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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While I don’t have exact statistics as PP mentioned the vast majority of teachers in DCPS are black women. WTU is lead by black women. These are the people you are calling lazy, selfish, and entitled.

Correction: lazy, selfish, entitled “Trumpers”

I don't think many of us would care if the WTU leadership was composed of purple and magenta striped bearded eunuchs in saffron spacesuits with lime green polka dots. Even still, that wouldn't distract from the fact that their demands have run in direct contradiction to the recommendations of scientists and public health professionals, including one Dr. Fauci. And it certainly wouldn't distract from the accompanying fact that their intransigence has shafted a full 14 grades worth of public school children out of nine irreplaceable months of what would otherwise have passed for an education and destroyed decades of progress in building parental confidence in the city's public school system.

No, I don't think so. I used to work at a ward 3 (where I live) school but I was too sensitive to the passive aggressive parents. To be fair some parents didn't care that I was black, especially since their children were doing well and loved me. But I couldn't deal with the racism and prejudice. If you notice most (again most, not all) Ward 3 teachers are White, this is not a coincidence.

Even at my current school we had a few parents who demanded the principal switch their child's teacher so they could have a teacher who 'looks like them.' (White)


So to say magically racial issues have disappeared because of covid-19 is very naïve. I'm not saying this is the only reason, parents certainly would still be angry. But don't say it doesn't play a role because it does.

But W3 is where the loudest voices to return are and it is where, by your own admission, teachers are the whitest. I really don’t think race is behind this conflict (in either direction).

Np. Just because you don’t think race is behind it doesn’t mean there’s not racism influencing the way people feel and talk about WTU, even perhaps unconsciously. White Ward 3 parents are aware of the fact that they are racial minorities in DCPS.

The focus on race here is a sideshow. The core substance of what the poster said — the bolded above — has nothing to do with race.

Does anyone have a response to the bolded comments?

He's talking from a high horse. Tell me how racism, privilege, and the United States general lack of care for public education DOESN'T play a role?

How doesn't it. 9 wasted months? How about 4 wasted years of poor presidential leadership.

When your response is bad and behind, you'll continue to be behind.


I don't want to hear this BS blaming teachers or their unions. Tell me what confidence has the US or even DCPS instilled in it's teachers? Let alone it's Black teachers who have been effected the most. Tell me if this was affecting White people and families the most the narrative wouldn't be different?
As a teacher I think the best response would have been to have a better response to the pandemic in general and just change the school year around for a year or two. Get teacher buy in with more pay for the inconvenience, whatever. Write a agreement to protect teachers, invest in the HVAC units SOONER.

Whataboutism at its finest.

Ah gaslighting.

Honestly, your argument bemuses me. You are arguing that its somehow OK for the WTU to short-change the city's school children (who are overwhelmingly minorities by the way and heck a lot less privileged than the DCPS teaching staff) and set them even further behind their peers around the country because of Trump? And that it's OK for the WTU to act this way because you think the whole country hasn't done enough to support teachers. I think you'll find few who think the crisis was handled well by DCPS, Trump, or the US government at large, but WTU's demands are not defensible with or without that.

+1

So NOW you all care about the achievement gap. I've been on DCUM for years and have rarely if ever seen any of you worried about students of color in this city, or the inequities that exist in DCPS. You bring it up now to somehow support your case that schools need to reopen.

Here is how out of touch you are. While Ward 3 and other non-title 1 schools have up to 80% of parents basically kicking down the doors for schools to reopen, the reality is completely different in Wards 7 & 8. Most parents here do not want their children to return to in-person learning. I know of a school where under 10% were interested. Why? Because they have directly seen the impact of this virus on their communities. While you all fret and think of strategies to secretly travel to Florida to see grandma for Christmas, my students are thinking of the loved ones they have lost due to the virus.

You are living in a completely different world and a completely differently reality. Teachers (WTU), the vast majority of whom are Black in this city, see the virus for what it is.

We should be focused on making virtual learning better for students. We should be focused on keeping everyone healthy and safe until a vaccine is available for all of us. This is far from ideal but it is the reality we are living in. If you are being negative around your children they will feed off of you! We are all in the struggle together.

I work in DC Medicaid and call and visit families in wards 7 and 8 all day long.
The tragedy is that although the families in these wards do not want to return to school, most of their kids are currently not receiving ANY education. I have hundreds of patients (and it would be thousands if I had thousands of patients) who are not logging in at all. It's a completely lost year.
I will say the thinking behind not wanting to return is two fold:
1)many of these families have seen people die from the virus.
2)many of these families do not value education to the degree that people in ward 3 do. This is not racist or classist to say. It's reality. Under the best of circumstances (pre-Covid) I spent dozens of hours per week convincing people to send their kids to schools. A common call is "oh, why isn't XX in school?" Answer "Well, she didn't feel like going so I kept her home" "For two weeks?" "Well, she's 10. I wanted to give her a break". Or similar. Obviously this wouldn't happen in most ward 3 households. It just wouldn't. And yet it happens every day in other wards. I spent a TON of time educating parents on the importance of consistent school. It's very, very difficult for parents because they never had this modeled to them. Do you know how many parents in DC have less than a high school education? A TON! The majority of the ones I call. It's very difficult for people to value what their parents didn't value to them.

Let me guess...you’re safely working from home yet pushing for others to return in-person.

Just another desperate attempt to deflect instead of confronting the issue.

If Covid won’t spread in small classrooms with unmasked children as they eat breakfast and lunch together then it won’t spread in your offices either. Everyone should return to in-person work.

That’s an asinine argument.

The whole point is to minimize contacts between people as much as reasonable without causing greater harm than the virus. If people can work effectivle from home, they should. That’s good for the whole community.

But school at home is significantly less effective and incurs substantial other risks for children.

For most kids, the risks of DL are greater than the risks of COVID spread in a properly-controlled environment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While I don’t have exact statistics as PP mentioned the vast majority of teachers in DCPS are black women. WTU is lead by black women. These are the people you are calling lazy, selfish, and entitled.

Correction: lazy, selfish, entitled “Trumpers”

I don't think many of us would care if the WTU leadership was composed of purple and magenta striped bearded eunuchs in saffron spacesuits with lime green polka dots. Even still, that wouldn't distract from the fact that their demands have run in direct contradiction to the recommendations of scientists and public health professionals, including one Dr. Fauci. And it certainly wouldn't distract from the accompanying fact that their intransigence has shafted a full 14 grades worth of public school children out of nine irreplaceable months of what would otherwise have passed for an education and destroyed decades of progress in building parental confidence in the city's public school system.

No, I don't think so. I used to work at a ward 3 (where I live) school but I was too sensitive to the passive aggressive parents. To be fair some parents didn't care that I was black, especially since their children were doing well and loved me. But I couldn't deal with the racism and prejudice. If you notice most (again most, not all) Ward 3 teachers are White, this is not a coincidence.

Even at my current school we had a few parents who demanded the principal switch their child's teacher so they could have a teacher who 'looks like them.' (White)


So to say magically racial issues have disappeared because of covid-19 is very naïve. I'm not saying this is the only reason, parents certainly would still be angry. But don't say it doesn't play a role because it does.

But W3 is where the loudest voices to return are and it is where, by your own admission, teachers are the whitest. I really don’t think race is behind this conflict (in either direction).

Np. Just because you don’t think race is behind it doesn’t mean there’s not racism influencing the way people feel and talk about WTU, even perhaps unconsciously. White Ward 3 parents are aware of the fact that they are racial minorities in DCPS.

The focus on race here is a sideshow. The core substance of what the poster said — the bolded above — has nothing to do with race.

Does anyone have a response to the bolded comments?

He's talking from a high horse. Tell me how racism, privilege, and the United States general lack of care for public education DOESN'T play a role?

How doesn't it. 9 wasted months? How about 4 wasted years of poor presidential leadership.

When your response is bad and behind, you'll continue to be behind.


I don't want to hear this BS blaming teachers or their unions. Tell me what confidence has the US or even DCPS instilled in it's teachers? Let alone it's Black teachers who have been effected the most. Tell me if this was affecting White people and families the most the narrative wouldn't be different?
As a teacher I think the best response would have been to have a better response to the pandemic in general and just change the school year around for a year or two. Get teacher buy in with more pay for the inconvenience, whatever. Write a agreement to protect teachers, invest in the HVAC units SOONER.

Whataboutism at its finest.

Ah gaslighting.

Honestly, your argument bemuses me. You are arguing that its somehow OK for the WTU to short-change the city's school children (who are overwhelmingly minorities by the way and heck a lot less privileged than the DCPS teaching staff) and set them even further behind their peers around the country because of Trump? And that it's OK for the WTU to act this way because you think the whole country hasn't done enough to support teachers. I think you'll find few who think the crisis was handled well by DCPS, Trump, or the US government at large, but WTU's demands are not defensible with or without that.

+1

So NOW you all care about the achievement gap. I've been on DCUM for years and have rarely if ever seen any of you worried about students of color in this city, or the inequities that exist in DCPS. You bring it up now to somehow support your case that schools need to reopen.

Here is how out of touch you are. While Ward 3 and other non-title 1 schools have up to 80% of parents basically kicking down the doors for schools to reopen, the reality is completely different in Wards 7 & 8. Most parents here do not want their children to return to in-person learning. I know of a school where under 10% were interested. Why? Because they have directly seen the impact of this virus on their communities. While you all fret and think of strategies to secretly travel to Florida to see grandma for Christmas, my students are thinking of the loved ones they have lost due to the virus.

You are living in a completely different world and a completely differently reality. Teachers (WTU), the vast majority of whom are Black in this city, see the virus for what it is.

We should be focused on making virtual learning better for students. We should be focused on keeping everyone healthy and safe until a vaccine is available for all of us. This is far from ideal but it is the reality we are living in. If you are being negative around your children they will feed off of you! We are all in the struggle together.

I work in DC Medicaid and call and visit families in wards 7 and 8 all day long.
The tragedy is that although the families in these wards do not want to return to school, most of their kids are currently not receiving ANY education. I have hundreds of patients (and it would be thousands if I had thousands of patients) who are not logging in at all. It's a completely lost year.
I will say the thinking behind not wanting to return is two fold:
1)many of these families have seen people die from the virus.
2)many of these families do not value education to the degree that people in ward 3 do. This is not racist or classist to say. It's reality. Under the best of circumstances (pre-Covid) I spent dozens of hours per week convincing people to send their kids to schools. A common call is "oh, why isn't XX in school?" Answer "Well, she didn't feel like going so I kept her home" "For two weeks?" "Well, she's 10. I wanted to give her a break". Or similar. Obviously this wouldn't happen in most ward 3 households. It just wouldn't. And yet it happens every day in other wards. I spent a TON of time educating parents on the importance of consistent school. It's very, very difficult for parents because they never had this modeled to them. Do you know how many parents in DC have less than a high school education? A TON! The majority of the ones I call. It's very difficult for people to value what their parents didn't value to them.

Let me guess...you’re safely working from home yet pushing for others to return in-person.

Just another desperate attempt to deflect instead of confronting the issue.

If Covid won’t spread in small classrooms with unmasked children as they eat breakfast and lunch together then it won’t spread in your offices either. Everyone should return to in-person work.

That’s an asinine argument.

The whole point is to minimize contacts between people as much as reasonable without causing greater harm than the virus. If people can work effectivle from home, they should. That’s good for the whole community.

But school at home is significantly less effective and incurs substantial other risks for children.

For most kids, the risks of DL are greater than the risks of COVID spread in a properly-controlled environment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While I don’t have exact statistics as PP mentioned the vast majority of teachers in DCPS are black women. WTU is lead by black women. These are the people you are calling lazy, selfish, and entitled.

Correction: lazy, selfish, entitled “Trumpers”

I don't think many of us would care if the WTU leadership was composed of purple and magenta striped bearded eunuchs in saffron spacesuits with lime green polka dots. Even still, that wouldn't distract from the fact that their demands have run in direct contradiction to the recommendations of scientists and public health professionals, including one Dr. Fauci. And it certainly wouldn't distract from the accompanying fact that their intransigence has shafted a full 14 grades worth of public school children out of nine irreplaceable months of what would otherwise have passed for an education and destroyed decades of progress in building parental confidence in the city's public school system.

No, I don't think so. I used to work at a ward 3 (where I live) school but I was too sensitive to the passive aggressive parents. To be fair some parents didn't care that I was black, especially since their children were doing well and loved me. But I couldn't deal with the racism and prejudice. If you notice most (again most, not all) Ward 3 teachers are White, this is not a coincidence.

Even at my current school we had a few parents who demanded the principal switch their child's teacher so they could have a teacher who 'looks like them.' (White)


So to say magically racial issues have disappeared because of covid-19 is very naïve. I'm not saying this is the only reason, parents certainly would still be angry. But don't say it doesn't play a role because it does.

But W3 is where the loudest voices to return are and it is where, by your own admission, teachers are the whitest. I really don’t think race is behind this conflict (in either direction).

Np. Just because you don’t think race is behind it doesn’t mean there’s not racism influencing the way people feel and talk about WTU, even perhaps unconsciously. White Ward 3 parents are aware of the fact that they are racial minorities in DCPS.

The focus on race here is a sideshow. The core substance of what the poster said — the bolded above — has nothing to do with race.

Does anyone have a response to the bolded comments?

He's talking from a high horse. Tell me how racism, privilege, and the United States general lack of care for public education DOESN'T play a role?

How doesn't it. 9 wasted months? How about 4 wasted years of poor presidential leadership.

When your response is bad and behind, you'll continue to be behind.


I don't want to hear this BS blaming teachers or their unions. Tell me what confidence has the US or even DCPS instilled in it's teachers? Let alone it's Black teachers who have been effected the most. Tell me if this was affecting White people and families the most the narrative wouldn't be different?
As a teacher I think the best response would have been to have a better response to the pandemic in general and just change the school year around for a year or two. Get teacher buy in with more pay for the inconvenience, whatever. Write a agreement to protect teachers, invest in the HVAC units SOONER.

Whataboutism at its finest.

Ah gaslighting.

Honestly, your argument bemuses me. You are arguing that its somehow OK for the WTU to short-change the city's school children (who are overwhelmingly minorities by the way and heck a lot less privileged than the DCPS teaching staff) and set them even further behind their peers around the country because of Trump? And that it's OK for the WTU to act this way because you think the whole country hasn't done enough to support teachers. I think you'll find few who think the crisis was handled well by DCPS, Trump, or the US government at large, but WTU's demands are not defensible with or without that.

+1

So NOW you all care about the achievement gap. I've been on DCUM for years and have rarely if ever seen any of you worried about students of color in this city, or the inequities that exist in DCPS. You bring it up now to somehow support your case that schools need to reopen.

Here is how out of touch you are. While Ward 3 and other non-title 1 schools have up to 80% of parents basically kicking down the doors for schools to reopen, the reality is completely different in Wards 7 & 8. Most parents here do not want their children to return to in-person learning. I know of a school where under 10% were interested. Why? Because they have directly seen the impact of this virus on their communities. While you all fret and think of strategies to secretly travel to Florida to see grandma for Christmas, my students are thinking of the loved ones they have lost due to the virus.

You are living in a completely different world and a completely differently reality. Teachers (WTU), the vast majority of whom are Black in this city, see the virus for what it is.

We should be focused on making virtual learning better for students. We should be focused on keeping everyone healthy and safe until a vaccine is available for all of us. This is far from ideal but it is the reality we are living in. If you are being negative around your children they will feed off of you! We are all in the struggle together.

I work in DC Medicaid and call and visit families in wards 7 and 8 all day long.
The tragedy is that although the families in these wards do not want to return to school, most of their kids are currently not receiving ANY education. I have hundreds of patients (and it would be thousands if I had thousands of patients) who are not logging in at all. It's a completely lost year.
I will say the thinking behind not wanting to return is two fold:
1)many of these families have seen people die from the virus.
2)many of these families do not value education to the degree that people in ward 3 do. This is not racist or classist to say. It's reality. Under the best of circumstances (pre-Covid) I spent dozens of hours per week convincing people to send their kids to schools. A common call is "oh, why isn't XX in school?" Answer "Well, she didn't feel like going so I kept her home" "For two weeks?" "Well, she's 10. I wanted to give her a break". Or similar. Obviously this wouldn't happen in most ward 3 households. It just wouldn't. And yet it happens every day in other wards. I spent a TON of time educating parents on the importance of consistent school. It's very, very difficult for parents because they never had this modeled to them. Do you know how many parents in DC have less than a high school education? A TON! The majority of the ones I call. It's very difficult for people to value what their parents didn't value to them.

Let me guess...you’re safely working from home yet pushing for others to return in-person.

Just another desperate attempt to deflect instead of confronting the issue.

If Covid won’t spread in small classrooms with unmasked children as they eat breakfast and lunch together then it won’t spread in your offices either. Everyone should return to in-person work.