Fear of being exiled from elite society - woke prep schools

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Sorry I realised I created a mirror thread (apologies AS)

I want to make one comment here about the parents who are campaigning against their curriculum being supposedly infliltrated by BLM and communists

These are the same parents who voted with their feet when school segregation and housing segregation (redlining) was mandated to be illegal back in the 1960s and 1970s (I can assure you 99% of white parents (democrat or republican) wouldn't have been jumping up and down with glee at the prospect of black kids living next door to their precious darlings or going to the same schools)

A well known phenomena took place (it also happened in Australia) called white flight. As non-white people moved into white neighborhoods those whitefolk with money were the first to flee further away from the city centres. Other later joined them. Areas that were desegregated became segregated again. The same thing happened in schools.

White parents took loans to remove their children from public schools and move them to private/fee paying schools with predominately white schools. In Australia they did it to avoid Asian/immigrant kids, In the US it was to avoid blacks (that's the only distinction).

I find it amusing therefore these same parent groups are now fighting against social inclusion in a covert sneaky manner by attacking the teaching of black history. Why? They claim their "little darlings" are such snowflakes they will have self-esteem problems if they hear about what black people experienced at the hands of their ancestors. Of course that's not true. The real reason is that it might make their kids want to be friends with black people. The ultimate fear of every white parent, they might make friends, mix and date them. This is undesirable for most white parents (whether rebublican or democrat). Except for republicans who are more socially conservative its likely unthinkable.

I'm sorry I know people don't want to hear this stuff but its the real reason i) 99% don't have any idea what's in their chidren's school curriculum (I do) ii) school subjects (whether in Australia or the US) are divided by discipline.

If a child is learning STEM subjects (Science, technology, engineering or math) there is zero (I repeat) zero content that's related to race/social justice

If they are studying medicine/health/biology then there is zero content related to race/social justice

If the children are learning business law in college/university there is zero content related to race/social justice

If they are learning arts/design there is zero content related to race/social justice

If they are learnings vocational trades/skills there is zero content related to race/social justice

The one topic in school that is mandatory where race is mentioned is history. Every one of these obnoxious dumb parents probably know that regardless of the content of this topic that virtually no child learning this topic is going to end up working or getting a job as a historian except for the handful who end up being history teachers or who work in a museum. History lessons fill in the same amount of time for kids regardless of CRT or the 1619 project or any other black history content. The percentage of black history doesn't change. If white kids want to focus on English literature, European renaissance, arts, languages, European history they can both in school and college. There is zero chance that black history curriculum will converted white kids to join BLM or become crack addicted single mothers with multiple black babies which is I think the secret fear of these parents.

If anything CRT/black history is sucking in smart black kids who pick social justice/African American studies as majors when their parents probably wished they picked Law. engineering or medicine. ironically less competition for white and Asian kids.

The Seattle public school system has developed a new initiative to teach math that’s causing a bit of controversy. Whether it will one day lead to perfect SAT scores remains to be seen, but that might be beside the point. Officially titled “Math Ethnic Studies,” the proposed scheme is known colloquially as “Woke Math.”

Woke Math is a reference to the plan’s intention to tie the subject of mathematics to social issues, history and critical thinking, among other disciplines. Not surprisingly, it’s a controversial proposal and one which, in true mathematical fashion, receives equal parts criticism and compliments.

Colin Seale of Forbes.com explains the gist of the concept, “A middle school teacher used a social justice framework to give her students this conceptual understanding,” Seale wrote. “She taught at a middle school in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY.”

Seale continued, “After introducing the concept of average, she told a story about watching a 60 Minutes episode where they were interviewing a South African leader during the apartheid era. It seemed a little off-base at first. But she went on to explain that when the reporter asked a question about South Africa’s incredible income gap the government official defensively responded by explaining that the average South African income was one of the highest in the world.”

What happened next, Seale said, “Then she recalled the interviewer’s follow-up question that left the official speechless and caused a metaphysical change in every student in that classroom: ‘If one of your feet is a bucket of boiling water, and your other foot is in bucket of ice-cold water, on average, are you comfortable?’

The draft of the framework is hundreds of pages long and covers a wide range of topics. But its overriding concern is inequity. The department is worried that too many students are sorted into different math tracks based on their natural abilities, which leads some to take calculus by their senior year of high school while others don't make it past basic algebra. The department's solution is to prohibit any sorting until high school, keeping gifted kids in the same classrooms as their less mathematically inclined peers until at least grade nine.

The inequity of mathematics tracking in California can be undone through a coordinated approach in grades 6–12," reads a January 2021 draft of the framework. "In summary, middle-school students are best served in heterogeneous classes."

In fact, the framework concludes that calculus is overvalued, even for gifted students.

Broadly speaking, this entails making math as easy and un-math-like as possible. Math is really about language and culture and social justice, and no one is naturally better at it than anyone else, according to the framework.

"All students deserve powerful mathematics; we reject ideas of natural gifts and talents," reads a bulletpoint in chapter one of the framework. "The belief that 'I treat everyone the same' is insufficient: Active efforts in mathematics teaching are required in order to counter the cultural forces that have led to and continue to perpetuate current inequities."

The entire second chapter of the framework is about connecting math to social justice concepts like bias and racism: "Teachers can support discussions that center mathematical reasoning rather than issues of status and bias by intentionally defining what it means to do and learn mathematics together in ways that include and highlight the languages, identities, and practices of historically marginalized communities." Teachers should also think creatively about what math even entails: "To encourage truly equitable and engaging mathematics classrooms we need to broaden perceptions of mathematics beyond methods and answers so that students come to view mathematics as a connected, multi-dimensional subject that is about sense making and reasoning, to which they can contribute and belong."

Bari Weiss seems to turn up like a magic leprechaun whenever woke issues are discussed.

While there probably are some valid criticisms of "elite wokism," I suspect that at least some of the criticism is coming from radical Zionists whose primary actual (but unstated) problem with "elite wokism" is that it interferes with their agenda of demonizing Palestinians and Muslims.

I think not being racist is sure a privilege.

Makes sense. Ensure kids don't learn bad things in history otherwise BLM is just training school for them to grow up sympathetic to Palestinian liberation struggle.

Often its a package deal, civil rights leads to anti-Israel

[offtopic]There is a school of thought that “wokism” specifically intersectionality or the “hierarchy of oppression” is “bad for the Jews”. The Jews doing on average better economically and who are often key people in business and in culture are white or if not white “white adjacent” which is a term for successfully pretending to be white in order to get all the oppressing privileges associated with being white. What is sometimes called Model Minority.

I think not being racist is sure a privilege.

Being what you are supposed to be is a privilege?

Being what you are supposed to be is a privilege?

Are you serious AS? none of us are "supposed" to be a fictional "white" man/woman, A caricature made-up by slave traders and adopted by countries that used slaves as law. That is the root of the problem.

Being what you are supposed to be meaning to not be a racist.