good morning. It’s Monday. We’ll see how his QR code for the Brooklyn Public Library inspired the resignation of an Oklahoma teacher. Also see how New York officials face questions about monitoring Hasidic schools as the state board considers rules to keep private schools to minimum academic standards. I will continue..
The classroom where Summer Boismier taught is located about 1,400 miles from the Brooklyn Public Library’s impressive main building in Grand Army Plaza. Boismier — Describing herself newly as “self-employed,” sarcastically added that her mother “keep saying I’m self-employed.” united nationsI’m employed”—I’ll be traveling in the next week or so.
Boismier is a retired high school English teacher in Norman, Oklahoma. After he posted his QR code at the Brooklyn Library he directed students to the Books UnBanned program.
Her students found bookshelves in her room covered in red paper on the first day of school last month. The paper she wrote said, “The book the state doesn’t want you to read.”
Boismier said the exhibit is a response to a state law known as HB 1775, enacted in May to limit what public schools can teach about race and gender. She said she spent two minutes of class time talking about QR codes. Parents immediately complained. She took a leave of absence and was summoned to a meeting with school administrators.
She said she resigned hours after the meeting. State Education Secretary Ryan Walters I demanded that Boazmier be stripped of his educational credentials.she wrote on Twitter that she didn’t have “Oklahoma values.”
Asked if Boismier broke any rules, a spokesman for Norman Public Schools said, “I don’t know if there are specific rules.”
Spokesman Wes Moody said the meeting with Boismier was scheduled “because parents came to us with concerns”, but it was confidential and he was “involved” in what was said. No,” he said. Boasmier told me that she never made a partisan political statement in class, but that she covered the shelves “because of the bigoted law.”
The movement to ban books is escalating across the country, with parents, activists and conservative lawmakers adopting increasingly aggressive tactics to challenge for the title. It coincides with the Banned Books Week, designated by coalitions including the American Library Association in 1982 to call attention to attempts to challenge free speech.
Linda Johnson, the library’s president and chief executive, said 5,100 requests for the digital cards have been received since Books Unbounded began in the spring. said he lent me a
She said requests are frequently accompanied by “poignant emails” from people saying they don’t have access to the books they want to read. Last year, the American Library Association counted censorship attempts on just under 1,600 books.
“If you run a public library whose mission is to provide access to the world’s information and knowledge, and you see libraries across the country banned from doing that, it’s disheartening.” “This goes to the heart of democracy,” Johnson said. It’s incredibly scary for people who do.”
weather
Rain is expected in the late afternoon, with temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s. Be prepared for showers and thunderstorms at night.
another side parking lot
Valid until September 26th (Rosh Hashana).
The state board announced this week that Hasidic schools teach We plan to consider a proposed rule that would place the responsibility on states to ensure that Secular subjects such as English and mathematics.
The board, the 17-member committee that sets education policy in New York, is expected to approve the proposal on Tuesday.
Schools known as yeshivas could face a loss of public funding if they are found not to give their children a basic non-religious education. A Times study found that many Hasidic boy yeshivas read and do math only 90 minutes a day, four days a week.
A Times study found that 99% of the thousands of Hasidic boys who took the state’s standardized reading and math tests in 2019 failed. Like other private schools in New York, Yeshiva does not require testing. Most do not, but some do so as a condition of receiving public funding. Over the past four years, he spent more than $1 billion in state funding for Hasidic boys’ schools, according to a Times study.
A vote by the regent would cap a years-long controversial process. It revolves around an 1890s state law that stipulated that private schools must provide an education “substantially equivalent” to public school education.
State education authorities have struggled for years to formulate regulations amid opposition from the Hasidic community. A judge nullified a series of proposals over procedural issues in 2019. The state he withdrew another plan in 2020 after the Hasidic leader again objected.
Currently, the proposed regulations before the regent detail fewer requirements. The State has not outlined clear consequences for schools that do not follow instructions to provide basic education in English, math, science, and civics. We do not set a minimum amount of time that you must devote to a meaningful education.
After the proposal was made public in March, Hasidic leaders moved to block it, sending yeshiva students home with leaflets urging parents to attack officials with letters challenging the proposal. Sent.
After the Times sent a summary of its findings to schools last week, several Hasidic groups defended the education the schools offer in opinion articles and statements, denying some of the Times’ findings.
Warnings about yeshivas have been circulating for a long time, and The Times found that three employees of the State Department of Education had expressed concern. A spokesperson for the department did not respond to a request for comment. And politicians who may have called for change have appeased the Hasidic community, which longtime political consultant Evan Stabiski called “part of the fabric of New York politics.”
Metropolitan Diary
trunk treats
Dear Diary:
In his 20s, he lived alone in Manhattan. I had 2 cats. My brother adopted me as a kitten. Between work schedules and outings, we knew there would be times when we needed each other for the company.
One night, when I got home late, it wasn’t until I took a taxi that I realized that I had forgotten my cat’s favorite food. I asked the taxi driver to stop at the next open bodega we passed.
He declined my request saying he didn’t need to stop.
I didn’t argue, thinking I’d just walk to my local late-night spot a few blocks away when I got home.
After stopping in front of the building, me and the driver got out of the taxi. When he opened the trunk, there was a full case of cat food. He handed me two cans.
“Free,” he said.
It was my cat’s favorite brand.
— Robin Hoffman
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Submit Submission Here When Click here for more on The Metropolitan Diary.