Former lawyer with 16 years of f/t teaching foreign language at a nationally-ranked "elite" private school. The UATX rosters of speakers at the June 2022 summer school program is incredible Please consider offering a similar program geared toward high school teachers and administrators. It would sell out.
Former lawyer with 16 years of f/t teaching foreign language at a nationally-ranked "elite" private school. The UATX rosters of speakers at the June 2022 summer school program is incredible Please consider offering a similar program geared toward high school teachers and administrators. It would sell out.
I am reminded of my university experience in the early 90s studying political science at a CA state college. My favorite professors couldn’t have had more diverse ideas. They all made me think, challenged whatever I thought I understood, and did everything they could to teach me to really understand important issues. That is what universities are supposed to do. Universities today are seminaries of radical ideas and group think. That has to change if our nation is to survive.
My Econ professor had me read a paper by Irving Fisher, "The Debt Deflation Theory of the Great Depression." Fisher was an early Monatarist, Milton Friedman's mentor. I was supposed to find the paper unconvincing, and return to Keynesian orthodoxy. Instead, I liked the paper, and became a Monatarist. After that, I had to remember to give the "correct" Keynesian answer, not what I actually thought.
Another great piece. Don't think I've ever read a bad one here. I may disagree from time to time but that's what I love about this site. The $5.00 monthly charge is a pittance for what I garner in return. I remember the day I heard you on Dennis Prager's show and learned about your resignation letter from the NY Times. So grateful I tuned it that day
I've been drawn to Bari because she seems like a truth-teller. In our current society we must listen to uncomfortable truths. As a high school teacher for the past 19 years, I can argue that the main issues of our public school systems are not being discussed. I feel like I've been watching the slow death of public education in front of my eyes, and I am trying to speak up because I truly believe that our education system sets the tone for the country at large. Please subscribe to our free Substack if you care about education as the majority of posts this summer will revolve around education. For now, check out my farewell letter to my seniors as I urge them to fight for their minds: https://teachtounite.substack.com/p/a-farewell-to-the-class-of-2022?s=r
Check out Jordan Peterson's thinking on credentials university students. Within ten years Harvard graduates will be describing themselves as pre-woke (based on class year) or hiding the fact altogether. I also predict that in ten years less than half of SCOTUS clerks will be from today's elite law schools.
Williams College, now an epicenter of the current insanity, was started for reasons similar to the founding of Yale. It sent missionaries around the world and there is a great monument to them in a neglected part of campus. If you cringe at the notion of missionaries, let me make a comparison between Bush’s War in Iraq and the non-violent transformation by missionaries (including women) of vicious cannibals into the wonderful and loving people of Fiji.
Love this: “Here’s something worth remembering: The founders of Yale were Congregationalists who believed that Harvard had become too theologically lax. Princeton was started by men who were frustrated with Harvard and Yale’s opposition to a Presbyterian movement—frustrated enough to settle their new school in New Jersey. The point is that everything we now regard as institutional and prestigious started as something scrappy built by people who were pissed off about the status quo and decided they weren’t going to wait around for someone else to fix it.”
"Exhibit A: Suzy Weiss’s story last week on the destruction of David Sabatini, the world-renowned molecular biologist who, until recently, was a star at MIT’s Whitehead Institute. Now he’s unemployed. Sabatini is a symbol of a system and culture that has eaten its own."
Apologies but Sabatini's experience is not a symbol of a system and culture that has eaten its own. To the contrary, it's a rather banal example of a man in a relatively powerful position having regular sex with a reasonably attractive woman who is more than 20 years younger than him who is in a work adjacent position. The woman (in this instance, this role can be played by a person of any sex) ended up having a screw loose coupled with no respect for honesty. The relationship/ sexual arrangement ended and she decided to make his life miserable. She was very effective in doing so. This happens all the time. Bottom line, Sabatini stepped on a landmine (of his own making; fifty something soon to be divorced men should know that a person like her is existential risk personified. And throwing in his predilection for alcohol tastings only makes the situation more risky) and it blew up. End of story.
Agreed. The system is broken, no doubt about it, but also, guys, don’t you know better? Consequence-free casual sex does not exist and believing you are entitled to it will ruin your life. Simple as that.
On the education beat: y’all should look into classical education. It’s been around forever but is undergoing a resurgence of interest. In its best form it is Christian, but there are also secular classical schools too (the Great Hearts academies would be an example). Children who receive classical educations, as our founders did, are the best hope for the future of liberal society. The emphasis is on clear thinking and expression, facility with the great books, strong logic skills and a commitment to truth, goodness and beauty as organizing principles for one’s life. Successful classical schools graduate students who understand the relationship between cultivated virtue and unrestrained passion. They will be our civilization’s torchbearers.
Public school is lost and so are most universities. It’s sad but we have to pull our kids away from the blast radius and equip them to rebuild a civil society.
I no longer contribute to my Alma mater and I grieve to see it become another woke cesspool. The work you are doing is so important to the future, and maybe, just maybe your project will help other institutions curb their devolvment and again become places of free speech and thoughts.
Former lawyer with 16 years of f/t teaching foreign language at a nationally-ranked "elite" private school. The UATX rosters of speakers at the June 2022 summer school program is incredible Please consider offering a similar program geared toward high school teachers and administrators. It would sell out.
Former lawyer with 16 years of f/t teaching foreign language at a nationally-ranked "elite" private school. The UATX rosters of speakers at the June 2022 summer school program is incredible Please consider offering a similar program geared toward high school teachers and administrators. It would sell out.
I am reminded of my university experience in the early 90s studying political science at a CA state college. My favorite professors couldn’t have had more diverse ideas. They all made me think, challenged whatever I thought I understood, and did everything they could to teach me to really understand important issues. That is what universities are supposed to do. Universities today are seminaries of radical ideas and group think. That has to change if our nation is to survive.
My Econ professor had me read a paper by Irving Fisher, "The Debt Deflation Theory of the Great Depression." Fisher was an early Monatarist, Milton Friedman's mentor. I was supposed to find the paper unconvincing, and return to Keynesian orthodoxy. Instead, I liked the paper, and became a Monatarist. After that, I had to remember to give the "correct" Keynesian answer, not what I actually thought.
Another great piece. Don't think I've ever read a bad one here. I may disagree from time to time but that's what I love about this site. The $5.00 monthly charge is a pittance for what I garner in return. I remember the day I heard you on Dennis Prager's show and learned about your resignation letter from the NY Times. So grateful I tuned it that day
I've been drawn to Bari because she seems like a truth-teller. In our current society we must listen to uncomfortable truths. As a high school teacher for the past 19 years, I can argue that the main issues of our public school systems are not being discussed. I feel like I've been watching the slow death of public education in front of my eyes, and I am trying to speak up because I truly believe that our education system sets the tone for the country at large. Please subscribe to our free Substack if you care about education as the majority of posts this summer will revolve around education. For now, check out my farewell letter to my seniors as I urge them to fight for their minds: https://teachtounite.substack.com/p/a-farewell-to-the-class-of-2022?s=r
Check out Jordan Peterson's thinking on credentials university students. Within ten years Harvard graduates will be describing themselves as pre-woke (based on class year) or hiding the fact altogether. I also predict that in ten years less than half of SCOTUS clerks will be from today's elite law schools.
Williams College, now an epicenter of the current insanity, was started for reasons similar to the founding of Yale. It sent missionaries around the world and there is a great monument to them in a neglected part of campus. If you cringe at the notion of missionaries, let me make a comparison between Bush’s War in Iraq and the non-violent transformation by missionaries (including women) of vicious cannibals into the wonderful and loving people of Fiji.
The parcel of land upon which my former university was built had been a golf course. Longing for the day it returns to its roots.
Thank you Bari Weiss!!
Love this: “Here’s something worth remembering: The founders of Yale were Congregationalists who believed that Harvard had become too theologically lax. Princeton was started by men who were frustrated with Harvard and Yale’s opposition to a Presbyterian movement—frustrated enough to settle their new school in New Jersey. The point is that everything we now regard as institutional and prestigious started as something scrappy built by people who were pissed off about the status quo and decided they weren’t going to wait around for someone else to fix it.”
Insightful!
"Exhibit A: Suzy Weiss’s story last week on the destruction of David Sabatini, the world-renowned molecular biologist who, until recently, was a star at MIT’s Whitehead Institute. Now he’s unemployed. Sabatini is a symbol of a system and culture that has eaten its own."
Apologies but Sabatini's experience is not a symbol of a system and culture that has eaten its own. To the contrary, it's a rather banal example of a man in a relatively powerful position having regular sex with a reasonably attractive woman who is more than 20 years younger than him who is in a work adjacent position. The woman (in this instance, this role can be played by a person of any sex) ended up having a screw loose coupled with no respect for honesty. The relationship/ sexual arrangement ended and she decided to make his life miserable. She was very effective in doing so. This happens all the time. Bottom line, Sabatini stepped on a landmine (of his own making; fifty something soon to be divorced men should know that a person like her is existential risk personified. And throwing in his predilection for alcohol tastings only makes the situation more risky) and it blew up. End of story.
Agreed. The system is broken, no doubt about it, but also, guys, don’t you know better? Consequence-free casual sex does not exist and believing you are entitled to it will ruin your life. Simple as that.
On the education beat: y’all should look into classical education. It’s been around forever but is undergoing a resurgence of interest. In its best form it is Christian, but there are also secular classical schools too (the Great Hearts academies would be an example). Children who receive classical educations, as our founders did, are the best hope for the future of liberal society. The emphasis is on clear thinking and expression, facility with the great books, strong logic skills and a commitment to truth, goodness and beauty as organizing principles for one’s life. Successful classical schools graduate students who understand the relationship between cultivated virtue and unrestrained passion. They will be our civilization’s torchbearers.
Public school is lost and so are most universities. It’s sad but we have to pull our kids away from the blast radius and equip them to rebuild a civil society.
I no longer contribute to my Alma mater and I grieve to see it become another woke cesspool. The work you are doing is so important to the future, and maybe, just maybe your project will help other institutions curb their devolvment and again become places of free speech and thoughts.
We need honest and brave people like you in leadership, Bari.