Here, The KGB And The Stasi Are Wealthy Parents Working On A Volunteer Basis
Bari Weiss writes at City Journal of the secret societies of parents that meet to discuss and figure out what to do about the racist indoctrination that now passes for education in tony private schools:
The dissidents use pseudonyms and turn off their videos when they meet for clandestine Zoom calls. They are usually coordinating soccer practices and carpools, but now they come together to strategize. They say that they could face profound repercussions if anyone knew they were talking.But the situation of late has become too egregious for emails or complaining on conference calls. So one recent weekend, on a leafy street in West Los Angeles, they gathered in person and invited me to join.
...The parents in the backyard say that for every one of them, there are many more, too afraid to speak up. "I've talked to at least five couples who say: I get it. I think the way you do. I just don't want the controversy right now," related one mother. They are all eager for their story to be told--but not a single one would let me use their name. They worry about losing their jobs or hurting their children if their opposition to this ideology were known.
"The school can ask you to leave for any reason," said one mother at Brentwood, another Los Angeles prep school. "Then you'll be blacklisted from all the private schools and you'll be known as a racist, which is worse than being called a murderer."One private school parent, born in a Communist nation, tells me: "I came to this country escaping the very same fear of retaliation that now my own child feels." Another joked: "We need to feed our families. Oh, and pay $50,000 a year to have our children get indoctrinated." A teacher in New York City put it most concisely: "To speak against this is to put all of your moral capital at risk."
Parents who have spoken out against this ideology, even in private ways, say it hasn't gone over well. "I had a conversation with a friend, and I asked him: 'Is there anything about this movement we should question?'" said a father with children in two prep schools in Manhattan. "And he said: 'Dude, that's dangerous ground you're on in our friendship.' I've had enough of those conversations to know what happens."
That fear is shared, deeply, by the children. For them, it's not just the fear of getting a bad grade or getting turned down for a college recommendation, though that fear is potent. It's the fear of social shaming. "If you publish my name, it would ruin my life. People would attack me for even questioning this ideology. I don't even want people knowing I'm a capitalist," a student at the Fieldston School in New York City told me, in a comment echoed by other students I spoke with. (Fieldston declined to comment for this article.) "The kids are scared of other kids," says one Harvard-Westlake mother.
The atmosphere is making their children anxious, paranoid, and insecure--and closed off from even their close friends. "My son knew I was talking to you and he begged me not to," another Harvard-Westlake mother told me. "He wants to go to a great university, and he told me that one bad statement from me will ruin us. This is the United States of America. Are you freaking kidding me?"
There's a telling scene in The Lives of Others wherein a naive young German is telling a joke about Erich Honecker in front of two stern members of the Stasi. Realizing his mistake too late, the young man is told by the senior Stasi member to finish the joke. No one laughs as the senior Stasi officer demands the young man's name, rank, and department.
While the Stasi officer later laughs and says he was joking with the young man, the stern look on the second Stasi officer's face warns of the state of constant fear in which East Germans lived. Welcome to the one-party socialist state, the one all those "democratic socialists" warn would never happen here if you put them in charge.
Conan the Grammarian at March 10, 2021 6:24 AM
There is child abuse going on here and it is coming from both directions. The parents are just as guilty as the school.
Who indoctrinated these kids into living in terror of not getting into the right school?
Isab at March 10, 2021 7:06 AM
Sounds to me like if they can spend 50k a year, they can get together and make a homeschooling class/mini private school and hire several tutors for different subjects.
You get ten parents, you have 500 k. 5 teachers at 50k each, and then use the rest for things like weekly dance classes and sports classes for their phys ed requirement, and art classes or drama or whatnot to round them out.
NicoleK at March 10, 2021 10:14 AM
That doesn't have the snob factor, NicoleK. You are not Fieldston. Also it is New York. Make it 100k for the pay and benefits on the teacher. 50k is a bit light for that area.
On the broader topic homeschooling like that is quite feasible these days. There are lots of good resources available for fairly low prices. Fieldston isn't at any risk from that (seeing as they sell the reputation more than anything else). But public schools that only offer distance learning are at major risk.
My kid just got out of covid jail and back into school. So we had roughly a week of online classes. From that it is clear the district still hasn't got their shit together. The whole thing was a joke. I don't even blame the teacher. She wasn't given appropriate tools to actually do the job. She doesn't have control over how the class will be run. But I do blame the administrators and board of directors.
On some level it doesn't matter that I don't blame the teacher. If the school isn't providing a useful service it needs to be shut down. That various teachers aren't responsible is irrelevant when they lose their jobs as the school closes. Just the same as for any other business. At the end of the day your group either provides a valuable product or you have to find something else to do. Public schools aren't immune to that.
Ben at March 10, 2021 10:50 AM
I've been imagining the private schooling/tutor pod possibilities. I'm thinking ten kids wouldn't need 5 teachers---not at full time salaries anyway. In one scenario, each family pays $20K per year. Two teachers are hired at about $75K; that's more than enough teaching time for 10 or 12 kids. The remaining $50K is used to bring in part-time specialists such as music and art.
RigelDog at March 10, 2021 11:06 AM
The remaining $50K is used to bring in part-time specialists such as music and art.
RigelDog at March 10, 2021 11:06 AM
95 percent of gifted athletes do club sports and camps. That is the only way they can get good enough to either get a college scholarship or advance to a high level.
Same is true of music and art. What is offered in the schools is just too basic to be useful to a kid who has talent, and it only covers about eight months of the year anyway.
My aunt used to tutor math for private schools in Philadelphia. She made 35 bucks an hour for as much as she wanted to work, in 1985 when that was decent money. Bet it is closer to 200 bucks an hour now.
I had to pay 50 bucks an hour for a flute teacher for my talented son, once he was 15, twenty years ago. This was in the sticks. Can imagine the prices are much higher on the east coast.
Isab at March 10, 2021 11:29 AM
Homeschooling won't have the cachet to get them into a "good" college. They need the private school diploma from a feeder school. And parents expressing concern about rampant political correctness at that feeder school could deny entry to a "good" college to their children. Can't let someone into your "diverse" college if their parents are racist.
That's the whole point of the Stasi comment Amy made. Totalitarian societies enforce codes of conduct through forcing people to report on friend, family, coworkers, neighbors, and even casual acquaintances. If it's discovered that you knew someone was even potentially a subversive and you didn't report it, you go to jail too. And you're arrested publicly so everyone can see what happens to people who don't report each and every suspicion.
There are no jokes permitted, no breaks given, no room to allow for anyone to say or do anything that does not indicate total respect for (and even fear of) the established order.
So, if the parents are questioning the established orthodoxy, the children are, by association, guilty and cannot be permitted to advance in society.
Conan the Grammarian at March 10, 2021 1:04 PM
Was watching the Russian mini-series (thankfully English subtitled) "Life and Fate" based on Grossman's novel about life in Stalin's Russia during the Stalingrad Front. History is echoing very loudly right now.
The America you thought you lived in is gone. And it is only going to get worse.
It's just a matter of time before people get grabbed off the street and shoved into black Suburbans with heavily tinted windows, never to be seen again. Fortunately, that's only going to happen in big urban "woke" enclaves, because out here in the boonies, those Suburbans would be riddled with bullet holes.
ruralcounsel at March 10, 2021 1:19 PM
> Homeschooling won't have the
> cachet to get them into a
> "good" college.
Pleasant now to recall that a few of the people, vaguely-famous actresses & family, are presently doing time for the USC scandal.
Crid at March 10, 2021 2:09 PM
Sailer on Harvard-Westlake.
Crid at March 10, 2021 2:15 PM
> Homeschooling won't have the
> cachet to get them into a
> "good" college.
If they think the indoctrination is bad now wait till they see the "good" college.
Joe j at March 10, 2021 4:03 PM
The Boston area's full of Harvard and MIT students that were home-schooled. Being home-schooled can definitely get you into a good school. You don't need to have gone to a private school to go to an Ivy or top liberal arts school. Of course it'll be harder now that objective measures like standardized tests are going out the window... you'll have to win a chess tournament or something.
You'd need more than 2 teachers at the High School level, because those subjects are more specialized but you're right, it could be part-time. And you could probably have the teachers teach 2 subjects perhaps... English and History, Math and Science, etc. Of course at that level you might just take the classes at a local college or University extension program.
There are plenty of after-school activities in the arts and sports that could do the job and even be quite prestigious.
NicoleK at March 10, 2021 9:51 PM
Imagine the unseen horror of being a modern teacher, who has done nothing but attend college herself, is assigned material generated by a bureaucracy which will never lose a dime for its idiocy, and who is standing before a class which knows that if they fail anything it is her fault, not theirs.
Years ago, teachers had done something outside a classroom. I suspect that's not the case today.
Radwaste at March 11, 2021 4:28 AM
The day after this blog post, Flanagan dropped a fantastic article about private schools & woke in Atlantic.
Crid at March 11, 2021 9:44 AM
You beat me to it, NicoleK.
I know a lawyer, now 65, who was homeschooled and went to Harvard...in his late 30s! (I knew he couldn't be that rare a breed, or the Crimson would have said so at some point - but there was an article or two about him, in that paper.)
Btw, he now lives in Berkeley and is a firm Trump supporter.
Lenona at March 11, 2021 2:38 PM
"He wants to go to a great university. . ."
A truly great university would have wokeism taught only in Philosophy 101, and then only for the purpose of refuting it. Does such a place exist?
Rex Little at March 11, 2021 6:46 PM
✔ Rex Little at March 11, 2021 6:46 PM
Brilliant blog comment.
But here's the thing...
Community colleges teach that... at the .
Crid at March 12, 2021 2:14 PM
Fucking HTML.
I'm ANGREE. Not even going to tell you how good the joke was.
Crid at March 12, 2021 2:15 PM
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