According to her Twitter bio, Shane Safir is an “educator, mom, aspiring antiracist, working daily toward equity and justice.”
And if we were you, we’d keep your kids far, far away from her. Because her educational philosophy leaves, well, everything to be desired:
Eliminate D’s and F’s. If you have to have grades, go ABC/I (Incomplete) so kids can make up any classes they struggled in. D feels like defeat and F signals failure. Get failure out of the classroom!
— Shane Safir (@ShaneSafir) December 18, 2020
What if we blew it all up?
– grades
– homework
– report cards
– tests
– subject areas
– sorting & ranking
What would an antiracist system built from the CHILD up (not the policy room down) and around our most marginalized learners look like? @DenaSimmons @chrisemdin— Shane Safir (@ShaneSafir) December 21, 2020
Or — and hear us out — what if we didn’t do that?
What if we blew up your mom? https://t.co/yVh1SKKZDW
— James Lindsay, Bd.E., respect my degree (@ConceptualJames) December 22, 2020
Still a better idea than anything Shane has proposed.
Wow, y’all, the trolls came out THICK for this one! Fascinating! https://t.co/wAE9K36xaq
— Shane Safir (@ShaneSafir) December 22, 2020
Is it being a troll to point out that Safir is insane, though?
They're doing that in BC. It's watering down the education system. Competition is part of the human condition. If left to progressives, there will be no competent human beings left to take the jobs that were once competed for. 1/2
— J Delbert Tarkanian (@themudtark2000) December 22, 2020
Competition is not inherent to the human condition. It’s a core value of capitalism & Western epistemology, both constructed ways of operating and viewing the world. And with all due respect, the idea that grades and test scores lead to “competent human beings” is deeply flawed. https://t.co/EANu14Ecuj
— Shane Safir (@ShaneSafir) December 22, 2020
That’s a lot of words just to say “I’m insane,” Shane.
Friends. The point is not to NOT assess competency or to cultivate a generation of incompetent humans. The point is that our current assessment instruments are actually inadequate at assessing competence! Performance-based assessments w/ public defenses of learning much better.
— Shane Safir (@ShaneSafir) December 22, 2020
We’re not your friends, lady.
Ah yes, the soft bigotry of low expectations https://t.co/JQpWuC4fYn
— Jen Monroe ?? ? ? (@jenniferm_q) December 22, 2020
China’s going to eat our lunch not because of trade, diplomatic influence, or even brute force. It’ll be because while they’re training a generation of kids in the highest echelons of STEM and our kids won’t learn basic arithmetic, let alone calculus and computer science. https://t.co/pwe3o5dkVH
— Tiana Lowe (@TianaTheFirst) December 22, 2020
Yes, let's take away all measurements of merit. That way we can eliminate all social and economic mobility.
The existing aristocracy can maintain their positions for themselves and their descendants. Sounds great.
And we can just give everyone participation awards.
— Tony Byergo (@TonyByergo) December 22, 2020
We'd end up marginalizing literally *EVERYONE*. If education wants to achieve excellence, it has to measure it somehow. I'm all for fitting a child's learning to their specific needs & abilities, but we must prioritize excellence, not mire ourselves in mediocrity.
— Paul Roundy (@PaulRoundy1) December 22, 2020
Something to ponder before we go:
Funny how all the radical proposals to rework education— you know, for the kids— also tend to mean a lot less work or practical accountability for teachers https://t.co/GD6WHjILLk
— Griswold Family Vacation (@HashtagGriswold) December 22, 2020
Yeah, weird.
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