Is GDS too woke?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is not whether GDS is “woke”, the problem is that GDS is smug/annoying. I have no problem with the ideology that they promote. The attitude of superiority on the other hand is tiresome.

This

[Anonymous]

Check out their Facebook feed for super woke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like the waitlisted families have shown up, looking to pounce on your spot. Don't listen to them - sending our kid to GDS was the smartest thing we ever did. It's no more "woke" than Sidwell.

Oh, yes it is. By comparison, GDS makes Sidwell look downright conservative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check out their Facebook feed for super woke.

Standing up for the rights of trans people (particularly trans youth), condemning anti-Asian hatred, celebrating Dolly Parton, Ntozake Shane, and Marie Curie, learning robotics in middle school and mechanics in kindergarteners—these things bother you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out their Facebook feed for super woke.

Standing up for the rights of trans people (particularly trans youth), condemning anti-Asian hatred, celebrating Dolly Parton, Ntozake Shane, and Marie Curie, learning robotics in middle school and mechanics in kindergarteners—these things bother you?

NP. Let’s just say I would not want my kids to get such a steady diet of this.

[Anonymous]

Most of the posters in this thread aren’t GDS parents and don’t know what they’re talking about, unfortunately. I urge families interested in private schools to do your homework and not rely on anonymous posts to make decisions about your child’s education. My children (white/males) love GDS and as parents we’ve been really happy with the education they are receiving and the school’s ethos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out their Facebook feed for super woke.

Standing up for the rights of trans people (particularly trans youth), condemning anti-Asian hatred, celebrating Dolly Parton, Ntozake Shane, and Marie Curie, learning robotics in middle school and mechanics in kindergarteners—these things bother you?

NP. Let’s just say I would not want my kids to get such a steady diet of this.

So not a steady diet of celebrating human rights, human achievement, and learning. Okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out their Facebook feed for super woke.

Standing up for the rights of trans people (particularly trans youth), condemning anti-Asian hatred, celebrating Dolly Parton, Ntozake Shane, and Marie Curie, learning robotics in middle school and mechanics in kindergarteners—these things bother you?

I like the photos of the little kids waving around the pink and blue flag, putting up their trans quotes, and explaining their three fluid gender identities.
So woke! Can’t wait to see what the middle schoolers are doing.

[Anonymous]

This message thread reeks of white supremacy and it is unfortunate that the term "woke" is being weaponized by people who are scared about non-white voices and non-hetero experiences sharing center stage at a place like GDS. The fact of the matter is that trans people exist, they are murdered at alarmingly high rates, they are discriminated against relentlessly, and learning about trans people early on -- yes, in childhood -- helps to combat these awful prejudices. I have taught my preschooler about trans and non-binary people. Not to encourage him to become trans or non-binary, but to open his eyes to a world that exists beyond the binary set I grew up under, which was exclusionary to trans people. He was not the least bit confused. If scrolling through GDS social media feed makes you worried that it is too woke -- could that be because of all of the non-white faces and stories? Would you feel differently if you replaced 80% of those posts with posts about white people? Not enough self-examination is going on in this thread about why people are having such an adverse reaction to a school's focus on historically marginalized voices. I for one think about the harnessing of all of the human potential from historically marginalized communities whose stories are being told -- this adds to the rich cultural experience. It isn't erasing the white experience. It's adding to the HUMAN experience.
Rather than get on an anonymous message board and bash a school that doesn't feel right for your family, move on and get a freaking life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This message thread reeks of white supremacy and it is unfortunate that the term "woke" is being weaponized by people who are scared about non-white voices and non-hetero experiences sharing center stage at a place like GDS. The fact of the matter is that trans people exist, they are murdered at alarmingly high rates, they are discriminated against relentlessly, and learning about trans people early on -- yes, in childhood -- helps to combat these awful prejudices. I have taught my preschooler about trans and non-binary people. Not to encourage him to become trans or non-binary, but to open his eyes to a world that exists beyond the binary set I grew up under, which was exclusionary to trans people. He was not the least bit confused. If scrolling through GDS social media feed makes you worried that it is too woke -- could that be because of all of the non-white faces and stories? Would you feel differently if you replaced 80% of those posts with posts about white people? Not enough self-examination is going on in this thread about why people are having such an adverse reaction to a school's focus on historically marginalized voices. I for one think about the harnessing of all of the human potential from historically marginalized communities whose stories are being told -- this adds to the rich cultural experience. It isn't erasing the white experience. It's adding to the HUMAN experience.
Rather than get on an anonymous message board and bash a school that doesn't feel right for your family, move on and get a freaking life.

I think this characterization of people asking these questions is not accurate, nor is the description of what they are weighing in making educational decisions. I know plenty of parents, us included, who are actively, openly, passionately committed to BLM, transgender rights, stop asian hate, etc. In fact, for our family, those causes are personal. We have different views than you do, though, about WHEN or HOW it is appropriate to introduce our children to these issues and the horrific acts that catalyze these movements. We're not the only ones, and no, we're not white and neither are the families I'm thinking of, so you might consider whether it's correct to assume that everyone who happens to disagree with you as "non-marginalized." Far from it here. Far from it.

Just because someone disagrees about the when and the how doesn't mean they are weaponizing "woke." In fact, it is this very sort of attitude you set forth--the "if you don't agree with me then you must hate marginalized groups/you must be full of white privilege"--that adds to the reasons some families are wary of a woke education. Including mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This message thread reeks of white supremacy and it is unfortunate that the term "woke" is being weaponized by people who are scared about non-white voices and non-hetero experiences sharing center stage at a place like GDS. The fact of the matter is that trans people exist, they are murdered at alarmingly high rates, they are discriminated against relentlessly, and learning about trans people early on -- yes, in childhood -- helps to combat these awful prejudices. I have taught my preschooler about trans and non-binary people. Not to encourage him to become trans or non-binary, but to open his eyes to a world that exists beyond the binary set I grew up under, which was exclusionary to trans people. He was not the least bit confused. If scrolling through GDS social media feed makes you worried that it is too woke -- could that be because of all of the non-white faces and stories? Would you feel differently if you replaced 80% of those posts with posts about white people? Not enough self-examination is going on in this thread about why people are having such an adverse reaction to a school's focus on historically marginalized voices. I for one think about the harnessing of all of the human potential from historically marginalized communities whose stories are being told -- this adds to the rich cultural experience. It isn't erasing the white experience. It's adding to the HUMAN experience.
Rather than get on an anonymous message board and bash a school that doesn't feel right for your family, move on and get a freaking life.

I assure you that has absolutely nothing to do with my negative reaction to the GDS social media feed. You have no idea how off base you are. Speaking of self-examination.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out their Facebook feed for super woke.

Standing up for the rights of trans people (particularly trans youth), condemning anti-Asian hatred, celebrating Dolly Parton, Ntozake Shane, and Marie Curie, learning robotics in middle school and mechanics in kindergarteners—these things bother you?

I like the photos of the little kids waving around the pink and blue flag, putting up their trans quotes, and explaining their three fluid gender identities.
So woke! Can’t wait to see what the middle schoolers are doing.

Those are actually pretty controversial topics to be preaching to elementary school students. Frightening how quickly the lobbiests, ideologists, and politicians got their personal theories into a lower school curriculum with zero debate or discussion. And the kids are total confused pawns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This message thread reeks of white supremacy and it is unfortunate that the term "woke" is being weaponized by people who are scared about non-white voices and non-hetero experiences sharing center stage at a place like GDS. The fact of the matter is that trans people exist, they are murdered at alarmingly high rates, they are discriminated against relentlessly, and learning about trans people early on -- yes, in childhood -- helps to combat these awful prejudices. I have taught my preschooler about trans and non-binary people. Not to encourage him to become trans or non-binary, but to open his eyes to a world that exists beyond the binary set I grew up under, which was exclusionary to trans people. He was not the least bit confused. If scrolling through GDS social media feed makes you worried that it is too woke -- could that be because of all of the non-white faces and stories? Would you feel differently if you replaced 80% of those posts with posts about white people? Not enough self-examination is going on in this thread about why people are having such an adverse reaction to a school's focus on historically marginalized voices. I for one think about the harnessing of all of the human potential from historically marginalized communities whose stories are being told -- this adds to the rich cultural experience. It isn't erasing the white experience. It's adding to the HUMAN experience.
Rather than get on an anonymous message board and bash a school that doesn't feel right for your family, move on and get a freaking life.

Curious what the AA community around the country feels about their kids being told to explore their gender from age 6-15 each year. The same as the woke whites?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This message thread reeks of white supremacy and it is unfortunate that the term "woke" is being weaponized by people who are scared about non-white voices and non-hetero experiences sharing center stage at a place like GDS. The fact of the matter is that trans people exist, they are murdered at alarmingly high rates, they are discriminated against relentlessly, and learning about trans people early on -- yes, in childhood -- helps to combat these awful prejudices. I have taught my preschooler about trans and non-binary people. Not to encourage him to become trans or non-binary, but to open his eyes to a world that exists beyond the binary set I grew up under, which was exclusionary to trans people. He was not the least bit confused. If scrolling through GDS social media feed makes you worried that it is too woke -- could that be because of all of the non-white faces and stories? Would you feel differently if you replaced 80% of those posts with posts about white people? Not enough self-examination is going on in this thread about why people are having such an adverse reaction to a school's focus on historically marginalized voices. I for one think about the harnessing of all of the human potential from historically marginalized communities whose stories are being told -- this adds to the rich cultural experience. It isn't erasing the white experience. It's adding to the HUMAN experience.
Rather than get on an anonymous message board and bash a school that doesn't feel right for your family, move on and get a freaking life.

I think many parents would like the tons of monthly hours to be in person school five days a week and if not then nail it on the actual academics (remember math, spelling, writing, hard sciences, geography, global history facts and events), for all grades not just upper school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This message thread reeks of white supremacy and it is unfortunate that the term "woke" is being weaponized by people who are scared about non-white voices and non-hetero experiences sharing center stage at a place like GDS. The fact of the matter is that trans people exist, they are murdered at alarmingly high rates, they are discriminated against relentlessly, and learning about trans people early on -- yes, in childhood -- helps to combat these awful prejudices. I have taught my preschooler about trans and non-binary people. Not to encourage him to become trans or non-binary, but to open his eyes to a world that exists beyond the binary set I grew up under, which was exclusionary to trans people. He was not the least bit confused. If scrolling through GDS social media feed makes you worried that it is too woke -- could that be because of all of the non-white faces and stories? Would you feel differently if you replaced 80% of those posts with posts about white people? Not enough self-examination is going on in this thread about why people are having such an adverse reaction to a school's focus on historically marginalized voices. I for one think about the harnessing of all of the human potential from historically marginalized communities whose stories are being told -- this adds to the rich cultural experience. It isn't erasing the white experience. It's adding to the HUMAN experience.
Rather than get on an anonymous message board and bash a school that doesn't feel right for your family, move on and get a freaking life.

I think many parents would like the tons of monthly hours to be in person school five days a week and if not then nail it on the actual academics (remember math, spelling, writing, hard sciences, geography, global history facts and events), for all grades not just upper school.

This idea that the school can only focus on gender equality or math/science/geography is a false construct. Second, teaching kids to examine their gender identity does not have to be confusing, wrong, or an invitation to abandon heterosexuality. What seems to be going on here is a slavish dedication to the way things have always been done. If you don’t like this new inclusive way, don’t opt for it. But please don’t make it seem like GDS is not teaching math, geography, spelling, etc. because it’s too busy asking kids to focus on their gender and sexuality. That’s just an embarrassingly wrong argument.