Mr LeJeune & His Podium: Who Is Accountable and What Exactly Are They Accountable To?
It is such an important word and concept, one that is becoming increasingly taboo to demand of anyone in this society, given the filth we allow and promote, oftentimes without even knowing it.
Accountability.
It is a concept I believed in and demanded in the classroom, one that some folks bought into and some folks didn’t. When I say “folks,” I mean folks of all ages and positions in my circle, in the sphere of influence I had.
Remember, as I said in my last article in this thread, I know I am an individual inside this society. I know I have helped to create the monster I am doing my best to expose.
Oftentimes I had to defend what I was doing with a student because someone thought they were defending the child’s honor, when in reality they were only making the matter worse. My belief that education starts in the home does not translate to the unchecked challenge of every single thing done by a well-meaning adult trying to promote virtue and, yes, accountability.
That last article spoke to my beliefs concerning the classroom and homelife. With BESE’s new adoption of accountability testing, you get a glimpse of one motivation for that article. Here is a quick summation of the adoption, along with a word from one superintendent, from Jasmine Dean and KLFY:
New standards are being set for educators in Louisiana….
The new accountability system was approved by the Louisiana Board of Education and Secondary Education Tuesday in Baton Rouge. Vermilion Parish Superintendent Tommy Byler said the new system will change from the current 150-point scale to a 100-point scale. Byler said because of this change, some schools will see a change in the way they are graded.
“It’s going to be frustrating for some schools that have been ‘A’ schools,” Byler said. “We’re taking the same test, we have the same curriculum, we’re doing the same processes, but in two years from now, you’re going to tell me we’re a ‘C’ school. That’s a little demoralizing sometimes.”
On the board’s website, bulletin points for the new system are based on a new 100-point grading scale, raising the bar for student outcome, and emphasizing career education, college preparation, and military service readiness. Byler said with this new system, there is a shift in the formula where graduation rate and testing is used.
“In the past formula, 75% was graduation rate,” Byler said. “The big shift is now 75 % of the high school score is on the six test.”
In addition to adjusting to the way schools are graded, Byler said other standards include tech and education students finding an internship to complete graduation requirements. Byler said the new expectations did raise the bar, and this change will cause schools to make adjustments.
“This is the new system,” Byler said. “That’s what the BESE board felt was where we were going, and so as school systems, we just make adjustments.”
The new accountability system will go into effect for the 2025-26 school year.
I don’t have the most enviable position here as a writer who leans conservative on most things but absolutely has a different view of the classroom experience than many of my conservative colleagues. I respect what they say and the spirit of their view.
But too often we fall for something we emphasized in the classroom–the binary trap. My students, my army of Knights, know it well.
It is a concept that provides a framework for much of my analysis. In a nutshell, such mutually exclusive thinking teams us up with a tribe and we fit squares into round holes to make right anything those tribal leaders decide. Because in our minds, in a conservative’s case, if we take even one step off that path, then we risk being labelled a liberal loon.
With this latest move that swings the pendulum in some different direction than we peasants were told was going to work at the last pendulum swing, Dr Cade Brumley, whose heart admittedly seems to be in the right place with all of this, said the following:
“Our schools are doing many things well and we believe this will help them soar to new heights”
and
“We think it will drive academic outcomes in the state and be the most transparent system the state has ever had”
and
“We’re going to work together and the winners will be the kids, and the state of Louisiana in the long term.”
and
and
and
I’m sure there was more….
I’m plucking just one website’s quotes of course, but the point here is that we have heard all of these platitudes before. Every few years you see some change that is supposed to be the next best thing. And every time, every single time because that’s just the rules of life in general, you find both positives and negatives emerge from the change. And with that, what is produced is a kindling of the tribal fires–those who see the negative go about commenting and campaigning on this, and those who see the positive go about commenting and campaigning on that.
My question in the title of this article can be applied to any allegedly landmark! moment one of these shifts happens. My next question that wouldn’t fit as part of the title is this: Do the Powers That Be Truly Think Through Every Single Aspect of a Child’s Life, an Administration’s Burden, a Teacher’s Burden, or Any Question I Raised in my Article on Friday?
That would have been as awkward of a title as this latest education rollout will be in ’25-26.
I am reminded of a Scripture passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes that reads, “Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us” (1:10 Douay-Rheims).
In fact, let me just provide the entire first part of Ecclesiastes. I read the Douay-Rheims for many reasons, but one is because of its sacred language, most intimately based on the three sacred–Latin, Hebrew, and Greek”
“The words of Ecclesiastes, the son of David, king of Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. What hath a man more of all his labour, that he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth standeth for ever. The sun riseth, and goeth down, and returneth to his place: and there rising again,
Maketh his round by the south, and turneth again to the north: the spirit goeth forward surveying all places round about, and returneth to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea doth not overflow: unto the place from whence the rivers come, they return, to flow again. All things are hard: man cannot explain them by word. The eye is not filled with seeing, neither is the ear filled with hearing. What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done.”
All of this is vanity–all of this is pointless–without Jesus Christ at the heart of it.
Everybody wants to make their mark, sure. Everybody wants to feel they have made a difference, absolutely. That is at best. At worst, though, everybody is wanting to change things so they will be recognized as some figure to be honored and remembered as being the catalyst for something great.
And there are lots of Scripture passages about that too.
I don’t know the heart of the Brumleys of the world. I do know that every politician will put forth their best face. That’s it.
But in terms of eternal truths, I know a lot more. I know that the word “God” was nowhere in my study for this article. I know I see post after post on social media showing families playing ball every Sunday, at this tournament or that, oftentimes with the parents split between kids. I know when I used to attend the new 1969 Mass I’d see dwindling attendance and a whole lot of inappropriate dress over summers, considering what sacred rite we are claiming to be taking part in.
Remember, never am I judging any particular person’s soul. I and my family are to blame for a lot of this (A district basketball game moved from a Friday to a Sunday because of inclement weather? Sure, awesome! Confirmation class? But I have a gAAaame!!!). Don’t tune me out just because the words are curt. Try to see the truth in them, as I have and still am, and then ask yourself why exactly it is that society is in shambles and we’re always moaning about it.
That is the spirit of the article I wrote last week, one I invite you to read, one I followed up on with a video (or Rumble). There is nothing new under the sun, my friends, not with politics or policy or politicians who promise new and greater things every few years. The bottom line reality that will never change is that until we hold ourselves and our families accountable to God and actually living the Commandments, none of this pretty talk will matter. None of these new policies and implementations will promote any lasting change. There will always be the next politician preaching from another platform.
God Almighty loves us too much to allow us to succeed on our own accord. Until we enthrone Him in our homes and make him the unequivocable center of family life, we will continue to babel around our tower acting like our language is the latest and greatest answer. We need parents to at least consider these things now, and more importantly, we need young Knights to start envisioning it for their own homes to come.
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May everyone named directly or referenced indirectly ask forgiveness and do penance for their sins against America and God. I fight this information war in the spirit of justice and love for the innocent, but I have been reminded of the need for mercy and prayers for our enemies. I am a sinner in need of redemption as well after all, for my sins are many. In the words of Jesus Christ himself, Lord forgive us all, for we know not what we do.
