Katherine Birbalsingh Weighs In On The London Rioters, And She Deserves To Be Heard!

Her essay is here.

For anyone of OS's readers who have not yet bought and read, and shared Miss Katherine's book, To Miss With Love, now, not tomorrow, is the day to purchase this book and read it cover to cover. It's not long, but you'll have to put it down from time to time to give yourself a moment to recover.

She describes, in detail, the rioters burning portions of London to the ground, and how they became who they are.

Her recent essay gives more insight:

Many of these mindless thugs involved in the riots don’t think more than 10 minutes into the future. They think that stealing trainers is ‘fun’, not even considering that it might be wrong. Many of them are, quite literally, unable to read and write: 17 percent of 15-year-olds are functionally illiterate. If you de-educate an entire generation, if you constantly make excuses for their behaviour, if you never teach them the difference between right and wrong, then chaos is what you reap. These young people are just implementing what they’ve learnt at school!

Teachers can only keep the peace in the classroom because they have established authority. Where there is order in classrooms, children show respect because they have been taught to respect teachers. ONE teacher can therefore command the respect of hundreds of children. It is the same with the police and order in society. The police cannot hope to outnumber the rioters. As a civilised society, we rely on a sense of morality in our people to keep the order. How did the Japanese survive their recent nuclear disaster? They queued quietly for food and help, and waited. They didn’t say ‘ME ME ME’! Do young people wear hoodies in Japan? Do Japanese children question their teacher’s authority? Do Japanese adults defend the appalling behaviour of their youth? NO.

We are an international disgrace. What would happen if the teacher left her classroom and said that she was ‘keeping a close eye on things from her holiday home’? Theresa May, Home Secretary, was the only one of our leaders, whether Conservative or Labour, who returned from holiday immediately when Tottenham exploded. Where were all of our leaders? If even our politicians refuse to take responsibility for their ‘classrooms’, then how can we expect the children to remain in their chairs?

Buy the book, ya'll. Read it. Buy some more copies, and give them to your kinfolks and friends. This lady has something hugely important to say to our time.

To Miss With Love: Katherine Birbalsingh's Book A True 'Must-Read'

Outside of a circle of friends and colleagues in the UK, OS suspects very few people had ever heard of Ms. Birbalsingh before last October.

Boy-oh-boy, did that circumstance ever change overnight. This mid-30's black inner-city London school teacher, with her Oxford degree, her wild wild hairdo, and a devastating command of the English language addressed the Conservative Party Conference for eight minutes one fine day, and set an existential bomb off in the education establishment of the UK. Not surprisingly, when she returned to work, she was promptly canned for having the temerity to speak the obvious truth. The Left hates people who wander off the plantation, and in the tradition of all who hate freedom and truth, take pains to make a public example of anyone who dares attempt an escape.

(By the way, the school that fired her for criticizing the failures of the education system, was itself shut down, for...well...failure to perform....but never mind...we'll just not talk about that bit....)

If you haven't seen The Speech yet, here it is. Eight memorable minutes, and a career changed forever. (Booooom!)



The week following was a bloody awful mess. Archbishop Cranmer, Heaven bless him, jumped to her defense, as did a number of others, but to no avail. She was fired, pure and simple, and her former bosses, compassionate types they are, attempted to blacken her name and make her radioactive and unemployable on the way out the door.

Sweet, huh? (Don't-chew evah wander off the fahm! Look-whut we did to that Birbalsingh person, and remembuh!)

After the shock of it all, she landed on her feet. Penguin Books UK picked up on her story, and she was offered the opportunity to tell her story, via the work she had already invested in her blog. The result was To Miss, With Love.

It was published in the UK, but OS had no problem ordering his copy via Amazon in the US.

He began reading, couldn't put it down, had to put it down 'cuz it made him weep and cuss, had to pick it back up 'cuz he couldn't put it down, had to put it down 'cuz...

Miss Birbalsingh knows how to write! And, in telling her story, she fictionalizes herself and her colleagues and students into composite characters. She's Miss Snuffy, her husband is Liberal, her friends are Banker and Compassionate, colleagues Mr. Hadenough, Headmaster Mr. Goodheart, and students with names like Furious, Beautiful, Dreamer, Excluded, Cavalier. Ya'll get the drift.

The book follows an academic year at her school (Ordinary School), a year with a lot more losses than wins, including breaking up violent bloody brawls, trying to keep kids off the path to prison, and working with a handful that really are (or could be) Oxbridge material. It's madness she's describing, a Kafka-esque world where all common sense and logic has been tossed aside, but the stakes could not be higher for the children she teaches.

If you have kids, or even if you don't, this book must be read. For US readers, there will be some unfamiliar elements, such as the different exam and university admissions system, but nothing insurmountable in that. It's the stories of the lives of the kids and the faculty that will nail you to your seat, until you have to take a break and recover a bit.

Miss Birbalsingh has been teaching for about twelve years now, in these conditions, which she admits are better than those endured by many of her colleagues. The Almighty did her a favor last October, although it didn't feel like it at the time. No one can keep up that life and not completely burn out, physically and mentally. It is good to see that she is out of there, and working to set up her own Free School (our equivalent of a charter school, more or less), with a board of like-minded parents. It was time to leave, and all in all, perhaps better to leave the way she did, although it certainly must have been devastating at the time. To be forcibly separated from the students she loved, without even the chance to say 'farewell' is wrenching. OS has seen it happen before, and it leaves a real scar on a teacher's soul.

So, ya'll. Buy the book, and read. The parallels between the two school systems are chilling. It's all happening here as well. Tell your friends. If you live in the US, thank Heaven every day that most states are friendly to private schools and home schools.

And make sure your state representative knows how you feel.

Here's hoping this book sells by the trainload, and that Miss Birbalsingh will make time to keep writing.

To Miss With Love Hits The Stores Today In The UK

To Miss With Love is on first-day sale today.

OS sends long-distance best wishes Ms. Birbalsingh's direction.

Here's hoping her book makes into many hands and hearts and minds, on both sides of the pond.

To Miss With Love: Katherine Birbalsingh's Book To Launch March 3 In The UK

To Miss With Love

'Miss', in this instance, is Katherine Birbalsingh, who has lived a most interesting few months, following her address to the UK Conservative Party conference last Fall.

For her audacity in speaking the simple, unvarnished truth about the failure of public sector schools, she was sacked by the headmaster of her failed school, which the authorities came and shut down, because, well, it was a failure.

Since revenge is always sweetest when served cold and at a distance, Penguin Books will publish her first book in the UK on March 3.

The release event has sold out, with a waiting list.

The failed headmistress of the failed school does not yet appear to have a book deal, but undoubtedly she will serve at some high position in the Ministry of Education in the next Labour government. Who better to occupy such a position?

In the meantime, if you haven't heard The Speech That Got Her Fired--here 'tis.

The Cold Comfort Of Being Correct: The School That Fired Katherine Birbalsingh Is Forced To Shut Its Doors And 'Recycle'

Cranmer shares the news.

And, further detail from the local paper.

CHILDREN at a struggling academy are to be sent to new schools so it can be demolished and redeveloped.

Around 150 Year 7 and 8 pupils at St Michael and All Angels CofE Academy in Wyndham Road, Camberwell, are to be sent to other schools in Southwark from September, it has emerged.

The school is to stop taking new pupils until 2013 as it goes through a major restructure.

The faith academy has struggled since it opened in 2007 and was judged to be inadequate by Ofsted inspectors in April last year.

The report said it needed to urgently address poor behaviour of pupils.

Which is precisely what Ms. Birbalsingh shared with the Conservative Party Conference last October 5. OS can't urge his readers strongly enough to take eight minutes and view this address, and then pass it along to friends.



For which candor, she was...well...sacked. For saying the unmentionable truth: 'The system is broken, because it keeps poor children poor.'

She just wasn't fired, she was publicly tarred and feathered by the board of the school and its headmaster. They attempted to make her 'radioactive', and poison her future career as a teacher.

Now, we learn, following that good day's work, they have been forced to admit, that, yes, the school is a shambles, and it has to be shut down. Then demolished. Then reopened under new management.

Hmmm....

Now, shouldn't the penalty fall upon the school head and board that drew the knife on the teacher that told the truth and appealed for sanity? Miss B wasn't even particularly singling out the school she taught in to be vilified, but offered it as an example of a much greater systemic failure.

But, being a realist, OS knows that there will be zero disruption experienced in the career of ‘Dr’ Irene Bishop, the 'Executive Head', and no fallout for the Bishop of Southwark (who could have come to Miss B's defense), or anyone else involved in her mistreatment.

Except Miss Birbalsingh. And the students. And their families. And the neighborhood.

That's ok, though. They're just the people who do the work and do the work and do the work, and pay and pay and pay the taxes, and try to survive the school, and try to better their kids lives. What matter they? They'jest the LittlePeople.

OS is soooooo grateful to live in Tennessee. The rest of the world thinks we don't wear shoes here, that we're rednecks and hillbillies chawin' 'baccy and playing banjos on the tailgates of our pick-em-up trucks. And we do have our share of failings, no doubt about it.

We, however, elected successive state legislatures that deliberately leave home-schoolers alone. That allows charter schools, and doesn't legislate private school start-ups out of existence.

We have a by-God choice! We can, and do, vote with our feet, to the eternal anger of the teachers unions and the bureaucrats in the Department of Edumahcation.

Go, Miss B!

By the way, ya'll: Her book, To Miss With Love, publishes in March.

Not at Amazon yet--OS just checked.

But wouldn't it be a joyful thing to see it arrive to opening day with about 25K in pre-orders?

Revenge, sweet sweet revenge, served cold.

At a distance.

Katherine Birbalsingh Weighs In On Amy Chua's 'Tiger Mother'

OS knew she would join in, sooner or later.

She has much to say that most white, comfortable, middle-class soccer-mom-football-dad parents don't wish to hear. The only path to true success in life (not just an SUV and a MacMansion) is hard work, and those habits are learned at home, taught by parents.

Like Amy Chua, my father never patted me on the back when I would get 95 per cent on a test. He would always ask, “What happened to the other 5 per cent?” As a child, it is true, I was constantly frustrated: what on earth did I have to do to please this man? But what that constant frustration inspired in me was to always try my best, to always reach for the very top. And as Amy Chua constantly emphasises, just because a parent is a bit demanding, doesn’t mean there isn’t any love. My parents were not as demanding as Amy Chua, and as such, my sister and I were allowed to watch television. When “Different Strokes” came on, (with Arnold and Willis as black boys adopted by a rich white man) my sister and I would call for my father with delight, and he would always come and watch it with us. That is, until he decided that we were watching too much television, and as if he and Amy Chua had connived together, gave our only television away.

Such parenting techniques are relatively rare in white liberal circles. And these days, with our multicultural communities, they are becoming more and more rare in non-white circles as well.  But while ‘tough love” may be the answer to giving our black boys a chance at life, so often the liberal helping hand undermines the parents who are trying to give these boys exactly this.

My Guyanese father may seem excessive to some but he sent his daughters to very ordinary state schools and had to make up for their shortcomings. And Amy Chua may be a little extreme in her parenting style, so much so that she has caused huge controversy. But if I had any advice to give to the thousands of struggling parents I have known over the years, the first thing I’d tell them is to take a page out of Amy Chua’s book and think twice about the liberal madness that surrounds us.


Lissen' up ya'll!! Ms. Birbalsingh's daddy emigrated from Guyana--look it up on the map--and sent his little girl to OXFORD! No, no, no. Not Oxford, Mississippi, that land of SEC basketball, bubbahs and drunken co-eds. The real Oxford--the one in England! THAT Oxford!

The one that's damn near impossible to get into, unless you have a real intellect and a work ethic like Monica Marks, the girl from Eastern Kentucky whose daddy insisted his baby girl was gonna succeed, come hell or high water.

That Oxford.

Thanks, Ms. B, for chiming in. Don't you let up a bit--keep after those 'liberals' who use an ideology to simply mask their laziness.

Here's hoping the conversation continues. The question is central to the survival of our culture.

OS has so much more to say, but he has work to do. University bills to pay, with the biggest grin imaginable on his grizzled Southern face...someday, he'll even get to tell you why.

Miaow!! Miss Birbalsingh Responds To Yet Another Leftie Ad-Hominem Slap

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.

Sweep Up The Confetti, Ya'll: The Morning After The Night Before

Last night was good, not as good as OS had hoped for, but good. Harry Reid managed to stay in office, sadly, but he's now 70, widely reviled even in his own state, and the experience undoubtedly aged him. One way or the other, he's riding into the sunset.

Locally, the Right To Hunt And Fish amendment passed, 91% to 9%. PETA will call for a recount, or attempt to overturn in a friendly court in San Francisco, no doubt.

It was gratifying to see the uber-creepy Doug Jackson sent on his way, after decades of holding office in these parts. The plantation his family set up in the 1940's finally withering away, bit by bit, perhaps. Long, long (blanking) overdue.

Oklahoma passed a creative bit of forward-thinking law, barring Sharia law from its state courts. OS thinks will be appearing in many other states in a couple of years.

As for Kuhlifornia--well, what can one say? Hopefully, we'll have the courage to leave them to their fate. They think, like every crackhead, that someone, somewhere, somehow, will ride in to bail them out. Yet again. So they can go out and create chaos next week.

The pressing problems remain. And the newly-elected to Congress don't have two years to grapple with them. They've gotta come out of the gate and get a lot of stuff done in the next nine months or so. Himself and The Clown Circus have dedicated their lives to making sure this country fails, so all these newly elected will be swimming upstream. On the other side, the Tea Party voters have made it very clear that their loyalties lie with the Constitution, not with anyone they voted for.

In the meantime, the lovely, elegant and erudite Katherine Birbalsingh appears in today's Telegraph, with an insightful essay. OS left her warm greetings, and hopes his loyal band of readers will do likewise, and pass her thoughts along to their friends. We can't toss her tormentors overboard, but we can send her encouragement, and humiliate those who treated her so shabbily. It's a start, it's what we can do today.

The High Price Of Candor: Juan Williams And Katherine Birbalsingh

It's been a tough couple of weeks for people who suffer from the vice of speaking candidly in public.

First, the lovely young Katherine Birbalsingh, an Oxford-educated teacher who had devoted her career to teaching kids in the forgotten neighborhoods of the the UK, was shown the door after speaking her mind candidly at the Conservative Party congress.

(If you haven't had the pleasure of hearing her brief address, this would be the time to invest about eight minutes of your time. Well worth every second.)

Of course, her sacking was accompanied by the usual British couching of inexcusable behaviour in the most civil-sounding of verbiage. But, for all their attempts to sound plausible and professional, her superiors at St. Michael and All Angels School come off sounding, well, like a bunch of petty academics in search of a scalp. And hers was an obvious choice.

Her crime? Candor, and an elegant and piercing command of the English language, employed for eight memorable minutes in a public forum, where she stated the obvious about the decayed conditions of state-funded education in the UK. Had she instead addressed the Tories and informed them they were the most unimaginable heartless scum who cared not a fig for the poor children whose families could not afford Eton, she would have returned to her school, and been hoisted upon the shoulders of her cheering colleagues for a victory lap around the halls. Too late she found out that academic freedom is only for the Left.

Juan Williams was not even afforded the faux civility shown Miss Birbalsingh. His boss fired him over the phone, with no opportunity to even discuss the situation, and then publicly dissed him and his opinions, saying that they should be between him and his pyschiatrist, or publicist, or whatever. OS heard the recorded comment, and the disdain and condescension were overt. Too late he found that freedom of speech is only for the Left.

Locally, poor Roy Herron, Democrat candidate for Congress in the Eighth District of Tennessee, was screwed royally by his ostensible allies. When it dawned on him that most people would not vote for him because they knew his first vote as a Congressman would likely be to return Nancy Pelosi to the Speaker's chair, he let it be known that he would oppose MizNancy's return to power. For his candor, the money allocated by the Democrats for his TV ads was summarily pulled. Too late, he found that freedom of conscience, and sensitivity to voters' sensibilities, is something for which the Left has no patience.

Roy is a good, honorable gentleman with whom OS disagrees, and for whom he could not bring himself to vote. OS was hoping he would run for governor, but 'twas not to be.

None of these folks were mean-spirited, or racist, or dishonest. They simply spoke words into the open air that they meant, and stated the obvious in the process: Schools are failing, sometimes climbing onto a plane with people who may be religious extremists is unnverving, Nancy Pelosi is a real liability to this country as speaker. The Sword of Damocles descended anyway. Luckily, all three will land on their feet, and blessedly we haven't heard the last from them.

And, I hear the reader say it already: Bubbah, you're bloggin' under a nom de plume! What-choo doin' blathering about candor?

OS admits to his cowardice, but he had to make a decision to protect his family. It is a matter of physical safety. Don't ask, 'cuz OS won't tell, and if you think you know, you're mistaken. Besides, ya'll, this is a hobby, and always will be. OS can't imagine people parting with their hard-earned money for the privilege of reading his scribble. Puh-leeze!

And, there are many things he won't write about, 'cuz he already knows the high price of complete candor. He hopes, while he has to be discreet, that he has helped add a bit of humor, a bit of insight, and a bit of dignity to the public discussion.

And he hopes he'll make it a safer world for candor, one fine day.

Katherine Birbalsingh Sent Packing

To quote that great Southern philosopher, Gomer Pyle: Well, surprahze, surprahze!!

Cranmer is on the warpath. His reader are drawing knives on one another.

It's the blogosphere, ya'll. Ever'body calm down a tech.

OldSouth admires Miss Birbalsingh no end. What a brave lady, to graduate Oxford, lovely and attractive, with the world at her feet, and to choose to teach kids in forgotten neighborhoods of the UK. She could have taken up a very comfortable post at a private boarding school anywhere in the Commonwealth--Bermuda's nice, British Columbia's lovely, or any number of comfortable spots in England. She made a brave decision, and stuck to it, for well over a decade!

She made another in choosing to speak to the Conservative Party Congress. OS is not surprised to find that this forced resignation transpired. People who tell the truth to people allergic to truth find themselves in the crosshairs of the allergic peoples' anger. Don't ask how OS knows this, just trust he does.

We haven't heard the last of her, and the real debate, on both sides of the pond, is just about to get underway.

The painful part for this lovely lady is to be wrenched involuntarily from children to whom she has inevitably become attached. It's one thing to leave at year's end, with a plan in place, and to be able to say 'goodbye and Godspeed'. This is something else entirely, and it can truly, truly hurt. OS hopes the parents get in touch, and slather some love on her in the next few days. That helps ease the sorrow.

That being said, time to go forward.

OS lives in a county where 50% of the ninth graders never make it to the graduation line at the end of the twelfth grade, and of those who do, only about 10% ever graduate from university with a bachelor's degree, and about 10% of them pursue grad school. The schools here, well, suck. But we're assured they are wonderful, because at least it's not Chicago, where over 200 school-aged kids were shot last year, according to a recent article in Time Magazine. OS is happy his kids have graduated, and are long gone from this place, much as he loves living here. He doesn't want to see his grandchildren attending these schools.

It's time to really, really have that public discussion about how badly we educate our children, and what must be done to set things right. The guv'mint, at all levels, is out of money, so the typical union rant of 'Send us enough money, you ingrates, and we'll do a better job' is no longer an option.

They've been in the business of doing less with more for years, ya'll. That approach has proven to be a failure.

We now have to decide how to do a credible job with less, much less, and do it all much more credibly. Korea, India and Singapore are about to eat our collective lunch.

Miss Birbalsingh, OS thanks you from the bottom of his grumpy heart. You have done the world a great service, and he predicts you have great days ahead of you. Someday, before too long, he'd like to fly you over to our part of the world and let you talk to us. He knows a few folks who might be very interested in listening.

If you read this, young lady, and would like to get in touch, Cranmer has my contact information.

God bless you, comfort you, and strengthen you as you undertake 'all such good works He has prepared for you to walk in.'

This ain't the end, young lady. It's jest the beginning!

As Gomer would exclaim: ShaZAYuhm!!!

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.

Archbishop Cranmer On The Warpath

His Grace took a summer hiatus, and has obviously come back refreshed and ready to wield the verbal sword.

His target is the leadership (specifically Irene Bishop) of St. Michael and All Angel's Academy in Camberwell(UK), and he mounts his steed in defense of faculty member Katherine Birbalsingh, who had the temerity to address the Conservative Party last week and tell the truth.

Her address is here, in case you haven't enjoyed it yet.

OS will have some thoughts later about her address, which merits a close review. The issue at hand is freedom of speech, and academic freedom.

You know, things Academia has always stood tall for, until the past forty years or so.

Got git 'em, yer Grace!

Whoo-whee, OS is sooooo glad he's not in Cranmer's sights, the object of his wrathful attentions.

Katherine Birbalsingh Throws Down The Gauntlet, And The Parents Rally Behind Her

It takes some chutzpah for a teacher to stand in front of the world and deliver this kind of speech. Eight minutes of inspirational truth-telling, for which her school administrators attempted to run her out of her job on a rail. They were gathering the feathers, and heating the tar to apply to her insolent uppity backside, when the parents of her students rallied 'round.

Katherine is The Left's nightmare, on both sides of the pond.

She is, well, a she. And, she's strikingly pretty to boot.

She is Oxford-educated, articulate, accomplished, experienced.

She is a person of color.

She has a sense of humor, and knows how to use it.

She abandoned the Marxism of her university days as her experience as a teacher, and her conscience, demonstrated the abject failure of ThePeopleInChargeOfSuchThings and their leftist agenda. She saw children's lives damaged by this ideology, and she decided to speak up.

Within the first thirty seconds, she gets to the point: '...the system is broken, because it keeps poor children poor'. It only gets better from there!

A big-ole heapin' helpin' of Green Shoots Award to this brave woman.

And kudos to Cranmer, for raising unshirted hell about her mistreatment.