
I see hope in that if one kid can master herself and digest the climate of education to produce this essay, then she might be a light to others in her generation.
I hope she is an inspiration to other kids the way she has inspired me.
As I read this on my phone, respond on it and try not to leave home without it.
This actually brought tears to my eyes. I have a 1st grade boy (in a Classical Christian school) and sent him to summer camp at the local public high school, and I saw mostly kids on phones, playing games, or kids watching OTHER kids play on THEIR phones, hardly talking. I was cheered to see young girls playing some game outside with no identifiable name, yet they knew the rules and kept each other in check. And I was pleased to see kids playing outside while waiting for their parents, although the majority (including, unfortunately, my son much of the time) were "kept quiet" inside watching something on YouTube. And needless to say, the high school rooms and corridors were covered in rainbow flags, stickers, and "inclusive messaging" (hence why we send him to private school). I worry for these kids so much--it feels like they won't even know how to be happy. I want something better for my son, who is curious, asks hard questions, is (way too) talkative, and amazingly observant. Ruby shows a path. I'm pretty certain the traditional public school is dead and cannot be resurrected. But I want her to be the way forward, not the glazed-eyed youth the public schools (and colleges) are churning out. We've done an amazing job of (literally) neutering them and giving them lobotomies. I hope there's an uprising of Rubies in response. Bless her. I've loved these essays so much! Well done, FP.
Same story here. I pulled my kids from public school and sent them to catholic school (even though we’re not catholic) because it was clear that public school is more concerned with “social justice” than education, a point I find highly ironic given that the best you can do for people in the margins is to give them a good education. One of the last straws was when the superintendent of the public schools (a black woman) was discovered by a journalist who specializes in academic scandal to have plagiarized significant portions of her dissertation. The response by the community was to immediately brand the journalist (a white man) as a racist, call for his firing, and to uphold her in the position. There was never a mention of her plagiarism (which any person who could read could see), or any concern about it. No statement by the school that plagiarism mattered. The whole thing was swept under the rug. And this is in one of the best, top-rated school systems of NC!!! I wished someone had been able to say, “we love our superintendent and want to keep her somehow and we can’t endorse plagiarism” and then find a creative solution. But they willingly chose virtue signaling over academic standards, and that’s the size of it all right now. Meanwhile, at the university level, faculty are being told to avoid all tradition pedagogy (deadlines and standards and grading rubrics) because it’s getting labeled as “white supremacist.” No joke. My faculty friends have no idea how to navigate this minefield and keep their sanity. And it’s trickling down to all the secondary schools. They already got rid of comprehensive exams at public schools in the name of equity. Which has meant, at least in one case I heard of, that incoming freshmen at UNC have landed in the hospital during exam time because they don’t have any experience handling the stress. What a mess.
> the best you can do for people in the margins is to give them a good education
This is a really good point. Chicago Public Schools went from 79% math proficiency in 2010 to 17% math proficiency in 2021 ( https://drive.google.com/file/d/10ucSklF96lhTf9PR3hLuRtr02ohla0-N/view ). The most "marginalized" groups have far worse educational standards today than they did a bit over a decade ago. It's clear that our path towards equity has *widened* the gap.
In the last 3 days we have had essays by 3 teenagers on TFP who had parents who are invested and cared for their futures. Which is the ultimate form of "privilege". Public education is that safety net that can pull up children whose parents aren't willing or able to do that for them. Instead, SEL and other curricula shifts in public schools is just pushing down students.
Yep. What makes me irate is that it tends to be parents who have deep and wide webs of security for their children who are the loudest champions of thoughtless “equity.” Their kids will be fine, and they’ll get to wear the righteous virtue badge in public. Meanwhile the people they profess to care about will suffer.
I agree with your observation that the children of these people will be OK but not with your attitude towards the parents. In Canada, with a similar educational problem, the government and the Teacher’s Unions set our standards. Parents’ hands are often tied. Please have some compassion towards those caught in a situation beyond them. I am very thankful my children (now adults) finished school before all this nonsense started. Now I encourage my daughter-in-laws to homeschool my grandkids and support them in whatever way I can.
I’m fully sympathetic to parents of trans kids. Completely agree that their hands are tied, and the fault lies on institutions! My comment was in regard to the parents I see all around me - white and wealthy parents - championing policies in the name of equity that actually don’t serve the people they say they care about.
Jan, we're in Canada too and opted for independant education for our son (starting grade 2 on Tuesday). It's not easy to find here. Or afford. I hope your family finds a fit.
Hi AJ. They will do well. Mom is a trained teacher but stay-at-home mom. She has done this before. And I can help as needed, even if that means to clean her house when needed. I salute all parents that go this route!
And the only political candidate on the stage who’s campaigning on a two-parent home being called the real privilege is Vivek. But I’m sure it’s too bland of a policy for people to consider that as important. It’s shocking what has happened to education and families. Candace Owens and Larry Elders continue to make this the most important reason why black kids are failing, but again, much easier to say Black Lives Matter (that just auto-corrected to capitalization), play the victim, and make no progress. And we have a media that pushes this instead of giving hope. It’s beyond gross.
And those marginalized groups will complain most about racism and how racist those educational divides are, when it's their own party who championed those policies. So frustrating.
A bit of a disagreement here. Parents invested and caring for their children’s future is in no way a privilege. Rather, the correct label is the original name for Bari’s forum: Common Sense.
I'd say it's a fairly massive privilege. You have single moms forced to work all day. You have parents - sometimes even a 2-parent household - who just buy their kids a phone and then walk away. You have "well-meaning" parents who incessantly spoil their kids instead of actually figuring out what they need. You have abusive parents. You have kids bumped between foster homes.
I did my K-12 in Chicago Public Schools from 1949 to 1961. The ones I went to were actually pretty good academically. Plus that was before the invasion of "wokeness" and DEI. But public schools in the U.S. have been in trouble for many years. For example, "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" was released in 1983 by the United States National Commission on Excellence in Education. From Wikipedia: "Among other things, the report contributed to the ever-growing assertion that American schools were failing". And: "As implied by the title of the report, the commission's charter responds to Terrel Bell's observation that the United States' educational system was failing to meet the national need for a competitive workforce". Sound familiar?
It is not a zero sum game. SEL is very useful in helping children develop empathy and connection. DEI awareness can make marginalized kids feel seen. That said, these programs can not take the place of formal education which I agree is essential both for lifting up those with less privilege as well as for providing a sense of purpose and competency for students.
Kids can develop empathy and connection by reading real books. And sorry, what teacher doesn't SEE all the kids in her classroom? DEI is an INSULT to good people and teachers everywhere. The absolute worst-- and most unapologetically racist -- "professional development" was courtesy of intellectually dishonest DEI people. No one should take instruction on empathy from racists.
I didn’t even mention the gender wars in public school. My middle Schooler described what it felt like to be in public school, and basically said that the administration was gaslighting students, constantly making them question whether they were really straight or cis gendered. She told me that if you went in straight and cis, by the end of the year you were bound to be something different. Everyone wants to be celebrated, especially at that age, and very clearly, falling into the alphabet soup was the most expedient way forward.
I don't mean to be Pollyannaish, but is it possible that a new generation of Libertarians will emerge as a backlash to the current indoctrination regime?
I do think this is possible. Kids are smart as hell and they can smell BS. At some point they will wake up and see the level of indoctrination they’ve been subjected to and will bring down fury. I feel like this is happening to a degree with the detransitioners already.
Personal experience such as detransitioning will incite curiosity about situations. Otherwise, the listlessness and depression the schools have created will rarely result in anything requiring an inquisitive mind.
We’re definitely raising 3 boys to see and examine the world that way. Our oldest had a keen sense of this as a student at an arts charter high school. He’s now in school in Brooklyn. He knows what type of essays he has to write to pass the class. It’s really unfortunate.
My daughter is very artistic and the gender wars seem most prevalent in the arts. She despairs of ever finding a guy who is straight and cis and decent.
I hear you. They are out there, but it seems they're unicorns. My son is straight. One of his classes this semester he's the only boy. The ratio of boys to girls in art school is really lopsided. Then you add in the gender woo.
My eldest daughter, now a junior in high school, is leaning ever-more libertarian/conservative. She's also kind of punk rock, which is hilarious to me - how the poles have switched from my own stupid punk-rock, anti-Reagan teenage years! She got caught up in the ROGD nonsense during middle school, and, thank the Lord, realized how much nonsense it actually was after about a year (and before any medicalization). I think we can allow for some optimism! These kids aren't all morons. Of course, parenting is key. I'll take *some* credit for always giving her both sides, insisting on critical thinking, speaking buckets of truth to her and her younger sister, and modeling how to be thoughtful, well-read, and religious. So far, so good. Let us all have hope!!
"My eldest daughter, now a junior in high school, is leaning ever-more libertarian/conservative"
It sounds like you've instilled a healthy curiosity in your daughter and she is smart enough to see through the bullshit. Kudos to you. Lets' hope she starts a trend among her friends.
We have to stop using their language bc it gives them power and confirms their ability to shape debate. There’s no such thing as a cis gender. Don’t use their lying terms.
We had dinner with friends last night. He said one of his friends' 10 year old son came home from the first day of school telling his dad the teachers asked all the kids what their pronouns are! In 5th grade!
It’s interesting that we don’t expect fifth graders to be able to parse sentences or be quiet for an hour or know how to clean a bathroom or write with correct punctuation, but we do expect them to be able to reflect with maturity on issues of identity like gender and sexuality. No wonder they’re paralyzed.
The other weird thing that asking for pronouns does is pigeon hole people, which you’d think liberals would not like. Why can’t kids just take a beat before having to come up with an answer if they want to? Instead, kids like my daughter wrestle with the burden of having to identify as straight and cis gendered and consequently be labeled as “unsafe” or unwelcoming. If my kid didn’t have the FU personality she has, she’d otherwise be considering identifying differently just so she wouldn’t be incorrectly identified as anti-trans, etc. She’s struggling with how to be an ally when she isn’t afforded the same welcome that is demanded of her.
About 20 years ago, I worked in a government office (OSTP) in DC and the universities came in lobbying for more H1B visas. I asked them why there weren’t enough US students to fill those graduate student positions. Basically they said that our students weren’t good enough, an if they were to make important research discoveries they needed the smarter/better trained people from abroad. I asked “isn’t this a systemic problem that should be addressed jointly with our high schools?”. The problem is that high schools answer to one set of higher-ups and universities (even state universities) to another, and no one seemed to care about the gap. Not directly related to this essay but things have been awry for some time.
Eric Weinstein comments on the university driven importation of foreign students as a means of creating cheap labor for lab work in order to hold wages down. Another frequent complaint is the young underpaid/overworked graduates in university teaching positions held hostage to a system that offers no possibility of career advancement or tenure.
As in the Soviet Union and China the riff is the pretense on the part of administrators and faculty that they actually believe any of the b.s. they make everyone else swallow. They are well paid mercenary poseurs holding education hostage to their personal advancement and careers. The D.E.I. commissariat is exactly that. Like Stalin's "useful idiots" they serve the Davos crowd and the world overlay of a CCP style herd management system. It wants uneducated throwaway labor and a government that allows it to exploit and loot at will.
> Eric Weinstein comments on the university driven importation of foreign students as a means of creating cheap labor for lab work in order to hold wages down.
I wish it were that simple. An external force destroying us is a thing we can fight against. But internal cultural and social changes where we've started valuing things other than academic excellence... that's much more scary.
I feel this so deeply. We’re just trying to survive my daughter’s last year of public high school. I offered to homeschool her this year but she refused. I went to Catholic school myself and would have sent her, if we could have afforded it.
I’m so sorry. My husband and I both grew up in public school, and it treated us fairly well. Literally the only way that we can afford private school right now is because I almost accidentally fell into a lucrative job. I hate that that appears to be what it takes to get an OK education (make no mistake- private schools are fighting some of the same battles). Public schools are failing, and some days I want to sue the school system for not delivering and being a school for the public.
The Church has allowed itself to be infested by demons of politics, when to my mind its most serious task is to be welcoming to all in our spiritual journeys. IMHO.
This essay was uplifting. I’m a retired teacher. With regret I admit homeschooling seems to be the last best hope for our children. My son and daughter in law just withdrew their oldest from kindergarten. She went to pre-k last year. She likes school and her teachers, she finds the 730-215 day too long. Last week a new family moved into the district. Their second grader registered with they/them pronouns. The school briefly resisted but capitulated faster than the French Army. How do you explain this to 4-7 seven year old? You don’t. The pronoun parents are everywhere now. This happened not in Manhattan or Beverly Hills, but in a conservative district in South Carolina. Today’s essay was inspiring because Ruby opted to educate herself not be programmed by others. Her bandwagon is worth jumping on.
We live in a small mountain (tourist) NC town that was perfect during COVID--removed enough that many of the COVID-related issues didn't affect us a ton (and transmission rates were low). However, it's right next to a larger town that basically houses a mid-sized university, and you can see the students' influence bleed into the town and its general culture, including the school system. We could've easily sent our son to the local public elementary school, which had a great reputation, and he probably would've had an excellent education those first few years, but I wasn't worried about his teachers or his classmates...I was worried about the classmates' older siblings, the school system's response to major problems (like the pandemic, where they masked about a year after the vaccine came out) and the cultural indoctrination as he went into older grades. I don't trust any of it, so even though we spend money on private school, I'm glad we do (even though we are by no means affluent). It's worth it to avoid, as much as possible, the progressive programming and university influence.
We went with a classical Christian school as well (one of the very few in Canada) and we couldn't be more delighted *and* pained. The contrast is stark. While we celebrate our little school's peace and rigour (those things can live together, as you know) we ache for the public school down the street.
Convenience and it's probably free. That's why my mom was so surprised we weren't sending our son to public school. She was like, "But it's right down the street?!?" (Our private school is about 20 minutes away).
We did a mix (to start with) and then went private. When I go by a public school I feel sorry for the kids stuck there (we live in a fairly affluent neighborhood). One public school teacher laughed at my daughter when she stood up to respond to a question. Actually, half the time you can't tell the teachers from the janitorial staff, dressed in ripped jeans, etc.
Oh. My apologies. I meant that I'm sad for the students at the public school. We're in a very liberal region. Yes, it's free and a 3-minute walk. But even if we were comfortable with the school we're sold on classical education that we'd still go without (budget accordingly) and drive the 20 minutes.
I totally cried too, then printed the essay and read it to my two oldest homeschooled teenagers. My eldest is writing a persuasive essay right now on smartphone and social media use. Her public high school friends clearly think she is a very odd person. This essay made my daughter "feel seen." LOL I hate that phrase. But it did.
“Having a phone in your pocket is like always carrying around a glazed donut that constantly tempts you to snack on it—but if you do, you know it will ruin your appetite.” ... more Ruby, please!
Young Ruby really felt like a breath of fresh air! I’ve been noticing over the past few years that books and films are nearly always nonlinear in structure (they jump around in time and are very segmented, which I feels very ADHD to me). It’s as though our brains have been altered by the structures of modern cultural output, from the quick cuts of 1980s music videos to the constant superficial scrolling of social media. Everything now seems to take that form, from CNN/Fox to TV dramas to advertising — and now school!
Perhaps some of our problems stem from this “nudge” to quick/surface “impressionism”, when what we really need is deeper and more complex thinking.
What a wonderful piece. Ms. LaRocca's advice is sound not only for those in their teens, but for all of us (including those of us chipping away at our seventh decade).
All of us would do well to read old books, famliarize ourselves with poetry, slow down a bit, pay attention to how we interact with others, and lose the phone from time to time.
It's a wonderful thing to see someone so young figure these things out, and to articulate them so well.
Bari, The essay contest was inspired and you picked a real winner in Ruby LaRocca. Her essay was exceptional for its construction, content, and message. I cannot help but feel a sense of sadness and even despair as I look around our society and see the damage done by abandonment of classical education, repudiation of traditional values, embrace of illiberal ideologies, confusion regarding long established universal truths (e.g. binary gender), and a complete absence of a moral compass by our institutions, educational system, and government. The rise and hegemony of big tech and social media over all of society and the sheep-like group think of even highly educated adults that has given us things like identity politics, critical race theory in the guise of DEI, and allowed an unprecedented suspension of civil liberties never before seen in America in the interest of safety has become a monster that will be hard to kill. To know that there are young people like Ms. LaRocca who stand firm on a solid foundation of classical education, have divested themselves of the albatross of social media, and learned to think critically gives me hope. It is they who will slay this dragon. Bless you, Free Press, for this wonderful essay contesst. May I suggest that you continue to showcase other essays from contestants that will shine a much needed positive light on the next generation and give us old folks hope. Rick
Doctor, I’d be interested in hearing how you push against the replacement of competence with ideology in professional circles.
I imagine practitioners have to develop a mental filter to screen out the merely ideological in order to get to the few useful bits of an article or a monograph announcing recent research?
Radical, illiberal ideology has beome pervasive in medicine, sometimes with little science to support its positions. One of these is the astounding claim that surgery is racist and patients do better when their surgery is performed by someone of their own race. There is zero data to support this, but even my own organization, the American College of Surgeons has advanced this despicable racist claim. I have pushed back and, for my efforts, have been permanently banned from engagement with my fellow surgeons on the ACS discussion forums. I have been fighting this for nearly a year and a half. You can read about my situation in the Wall Street Journal, City Journal, and National Review. I have a petition out you might wish to read and sign: https://www.change.org/ACS-petition-reinstate-Bosshardt
What a delightful, charming, witty young woman. Let's hear more from her, Bari.
As far as her former "educators?" People who believe (the National Council of Teachers of English) that it is time “to decenter book reading and essay writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education” are cretins, nitwits and fools who should not be allowed anywhere near a classroom or have any contact with impressionable young minds. It's long past time to break up the teachers unions and all of their "professional" organizations, including and most of all, the US Department of "Education."
It is the intentional leveling of Western Civilization. Seen the interviews with UCLA students who can't name the oceans or the nation's capitol but know all the Khardasians by heart?
I love this concept in particular: “I find knowing that I truly understand something—or at least, have spent time trying to know it, thus expanding my mind—far more rewarding than the fleeting frisson of being the first to finish.”
"far more rewarding than the fleeting frisson of being the first to finish.”
Unless you are a reader of books, chances are you would not be acquainted with the word "frisson", or the true meaning of words such as honor, courage, fidelity...
I’m a former academic, and she’s right about everything - education is absolutely in crisis. I love her, and wish we had the wisdom as a country to create the culture she’s talking about, instead of persisting in the hair-brained ideas that Haidt outlined in “The Coddling of the American Mind.”
#6. Seek God. Do it now, then you will know how to find him in your hour of need. The psalms, written more than 3000 years ago often speak directly to one or mirror one’s thoughts. Imagine Psalm 90, written by Moses himself - he who saw God! Psalm 19, the KJV translation is my favourite. The young scholars could add Hebrew to those ancient languages worth tackling.
Jordan Peterson says writing and speaking are largely how we think. This is a key reason why freedom of expression is so important. Too many today hardly write or speak. Instead they communicate by texting in a form of pseudo-English. (U R the best.) Fortunately there are exceptions like Ruby who can and do communicate clearly and intelligently. The essay contest was a great idea, Bari, and I wouldn't mind reading a few more of the top submissions to help avoid despair for our country.
...because she reads.” Absolutely true. The ability to read can change everything. Yet learning to read and understand is discounted and neglected in our current educational environment. Largely because those who are teaching are unable to read.
I think it is rather that they choose NOT to read. And I have never understood the reluctance to do so. I come from a family of teachers who read, but my mother didn't have time to do both. She read on her summer breaks.
What a wonderful essay from a young, wise person! I have so enjoyed reading the finalist student's words in the previous two essays, and I am amazed at their depth and insights into problems of today, but LaRocca has really laid out a formula for good learning and living for her peers. One that I hope will not fall on deaf ears. One day in the future I want to hear about the great things LaRocca does with her life and the wonderful things she has learned and teaches. There's a lot of hope here.
Note the beautiful sentence: “The taut cable of high expectations has been slackened, and the result is the current mood: listlessness.”
Sign this young lady up as a regular contributor.
The “taut cable…” sentence caught my eye as well. So Impressive. The wisdom of this 17 year old Ruby is awe inspiring to my, now humbled, 64 year old mind. I would gladly go to her party … so that I might learn something.
I'd gladly RSVP to her party!
Ruby in 2024!
Oh, wait ... did you mean the other type of party?
I totally agree. I learned so much just reading this essay. A very wise young woman!
I want to be like her.
TFP/Bari- please launch a young adult branch of TFP, have these talented young people write for their peers. I know my son needs to hear their voices to not feel so alone given his old man spirit. I would love to see a Ms. LaRocca’s recommended reading list for high school students.
My son too!!! I often say he is merely visiting us from the 19th century. Loves Latin, hates phones, no patience for meme-life, draws botanicals. When I showed this essay to him I noted she was his "spirit animal" he replied, "that's weird, just say soul mate." Touché old chap!
I loved that line too. You can tell she's a reader.
I read it a few times as well...and then was jealous of her abilities 😂
It was so good, I hate to say, I was tempted to Google it, to see where it may have been "inspired" from. Well, I could not help myself, and I did....... The result? Bravo Ruby!
ChatGPT couldn't have come up with that—I hope!
“The best moments in reading are when you come across something—a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things—that you’d thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it’s as if a hand has come out and taken yours.” HAHA - this is how I felt reading all of the replies to Joseph Rackman's great comment!!
Hear, hear.
That was one of many exceptionally well-crafted sentences.
so wild to me that this line stood out to so many. I read it three times and then paused, to take it in. so eloquent. I would love to read her as a contributor on The FP.
I had copied that line to comment on as well. Exquisite.
I think hiring her is a fantastic idea!!
Absolutely agreed! Let's see what she has to write as she grows and learns. You Go, Ruby!
Surely she picked up that level of phrasing from reading real books.
That sentence is breathtaking. Gorgeous!
That sentence struck me as well. I thought, could I have written that when I was 17?
Yep. That was a well-written sentence. An exceptional human being.
I will give you the ultimate compliment: I wish I had said that before you did. :)
That sentence hit me too. Really beautiful and sharp metaphor.
This is so sane and courageous it has bolstered my hope for humanity.
I'm absolutely thrilled that TFP gave this wonderful young lady a forum. I knew our education system was in dire straits but God help our children and their future if Red Guard alumni, masquerading as the National Council of Teachers of English, get their way and "decenter book reading".
TFP has a knack for shining a light on an otherwise seemingly hopeless demographic, this one being teenagers. Well done, Bari. Again.
“Decenter,” like “problematic,” is a (buzz)word that instantly tells you everything you need to know about the speaker, and is part of a lexicon that, one hopes, will someday soon be a dead language.
Dissenters > decenterers.
Weird. Every time I see one of the 1:1,000,000 sane people it reminds me of how doomed we are just based on the stats.
Kevin found the hole in the doughnut again…
Well I mean it can’t be a good sign when everyone is like
“Oh wow look someone said something true yayyyy!!!”
😂😂😂
I'm laughing on the outside; crying on the inside.
Try going outside and firing your pistolas into the air.
🙏🙏🙏
De bullets! De bullets!
And the cloud in the silver lining! We love you anyway Kevin?
Thanks to Kevin for identifying that part of the doughnut containing the fewest carbs and calories. I'll have a dozen of those, please.
Kevin is Eeyore! Mystery solved😂
Dear Kevin: this would be the time to suspend snark and revel in this amazing young person’s clarity and worldview. C’mon, I know you can do it.
😘
When Emperor David Hogg (D) puts her in prison for being a stochastic white supremacist, on that day I shall suspend the snark.
(cellmate will be a guy in a dress obv)
LOOOOOOOL
Lol
I'm reminded of the line from Cloud Atlas:
"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?"
Instead of seeing Ms. LaRocca's inspiring words and commitment as a mere drop in an ocean, let's celebrate her inciteful thinking at such a young age as a sign of hope for the future.
Well, of course there is hope for the future; not for the near future. We are $35 trillion in debt and a psychotic ideology has full control over the largest organization in human history, the US federal government, along with all of the critical levers needed to change course. People like Ms. LaRocca will never be elevated in such a system so we have to wait for it to collapse, which will be quite painful.
I hear ya Kev, but at least it's better than 1:1,000,001. Perhaps Ms. Larocca's wise words will have a Butterfly Effect on the rest of the 999,999.
I agree. This is a very smart, astute young woman. However, I disagree with learning dead languages.
You can never translate an ancient language accurately. Hell it is tricky enough translating modern languages accurately. In Madrid they have a Spanish language academy, I don't know if this is the correct name for it. I used to know the proper title but I'm now I'm old.
The point is this academy determines if a word should be entered into the Spanish lexicon as a genuine Spanish word. This academy is necessary because each Spanish province has its own dialect. For example, if a Catalan word is introduced is it purely Catalan or can it also be used as a Spanish word. English doesn't have that problem.
English is the most expressive language in the world. You can say more with less than any other language. About ten years ago the Oxford English dictionary added the one billionth word to the language. English has a larger vocabulary than Spanish, French and German combined.
Having grown up in Latin America, I found Spanish varies in meaning from country to country. A perfectly innocuous word in Panama can be an insult in Costa Rica.
Translating ancient languages is interesting and necessary when studying the ancients. It may not be accurate but it may get you in to the ballpark.
Translating the meaning of a word is often based on its modern and social context which changes over time. How can anyone accurately translate a word that hasn't been used in hundreds or maybe thousands of years?
Sorry. I can't count the often sideways manner in which Latin (Yeah! The door-nailiest of the lot!) has been useful. Like the box of obsolete tools that you inherited from your father, you just never know which one might save the day.
I studied Latin in high school, and I still have my father's old tools. Both have been curiously useful in unexpected ways.
Ooooo, I see this so differently than you, LonesomePolecat. Pragmatism and efficiency of expression in a language, of all things, almost seems antithetical. I also grew up in Latin America, (among a highly-educated group of linguists) and while, yes, words can mean vastly different things from country to country, I am often struck by how much more beautifully the average native Spanish speaker expresses himself than the average native English speaker.
The translation part is why one must be well-versed in a rigorous understanding of linguistics, the cultural context of the time and language to AND from which you are translating, AND dead languages. An idea must be conveyed when an actual word does not exist…either from the dead language or within the modern language.
And the people who learn dead languages, especially Latin, have worked the muscle of their brains in ways that develop sound reason. I used to argue with people who poo-pooed the learning of Latin bc it was impractical, “Latin is weight training for the mind.”
"weight training for the mind" I like that. Colloquiums many times are completely lost to translation and I would believe always lost translating from an ancient language.
Have you ever asked your Spanish speaking friends, "How do you say that In Spanish?" and gotten a blank look because Spanish doesn't have the word you are looking for? I have. The word I remember is log, like in log cabin.
There is a poetic saying that I agree with:
French to my diplomats
Spanish to my lovers
English to my servants
German to my dogs
No diplomats, no lovers*, no servants and no dogs. I guess I'm called to be the strong, silent type.
(*Except for my wife, who doesn't speak Spanish either.)
The comments here are, IMHO, top-notch. I found LonesomePolecat's comment quite persuasive. Then I read yours, and now I think they're *both* quite persuasive. What to do, what to do...
Victor Davis Hanson is a proponent of Latin. Here in the Western U.S.A. most Spanish speakers speak English. The reverse would go a long way toward healing the manufactured "divide". And a huge number of Spanish last names have Germanic origins. Consider the number of French speakers on the Gulf Cost. (Listen to the Gypsy Kings for a half-hour and see if your blood boils?)---Keep lifting!!
@LonesomePolecat, I really couldn't find anything in your relatively lengthy post that supports your "disagree[ment] with learning dead languages." None of the reasons you adduce amount to a disagreement that I could see with Ms. LaRocca's recommendation that "the work of learning languages and the difficult art of translation [has been] the most taxing and pleasurable method of training my brain, combining technical rigor with poetic insight."
I speak more than one language. You can't learn enough languages. I am glad people translate ancient texts because I read those translations. However, I take them with a grain of salt.
I have friend who taught ancient Greek and Hebrew at the Vatican University and he taught it to pupils from different countries who spoke different languages. My friend spoke 8 or 10 languages. I asked him and another Biblical scholar if there is or ever was an accurate translation of the Bible. They both without hesitation said no for the very reasons I made in my previous post.
How interesting! Thanks for sharing that 👍
This makes it sound like if the Bible says, "Jesus told the disciples to go find a colt tied up and bring it to him," that it could have actually said, "There was a dude who had a mangy dog and fed him scraps daily outside his door," and that Biblical translators are so bad and so dishonest that we have literally no real clue what the Bible actually says. Maybe what you meant and what they meant is there is no PERFECT translation. Translating IS very difficult...but unbelievably, it is possible to convey stories, ideas, etc accurately across languages with success.
"unbelievably, it is possible to convey stories, ideas, etc accurately across languages with success." Not really.
Besides Spain, France also has an official authority, the French Academy, on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of its language. If as you say (and I tend to agree), "English is the most expressive language in the world", it's probably because English is so "promiscuous" -- words can enter the language just by showing up and being used, without having to go through a lengthy bureaucratic procedure. There is no concept of language "purity" for English, although some activities require an authority on what words are considered valid, like "The Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary".
One drawback of English's eclectic nature is that it's not very phonetic. I studied some Spanish, which has a much closer relationship between spelling and pronunciation than English.
Two things that bolster you post.
1. The frogs have past at least two laws with fines banning English word in their vocabulary. Everybody ignored the laws.
2. Spanish is great. Pronunciation is a snap with Spanish. With very few exception, each letter in a word is pronounced and the letters never vary in their pronunciation..
The one thorny exception I know in Spanish is the letter "x", which is sometimes pronounced like the Spanish "j", as in "Mexico", and sometimes like in English, as in "examen". But I think there are some words in which it's pronounced like English "sh" or even "s". I'm basically a gringo, so you probably know the details better than I do.
I would disagree that English doesn't have words unique to regions. When I moved to Texas in 1974 I heard a lot of words I'd never heard before in the Midwest!
Of course, we have regonal words but those words are considered English. There is no woke academic at Harvard deciding if the word is English.
If you moved to Texas, you are a foreigner. A gentleman never asks another man if he is from Texas for fear of embarrassing if he isn't.
It sounds like you are thinking of the Cervantes Institute.
Nope, Real Academic de la Lengua Española
Thanks, good to know.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Spanish_Academy
Kevin!
Well that’s one way to view it.
I see hope in that if one kid can master herself and digest the climate of education to produce this essay, then she might be a light to others in her generation.
I hope she is an inspiration to other kids the way she has inspired me.
As I read this on my phone, respond on it and try not to leave home without it.
This actually brought tears to my eyes. I have a 1st grade boy (in a Classical Christian school) and sent him to summer camp at the local public high school, and I saw mostly kids on phones, playing games, or kids watching OTHER kids play on THEIR phones, hardly talking. I was cheered to see young girls playing some game outside with no identifiable name, yet they knew the rules and kept each other in check. And I was pleased to see kids playing outside while waiting for their parents, although the majority (including, unfortunately, my son much of the time) were "kept quiet" inside watching something on YouTube. And needless to say, the high school rooms and corridors were covered in rainbow flags, stickers, and "inclusive messaging" (hence why we send him to private school). I worry for these kids so much--it feels like they won't even know how to be happy. I want something better for my son, who is curious, asks hard questions, is (way too) talkative, and amazingly observant. Ruby shows a path. I'm pretty certain the traditional public school is dead and cannot be resurrected. But I want her to be the way forward, not the glazed-eyed youth the public schools (and colleges) are churning out. We've done an amazing job of (literally) neutering them and giving them lobotomies. I hope there's an uprising of Rubies in response. Bless her. I've loved these essays so much! Well done, FP.
Same story here. I pulled my kids from public school and sent them to catholic school (even though we’re not catholic) because it was clear that public school is more concerned with “social justice” than education, a point I find highly ironic given that the best you can do for people in the margins is to give them a good education. One of the last straws was when the superintendent of the public schools (a black woman) was discovered by a journalist who specializes in academic scandal to have plagiarized significant portions of her dissertation. The response by the community was to immediately brand the journalist (a white man) as a racist, call for his firing, and to uphold her in the position. There was never a mention of her plagiarism (which any person who could read could see), or any concern about it. No statement by the school that plagiarism mattered. The whole thing was swept under the rug. And this is in one of the best, top-rated school systems of NC!!! I wished someone had been able to say, “we love our superintendent and want to keep her somehow and we can’t endorse plagiarism” and then find a creative solution. But they willingly chose virtue signaling over academic standards, and that’s the size of it all right now. Meanwhile, at the university level, faculty are being told to avoid all tradition pedagogy (deadlines and standards and grading rubrics) because it’s getting labeled as “white supremacist.” No joke. My faculty friends have no idea how to navigate this minefield and keep their sanity. And it’s trickling down to all the secondary schools. They already got rid of comprehensive exams at public schools in the name of equity. Which has meant, at least in one case I heard of, that incoming freshmen at UNC have landed in the hospital during exam time because they don’t have any experience handling the stress. What a mess.
> the best you can do for people in the margins is to give them a good education
This is a really good point. Chicago Public Schools went from 79% math proficiency in 2010 to 17% math proficiency in 2021 ( https://drive.google.com/file/d/10ucSklF96lhTf9PR3hLuRtr02ohla0-N/view ). The most "marginalized" groups have far worse educational standards today than they did a bit over a decade ago. It's clear that our path towards equity has *widened* the gap.
In the last 3 days we have had essays by 3 teenagers on TFP who had parents who are invested and cared for their futures. Which is the ultimate form of "privilege". Public education is that safety net that can pull up children whose parents aren't willing or able to do that for them. Instead, SEL and other curricula shifts in public schools is just pushing down students.
Yep. What makes me irate is that it tends to be parents who have deep and wide webs of security for their children who are the loudest champions of thoughtless “equity.” Their kids will be fine, and they’ll get to wear the righteous virtue badge in public. Meanwhile the people they profess to care about will suffer.
I agree with your observation that the children of these people will be OK but not with your attitude towards the parents. In Canada, with a similar educational problem, the government and the Teacher’s Unions set our standards. Parents’ hands are often tied. Please have some compassion towards those caught in a situation beyond them. I am very thankful my children (now adults) finished school before all this nonsense started. Now I encourage my daughter-in-laws to homeschool my grandkids and support them in whatever way I can.
I’m fully sympathetic to parents of trans kids. Completely agree that their hands are tied, and the fault lies on institutions! My comment was in regard to the parents I see all around me - white and wealthy parents - championing policies in the name of equity that actually don’t serve the people they say they care about.
Jan, we're in Canada too and opted for independant education for our son (starting grade 2 on Tuesday). It's not easy to find here. Or afford. I hope your family finds a fit.
Hi AJ. They will do well. Mom is a trained teacher but stay-at-home mom. She has done this before. And I can help as needed, even if that means to clean her house when needed. I salute all parents that go this route!
And the only political candidate on the stage who’s campaigning on a two-parent home being called the real privilege is Vivek. But I’m sure it’s too bland of a policy for people to consider that as important. It’s shocking what has happened to education and families. Candace Owens and Larry Elders continue to make this the most important reason why black kids are failing, but again, much easier to say Black Lives Matter (that just auto-corrected to capitalization), play the victim, and make no progress. And we have a media that pushes this instead of giving hope. It’s beyond gross.
It’s diabolical!
And those marginalized groups will complain most about racism and how racist those educational divides are, when it's their own party who championed those policies. So frustrating.
We have to vote them out come 2024, it’s the most important election of our lifetime.
No, it is the most vocal and politically charged among the marginalized groups and their over-"educated" allies, who complain.
I doubt there is a marginalized parent, who works two jobs, who doesn't want their child to be able to read and compute.
A bit of a disagreement here. Parents invested and caring for their children’s future is in no way a privilege. Rather, the correct label is the original name for Bari’s forum: Common Sense.
Actually it is a privilege, parents who throw their kids over the wall and expect the schools to do the job are the antithesis of privilege.
I could agree that it’s common sense…if we hadn’t lost all common sense in society and politics.
I'd say it's a fairly massive privilege. You have single moms forced to work all day. You have parents - sometimes even a 2-parent household - who just buy their kids a phone and then walk away. You have "well-meaning" parents who incessantly spoil their kids instead of actually figuring out what they need. You have abusive parents. You have kids bumped between foster homes.
I did my K-12 in Chicago Public Schools from 1949 to 1961. The ones I went to were actually pretty good academically. Plus that was before the invasion of "wokeness" and DEI. But public schools in the U.S. have been in trouble for many years. For example, "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" was released in 1983 by the United States National Commission on Excellence in Education. From Wikipedia: "Among other things, the report contributed to the ever-growing assertion that American schools were failing". And: "As implied by the title of the report, the commission's charter responds to Terrel Bell's observation that the United States' educational system was failing to meet the national need for a competitive workforce". Sound familiar?
It is not a zero sum game. SEL is very useful in helping children develop empathy and connection. DEI awareness can make marginalized kids feel seen. That said, these programs can not take the place of formal education which I agree is essential both for lifting up those with less privilege as well as for providing a sense of purpose and competency for students.
Kids can develop empathy and connection by reading real books. And sorry, what teacher doesn't SEE all the kids in her classroom? DEI is an INSULT to good people and teachers everywhere. The absolute worst-- and most unapologetically racist -- "professional development" was courtesy of intellectually dishonest DEI people. No one should take instruction on empathy from racists.
Yeah it seems like these “educators” don’t understand the concept of education.
It seems more like leading lambs to slaughter. Pathetic at least, shameful at most.
I didn’t even mention the gender wars in public school. My middle Schooler described what it felt like to be in public school, and basically said that the administration was gaslighting students, constantly making them question whether they were really straight or cis gendered. She told me that if you went in straight and cis, by the end of the year you were bound to be something different. Everyone wants to be celebrated, especially at that age, and very clearly, falling into the alphabet soup was the most expedient way forward.
I don't mean to be Pollyannaish, but is it possible that a new generation of Libertarians will emerge as a backlash to the current indoctrination regime?
I do think this is possible. Kids are smart as hell and they can smell BS. At some point they will wake up and see the level of indoctrination they’ve been subjected to and will bring down fury. I feel like this is happening to a degree with the detransitioners already.
Personal experience such as detransitioning will incite curiosity about situations. Otherwise, the listlessness and depression the schools have created will rarely result in anything requiring an inquisitive mind.
Yes, it will soon be considered anti-establishment to be straight and "cis".
That's my hope.
We’re definitely raising 3 boys to see and examine the world that way. Our oldest had a keen sense of this as a student at an arts charter high school. He’s now in school in Brooklyn. He knows what type of essays he has to write to pass the class. It’s really unfortunate.
My daughter is very artistic and the gender wars seem most prevalent in the arts. She despairs of ever finding a guy who is straight and cis and decent.
I hear you. They are out there, but it seems they're unicorns. My son is straight. One of his classes this semester he's the only boy. The ratio of boys to girls in art school is really lopsided. Then you add in the gender woo.
My eldest daughter, now a junior in high school, is leaning ever-more libertarian/conservative. She's also kind of punk rock, which is hilarious to me - how the poles have switched from my own stupid punk-rock, anti-Reagan teenage years! She got caught up in the ROGD nonsense during middle school, and, thank the Lord, realized how much nonsense it actually was after about a year (and before any medicalization). I think we can allow for some optimism! These kids aren't all morons. Of course, parenting is key. I'll take *some* credit for always giving her both sides, insisting on critical thinking, speaking buckets of truth to her and her younger sister, and modeling how to be thoughtful, well-read, and religious. So far, so good. Let us all have hope!!
"My eldest daughter, now a junior in high school, is leaning ever-more libertarian/conservative"
It sounds like you've instilled a healthy curiosity in your daughter and she is smart enough to see through the bullshit. Kudos to you. Lets' hope she starts a trend among her friends.
I hope so
We have to stop using their language bc it gives them power and confirms their ability to shape debate. There’s no such thing as a cis gender. Don’t use their lying terms.
We had dinner with friends last night. He said one of his friends' 10 year old son came home from the first day of school telling his dad the teachers asked all the kids what their pronouns are! In 5th grade!
It’s interesting that we don’t expect fifth graders to be able to parse sentences or be quiet for an hour or know how to clean a bathroom or write with correct punctuation, but we do expect them to be able to reflect with maturity on issues of identity like gender and sexuality. No wonder they’re paralyzed.
Exactly! I"m going to use your argument or pass it along to my activist friends.
The other weird thing that asking for pronouns does is pigeon hole people, which you’d think liberals would not like. Why can’t kids just take a beat before having to come up with an answer if they want to? Instead, kids like my daughter wrestle with the burden of having to identify as straight and cis gendered and consequently be labeled as “unsafe” or unwelcoming. If my kid didn’t have the FU personality she has, she’d otherwise be considering identifying differently just so she wouldn’t be incorrectly identified as anti-trans, etc. She’s struggling with how to be an ally when she isn’t afforded the same welcome that is demanded of her.
God how terrifying!
About 20 years ago, I worked in a government office (OSTP) in DC and the universities came in lobbying for more H1B visas. I asked them why there weren’t enough US students to fill those graduate student positions. Basically they said that our students weren’t good enough, an if they were to make important research discoveries they needed the smarter/better trained people from abroad. I asked “isn’t this a systemic problem that should be addressed jointly with our high schools?”. The problem is that high schools answer to one set of higher-ups and universities (even state universities) to another, and no one seemed to care about the gap. Not directly related to this essay but things have been awry for some time.
Eric Weinstein comments on the university driven importation of foreign students as a means of creating cheap labor for lab work in order to hold wages down. Another frequent complaint is the young underpaid/overworked graduates in university teaching positions held hostage to a system that offers no possibility of career advancement or tenure.
As in the Soviet Union and China the riff is the pretense on the part of administrators and faculty that they actually believe any of the b.s. they make everyone else swallow. They are well paid mercenary poseurs holding education hostage to their personal advancement and careers. The D.E.I. commissariat is exactly that. Like Stalin's "useful idiots" they serve the Davos crowd and the world overlay of a CCP style herd management system. It wants uneducated throwaway labor and a government that allows it to exploit and loot at will.
> Eric Weinstein comments on the university driven importation of foreign students as a means of creating cheap labor for lab work in order to hold wages down.
I wish it were that simple. An external force destroying us is a thing we can fight against. But internal cultural and social changes where we've started valuing things other than academic excellence... that's much more scary.
And we’ve been hearing alarms on this since 2005. So what do they do, lower the bar to ensure utter failure. Way to go USA!!
I feel this so deeply. We’re just trying to survive my daughter’s last year of public high school. I offered to homeschool her this year but she refused. I went to Catholic school myself and would have sent her, if we could have afforded it.
I’m so sorry. My husband and I both grew up in public school, and it treated us fairly well. Literally the only way that we can afford private school right now is because I almost accidentally fell into a lucrative job. I hate that that appears to be what it takes to get an OK education (make no mistake- private schools are fighting some of the same battles). Public schools are failing, and some days I want to sue the school system for not delivering and being a school for the public.
It's crazy that you have adults urging kid's to sue oil companies for climate change. But, not suing the DOE, or the schools, teaching that 2+2=5.
For sure, the Catholic Church itself is being rocked by the conservative vs progressive fight. It’s not a good look.
The Church has allowed itself to be infested by demons of politics, when to my mind its most serious task is to be welcoming to all in our spiritual journeys. IMHO.
Remember that most private school teachers went to the same progressive, woke colleges and universities that public school teachers attended.
Ok…by irony, a little plagiarism here, except that I will clearly attribute the source, none other than Ruby LaRocca herself:
“The taut cable of high expectations has been slackened, and the result is the current mood: listlessness.”
This essay was uplifting. I’m a retired teacher. With regret I admit homeschooling seems to be the last best hope for our children. My son and daughter in law just withdrew their oldest from kindergarten. She went to pre-k last year. She likes school and her teachers, she finds the 730-215 day too long. Last week a new family moved into the district. Their second grader registered with they/them pronouns. The school briefly resisted but capitulated faster than the French Army. How do you explain this to 4-7 seven year old? You don’t. The pronoun parents are everywhere now. This happened not in Manhattan or Beverly Hills, but in a conservative district in South Carolina. Today’s essay was inspiring because Ruby opted to educate herself not be programmed by others. Her bandwagon is worth jumping on.
We live in a small mountain (tourist) NC town that was perfect during COVID--removed enough that many of the COVID-related issues didn't affect us a ton (and transmission rates were low). However, it's right next to a larger town that basically houses a mid-sized university, and you can see the students' influence bleed into the town and its general culture, including the school system. We could've easily sent our son to the local public elementary school, which had a great reputation, and he probably would've had an excellent education those first few years, but I wasn't worried about his teachers or his classmates...I was worried about the classmates' older siblings, the school system's response to major problems (like the pandemic, where they masked about a year after the vaccine came out) and the cultural indoctrination as he went into older grades. I don't trust any of it, so even though we spend money on private school, I'm glad we do (even though we are by no means affluent). It's worth it to avoid, as much as possible, the progressive programming and university influence.
We went with a classical Christian school as well (one of the very few in Canada) and we couldn't be more delighted *and* pained. The contrast is stark. While we celebrate our little school's peace and rigour (those things can live together, as you know) we ache for the public school down the street.
Why do you "ache" for a public school?
Convenience and it's probably free. That's why my mom was so surprised we weren't sending our son to public school. She was like, "But it's right down the street?!?" (Our private school is about 20 minutes away).
We did a mix (to start with) and then went private. When I go by a public school I feel sorry for the kids stuck there (we live in a fairly affluent neighborhood). One public school teacher laughed at my daughter when she stood up to respond to a question. Actually, half the time you can't tell the teachers from the janitorial staff, dressed in ripped jeans, etc.
Oh. My apologies. I meant that I'm sad for the students at the public school. We're in a very liberal region. Yes, it's free and a 3-minute walk. But even if we were comfortable with the school we're sold on classical education that we'd still go without (budget accordingly) and drive the 20 minutes.
Public schools are “teaching” children ideals rather than encouraging ideas.
Ideological utopianism in service to megalomaniac narcissism. Marxist "woke" is the lipstick on a pig called totalitarian finance.
Well said.
I totally cried too, then printed the essay and read it to my two oldest homeschooled teenagers. My eldest is writing a persuasive essay right now on smartphone and social media use. Her public high school friends clearly think she is a very odd person. This essay made my daughter "feel seen." LOL I hate that phrase. But it did.
“Having a phone in your pocket is like always carrying around a glazed donut that constantly tempts you to snack on it—but if you do, you know it will ruin your appetite.” ... more Ruby, please!
Young Ruby really felt like a breath of fresh air! I’ve been noticing over the past few years that books and films are nearly always nonlinear in structure (they jump around in time and are very segmented, which I feels very ADHD to me). It’s as though our brains have been altered by the structures of modern cultural output, from the quick cuts of 1980s music videos to the constant superficial scrolling of social media. Everything now seems to take that form, from CNN/Fox to TV dramas to advertising — and now school!
Perhaps some of our problems stem from this “nudge” to quick/surface “impressionism”, when what we really need is deeper and more complex thinking.
Absolutely brilliant!
Ms. Ruby you are a hope generator.
I hope to read more of your good thoughts down the road.
Thank you.
What a wonderful piece. Ms. LaRocca's advice is sound not only for those in their teens, but for all of us (including those of us chipping away at our seventh decade).
All of us would do well to read old books, famliarize ourselves with poetry, slow down a bit, pay attention to how we interact with others, and lose the phone from time to time.
It's a wonderful thing to see someone so young figure these things out, and to articulate them so well.
Bari, The essay contest was inspired and you picked a real winner in Ruby LaRocca. Her essay was exceptional for its construction, content, and message. I cannot help but feel a sense of sadness and even despair as I look around our society and see the damage done by abandonment of classical education, repudiation of traditional values, embrace of illiberal ideologies, confusion regarding long established universal truths (e.g. binary gender), and a complete absence of a moral compass by our institutions, educational system, and government. The rise and hegemony of big tech and social media over all of society and the sheep-like group think of even highly educated adults that has given us things like identity politics, critical race theory in the guise of DEI, and allowed an unprecedented suspension of civil liberties never before seen in America in the interest of safety has become a monster that will be hard to kill. To know that there are young people like Ms. LaRocca who stand firm on a solid foundation of classical education, have divested themselves of the albatross of social media, and learned to think critically gives me hope. It is they who will slay this dragon. Bless you, Free Press, for this wonderful essay contesst. May I suggest that you continue to showcase other essays from contestants that will shine a much needed positive light on the next generation and give us old folks hope. Rick
Doctor, I’d be interested in hearing how you push against the replacement of competence with ideology in professional circles.
I imagine practitioners have to develop a mental filter to screen out the merely ideological in order to get to the few useful bits of an article or a monograph announcing recent research?
Radical, illiberal ideology has beome pervasive in medicine, sometimes with little science to support its positions. One of these is the astounding claim that surgery is racist and patients do better when their surgery is performed by someone of their own race. There is zero data to support this, but even my own organization, the American College of Surgeons has advanced this despicable racist claim. I have pushed back and, for my efforts, have been permanently banned from engagement with my fellow surgeons on the ACS discussion forums. I have been fighting this for nearly a year and a half. You can read about my situation in the Wall Street Journal, City Journal, and National Review. I have a petition out you might wish to read and sign: https://www.change.org/ACS-petition-reinstate-Bosshardt
https://www.city-journal.org/article/isolated
https://www.wsj.com/articles/critical-race-theory-is-bad-medicine-college-surgeons-discuss-kendi-forum-crt-health-care-11663186602
Keep fighting. I admire your courage. Truth and facts matter. And in your profession:lives.
This is the kind of teenager who should have Greta Thunberg status, not Greta. Unfortunately, she's too busy translating Latin poetry. A great essay!
There’s room for the Greta’s of the world too ;)
Where? (Asking for a friend...)
Oh Lord. With a 1000 people like her one could change the world.
More fully formed human beings. Fewer mere recipients of shallow pleasures. Please.
Not even. To quote an old song: "Start me with ten who are stout-hearted men and I'll soon give you ten thousand more....
Blast from the past. Sung in a very deep voice, as I recall.
Wow. Just wow. There is hope.
That is exactly how I felt.
Homeschooling will save education in America.
See, Durant, Kevin for the darker view that Ms. LaRocca is the rare exception.
Well, maybe so, but one ray of light in the darkness can make a huge difference.
What a delightful, charming, witty young woman. Let's hear more from her, Bari.
As far as her former "educators?" People who believe (the National Council of Teachers of English) that it is time “to decenter book reading and essay writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education” are cretins, nitwits and fools who should not be allowed anywhere near a classroom or have any contact with impressionable young minds. It's long past time to break up the teachers unions and all of their "professional" organizations, including and most of all, the US Department of "Education."
#letthewholechurchsayamen
It is the intentional leveling of Western Civilization. Seen the interviews with UCLA students who can't name the oceans or the nation's capitol but know all the Khardasians by heart?
Congrats, well done 👏
I love this concept in particular: “I find knowing that I truly understand something—or at least, have spent time trying to know it, thus expanding my mind—far more rewarding than the fleeting frisson of being the first to finish.”
"far more rewarding than the fleeting frisson of being the first to finish.”
Unless you are a reader of books, chances are you would not be acquainted with the word "frisson", or the true meaning of words such as honor, courage, fidelity...
Indeed, her prowess in articulation confirms her adherence to her prescribed course of action
I’m a former academic, and she’s right about everything - education is absolutely in crisis. I love her, and wish we had the wisdom as a country to create the culture she’s talking about, instead of persisting in the hair-brained ideas that Haidt outlined in “The Coddling of the American Mind.”
What exactly did he offer?
#6. Seek God. Do it now, then you will know how to find him in your hour of need. The psalms, written more than 3000 years ago often speak directly to one or mirror one’s thoughts. Imagine Psalm 90, written by Moses himself - he who saw God! Psalm 19, the KJV translation is my favourite. The young scholars could add Hebrew to those ancient languages worth tackling.
My goodness, that girl can write....because she reads. I wish you would make this really shareable.
Jordan Peterson says writing and speaking are largely how we think. This is a key reason why freedom of expression is so important. Too many today hardly write or speak. Instead they communicate by texting in a form of pseudo-English. (U R the best.) Fortunately there are exceptions like Ruby who can and do communicate clearly and intelligently. The essay contest was a great idea, Bari, and I wouldn't mind reading a few more of the top submissions to help avoid despair for our country.
...because she reads.” Absolutely true. The ability to read can change everything. Yet learning to read and understand is discounted and neglected in our current educational environment. Largely because those who are teaching are unable to read.
I think it is rather that they choose NOT to read. And I have never understood the reluctance to do so. I come from a family of teachers who read, but my mother didn't have time to do both. She read on her summer breaks.
What a wonderful essay from a young, wise person! I have so enjoyed reading the finalist student's words in the previous two essays, and I am amazed at their depth and insights into problems of today, but LaRocca has really laid out a formula for good learning and living for her peers. One that I hope will not fall on deaf ears. One day in the future I want to hear about the great things LaRocca does with her life and the wonderful things she has learned and teaches. There's a lot of hope here.