Re: Spinning NCLB "accountability" as civil rights: neocon girly manhood !?!

[PRISCILLA GUTIERREZ <pgutpgut@msn.com>]

Ooooh, thank you Tauna for setting me and everyone else straight.  No wonder Rod Paige called us terrorists!  The most scandal-ridden Department of Education in U.S. history surely has the best interests of children at heart.   How foolish of us to think otherwise...Priscilla Gutierrez Outreach Specialist New Mexico School for the Deaf ...change is inevitable, growth is optional...> From: taunar@plateautel.net> To: arn-l@interversity.org> Subject: Re: [arn-l] Spinning NCLB "accountability" as civil rights: neocon girly manhood !?!> Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 09:30:47 -0600> > Art.> > Every last person on this list is against civil rights for poor and minority > students, disadvantaged students, disabled students. Except you, you paragon > of virtue.> > All except you are terminally deluded and our railings against No Child Left > Behind and high-stakes testing are exercises in silliness.> > There, feel better now?> > How silly we are to object to the mega millions in profiteering taking place > for private interests under an accountability system so absurd it defies > description... while the very children the law purports to care so much > about are the ones being hurt most by it.> > How silly of me in the years since NCLB kicked in to object to subjecting > children with IQs in the 50 -70 range to the same grade level tests as their > non-disabled peers. Clearly, I've been a bigot, guilty of the soft bigotry > of low expectations.> > I got three new students (siblings) just before school was out in May. Mom > is a drug addict and the little boys have been subjected to terrible abuse > and neglect, including long periods of being kept locked in a garage without > food, water, lights. These boys are representative of hundreds of thousands > of this nation's hurting children who are victims of cultural and societal > ills, pervasive conditions which have a horrendous impact on academic > achievement.> > But I see the light now - these children struggle to learn so what they need > is RIGOR, the academic bar must be set higher, we must make things even > harder. How bigoted of me to think otherwise! God forbid that all children > are not able to learn exactly the same things in exactly the same amount of > time.> > Tauna> > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <aburke5054@aol.com>> To: <arn-l@interversity.org>> Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 8:20 PM> Subject: Re: [arn-l] Spinning NCLB "accountability" as civil rights: neocon > girly manhood !?!> > > This list is getting more and more bizarre and farther and farther out.> And that is saying something. Some of the nation's most respected> civil-rights organizations and legal organizations with civil-rights> missions support the accountability that NCLB has brought to schools> and they believe that a retreat would weaken schools and would be a> serious blow to parents and children. They're right about that.> > Art> > > -----Original Message-----> From: QCao009@aol.com> To: arn-l@interversity.org; fcarforum@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 5:43 pm> Subject: [arn-l] Spinning NCLB "accountability" as civil rights: neocon> girly manhood !?!> > _Black is white_ (http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/black_white)> Submitted by _Rick Perlstein_> (http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/user/rick_perlstein) on August 6,> 2007 -> 8:55am.> > When I wrote about the Supreme Court's monstrously mendacious decision> to> ban local school districts from seeking racial fairness, I was> especially> offended by Chief Justice Roberts' formulation, “the way to stop> discrimination> on> the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."> Historian Nancy McClean has now published an amazing little essay in> which> she reveals the workshops that churned out this Orwellian notion.> "Roberts’s> decision," she writes, "is replete with quotable phrases from the> lexicon> conservative strategists honed in their think tanks in the 1970s and> then> carried> into the nation’s courtrooms through their various legal societies."> Here's the story:> [H]ow did National Review greet the Brown decision? Frank Meyer, its> founding co-editor and the leading conservative movement builder in the> > formative> years, called the high court’s decision a “rape of the Constitution.”> > To fight the implementation of Brown, Buckley and Meyer forged an> alliance> with the intellectual architect of “massive resistance,” James Jackson> Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick’s agitation against school desegregation as> editor of> the> Richmond News Leader earned him praise as “one of the South’s most> talented> leaders” from the Mississippi-based white Citizens’ Councils then> working to> crush the civil rights movement.> > Buckley traded mailing lists with this avid white supremacist> organization> in 1958, assuring its leader that “Our position on states’ rights is> the same> as your own.” Indeed, it was. What made “the White community” in the> South “> entitled” to use any means necessary to keep blacks from voting,> Buckley had> editorialized the year before, was that “it is the advanced race” so> its “> claims of civilization supersede those of universal suffrage.”> But calling the emancipation of black schoolchildren a "rape," and> calling> blacks civilizationally inferior, wasn't flying with the public. So> they did> what conservative do: borrowed from the black arts of corporation> public> relations.> They were tutored by northern neo-conservatives like Irving Kristol,> who in> 1964 warned Buckley of the “political folly” of arguing against school> desegregation “in terms of racial differences.” Buckley and his allies> wisely> dropped the racial rationales and most now say that they regret their> earlier> arguments.> > But their core commitments stayed the same. To fight social justice,> conservative spokesmen simply mastered the art of rhetorical jujitsu.> They> seized> the civil rights movement’s greatest strength--its moral power–to> defeat its> goals. They complained less and less that civil rights measures> violated> property rights, aided communists or elevated racial inferiors.> Instead,> conservatives claimed that civil rights measures themselves> discriminated.> > “I am getting to be like the Catholic convert who became more Catholic> than> the Pope,” Kilpatrick marveled in 1978 about his own altered> phraseology. “> If it is wrong to discriminate by reason of race or sex,” intoned the> outspoken enemy of civil rights, “well, then, it is wrong to> discriminate by> reason> of race or sex.”> > The former segregationists now portrayed themselves as the true> advocates of> fairness. They framed “the egalitarians,” in Kilpatrick’s words, as> “worse> racists--much worse racists--than the old Southern bigots.”...> Yes: quite literally, they argued that black was white. Read the whole> essay> _here_ (http://hnn.us/articles/41501.html) , then groove to Nancy's> _book _> (http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Not-Enough-Workplace-Foundation/dp/0674019> 091/ref> =pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0698794-2006438?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186404043&sr=8-1)> Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace.> > > Quan> > > > > > ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new> AOL at> http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour> -------------------------------------------------------> ARN-L archives:> http://interversity.org/lists/arn-l/archives.html> > > > > > > ________________________________________________________________________> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free> from AOL at AOL.com.> =0> -------------------------------------------------------> Subscribe ARN-L:> http://interversity.org/lists/arn-l/subscribe.html> >