Would you pull your kids if you found out something offensive in your school's history?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, you are going to blame the current school admin and staff for something that happened 50-100 years ago when they weren't even alive and it was a very different time?

Are you unable to add and subtract?!? 1959 wasn’t 50-100 year ago. It was, clearly and specifically, 64 years ago. Many of the students who attended this particular segregation academy are alive and well…and their grandchildren currently attend the school.

[Anonymous]

Recent history or actual history like a long time ago like when older schools were founded? Sidwell has been embroiled in multiple awful scandals in recent years. Is that what you mean?

[Anonymous]

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/06/17/parents-sue-elite-private-school-after-daughter-rejected-top-colleges

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/when-parents-are-so-desperate-to-get-their-kids-into-college-that-they-sabotage-other-students/2019/04/02/decc6b9e-5159-11e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/05/04/sidwell-friends-school-puts-teacher-on-leave-citing-decades-old-accusation-of-inappropriate-touching/

https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/06/10/sidwell-friends-bettye-howe-saunders-grappling-slave-history/

[Anonymous]

No. That was a long time ago. That’s a silly question to ask. Totally absurd. No one knew anything about that. Every school in the area has something in their history. Madeiras HOS shot her husband and his lover. Holton’s HOS went insane (Arms, that’s why they don’t emphasize Mrs Arms), etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, you are going to blame the current school admin and staff for something that happened 50-100 years ago when they weren't even alive and it was a very different time?

It depends. What have they done to reckon with the past? What steps have they taken to diversify? How do they teach their students about that time? What do they teach their children about the continuing impacts of the choices of the school's founders and families? Do they talk about racism or is their attitude, that was then and it's over now?

Exactly.

This is exactly why I hate Japan and will never go there a they invaded everyone around there.
And I hate Russia and Germany and Spain and England and Portugal and France and China and America. So brutal and so evil. And the Mideast and how they mistreat their own.
They all need to pay for their many crimes. I don’t know anyone can visit there or live there.

I know you're trolling, but: my grandparents fled Germany in the late 1930s. One of the reasons I have been willing to visit Germany is that they have grappled with their history. It's taught in schools and there are public acknowledgements of horrors that happened in specific places. On the other hand, I'm not willing to visit plantations in the south that glorify the lifestyle without making serious efforts to acknowledge that slavery made the "lifestyle" possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. That was a long time ago. That’s a silly question to ask. Totally absurd. No one knew anything about that. Every school in the area has something in their history. Madeiras HOS shot her husband and his lover. Holton’s HOS went insane (Arms, that’s why they don’t emphasize Mrs Arms), etc.

No one knew anything about segregation or the school's efforts to maintain it? That's just factually wrong. And the racism embedded in the very purpose of the school is not equivalent to individual foibles or illnesses of the founder.

[Anonymous]

If the school has good academics and it now treats people fairly, then why move one’s kids ? If it s obviously discriminatory now or has weak academics (most segregation privates had weak academics), then find a school that will be better for one’s kids. No need to over think this.

There are lots of bad history items in every country on the globe, and the US is not an exception either way. The key is to learn from historical mistakes to avoid repeating those mistakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former segregation academy in the south?

I mean, pretty much all private schools are segregation academies at heart. It’s curious to get upset about it after the fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. That was a long time ago. That’s a silly question to ask. Totally absurd. No one knew anything about that. Every school in the area has something in their history. Madeiras HOS shot her husband and his lover. Holton’s HOS went insane (Arms, that’s why they don’t emphasize Mrs Arms), etc.

Neither of which rises to the level of having been founded to avoid attending a school with "black folks".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, you are going to blame the current school admin and staff for something that happened 50-100 years ago when they weren't even alive and it was a very different time?

It depends. What have they done to reckon with the past? What steps have they taken to diversify? How do they teach their students about that time? What do they teach their children about the continuing impacts of the choices of the school's founders and families? Do they talk about racism or is their attitude, that was then and it's over now?

Exactly.

This is exactly why I hate Japan and will never go there a they invaded everyone around there.
And I hate Russia and Germany and Spain and England and Portugal and France and China and America. So brutal and so evil. And the Mideast and how they mistreat their own.
They all need to pay for their many crimes. I don’t know anyone can visit there or live there.

I know you're trolling, but: my grandparents fled Germany in the late 1930s. One of the reasons I have been willing to visit Germany is that they have grappled with their history. It's taught in schools and there are public acknowledgements of horrors that happened in specific places. On the other hand, I'm not willing to visit plantations in the south that glorify the lifestyle without making serious efforts to acknowledge that slavery made the "lifestyle" possible.

Great for you. Go to Congo or South Africa instead and donate your time and money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. That was a long time ago. That’s a silly question to ask. Totally absurd. No one knew anything about that. Every school in the area has something in their history. Madeiras HOS shot her husband and his lover. Holton’s HOS went insane (Arms, that’s why they don’t emphasize Mrs Arms), etc.

No one knew anything about segregation or the school's efforts to maintain it? That's just factually wrong. And the racism embedded in the very purpose of the school is not equivalent to individual foibles or illnesses of the founder.

Get off the soapbox. There are a myriad of issues going in the world and country right now and in the 1950s and 1960s. And millions and millions of people.

Thats beautiful that you are devoting your life to one issue and spreading the word. But don’t expect others to obsess over your obsession.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former segregation academy in the south?

I mean, pretty much all private schools are segregation academies at heart. It’s curious to get upset about it after the fact.

A “segregation academy” formed in the 1950s and 1960s with the purpose of keeping Black students out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I know you're trolling because you find this out when doing research into schools when applying to them. And people who get upset enough at a past history that bothers them aren't the kind of people who accidentally enroll their children into a former segregation academy. Try better next time.

Get over yourself. I grew up in the Midwest and had no idea this was a thing. And yeah, the only research I did was, "Wow, highly ranked school that was open during covid and will take my children transferring mid-year because of a military PCS? Sign me up."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not pull your kids out of a school they’re happy at for something that happened before they were born.

Yes.

And yes, boarding schools, by their very nature, were prone to abuses in the past (and you need to be careful about abuses in the present). This is nothing surprising either.

No reason to pull your kids out if they're happy and safe.

I agree with the above. You live in the South. Hard to avoid very awful things that happened in the past... Focus on what is happening there NOW. If your kids are happy and thriving and that is the only school option you feel/know they could get a good education then I would never consider switching. HOWEVER I would be very mindful and purposeful to make sure I am including things in my family life that demonstrate inclusivity and an acknowledgment of past history and how that has negatively affected African Americans. I would not leave these conversations and actions up to the school. I mean that you make a point to have a lifestyle that includes others who appear "different" from you in your social circle, I would not join a country club that is predominately white for instance, and learn about that part of history as a family, as age appropriate.

[Anonymous]

As long as they have changed their ways, No.