There's an old lawyer joke in the South:
If'n-ye ain't got the law, pound the facts!
If'n-ye ain't got the facts, pound the law!
If'n-ye ain't got the law nor the facts...pound the table!
The table-pounding is beginning in earnest about Miss Birbalsingh, the lovely, gifted, and eloquent Miss Birbalsingh. The Left's bad dream, who ain't gunna go away.
OS's readers in the States might ask, 'Why should we pay attention to this?' And it's a good question. They're over there, we're over here. And there are some pretty significant differences.
But, there are some significant similarities, and lessons to be learned from our English cousins. They offer some insightful voices we need to heed, like Miss K and Daniel Hannan, who warn us about what may lie ahead if we don't change course.
Likewise, our English cousins study us closely. Their ancestors stayed behind, while ours climbed onto ships to attempt life in an unknown place. Until recently, we've been the envy of the world.
The UK (as well as much of Europe) post-war, officially embraced The Welfare State in many aspects of life, especially in education and medical services. Our academics and elites, in love with all things 'Over There', longed for, and pushed us toward their model.
They're falling apart 'Over There', ya'll. This very morning 40,000 UK university students are responding to the news that their guv'mint is out of money, and tuition fees are about to rise dramatically. They're in London, rioting and vandalizing the HQ of the Conservative Party. Rather warms the heart if you're a British taxpayer, does it not? Those crazy kids, always getting into mischief...
So, back to Miss K.
Yesterday, Ms. Millar, a journalist, decided to vent about Miss K, a teacher, and anyone else who dare contravene the Lefts's orthodoxy:
I have been in two minds over whether to write about Katharine Birbalsingh, the south London deputy head whose scathing attack on state schools was lapped up at the Tory party conference. Over my several decades as a journalist, I have seen several Katharine Birbalsinghs come and go. They emerge from nowhere; catch the media's attention, often because of the way they look. Would she have made the same impact if she had been white and middle aged?
Around 1% of what they say is true; the rest is usually eye-catching propaganda that plays into the prejudices of the audience. In my experience these characters usually inhale too much of their own publicity, get over-promoted and vanish as quickly as they appeared.
Birbalsingh is only one of the players Michael Gove has hired to bolster his flagging flagship policies. Arne Duncan, Obama's education secretary and Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children's Zone, have also been recruited for more rhetoric about broken systems and intransigent teachers.
Can ya'll say Bitch-Slap? I knew you could!
Miss K, whose feelings are still understandably raw about the whole sequence of events, tries to defend her honor.
My certainty comes from my own experience and that of thousands of colleagues I have met along the way. I have felt so strongly about this that I have put my own welfare to the side and attempted to tell the country what has been hidden from them for so long. I didn’t mean to end up in the newspapers. I just wanted to tell the truth. Who knew what controversy the truth would spark?
I have said it before, but it seems I need to say it again. I used to stand up at assembly all the time and say: “Be like Martin Luther King. Be like Nelson Mandela.” How then could I, when facing the music, not try to do the right thing? I may be unemployed, but at least I know that if ever I get the chance to stand at assembly again, I can hold my head up high.
I want something more for the children of Britain, for the kids I have taught and for the kids I will teach. I didn’t speak out for myself. I spoke out for them.
High time. But Miss K is taking the beating for it, and it obviously hurts.
But, the same story is being played out here. OS follows news from the NEA, the US's largest teachers union. The union pounds two themes: Send us more money, and don't ask any questions about what we do, or what results come of it. We're the teachers, and you taxpayers and parents aren't qualified to have an opinion.
Here's an example of a very recent offering, discussing the teaching of tolerance of homosexuality to elementary-aged children.
This approach has been followed for the past forty years. It hasn't worked, ya'll, in case this needs to be said.
In Tennessee, one factor keeps the unions a bit more in check: The legislature is very friendly to home-schoolers, and it is relatively easy to set up a private school in the neighborhood church. Mindful that families can vote with their feet, and that those families vote in elections, their behavior is a bit more circumspect.
Nuthin' like a little competition to keep ever'body honest...
OS has much more to say, and much more he can't say, but ya'll have been patient enough.
Hang in there, Miss K. Jest remember, folks start pounding the table when they've lost the argument. You got beat up, but you won. The schools on both sides of the pond suck, and the Libs have created the mess.
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