Banned books at Jackson-Reed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK, let's take this head on.

It does seem that within the first hour of teaching a book about the holocaust, a kid is going to ask, "if this is what Jewish people experienced in Poland, etc., why are they [insert whatever kid will say] to Palestinian people in Gaza right now? Yeah, 1200 people were killed in some straight-up villainy but now Israel killed 20,000. Teacher, tell me why we're reading about this and whether we shouldn't care more about Gazans dying today rather than a mass murder 80 years ago?

So the teacher could say “Civilians casualties are horrible, but Israeli is not deliberately trying to kill Palestinian civilians. That is a false equivalency. They are fighting a defensive war against terrorists, who did target and kill Israeli civilians (including kidnapping elderly an Holocaust survivor) , say they will do it again, and hide behind Palestinian civilians. You may be against the war, but it is false to compare that to the Holocaust.” Not so hard to teach the truth…

The more appropriate response would be to redirect to a discussion of the actual literature.

A frequent question in ELA assignments is to relate the experiences of the characters in the book to the reader's own experiences or events in the real world.

I mean, making those connections is one of the points of reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK, let's take this head on.

It does seem that within the first hour of teaching a book about the holocaust, a kid is going to ask, "if this is what Jewish people experienced in Poland, etc., why are they [insert whatever kid will say] to Palestinian people in Gaza right now? Yeah, 1200 people were killed in some straight-up villainy but now Israel killed 20,000. Teacher, tell me why we're reading about this and whether we shouldn't care more about Gazans dying today rather than a mass murder 80 years ago?

So the teacher could say “Civilians casualties are horrible, but Israeli is not deliberately trying to kill Palestinian civilians. That is a false equivalency. They are fighting a defensive war against terrorists, who did target and kill Israeli civilians (including kidnapping elderly an Holocaust survivor) , say they will do it again, and hide behind Palestinian civilians. You may be against the war, but it is false to compare that to the Holocaust.” Not so hard to teach the truth…

The more appropriate response would be to redirect to a discussion of the actual literature.

Yes, if they were actually teaching the curriculum, which they are not.

[Anonymous]

yes, of course you can just talk at the kids and tell them to shut up instead of ask questions and just fill out the worksheet.

Always an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously this isn’t holocaust denial in itself. But treating the topic as though it can be extracted from a reading list while other divisive topics are sacrosanct provides fuel for the conspiracy theorists.

It yet again tells Jews they must be set apart. It yet again marks them as dangerous and other, and this time by institutions focused on spotlighting minority voices!

What’s going on in the JR history classes? Skipping WWII?

Agree. I respect the Jewish parents who have spoken up here supporting the pause. But as a Jewish parent myself, it makes me really sad that the motivation may be in part that they want to protect
the Jewish kids from insensitive statements. But I guess I already know that about DCPS since my kid has been dealing w antisemitic statements since elementary.

Erasing Jews from discussions of racism, erasing discussion of the Holocaust, or falsely claiming that “Israel is doing the same thing as Germany”, all that is Holocaust inversion and distortion, it is “soft-core Holocaust denial”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The slow but steady societal creep toward holocaust denialism is terrifying. Please tell me *someone* at this school is pushing back?

Are you serious? How is this holocaust denial?

By slow walking discussing it. Avoiding talking about to preserve someone’s feelings.
What if you were told that schools cannot talk or read about race or gender because some teachers or students will be offended?
Oh wait, we do know. They are referred to as white supremacist transphobes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK, let's take this head on.

It does seem that within the first hour of teaching a book about the holocaust, a kid is going to ask, "if this is what Jewish people experienced in Poland, etc., why are they [insert whatever kid will say] to Palestinian people in Gaza right now? Yeah, 1200 people were killed in some straight-up villainy but now Israel killed 20,000. Teacher, tell me why we're reading about this and whether we shouldn't care more about Gazans dying today rather than a mass murder 80 years ago?

The teacher could start by telling the student to stop learning history from Tik Tok….

Except we now see that teachers get their lessons from til tok.
Can’t make this up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The slow but steady societal creep toward holocaust denialism is terrifying. Please tell me *someone* at this school is pushing back?

Are you serious? How is this holocaust denial?

By slow walking discussing it. Avoiding talking about to preserve someone’s feelings.
What if you were told that schools cannot talk or read about race or gender because some teachers or students will be offended?
Oh wait, we do know. They are referred to as white supremacist transphobes.

“Don’t say gay” “Don’t say Holocaust” “Don’t say the civil war was about slavery”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JR did the right thing. You all are freaking out about nothing. And the title of this thread is deliberately misleading which is disgusting to me. I agree that JR can handle sensitive discussions between students and teachers but parents often suck and cause problems where none exist

The parents aren’t freaking out. The teachers freaked out unnecessarily and therein lies the problem and implicit bias here. What parents would have freaked out or caused a fuss if they went ahead with the lesson on time about the Holocaust as planned? What would the objection have been?No one has yet to tell me what the Holocaust has to do with the current situation in Gaza. Go ahead - I’ll wait.

Yes - the parents are freaking out and they are the ones causing the problems here. Coupled with the fact that DCPS Central refuses to give any guidance which the school wants so they know they are covered. I put this one squarely on parents who don't want their kids to be upset. I am totally against antisemitism but hard discussions can happen. Look at our political divisions - no one can actually listen to the other side and consider their points.

[Anonymous]

I have a Jewish dcps student on track to attend Jackson Reed, and now I wish I had the money to send them to Jewish Day School instead. I always envisioned my children in public school. I wanted them to have the exposure to diverse people and thoughts. But now I see that they’d be better off in a Jewish school being proud of who they are - rather than in DCPS where teachers are literally afraid to teach the HOLOCAUST for fear of repercussion. It makes me so so sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JR did the right thing. You all are freaking out about nothing. And the title of this thread is deliberately misleading which is disgusting to me. I agree that JR can handle sensitive discussions between students and teachers but parents often suck and cause problems where none exist

The parents aren’t freaking out. The teachers freaked out unnecessarily and therein lies the problem and implicit bias here. What parents would have freaked out or caused a fuss if they went ahead with the lesson on time about the Holocaust as planned? What would the objection have been?No one has yet to tell me what the Holocaust has to do with the current situation in Gaza. Go ahead - I’ll wait.

Yes - the parents are freaking out and they are the ones causing the problems here. Coupled with the fact that DCPS Central refuses to give any guidance which the school wants so they know they are covered. I put this one squarely on parents who don't want their kids to be upset. I am totally against antisemitism but hard discussions can happen. Look at our political divisions - no one can actually listen to the other side and consider their points.

Who don’t want their kids to be upset about what? Im not following.

[Anonymous]

The erasing of history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JR did the right thing. You all are freaking out about nothing. And the title of this thread is deliberately misleading which is disgusting to me. I agree that JR can handle sensitive discussions between students and teachers but parents often suck and cause problems where none exist

The parents aren’t freaking out. The teachers freaked out unnecessarily and therein lies the problem and implicit bias here. What parents would have freaked out or caused a fuss if they went ahead with the lesson on time about the Holocaust as planned? What would the objection have been?No one has yet to tell me what the Holocaust has to do with the current situation in Gaza. Go ahead - I’ll wait.

Yes - the parents are freaking out and they are the ones causing the problems here. Coupled with the fact that DCPS Central refuses to give any guidance which the school wants so they know they are covered. I put this one squarely on parents who don't want their kids to be upset. I am totally against antisemitism but hard discussions can happen. Look at our political divisions - no one can actually listen to the other side and consider their points.

Who don’t want their kids to be upset about what? Im not following.

The "hard discussion" they have in mind is their classmates comparing Zionism to nazism, which they think is legitimate. When someone says they're against antisemitism "but", you know what they are.

[Anonymous]

factually, are we looking at Jackson Reed is never gonna teach this, or Jackson Reed is trying to get its teachers ready to teach this? Which is it? Because getting teachers ready to teach something difficult is good. Skipping it is as annoying as how my High School history classes all conveniently ended before the Vietnam War started.

[Anonymous]

So, if we are going to lean into an authentic conversation on intersectional topics we have to be able to use different lenses so that we arrive at an equitable space which will allow us to do the work to break down interdependent systems of privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:factually, are we looking at Jackson Reed is never gonna teach this, or Jackson Reed is trying to get its teachers ready to teach this? Which is it? Because getting teachers ready to teach something difficult is good. Skipping it is as annoying as how my High School history classes all conveniently ended before the Vietnam War started.

Again. Missing the point. They’ve been teaching the Holocaust for years. Did they postpone the lesson during the 1st and 2nd intifada as well? If not, why now? My money is on the cesspool of antisemitism on Tik Tok which has brainwashed them.