Such a well-written piece. I have watched this same thing happen at my school to the detriment of those it aims to help. Black students are alienated from their peers and given substandard support under the guise of Black Student Achievement https://www.lausd.org/bsa
Black students are segregated into a Black-only homeroom, given a Black counselor (only available 2 days a week, as opposed to full-time counselors). I could go on, but you get the idea. The effect on Black students is they see themselves as others, as do the rest of the students. Every student views conflict, bad grades, or setbacks through a lens of race, and resigns themselves to predetermined outcomes that can only be combated through Crucible-style accusations, rather than self-assessment. Many parents are not aware of the extent to which segregation is being re-instituted in the name of equity.
And now it's August 2023 and everything written here so completely resonates within me! I officially retire from teaching on August 31, after 35 years in the classroom. I remember a time when civil discourse was encouraged and the discussions were rich and meaningful. I loved teaching and encouraging divergent views. Those times, sadly, are no more. If you think school today is what you grew up experiencing, with all due respect, you simply have no idea what is happening.
I am thankful and hopeful at reading this. Any ideology that is sound can withstand scrutiny and debate. Whereas canceling it speaks volumes of its inherent weakness.
So white people have "savior complexes" that are offensive? I wonder how different our history would be if my great-great grandfather who served four years in a Pennsylvania cavalry unit of the Union Army from 1861-1865 had received this "education"? My family would be better off in so many ways had he been spared this trauma. Who is going to pay me and my family back for the systemic trauma his service has created in my family?
I'm not a scholar or a writer but your article and courage inspired me. It's deeply uncomfortable to challenge those responsible for the indoctrination of our young men and women and most times I don't engage. Maybe this will give me the courage to speak up. You are a very brave, human role model.
I am generally impressed and very pleased with the intelligence, articulateness and good judgement of people who comment on postings in Common Sense. This is quite unlike other online sources to which I have been subscribing.
On the other hand, the news in this article is depressing.
I applaud your moral courage & the students (& likely less brave adults) around you are likely grateful for your voice as well. Honouring our past & mistakes & difference in views is important! I too am standing boldly against systemic injustice & abuse ongoing in the mental health system by many being led astray by the evil in leaders in our own institutions in Canada to this day. All voices, views & lives matter; only then will we reveal higher truth & justice, with the goal of our collective future be more civil & harmonious.
I'm going to take a wild guess that a major cause of the rise in repressive dogmatic ideologies in the west, as well as extreme aggression in nonwestern nations worldwide has something to do with the semi-consciously perceived threats to existence posed by overpopulation and the unmanageability of exponentially increasing complex systems that humans can no longer get their heads around - in addition to the threat of extinction from the heat of nuclear explosions and the heat of climate change. Without being able to even assess the threats to individuals souls and societies, people are intuitively feeling threatened by these forces beyond any individual leader's or any society's control. Therefore the urge is to enforce a political ideological control over the smallest units of social organization: children as students, teachers, government at every level, the media implicating itself. It's a form of fear and terror-based madness with an urge to conquer and control. I guess I am overstating the obvious and a statement of doom is of no help. Or maybe it could help.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
I will never understand how supposedly intelligent people can support this type of indoctrination. As I see it, there are three possibilities: 1: the dumbing-down of schools and colleges since the 70s; 2. lack of backbone allied with fear of unpleasant repercussions, and 3. both stupidity and ignorance of facts. So many young people today know nothing (factual) about history, culture, civics, etc. Reading and math skills are abysmal, to say nothing of the STEM subjects. That's what teachers should be concentrating on! I've been living in Europe for many years, and all of this wokeness and identity politics rubbish is making incursions here, also. As Douglas Murray writes in his new book "The War on the West," we praise everything except our own culture, of which we are mainly ignorant, but facts, of course, only get in the way of ideologies. Are the woke crowd so deficient in functioning brain cells that they can't see that they themselves are the real enemies of freedom? That suppressing opinions one doesn't agree with is the antithesis of the First Amendment? That the people who disrupt university lectures by conservative speakers are using fascist methods? I truly can't understand it. Are they really that blind or stupid?
If we all would only adhere to Martin Luther King's dream of judging people not by immutable characteristics but by character, we'd be immensely better off. But MLK would likely be called an "Uncle Tom" today or told that he "ain't black."
Thank God that many parents have apparently seen the light and are pushing back. Maybe one good thing to come out of Corona. Sorry if I've gone a bit far afield, but I needed to get it off my chest.
I feel for these young people. My mother was a teacher and her main concerns in the 70's through the 90's (in one of our city's toughest school districts) centered around teaching children the basics of how to read, write, think, and act in a free society. This type of cancerous pedagogy has no place in a free society. Along with this forum, check out James Lindsay's New Discourses forums on how to combat this subversive thinking.
"...I was informed by the head of the high school that my philosophical challenges had caused “harm” to students, given that these topics were “life and death matters, about people’s flesh and blood and bone.” I was reprimanded for “acting like an independent agent of a set of principles or ideas or beliefs.” And I was told that by doing so, I failed to serve the “greater good and the higher truth.”
He further informed me that I had created “dissonance for vulnerable and unformed thinkers” and “neurological disturbance in students’ beings and systems.” The school’s director of studies added that my remarks could even constitute harassment."
That statement is phrased as a set of Objective judgements (i.e., the Moral Error of "Whiteness", according to the Edicts of the Woke.) Presumably, the escape clause preserving the Reprimand from that Contamination is the absence of any factual support offered to support its conclusions.
Such a well-written piece. I have watched this same thing happen at my school to the detriment of those it aims to help. Black students are alienated from their peers and given substandard support under the guise of Black Student Achievement https://www.lausd.org/bsa
Black students are segregated into a Black-only homeroom, given a Black counselor (only available 2 days a week, as opposed to full-time counselors). I could go on, but you get the idea. The effect on Black students is they see themselves as others, as do the rest of the students. Every student views conflict, bad grades, or setbacks through a lens of race, and resigns themselves to predetermined outcomes that can only be combated through Crucible-style accusations, rather than self-assessment. Many parents are not aware of the extent to which segregation is being re-instituted in the name of equity.
And now it's August 2023 and everything written here so completely resonates within me! I officially retire from teaching on August 31, after 35 years in the classroom. I remember a time when civil discourse was encouraged and the discussions were rich and meaningful. I loved teaching and encouraging divergent views. Those times, sadly, are no more. If you think school today is what you grew up experiencing, with all due respect, you simply have no idea what is happening.
I am thankful and hopeful at reading this. Any ideology that is sound can withstand scrutiny and debate. Whereas canceling it speaks volumes of its inherent weakness.
So white people have "savior complexes" that are offensive? I wonder how different our history would be if my great-great grandfather who served four years in a Pennsylvania cavalry unit of the Union Army from 1861-1865 had received this "education"? My family would be better off in so many ways had he been spared this trauma. Who is going to pay me and my family back for the systemic trauma his service has created in my family?
I'm not a scholar or a writer but your article and courage inspired me. It's deeply uncomfortable to challenge those responsible for the indoctrination of our young men and women and most times I don't engage. Maybe this will give me the courage to speak up. You are a very brave, human role model.
I am generally impressed and very pleased with the intelligence, articulateness and good judgement of people who comment on postings in Common Sense. This is quite unlike other online sources to which I have been subscribing.
On the other hand, the news in this article is depressing.
Your white students aren’t racists, but anti-racist training will start them down the path toward white nationalism.
Love this, you may hear more soon.
I applaud your moral courage & the students (& likely less brave adults) around you are likely grateful for your voice as well. Honouring our past & mistakes & difference in views is important! I too am standing boldly against systemic injustice & abuse ongoing in the mental health system by many being led astray by the evil in leaders in our own institutions in Canada to this day. All voices, views & lives matter; only then will we reveal higher truth & justice, with the goal of our collective future be more civil & harmonious.
I'm going to take a wild guess that a major cause of the rise in repressive dogmatic ideologies in the west, as well as extreme aggression in nonwestern nations worldwide has something to do with the semi-consciously perceived threats to existence posed by overpopulation and the unmanageability of exponentially increasing complex systems that humans can no longer get their heads around - in addition to the threat of extinction from the heat of nuclear explosions and the heat of climate change. Without being able to even assess the threats to individuals souls and societies, people are intuitively feeling threatened by these forces beyond any individual leader's or any society's control. Therefore the urge is to enforce a political ideological control over the smallest units of social organization: children as students, teachers, government at every level, the media implicating itself. It's a form of fear and terror-based madness with an urge to conquer and control. I guess I am overstating the obvious and a statement of doom is of no help. Or maybe it could help.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Clearly Dr. King needed CRT Training.
I will never understand how supposedly intelligent people can support this type of indoctrination. As I see it, there are three possibilities: 1: the dumbing-down of schools and colleges since the 70s; 2. lack of backbone allied with fear of unpleasant repercussions, and 3. both stupidity and ignorance of facts. So many young people today know nothing (factual) about history, culture, civics, etc. Reading and math skills are abysmal, to say nothing of the STEM subjects. That's what teachers should be concentrating on! I've been living in Europe for many years, and all of this wokeness and identity politics rubbish is making incursions here, also. As Douglas Murray writes in his new book "The War on the West," we praise everything except our own culture, of which we are mainly ignorant, but facts, of course, only get in the way of ideologies. Are the woke crowd so deficient in functioning brain cells that they can't see that they themselves are the real enemies of freedom? That suppressing opinions one doesn't agree with is the antithesis of the First Amendment? That the people who disrupt university lectures by conservative speakers are using fascist methods? I truly can't understand it. Are they really that blind or stupid?
If we all would only adhere to Martin Luther King's dream of judging people not by immutable characteristics but by character, we'd be immensely better off. But MLK would likely be called an "Uncle Tom" today or told that he "ain't black."
Thank God that many parents have apparently seen the light and are pushing back. Maybe one good thing to come out of Corona. Sorry if I've gone a bit far afield, but I needed to get it off my chest.
What are you doing now Paul?
I feel for these young people. My mother was a teacher and her main concerns in the 70's through the 90's (in one of our city's toughest school districts) centered around teaching children the basics of how to read, write, think, and act in a free society. This type of cancerous pedagogy has no place in a free society. Along with this forum, check out James Lindsay's New Discourses forums on how to combat this subversive thinking.
Thank you
"...I was informed by the head of the high school that my philosophical challenges had caused “harm” to students, given that these topics were “life and death matters, about people’s flesh and blood and bone.” I was reprimanded for “acting like an independent agent of a set of principles or ideas or beliefs.” And I was told that by doing so, I failed to serve the “greater good and the higher truth.”
He further informed me that I had created “dissonance for vulnerable and unformed thinkers” and “neurological disturbance in students’ beings and systems.” The school’s director of studies added that my remarks could even constitute harassment."
That statement is phrased as a set of Objective judgements (i.e., the Moral Error of "Whiteness", according to the Edicts of the Woke.) Presumably, the escape clause preserving the Reprimand from that Contamination is the absence of any factual support offered to support its conclusions.