Most Americans Are Not Okay With Schools Going Racist, Reductionist "Woke"
Samuel J. Abrams writes at Real Clear Policy that the cult of woke is not going over with most Americans:
In the past few weeks, it has become apparent that the extreme progressive impulses infecting higher education in the United States have moved from campus quads and dormitories into our nation's middle and high schools and even into our kindergartens. In New York City alone, the uptown Dalton School has seen an uprising and departure of numerous high-level staff over questions of curriculum and social justice. Downtown, a Grace Church School teacher published an open letter explaining that the school's new "anti-racist" ideology induces shame in white students for being oppressors; he has witnessed the harmful impact that these ideas have had on children including silencing inquiry such that "children are afraid to challenge the repressive ideology that rules our school."Most recently, a Brearley School parent penned an open letter to the entire community of parents explaining he was pulling his daughter from the school because of its "obsession with race" and the fact that the school abandoned its principle of teaching how to think for teaching what to think. In response, Brearley doubled-down on its position and argued that this letter was both offensive and harmful; it was nothing of the sort.
While these letters have undoubtedly impacted their writers, these public statements show that the wave of progressive, woke, critical-race theory influenced "anti-racist" dogma that has penetrated our K-12 schools is finally being called out for what is it: racist, reductionist, anti-intellectual, and dangerous. And, I wanted to add some more fuel to those leading this important pushback: despite the impression that an illiberal, totalitarian movement has seized the world of education, new data shows that majorities of citizens want viewpoint diversity in our K-12 world, they want our schools to give their students an education based on skills, facts, and history and they do not approve of these divisive and racist ideas which masquerade as progressive and inclusive values.
Thanks to new data from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), it becomes immediately apparent that the woke ideas in the K-12 universe do not have the wide support of the public. ACTA surveyed a large number of Illinois residents -- a microcosm of the American experience possessing not only a diverse citizenry, but large and small cities along with rural areas -- about their attitudes toward these anti-racist ideas and support for woke and equitable thinking is not widely accepted at all.
Consider the following: Respondents were asked if K-12 teachers should work to expose students to a variety of perspectives about the country's founding and history, and to equip them to think critically about its successes and failures OR if K-12 teachers should embrace progressive viewpoints and perspectives when teaching U.S. history, to encourage students to advocate for social justice causes. Almost two-thirds (62%) believed that it was more important to expose students to a variety of perspectives, compared to just 23% who preferred that teachers embrace progressive viewpoints and perspectives; 15% were not sure where they stood.
There are racial differences present in the data, but it is important to note that no racial group wanted to prioritize social justice concerns over a real diversity of views. 69% of white respondents opted to expose students to a variety of perspectives over a narrow progressive worldview. The number in support of a multiplicity of views dropped to 44% among Black respondents but this 44% is the plurality among Blacks for just 29% of Black respondents want the progressive idea and another 27% were unsure. Similarly, 51% of Hispanic or Latino identifiers selected viewpoint diversity with a third (33%) wanting a narrower view and 15% unsure. Collectively, the data reveal that there are understandable differences in racial outlook, but the overtly woke attitudes and approaches being taken by K-12 schools are completely out of step with reality for pluralities of all racial groups and the nation as a whole rejects this social justice approach.
...In short, many schools are fixated on race and difference and this is dangerous. Viewing people as members of narrow and simplistic racial groupings foolishly suggests that one should be defined by race and little more. This is an absurd way to understand people, dividing us rather than unifying us and finding common ground based on shared humanity and history. This is the antithesis of what our schools should be teaching, which include the values of real diversity in all forms and social inclusion. These recent examples of pushback are hopefully the start of a much larger effect to dismantle the progressive, ant-racist ideas which are infecting all levels of our education system. Our educational institutions anchor our nation and help teach and propagate our values and these institutions cannot be ceded to the seemingly growing woke and progressive waves corrupting the free exchange of ideas and our core ideas about learning. The data show that Americans reject anti-racism and the pushback against these ideas must continue as our nation's core values and social fabric depend on it.
Well, too bad for Most Americans they have no say in how things are done.
dee nile at April 26, 2021 3:35 AM
I'll echo what Dee said. From issues big to small parents have zero input into the public school system. And if parents have zero input how much influence do you think those who don't have kids at the school have?
Ben at April 26, 2021 5:23 AM
I'll disagree partially with Ben and dee nile.
Parents do have input.
Parents rarely provide input.
And it is also often ignored when provided.
They need to show up to school meetings and/or send email to express themselves. If your school board chooses to blow you off, then the parents need to get organized, run in school board elections, and make changes from the inside.
They'll have to fight the union, of course, and the entrenched bureaucracy, but the results should be worth it.
I R A Darth Aggie at April 26, 2021 6:57 AM
You may as well tell us to run for federal office at the same time IRA. Schools are huge these days and most of the most troubling decisions are coming down from the federal level.
Ben at April 26, 2021 7:45 AM
Parents have input.
But it isn't through civic participation. Those days are long gone.
It will be by making individual school board members, administrators, and teachers feel physically unsafe living in that community. Informing them they are not welcome. It will be making them realize that they have turned their community into 1984 Bosnia.
ruralcounsel at April 26, 2021 8:35 AM
You all are assuming that the parents even KNOW what’s going on in their children’s classrooms. That parents even know what teachers are saying in off-hand comments or during class discussions. That parents read their children’s textbooks or the “supplementary handouts” teachers, on their own, add to district approved curricula. People send their kiddies off to school in blissful ignorance. They think their children will be reading the 21st century equivalent of “Dick and Jane,” that their children will be doing math or biology or physics or social studies presented in a strictly unbiased manner. Well, parents should wake up and be seriously involved with the content of what is presented to their children in the public schools. And I am saying this as a high school English teacher (30 years) and mother of four.
Carolynn at April 26, 2021 9:40 AM
You all are assuming that the parents even KNOW what’s going on in their children’s classrooms. That parents even know what teachers are saying in off-hand comments or during class discussions. That parents read their children’s textbooks or the “supplementary handouts” teachers, on their own, add to district approved curricula. People send their kiddies off to school in blissful ignorance. They think their children will be reading the 21st century equivalent of “Dick and Jane,” that their children will be doing math or biology or physics or social studies presented in a strictly unbiased manner. Well, parents should wake up and be seriously involved with the content of what is presented to their children in the public schools. And I am saying this as a high school English teacher (30 years) and mother of four.
Carolynn at April 26, 2021 9:41 AM
"You all are assuming that the parents even KNOW what’s going on in their children’s classrooms."
That has been true, parents are busy and tend to trust institutions. Non parents tend to ignore school politics completely. Both trusted the news to be watchdogs, which would warn of such changes. They think schools must be just like when I was in school a little lefty but.. Except that was 20 years ago.
That trust has changed somewhat this year, through zoom classes, and zoom meetings parents have listened in and realized that the schools were deliberately hiding this change while pushing it through. But we can still fight it. By telling people sure many will think us crackpots, but some will listen enough to check it on their own.
Joe j at April 26, 2021 10:22 AM
Don't listen to ruralcounsel. That's really bad advice. I begin to doubt his credentials. If parents are stirred up enough to start burning crosses in peoples' yards, they could at least try Carolynn's advice first. Try friendship and engagement.
And yes - the situation is different this decade.
Spiderfall at April 26, 2021 1:31 PM
The educational deep state and the teachers unions are both wholly owned subsidiaries of the Democratic Party. This has been true for at least the last forty years.
Remember I’m the mom who 25 years ago refused to let either of her children attended the DARE program which put police in public and private school classrooms asking kids about their home life.
Now these socialist Nancies are actually looking into your home with a zoom camera.
I think they have all played this Covid panic wrong, and I’m hoping but not totally certain that the demise of no accountability public schooling is possibly at hand. After all, if the kids need just a computer and a parent at home to supervise, what are the schools there for? Except to burn every greater amounts of tax payer dollars?
Isab at April 26, 2021 3:26 PM
I think you are misreading what happened Isab.
"After all, if the kids need just a computer and a parent at home to supervise, what are the schools there for?" ~Isab
What almost took the public schools down wasn't the woke stuff, the wasteful spending, the propoganda, sex stuff, etc. It was sending the kids home and not providing the supervision.
Roughly 80% of the value US public school provide is babysitting. The one issue that made parents as a group stand up and protest was schools closing and sending the kids home. That was what almost killed the US public school.
Ben at April 27, 2021 5:18 AM
I think the majority of my primary and secondary education could have been accomplished in roughly 4-6 years.
Conan the Grammarian at April 27, 2021 7:53 AM
> I think the majority of my primary
> and secondary education could have
> been accomplished in roughly 4-6
> years.
Same, but seasoning my spirit was going to take the full 13y… And in that regard they probably moved the file to the next cabinet a couple times just to give some beleaguered schoolmarm a comfortable summer break.
Crid at April 27, 2021 1:27 PM
Same, but seasoning my spirit was going to take the full 13y… And in that regard they probably moved the file to the next cabinet a couple times just to give some beleaguered schoolmarm a comfortable summer break.
Crid at April 27, 2021 1:27 PM
There are three legs to the stool of becoming a fully functioning adult. IQ, PQ (physical quotient) and Emotional or psychological maturity.
Schools have been neglecting all three for a generation.
A lot of children these days are materially spoiled and emotionally neglected at the same time. It’s a lethal combination.
Isab at April 27, 2021 2:59 PM
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