And they will look at my kids who were in school in person (private Christian) the whole time and blame their success on “privilege” as opposed to the truth - a school that refused to damage children in the name of virtue signaling grandparents.
I tell my kids often - you are privileged to have parents that love you and put your needs first, but don’t ever let anyone make you feel guilty for it. Your parents fought this harmful junk loudly and from the beginning. We voted for EVERY child to have the exact same educational opportunities as you have. We voted for no mask, open businesses, open schools. Make sure you lay the blame where it belongs - at the feet of the entitled weeklong adults who used poor and middle class kids as fodder for their irrational mental hysterics.
As far as was this harm predictable - 100% and many did predict the harm because it was entirely predictable. No one needs to guess if they drop a brick on their bear feet it will hurt. Woketards did the equivalent of dropping bricks on their own kids’ bear feet to test the theory that it would hurt them. When the kids screamed in pain, the woketards decided the kid was just being dramatic. Now they are in the hospital “shocked” the brick broke their kids’ toes and feet, but still convinced dropping a brick on their kids’ feet was a completely necessary experiment. It was actually child abuse!!!!!
It’s sad the number gullible, mean spirited, uncritical humans in western society that hate children, even their own.
You are so lucky. We send are youngest to private Christian school in Austin, Texas - albeit Episcopal - and they still had remote learning. In fact, they only had school 4 days a week- Wednesdays off because the teachers had more work load with remote learning🙄. Oh and of course, 97% vaccinated, my son being one of the only unvaccinated. Once he returned to school they tested my son twice a week because he wasn’t vaccinated. Of course he and his friends all got Covid but despite most of his friends being boosted he recovered the quickest. I would have tried to change schools if he wasn’t in the middle of high school. Can’t get him out of their fast enough.
There were other Christain schools around here that weren't that bad but were pretty bad. It's disappointing they didn't stand by their values any better than they did. And yes, I am very grateful for the situation we had.
If you lived in San Antionio, I'd say check out San Antonio Christain School. They just hired a guy named Dr. Robert Brown for the incoming school year. He is incredible. There is not a better school administrator out there. The programs he has built, the kids he has forever bettered, the success of the students that come out of school under his leadership is absolutely the most impressive thing I have ever seen in my life. Its beyond what I even thought was possible. If you ever end up in San Antionio, you want your kids at whatever school this guy is at. If you want your kids' administrators to do a better job, tell them to call this guy and learn how it's done. Texas's future become brighter when his daughter moved there, and he and his wife followed.
Yeah, our kids go to a private Classical Christian school. The kids there were already running circles around the public school kids (Latin starting in 3rd grade, etc). They were in person mask less this whole time. The difference in outcomes is going to be insane in a few years.
Well said, NCMom - and thank you for raising your kids with the same attitude. If our nation recovers from this, we'll have folks like you and your children to thank ... and, of course, our Lord God Almighty.
Yes! We said the whole time it was child abuse! I have never felt rage like I have watching how complete strangers treated their children over this nonsense.
There were a few schools, all of them private, that actually took a stand against the covid lunacy. My children's school did have them at home for a small while and then they wore masks for maybe a couple of months. By the end of 2020, they were back to normal but in the boys' school, they kept a box of masks in every class and when the inspector came by, the boys put on the mask until the moment the inspector left. In the girls' school, they made the girls wear a mask on a necklace or a braclet and when the inspector came by, the girls put the masks on, and when he left, they took the masks right off. So you see, the private schools my kids went to understood that the whole covid-19 fiasco is just a charade and as a health risk, covid-19 is 98% BS. I still see public schools pushing masks and this covid social distancing hoax confirms for me that I want nothing to do with public education.
Not brilliant, though thank you for the compliment, just not very susceptible to peer pressure. I was wild by choice growing up, but never into mind altering substances (I liked uppers and beer, LOL). I was never that girl that would say "yes" drunk, but "no" sober, except to driving. If it was a no sober, it was still a no drunk. The boys learned this quickly. haha
I think what amazed me about this is how many people let irrational fear drive incredibly harmful decisions. I don't know anyone who masked their kids, even when they were sick and the little masks were out for sick kids, and certainly not ANY healthy child, at the pediatrician's office pre covid. It was just common sense that it was silly and couldn't work (after all, aerosol means "dissolved in air"). It really shocked me how many didn't sit back and think "have I ever done this before under a similar risk situation before?" But a little media pressure and they masked them like Taliban women convinced of some false dichotomy of open schools with useless masks or online "school." Most I know didn't even consider the absurdity that they thought those were the ONLY 2 available options. They seemed shocked when I wuld say "why on Earth would those be the only 2 options? Why not open schools with no masks and actually sick kids just stay home? Until 2020 that seemed to work pretty well, and certainly much better than putting your kids in home confinement or masking them." They would blubber around word salads for why the kids couldn't just, ya know, go to school.
And the "vaccines"!! I don't know a single parent that in 2019 would have said "sure, give my 9yo an experimental shot that doesn't prevent the disease it was designed to prevent, a disease my kid faces no risk from in the first place, but go ahead and give them an experimental shot that does come with an unknowable long term side effect profile and a terrible known short term side effect profile." Nothing about the ridiculousness changed in 3 years. Nothing. Only fear and peer pressure, but absolutely nothing else. So come 2021 a ton of my kids' friends' parents dragged their kids out as soon as possible to get them clot shots knowing they didn't work, their kids were already immune, and there were potentially terrible known side effects, albeit not many school friends,
NC Mom, I have followed your comments across Substacks for a long time now -- they are generally spot on, well written, and engaging. You really SHOULD start publishing in your own stack (for which I am signed up). You have something to say and your own stack gives you a unified place to say it. Just putting a vote in for even more work for you...lol.
Thank you for the compliment. I go back and forth and often get distracted - mostly by 2 very busy, chatty and active kids who constantly need something to do (parent fail), but I appreciate substack provides the opportunity. I appreciate more the variety and frequent depth of the content because I have more to learn than to say for sure (which is my hesitation on publishing at the moment)!!!
I agree with most of your moral beliefs, but I am a lapsed Catholic. Live and Let Live. Only God can judge. Every individual on this planet has an individual belief, some will be lured into darkness, others will give gifts to mankind. It''s a choice. And the choice can change over time. These are the Days we need to make choices. I need to emphasize "CHOICE". Evil is easy, good takes effort. Choose wisely not personally.
I endured annual fund-raiser ambushes by school kids peddling wrapping paper, cookie dough, candy bars, and a whole lot of crap. "We're raising money for our school," the young peddler would say.
And I was a heartless bitch because I said, "Sorry. I pay school taxes already."
Sheesh! Start saying NO to the damned school boards.
I'm Right there with you.... everyone has their hand out on behalf of the school and the children! The parent board, the student council, individual groups and clubs, and then of course we had to pay student dues and if my kids wanted to go to a dance they still had to buy a ticket! What the fuck was all money going towards?!?! Not to mention the astronomical property taxes that I'm paying in the great state of Taxachusetts.....and the public schools are still delivering a shitty education if any education at all. Makes my blood boil 😡😡😡😡😡😡
You know what really burned my ass when it came to the schools and the masks (well the whole thing burned my ass but this in particular got me)......it when the superintendent sent an email when the masks were lifted from the schools saying that there will be "zero tolerance for any bullying or any comments made to those kids/staff who still want to wear a mask." My head literally exploded when I read that! Are you fucking kidding me? My children and others who hated wearing the masks were berated and shamed and bullied for a year and a half. And I couldn't resist... I had to email that peckerhead back and tell him that it's ridiculous now that this zero tolerance attitude is projected when so many kids have suffered and were berated by the mask zealots at the school because God forbid their mask wasn't fully covering their nose right up to the lower eyelid. It was disgusting 😡🤬😡🤬😡🤬
I agree... Probably more people than not feel the whole thing is total bullshit. And of course the jackass superintendent gave some stupid political statement about it's been so hard and I hope we never have to go through a pandemic again 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮 blah blah blah. Of course the idiot morons don't realize that they were actually a huge part of the problem thinking only of themselves and staying at home getting a full paycheck while the kids didn't get anything and have suffered. I guarantee if they were sent home with nothing... no paycheck, a suspension of benefits, etc... just like the kids were sent home with nothing, they would have been squealing like greased pigs and the kids would have been back into school lickety split.
NY and Maryland aren't much better. During 2020, I appreciated Florida and Texas and South Dakota more than I thought possible. I'm looking to move, and it is a process and I hope I end up in Texas or Florida in the next couple of years. NYC has been horrible.
I won't. Hardcore conservative here. I have never voted for Democrats and I turned a blind eye to it in NYC for a long time. March 2020 was a real eye opener for me and I can't unsee what I've seen. I became even more conservative and the sight of left-wing NYC politics makes me want to hurl. In 2021 I visited Texas 4 times and in 2020 once and next month, I'm going back. So I may very well end up there or Florida. If it makes you feel any better, all the New Yorkers that I know that have moved to Texas were also very very conservative and I think the recent research I've seen shows that people who are moving out of NY and CA tend to be conservatives.
My kids elementary school allowed McDonald’s to come in and sponsor some sharing/caring curriculum where they were taken out of academic classes for 1/2 a day of playground indoctrination and branding. The principal pushed back angrily when I complained.
Good for you for pushing back. I used to supervise recess at elementary schools. Kids learned real quick what was/wasn’t ok & they knew it after sitting out of a game for 5 min, which I’m sure nowadays would be illegal. When I’d go to recess as a volunteer at our grandkids’ school the past 5 years, it was amazing how all the supervisors did was walk around, unaware of what was going on! It takes being involved, interacting…or I guess McDonald…LOL!!!
If the government actually applied the money to helping the kids, great.
Instead it feathers the nest of teachers unions. Whose members teach our kids that white people are inherently evil- they can't help themselves. They teach this at the expense of the things kids need to know to compete in a global economy.
How about teaching kids about respect for public property? Here's a real sore subject: Book covers.
Every year I was issued my schoolbooks. Every year, I took them home and covered them (usually with brown paper grocery bags). If we didn't cover our books, the teacher kept you after school, handed you brown paper grocery bags & scotch tape and watched while you covered your books.
In this way, schoolbooks were used 3, 4, 5 years.
NOW? The damned school budget includes hundreds of thousands of dollars for new books every year!
And the funny thing is is that they probably use mostly digital material. My kids never came home with textbooks but you're right there was always money in the budget for a new textbooks.
I remember our brown bag book covers! I got a great education in Fairfax county schools but I’m 75 years of age now and happily retired. I wouldn’t go near those schools now.
Today Public schools are indoctrination camps Community college is a repeat of 11th and 12 grade. The Teachers union Controls the CDC NíH and Uncle Joey Biden. Out running a Marxist agenda destroying our country.
Not all community colleges...it depends upon the subject. So far what my kid (heading toward a business degree) has been better taught and more useful than high school. We'll see what woke garbage is included in the World History to 1650 that he will take in the fall.
Publishing companies don’t really want the books to last more than a year. There’s more money to be made if schools make more frequent purchases. I wonder if someone took a deep dive into academic publishers they might find deep connections with teacher’s unions. Follow the money. One of the best marketing strategies out there is on the back of a shampoo bottle, “rinse, repeat “. It’s a business practice followed by many...dare I say big pharma might be one of them?
Was always the $$$ and control. Its the commiecRAT playbook 101. Especially with the Teachers unions. How no ONE has lost their job over this or been remotely held accountable says it all!
Yeah, you were right. The behavior of these people to shut down the conversation, especially from experts and reputable people, was unconscionable. A cautionary tale about how fast totalitarianism can gain traction and how fragile is our freedom.
I’ve homeschooled since the shut down. I knew beforehand from interactions with my kids’ schools that kids are the LAST thing they care about. Being out at playgrounds with my kids (no masks) allowed me to meet likeminded parents and kids.
I pity the kids with scared parents. The little girl across the street was not allowed to play with anyone for a year. Her parents rushed her inside when my kids said hello. They were friends before the shutdown.
Anyone who didn’t see how harmful the lockdown was going to be to kids was either a complete fucking moron or an ideologue lying their ass off. Thankfully my kids school stayed open and our kids didn’t suffer as much. But no one was unscathed.
Same here. I sent an email the end of April 2020 to my kids’ then Catholic school principal, who was a former public school principle that brought the public school crap academics and insane ideologies with him to my kids’ then school, asking him why they weren’t reopening the school. He was furious I pointed to data from Italy about risk stratification and so “callous” about peoples “literal” lives. 🙄. Not once did he mention the kids in his rambling nonsense angry little man response to me.
Fortunately we were in the process transferring them to a different private Christian school before the pandemic. They started on time in person August 2020 at a far superior Christian school in every aspect - from academics to character to athletics to the arts to community service expectations. The new school never shut down, only “required” masks during mandates and allowed parents to sign their kids out even during the mandates. My kids and a bunch of others never wore masks. The teachers mostly wore those plastic half face things in the halls and nothing most of the school day unless the county health department was there harassing the school - which they did routinely.
As soon as the vaccines came out we got an email promising no vaccine mandates ever, they would never ask the vaccination status of any student, and parents had no business asking faculty or staff about their vaccine status.
Our local public schools kept the kids locked out for a year, and masked like Taliban women the next year. They also made a habit of harassing the unvaccinated middle and high school students (with no plans to change the harassment policy this year - they will still get pulled from their hardest classes to go to sit and wait for testing 2 times a week for sn hour).
Why do we see these sorts of things happening? Because political bodies make decisions for political reasons, whereas 'private' schools are trying to please the parents and students at the school.
The greatest thing about individual freedom is that it allows every citizen to ascertain their own unique circumstances and make decisions based on that information — information nobody else in the world has. When government makes decisions, they not only lack the necessary information to make the best decision for your circumstances, in most cases they’re not even considering your circumstances at all, because political bodies make decisions for political reasons, not practical ones.
The last couple years of covid rules are perhaps the perfect example of the folly of top-down decision-making. Covid restrictions were never based on actual science or data, but (shockingly) were based on POLITICAL reasoning. When the politics demanded that New York ‘reject’ the Trump Vaccine, the politicians were adamant that’s what they would do. Now that the political winds have shifted and the Democrats are in control, the politics demands that New York mandates the vaccine for normal life, even children going to school. (You’ll note that politicians in Europe have different political pressures and come to different conclusions about jabbing the kids)
The parallels to the Vietnam war are noteworthy. Children (notwithstanding the legal definition of an adult, I still say that 18 year-olds are children in many ways) were sacrificed for an idiotic government policy guided by evil, misguided men willing to destroy villages in order to save them. Meanwhile, the large segments of society who proudly marched their sons down to the local recruitment office—only to later regret their misplaced sense of patriotism—took their anger out on the segments of society who smartly saw through the government propaganda, didn’t buy into the false sense of patriotic duty, and either got their sons a college deferment or a bus ticket to Canada. Sound familiar?
Haha feels pretty damn good! If you’re like me, you’re judging the idiots still wearing masks; A lot of younger folks who ate the fear propaganda, hook, line and sinker; a lot of folks whom Trump wasn’t their president; a lot of “men” wearing man buns.
I'm flying tomorrow morning for the first time since Oct 2019. All those flights I would have taken, all the money I would have spent on travel, I will not spend and the airline industry will never recover it. I will not forget just how horrible the airlines were about enforcing the government's ridiculous mask mandate. It's one thing to have a mask mandate, it's another thing to be tyrannical about it and rudely tell your passengers to pull up the mask between bites or sips. I refuse to fund anything that supports covid-19 masking, vaxxing, or PCR testing.
Not only were the lockdowns unnecessary and an abysmal failure with long term effects, the whole mask thing, in school and outside of school had untold negative effects in trust issues for this age group. EVERYONE looks like a scary stranger when you cannot determine intent by masking the most basic of human non verbal communication. Just ask Billy the Kid why he wore one.
Remember all those bullshit bumper stickers & campaign posters for bullshit school board candidates: CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE.
They made me sick then; they infuriate me now. Too many do NOT care about the kids.
With apologies to teachers here--and to those who love them--we need to fire the lot of them. AND START OVER...WITHOUT TEACHER UNIONS.
The good ones can reapply--after taking a competency test. I'm confident the pink-haired, tattooed, and multi-pierced screwballs won't survive the cut.
And for the love of god: there needs to be teacher dress codes! Look professional! Set an example!
I remember asking my friend, leader in our local teachers union and the third grade teacher every parent requested for their child, if she was ok with getting paid the same as the HS social studies teacher who showed movies/videos every class, every day. Tenure and unions destroyed our public education.
Absolutely correct, Alex. The whole debacle has been a travesty.
It's difficult to pick "the worst part of it" but closing schools is at the top.
So is forced solitary confinement of our senior citizens in Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Centers. So are the unnecessary deaths. So are the loss of careers and businesses. So is the massive screw up of our supply chains and the damage to our farming and energy production.
In the fall of 2020 I signed the Great Barrington Declaration as a private citizen. I still cannot believe that reasonable voices were at best, ignored, and at worst cancelled for their "unacceptable views." The fallout from this should be far and wide but instead we are being gaslit once again by the MSM and our government.
No shit. Anyone with half a brain could have predicted this. But but, I’m a good person but but, I believe in the science. Now reap what you sow useful idiots.
I’m so lucky to live in Texas where my kids school never shut down. A place where kids were not subjected to daily Covid fear porn. A place where most freedoms still exist. The youth of Texas and other like minded states will be light years ahead of the little lambs from places like NY, Illinois and California. There is hope for the future!
The schools got so much money from Covid relief that they haven’t even been able to spend yet. I wonder if there will be any accountability for how this money was or will be spent.
The good side of this is that many parents have woken up to what is being taught in public schools; the attitudes, the indoctrination, and that there are some fiercely ideological, unstable teachers. Parents responded by pulling their kids out of these schools, and are using other options. Perhaps even saving their kids from a life of unhappiness.
And, now, the schools will use their abject failure to get more money.
And liberal voters will give it to them because "they vote for kids" and outcomes don't matter, just intentions.
And they will look at my kids who were in school in person (private Christian) the whole time and blame their success on “privilege” as opposed to the truth - a school that refused to damage children in the name of virtue signaling grandparents.
I tell my kids often - you are privileged to have parents that love you and put your needs first, but don’t ever let anyone make you feel guilty for it. Your parents fought this harmful junk loudly and from the beginning. We voted for EVERY child to have the exact same educational opportunities as you have. We voted for no mask, open businesses, open schools. Make sure you lay the blame where it belongs - at the feet of the entitled weeklong adults who used poor and middle class kids as fodder for their irrational mental hysterics.
As far as was this harm predictable - 100% and many did predict the harm because it was entirely predictable. No one needs to guess if they drop a brick on their bear feet it will hurt. Woketards did the equivalent of dropping bricks on their own kids’ bear feet to test the theory that it would hurt them. When the kids screamed in pain, the woketards decided the kid was just being dramatic. Now they are in the hospital “shocked” the brick broke their kids’ toes and feet, but still convinced dropping a brick on their kids’ feet was a completely necessary experiment. It was actually child abuse!!!!!
It’s sad the number gullible, mean spirited, uncritical humans in western society that hate children, even their own.
You are so lucky. We send are youngest to private Christian school in Austin, Texas - albeit Episcopal - and they still had remote learning. In fact, they only had school 4 days a week- Wednesdays off because the teachers had more work load with remote learning🙄. Oh and of course, 97% vaccinated, my son being one of the only unvaccinated. Once he returned to school they tested my son twice a week because he wasn’t vaccinated. Of course he and his friends all got Covid but despite most of his friends being boosted he recovered the quickest. I would have tried to change schools if he wasn’t in the middle of high school. Can’t get him out of their fast enough.
There were other Christain schools around here that weren't that bad but were pretty bad. It's disappointing they didn't stand by their values any better than they did. And yes, I am very grateful for the situation we had.
If you lived in San Antionio, I'd say check out San Antonio Christain School. They just hired a guy named Dr. Robert Brown for the incoming school year. He is incredible. There is not a better school administrator out there. The programs he has built, the kids he has forever bettered, the success of the students that come out of school under his leadership is absolutely the most impressive thing I have ever seen in my life. Its beyond what I even thought was possible. If you ever end up in San Antionio, you want your kids at whatever school this guy is at. If you want your kids' administrators to do a better job, tell them to call this guy and learn how it's done. Texas's future become brighter when his daughter moved there, and he and his wife followed.
Sadly we are very late in the game as I have a rising senior.
Austin is full of insanity. I'm glad your kids are almost done with school. Now just don't send them to UT!
GOOD FOR YOU! Even better for your kids.
More home schools, charter schools, parochial schools.
DEFUND GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS!
Yep, Alex, today's post hit a nerve.
Yeah, our kids go to a private Classical Christian school. The kids there were already running circles around the public school kids (Latin starting in 3rd grade, etc). They were in person mask less this whole time. The difference in outcomes is going to be insane in a few years.
Well said, NCMom - and thank you for raising your kids with the same attitude. If our nation recovers from this, we'll have folks like you and your children to thank ... and, of course, our Lord God Almighty.
Your children and your whole town alike are fortunate to have sane, brave parents like you.
Yes! We said the whole time it was child abuse! I have never felt rage like I have watching how complete strangers treated their children over this nonsense.
This is so on the mark! Your kids are, indeed, fortunate to have such thinking, rational, determined and principled parents.
There were a few schools, all of them private, that actually took a stand against the covid lunacy. My children's school did have them at home for a small while and then they wore masks for maybe a couple of months. By the end of 2020, they were back to normal but in the boys' school, they kept a box of masks in every class and when the inspector came by, the boys put on the mask until the moment the inspector left. In the girls' school, they made the girls wear a mask on a necklace or a braclet and when the inspector came by, the girls put the masks on, and when he left, they took the masks right off. So you see, the private schools my kids went to understood that the whole covid-19 fiasco is just a charade and as a health risk, covid-19 is 98% BS. I still see public schools pushing masks and this covid social distancing hoax confirms for me that I want nothing to do with public education.
Y'know, I'm actually gratified to see the schools taught the kids about circumventing the nonsense. Admirable civil disobedience.
NCmom……You’re brilliant. PERIOD
Not brilliant, though thank you for the compliment, just not very susceptible to peer pressure. I was wild by choice growing up, but never into mind altering substances (I liked uppers and beer, LOL). I was never that girl that would say "yes" drunk, but "no" sober, except to driving. If it was a no sober, it was still a no drunk. The boys learned this quickly. haha
I think what amazed me about this is how many people let irrational fear drive incredibly harmful decisions. I don't know anyone who masked their kids, even when they were sick and the little masks were out for sick kids, and certainly not ANY healthy child, at the pediatrician's office pre covid. It was just common sense that it was silly and couldn't work (after all, aerosol means "dissolved in air"). It really shocked me how many didn't sit back and think "have I ever done this before under a similar risk situation before?" But a little media pressure and they masked them like Taliban women convinced of some false dichotomy of open schools with useless masks or online "school." Most I know didn't even consider the absurdity that they thought those were the ONLY 2 available options. They seemed shocked when I wuld say "why on Earth would those be the only 2 options? Why not open schools with no masks and actually sick kids just stay home? Until 2020 that seemed to work pretty well, and certainly much better than putting your kids in home confinement or masking them." They would blubber around word salads for why the kids couldn't just, ya know, go to school.
And the "vaccines"!! I don't know a single parent that in 2019 would have said "sure, give my 9yo an experimental shot that doesn't prevent the disease it was designed to prevent, a disease my kid faces no risk from in the first place, but go ahead and give them an experimental shot that does come with an unknowable long term side effect profile and a terrible known short term side effect profile." Nothing about the ridiculousness changed in 3 years. Nothing. Only fear and peer pressure, but absolutely nothing else. So come 2021 a ton of my kids' friends' parents dragged their kids out as soon as possible to get them clot shots knowing they didn't work, their kids were already immune, and there were potentially terrible known side effects, albeit not many school friends,
I stand by what I said before, Brilliant. And, by the way I was the same kind of rebel you were. We survived!
NC Mom, I have followed your comments across Substacks for a long time now -- they are generally spot on, well written, and engaging. You really SHOULD start publishing in your own stack (for which I am signed up). You have something to say and your own stack gives you a unified place to say it. Just putting a vote in for even more work for you...lol.
Thank you for the compliment. I go back and forth and often get distracted - mostly by 2 very busy, chatty and active kids who constantly need something to do (parent fail), but I appreciate substack provides the opportunity. I appreciate more the variety and frequent depth of the content because I have more to learn than to say for sure (which is my hesitation on publishing at the moment)!!!
I agree with most of your moral beliefs, but I am a lapsed Catholic. Live and Let Live. Only God can judge. Every individual on this planet has an individual belief, some will be lured into darkness, others will give gifts to mankind. It''s a choice. And the choice can change over time. These are the Days we need to make choices. I need to emphasize "CHOICE". Evil is easy, good takes effort. Choose wisely not personally.
I endured annual fund-raiser ambushes by school kids peddling wrapping paper, cookie dough, candy bars, and a whole lot of crap. "We're raising money for our school," the young peddler would say.
And I was a heartless bitch because I said, "Sorry. I pay school taxes already."
Sheesh! Start saying NO to the damned school boards.
I'm Right there with you.... everyone has their hand out on behalf of the school and the children! The parent board, the student council, individual groups and clubs, and then of course we had to pay student dues and if my kids wanted to go to a dance they still had to buy a ticket! What the fuck was all money going towards?!?! Not to mention the astronomical property taxes that I'm paying in the great state of Taxachusetts.....and the public schools are still delivering a shitty education if any education at all. Makes my blood boil 😡😡😡😡😡😡
Gotta pay for tampons in the boys bathrooms.
I'm with you--in agreement with your comment AND living in Maskachusetts.
(Are you seeing many people still wearing masks?)
You know what really burned my ass when it came to the schools and the masks (well the whole thing burned my ass but this in particular got me)......it when the superintendent sent an email when the masks were lifted from the schools saying that there will be "zero tolerance for any bullying or any comments made to those kids/staff who still want to wear a mask." My head literally exploded when I read that! Are you fucking kidding me? My children and others who hated wearing the masks were berated and shamed and bullied for a year and a half. And I couldn't resist... I had to email that peckerhead back and tell him that it's ridiculous now that this zero tolerance attitude is projected when so many kids have suffered and were berated by the mask zealots at the school because God forbid their mask wasn't fully covering their nose right up to the lower eyelid. It was disgusting 😡🤬😡🤬😡🤬
They are tone deaf. They do NOT hear themselves.
I'm glad you did contact the jerk. Good for you!
It's almost too bad that you emailed the lunatic superintendent because it would've been better if you could've done it publicly.
But then I suspect that many people would agree with you, but they're cowards and wouldn't PUBLICLY agree with you.
I agree... Probably more people than not feel the whole thing is total bullshit. And of course the jackass superintendent gave some stupid political statement about it's been so hard and I hope we never have to go through a pandemic again 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮 blah blah blah. Of course the idiot morons don't realize that they were actually a huge part of the problem thinking only of themselves and staying at home getting a full paycheck while the kids didn't get anything and have suffered. I guarantee if they were sent home with nothing... no paycheck, a suspension of benefits, etc... just like the kids were sent home with nothing, they would have been squealing like greased pigs and the kids would have been back into school lickety split.
Not many still wearing masks but it seems to go in waves. Still seeing people in cars driving alone masked up 🤦🤦🤦
My unscientific survey--conducted during my weekly supermarket shopping--there were three masked shoppers.
I also noticed the supermarket has stopped with the sanitizing shopping cart charade.
outside of Houston the masking has ramped up in the last couple weeks. cnn must be spreading some more fear
NY and Maryland aren't much better. During 2020, I appreciated Florida and Texas and South Dakota more than I thought possible. I'm looking to move, and it is a process and I hope I end up in Texas or Florida in the next couple of years. NYC has been horrible.
I vote for Texas. I lived there for almost 20 years and left to help elderly parents. As soon as I'm no longer needed here, I'm heading back.
Great place. No state income tax. Comparatively low housing costs. Summers are beastly hot--but I adjusted.
Whatever you do, do NOT bring NYC with you!
I won't. Hardcore conservative here. I have never voted for Democrats and I turned a blind eye to it in NYC for a long time. March 2020 was a real eye opener for me and I can't unsee what I've seen. I became even more conservative and the sight of left-wing NYC politics makes me want to hurl. In 2021 I visited Texas 4 times and in 2020 once and next month, I'm going back. So I may very well end up there or Florida. If it makes you feel any better, all the New Yorkers that I know that have moved to Texas were also very very conservative and I think the recent research I've seen shows that people who are moving out of NY and CA tend to be conservatives.
Bravo!!!
My kids elementary school allowed McDonald’s to come in and sponsor some sharing/caring curriculum where they were taken out of academic classes for 1/2 a day of playground indoctrination and branding. The principal pushed back angrily when I complained.
They obviously don't teach anything about nutrition at that school.
Good for you for pushing back. I used to supervise recess at elementary schools. Kids learned real quick what was/wasn’t ok & they knew it after sitting out of a game for 5 min, which I’m sure nowadays would be illegal. When I’d go to recess as a volunteer at our grandkids’ school the past 5 years, it was amazing how all the supervisors did was walk around, unaware of what was going on! It takes being involved, interacting…or I guess McDonald…LOL!!!
Exactly. " we love your children, give us a raise"
"It's for the chooldren."
If the government actually applied the money to helping the kids, great.
Instead it feathers the nest of teachers unions. Whose members teach our kids that white people are inherently evil- they can't help themselves. They teach this at the expense of the things kids need to know to compete in a global economy.
How about teaching kids about respect for public property? Here's a real sore subject: Book covers.
Every year I was issued my schoolbooks. Every year, I took them home and covered them (usually with brown paper grocery bags). If we didn't cover our books, the teacher kept you after school, handed you brown paper grocery bags & scotch tape and watched while you covered your books.
In this way, schoolbooks were used 3, 4, 5 years.
NOW? The damned school budget includes hundreds of thousands of dollars for new books every year!
Damn! Books don't go out of date that fast!
They do if you want to start teaching the US was founded in 1619 and that girls have penises.
I have this fantasy that all high school students should be required to pass the US Citizenship test BEFORE they graduate.
And while we're at it, the TEACHERS should be required to take the test & pass it before they're hired.
I can dream, I guess.
They should be able to identify what a woman is!
Aren’t there enough of us to make all this **** go away?
And the funny thing is is that they probably use mostly digital material. My kids never came home with textbooks but you're right there was always money in the budget for a new textbooks.
I remember our brown bag book covers! I got a great education in Fairfax county schools but I’m 75 years of age now and happily retired. I wouldn’t go near those schools now.
Today Public schools are indoctrination camps Community college is a repeat of 11th and 12 grade. The Teachers union Controls the CDC NíH and Uncle Joey Biden. Out running a Marxist agenda destroying our country.
Not all community colleges...it depends upon the subject. So far what my kid (heading toward a business degree) has been better taught and more useful than high school. We'll see what woke garbage is included in the World History to 1650 that he will take in the fall.
Them where the days for certain.
Publishing companies don’t really want the books to last more than a year. There’s more money to be made if schools make more frequent purchases. I wonder if someone took a deep dive into academic publishers they might find deep connections with teacher’s unions. Follow the money. One of the best marketing strategies out there is on the back of a shampoo bottle, “rinse, repeat “. It’s a business practice followed by many...dare I say big pharma might be one of them?
None of this would surprise me. Please note: Canada has just mandated "boosters" every 9 months.
Was always the $$$ and control. Its the commiecRAT playbook 101. Especially with the Teachers unions. How no ONE has lost their job over this or been remotely held accountable says it all!
Yeah, you were right. The behavior of these people to shut down the conversation, especially from experts and reputable people, was unconscionable. A cautionary tale about how fast totalitarianism can gain traction and how fragile is our freedom.
I’ve homeschooled since the shut down. I knew beforehand from interactions with my kids’ schools that kids are the LAST thing they care about. Being out at playgrounds with my kids (no masks) allowed me to meet likeminded parents and kids.
I pity the kids with scared parents. The little girl across the street was not allowed to play with anyone for a year. Her parents rushed her inside when my kids said hello. They were friends before the shutdown.
Anyone who didn’t see how harmful the lockdown was going to be to kids was either a complete fucking moron or an ideologue lying their ass off. Thankfully my kids school stayed open and our kids didn’t suffer as much. But no one was unscathed.
Same here. I sent an email the end of April 2020 to my kids’ then Catholic school principal, who was a former public school principle that brought the public school crap academics and insane ideologies with him to my kids’ then school, asking him why they weren’t reopening the school. He was furious I pointed to data from Italy about risk stratification and so “callous” about peoples “literal” lives. 🙄. Not once did he mention the kids in his rambling nonsense angry little man response to me.
Fortunately we were in the process transferring them to a different private Christian school before the pandemic. They started on time in person August 2020 at a far superior Christian school in every aspect - from academics to character to athletics to the arts to community service expectations. The new school never shut down, only “required” masks during mandates and allowed parents to sign their kids out even during the mandates. My kids and a bunch of others never wore masks. The teachers mostly wore those plastic half face things in the halls and nothing most of the school day unless the county health department was there harassing the school - which they did routinely.
As soon as the vaccines came out we got an email promising no vaccine mandates ever, they would never ask the vaccination status of any student, and parents had no business asking faculty or staff about their vaccine status.
Our local public schools kept the kids locked out for a year, and masked like Taliban women the next year. They also made a habit of harassing the unvaccinated middle and high school students (with no plans to change the harassment policy this year - they will still get pulled from their hardest classes to go to sit and wait for testing 2 times a week for sn hour).
Why do we see these sorts of things happening? Because political bodies make decisions for political reasons, whereas 'private' schools are trying to please the parents and students at the school.
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/politicians-are-the-referees-of-america
The greatest thing about individual freedom is that it allows every citizen to ascertain their own unique circumstances and make decisions based on that information — information nobody else in the world has. When government makes decisions, they not only lack the necessary information to make the best decision for your circumstances, in most cases they’re not even considering your circumstances at all, because political bodies make decisions for political reasons, not practical ones.
The last couple years of covid rules are perhaps the perfect example of the folly of top-down decision-making. Covid restrictions were never based on actual science or data, but (shockingly) were based on POLITICAL reasoning. When the politics demanded that New York ‘reject’ the Trump Vaccine, the politicians were adamant that’s what they would do. Now that the political winds have shifted and the Democrats are in control, the politics demands that New York mandates the vaccine for normal life, even children going to school. (You’ll note that politicians in Europe have different political pressures and come to different conclusions about jabbing the kids)
The parallels to the Vietnam war are noteworthy. Children (notwithstanding the legal definition of an adult, I still say that 18 year-olds are children in many ways) were sacrificed for an idiotic government policy guided by evil, misguided men willing to destroy villages in order to save them. Meanwhile, the large segments of society who proudly marched their sons down to the local recruitment office—only to later regret their misplaced sense of patriotism—took their anger out on the segments of society who smartly saw through the government propaganda, didn’t buy into the false sense of patriotic duty, and either got their sons a college deferment or a bus ticket to Canada. Sound familiar?
Addendum: …and Ron Kovic’s paralysis is today’s myocarditis.
Yes to everything except for anything having to do with CommunistCanada
LOL.
But but but the science. But, but, but we don’t want to kill grandma. But, but, but two weeks to flatten the curve.
The entire thing was so predictable.
What a complete joke.
Not a joke. A crime.
Rogier - Yup!
I'm sat in an airport lounge for the first time in 2.5 years, feels unreal. Unvaxxed, unmasked and flying high on G&Ts.
This comment adds nothing to the article's commentary.
Haha feels pretty damn good! If you’re like me, you’re judging the idiots still wearing masks; A lot of younger folks who ate the fear propaganda, hook, line and sinker; a lot of folks whom Trump wasn’t their president; a lot of “men” wearing man buns.
I love how you put the word “men” in quotes. Perfect.
I'm flying tomorrow morning for the first time since Oct 2019. All those flights I would have taken, all the money I would have spent on travel, I will not spend and the airline industry will never recover it. I will not forget just how horrible the airlines were about enforcing the government's ridiculous mask mandate. It's one thing to have a mask mandate, it's another thing to be tyrannical about it and rudely tell your passengers to pull up the mask between bites or sips. I refuse to fund anything that supports covid-19 masking, vaxxing, or PCR testing.
So true!
Seattle Times:
“Washington students’ test scores drop significantly in first exams since pandemic began”
(Then the spin)
“Everyone’s test scores are down. What does that mean for schools in Washington state?”
(“everyone” = blue states)
Not only were the lockdowns unnecessary and an abysmal failure with long term effects, the whole mask thing, in school and outside of school had untold negative effects in trust issues for this age group. EVERYONE looks like a scary stranger when you cannot determine intent by masking the most basic of human non verbal communication. Just ask Billy the Kid why he wore one.
Remember all those bullshit bumper stickers & campaign posters for bullshit school board candidates: CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE.
They made me sick then; they infuriate me now. Too many do NOT care about the kids.
With apologies to teachers here--and to those who love them--we need to fire the lot of them. AND START OVER...WITHOUT TEACHER UNIONS.
The good ones can reapply--after taking a competency test. I'm confident the pink-haired, tattooed, and multi-pierced screwballs won't survive the cut.
And for the love of god: there needs to be teacher dress codes! Look professional! Set an example!
I remember asking my friend, leader in our local teachers union and the third grade teacher every parent requested for their child, if she was ok with getting paid the same as the HS social studies teacher who showed movies/videos every class, every day. Tenure and unions destroyed our public education.
Agree 💯%!!!!
Absolutely correct, Alex. The whole debacle has been a travesty.
It's difficult to pick "the worst part of it" but closing schools is at the top.
So is forced solitary confinement of our senior citizens in Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Centers. So are the unnecessary deaths. So are the loss of careers and businesses. So is the massive screw up of our supply chains and the damage to our farming and energy production.
The list goes on. And on. And on. ...
All according to plan
In the fall of 2020 I signed the Great Barrington Declaration as a private citizen. I still cannot believe that reasonable voices were at best, ignored, and at worst cancelled for their "unacceptable views." The fallout from this should be far and wide but instead we are being gaslit once again by the MSM and our government.
I, too, signed it as a private citizen. The Great Barrington doctors were more than cancelled. They were defamed.
I do hope it's some comfort to them that now they've been proved correct.
Very deflating.
DeSantis 2024
Ron DeSantis grabbed me by the pussy at a beach party back in 1990! He also said the N word!
Just wait for the smear campaign against him. Fortunately, nobody listens to the legacy media anymore.
No shit. Anyone with half a brain could have predicted this. But but, I’m a good person but but, I believe in the science. Now reap what you sow useful idiots.
I’m so lucky to live in Texas where my kids school never shut down. A place where kids were not subjected to daily Covid fear porn. A place where most freedoms still exist. The youth of Texas and other like minded states will be light years ahead of the little lambs from places like NY, Illinois and California. There is hope for the future!
The Economist is a meme publication at this point
The Economist published its first story on how bad the impact of school closures would likely be on April 30 2020
The schools got so much money from Covid relief that they haven’t even been able to spend yet. I wonder if there will be any accountability for how this money was or will be spent.
The good side of this is that many parents have woken up to what is being taught in public schools; the attitudes, the indoctrination, and that there are some fiercely ideological, unstable teachers. Parents responded by pulling their kids out of these schools, and are using other options. Perhaps even saving their kids from a life of unhappiness.