WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:07.040 I'm highly skeptical of Fresno Unified, really any public school district. 2 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:12.240 I think they're all worthless. And I somewhat think that 3 00:00:13.039 --> 00:00:15.359 basically it's not even the fault of any of the 4 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:20.039 school districts that I'm not saying I like Clovis Unified 5 00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:23.239 either or Central Unified or President. I dislike them all. 6 00:00:24.120 --> 00:00:27.559 Why well, I think because the general thrust of California 7 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:31.280 public education is wrong. I think the general thrust of 8 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:34.000 American public education in a lot of ways is wrong. 9 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:38.640 I think there's this massive over focus that is a 10 00:00:38.679 --> 00:00:44.759 little anachronistic in our time on universal college for all, 11 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:49.719 and that's the framework into which everyone is placed. We 12 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:58.159 don't have enough focus on vocational training, on basic life skills, training, 13 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:01.960 on all kinds of things that I think would be 14 00:01:02.039 --> 00:01:07.040 really valuable. And what we've seen is just because everyone 15 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:09.799 in high school wants to go to college. And we've 16 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:12.840 seen basically this dumbing down of every level of the 17 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:17.319 education system in this country, where the kinds of jobs 18 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:19.480 that you know, fifty years ago needed a high school 19 00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:24.280 diploma now need a college degree. The jobs that needed 20 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:28.599 a college degree today need a master's degree. My father 21 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:35.000 in law is this very rare bird. He is an 22 00:01:35.040 --> 00:01:39.359 engineer for Cummins, which makes you know, all kinds of 23 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:42.040 engines and things like that. Who does not have a 24 00:01:42.040 --> 00:01:46.920 bachelor's degree. He just has an associate's degree. I'm guessing 25 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:50.400 Cummins hasn't hired anyone without a bachelor's degree in decades. 26 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:52.519 And he's a great engineer. He's got a ton of 27 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:54.959 patents to his name. He's been working there consistently for 28 00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:59.079 the really really long time, does really great work. But 29 00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:01.239 you know, he learned to be an engineer, you know, 30 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:04.920 taking tractors apart and putting them all back together, you know, 31 00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:10.000 on the farm in Minnesota. At any rate, the whole 32 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:15.879 orientation of modern day California public education, California public high schools, 33 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.240 is around college gaining access to college. And I think 34 00:02:22.199 --> 00:02:28.919 the paradigmatic tragedy of this was about that must have 35 00:02:28.919 --> 00:02:30.360 been about five or six years ago. I think it 36 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:32.719 was just before COVID, or maybe in the thick of COVID, 37 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:35.439 President Unified proudly announced that they were taking one of 38 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:40.680 their junior high school shop class buildings and turning it 39 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:47.039 into an e sports arena, like a professional video games arena. 40 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:50.120 And what was the rationale. Well, all, there are colleges 41 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:57.000 that offer scholarships for e sports. Great, that's great. Yes, 42 00:02:57.159 --> 00:03:00.759 more time glued to a screen playing video games doing 43 00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:12.400 something useless sounds good. Now I want to With that said, 44 00:03:12.439 --> 00:03:20.360 that is my baseline skepticism of public education. It seems 45 00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:23.800 like there's an effort by the Presdent Unified Board of 46 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:27.800 Trustees to do something to turn the district around, and 47 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:32.520 the district is a train wreck in a lot of respects. 48 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:40.680 Academic scores are terrible, true, you know, not attending school 49 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:45.439 is terribly high. We have not that there was a 50 00:03:45.639 --> 00:03:51.759 massive dip in academic performance all around following COVID, and 51 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:55.879 it hasn't bumped back up yet. It seems like it's 52 00:03:55.919 --> 00:03:58.439 have not recovered from the loss of learning experience during 53 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:04.000 the COVID no year two years of to you know, 54 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:12.800 nightmare two year period. And in general Presney Unified. Most 55 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:15.599 of the stories we read about Fresney Unified are stuff about, 56 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:20.680 you know, arguments between the union and the Board of 57 00:04:20.680 --> 00:04:26.439 Trustees over money and this attitude that the point, this 58 00:04:26.519 --> 00:04:29.399 attitude that is very widespread throughout California, which is that 59 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:33.680 the point of public schools is that it's a job. 60 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:37.639 It's a jobs program for adults. And that's so much 61 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:39.639 of the agenda of these public schools is driven by 62 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:42.639 the teachers union, which the job of a teacher's union 63 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:45.600 is not to teach kids. The job of a teacher's 64 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:50.319 union the telos towards which it is ordered, its end goal, 65 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:56.839 the purpose for which it exists. The purpose of the 66 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:00.680 union is not really to educate kids. It's the purpose 67 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:06.600 of the union is to get more money for adults. 68 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:11.680 More money, more jobs, more members, better pay, better hours, 69 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:15.839 better benefits. That's the job of Presney Unified, of the 70 00:05:15.839 --> 00:05:20.360 Presney Unified Teachers Union. That is its goal. That is 71 00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:23.480 the thing towards which it is ordered. So I don't 72 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:29.000 find it to be and sometimes that interest is in 73 00:05:29.079 --> 00:05:36.000 conflict with academic achievement. So here's the Board of Trustees 74 00:05:36.839 --> 00:05:40.399 with kind of this very coming from the trustees side. 75 00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:43.519 Puff piece, sort of a puff piece. I guess it's 76 00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:47.240 in GV wire. I guess it shouldn't call it a 77 00:05:47.279 --> 00:05:51.079 puff piece, but it's definitely very pro trustees and actually 78 00:05:51.160 --> 00:05:55.600 takes some shots at Bob Nelson, the former superintendent at 79 00:05:55.600 --> 00:06:00.120 Fresney Unified, and kind of shade a lot of this. 80 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:04.360 I mean. Gv wire is owned by Darius Semi, who's 81 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:08.199 been a long relationship with Susan Wittrap, who's a member 82 00:06:08.279 --> 00:06:13.160 of the Fresne Unified School Board. Noneth All that being said, 83 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:21.079 here's the piece written by Anya Anya Ellis at GV wire. 84 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:26.000 Simplicity is in at Fresnew Unified. The twenty plus initiatives 85 00:06:26.040 --> 00:06:28.240 of the past to help struggling with students have been 86 00:06:28.279 --> 00:06:33.360 replaced with four goals. Meanwhile, expectations are way up for students, teachers, 87 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:36.480 and administrators. And these goals and expectations must be embraced 88 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:40.079 by the district's new superintendent, whether that is interim Superintendent 89 00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:42.800 Misty Hurr or someone else emerging from a national search. 90 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:47.000 We're still hunting, still hunting for superintendent for Fresney Unified. 91 00:06:47.959 --> 00:06:50.399 We have to be great at a few things, and 92 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:52.759 I think what the board has allowed us to do 93 00:06:52.839 --> 00:06:54.879 for the first time in Fresney Unified is to go 94 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:59.480 from very big to now very narrow, said Misty Herr. 95 00:07:00.839 --> 00:07:04.600 These initial seeds of what could become an academic renaissance 96 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:08.120 for the long struggling district. It could then again maybe 97 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:12.439 it could not, were developed at community listening sessions. In December, 98 00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:16.439 trustees and the interim superintendent's team refined those ideas, which 99 00:07:16.439 --> 00:07:19.279 were approved at a recent school board meeting. Under a 100 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:21.759 two year, one hundred thousand dollars contract, the school board 101 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:25.439 receives guidance from the Council of Great City Schools, a 102 00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:28.160 group that strives to improve student outcomes at seventy eight 103 00:07:28.199 --> 00:07:30.800 of the nation's largest urban public school systems. Yes, this 104 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:35.519 is the consultant that the President Unified hired. They're paying 105 00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:37.839 them one hundred thousand dollars to help them find their 106 00:07:37.879 --> 00:07:40.399 superintendent and help the board figure out how to do 107 00:07:40.439 --> 00:07:45.040 its job. You may ask yourself why did these people 108 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:47.240 run for the school board when they didn't maybe have 109 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:49.879 a clear sense of Why would these people run for 110 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:55.319 the school board and then hire a consultant for how 111 00:07:55.319 --> 00:08:00.480 to do their jobs? Wouldn't you have hoped when they 112 00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:02.759 were running that hes I'm qualified to be on the 113 00:08:02.759 --> 00:08:09.519 school board? Yeah? Here we are. Recognizing a problem is 114 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:12.959 the first step to solving a problem. And Misty Herr, 115 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:18.120 unlike retired superintendent Bob Nelson, is confronting the challenges head on. Wow, 116 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:22.639 just what a drive by at Bob Nelson. Hey GV wire, 117 00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:27.480 you realize you're what are your writers here? It's just 118 00:08:27.720 --> 00:08:32.240 absolutely assassinating poor Bob Nelson sitting in his office at Fresno, 119 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:36.679 at Fresno State, in his little sinecure job that he 120 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:42.320 abandoned Fresno Unified for. I was like, hey, what do 121 00:08:42.360 --> 00:08:47.519 you mean? I wasn't confronting the challenges head on. Her 122 00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:49.519 said quote, I will be the first to say that 123 00:08:49.559 --> 00:08:53.759 our academic game gains have been minimal, actually dismal, to 124 00:08:53.799 --> 00:08:56.440 say the least. At that meeting, the trustees adopted the 125 00:08:56.480 --> 00:08:59.240 district's four goals for student achievement and the so called 126 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:03.720 guardrails to address community concerns and aid in realizing the goals. 127 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:10.519 These are focused on community engagement, equitable access. Don't know 128 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:17.559 what that means. Equitable access? Do we mean like actual 129 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:23.240 equity or do we mean like DEI equity? Effective staff? 130 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:27.279 And the health and wellness of students and staff. Why 131 00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:29.799 are we caring about the health and wellness? This is 132 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:33.519 a school, It's not a hospital anyway. What are the 133 00:09:33.559 --> 00:09:39.240 goals there have been? Were those not the goals? Those 134 00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:42.279 are the guardrails? Okay, we have guardrails and we have goals. 135 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:45.279 See how simple? This is see how effectively they're using 136 00:09:45.279 --> 00:09:47.799 their taxpayer dollars to organize themselves to teach your kids. 137 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:53.080 All right, here are the goals. Three have been nailed 138 00:09:53.080 --> 00:09:55.000 down in the fourth awaits of benchmark, so we're not 139 00:09:55.039 --> 00:09:57.039 even done with all four goals, but here we go. 140 00:09:57.320 --> 00:10:01.639 First graders will be proficient in first Graders proficient in 141 00:10:01.720 --> 00:10:04.960 literacy will increase from forty eight percent in June of 142 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:08.639 twenty twenty four to eighty percent in June of twenty thirty. Okay, 143 00:10:08.679 --> 00:10:11.360 so we have six years to bring the literacy rate 144 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:17.000 among first graders up thirty two points. Students graduating from 145 00:10:17.080 --> 00:10:21.919 high school who are college and career ready will rise 146 00:10:21.960 --> 00:10:24.639 from forty three percent in June of twenty twenty four 147 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:30.320 to sixty four percent by June of twenty thirty. Okay, 148 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:32.799 So the idea is that's going to improve by twenty 149 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:37.600 points over the next six years. I mean, I appreciate 150 00:10:37.639 --> 00:10:40.480 that they're setting a goal and trying to pursue it. 151 00:10:40.840 --> 00:10:42.720 I mean I'm a little skeptical if they're if it's 152 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:45.120 gonna happen, but hey, good good for them. I guess 153 00:10:45.559 --> 00:10:48.879 third through eighth grade students more than one year behind 154 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:51.519 in English Language Arts and who make more than one 155 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:54.799 year's growth will increase from ten percent in June twenty 156 00:10:54.799 --> 00:10:57.320 twenty four to fifty percent by June of twenty thirty, 157 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:00.320 and the district will track sixth eighth and the twelfth 158 00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:03.639 grade students for Portrait of a Learner competencies with a 159 00:11:03.639 --> 00:11:08.519 percentage goal set soon for June of twenty thirty. Okay, 160 00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:11.000 so those are I think the sixth eighth and twelfth 161 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:13.120 grade thing. Those are like the standardized tests that sort 162 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:15.720 of measure student achievement that are kind of the benchmark 163 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:19.000 for a lot of California educational stats. Portrait of a 164 00:11:19.080 --> 00:11:21.320 learn Okay, Yeah, Portrait of a learner refers to traits 165 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:24.000 and skills the district and parents want to see developed 166 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:28.200 during a student's educational journey. Examples include critical thinking, problem solving, 167 00:11:28.200 --> 00:11:31.240 self control, and conflict resolution. Oh maybe this is something different. 168 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:34.120 Many school districts are developing or have put in place 169 00:11:34.159 --> 00:11:37.759 Portrait of a Learner goals. The goal sets standards for 170 00:11:37.799 --> 00:11:40.279 academic achievement and provide the next superintendent with a clear 171 00:11:40.399 --> 00:11:43.799 vision of what the district wants to accomplish, said Trustee 172 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:48.200 Susan Wittrup. This was a huge historical step for our district, 173 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:53.720 said Wittrup. Now after the meeting, school board president Valerie 174 00:11:53.799 --> 00:11:55.440 Davis said, this is the first time we've done this 175 00:11:55.480 --> 00:11:57.120 type of work for our board in our community. We 176 00:11:57.200 --> 00:12:00.240 have to start from somewhere, and now comes the the 177 00:12:00.279 --> 00:12:02.879 fly in the ointment, the turd in the punch bowl, 178 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:10.000 the Fresno Teachers Association. The Fresno Teachers Association appears far 179 00:12:10.159 --> 00:12:17.080 less enthusiastic about the adopted goals than district leadership. While 180 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:20.360 setting gulls, I'm not gonna read the whole quote in 181 00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:22.600 that voice, but here we go. Just know that that's 182 00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:27.240 the mental attitude I'm giving to this quote. While setting 183 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:31.039 goals is great, it's clear they're missing the bigger picture. 184 00:12:32.919 --> 00:12:36.279 What is the bigger picture? Nothing will change unless they're 185 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:40.840 willing to shift the district's culture. I mean, this seems 186 00:12:40.840 --> 00:12:43.200 like it's shifting the culture. It's saying we were going 187 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:46.039 to be free floating to now we're gonna have very defined, 188 00:12:46.519 --> 00:12:51.600 like performance based standards for student achievement. That means truly 189 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:57.120 listening to educators. Yeah, the Teachers' union head is mad 190 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:02.759 they're not truly listening to educators. Valuing all staff members. 191 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:09.000 Do we have to value the janitor or the administrative assistant. 192 00:13:09.639 --> 00:13:11.720 I mean, we value them and will treat them nicely, 193 00:13:11.799 --> 00:13:13.360 But I don't know that they have too much to 194 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:19.120 say about like academic benchmarks. Addressing the culture of fear 195 00:13:19.559 --> 00:13:25.080 slash retribution? What culture of fear or retribution? You guys 196 00:13:25.159 --> 00:13:30.159 have a collectively bargained contract. There's nobody who has better 197 00:13:31.159 --> 00:13:38.480 job security against retribution than a California public school unionized teacher. 198 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:42.120 Are you kidding me? The culture of fear and retribution 199 00:13:44.279 --> 00:13:49.679 providing real support? You know how many gazillions of dollars 200 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:53.960 President Unified is spending on like school psychologists and stuff 201 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:58.799 like that, and making decisions that reflect what's actually happening 202 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:03.440 in our classrooms and school sites. Yeah, what's happening in 203 00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:06.440 the classrooms and school sites is these kids aren't learning 204 00:14:06.519 --> 00:14:10.000 a dang thing, and they're setting expectations that, hey, you 205 00:14:10.120 --> 00:14:14.519 better achieve better benchmarks. That was the quote from the 206 00:14:14.519 --> 00:14:19.279 teachers union president that will with my interstitial comments by 207 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:23.600 Teachers Union president Manuel Benia said in a text to 208 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:31.519 GV wire reporter Nancy Price, why is the teachers union upset? Well, 209 00:14:32.519 --> 00:14:36.440 this is why? Again, what is the goal of the 210 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:40.559 teachers Union. The goal of the teachers Union is not 211 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:45.559 to educate children. The goal of the teachers Union, which 212 00:14:45.559 --> 00:14:47.639 for some reason is like the major partner in all 213 00:14:47.639 --> 00:14:50.879 of this, rather than some kind of like I don't know, parent, 214 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:54.200 like some kind of teacher senate or something like that. 215 00:14:54.279 --> 00:14:58.200 The goal of the union, the reason the union exists, 216 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:05.320 is to negotiate with the Board of Trustees for the 217 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:10.480 collectively bargained contract. That's the point it represents the union 218 00:15:10.519 --> 00:15:15.840 members for money. Money is the point of the union. 219 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:18.799 The point of the union is to get more jobs, 220 00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:29.600 more pay, more jobs, more pay, better conditions, fewer hours, 221 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:33.919 et cetera for union members. That that is the job 222 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:37.399 of the Teachers Union. That that's the reason it exists. 223 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:49.639 If you set performance metrics for teachers, then you could 224 00:15:49.960 --> 00:15:53.759 start holding teachers accountable if they don't hit those metrics, 225 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:58.039 it could threaten those teachers' jobs. They don't want that. 226 00:15:58.200 --> 00:16:01.120 They don't want, I mean necessarily, if you're there to 227 00:16:01.159 --> 00:16:05.000 protect every teacher's job, you're going to feel threatened by 228 00:16:05.080 --> 00:16:10.039 something like a metric that's put in place for you know, hey, 229 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:14.080 if you don't get your kids to achieve at this level, 230 00:16:14.679 --> 00:16:19.399 you know it could reflect poorly on your your performance review. 231 00:16:19.559 --> 00:16:24.519 It could lead to problems. They don't want that. They 232 00:16:24.519 --> 00:16:27.879 don't want their teachers to feel any sort of They 233 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:30.679 don't want their teachers to have any kind of sweat 234 00:16:31.799 --> 00:16:34.399 about whether or not they're doing their job well enough 235 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:44.360 to hold their job. So that's the that's the rub. 236 00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:48.720 They don't teachers' unions constantly are opposed to any kind 237 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:54.320 of metric that's going to measure their performance as reflected 238 00:16:54.399 --> 00:16:56.279 in the scores of kids. When we return, I want 239 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:59.639 to talk about the fairness of such standards. I think 240 00:16:59.720 --> 00:17:02.159 there are ways in which it is fair. That is 241 00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:06.039 next on the John Drardy Show, there's a bunch of 242 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:09.880 brew haha emanating from Fresno Unified. The board of trustees 243 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:15.480 is setting a couple of big time goals for improving 244 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:22.640 student academic performance, and the union's response is they're just 245 00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:27.000 absolute sour grapes over it, just flying the ointment, et cetera. 246 00:17:27.359 --> 00:17:33.400 They want no part of this. And I think the 247 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:36.160 basic thing is the point of a union, as I've said, 248 00:17:36.359 --> 00:17:40.319 is to protect jobs. To protect jobs, get better pay 249 00:17:40.359 --> 00:17:44.279 for jobs, get better conditions for jobs, fewer hours, more pay, 250 00:17:44.920 --> 00:17:47.480 more jobs, total et cetera, et cetera. That is the 251 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:54.119 goal of a union, So a performance metric that union 252 00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:56.920 members could fail at and that might result in them 253 00:17:56.920 --> 00:18:00.519 getting fired or laid off or whatever. They don't like that. 254 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:04.599 They don't want any part of that. Now, taking the 255 00:18:04.680 --> 00:18:06.960 union side for just a second, for the sake of argument, 256 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:11.599 the retort could be this, listen, if you're going to 257 00:18:11.720 --> 00:18:18.000 tie our pay or our jobs to student performance, that's 258 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:22.480 not fair. I can be the best teacher in the 259 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:26.680 world if you give me a classroom full of kids 260 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:32.400 who you know are from broken homes, who don't have 261 00:18:32.440 --> 00:18:35.559 supportive parents, who've got stuff going on in their personal 262 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:39.039 lives that prevent them from effectively learning during the day 263 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:44.480 in the classroom. That's not on me. If they don't achieve. Okay, 264 00:18:44.920 --> 00:18:47.279 I can be the best teacher in the world. If 265 00:18:47.319 --> 00:18:53.039 this kid individually his mom and dad. If this kid individually, 266 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:56.640 his dad is out of the picture, his mom is 267 00:18:56.839 --> 00:19:01.279 smoking weed, and you know it's chaos home life, and 268 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:07.200 blah blah blah blah blah. I can be the best 269 00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:10.119 teacher in the world. And this kid could still perform terribly. 270 00:19:11.319 --> 00:19:12.599 And you got to look at, well, what is the 271 00:19:12.599 --> 00:19:17.039 standardized testing you're using for measuring this kid's outcomes? What 272 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:19.519 is this that that that's not fair and this isn't fair, 273 00:19:19.559 --> 00:19:20.960 and this isn't fair. Bah bah blah blah blah blah 274 00:19:20.960 --> 00:19:23.640 blah buth it's not fair. It's not fair to judge 275 00:19:23.640 --> 00:19:28.839 teachers purely on the basis of student academic achievement. That's 276 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:36.759 not fair, all right. I can get that on an 277 00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:44.240 individual level, But the assumption that's built into those arguments 278 00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:50.599 is that actually, student academic achievement is in no way, 279 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:58.039 shape or form connected to teacher excellence. That teacher excellence 280 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:06.160 basically has absolutely no outcome. There's no difference in outcome 281 00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:12.079 based on you know, the world's greatest teacher James Edward 282 00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:16.599 James almost from stand and Deliver versus you know, a 283 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:21.279 glorified babysitter's who's popping in, you know the DVD of 284 00:20:21.319 --> 00:20:28.079 Gladiator and calling it, you know, ancient history. Like there's 285 00:20:28.160 --> 00:20:34.960 no difference, then clearly some outcome based difference is going 286 00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:38.920 to get churned out at the end between a really 287 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:44.160 good teacher and a really crappy teacher. I refuse to believe, 288 00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:47.839 and again I'll acknowledge you could have a really good 289 00:20:47.880 --> 00:20:50.839 teacher and an individual student who's not going to respond 290 00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:53.480 well to that teacher, or because of chaos in their 291 00:20:53.480 --> 00:20:56.599 home life or whatever, blah blah blah, maybe that teacher 292 00:20:56.680 --> 00:20:59.279 is not going to get through to that kid. Yeah, 293 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:03.519 I'm sure. Sure a great teacher can have individual students 294 00:21:03.559 --> 00:21:05.920 who don't really improve much as a result of that 295 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:13.359 individual great teacher, but not the majority, not the plurality, 296 00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:16.079 not most of the kids. If you have a really 297 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:19.880 excellent teacher who's a really really connects with kids and 298 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:23.799 is really motivating that that's the point that that's how 299 00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:26.839 we measure teachers who are excellent. That all of us 300 00:21:26.920 --> 00:21:30.119 can remember our best teacher, the teacher who dragged the 301 00:21:30.119 --> 00:21:33.279 most good out of us. I remember my fifth grade teacher, 302 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:37.000 Sister Olvito, is the best teacher I ever had. And 303 00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:41.279 you know, I remember my favorite college professors, you know, 304 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:45.160 teachers who set high expectations for you and drew those 305 00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:56.359 expectations out of you. So I on the Teachers Union 306 00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:58.440 is of course going to feel threatened by anything that's 307 00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:03.720 measuring student achievement and tying in any way teacher performance 308 00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:06.119 to student achievement. Now they've got the security of knowing 309 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:10.799 they've got their contract in place, which is already signed, sealed, delivered. 310 00:22:13.400 --> 00:22:16.319 They've got protections that most of us in the real 311 00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:18.920 world would love to have, and better pay than most 312 00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:20.920 of us in the real world, you know, who have 313 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:26.240 equivalent levels of education or superior levels of education, would 314 00:22:26.279 --> 00:22:34.759 love to have. So they're nervous because they don't think. 315 00:22:35.640 --> 00:22:38.079 And this is the problem with our public education system 316 00:22:38.119 --> 00:22:41.359 in California. One of many problems is that so much 317 00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:45.519 of it is driven by teachers' unions who are measuring 318 00:22:45.559 --> 00:22:48.200 success based on how much money they make for adults. 319 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:54.000 Teachers' unions view schools as jobs programs for adults. That is, 320 00:22:54.720 --> 00:22:57.240 that is the their bread and butter of what they're 321 00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:00.680 trying to do is to make this in affective jobs 322 00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:05.160 program for adults, and that interest is sometimes in direct 323 00:23:05.240 --> 00:23:11.039 conflict with student achievement and demanding excellence from students. When 324 00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:16.039 we return, Vice President Vance is driving liberal Christians nuts 325 00:23:16.039 --> 00:23:19.000 with his conception of, hey, do you know that there 326 00:23:19.079 --> 00:23:21.200 is an order in which we're supposed to love people? 327 00:23:21.319 --> 00:23:25.680 Next on the John Girardi Show, a bunch of liberal 328 00:23:25.880 --> 00:23:31.640 Christians are just having an absolute meltdown over JD. Vance 329 00:23:32.039 --> 00:23:37.920 daring to make a point about, in his case, kind 330 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:43.720 of Catholic doctrine, but more generally Christian doctrine. So Vance 331 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:49.799 has this tweet out where he's sort of dealing with 332 00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:56.279 these various forms of the immigration debate, and Vance is 333 00:23:56.319 --> 00:24:01.720 sort of pushing against this notion that theyasically. Advance's thesis 334 00:24:01.799 --> 00:24:04.519 is that a lot of government policy has been far 335 00:24:04.680 --> 00:24:09.759 more concerned with the plight of people far far away 336 00:24:09.799 --> 00:24:13.359 than for our own citizens. Laying out the red carpet 337 00:24:13.519 --> 00:24:17.839 for immigrants at the expense of our own citizens, whose 338 00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:24.119 jobs have been shipped overseas, having industries be dominated by 339 00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:29.079 foreign laborers rather than our own workers, et cetera, et cetera, 340 00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:36.720 is bad. And he talks he talked about he had 341 00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:42.440 this tweet out where he says, you're ampling up with 342 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:50.480 the tweet Vance is. Vance was on Fox News and 343 00:24:50.519 --> 00:24:54.359 he's talking about like, you're having more compassion for unlawful 344 00:24:54.359 --> 00:24:56.519 aliens than you are for American citizens. And he says, 345 00:24:56.559 --> 00:25:00.759 there's a Christian concept that you love your family, and 346 00:25:00.799 --> 00:25:03.000 then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, 347 00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:05.079 and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after 348 00:25:05.119 --> 00:25:09.839 that you prioritize the rest of the world. He was 349 00:25:09.880 --> 00:25:13.839 then criticized for this by this guy named Rory Stewart, 350 00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:25.559 this very posh, lefty British journalist, political talker guy, who said, 351 00:25:25.599 --> 00:25:31.440 that's a bizarre take on the Gospels. Less Christian and 352 00:25:31.480 --> 00:25:36.880 more pagan tribal. We should start worrying when politicians become theologians. 353 00:25:37.640 --> 00:25:40.200 And Vance didn't just sit there and take it. Vance 354 00:25:40.279 --> 00:25:42.480 is this is the thing that I'm laughing about. Trump 355 00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:47.759 was probably the first politician to really use Twitter to 356 00:25:47.799 --> 00:25:53.240 his advantage and really utilize it. But Vance is a millennial. 357 00:25:53.720 --> 00:25:56.920 I mean he's only like forty forty one or something 358 00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:02.680 like that. He uses Twitter like I do, and Vance 359 00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:05.160 instead of being detached like, oh, I'm the vice president, 360 00:26:05.279 --> 00:26:07.559 I'm above this, and Van sas just like, no, I'm 361 00:26:07.559 --> 00:26:11.400 gonna respond to this idiot. So he responds to this 362 00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:19.319 guy and says, google the words ordo, amorris. Aside from that, 363 00:26:20.519 --> 00:26:25.440 the idea that there isn't a hierarchy of obligations violates 364 00:26:25.480 --> 00:26:29.519 basic common sense. Does this guy Rory Stewart really think 365 00:26:29.559 --> 00:26:32.079 his moral duties to his own children are the same 366 00:26:32.079 --> 00:26:34.240 as his duties to a stranger who lives thousands of 367 00:26:34.279 --> 00:26:37.920 miles away does anyone, and then he goes on to 368 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:41.039 bury the guy. He says, I've said before and I'll 369 00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:43.279 say it again. The problem with Rory and people like 370 00:26:43.400 --> 00:26:45.599 him is that he has an IQ of one hundred 371 00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:47.000 and ten and thinks he has an IQ of one 372 00:26:47.079 --> 00:26:50.480 hundred and thirty. This false arrogance drives so much elite 373 00:26:50.559 --> 00:26:54.960 failure over the last forty years. Oh geez, can imagine 374 00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:57.079 just getting buried like that by the vice president of 375 00:26:57.119 --> 00:27:02.480 the United States. Anyway, So what Vance is talking about 376 00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:10.799 is Vance mentions this Latin phrase ordo amorus, which means 377 00:27:10.839 --> 00:27:17.359 the order of love. And it's this concept that is 378 00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:24.680 embedded in a lot of Christian thinkers that our first obligations, 379 00:27:25.799 --> 00:27:29.160 that there is basically a hierarchy of our obligations, an 380 00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:37.240 ordering of our obligations. Basically, if you're a father and 381 00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:41.079 you just abandon your kids to go on a mission 382 00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:46.000 trip to South America and you leave your family in 383 00:27:46.079 --> 00:27:48.519 poverty and destitution, and your wife's like, where did our 384 00:27:48.640 --> 00:27:51.160 husband go? Why did he leave us? And they're eating 385 00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:55.119 beans out of a can because you just left your family. 386 00:27:55.480 --> 00:28:00.720 That's a massive dereliction of duty. Okay, we have ordering 387 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:04.640 of obligations that are rooted in and ordering of our loves. 388 00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:07.559 We have certain kinds of loves towards certain kinds of 389 00:28:07.559 --> 00:28:12.000 things that impose greater and lesser degrees of obligation on us. 390 00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:16.640 A lot of Christian political theory built on the political 391 00:28:16.680 --> 00:28:22.200 theory of Aristotle, and you had writers like Thomas Aquinas 392 00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:28.000 and others who built on this. Aristotle was a for 393 00:28:28.079 --> 00:28:32.400 a lot of Christian thinkers. The philosophical reflections of Aristotle 394 00:28:33.400 --> 00:28:36.839 were something that had a lot of truth and a 395 00:28:36.839 --> 00:28:41.839 lot of wisdom to it. Aristotle's conception of political order 396 00:28:43.640 --> 00:28:49.519 was that political communities are actually natural things. And this 397 00:28:49.559 --> 00:28:52.519 can sometimes be foreign to us as Americans, because as 398 00:28:52.559 --> 00:28:56.880 Americans we think of government, or we think of the 399 00:28:56.920 --> 00:29:01.279 political community as sort of almost an artificial construct. A 400 00:29:01.279 --> 00:29:04.200 lot of American political thought is influenced by the Enlightenment, 401 00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:09.720