Among the many gems in this article, this one stands out: "I think the truth is simpler: those who prioritize education will get in." Standing ovation for this kid! And to his parents!
The same philosophy is as instilled in me by my immigrant parents. Prioritize your education first. I realize this is. It the case with many Hispanic families though. I was an exception.
If they have two committed parents and they don't prioritize education, that's their choice. If they do not have two committed parents, we can change the public policies that will encourage family focus and committed parents. Of the many non-antiracist things that white elite liberals do is trumpeting far and wide how the two parent family unit is not the most important thing, while simultaneously making extreme sacrifices themselves to form and stay in stable, traditional, families.
The family is now being actively destroyed among the broader middle class by bad policies and a challenging culture. No one cares and no one is thinking about the ramifications.
WORSE mistake. Didn't explain article about genetics. And too long for most to read anyway.
Point is, she found 1300 genes that relate to abilities at school, i think it was. I'd hafta read it again, but not now. At any rate, each gene amounts to a pimple on a gnats arse. But if You look at all 1300 and apply some formula I'd NEVER be able to fathom, You come with a number that correlates to outcomes.
That puts her in a jam. Leftists will REFUSE to believe anything-a the sort, and Right-wingers will believe that genetics is the ONLY thing that matters. Of course, both extremes are wrong. HTH (Hope This Helps) not that I entertain the notion anyone reads any-a this tripe...
(Forget the Zoom, reading is so much FASTER, and I'm behind.)
Yah, You nailed it pretty solid, M. Commenter 34.
I hate to be the one to bring it up, because Professor McWhorter just yesterday "said" NOBODY would be an idiot and claim genetics has anything to do with ANYTHING.
Saw just today: "Can Progressives Be Convinced That Genetics Matters?" by a really LEFT-WING geneticist. Still, she has guts to do the research. Long read that shocked ME, and I imagine it will be MORE shocking as more research is done using these techniques.
Absolutely. These things are not mutually exclusive. Students who are not achieving at or above their grade levels will not magically advance just because they are thrust into a setting where everyone else is. They need support from small classes or individualized instruction that teach them the foundational skills they lack as a result of their home deficit- which is the exact opposite of what they’d get from being a school designed for advanced placement students. They’d be lost. So what ends up happening at those schools for advanced students is that the curriculum becomes less rigorous to accommodate the students that are unprepared to be there. It’s a lose/lose situation, in my opinion.
Let’s fix the neighborhood schools- starting by implementing solid curriculum that teaches knowledge instead of “skills”.
I think we have to be realistic with our expectations. The reality is, poor parenting has always been one of the key factors in all types of social dysfunction. Replace education with a trade, and 2021 for 1721. A parent that didn't focus on their child learning a trade doomed them to a life of poverty and misery. Whether today or 300 years ago, high(er) functioning parents encourage behaviors that result in higher functioning citizens. It's as much a universal law as gravity.
I can support “not throwing away” the children whose parents don’t prioritize education. What I can’t support is designing a system where that standard is seen as ok. Real life has consequences to actions of parents on their children. It has been that way from the dawn of time and their is little we will do to ameliorate it. Instead we should be educating young people on what those consequences are for when they choose to have children
You ask a REALLY deep question here, M. Adrian, and most-a the answers coming for "those who know" are a bunch-a made up fantasies that contradict all common sense logic.
As it happens, Professor John McWhorter has a newsletter from the NYT, and his topic yesterday was "What should we do about systemic racism" and how it pertains to Black's underachievement. I skimmed it yesterday and bought a book I'll prolly never get around to reading. I actually looked into it a bit just now, and bought another book.
I'm gonna summarize, best I can, what Dr. McWhorter concludes.
First off, anyone thinking that the difference in achievements, by DEFINITION, indicates racism is so TOTALLY bogus, that it's a wonder so-called intelligence go along with it. Those are my words. JMW and I are, neither one-a us, fans of Ibram X. Kendi, the self-proclaimed expert on anti-racism.
JMW says lack of funding is only PART of the cause, and is WAY oversold, on account of the FACT that middle-class Blacks don't do so hot either.
The better part of JMW's article goes on about how the kids THEMSELVES don't put a high-value on education. (Keeping in mind that JMW is Black...) THere's an attitude amongst Black youth, that stupid people have made GREAT efforts to downplay, that doing well in school is "acting white." The recommended book on the subject is "Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation." https://www.amazon.com/dp/030017120X/
This BEGAN when schools were first desegregated. White students and teachers, both, were VERY racist when all this began, and this left an indelible image that school was NOT a good place for Black kids. The problem is that this tribal image persists today, even though the prejudice has almost entirely disappeared.
There's always been nerds. But when Black kids emotionally, and sometimes physically,. abuse other Black kids that do well in school? Well, it's a lot WORSE. Because the good students are being accused of BETRAYING their RACE. If a choice comes down to getting good grades and having any friends, it becomes a lot HARDER to make the so-called "right" choice.
I checked mebbe a dozen links, but that's what it boils down to. One interesting study showed that Black kids, indeed, DO value school but went on to note that they don't spend as much time on homework as white or Asian kids. That's what I mean by not believing all the studies. I'd-a never known, but that JMW pointed it out.
NOW! The harebrained ideas to solve the problem.
Lower the standards. Admit that Black kids just can't CUT it. In fact, having standardized tests at ALL is itself RACIST! Now, think for two seconds what this is saying to Black KIDS. And it's categorically FALSE. But even if it WERE true, motivation prolly 75% responsible for the results You get. Can ANYBODY tell me that telling Black kids that they can't cut it is in any way USEFUL?
Same deal about setting quotas to get Black kids into good high schools and college. EVERYBODY's doing it. And who does this hurt, besides the kids themselves being put into bad situations to begin with? Poor Asian kids. That's not commonly known. Boston Latin high school changed there criteria so that only 20% were admitted on test scores, rather than 100%. The rest chosen by ZIP CODE. Funny criteria to ME, but what do I know. Well, what i READ was that the zip codes were selected to purposefully freeze out Asian kids. That was the REASON for it.
You see why? It goes against "The Narrative" to have a minority start from the bottom, and CONSISTENTLY OUTPERFORM WHITES in just about EVERY category. Wealth, longevity... Minor things like that. Can't have a minority start from the bottom and do better than whites, because that would necessarily imply that IT CAN BE DONE. Can NOT have that.
I've gone on too long already. There were other GREAT points made by Professor McWhorter. Believe You hafta have a subscription to NYT to get the newsletter, tho.
I'll close with this, hopefully briefly, because I was hoping to catch a Zoom on K - 12 education in 20 minutes. Ah well... Not looking likely. I like to get a serving of fruit for lunch. Mebbe...
ANYHOO... When I saw, mebbe a decade ago or two, that unmarried women having children was now FORTY PERCENT of all kids... Well, I believed that Feminism had gone too far the other way. "NO, I DON' NEED A MAN FOR ANYTHING!" Read just lately that Black women are 70%. Compare that to 1925, when racism was at a peak when Black married's where higher than WHITES. I think it was 85% of Black children had two-parent households. Pretty sure about that.
So while we like to think that racism is cause of all problems, it is in some ways and it ISN"T in others. I've spent an inordinate amount of time trying to think about stuff like that. Still dunno, of course. NOBODY can... But that's just how I like to spend a lotta my time lately anyway.
There are very few people who are willing to say that. I'm retired, so I don't need to keep a job, is why I can. Dunno HOW Dr. McWhorter manages it, because I'd imagine it'd be a lot harder for a Black man to say these kinds-a things. Dr. Glenn Loury is another. Needless to say, I learn a LOT from the two of 'em.
Sorry so long, when no definitive answers except this one. The education system, and the people designing it and putting into practice are basically and fundamentally CORRUPTED. So what would You suspect but a bunch of ignorant kids, a LOTTA 'em woke, fer heaven's sake!
Perhaps, but we can't hurt those children whose parents DO care. Bringing people down to a base level is disastrous policy. As Elihu Smails once said, the world needs ditchdiggers, too.
Life is strange. I started a book, but it repelled me. So I started M. Sowell's "The Vision of the Anointed" which I also bought today. It's scary.
Amazon said it was published in 2019, and I wanted to hear about his recent views. Sowell looks at predictions made, often opposites, and then looks at the data of the results.
Blacks don't get as much pre-natal care as whites, and they have a higher mortality rate. Neglect, or outright racism. More government to pay for pre-natal care. But on the VERY SAME PAGE OF DATA, Mexican-Ams get LESS pre-natal care than Blacks but do same as whites. Asian-Ams less pre-natal care than whites, but have better mortality rates.
Blacks get turned down more than whites for home loans. Same theory. Yet whites turned down more than Asian-Ams.
Blacks laid off more than whites. You gotta understand that ALL MSM and Academics find this DEPLORABLE. Yet again, Asian-Ams fair better than whites. Not due to tech prowess. Amongst laborers, Asian-Ams GAINED employment while Blacks, whites, and Hispanics lost jobs.
If You're looking at FACTS then, obviously whites are being "discriminated" against by Asian-Ams. Same numbers apply in one case, necessarily apply in the other.
The scary part is the book was ACTUALLY written in 1995, and M. Sowell was looking BACK the previous 30 years and AHEAD the next 25. Nothing has changed. j THAT'S plain SCARY.
The few, the judges and liberals and media and academia, decide for the rest. Only difference is that it's even MORE the case in 2021 than EVER. The PhDs? The "experts?" The media and big government know what's right and proper. Facts be darned. And I'm only on Chapter 3.
I see a minimum of "data points" and draw, sometimes, accurate conclusions. Career forced me to; no talent on my part. But pretty much EVERYTHING I've EVER read says that change happens best on the local level, right?
Yet, the anointed feel it's their job, and governments job, to save us from ourselves. A year ago I felt the same Way. And it's the MORAL SUPERIORITY of the anointed that's largely responsible for the change.
17? Wow. That young man is going somewhere. Absolutely beautiful. I didn't have half his wisdom at that age. Every time I read something like this it reminds me how much we need immigrants who still believe the in the American creed that too many of the native born have gotten too self-satisfied to appreciate. Let 'em come.
Spot on. Every immigrant I have ever known came here for the American dream, willing to work their asses off. We are a lucky country to continue to pull such people.
I agree completely, Michael. I used to be a teacher in a city school with a high immigrant population. The surrounding neighborhood had working class houses, trailer parks and low income apartments. The local businesses were derelict. (I became comfortable in those establishments because those people from the "bad neighborhood" were the families of my kids.) I left, and when I returned twenty years later, the neighborhood was transformed by those immigrant families, including the kids I taught. It was still a working class place, no McMansions, but there were thriving businesses.
I'm proud of the work I did as a teacher in that neighborhood. We need good public schools and there are no simplistic answers.
The immigrant families were very much like the families this young man describes. We should be welcoming immigrants, and not just seasonal workers that can be exploited and sent home.
Far too often, the immigrants' children & grandchildren turn against their parents & become just like their peers, brainwashed into the Woke system, just as their peers are. It just takes one generation. Sometimes less. We have to change the culture & the education system itself to prevent people minds from being destroyed.
We can make a difference just by affecting the young people around us.
We have to raise children, ourselves, who believe in the American creed & have good values. We have to be positive influences for all the young people who we, ourselves, interact with on a regular basis.
If Ya wanna know the Truth of the matter, M. Sally Sue, well (I guess I should add IMHO) where the change will occur is in the local school boards. Or that's quickest way to make changes.
People are giving it "the ole college try." Just need the actions of enough people to make a HUGE difference.
"The square root of 64 is 8, the Moon is nearly 239,000 miles from the Earth, and you do not need to believe in God to see that goodwill is a force for positive change."
It lifts my heart to hear that your parents have invested in their new home without forgetting where they came from. This is a story of love, care and sacrifice with so much more to come. Authenticity is increasingly rare but you have it in spades. The art of persuasion lives and breaths through you. The future is yours and I am all too happy to entrust you with it. Thank you for sharing your story with us.
Hi Bari. I’ve been reading your articles for several months now…for free. Today I read your “guest writer” Daniel and I loved it. So committed to support you.
I love Substack, although I am a BIT concerned it’s quickly becoming my main source of news. Should I be concerned…? Hmmm.
But you, GG, Matt, Alex and one or two more have become my “go tos”.
All of the above just means, pls keep up the excellent work!
Bari, thank you so much for sharing the story of this remarkable young man. It is my sincere hope that he is not as rare as it seems, but rather his story is simply not consistent with the narrative popular with national media.
You win - I subscribed! Kept hoping maybe @Bariweiss would get brought into @TheDispatch fold, but week after week she delivers outstanding content. This is a beautiful essay.
I have a soft spot for Americans recently from Haiti, my family having been unofficially adopted by one such wonderful family while living in central NJ. Daniel is rich with the privileges that matter most, family and faith. Keep learning, keep an open and inquisitive mind, and keep writing!
For some reason, this article made me cry. Beautifully written and thoughtfully expressed, it points out just how much has been lost in this woke generation.
Wow. This is extremely well written. Daniel should be proud that he writes better than most professional journalist. He will go far and best I'd luck to him. Many thanks to Bari for sharing this.
Indeed! As an early childhood educator in my career prior to retirement, the one constant was structure. I see kids going off the rails at all ages who don't have parents, teachers or mentors who ensure structure.
Thank you, Bari, for giving Daniel a platform to share his story. His words carry a powerful message that is so needed in today's society, and one that I hope will be shared over and over again.
Among the many gems in this article, this one stands out: "I think the truth is simpler: those who prioritize education will get in." Standing ovation for this kid! And to his parents!
The same philosophy is as instilled in me by my immigrant parents. Prioritize your education first. I realize this is. It the case with many Hispanic families though. I was an exception.
If they have two committed parents and they don't prioritize education, that's their choice. If they do not have two committed parents, we can change the public policies that will encourage family focus and committed parents. Of the many non-antiracist things that white elite liberals do is trumpeting far and wide how the two parent family unit is not the most important thing, while simultaneously making extreme sacrifices themselves to form and stay in stable, traditional, families.
The family is now being actively destroyed among the broader middle class by bad policies and a challenging culture. No one cares and no one is thinking about the ramifications.
WORSE mistake. Didn't explain article about genetics. And too long for most to read anyway.
Point is, she found 1300 genes that relate to abilities at school, i think it was. I'd hafta read it again, but not now. At any rate, each gene amounts to a pimple on a gnats arse. But if You look at all 1300 and apply some formula I'd NEVER be able to fathom, You come with a number that correlates to outcomes.
That puts her in a jam. Leftists will REFUSE to believe anything-a the sort, and Right-wingers will believe that genetics is the ONLY thing that matters. Of course, both extremes are wrong. HTH (Hope This Helps) not that I entertain the notion anyone reads any-a this tripe...
ALWAYS mistakes. Ah well...
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/can-progressives-be-convinced-that-genetics-matters
(Forget the Zoom, reading is so much FASTER, and I'm behind.)
Yah, You nailed it pretty solid, M. Commenter 34.
I hate to be the one to bring it up, because Professor McWhorter just yesterday "said" NOBODY would be an idiot and claim genetics has anything to do with ANYTHING.
Saw just today: "Can Progressives Be Convinced That Genetics Matters?" by a really LEFT-WING geneticist. Still, she has guts to do the research. Long read that shocked ME, and I imagine it will be MORE shocking as more research is done using these techniques.
Absolutely. These things are not mutually exclusive. Students who are not achieving at or above their grade levels will not magically advance just because they are thrust into a setting where everyone else is. They need support from small classes or individualized instruction that teach them the foundational skills they lack as a result of their home deficit- which is the exact opposite of what they’d get from being a school designed for advanced placement students. They’d be lost. So what ends up happening at those schools for advanced students is that the curriculum becomes less rigorous to accommodate the students that are unprepared to be there. It’s a lose/lose situation, in my opinion.
Let’s fix the neighborhood schools- starting by implementing solid curriculum that teaches knowledge instead of “skills”.
and correct the inadequacies of local school funding, especially in "progressive" neighborhoods.
School choice, that is what we can do for them....
I think we have to be realistic with our expectations. The reality is, poor parenting has always been one of the key factors in all types of social dysfunction. Replace education with a trade, and 2021 for 1721. A parent that didn't focus on their child learning a trade doomed them to a life of poverty and misery. Whether today or 300 years ago, high(er) functioning parents encourage behaviors that result in higher functioning citizens. It's as much a universal law as gravity.
I can support “not throwing away” the children whose parents don’t prioritize education. What I can’t support is designing a system where that standard is seen as ok. Real life has consequences to actions of parents on their children. It has been that way from the dawn of time and their is little we will do to ameliorate it. Instead we should be educating young people on what those consequences are for when they choose to have children
You ask a REALLY deep question here, M. Adrian, and most-a the answers coming for "those who know" are a bunch-a made up fantasies that contradict all common sense logic.
As it happens, Professor John McWhorter has a newsletter from the NYT, and his topic yesterday was "What should we do about systemic racism" and how it pertains to Black's underachievement. I skimmed it yesterday and bought a book I'll prolly never get around to reading. I actually looked into it a bit just now, and bought another book.
I'm gonna summarize, best I can, what Dr. McWhorter concludes.
First off, anyone thinking that the difference in achievements, by DEFINITION, indicates racism is so TOTALLY bogus, that it's a wonder so-called intelligence go along with it. Those are my words. JMW and I are, neither one-a us, fans of Ibram X. Kendi, the self-proclaimed expert on anti-racism.
JMW says lack of funding is only PART of the cause, and is WAY oversold, on account of the FACT that middle-class Blacks don't do so hot either.
The better part of JMW's article goes on about how the kids THEMSELVES don't put a high-value on education. (Keeping in mind that JMW is Black...) THere's an attitude amongst Black youth, that stupid people have made GREAT efforts to downplay, that doing well in school is "acting white." The recommended book on the subject is "Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation." https://www.amazon.com/dp/030017120X/
This BEGAN when schools were first desegregated. White students and teachers, both, were VERY racist when all this began, and this left an indelible image that school was NOT a good place for Black kids. The problem is that this tribal image persists today, even though the prejudice has almost entirely disappeared.
There's always been nerds. But when Black kids emotionally, and sometimes physically,. abuse other Black kids that do well in school? Well, it's a lot WORSE. Because the good students are being accused of BETRAYING their RACE. If a choice comes down to getting good grades and having any friends, it becomes a lot HARDER to make the so-called "right" choice.
I checked mebbe a dozen links, but that's what it boils down to. One interesting study showed that Black kids, indeed, DO value school but went on to note that they don't spend as much time on homework as white or Asian kids. That's what I mean by not believing all the studies. I'd-a never known, but that JMW pointed it out.
NOW! The harebrained ideas to solve the problem.
Lower the standards. Admit that Black kids just can't CUT it. In fact, having standardized tests at ALL is itself RACIST! Now, think for two seconds what this is saying to Black KIDS. And it's categorically FALSE. But even if it WERE true, motivation prolly 75% responsible for the results You get. Can ANYBODY tell me that telling Black kids that they can't cut it is in any way USEFUL?
Same deal about setting quotas to get Black kids into good high schools and college. EVERYBODY's doing it. And who does this hurt, besides the kids themselves being put into bad situations to begin with? Poor Asian kids. That's not commonly known. Boston Latin high school changed there criteria so that only 20% were admitted on test scores, rather than 100%. The rest chosen by ZIP CODE. Funny criteria to ME, but what do I know. Well, what i READ was that the zip codes were selected to purposefully freeze out Asian kids. That was the REASON for it.
You see why? It goes against "The Narrative" to have a minority start from the bottom, and CONSISTENTLY OUTPERFORM WHITES in just about EVERY category. Wealth, longevity... Minor things like that. Can't have a minority start from the bottom and do better than whites, because that would necessarily imply that IT CAN BE DONE. Can NOT have that.
I've gone on too long already. There were other GREAT points made by Professor McWhorter. Believe You hafta have a subscription to NYT to get the newsletter, tho.
I'll close with this, hopefully briefly, because I was hoping to catch a Zoom on K - 12 education in 20 minutes. Ah well... Not looking likely. I like to get a serving of fruit for lunch. Mebbe...
ANYHOO... When I saw, mebbe a decade ago or two, that unmarried women having children was now FORTY PERCENT of all kids... Well, I believed that Feminism had gone too far the other way. "NO, I DON' NEED A MAN FOR ANYTHING!" Read just lately that Black women are 70%. Compare that to 1925, when racism was at a peak when Black married's where higher than WHITES. I think it was 85% of Black children had two-parent households. Pretty sure about that.
So while we like to think that racism is cause of all problems, it is in some ways and it ISN"T in others. I've spent an inordinate amount of time trying to think about stuff like that. Still dunno, of course. NOBODY can... But that's just how I like to spend a lotta my time lately anyway.
There are very few people who are willing to say that. I'm retired, so I don't need to keep a job, is why I can. Dunno HOW Dr. McWhorter manages it, because I'd imagine it'd be a lot harder for a Black man to say these kinds-a things. Dr. Glenn Loury is another. Needless to say, I learn a LOT from the two of 'em.
Sorry so long, when no definitive answers except this one. The education system, and the people designing it and putting into practice are basically and fundamentally CORRUPTED. So what would You suspect but a bunch of ignorant kids, a LOTTA 'em woke, fer heaven's sake!
Phew! Had NO idea it was gonna turn out to be that long. Sorry.
Perhaps, but we can't hurt those children whose parents DO care. Bringing people down to a base level is disastrous policy. As Elihu Smails once said, the world needs ditchdiggers, too.
Life is strange. I started a book, but it repelled me. So I started M. Sowell's "The Vision of the Anointed" which I also bought today. It's scary.
Amazon said it was published in 2019, and I wanted to hear about his recent views. Sowell looks at predictions made, often opposites, and then looks at the data of the results.
Blacks don't get as much pre-natal care as whites, and they have a higher mortality rate. Neglect, or outright racism. More government to pay for pre-natal care. But on the VERY SAME PAGE OF DATA, Mexican-Ams get LESS pre-natal care than Blacks but do same as whites. Asian-Ams less pre-natal care than whites, but have better mortality rates.
Blacks get turned down more than whites for home loans. Same theory. Yet whites turned down more than Asian-Ams.
Blacks laid off more than whites. You gotta understand that ALL MSM and Academics find this DEPLORABLE. Yet again, Asian-Ams fair better than whites. Not due to tech prowess. Amongst laborers, Asian-Ams GAINED employment while Blacks, whites, and Hispanics lost jobs.
If You're looking at FACTS then, obviously whites are being "discriminated" against by Asian-Ams. Same numbers apply in one case, necessarily apply in the other.
The scary part is the book was ACTUALLY written in 1995, and M. Sowell was looking BACK the previous 30 years and AHEAD the next 25. Nothing has changed. j THAT'S plain SCARY.
The few, the judges and liberals and media and academia, decide for the rest. Only difference is that it's even MORE the case in 2021 than EVER. The PhDs? The "experts?" The media and big government know what's right and proper. Facts be darned. And I'm only on Chapter 3.
I see a minimum of "data points" and draw, sometimes, accurate conclusions. Career forced me to; no talent on my part. But pretty much EVERYTHING I've EVER read says that change happens best on the local level, right?
Yet, the anointed feel it's their job, and governments job, to save us from ourselves. A year ago I felt the same Way. And it's the MORAL SUPERIORITY of the anointed that's largely responsible for the change.
Day is done.
TYTY if any one read this crap or wrote today, too.
Anyone who appreciates the brilliance of Thomas Sowell is a friend of mine.
Daniel, I wish you luck and good fortune in your life. If the rest of us are lucky, you'll be a future leader in this country.
My thoughts exactly!!
1000%
17? Wow. That young man is going somewhere. Absolutely beautiful. I didn't have half his wisdom at that age. Every time I read something like this it reminds me how much we need immigrants who still believe the in the American creed that too many of the native born have gotten too self-satisfied to appreciate. Let 'em come.
Spot on. Every immigrant I have ever known came here for the American dream, willing to work their asses off. We are a lucky country to continue to pull such people.
I agree completely, Michael. I used to be a teacher in a city school with a high immigrant population. The surrounding neighborhood had working class houses, trailer parks and low income apartments. The local businesses were derelict. (I became comfortable in those establishments because those people from the "bad neighborhood" were the families of my kids.) I left, and when I returned twenty years later, the neighborhood was transformed by those immigrant families, including the kids I taught. It was still a working class place, no McMansions, but there were thriving businesses.
I'm proud of the work I did as a teacher in that neighborhood. We need good public schools and there are no simplistic answers.
The immigrant families were very much like the families this young man describes. We should be welcoming immigrants, and not just seasonal workers that can be exploited and sent home.
Far too often, the immigrants' children & grandchildren turn against their parents & become just like their peers, brainwashed into the Woke system, just as their peers are. It just takes one generation. Sometimes less. We have to change the culture & the education system itself to prevent people minds from being destroyed.
We can make a difference just by affecting the young people around us.
We have to raise children, ourselves, who believe in the American creed & have good values. We have to be positive influences for all the young people who we, ourselves, interact with on a regular basis.
If Ya wanna know the Truth of the matter, M. Sally Sue, well (I guess I should add IMHO) where the change will occur is in the local school boards. Or that's quickest way to make changes.
People are giving it "the ole college try." Just need the actions of enough people to make a HUGE difference.
https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1403297459992944642
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxu3wdiXRF0
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1405624322643873798
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiqF23eYHqw
These are some I know of, but I'm sure this is gonna happen more and more. Or I'd like to THINK it will.
Yah, IMMIGRANTS!
"The square root of 64 is 8, the Moon is nearly 239,000 miles from the Earth, and you do not need to believe in God to see that goodwill is a force for positive change."
It lifts my heart to hear that your parents have invested in their new home without forgetting where they came from. This is a story of love, care and sacrifice with so much more to come. Authenticity is increasingly rare but you have it in spades. The art of persuasion lives and breaths through you. The future is yours and I am all too happy to entrust you with it. Thank you for sharing your story with us.
OMG, this brought tears to my eyes. Way to go kid! You will go far in this world.
Thank you so very much for this beautiful story of an independent thinking young man. May God bless him in every way.
Hi Bari. I’ve been reading your articles for several months now…for free. Today I read your “guest writer” Daniel and I loved it. So committed to support you.
I love Substack, although I am a BIT concerned it’s quickly becoming my main source of news. Should I be concerned…? Hmmm.
But you, GG, Matt, Alex and one or two more have become my “go tos”.
All of the above just means, pls keep up the excellent work!
"Should I be concerned?" No. The best reporters are here trading on their own reputation rather than needing a legacy media name to prop them up.
and their work doesn't pass through a 'filter', i.e. they are not told what to write.
Yup. That’s why we’re here :)
Bravo. Agree 100%
I’ve had a similar journey. Thank you Bari for introducing me to sub stack.
Just started Substack following...wowza such trying times...but love seeing such excellent writing and analysis flourish under pressure.
Bari, thank you so much for sharing the story of this remarkable young man. It is my sincere hope that he is not as rare as it seems, but rather his story is simply not consistent with the narrative popular with national media.
This is beautiful and should be required reading at every high school in our country.
Bari, this substack is on fire. You've got amazing articles daily. I've saved quite a few for my son.
You win - I subscribed! Kept hoping maybe @Bariweiss would get brought into @TheDispatch fold, but week after week she delivers outstanding content. This is a beautiful essay.
I have a soft spot for Americans recently from Haiti, my family having been unofficially adopted by one such wonderful family while living in central NJ. Daniel is rich with the privileges that matter most, family and faith. Keep learning, keep an open and inquisitive mind, and keep writing!
I would say, "Daniel Idfresne for President!" but these days I think there are much better ways for him to improve the world and be successful.
For some reason, this article made me cry. Beautifully written and thoughtfully expressed, it points out just how much has been lost in this woke generation.
Wow. This is extremely well written. Daniel should be proud that he writes better than most professional journalist. He will go far and best I'd luck to him. Many thanks to Bari for sharing this.
All children need love, discipline and instruction. This is a universal constant. Race plays zero role. Why is this so difficult for some?
Indeed! As an early childhood educator in my career prior to retirement, the one constant was structure. I see kids going off the rails at all ages who don't have parents, teachers or mentors who ensure structure.
Thank you, Bari, for giving Daniel a platform to share his story. His words carry a powerful message that is so needed in today's society, and one that I hope will be shared over and over again.