Black educators at Blair push back on MCPS's ham-fisted antiracist PD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope other educators in other middle and high schools follow in Blair's footsteps and let the Equity Team and Dr. McKnight and her staff know how garbage and trash this PD was and that they want and demand better.

if only Mcknight and the CO were more focused on educating children than these societal issues.

To be fair, if they were actually focused on fixing societal issues, that wouldn't be terrible. But they are focused on increasing central office staff and creating projects/programs that sounds like they will fix societal issues but actually do more harm than good. Examples: equity lowers standards, anti-racism is racist, pretending to not know what a woman is hurts women, and busing causes headaches for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope other educators in other middle and high schools follow in Blair's footsteps and let the Equity Team and Dr. McKnight and her staff know how garbage and trash this PD was and that they want and demand better.

if only Mcknight and the CO were more focused on educating children than these societal issues.

To be fair, if they were actually focused on fixing societal issues, that wouldn't be terrible. But they are focused on increasing central office staff and creating projects/programs that sounds like they will fix societal issues but actually do more harm than good. Examples: equity lowers standards, anti-racism is racist, pretending to not know what a woman is hurts women, and busing causes headaches for everyone.

Meh. It’s not really the school system’s job to fix societal issues.

The main mission of MCPS should be educating our kids to meet basic standards. Which is clearly not happening.

Leave the other stuff to other public agencies. Plenty of non-profits and government agencies to deal with the other societal issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope other educators in other middle and high schools follow in Blair's footsteps and let the Equity Team and Dr. McKnight and her staff know how garbage and trash this PD was and that they want and demand better.

if only Mcknight and the CO were more focused on educating children than these societal issues.

To be fair, if they were actually focused on fixing societal issues, that wouldn't be terrible. But they are focused on increasing central office staff and creating projects/programs that sounds like they will fix societal issues but actually do more harm than good. Examples: equity lowers standards, anti-racism is racist, pretending to not know what a woman is hurts women, and busing causes headaches for everyone.

We aren't paying all these taxes to try and fix issues that affect the entire USA but to educate our kids. Further, their approach isn't to address any of these problems in any meaningful way but to improve the optics by playing silly games. This isn't helping anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope other educators in other middle and high schools follow in Blair's footsteps and let the Equity Team and Dr. McKnight and her staff know how garbage and trash this PD was and that they want and demand better.

if only Mcknight and the CO were more focused on educating children than these societal issues.

To be fair, if they were actually focused on fixing societal issues, that wouldn't be terrible. But they are focused on increasing central office staff and creating projects/programs that sounds like they will fix societal issues but actually do more harm than good. Examples: equity lowers standards, anti-racism is racist, pretending to not know what a woman is hurts women, and busing causes headaches for everyone.

Meh. It’s not really the school system’s job to fix societal issues.

The main mission of MCPS should be educating our kids to meet basic standards. Which is clearly not happening.

Leave the other stuff to other public agencies. Plenty of non-profits and government agencies to deal with the other societal issues.

remember the thousand points of light!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember the awful, cringe-inducing PD video by Dr. Shalaby that MCPS forced all educators to sit through on Oct. 9? Well, Blair's student newspaper Silver Chips just released a piece that exposed that many MCPS educators of color found the PD video to be patronizing, inauthentic and ineffective: https://silverchips.mbhs.edu/content/county-wide-antiracism-professional-development-training-stirs-controversy-at-blair-36250/

About 35 minutes into the video, Blair Black teacher Marshall Collier – a member of PISAB, a national antiracist alliance – stood up and critiqued the training’s lack of authenticity. He and many other teachers of color were aggravated since Shalaby, a White-passing woman, was teaching them about racism. “So I’m thinking to myself, 'What does she know about racism?' I found that illogical and it doesn’t flow well with what we’re actually seeing and experiencing outside of the school,” Collier says.

“It was not a presentation for me. It was a presentation for White people… And just the details and just some of the information that was mentioned… As I sat there, I was going through so many different emotions. I was going through anxiety. I was going through PTSD. I almost felt like I was going through Stockholm Syndrome. I'm listening to someone who looks like my captor telling me about racism,” he says.

Collier’s speech sparked many more passionate speeches from many teachers in the auditorium, as they passed the microphone from one to the next for half an hour.

Jordan Warner, a Black teacher, explains that the advice the video gave on how to react to and address racism felt unreasonable and not applicable to real life. “[The video] really felt like a kumbaya… a lot of people stood up, and were just like, 'the advice that you're giving us is not what I can give to my children,'” Warner says.

To many teachers, the entire training felt made for elementary, rather than high school teachers. “We are a high school and some of the strategies [the training] gave were very elementary school. They addressed how we are talking to children with gentleness in your voice… when you're going to talk about something as big as racism, talking about being gentle… really just missed the entire mark,” Warner says.

World history teacher Michael Burnell, a Black teacher, agrees with Warner, saying in an email, “I felt that the presentation was at a middle school level. The presenter was a college-level educator and I felt that the presentation should have been at a higher educational level.”

Some of the topics in the video that Blair staff felt were elementary were new definitions to words like "freedom" and "care" and conversations surrounding teaching control versus practicing freedom.

If you don't know what PD video we're talking about, it's in this thread. Fair warning: You might need a vomit bag to get through it: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1160302.page

Newsflash to MCPS Central Office: While black and brown people can get behind antiracism as high-level goal, the implementation and execution of antiracism actions matter. What you're doing is terrible. Either fix it or stop doing it altogether, cause you're causing more harm than good.

I second this.

Also, because of the way it was executed at my school, I had to sit through it as the sole person of color in the room. It was impossible to have a meaningful discussion of the video’s
shortcomings.

Why couldn't you discuss it? You were in a position to play the race card and validate what everyone in the room was thinking but afraid to say. Don't ignore your power.

"Play the race card" in a totally legitimate appropriate context, I mean.

That's not that person's job to educate their colleagues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope other educators in other middle and high schools follow in Blair's footsteps and let the Equity Team and Dr. McKnight and her staff know how garbage and trash this PD was and that they want and demand better.

if only Mcknight and the CO were more focused on educating children than these societal issues.

To be fair, if they were actually focused on fixing societal issues, that wouldn't be terrible. But they are focused on increasing central office staff and creating projects/programs that sounds like they will fix societal issues but actually do more harm than good. Examples: equity lowers standards, anti-racism is racist, pretending to not know what a woman is hurts women, and busing causes headaches for everyone.

Meh. It’s not really the school system’s job to fix societal issues.

The main mission of MCPS should be educating our kids to meet basic standards. Which is clearly not happening.

Leave the other stuff to other public agencies. Plenty of non-profits and government agencies to deal with the other societal issues.

PP. I agree. I was just imagining an MCPS program that taught and somehow encouraged all students to adhere to values that lead to success instead of the destructive nonsense they are filling kids' heads with now.

[Anonymous]

Hamfisted , that could be an offensive remark to the pigs in administration that fire teachers for their own lack of responsibility and incompetence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope other educators in other middle and high schools follow in Blair's footsteps and let the Equity Team and Dr. McKnight and her staff know how garbage and trash this PD was and that they want and demand better.

if only Mcknight and the CO were more focused on educating children than these societal issues.

To be fair, if they were actually focused on fixing societal issues, that wouldn't be terrible. But they are focused on increasing central office staff and creating projects/programs that sounds like they will fix societal issues but actually do more harm than good. Examples: equity lowers standards, anti-racism is racist, pretending to not know what a woman is hurts women, and busing causes headaches for everyone.

Meh. It’s not really the school system’s job to fix societal issues.

The main mission of MCPS should be educating our kids to meet basic standards. Which is clearly not happening.

Leave the other stuff to other public agencies. Plenty of non-profits and government agencies to deal with the other societal issues.

PP. I agree. I was just imagining an MCPS program that taught and somehow encouraged all students to adhere to values that lead to success instead of the destructive nonsense they are filling kids' heads with now.

seems like you're attempting to push your cultural values on others who don't share these

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope other educators in other middle and high schools follow in Blair's footsteps and let the Equity Team and Dr. McKnight and her staff know how garbage and trash this PD was and that they want and demand better.

if only Mcknight and the CO were more focused on educating children than these societal issues.

To be fair, if they were actually focused on fixing societal issues, that wouldn't be terrible. But they are focused on increasing central office staff and creating projects/programs that sounds like they will fix societal issues but actually do more harm than good. Examples: equity lowers standards, anti-racism is racist, pretending to not know what a woman is hurts women, and busing causes headaches for everyone.

Meh. It’s not really the school system’s job to fix societal issues.

The main mission of MCPS should be educating our kids to meet basic standards. Which is clearly not happening.

Leave the other stuff to other public agencies. Plenty of non-profits and government agencies to deal with the other societal issues.

PP. I agree. I was just imagining an MCPS program that taught and somehow encouraged all students to adhere to values that lead to success instead of the destructive nonsense they are filling kids' heads with now.

seems like you're attempting to push your cultural values on others who don't share these

This is sarcasm, right? I mean, it's Kendi-brand anti-racism which is insane because it dooms black people to failure but I've never actually encountered it outside a handful of DEI grifters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of studying the facts of history, this kind of manichean thinking has reduced all the facts down to one simplistic--and dangerous--narrative. I mean, not only does it have the potential to pit kids in a diverse environment against each other due to their ancestry, it's intellectually lazy. They're not actually learning anything if all thats the only fact they need to know, the one that explains everything.

Sadly, MCPS has always had the students self-segregate and they continue to. Instead of bring students and families together they are pushing them further apart. Kids shouldn't be blamed for their ancestry as they had nothing to do with it nor can change what happened.

The kids can change what happens going forward, but the right doesn’t want them to do it frightens white and Asian parents with the DEI boogeyman.

Do you raise how much racism is against Jews and Asians in mcps. Why does it scare you to admit racism is more than just white people being racist against blacks. And minorities are the majority at many MoCo’s schools.

I've heard some posters claim the race-blind magnet selection process that picks mostly Asians is racist against Asians.

Well, the magnet selection process was changed to increase the number of black and Hispanic kids in the program. Instead of harming white people like they wanted to, Asians were caught in the crossfire and took almost all of the impact.

Why do you think the intent was to harm Whites? That’s a wild claim considering that the number of White boys with disabilities greatly increased under the new process.

Because MCPS openly talks about whiteness as being bad, wants to decenter whiteness, and lessen white privilege. And several MCPS schools held up CRT author Kendi as the answer to racism. If you're not familiar with Kendi, he says discrimination against whites is a necessary component of anti-racism.

It’s true that being white and “white privilege” are negatives. There is a shame that comes with being white. I don’t know if this is actively being taught in the schools or if kids are just picking it up from the media or social media.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope other educators in other middle and high schools follow in Blair's footsteps and let the Equity Team and Dr. McKnight and her staff know how garbage and trash this PD was and that they want and demand better.

if only Mcknight and the CO were more focused on educating children than these societal issues.

To be fair, if they were actually focused on fixing societal issues, that wouldn't be terrible. But they are focused on increasing central office staff and creating projects/programs that sounds like they will fix societal issues but actually do more harm than good. Examples: equity lowers standards, anti-racism is racist, pretending to not know what a woman is hurts women, and busing causes headaches for everyone.

Technically you are right but they care about this as it's their social cause. They don't care that more swastikas are found weekly, if not more often and do nothing to stop that. They don't care that Jewish students and their families don't feel safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of studying the facts of history, this kind of manichean thinking has reduced all the facts down to one simplistic--and dangerous--narrative. I mean, not only does it have the potential to pit kids in a diverse environment against each other due to their ancestry, it's intellectually lazy. They're not actually learning anything if all thats the only fact they need to know, the one that explains everything.

Sadly, MCPS has always had the students self-segregate and they continue to. Instead of bring students and families together they are pushing them further apart. Kids shouldn't be blamed for their ancestry as they had nothing to do with it nor can change what happened.

The kids can change what happens going forward, but the right doesn’t want them to do it frightens white and Asian parents with the DEI boogeyman.

Do you raise how much racism is against Jews and Asians in mcps. Why does it scare you to admit racism is more than just white people being racist against blacks. And minorities are the majority at many MoCo’s schools.

I've heard some posters claim the race-blind magnet selection process that picks mostly Asians is racist against Asians.

Well, the magnet selection process was changed to increase the number of black and Hispanic kids in the program. Instead of harming white people like they wanted to, Asians were caught in the crossfire and took almost all of the impact.

Why do you think the intent was to harm Whites? That’s a wild claim considering that the number of White boys with disabilities greatly increased under the new process.

Because MCPS openly talks about whiteness as being bad, wants to decenter whiteness, and lessen white privilege. And several MCPS schools held up CRT author Kendi as the answer to racism. If you're not familiar with Kendi, he says discrimination against whites is a necessary component of anti-racism.

It’s true that being white and “white privilege” are negatives. There is a shame that comes with being white. I don’t know if this is actively being taught in the schools or if kids are just picking it up from the media or social media.

No kids or adults alive today were part of slavery and no kids were part of segregation so to blame all whites especially kids today is wrong. Many of our families were not even in the country and not all whites participated in slavery. All races and groups participated in it, but it was just a select few as most could not afford it.

When you read these books, what message is it sending, especially to kids who don't understand this kind of hate?

[Anonymous]

What an incredible journalistic accomplishment. These kids are basically heroes for this.

BREAKING News!!!!!

This just in, grownups have to sit through low budget (but expensive) HR video pushed down their throats by management. A secret source states reports of yawns and eye rolls though out the audience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of studying the facts of history, this kind of manichean thinking has reduced all the facts down to one simplistic--and dangerous--narrative. I mean, not only does it have the potential to pit kids in a diverse environment against each other due to their ancestry, it's intellectually lazy. They're not actually learning anything if all thats the only fact they need to know, the one that explains everything.

Sadly, MCPS has always had the students self-segregate and they continue to. Instead of bring students and families together they are pushing them further apart. Kids shouldn't be blamed for their ancestry as they had nothing to do with it nor can change what happened.

The kids can change what happens going forward, but the right doesn’t want them to do it frightens white and Asian parents with the DEI boogeyman.

Do you raise how much racism is against Jews and Asians in mcps. Why does it scare you to admit racism is more than just white people being racist against blacks. And minorities are the majority at many MoCo’s schools.

I've heard some posters claim the race-blind magnet selection process that picks mostly Asians is racist against Asians.

Well, the magnet selection process was changed to increase the number of black and Hispanic kids in the program. Instead of harming white people like they wanted to, Asians were caught in the crossfire and took almost all of the impact.

Why do you think the intent was to harm Whites? That’s a wild claim considering that the number of White boys with disabilities greatly increased under the new process.

Because MCPS openly talks about whiteness as being bad, wants to decenter whiteness, and lessen white privilege. And several MCPS schools held up CRT author Kendi as the answer to racism. If you're not familiar with Kendi, he says discrimination against whites is a necessary component of anti-racism.

It’s true that being white and “white privilege” are negatives. There is a shame that comes with being white. I don’t know if this is actively being taught in the schools or if kids are just picking it up from the media or social media.

A member of the MCPS equity team defined whiteness as a system of oppression in a teacher seminar almost 4 years ago. With MCPS's push for equity and anti-racism, this can't have improved. And several schools actively push Kendi's brand of anti-racism which is anti-white (and probably anti-Asain). Kendi says racial discrimination against whites is a necessary component of anti-racism in his book HTBAA-R. These are just the things I know about. Who knows what else they're doing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope other educators in other middle and high schools follow in Blair's footsteps and let the Equity Team and Dr. McKnight and her staff know how garbage and trash this PD was and that they want and demand better.

if only Mcknight and the CO were more focused on educating children than these societal issues.

To be fair, if they were actually focused on fixing societal issues, that wouldn't be terrible. But they are focused on increasing central office staff and creating projects/programs that sounds like they will fix societal issues but actually do more harm than good. Examples: equity lowers standards, anti-racism is racist, pretending to not know what a woman is hurts women, and busing causes headaches for everyone.

Meh. It’s not really the school system’s job to fix societal issues.

The main mission of MCPS should be educating our kids to meet basic standards. Which is clearly not happening.

Leave the other stuff to other public agencies. Plenty of non-profits and government agencies to deal with the other societal issues.

+1000