FCPS CRT or nah?

[Anonymous]

I guess we will find out soon how EO-1 will apply to this divisive curriculum, which is an "approved" curriculum by FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no problem having my kids recognize the privileges they have in life. Yes, some of those are due to us having worked hard, but others are due to the color of our skin, sexual identity, religion. No control over those. I teach my kids to have empathy towards classmates/ peers who have to overcome more obstacles to “make it” in this society. I also point out that most people on this planet are way worse off than we are here. I agree with this kind of lesson. I hope it teaches my kids to be more grateful for what they have been given in life. Would Jesus say, “Too bad, so sad, you got stuck living with a poor, brown/black, single parent.”?

But this is you, a parent, teaching a lesson. That is how is should be. This is not a lesson the schools should be teaching.

Why not?

Should they teach about anything related to "being a good person"?

Honesty? Responsibility? Empathy? etc.?

I don't think anyone is suggesting that there are lessons about being a good person. It's about developing critical thinking skills and understanding multiple points of view. The best way I can understand what an author has written, whether it's a novel or a primary source from an historical event or a textbook IS to understand that everyone comes with a point of view made up of their experiences. My world view is just that--MY view. It's really okay to teach kids that people have different experiences from them. It makes them better thinkers and problem solvers. I truly don't understand why people are so afraid and upset around this.

I don’t see how that “identify your privilege” bingo card is about an author’s point of view. It seems clearly directed at students themselves - “Drive/Get driven to school”, “Have your own bedroom”, “Military kid”.

People who were born on third base have a vested interest in making others believe they hit a triple, otherwise we would all need to take a long hard look at the way that we have been doing things. Why does a 6’5” white, moderately good looking son of privilege get to run a hedge fund and rule the Commonwealth over someone smarter and better qualified? Why do people consider Donald Trump a “successful businessman”, when he has shown zero aptitude for anything other than selling himself and who would have been a destitute loser if he was born to anyone other than a millionaire investment mogul?

America is not a meritocracy. Britain has surpassed us on class mobility. The phrase “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” was intended to be a mockery of the system, not a rallying cry and goal. I’m sorry if this makes you feel guilty, but facts are facts. Our kids need to know what’s what if they are going to lead this country into a new era of diminished American influence and increased global and internal strife. Waving the flag pretending all is good is delusional thinking.

Yes let's teach children to have a negative view of their country and that they will never see the fruits of their labor so why bother? That's a recipe for well-adjusted, successful kids. Youngkin's lunatics will be embraced over this philosophical garbage, that's for sure.

Or, you know, you could put it in their hands to make a better country, like the Founders intended. As a secure people, we should always aspire to a more perfect Union. But I’m pretty sure Youngkin’s MAGA people know they are losing out big time, otherwise they wouldn’t be so damn insecure about everything.

I wish liberals would make up their minds. One minute the founders are racist while evil slave owning males who founded the country on slavery so we should dismiss and disparage them and the next minute we are supposed to put our hands over our hearts and think of them and what they built with reverence.
Make

Up

Your

Goddamn

Mind

Why? Seriously why? The founders were men of amazing vision and passion. And also brought forward many of the evils of their time. Those evils influenced a lot of the systems they set up. Despite that, I would argue that they set up one of the most just frameworks for self governance that own could have imagined. I can believe all that. I don’t have to “pick a side” and neither do you. We can acknowledge all of that and work together to make our next century even better. Why is this so hard for you to get?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Moreover, why do they single out Christians as a privilege? How many privileged Christians are on the FCPS School Board? And, what percentage do they represent?


This is a great example. There is such a thing as Christian privilege, but I'd argue that it's not simple things like people saying 'merry christmas' or the school system giving kids a break over Christmas or the fact that nothing is open on Sunday morning. Where we see Christian privilege in our society is where Christians can get passes or breaks, especially in the legal system, for being a Christian or holding Christian views. For example,
-Parole boards look more favorably at someone who has 'found jesus' in prison than someone who hasn't.
-Judges might make attendance at Christian religious programs a requirement for parole (like AA) and not allow alternative programs
-Christians often get legal rulings allowing them to 'opt out'/disregard laws they don't like (Little Sisters of the Poor, Hobby Lobby, everyone trying to opt out of covid vaccination, Bladensburg Cross) but other religions often cannot get courts to allow them to opt out of laws they don't like under the same statutes (TST members cannot opt out of pressure tactics around abortion
-Inmates scheduled for execution are told that they can only have a Christian priest there for their last rites.
-Towns/School boards will allow Christian proselytizing in government/school forums up until another religion asks for equal treatment, then the others are shut out. You see this a lot of time with invocations, handing out bibles in school, prayer at school, etc.
-Chrstians may be allowed to wear tokens of their faith (ie, cross necklace) but dress codes may expressly prohibit visual tokens of other faiths (ie, hijabs).

Instead of just saying 'Christians are privileged' I think it's important to explain exactly what that looks like, so that people understand the types of issues we have in our society, and have a better idea of how they might fix these things.


You have a lot of incorrect information in your post.

Bingo!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that’s a pretty absurd lesson. It reminds me of Buzzfeed quizzes. And if isn’t “critical race theory.”

The whole "it's not CRT" response is pedantic. No, it's not a college-level grievance studies course. Yes, it springs directly from CRT. "Identifying privilege" is CRT implementation step one, because the next step is privilege shaming.

Anonymous wrote:Privilege is just saying you have a benefit that others don’t. It’s not you shouldn’t have that benefit. Lots of people here acknowledge they have privilege but they use different language. Maybe are nicer to them because they’re beautiful. Maybe their parents helped them buy a house. Etc. The response isn’t “you shouldn’t be pretty” or “your presents shouldn’t have helped you.”

That's not it at all. CRT adherents (which include the entirety of the FCPS board and 90% of administrators and teachers) it's assumed that so-called privilege has granted some people things that others don't have at the expense of those other people. To them, life is a zero-sum game and it's the place of government to make people who they identify as having privilege give something up - money, community, good schools, a nice quiet neighborhood, etc. - in order to make the world "fair". And the people who have to give something up are always, always white and middle-class. See Kendi, DiAngelo et al.

Anonymous wrote: It’s that in an ideal world, everyone would be treated with dignity and everybody would have equal access to buying a home.

The government already treats everybody with the same level of dignity (or lack thereof).[i][u] Everybody already has equal access to buy a home. Sure, you can find individual instances where it doesn't happen, because sometimes people suck and there is no such thing as an ideal world, and in those instances, there are laws that can be enforced. CRT and all of its downstream implementations are not about making sure everybody is treated equally by the government, they're about government-mandated equality of outcomes that take away from some and give to others based on immutable characteristics. That's what makes it racist. The end goal is to teach children to feel bad about advantages they may have, given, inherited, earned, or natural, so that they don't fight back when the government comes for them and their stuff.

The fact that you, as a fully developed adult, believes the bolder/underlined, is exactly why the next generation needs these lessons.

[Anonymous]

A State funded school is singling out and denigrating a religion, violating the First Amendment clause not to either establish a religion or prevent it's practice. So they should be sued by any Christian or anyone who saw this with any religious status or lack thereof. You know the ADL would do the same.

This is simply unacceptable.

[Anonymous]

I hope the Youngkin administration does everything in its power to purge FCPS of the cretins who allowed this communist garbage to be deployed in our public schools. Starting with Scott Brabrand and this utterly vile, hypocritical, despicable School Board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that resentful, anti military poster has rose colored glasses on what deployments actually do to a family.

Deployments are HARD, but often, the reunification is even harder and sometimes traumatic. Parents don't return the same person who left, and sometimes that new parent is very disruptive or destructive to the family unit.

Kids spend the deployment trying to be the second "adult" in the house, particularly if they have younger siblings. That carries a unique level of sacrifice for the country, particularly if the kid is trying to be "brave" through the deployment.

Deployment reunifications are not just uniformed parent jumping out of the float at the high school football game while everyone cheers and cries like you see on TV. They are hard, and very disruptive to the family unit.

Also, military kids and families serve the country and military too. That is drilled into families at every assignment.

Command spouses are actually sent to a week of training by the military, starting at squadron commander level, at least in the Air Force. The military flies the spouses to a single base (probably done by zoom now) prior to the change of command, and spends a week training them on all of their unpaid duties and expectations as a command spouse. I have done this twice. The classes range from everything from helping other families navigate the military support systems to aiding young airman families to providing support for families of deployed members to the best practices of supporting squadron members families who just learned that their servicemember was killed or wounded in action. Command spouses are trained on the mortuary system and the notification process. They are told that everything they do and say reflects on the military and are expected to act accordingly.

All of this training makes it clear that spouses of active duty do indeed serve too.

Additionally, children of command families have a litany of events that they are strongly volun-told to attend throughout the assignments. They are dressed up, paraded around, and expected to be on their best behavior, to provide the perception of a nice welcoming, family centered environment to help make junior service members feel more confortable when the young parents can't find or can't afford sitters and have to bring their kids along with them to various events.

These are all parts of family service in the military that those like the acronym poster might be completely unaware of.

The kids serve too. Anyone who says otherwise is grossly misinformed.

Cry me a river. Military kids don't go hungry and have free health care. They are more privileged than most.

I know military families/kids who used to/are on food stamps and our health care is kind of crappy-it'll pay for doctors appointments and some medicines but basically everything else is out of pocket. There's the VA but it's far away and overcrowded, most only go to try to convince someone that they're disabled so they can get a check.

[Anonymous]

What are biracial kids going to do? Are we white now? Do we check the box?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope the Youngkin administration does everything in its power to purge FCPS of the cretins who allowed this communist garbage to be deployed in our public schools. Starting with Scott Brabrand and this utterly vile, hypocritical, despicable School Board.

“Communist garbage”?

We should play Idiot RWNJ Bingo on this thread. We may have some winners! Squee!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A State funded school is singling out and denigrating a religion, violating the First Amendment clause not to either establish a religion or prevent it's practice. So they should be sued by any Christian or anyone who saw this with any religious status or lack thereof. You know the ADL would do the same.

This is simply unacceptable.

It’s not “denigrating” to acknowledge that it’s easier to be Christianity in this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Moreover, why do they single out Christians as a privilege? How many privileged Christians are on the FCPS School Board? And, what percentage do they represent?


This is a great example. There is such a thing as Christian privilege, but I'd argue that it's not simple things like people saying 'merry christmas' or the school system giving kids a break over Christmas or the fact that nothing is open on Sunday morning. Where we see Christian privilege in our society is where Christians can get passes or breaks, especially in the legal system, for being a Christian or holding Christian views. For example,
-Parole boards look more favorably at someone who has 'found jesus' in prison than someone who hasn't.
-Judges might make attendance at Christian religious programs a requirement for parole (like AA) and not allow alternative programs
-Christians often get legal rulings allowing them to 'opt out'/disregard laws they don't like (Little Sisters of the Poor, Hobby Lobby, everyone trying to opt out of covid vaccination, Bladensburg Cross) but other religions often cannot get courts to allow them to opt out of laws they don't like under the same statutes (TST members cannot opt out of pressure tactics around abortion
-Inmates scheduled for execution are told that they can only have a Christian priest there for their last rites.
-Towns/School boards will allow Christian proselytizing in government/school forums up until another religion asks for equal treatment, then the others are shut out. You see this a lot of time with invocations, handing out bibles in school, prayer at school, etc.
-Chrstians may be allowed to wear tokens of their faith (ie, cross necklace) but dress codes may expressly prohibit visual tokens of other faiths (ie, hijabs).

Instead of just saying 'Christians are privileged' I think it's important to explain exactly what that looks like, so that people understand the types of issues we have in our society, and have a better idea of how they might fix these things.


You have a lot of incorrect information in your post.

Bingo!

Let’s focus on the “privilege” of being a Christian in Fairfax and FCPS:

* Elizabeth Schultz has been constantly criticized, mocked, insulted, and libeled during her time at the FCPS School Board, and now as the Virginia Assistant State Superintendent. You can add all the labels you want to Mrs. Schultz to justify your hate for Christians, but the truth remains: Unlike any other member of the School System and Board of other faiths, her faith has been singled out because anyone who comments on other faiths (but the Christian) is a bigot in FCPS. Otherwise, just ask your kids when was the last time they witnessed a FCPS staff tell them otherwise.
* Stacy Langton has been persecuted bullied, criticized, mocked, and insulted for her persistence to remove books that even Scott Ziegler, LCPS Superintendent, just removed from their schools because, "The pictorial depictions in this book ran counter to what is appropriate in school “. This bigotry against her stance extended to her family as well who has to watch over their backs given the threats from the community and from the government who labeled Stacy as a domestic terrorist.
* Dolley Maddison, a Fairfax Co library, as a part of its Christmas exhibit, mocked and desecrated The Holy Bible by displaying it next to sexually explicit books that contain graphic images of pornography and pedophilia. Besides some “privileged” Christians, there was no outrage from other members of the community.
* Christian students have been thrown in the closest at FCPS because they are repeatedly shamed for standing up for marriage and separation of sexes in school grounds such as bathrooms and lockers, or other areas where they are exposed to genitals from the opposite sex.
* About crosses, they are just like any accessory worn by anyone at school in FCPS, even by those whose life styles mock the Christian faith. Yet, Christian students don’t stage attacks against the cross to get attention to themselves because they are not taught to see themselves as victims.
* Other faiths at FCPS benefit from changes sought and implemented by people like Elizabeth and Stacy because their faiths also espouse such causes—such is the case of rejection of pornography and pedophilia—, nevertheless, they remain silent and comfortably watch from the sides as the “privileged” Christians get abused for standing up against common beliefs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that resentful, anti military poster has rose colored glasses on what deployments actually do to a family.

Deployments are HARD, but often, the reunification is even harder and sometimes traumatic. Parents don't return the same person who left, and sometimes that new parent is very disruptive or destructive to the family unit.

Kids spend the deployment trying to be the second "adult" in the house, particularly if they have younger siblings. That carries a unique level of sacrifice for the country, particularly if the kid is trying to be "brave" through the deployment.

Deployment reunifications are not just uniformed parent jumping out of the float at the high school football game while everyone cheers and cries like you see on TV. They are hard, and very disruptive to the family unit.

Also, military kids and families serve the country and military too. That is drilled into families at every assignment.

Command spouses are actually sent to a week of training by the military, starting at squadron commander level, at least in the Air Force. The military flies the spouses to a single base (probably done by zoom now) prior to the change of command, and spends a week training them on all of their unpaid duties and expectations as a command spouse. I have done this twice. The classes range from everything from helping other families navigate the military support systems to aiding young airman families to providing support for families of deployed members to the best practices of supporting squadron members families who just learned that their servicemember was killed or wounded in action. Command spouses are trained on the mortuary system and the notification process. They are told that everything they do and say reflects on the military and are expected to act accordingly.

All of this training makes it clear that spouses of active duty do indeed serve too.

Additionally, children of command families have a litany of events that they are strongly volun-told to attend throughout the assignments. They are dressed up, paraded around, and expected to be on their best behavior, to provide the perception of a nice welcoming, family centered environment to help make junior service members feel more confortable when the young parents can't find or can't afford sitters and have to bring their kids along with them to various events.

These are all parts of family service in the military that those like the acronym poster might be completely unaware of.

The kids serve too. Anyone who says otherwise is grossly misinformed.

Cry me a river. Military kids don't go hungry and have free health care. They are more privileged than most.

Well their parents are deciding to work so, working means privilege?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope the Youngkin administration does everything in its power to purge FCPS of the cretins who allowed this communist garbage to be deployed in our public schools. Starting with Scott Brabrand and this utterly vile, hypocritical, despicable School Board.

Nope. This is what the people of Fairfax county voted for. It’s not youngkins job and not his right to change it.

In the meantime, fcps continues to lose students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: What are biracial kids going to do? Are we white now? Do we check the box?

That depends.

What’s the texture of your hair?

Skin tone?

Can you pass?

Parents still married?

Accepted by white grandparents?

Is there inheritance?

Is your dad the white one?

Do you have his last name?


Of course, if your biracial ness is white/Asian you don’t have to answer any previous questions. Asians are “white adjacent” now so being both just makes you white and therefore privileged and you ought to be ashamed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that’s a pretty absurd lesson. It reminds me of Buzzfeed quizzes. And if isn’t “critical race theory.”

The whole "it's not CRT" response is pedantic. No, it's not a college-level grievance studies course. Yes, it springs directly from CRT. "Identifying privilege" is CRT implementation step one, because the next step is privilege shaming.

Anonymous wrote:Privilege is just saying you have a benefit that others don’t. It’s not you shouldn’t have that benefit. Lots of people here acknowledge they have privilege but they use different language. Maybe are nicer to them because they’re beautiful. Maybe their parents helped them buy a house. Etc. The response isn’t “you shouldn’t be pretty” or “your presents shouldn’t have helped you.”

That's not it at all. CRT adherents (which include the entirety of the FCPS board and 90% of administrators and teachers) it's assumed that so-called privilege has granted some people things that others don't have at the expense of those other people. To them, life is a zero-sum game and it's the place of government to make people who they identify as having privilege give something up - money, community, good schools, a nice quiet neighborhood, etc. - in order to make the world "fair". And the people who have to give something up are always, always white and middle-class. See Kendi, DiAngelo et al.

Anonymous wrote: It’s that in an ideal world, everyone would be treated with dignity and everybody would have equal access to buying a home.

The government already treats everybody with the same level of dignity (or lack thereof).[i][u] Everybody already has equal access to buy a home. Sure, you can find individual instances where it doesn't happen, because sometimes people suck and there is no such thing as an ideal world, and in those instances, there are laws that can be enforced. CRT and all of its downstream implementations are not about making sure everybody is treated equally by the government, they're about government-mandated equality of outcomes that take away from some and give to others based on immutable characteristics. That's what makes it racist. The end goal is to teach children to feel bad about advantages they may have, given, inherited, earned, or natural, so that they don't fight back when the government comes for them and their stuff.

The fact that you, as a fully developed adult, believes the bolder/underlined, is exactly why the next generation needs these lessons.

People who believe an ideal world can be achieved have killed millions trying to make it so.