The Google Doc where the San Francisco school board did it's research for deciding which historical figures to cancel is public, and it's hilariously bad

The best part is the "Notes" tab, where someone lays out why the stated reasons are complete BS.

Case in point: "Lowell High School must be renamed because the namesake was a racist."

Notes: "Yeeeah, no, it wasn't named after that guy at all."

(they voted to rename anyway)
Another example: "Paul Revere led the Penobscot Expedition, which led to the colonization of the Penobscot."

Notes: "What? No. The Penobscot expedition was fought against the British, in Penobscot Bay. The natives weren't involved."

(voted to rename anyway)
"Dianne Feinstein was responsible for evicting an entire Filipino neighborhood!"

Notes: "That happened in 1977. She wasn't mayor until a year later."

(voted to rename anyway)
"Abraham Lincoln executed 38 Dakota Indians!"

Notes: "The Minnesota governor was going to execute *300*. Lincoln intervened when he had no obligation to, and saved the vast majority of them."

(voted to rename anyway)
"George Washington: slaveowner, colonizer."

Notes: "HE REVOLTED AGAINST A COLONIZER TO FREE COLONIAL SUBJECTS. HE IS LITERALLY GEORGE WASHINGTON. ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW."

(voted to rename anyway)
Also, James Lick was canceled for funding a racist statue, but if you click the link it says he funded it *posthumously*, so it was his estate that's to blame
Horace Mann-- an abolitionist!-- is not absolved, btw. "more research needed," presumably until we find something.

(for further reading, see this link from a communist newspaper)
Kill me
kiiiillll meeeeee
Oh missed this one: "Sanchez was a missionary who served as a military chaplain for the colonizers"

Notes: "guys, the school is *on Sanchez Street*, which is named for a different Jose Sanchez."

(voted to renamed anyway)

More from Education

Working on a newsletter edition about deliberate practice.

Deliberate practice is crucial if you want to reach expert level in any skill, but what is it, and how can it help you learn more precisely?

A thread based on @augustbradley's conversation with the late Anders Ericsson.

You can find my complete notes from the conversation in my public Roam graph:
https://t.co/Z5bXHsg3oc

The entire conversation is on

The 10,000-hour 'rule' was based on Ericsson's research, but simple practice is not enough for mastery.

We need teachers and coaches to give us feedback on how we're doing to adjust our actions effectively. Technology can help us by providing short feedback loops.

There's purposeful and deliberate practice.

In purposeful practice, you gain breakthroughs by trying out different techniques you find on your own.

In deliberate practice, an expert tells you what to improve on and how to do it, and then you do that (while getting feedback).

It's possible to come to powerful techniques through purposeful practice, but it's always a gamble.

Deliberate practice is possible with a map of the domain and a recommended way to move through it. This makes success more likely.

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