Absolutely horrifying. And I cannot help but ask myself what the end game is for all this. Assets confiscated, dissenters imprisoned, everything aided by a panopticon of woke AI. Just like the old Soviet Union, only orders of magnitude more efficient.
I am a past parent at Harvard Westlake. One of my children's favorite history teachers, Dror Yaron, was quoted to say "“If you don’t know your opponent’s arguments and world views even better than your own, then you certainly don’t understand your own, and I think that’s how the school could benefit,” The quote is from our HW CHronicle back in 2017. https://hwchronicle.com/46866/news/conservative-students-request-a-speaker-to-better-represent-their-political-interests/ The school had recently had both CNN Bakari Sellers and Mayor Eric Garcetti speak st HW, and many students wanted to have a conservative politician come speak as well. Also, a very good student quote from the article ,“As one of the biggest left-wingers on campus, I believe totally in diversity of ideas and freedom of speech,” Asher Low said. “To only have speakers from one political side, whether it’s my side of not, ruins the diversity that Harvard-Westlake speaks of in its mission statement. Both liberals and conservatives should be fighting to bring in more conservative speakers because it enriches our political discourse.”
This looks like a brilliant opportunity for conservative and even true liberals to establish competing schools. The demand for them certainly seems to be there. There is, of course, the problem that the graduates of such schools will not be favored by Ivy League universities, but surely there's a future for them after university that need not depend on that diploma. The future is as much out of focus for the woke mob as it is for anyone, and they seem to have little ability or inclination to consider the likely medium-to-long term consequences of their actions. Have a little courage and imagination. This situation arose because of the determined actions beginning several decades ago of a handful of Frankfort School-trained activists. Now would be a really good time for those who oppose that thought system to do likewise. The action has been cocked; it only needs someone to pull the trigger.
I went to Francis Parker school an "exclusive" private school in Chicago for 14 years, and of course, went to great effort to send my daughter there as well. Woke indoctrination is not limited to the coasts, although some of your stories are more egregious than anything I have seen so far at Parker. My complaints about indoctrination replacing education, changes in curriculum and obsession with race and gender were ignored by the administration.
We finally transferred our daughter to a Jewish high school. She told her mom 2 months ago that she feels that she was being brainwashed in her old school. Thank God there are sane schools left, but I fear for all the children left behind.
I am a parent and I am afraid to speak my mind. I'd like to send you an email. Your essay sparks a chord as my kids are in an elementary school that feeds into one of the middle schools you covered in your piece. It's worse than anything anyone can imagine unless you're in it.
I highly recommend reading the article to which Bari Weiss linked here, regarding the debunked IAT implicit bias test. It serves as a nice microcosm of (and is perhaps even a significant factor in) what I believe is the overall problem with woke ideology. It represents an obsessive focus on the ways that present-day ideological and psychological racism engender real-world racial disparities and inequalities, rather than the other way around, which runs counter to much sociological research and to the basic intuition of more grounded people. But it has an intuitive appeal to the ivory tower, head-in-the-clouds academics who like to believe they can change the world simply by adjusting the way they, and by extension everyone else, think about issues of race, as well as gender, sexual orientation, etc. It's a lazy vision of progress which, much like the "PC culture" of old, serves more to help the majority grapple with their own guilt rather than to improve the lives of minorities.
But perhaps most importantly, in a passage where the author directly communicates with one of the sociologists behind the original IAT research, it also provides a good example of the obnoxious dismissiveness that adherents to this belief apply to those who disagree. Who disagree not only in good faith, but with just as much of a mind to effect positive change, and yet are nonetheless painted as regressive-minded individuals attempting to preserve the status quo for the privileged. It is this kind of attitude we need to push back against the hardest, and not just with the typical boilerplate arguments against groupthink and stifling of free speech. We need to emphasize how these people are stymieing the very progress they seek. Because this cult-like mindset is fueled mostly by a fear of ending up on the wrong side of what many perceive as basic "good vs. evil" issues, we need to push further than plain individualistic self-righteousness. We must seize the moral high ground on issues of racial inequality, and inequality in general, and insist on our rightful place in the zeitgeist of this struggle.
Hi Bari - I've just been notified that our school district here in Austin, TX is bringing EdElements to "Host Community Summits on Strategic Planning". Sounds reasonable enough, however some parents have done digging into this company and shared some of their material such as "A Guide To Planning An Equitable Path Forward in K-12" (link here: https://www.edelements.com/capture-the-opportunity-redesign-for-equity). On the front cover can be found a quote from Ibram X. Kendi. Digging thru that site you can find all sorts of extreme critical race theory content. I am livid and terrified that my choice to move to Austin 8 years ago has finally backfired on me. Is there any advice you can offer to parents in terms of how to raise concerns or any 3rd parties that may specialize in supporting parents to do so? This is happening all over the country and I'm hoping there are experts that can offer guidance. I of course will be attending the session and working locally to see how upcoming school board elections may impact the final decision. Thank you again for the work you are doing across the board!
As a mother of three - adulting, Berkeley, UCSB - I have watched the crypto-creep of this terrifying orthodoxy invading our lives for the past decade. All three children attended a public/private elementary school in a wealthy Westside zip, and then the BH schools. The first "ping" was at a ladies' lunch a decade ago. I dared question THE SCIENCE of Gore's global warming movie, and my friends turned on me like a pack of trout-pout piranhas. Parents, we do have a choice and a response to this. With our dual-income lives and stress, it can be tempting to believe that the schools will take on the burden of educating our children to become courageous, thinking, civil adults. They will not. That moral ground is still the purview of home/religion/community or a strong, secular philosophical system of thought that is taught and reinforced throughout their childhood. It's hard work. And it is worth it. The comments here are magnificent, and I feel the stress of so many of you with young children. Take back the moral education (so old-fashioned!) of your children, whatever it takes, because the CRT and woke tide is here to stay for the time being. Thank you, Bari Weiss, for your continuing bravery and moral guidance, and for providing a voice to this community. Parents take heart - your children watch you and hear you, and you can indeed teach them the critical thinking skills needed to form discerning opinions and not fall victim to the group-think polluting our world at this moment. And pray that we see a return to "the content of their character".
It's a horse race as to which is sadder, the Woke crowd harassing the American public into its Marxist worldview or these parents willing to sacrifice dignity to get their kids into an elite school. Here's a thought: Worship God over Yale*, dignity over Harvard, and hard work over Duke. Your kid can go to UC/Santa Barbara and still become a doctor. Besides, on the current course the 'education' provided by Yale, Harvard and Duke will be de-valued. And, the sooner, the better.
(*This line was borrowed from a certain talented writer!).
Bari-- do you have an email address? I wanted to write to you about something very interesting -- and unpublicized -- in Donald McNeils' lengthy article about Peru. Is there a discreet, safe way of doing so? I can be reached at qdn212@yahoo.com
One problem I have with this article is the way that Bari Weiss makes some very contentious charges but doesn't back them up with clear examples. For example, she claims that these elite schools are teaching their students that "capitalism is evil". When I clicked on the link all I saw was cartoon claiming that capitalism kills. Needless to say I was not convinced of her claim that these schools are teaching their students to think that capitalism kills. In fact, I highly doubt that's the case. If it's a good school, I hope they would teach that capitalism has good sides and bad sides, and the same can be said for socialism. I would hope they would encourage the students to think deeply about the strengths and weaknesses of each, and to form opinions of their own.
This makes me wonder if many of her fears about these schools aren't overblown. Race is a very sensitive issue. And I think people are finding the conversation awkward, but I think it needs to be undertaken. I hope Bari Weiss will read The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee. It makes a thorough and powerful case that racial resentment has cost all of us enormously, and the need to address it is still an urgent and critical one.
“I would hope they would encourage the students to think deeply about the strengths and weaknesses of each, and to form opinions of their own.”
Totally agree. That was my hope and why I put in 2+ years working to convince them to provide tools/context to help students navigate these issues for themselves (perhaps with facilitation).
Engaged conversation would have been wonderful. Sadly, I have found that term means listening quietly as opposed to collaborative problem solving or respectful discourse.
My son kicked off his Calc BC/Stats courses by being compelled to sign a pledge acknowledging racism in mathematics (and to commit to anti-racist behavior - those behaviors were left undefined but came to mean whatever the latest social media trend determined was appropriate) and his history course revolved around exalting Genghis Khan’s model ethical behavior.
Alas, luckily the math statements were merely performative but I can assure it did not generate any valuable (or honest) dialogue in a supportive/trusting atmosphere.
If it’s helpful - my children are at a school like this - my two younger children (quite adept at math) were not allowed to advance in math in order to equalize outcomes; my middle school daughter was shown a lecture on white privilege and taken through an intersectionality exercise (rating how they are oppressors or oppressed) in their welcome back assembly, and my fifth grader has been told how indigenous people discovered anesthesia and baby bottles, African kingdoms were glorious, Christopher Columbus was ruthless and rapacious, immigration laws have been racist and discriminatory through US history, and has yet to be taught about the US constitution or George Washington is and it’s March in 5th grade which is supposed to be on US History. Her article is very reflective of what I’ve observed at my children’s school which is implementing the same curriculum .
Any success stories? For those who have been able to inject some sanity, please provide details. For those who haven't, please tell folks what you've tried so we all have a better understanding what we're up against, what's been tried and how it's failed.
My tale as one of these parents began over two years ago with a sit down with the Head of School. The discussion seemed to go well and there was encouraging dialogue about the school's unique position to help facilitate difficult conversations. This, was to our understanding, the purpose of the school - to give the kids the tools, context and empathy they needed to make sense and to come to terms with - for themselves - these complex matters.
Sadly over the following two years, quarterly emails would go unreturned, opportunities to engage avoided - they "played" the clock. Then the pandemic and, ultimately, a total shift came as a function of this past summer's unrest. The tenor went from foot dragging to outright dismissal and then open hostility. It was my son's Senior year - we were stuck. The school today bears little resemblance to the amazing middle school where he started 6 years earlier.
Certainly we could have pulled him and had I known two years ago that this is where things would have ended up, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Luckily, my son is well grounded and understands that this is not a reflection on who he is as a person, BUT it is pretty painful for a parent to see their child not judged by his/her actions but by his/her identity. We are now at a place where class offerings for short term all focus on identity related matters including one that's purpose is to help "avoid gender and sexual microaggressions", another entitled "Investigating Whiteness" and the coupe de grace is a class that basically questions the reason why the school itself exists in the first place.
This is the natural ending place of our fears that were raised 2 years earlier. Children either falling into a place of self hatred (or at least high anxiety due to internalizing shame/guilt) or being pushed toward more radical positions in order to buttress themselves from that same shame/guilt. I fail to see how any of this is helpful or healthy (certainly there are better ways to accomplish the goal [taking at face value that the goal is to reduce/eliminate racism]).
I share this story because it is only now becoming clear to me how pervasive this situation has become. It's important for these stories/experiences to come out so it is not painted as a one-off issue or that those who push back are right wing zealots. I also share it because I don't believe individual action is sufficient. Places such as Heterodox Academy, Persuasion, Fair For All, FIRE and Moral Courage (https://moralcourage.com) and others are hypercritical to get our collective resources together to push back.
For my part, I will be doing what I can to continue to push (I am in dialogue with some of the above organizations) and I do believe "fighting" back is the right answer. Appeasement simply doesn't work. Collectively providing courage to others to take a stand where they can is an important first step (thank you Bari). Modeling your values and showing folks that there are alternate paths to achieving the goal is also another important step.
I think John McWhorter is onto something with his point that this is a religion. Perhaps this article is another route.
I’ve heard from many parents that their kids have come home from these schools asking if they should feel bad about who they are and/ or that they have anxiety going to school. I think that’s an underlying intent of this curriculum. To get white / Asian / Jewish kids to feel guilty and to underperform in order to equalize outcomes. There’s also a retributive tenor to this whole movement that is unsettling. Not sure where it leads
My husband and I didn't face these issues with our five sons, thank God. We faced a public school system that had no interest in teaching anyone below the accelerated level the fundamentals of English (seventh grade) which would have parlayed into many other aspects of their education and trapped them as adults in low-paying jobs for the rest of their lives. We decided to put them into private education when we determined the school's direction was not going to be influenced by anything we said or did. We had no money for private school, but homeschool was not the large, interconnected system it is today. We chose to take on extra work to pay for the education our children needed and deserved. As a result, they are capable of deciding their own paths and will not be held back by a fundamental educational deficit.
I will offer this: if you continue to pay for an education that teaches everything from this poisoned perspective, you are furthering it; for and in your children, the schools, and society as a whole. It was a sacrifice to put our children through private school and one we'd do again. But they were classical, Christian schools whose curricula were consistent with those values.
One last note - the first child to be enrolled in private school put up quite a fight. He stridently opposed leaving his "friends" and everything he knew. After six weeks he was a changed person. He was able to see the shallow values he had bought into and became excited about school, his teachers, and his new friends. I offer this as encouragement - don't expect your kids to be excited about a move or a change from what they've become comfortable with. But know that you and only you are responsible for making sure your child gets what they need, not want. The only questions that have to be answered are "What does my child need?" and "Am I prepared to do what's necessary to provide that?"
If we don't take the actions necessary to turn this around, we will find ourselves in the crosshairs of the very people we raised with the best of intentions.
Welcome classy LA NY educated parents to the silent majority. Just so you knows it’s BYOB we’re on a budget
Absolutely horrifying. And I cannot help but ask myself what the end game is for all this. Assets confiscated, dissenters imprisoned, everything aided by a panopticon of woke AI. Just like the old Soviet Union, only orders of magnitude more efficient.
I am a past parent at Harvard Westlake. One of my children's favorite history teachers, Dror Yaron, was quoted to say "“If you don’t know your opponent’s arguments and world views even better than your own, then you certainly don’t understand your own, and I think that’s how the school could benefit,” The quote is from our HW CHronicle back in 2017. https://hwchronicle.com/46866/news/conservative-students-request-a-speaker-to-better-represent-their-political-interests/ The school had recently had both CNN Bakari Sellers and Mayor Eric Garcetti speak st HW, and many students wanted to have a conservative politician come speak as well. Also, a very good student quote from the article ,“As one of the biggest left-wingers on campus, I believe totally in diversity of ideas and freedom of speech,” Asher Low said. “To only have speakers from one political side, whether it’s my side of not, ruins the diversity that Harvard-Westlake speaks of in its mission statement. Both liberals and conservatives should be fighting to bring in more conservative speakers because it enriches our political discourse.”
This looks like a brilliant opportunity for conservative and even true liberals to establish competing schools. The demand for them certainly seems to be there. There is, of course, the problem that the graduates of such schools will not be favored by Ivy League universities, but surely there's a future for them after university that need not depend on that diploma. The future is as much out of focus for the woke mob as it is for anyone, and they seem to have little ability or inclination to consider the likely medium-to-long term consequences of their actions. Have a little courage and imagination. This situation arose because of the determined actions beginning several decades ago of a handful of Frankfort School-trained activists. Now would be a really good time for those who oppose that thought system to do likewise. The action has been cocked; it only needs someone to pull the trigger.
I went to Francis Parker school an "exclusive" private school in Chicago for 14 years, and of course, went to great effort to send my daughter there as well. Woke indoctrination is not limited to the coasts, although some of your stories are more egregious than anything I have seen so far at Parker. My complaints about indoctrination replacing education, changes in curriculum and obsession with race and gender were ignored by the administration.
We finally transferred our daughter to a Jewish high school. She told her mom 2 months ago that she feels that she was being brainwashed in her old school. Thank God there are sane schools left, but I fear for all the children left behind.
I am a parent and I am afraid to speak my mind. I'd like to send you an email. Your essay sparks a chord as my kids are in an elementary school that feeds into one of the middle schools you covered in your piece. It's worse than anything anyone can imagine unless you're in it.
I highly recommend reading the article to which Bari Weiss linked here, regarding the debunked IAT implicit bias test. It serves as a nice microcosm of (and is perhaps even a significant factor in) what I believe is the overall problem with woke ideology. It represents an obsessive focus on the ways that present-day ideological and psychological racism engender real-world racial disparities and inequalities, rather than the other way around, which runs counter to much sociological research and to the basic intuition of more grounded people. But it has an intuitive appeal to the ivory tower, head-in-the-clouds academics who like to believe they can change the world simply by adjusting the way they, and by extension everyone else, think about issues of race, as well as gender, sexual orientation, etc. It's a lazy vision of progress which, much like the "PC culture" of old, serves more to help the majority grapple with their own guilt rather than to improve the lives of minorities.
But perhaps most importantly, in a passage where the author directly communicates with one of the sociologists behind the original IAT research, it also provides a good example of the obnoxious dismissiveness that adherents to this belief apply to those who disagree. Who disagree not only in good faith, but with just as much of a mind to effect positive change, and yet are nonetheless painted as regressive-minded individuals attempting to preserve the status quo for the privileged. It is this kind of attitude we need to push back against the hardest, and not just with the typical boilerplate arguments against groupthink and stifling of free speech. We need to emphasize how these people are stymieing the very progress they seek. Because this cult-like mindset is fueled mostly by a fear of ending up on the wrong side of what many perceive as basic "good vs. evil" issues, we need to push further than plain individualistic self-righteousness. We must seize the moral high ground on issues of racial inequality, and inequality in general, and insist on our rightful place in the zeitgeist of this struggle.
Hi Bari - I've just been notified that our school district here in Austin, TX is bringing EdElements to "Host Community Summits on Strategic Planning". Sounds reasonable enough, however some parents have done digging into this company and shared some of their material such as "A Guide To Planning An Equitable Path Forward in K-12" (link here: https://www.edelements.com/capture-the-opportunity-redesign-for-equity). On the front cover can be found a quote from Ibram X. Kendi. Digging thru that site you can find all sorts of extreme critical race theory content. I am livid and terrified that my choice to move to Austin 8 years ago has finally backfired on me. Is there any advice you can offer to parents in terms of how to raise concerns or any 3rd parties that may specialize in supporting parents to do so? This is happening all over the country and I'm hoping there are experts that can offer guidance. I of course will be attending the session and working locally to see how upcoming school board elections may impact the final decision. Thank you again for the work you are doing across the board!
As a mother of three - adulting, Berkeley, UCSB - I have watched the crypto-creep of this terrifying orthodoxy invading our lives for the past decade. All three children attended a public/private elementary school in a wealthy Westside zip, and then the BH schools. The first "ping" was at a ladies' lunch a decade ago. I dared question THE SCIENCE of Gore's global warming movie, and my friends turned on me like a pack of trout-pout piranhas. Parents, we do have a choice and a response to this. With our dual-income lives and stress, it can be tempting to believe that the schools will take on the burden of educating our children to become courageous, thinking, civil adults. They will not. That moral ground is still the purview of home/religion/community or a strong, secular philosophical system of thought that is taught and reinforced throughout their childhood. It's hard work. And it is worth it. The comments here are magnificent, and I feel the stress of so many of you with young children. Take back the moral education (so old-fashioned!) of your children, whatever it takes, because the CRT and woke tide is here to stay for the time being. Thank you, Bari Weiss, for your continuing bravery and moral guidance, and for providing a voice to this community. Parents take heart - your children watch you and hear you, and you can indeed teach them the critical thinking skills needed to form discerning opinions and not fall victim to the group-think polluting our world at this moment. And pray that we see a return to "the content of their character".
It's a horse race as to which is sadder, the Woke crowd harassing the American public into its Marxist worldview or these parents willing to sacrifice dignity to get their kids into an elite school. Here's a thought: Worship God over Yale*, dignity over Harvard, and hard work over Duke. Your kid can go to UC/Santa Barbara and still become a doctor. Besides, on the current course the 'education' provided by Yale, Harvard and Duke will be de-valued. And, the sooner, the better.
(*This line was borrowed from a certain talented writer!).
Bari-- do you have an email address? I wanted to write to you about something very interesting -- and unpublicized -- in Donald McNeils' lengthy article about Peru. Is there a discreet, safe way of doing so? I can be reached at qdn212@yahoo.com
One problem I have with this article is the way that Bari Weiss makes some very contentious charges but doesn't back them up with clear examples. For example, she claims that these elite schools are teaching their students that "capitalism is evil". When I clicked on the link all I saw was cartoon claiming that capitalism kills. Needless to say I was not convinced of her claim that these schools are teaching their students to think that capitalism kills. In fact, I highly doubt that's the case. If it's a good school, I hope they would teach that capitalism has good sides and bad sides, and the same can be said for socialism. I would hope they would encourage the students to think deeply about the strengths and weaknesses of each, and to form opinions of their own.
This makes me wonder if many of her fears about these schools aren't overblown. Race is a very sensitive issue. And I think people are finding the conversation awkward, but I think it needs to be undertaken. I hope Bari Weiss will read The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee. It makes a thorough and powerful case that racial resentment has cost all of us enormously, and the need to address it is still an urgent and critical one.
“I would hope they would encourage the students to think deeply about the strengths and weaknesses of each, and to form opinions of their own.”
Totally agree. That was my hope and why I put in 2+ years working to convince them to provide tools/context to help students navigate these issues for themselves (perhaps with facilitation).
Engaged conversation would have been wonderful. Sadly, I have found that term means listening quietly as opposed to collaborative problem solving or respectful discourse.
My son kicked off his Calc BC/Stats courses by being compelled to sign a pledge acknowledging racism in mathematics (and to commit to anti-racist behavior - those behaviors were left undefined but came to mean whatever the latest social media trend determined was appropriate) and his history course revolved around exalting Genghis Khan’s model ethical behavior.
Alas, luckily the math statements were merely performative but I can assure it did not generate any valuable (or honest) dialogue in a supportive/trusting atmosphere.
If it’s helpful - my children are at a school like this - my two younger children (quite adept at math) were not allowed to advance in math in order to equalize outcomes; my middle school daughter was shown a lecture on white privilege and taken through an intersectionality exercise (rating how they are oppressors or oppressed) in their welcome back assembly, and my fifth grader has been told how indigenous people discovered anesthesia and baby bottles, African kingdoms were glorious, Christopher Columbus was ruthless and rapacious, immigration laws have been racist and discriminatory through US history, and has yet to be taught about the US constitution or George Washington is and it’s March in 5th grade which is supposed to be on US History. Her article is very reflective of what I’ve observed at my children’s school which is implementing the same curriculum .
Any success stories? For those who have been able to inject some sanity, please provide details. For those who haven't, please tell folks what you've tried so we all have a better understanding what we're up against, what's been tried and how it's failed.
My tale as one of these parents began over two years ago with a sit down with the Head of School. The discussion seemed to go well and there was encouraging dialogue about the school's unique position to help facilitate difficult conversations. This, was to our understanding, the purpose of the school - to give the kids the tools, context and empathy they needed to make sense and to come to terms with - for themselves - these complex matters.
Sadly over the following two years, quarterly emails would go unreturned, opportunities to engage avoided - they "played" the clock. Then the pandemic and, ultimately, a total shift came as a function of this past summer's unrest. The tenor went from foot dragging to outright dismissal and then open hostility. It was my son's Senior year - we were stuck. The school today bears little resemblance to the amazing middle school where he started 6 years earlier.
Certainly we could have pulled him and had I known two years ago that this is where things would have ended up, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Luckily, my son is well grounded and understands that this is not a reflection on who he is as a person, BUT it is pretty painful for a parent to see their child not judged by his/her actions but by his/her identity. We are now at a place where class offerings for short term all focus on identity related matters including one that's purpose is to help "avoid gender and sexual microaggressions", another entitled "Investigating Whiteness" and the coupe de grace is a class that basically questions the reason why the school itself exists in the first place.
This is the natural ending place of our fears that were raised 2 years earlier. Children either falling into a place of self hatred (or at least high anxiety due to internalizing shame/guilt) or being pushed toward more radical positions in order to buttress themselves from that same shame/guilt. I fail to see how any of this is helpful or healthy (certainly there are better ways to accomplish the goal [taking at face value that the goal is to reduce/eliminate racism]).
I share this story because it is only now becoming clear to me how pervasive this situation has become. It's important for these stories/experiences to come out so it is not painted as a one-off issue or that those who push back are right wing zealots. I also share it because I don't believe individual action is sufficient. Places such as Heterodox Academy, Persuasion, Fair For All, FIRE and Moral Courage (https://moralcourage.com) and others are hypercritical to get our collective resources together to push back.
For my part, I will be doing what I can to continue to push (I am in dialogue with some of the above organizations) and I do believe "fighting" back is the right answer. Appeasement simply doesn't work. Collectively providing courage to others to take a stand where they can is an important first step (thank you Bari). Modeling your values and showing folks that there are alternate paths to achieving the goal is also another important step.
I think John McWhorter is onto something with his point that this is a religion. Perhaps this article is another route.
https://www.newsweek.com/save-americas-workers-church-wokeness-opinion-1573536
I’ve heard from many parents that their kids have come home from these schools asking if they should feel bad about who they are and/ or that they have anxiety going to school. I think that’s an underlying intent of this curriculum. To get white / Asian / Jewish kids to feel guilty and to underperform in order to equalize outcomes. There’s also a retributive tenor to this whole movement that is unsettling. Not sure where it leads
I came across this https://newdiscourses.com/2021/03/letter-supporting-bill-ban-critical-race-theory/?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com&fbclid=IwAR1OybPYFcZmuJYwM0wIEkVFuRCKSzjn5sPvx3UZDivbBxrDUpRVGEgv3qk
Maybe, if NH sets a precedence, other states will follow suit.
Bari, the work you’re doing is so very important.
My husband and I didn't face these issues with our five sons, thank God. We faced a public school system that had no interest in teaching anyone below the accelerated level the fundamentals of English (seventh grade) which would have parlayed into many other aspects of their education and trapped them as adults in low-paying jobs for the rest of their lives. We decided to put them into private education when we determined the school's direction was not going to be influenced by anything we said or did. We had no money for private school, but homeschool was not the large, interconnected system it is today. We chose to take on extra work to pay for the education our children needed and deserved. As a result, they are capable of deciding their own paths and will not be held back by a fundamental educational deficit.
I will offer this: if you continue to pay for an education that teaches everything from this poisoned perspective, you are furthering it; for and in your children, the schools, and society as a whole. It was a sacrifice to put our children through private school and one we'd do again. But they were classical, Christian schools whose curricula were consistent with those values.
One last note - the first child to be enrolled in private school put up quite a fight. He stridently opposed leaving his "friends" and everything he knew. After six weeks he was a changed person. He was able to see the shallow values he had bought into and became excited about school, his teachers, and his new friends. I offer this as encouragement - don't expect your kids to be excited about a move or a change from what they've become comfortable with. But know that you and only you are responsible for making sure your child gets what they need, not want. The only questions that have to be answered are "What does my child need?" and "Am I prepared to do what's necessary to provide that?"
If we don't take the actions necessary to turn this around, we will find ourselves in the crosshairs of the very people we raised with the best of intentions.