1 Trending: Poll: 1 In 3 Democrats Would Be Happy To See Trump Assassinated

2 Trending: 8th Circuit Orders Missouri To Use GOP-Backed Map For Midterms

3 Trending: Nikole Hannah-Jones’ Racism Is Why Her Daughter Can’t Do Math

4 Trending: Republicans Are Allowing The Election To Be About Nothing

Nikole Hannah-Jones Doesn’t Know What An Education Is Supposed To Be

In classical terms, the purpose of education is to impart not just knowledge but also virtue. For NHJ, it’s just a credentialing mechanism.

Share Article on Facebook

Share Article on Twitter

Share Article on Truth Social

Share Article via Email

For as much time and effort that Nikole Hannah-Jones has spent reporting on public schools and education policy, she evidently doesn’t know what education is, or its purpose.

In a sprawling and widely-read essay for The New York Times Magazine, the creator of the ahistorical 1619 Project chronicles her and her husband’s deliberate decision to enroll their daughter, Najya, in one of New York City’s worst public schools — and the entirely predictable, if shocking, results. (At one point, Hannah-Jones recounts her realization that her daughter thought she could do basic math but in fact could not, and that her writing assignments “were rife with uncorrected punctuation, capitalization and grammar errors.” Her teacher was simply not checking her work.)

The piece, like all of Hannah-Jones’ work, is an extended racist screed and a work of political propaganda. In this case, it lays the blame for New York’s failed public school system at the feet of white people who, unlike Hannah-Jones and her husband, choose not to send their kids to violent, failing schools that don’t assign homework and don’t actually teach students. Hannah-Jones and her husband, by contrast, chose just such a school for Najya, she tells us, because they “felt an obligation to make educational decisions based on the collective good and not just our individual advantage.” And the “collective good,” in her mind, meant not letting her daughter attend good schools because they have too many white kids.

Hannah-Jones’ essay goes into considerable detail about the frankly racist reasoning behind this decision, as well as the personal and relational toll it took on her family. But the piece also reveals something that Hannah-Jones likely did not intend. It reveals that she is not really very interested in education as such, but........

© The Federalist