One of the many ludicrous
moments at the monthly meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of
Education this past Tuesday, 11 December, came at the end of this tortuous affair, when each board member gives a report
or observation from any MPS-related experiences that they've had in the course
of the last month.
Ira Jourdain,
endorsed as an MFT sycophant by the now blessedly defeated Rebecca Gagnon in
his narrow defeat of Tracine Asberry in November 2016, reeled off a list of
school site visitations and went into a mode whereby he was noting various
ethnic celebrations during this holiday season.
He was doing okay through Hanukkah et al, until he got to Kwanzaa, at
which reference he wished all Muslims a happy holiday.
I looked around and caught the eye of the Muslims in the audience.
We shared an ironic smile:
We shared an ironic smile:
Jourdain's ignorant comment would of course come as a surprise to
Maulana Karenga (born Ronald McKinley Everett), whose inspiration induced the
creation of the holiday for celebrating African American culture, without
prioritizing any religion and certainly not as a specifically Muslim
celebration, in 1966.
And this is a board in a district that gives
so much vacuous lip service to cultural competence.
What this board could in fact use is the
education I provide in Fundamentals of an
Excellent Liberal Arts Education, of the knowledge-intensive, skill-replete
sort that the K-12 Revolution will bring to students of all demographic
descriptors.
I could go on and on, but with more
knowledge at my disposal than when in Women’s Month March 2018 Rebecca
Gagnon lauded the two most famous 19th century African American women
figures (Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman) and claimed that, “I could just go
on and on…”
But did not.
Probably could not.
Farcical if all of this were not so serious
with regard to the education of our precious children, of all demographic
descriptors---
But I could go on and on---
And, unlike Gagnon, I will.
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