GDS HS English Classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kid was telling me yesterday that in one class some kid spent 5 min of a class where topic was the historical analysis of rise of Nazis discussing why Trump is a Nazi and as dangerous as Hitler was.. I despise Trump. He's a lunatic and dangerous. He's not Hitler.

How is the curriculum to blame in this instance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid was telling me yesterday that in one class some kid spent 5 min of a class where topic was the historical analysis of rise of Nazis discussing why Trump is a Nazi and as dangerous as Hitler was.. I despise Trump. He's a lunatic and dangerous. He's not Hitler.

How is the curriculum to blame in this instance?

I'm not blaming the curriculum. Read the post.

I'm saying this is emblematic of what my OP said - that every view goes extreme and there is no room for questioning or discourse.

To make it clear for you: I pointed out two issues in my post

1) Curriculum questions

2) fact that GDS allows no room for kids who question certain beliefs or the curriculum to even speak - not just my view but even published by a kid in the school paper 2 weeks ago. There are more of these kids and they are afraid to speak.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like a cult .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid was telling me yesterday that in one class some kid spent 5 min of a class where topic was the historical analysis of rise of Nazis discussing why Trump is a Nazi and as dangerous as Hitler was.. I despise Trump. He's a lunatic and dangerous. He's not Hitler.

How is the curriculum to blame in this instance?

I'm not blaming the curriculum. Read the post.

I'm saying this is emblematic of what my OP said - that every view goes extreme and there is no room for questioning or discourse.

To make it clear for you: I pointed out two issues in my post

1) Curriculum questions

2) fact that GDS allows no room for kids who question certain beliefs or the curriculum to even speak - not just my view but even published by a kid in the school paper 2 weeks ago. There are more of these kids and they are afraid to speak.

Thank you for continuing this thread in a civil manner. I am a GDS parent with children younger than yours but am in total agreement with how extreme the school has made politics. For instance, my son came home crying the day that it was announced that Youngkin dropped the mask mandate. As a family, we had stopped wearing masks and explained to him that it was just a matter of time until the rest of the DMV stopped wearing them too. He said that he was told by his teacher that anyone who refused to wear masks was evil and even though it took a lot of family discussion, due to his age primarily, I was able to convince him that one deliberate act doesn't define a person's overall goodness and humanity. That's the problem. We can have our ideas and beliefs but still need to teach kids that those that disagree with us aren't "lesser than". That is what GDS is doing. I know several children pulled for Cathedral schools and several eighth grade families applying out. Perhaps that will wake them up but in the meantime I encourage these older kids to keep speaking up. The school needs to understand that we are raising humans who will have to survive outside of their bubble and they are not preparing these kids to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid was telling me yesterday that in one class some kid spent 5 min of a class where topic was the historical analysis of rise of Nazis discussing why Trump is a Nazi and as dangerous as Hitler was.. I despise Trump. He's a lunatic and dangerous. He's not Hitler.

How is the curriculum to blame in this instance?

I'm not blaming the curriculum. Read the post.

I'm saying this is emblematic of what my OP said - that every view goes extreme and there is no room for questioning or discourse.

To make it clear for you: I pointed out two issues in my post

1) Curriculum questions

2) fact that GDS allows no room for kids who question certain beliefs or the curriculum to even speak - not just my view but even published by a kid in the school paper 2 weeks ago. There are more of these kids and they are afraid to speak.

Thank you for continuing this thread in a civil manner. I am a GDS parent with children younger than yours but am in total agreement with how extreme the school has made politics. For instance, my son came home crying the day that it was announced that Youngkin dropped the mask mandate. As a family, we had stopped wearing masks and explained to him that it was just a matter of time until the rest of the DMV stopped wearing them too. He said that he was told by his teacher that anyone who refused to wear masks was evil and even though it took a lot of family discussion, due to his age primarily, I was able to convince him that one deliberate act doesn't define a person's overall goodness and humanity. That's the problem. We can have our ideas and beliefs but still need to teach kids that those that disagree with us aren't "lesser than". That is what GDS is doing. I know several children pulled for Cathedral schools and several eighth grade families applying out. Perhaps that will wake them up but in the meantime I encourage these older kids to keep speaking up. The school needs to understand that we are raising humans who will have to survive outside of their bubble and they are not preparing these kids to do so.

Do you, the parents, ever speak up? Or is it up to the kids?

[Anonymous]

Well, these are polarizing times, and we live in Washington, DC. Kids at GDS are going to have strong opinions about politics.

Unless you've been living under a rock, COVID and Jan. 6 pretty much have shown how morally corrupt the Republican party is. Seriously, why would you want to associate yourself with the Republican party these days? Why not just declare yourself an Independent?

I agree that Trump is not Hitler, but there were certainly a lot of Germans who were willing to sign up for the Nazi party because they agreed with Nazi economic policy even while disagreeing with the Nazi treatment of Jews.

Anyway, if anti-Trump sentiment bothers you, pull your kid out of GDS. Trump and his followers are putting our democracy in jeopardy.

BTW, there are a couple of Trump supporting families at GDS, but they keep it quiet. It's got to be terrible for their kids, but oh well...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's pretty obvious you have no clue about the history of how these theories developed. Most likely because you never took a class that covered them in any way.

Example of class dialog?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yikes, one person's viewpoints do not make an academic theory. Are you this dense?

And another

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are primed for the woke elite universities.

I'm liberal and accepting, but there is a time and place. English should be focused on the Classic works. A little new sprinkled in here and there, but holy crap none of that belongs in English class.

Oh please you are not liberal or educated.

"woke" tells us that.

Teachers encourage this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh look the trolls are out

Same people that voted for Youngkin's CRT lies.

No politics here folks. Look away, class time is open dialog, no personal attacks, no name calling at this school or in class.

Just fall in line

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh look the trolls are out

Same people that voted for Youngkin's CRT lies.

OP here This comment is why we can't discuss this. Immediate saying that everyone mentioning the issue is a Youngkin supporter. Come on. I despise Glenn. He's an opportunist who poll tested this shit for 12 mos. He doesnt at all believe any of this and sent his own kids to private schools. He's not my flavor.

Your comment is the precise problem - there is zero room for 15 to 18 year olds at GDS to even discuss these frameworks without folks saying that those mentioning that these theories don't belong in a classroom arent fascists or proto-fascists.

Kid was telling me yesterday that in one class some kid spent 5 min of a class where topic was the historical analysis of rise of Nazis discussing why Trump is a Nazi and as dangerous as Hitler was.. I despise Trump. He's a lunatic and dangerous. He's not Hitler.

Why does every argument get extreme-ized?

This is also the #1 concern of the HoS.

Wonder if the board agrees or doesn’t care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid was telling me yesterday that in one class some kid spent 5 min of a class where topic was the historical analysis of rise of Nazis discussing why Trump is a Nazi and as dangerous as Hitler was.. I despise Trump. He's a lunatic and dangerous. He's not Hitler.

How is the curriculum to blame in this instance?

Sounds like a school culture problem that the teachers either encourage, reward or actively ignore. Book and topic selection demonstrates the same view.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GDS is a college-prepatory school. Believe it or not, courses like these help to prepare GDS students to succeed in college. Unlike their peers are less progressive schools, GDS students won't be shell shocked by these perspectives and cutting-edge scholarship, as well as the highly interdisciplinary nature of the humanities and social sciences, when they start college. As someone who went to a very traditional high school, and then went to a top SLAC for college, I was in over my head compared to classmates who had the kind of HS curriculum that GDS is offering.

My DC went to a Big 3 and was more than prepared for college-level courses....you do not need to stack the syllabus as GDS does to achieve this OR to achieve greater representation in the materials studied.

[Anonymous]

It's one thing if this is the only English class that GDS students will be taking. It's another if they are taking other HS English classes before and after this one that reflect other academic theories and viewpoints. If it's the latter, I don't see how this is problematic. Broad survey is a fairly standard approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid was telling me yesterday that in one class some kid spent 5 min of a class where topic was the historical analysis of rise of Nazis discussing why Trump is a Nazi and as dangerous as Hitler was.. I despise Trump. He's a lunatic and dangerous. He's not Hitler.

How is the curriculum to blame in this instance?

Sounds like a school culture problem that the teachers either encourage, reward or actively ignore. Book and topic selection demonstrates the same view.

Do you even have a kid at GDS? Last year, mine read a number of American classics, including F Scott Fitzgerald, Harper Lee, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, etc. The year before that, she read Shakespeare, English poetry, and parts of the Bible. People on this board are completely exaggerating the imbalance of the GDS literature curriculum.