Fairfax County is in the News 9Again (Stuart: home, best school)

[ersatz]

Golly, Fairfax County is Weird.

I admit to my guilty pleasure in following news articles from FC. The Fairfax County Library is the latest in the public media cross-hairs. I am not sure what I can say about this particular topic other than "Words fail me."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fa...a391951e&ei=74

[theminnow]

I lived most of my life in Frfx Co. Went to school in the county from nursery school to high school. My two kids did as well. During those times, it was one of the best school systems. But times have changed, and changed for the worse.


Their technology dept completely blew up from Covid. We had friends still teaching in the school system and could not believe the stories they were telling us. They would prepare their lesson plans for in school learning, only to be told to switch to at home teaching. All that planning time wasted.Then the technology to teach at home would not work. Seems they did not update their technology as they should have.


Then the debacle with the National Merit Scholarship program, and the failure to notify students of their award until it was too late for them to include it on there college application. Reasons behind this depend on who you ask. They are now under investigation by the AG of Virginia.


Now you have Cooper Middle School in Mclean, VA apparently excluding Whites and Hispanics from college prep classes.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...p-program.html


A few years back, Fairfax Co started to change the names of some high schools. JEB Stuart, Robert E Lee, to name two. But what about the name of the county itself? Fairfax Co. Seems it is named after Thomas Fairfax, Sixth Lord Fairfax of Cameron. And this guy made a lot of money. And how did he make this money? From the many farms he owned run by the hundreds of slaves he owned. Perhaps now they should look into renaming the county as well.

[Veritas Vincit]

My parents both were in the teaching profession, my dad in public high schools and my mother at the college level.



But I can't really have a ton of respect for that profession currently. It seems to me like many - perhaps a majority? - of people in that field nowadays are more concerned with 'making the world a better place' by advancing their political causes among their captive and very impressionable audience than teaching them useful skills for life.



I know this isn't true of everyone in teaching, but there's no shortage of them and if anything that line of thinking seems to be backed by many administrators and officials (especially but not only in very left-leaning jurisdictions e.g. like the more urban NoVa counties and cities).


It's borne out of such selfish arrogance i.e. "Well, I know what's good and right, so why shouldn't I teach kids what I believe..." Well the answer is that quite frankly it's not your job, it's not what you got hired to do. Now I understand perfectly well that in some subject areas it can be quite difficult to keep your personal views outside your teaching, we're only humans after all, but you could at least try. It sure seems like a lot of teachers today are rather proud of the fact they're 'preaching' their political gospel.



I had teachers in fields like history and social studies where I knew exactly where they stood politically because they couldn't shut up about it, but then I also had some teachers where even the day I graduated I had no idea. I'm sure they had opinions, but they were smart enough to not let it 'all hang out' and instead try to present different sides to each question.

[webster]

Teaching hasn't really changed when it comes to politics in VA. I grew up in the last years of segregated schools. In the 7th grade we were taught in school that slavery was good; that African Americans were fed and housed. The teacher also defended Plessy v. Ferguson. In HS, the history teacher strongly defended US action in Vietnam; there was no question as to where he stood; however, by then we had learned to debate and those discussions were helpful in learning.

[jmking]

Originally Posted by theminnow

I lived most of my life in Frfx Co. Went to school in the county from nursery school to high school. My two kids did as well. During those times, it was one of the best school systems. But times have changed, and changed for the worse.


Their technology dept completely blew up from Covid. We had friends still teaching in the school system and could not believe the stories they were telling us. They would prepare their lesson plans for in school learning, only to be told to switch to at home teaching. All that planning time wasted.Then the technology to teach at home would not work. Seems they did not update their technology as they should have.


Then the debacle with the National Merit Scholarship program, and the failure to notify students of their award until it was too late for them to include it on there college application. Reasons behind this depend on who you ask. They are now under investigation by the AG of Virginia.


Now you have Cooper Middle School in Mclean, VA apparently excluding Whites and Hispanics from college prep classes.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...p-program.html


A few years back, Fairfax Co started to change the names of some high schools. JEB Stuart, Robert E Lee, to name two. But what about the name of the county itself? Fairfax Co. Seems it is named after Thomas Fairfax, Sixth Lord Fairfax of Cameron. And this guy made a lot of money. And how did he make this money? From the many farms he owned run by the hundreds of slaves he owned. Perhaps now they should look into renaming the county as well.

Heck, one can make the claim that the state name "Virginia" is racist because it refers to Queen Elizabeth the first who instigated (chartered) the settlement of a slave state. I should not give them any ideas.

[NOVAmtneer82]

Originally Posted by Veritas Vincit

My parents both were in the teaching profession, my dad in public high schools and my mother at the college level.



But I can't really have a ton of respect for that profession currently. It seems to me like many - perhaps a majority? - of people in that field nowadays are more concerned with 'making the world a better place' by advancing their political causes among their captive and very impressionable audience than teaching them useful skills for life.



I know this isn't true of everyone in teaching, but there's no shortage of them and if anything that line of thinking seems to be backed by many administrators and officials (especially but not only in very left-leaning jurisdictions e.g. like the more urban NoVa counties and cities).


It's borne out of such selfish arrogance i.e. "Well, I know what's good and right, so why shouldn't I teach kids what I believe..." Well the answer is that quite frankly it's not your job, it's not what you got hired to do. Now I understand perfectly well that in some subject areas it can be quite difficult to keep your personal views outside your teaching, we're only humans after all, but you could at least try. It sure seems like a lot of teachers today are rather proud of the fact they're 'preaching' their political gospel.



I had teachers in fields like history and social studies where I knew exactly where they stood politically because they couldn't shut up about it, but then I also had some teachers where even the day I graduated I had no idea. I'm sure they had opinions, but they were smart enough to not let it 'all hang out' and instead try to present different sides to each question.

I very much agree with this- As someone who is pretty center on most issues (even in high school and college), many need to get off the soap box. I also noticed it was often history and English literature teachers who just could NOT not share their views on the world. And this was 20 years ago so I can only imagine what it is like now...

[BOS2IAD]

I can't believe that the library agreed to her outrageous demands. First class plane tickets, security and staff? The taxpayers are the ones paying for all of this. From the article:

"As of 9:00 Monday morning, you could still watch Nikole Hannah-Jones’ $35,000 conversation with the diversity officer of Fairfax County, Virginia. The county library system, which covered $29,000 of that speaking fee, plus the cost of her first-class airfare, drivers, security, and staff for the event, has agreed to take down the video today, two weeks after the event."

SMH

[theminnow]

Originally Posted by BOS2IAD

I can't believe that the library agreed to her outrageous demands. First class plane tickets, security and staff? The taxpayers are the ones paying for all of this. From the article:

"As of 9:00 Monday morning, you could still watch Nikole Hannah-Jones’ $35,000 conversation with the diversity officer of Fairfax County, Virginia. The county library system, which covered $29,000 of that speaking fee, plus the cost of her first-class airfare, drivers, security, and staff for the event, has agreed to take down the video today, two weeks after the event."

SMH

I can believe they did as it is not their money.

[webster]

Just a historical note: the Letters Patent for the settlement of which we know today as Virginia was issued on April 10, 1606 (O.S.) by King James. Portions of North America which were not Spanish or French were called "Virginia." https://vagenweb.org/hening/vol01-03.htm. (Moderator's indulgence is appreciated since this is not a historical forum.)

[theminnow]

Originally Posted by webster

Just a historical note: the Letters Patent for the settlement of which we know today as Virginia was issued on April 10, 1606 (O.S.) by King James. Portions of North America which were not Spanish or French were called "Virginia." https://vagenweb.org/hening/vol01-03.htm. (Moderator's indulgence is appreciated since this is not a historical forum.)

Interesting. Thanks for the link.