“Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.”
Mark Twain
Tag: public schools
Oh, the irony…
Citing Racial Inequities, Boston Public Schools Suspend New Advanced Learning Classes
A selective program for high-performing fourth, fifth and sixth graders in Boston has suspended enrollment due to the pandemic and concerns about equity in the program, GBH News has learned.
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius recommended the one-year hiatus for the program, known as Advanced Work Classes, saying the district would not proceed with the program for new students next year.
“There’s been a lot of inequities that have been brought to the light in the pandemic that we have to address,” Cassellius told GBH News. “There’s a lot of work we have to do in the district to be antiracist and have policies where all of our students have a fair shot at an equitable and excellent education.”
New students will be admitted in the fourth grade by standards to be determined at the school level, according to a BPS spokesman.
There will be no new students admitted in the fifth or sixth grades, the spokesman said, but those already in advanced work will be allowed to continue.
Virginia school system cancels Dr. Seuss, citing racial ‘undertones’ in writings
Celebrated American children’s author Dr. Seuss is now considered too controversial for one of Virginia’s largest school districts, a new report reveals.
For over two decades, Dr. Seuss’s birthday has been celebrated in schools as Read Across America Day — a day dedicated to the importance of reading and literacy. The day falls on Dr. Seuss’s birthday in honor of the impactful author, whose books have helped countless children learn to read across the globe.
But folllowing pressure from activists, Loudon County Public Schools is reportedly dropping the annual Dr. Seuss celebration.
“Realizing that many schools continue to celebrate ‘Read Across America Day’ in partial recognition of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, it is important for us to be cognizant of research that may challenge our practice in this regard,” Loudoun County Schools said in an announcement reported by the Daily Wire.
“As we become more culturally responsive and racially conscious, all building leaders should know that in recent years there has been research revealing radical undertones in the books written and the illustrations drawn by Dr. Seuss,” the school district continued.
Learning for Justice, a liberal education advocacy group, was reportedly behind the pressure campaign against the celebrated children’s author. The organization pegs itself as a group that seeks “to uphold the mission” of the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center, according to their website.
I Took An Anti-Racist Training Workshop For Parents. Here’s What I Learned.
The push for “anti-racism” is moving beyond the classroom. School districts are now insisting that parents spark conversations about race and gender at the dinner table, at the movie theatre, and when their child is browsing the internet.
In Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the nation’s most affluent areas, parents of elementary-aged children were encouraged to participate in a “caregiver” training program on “anti-racism.” The program was run through Ashburton Elementary School in the Montgomery County Public School district.
The session lasted about an hour and was run by a “restorative justice” advocate hired by the school district.
Ashburton Elementary is far from the only school to host these programs, be it for teachers or children, or parents. In fact, Ashburton Elementary’s Principal told parents that teachers and children have been engaging in “anti-racism” activities for months now.
I attended the elementary school’s anti-racist training workshop for parents. It was run by Greg Mullenholz, the school’s principal, and Yael Astor, a “restorative justice instructional specialist” who works for the district.
Coach Fired For Questioning Woke Curriculum
A new court case reminds us that having an opinion can be hazardous to your career.
David Flynn had been a winning football coach at Dedham High School in Massachusetts. His two children attended Dedham schools. Last fall he learned that his daughter’s seventh-grade history class, “World Geography and Ancient History I,” had been re-routed from discussing the classics and instead turned into a series of indoctrination sessions in the new woke ideology.
Without consulting or notifying parents, Dedham Public Schools loaded down the seventh-grade history class with contemporary topics on politics, race, gender, stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination and diversity. Naturally, these topics were presented from a progressive perspective and embedded with the usual biases and tropes that are accepted as gospel by left-wing educators.
For example, class materials labeled police officers and white people as “risk factors” to all black people and suggested that white people inherently see all black males as threats. A teacher used a cartoon character of herself wearing a BLM t-shirt, just in case some kids did not get the point.
Flynn did what any concerned parent might do when learning about his child being indoctrinated. He and his wife expressed their concerns to the history teacher and principal of the school – then later to Superintendent Michael J. Welch and three members of the Dedham School Committee. However, the school system had no interest in engaging in constructive dialogue. In October the Flynns removed their children from the school.
The issue came back to haunt Flynn in January when he was called into a meeting with Superintendent Welch, DHS principal Jim Forrest and athletic director Steve Traister. Welch confronted Flynn with one of the emails he had sent to the Dedham School Committee and asked him, “What are we going to do about this?” By the end of the meeting Flynn was informed that DHS was “going in a different direction” with their football program, and moments later a statement was released stating that Flynn was removed as head coach because of “significant, repeatedly expressed philosophical differences with the direction, goals and values of the school district.”
Teacher Asked Students to List Their Political Party and Why, Then Publicized Their Responses, It Didn’t End Well
There’s been a lot of controversy over Joe Biden’s seeming reluctance to want all the public schools opening up as soon as possible. Obviously, that’s not making a lot of parents very happy.
But if they saw what just happened at Porter Ridge High School in Indian Trail, North Carolina, they just might not want to send their kids back.
A teacher, as part of an assignment, asked kids to list what political party they would choose and had them write it down, and explain why. The teacher then publicized to the rest of the class what each student had chosen and what they had written, with conservative students being bullied, according to WCNC.
One mother described how her daughter was bullied for being a Republican. She said that the daughter got threats, “These threats that, ‘we’ll show them!’ Or, ‘I can’t wait until I see her,’” the mother explained.
Students took pictures of the students’ answers with their names next to them and spread them throughout the school so kids from other classes were soon involved in the bullying and threats.
The mother said given the “climate” now, “people are too politically charged up” and she said it’s “just creating a toxic environment.” She blasted the teacher. “That teacher put a target, he outed these children.”
Utah teacher under investigation for tweeting that he hopes “more Republican senators are killed”
An investigation is underway after a Utah high school teacher posted a tweet following the Capitol riots calling for the killing of Republican senators.
The tweet was made by Parowan High School humanities teacher Brian Townsend. A concerned parent posted a screenshot of the tweet on an Iron County School District Facebook group, saying that Townsend’s tweet was “not appropriate” and “unacceptable.”
Townsend’s tweet, dated February 13, said, “I only hope that next time a president incites a riot at the Capitol, more Republican senators are killed.”
Drag Wolf Story Hour…
California School Board VP Says Reopening Schools Is ‘Very White Supremacist,’ ‘That’s What Slavery Is’
Video footage from a La Mesa, California school board meeting is generating outrage from parents who learned that a school board member stated a potential school reopening is “what slavery is,” and is a “very white supremacist ideology.” The board member also demanded that her colleagues check their “privilege.”
Charda Bell-Fontenot, the Vice President of the La Mesa-Spring Valley Schools board, appeared ignorant of the fact that her remarks would become public record, claiming, “If our meetings were actually recorded for the public, we would know that.”
Bell-Fontenot, who refused to show her face on-screen, stated, “So how are we forcing people, that seems like a very white supremacist ideology to force people to comply, you know, or conform, without thinking about all of their intersecting factors and barriers that exist for all families … just letting you know, you’re thinking about one type of family when you’re speaking right now. Just letting you know. Privilege. Check it, you guys.”
Hellbound and Down 
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