St. Michael And All Angels Still In Cranmer's Crosshairs, And In Boris Johnson's As Well

Oh, my.

Not a good thing. And it can't be fun walking into work everyday, knowing the boss hates you for breathing, is looking for any hint of a reason to not only fire you but make you unemployable in perpetuity. Hang in there, Ms. Katharine.

After all, today marks the day the Washington, D.C. teacher's union managed to obtain the resignation of Michelle Rhee, the superintendent who insisted that success is the only option. The D.C. schools are amongst the best-funded and worst-performing in the nation. Obviously, they are happy for that state of affairs to continue a while longer.

Boris Johnson weighs in on the larger debate via an article in the Telegraph.

And along the way, he offers words of support to the young lady:

That is why the most important voice in the great university debate belongs this week not to Lord Browne or any of the politicians – but to Katharine Birbalsingh, the deputy head of a south London school. She has now become the latest great martyr to what I can only call political correctness. She was sent home from her school after having the effrontery to suggest that Lefty thinking in education was inhibiting discipline, standards and competition. But isn't she right?

Isn't she right to point to the central importance of discipline and the authority of teachers in driving up educational standards? She strikes me as being a principled person who has reached the end of her tether, and I welcome the move to reinstate her.


His essay is well worth a read, anywhere in the world, because OS thinks we all face the same challenges at bottom. Teaching kids is really hard work, and success is not guaranteed.

Here's hoping she is not just tolerated, but embraced, if not at this rather obviously failing school, then at another where the leadership believes success is more desirable than failure.

Here's hoping...but in the meantime, let's not allow her to be quietly isolated and eviscerated later, when ThePeopleInChargeOfSuchThings believe no one is looking.

Classical Education: Three Reviews And A Strong Advocacy

A quick referral to a most interesting article, in the Yew Nork Times, of all places, saying kind words about old-fashioned Classical Education.

Someone one at the Political Correctness desk must have been on his coke break when this came across the desk. It's dangerous stuff, advocating that kids be able to operate in classical languages, think coherently, and express themselves clearly.

Damn! This sort of stuff would put the teachers unions out of business, and then where would we be, I ask you?

Three books reviewed here, and OS plans to order up at least one of them.

This blog attempts to stay on focus, really, even if the author is a bit ADD.

That despicable advisor to the more despicable Bill Clinton kept hammering at his client in the 1992 campaign: 'It's the economy, stupid!' (Not hearing that from Democrat candidates now, are we?)

In any case, the despicable advisor was wrong, and OldSouth is right:

It's the culture, and you're not stupid.

We can create and hose cash into the system forever, turn back-flips to create employment of some sort, consume ourselves into a stupor, chase every political and religious fad that surfaces.

It won't help.

Until we get the culture back on track--our classical, liberal, free-market, Judeo-Christian, rule of law, literacy-is-not-an-option, everybody-needs-to-know-something-about-Bach-and-Rembrandt-and-Jefferson Western culture back on track--any hope of having a long-term stable and prosperous country is vain.

It's the culture.

And you're not stupid.