Comments
524

“you have to fight for the things that people are taking away from you.”

Welcome to Libertarianism. I was the same as the rest of you on here, I've voted D and R. Never again. If all of us joined the Libertarian party we could take back control of this country before it's to late. All the freedom all the time for all the people. Period.

Expand full comment

I love this so much! We moms will NEVER FORGET what was done to our children.

Expand full comment

Very informative; thanks Suzy. And good luck to all the parents fighting to get a good education for their young students.

Most parents in the article were rightly concerned with excessive masking of their children and the lack of in-person instruction. The following is just a list to some examples of the woke corruption of education in the US (with directions on how to find details) that may be of use to some parents speaking publicly to raise awareness of the danger our K-12 education system is in. Other readers may find it less interesting.

One mother recalled being called a Karen, meaning according to Wikipedia “a pejorative term for a white woman perceived as entitled or demanding beyond the scope of what is normal.”

It reminded me of reading through some of the papers at the American Education Research Association presented at the 2019 annual meeting in Toronto. If you find the papers presented there and search for the word whiteness you’ll get 423 results.

First on the list is the heading: “Critical Becky Studies: Critical Explorations of Gender, Race, and the Pedagogies of Whiteness”. Of course, Becky is the name these education researchers use for white woman. Within this category, the following five papers were presented:

1. This Ain't No "Wizard of Oz," Becky: Using Parable to Explore Gender and Whiteness in Higher Education; 2. Two Woke Beckys? A Fan Fiction Conversation Between Derek Bell's White Women; 3. Love in the Time of Beckyism: On Willfulness and Wokeness in Teacher Education; 4. Book Club Becky: White Racial Bonding in the Living Room; 5. Border Becky: Exploring White Women's Emotionality, Ignorance, and Investment in Whiteness.

Another section with four papers is Unveiling White "Post-Truth": Applying Innovative Methods in Critical Whiteness Work: 1. From the Inside Out: Toward a Critical Whiteness Methodology; 2. "If It Talks Like a [Becky]": Operationalizing Discourses of Whiteness; 3. Stalling White Time: Lived Experience, Whiteness, and Temporal Methodology in Educational Inquiry; 4. The Whiteness Experience: Using Portraiture in Critical Whiteness Studies.

And on and on ad nauseum, with paper after paper on the racial identification of behavior, in particular of whiteness. What's studied in education colleges and departments soon gets passed on in teacher training for K-12. If you want to find these papers you should use the following link: "AERA Annual Meeting 2019 (allacademic.com)" and then type in “programs” in the search box at the top, and then on the next page type in “whiteness” in that search box. It's very hard to find the programs if you don't use the above link.

Next you may have heard that the nation's largest teachers' union, the NEA, adopted its support for critical race theory as new business item 39. Here’s paragraph B from New Business Item 39:

“B. Provide an already-created, in-depth, study that critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society, and that we oppose attempts to ban critical race theory and/or The 1619 Project. “

Apparently, the NEA has since deleted it from its website, but you can find it by this link: https://web.archive.org/web/20210705090534/https://ra.nea.org/business-item/2021-nbi-039/

Or Google NEA new business item 39 Catholic League web page: https://www.catholicleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/web.archive.org-New-Business-Item-39-ActionAdopted-as-Modified.pdf

Finally, the California new K through 12 Math Framework has elicited justifiable criticism both from STEM professionals nationally and from its suggested reading for documents such as “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction”, recommended for teachers to study. The recommendation is found in Chapter 9, line 1018. You can just Google the Pathways title to find the document as it is popular across the educational establishment. Then, within the Pathways document, search for “white supremacy”, which will turn up 52 times in an 83 pages document. One example of white supremacy is expecting there to be a correct answer to your math problem.

For criticism from STEM professionals, Google “Open Letter on K-12 Mathematics”. It currently has 1660 signatures including 8 Nobel prize winners, 5 Fields Metal winners (the mathematics Nobel), and 3 Turing Award winners (the computer science Nobel). They criticize the dumbing down of math education to promote equity. They write: “Reducing access to advanced mathematics and elevating trendy but shallow courses over foundational skills would cause lasting damage to STEM education in the country and exacerbate inequality by diminishing access to the skills needed for social mobility.” Of course, to get that many signatures they had keep their distance from anything more sensitive than this.

Expand full comment

I'm still wearing a mask--as are my kids--and they're going to school here in Germany. My oldest is in France, stuck in classrooms underground where some students don't wear masks and he does. My university went to Zoom when we were omicronned but we'll probably go back to classroom teaching with masks again in October. I don't get being against masks--they do help prevent the spread of disease. I've always admired Maud Maron's legal work and her strong stance against Robin di Angelo's silly-but-harmful propaganda. But masks are useful, practical, helpful.

Expand full comment

I‘m quite happy in Norway: No masks (no mask-wars), no school closing, no hassle in the media, no mandatory vaccination (not even for health-workers), You can go shopping without a mask: just responsible citizens who make their own decisions. And it all turned out nicely: 1500 or so WuFlu-deaths in 2 years, whilst the Flu takes about 900 each Year 🥳

Expand full comment

Still in favor of masks in public places; still think 1500 or so WuFlu deaths might have been fewer with more masks.

Expand full comment

This looks important to us parents. Not sure of the veracity, or where it goes, but certainly important information which papers and media should be all over. https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/2022/2/sen-johnson-to-secretary-austin-has-dod-seen-an-increase-in-medical-diagnoses-among-military-personnel

Expand full comment

Wow--the extremist comments on this site is alarming.. I mistakenly thought I had joined a community that was moderate and non-tribalist. Duly noted.

Expand full comment

I am fully behind keeping schools open and have seen the restoration of mental health in my child this year as our school has been fully open. However, I don't understand how wearing a mask indoors bothers anyone? It is helpful. Studies have shown that schools that wore masks had less COVID cases and we saw locally that they areas who did not require masks had to close b/c they could not staff their schools when everyone got sick. Our school required masks and stayed open. I do understand that littles allegedly do not pass it to adults as much as older kids-and, perhaps, that needs to be taken into account. How do you determine who is/is not a spreader (amongst middle schoolers and teens) to the teachers that need to be there for continuity of learning. Teacher attendance has been a cluster even with the mask mandate. I hate the masks and wear one as infrequently as possible, but zero masks in schools don't make sense either. The answer to an extreme is not another extreme. But, as vax rates go up it will be time to de-mask at some point for those who are comfortable. I am not super Pro-mask in schools (especially outside or for sports--stupid) but not anti-mask either. Surgical and N95s help slow spread. I have been living my life traveling, etc during COVID and have not yet gotten it b/c of luck, good health, vaccines and strategic and respectful mask wearing.

Expand full comment

Yes, you can find a study to give you the answer you want. It depends on the questions you ask and how you manipulate the data. Not a study, two counties side by side. My spouse teaches in a masked county. My children attend school in a mask-optional county. My spouse's county has a much higher incidence of COVID in school. I know there are other differences, including how much testing is done and how strictly policies are applied. My spouse has also made the observation that the vaxxed (because non-vaxxed are required to test, you can figure out who is v vs non-v) professionals have been out of school much more than the non-vaxxed. For the record, my spouse has natural immunity from 2020 and has not missed a day nor has spouse failed a COVID test. Individuals should have the choice to do what they are comfortable with, mask or no mask, vax or no vax, but no one should be excluded because of their choice when science is not at all clear of the efficacy.

Expand full comment

I commend what these women are doing, but please, cry me a river. As a lifelong moderate who has always evaluated each candidate individually and voted for both sides, it's hard for me to feel sorry for straight-ticket voting liberal Democrats who helped create the monster they're now fighting against. By being single-issue voters (abortion) at the expense of everything else. Now they turn around and find the schools have abandoned their kids and the police aren't there to protect them. Well, yeah. Embrace the suck.

Expand full comment

I welcome all of these "Never Trump" folks back to reality but I hope they can see the error of their ways. The Democrats offer benevolent tyranny. They beleive they should have to power to do whatever they want so long as they do it with a smile and talk about DEI. It doesn't matter how horrific their policies actually are, so long as the slogan sounds good.

*Every mom needs to understand this.*

The way you are being smeared now is the way they smeared Trump then. Your enemies are the people who took down Trump, and they did it with your help and with the suffering of your children.

You cannot be a Never Trumper and profess to care about your children. This isn't a lesser-of-two-evils argument. It is that Trump was an existential threat to the tyrannical powerstructure that has lead us off a cliff, and they did everything possible to destroy him.

Imagine how popular Trump would be if he got the press coverage Biden did. Imagine how unpopular Biden would be if he got the press coverage Trump did.

Recognize that during the Trump era your problems were manufactured by the media. The media invented Russian collusion and they invented the Kavanaugh fiasco and they invented Ukraine.

Now, you have real problems thanks to Biden.

Expand full comment

Agree with all except "benevolent tyranny." There is nothing benevolent about the Democratic party. They are cancerous and toxic and destroy everything they touch.

Expand full comment

Yes! This! I am one of these Angry moms. I have never been politically active but this past year I write letters and joined organizations that focused on kids and prioritizing their needs.

Expand full comment

The running theme is progressives shocked that their party has gone completely off the rails after years of enabling radicalism.

I would be deliciously ironic if we weren't in such a terrible place as a nation.

Expand full comment

Oo-rah! Someone cool running against Auchincloss! Go Emily Burns! You've got my vote! BTW, someone should incorporate MA into their gerrymandering analysis, and not just by way of tracing the long-ago history -- I'm sick of being ruled by left-wing extremists in Brookline, tied to me by the 4th's northeast-directed turkey neck. Anyway, could this be the year?

Expand full comment

I must admit - with trepidation here that I am Reagan Republican. Born In Nassau Hospital NY, migrated to CA, still have family there, but I’m in the Midwest now. Love the tulips here-when it’s Spring. We are conservatives, we are Jewish and Christians in our family. God matters to us - so we aren’t in debt, and we are socially conservative. This is after an evolution of seeing parents, siblings with drug and alcohol addictions, social problems, money problems and only one PhD. Kids are everything! We had a drive thru graduation 2020 - hop out of the car - photographer took a picture on the podium - back in the car. Kinda’ cute. But we can’t help to think about the kindergarteners, and the 3rd graders. A year for them ruined DOES NOT COME BACK!

Please read the JOHN HOPKINS SEA/No. 200/January2022 - While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.

Expand full comment

Why trepidation? Say it loud, say it proud.

Expand full comment

My vote is now up for grabs. I lean very left on social issues and an conservative on the economy and national security issues. I voted for obama twice. I despise trump but I also could not bring myself to vote for Hillary or Biden. The Democratic party I once knew is gone. It has been replaced by far left woke insanity. I am praying that Trump doesn't run! If the republicans put up someone like DeSantis (who seems reasonable, even though the democrats have tried to demonize him), he would get my vote.

The democrats have lost it in terms of this woke nonsense. On issues like immigration they are out to lunch.

They are out of the mainstream on many issues and don't seem to realize it. It is sad.

Expand full comment

Very inspirational and I solute these women, mothers, sisters for finding the courage to buck the system, the levers of power. Thank u to ou.

Expand full comment

Excellent article. Thanks Suzy.

Expand full comment