That's Funny, But Not Ha-Ha Funny

The Fordham Institute's Liam Julian has vowed to spend his entire summer pounding out overlong responses to this blog, so that we won't "let fly with a barrage of blog blather like none yet seen, safe in [our] assumption that [our] ill-founded fulminations would go unopposed."
Okay.....first of all, it's really a disservice to William F. Buckley's memory to mock his prose style this way. The man's been gone less than six months, show some respect. Also, Liam's posts would be better if he knew what he was talking about. In a lengthy anti-affirmative action screed, he says:

Thus, we have this: Yale accepts a black student whose qualifications are average for the University of Michigan, Michigan accepts a black student whose resume would be appropriate at Florida State, and Florida State fills its classes with black and Latino students whose credentials reflect those of their community college peers.

Yes, imagine what would happen if Florida State made a practice of admitting academically less qualified black and Latino students, some with SAT scores in the 900s or below. Oh wait, we don't have to imagine, because Education Sector published an entire policy paper on exactly that topic just three months ago. It turns out that black students at FSU do just as well as white students. Last year, they did better. Why? Because the university has a great program in place designed to help first-generation college students succeed. Liam has a degree from FSU, yet seems not to have noticed this. Must have been too busy watching the football team slide into scandal and mediocrity.

Then there's this gem from an earlier post about "theory" and the practice of teaching:

Is it not true that much of this theory and methodology is a relatively modern invention, one that did not exist a half-century ago, when fine teachers surely did?

If my calculations are correct, a half-century ago was in 1958. John Dewey published Democracy and Education in 1916. The first half of the 20th century (i.e. the pre-1958 half) featured a series of intense ideological debates about the meaning and practice of public education. Whole educational movements rose and fell, each grounded in theory, with a significant impact on schooling for millions of students. How do I know this? Because I--unlike, apparently, Liam--read Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, by noted education historian Diane Ravitch. Liam shouldn't have any trouble finding a copy--Ravitch is on the Fordham Institute's Board of Trustees.

Suggestions for summer reading: less blogging and God and Man at Yale, more education policy and history.