DCUM Forum

Anonymous

12/30/2022 00:26 Subject: Re:Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

Anonymous wrote:So basically you want a school with a “slavery was bad but there were some GOOD slave owners” kinda vibe.

Do you know the impact of your protectionist trade policies on destitute African farmers? The role of slave and child labor in global production system benefiting wealthy capitalist countries? Most Americans, even if they wanted to understand their role in the injustices of the world, would find it beyond human comprehension, because it is. Especially when you layer in generational, ancestral and bystander effects. Progress is not made by raging against the human condition including ignorance, imperfection and limitations. Progress is made by the work of many people with many voices in many vocations including economists, physicians, scientists, artists, politicians, historians, lawyers. And the foundation of an education that requires many voices should not be determined by one singular set. Woke perspectives are valuable. Your mission is a good one. But so is one of someone seeking to preserve the ability to digest a plurality of voices, a cornerstone of democracy

Anonymous

12/29/2022 23:47 Subject: Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

Anonymous wrote:You would have liked my private school back in the early 90's, OP. I remember an assembly when we had a pro-choice woman and a pro-life woman debate each other. Every faculty member whose opinion I knew and most (but not all) of the students were pro-choice. As a pro-life student, I really appreciated that the subject was seen as being worthy of debate. I think that it would be really difficult to find both sides of this issue being presented respectfully at a school today. The school was totally nonreligious, but at Commencement (graduation) every year, we did have a short blessing said by a clergyperson. The school alternated between a Catholic priest, Protestant pastor, and rabbi, to respect the major religions represented at the school. I feel like those were the good ol' days.

Sounds like my school in the 90s as well! It was run by jesuits and they pretty much left the door open for,discussion and disagreement on everything. Openly engaged and encouraged. It’s just a hidden thing anymore…

We’ve decided here that the 90s seemingly were the peak of a lot of things…

Anonymous

12/29/2022 13:58 Subject: Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes they exist:
Potomac School
St Stephens St Agnes
Stone Ridge
Georgetown Prep
St Albans
St Anslems
Visitation

These schools are inclusive but not pushing ideology of any kind in the classroom

The bolded are religious schools. Did you read the OP's first post?

Did you? She wanted to avoid overly religious, which SSSAS certainly isn’t.

Anonymous

12/29/2022 12:31 Subject: Re:Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

Hi OP, I posted earlier that a more moderate school is hard to find. After thinking about it more, I have a few suggestions: Montessori and international schools.

For Montessori, I look for AMI accreditation or that the head of school is trained in an AMI program. Montessori by its nature really doesn’t lend itself to politically charged curriculum of any stripe. I think that it fosters true independence and critical thinking.

Local international schools include: WIS, Rochambeau French International School, and the German International School. I have firsthand experience as a parent at one of these schools. It was pleasant not to encounter the same intense political fault lines that you may find elsewhere. A significant number of the families were not US citizens and viewed our political drama as spectators. They largely had other concerns or were careful about “hot button” topics.

Anonymous

12/29/2022 11:33 Subject: Re:Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

Anonymous wrote:So basically you want a school with a “slavery was bad but there were some GOOD slave owners” kinda vibe.

You're full of sh%t

Anonymous

12/29/2022 11:32 Subject: Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

Anonymous wrote:Are there any schools that are known to be more culturally and politically moderate or neutral... neither "woke" nor super religious or conservative?

It seems like a lot of schools even in Kindergarten are openly very progressive (for example, they'll read board books praising Michelle Obama, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, etc., but you'd never see a book about Laura Bush or Sandra Day O'Connor or some other equivalent figure on "the other side"). I'm looking for more of a straight-forward focus on academics without the pushing of any political ideology.

Does this still exist?

Of course it exists, but not in DC.

This is another reason why so many families have been moving to places like FL.

Anonymous

12/29/2022 11:28 Subject: Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

Anonymous wrote:Independent Catholic Schools and some Episcopal schools will get you there. Example: There was an attempted woke takeover at Stone Ridge two years ago by an activist head of DEI which was stopped dead by parents. This woman was literally having students identify their intersectional disadvantages / privileges in a struggle session--parents went ballistic, and she's gone. It's now back to a centrist approach (diversity's great, let's be tolerant and focus on our shared humanity--I know, crazy, Fox News stuff.)

My youngest in in a Catholic school and I've noticed the same. There are a handful of very religious schools in this area, but the Catholic and Episcopal schools are overwhelmingly moderate. The super-conservatives think that they're too liberal and the militant atheists and identity liberals assume they're all full of Jesus freaks. It's actually a perfect balance and I wish we'd moved sooner.

Anonymous

12/29/2022 11:06 Subject: Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating, in a car-crash kind of way.

The pendulum swings.

Anonymous

12/29/2022 10:48 Subject: Re:Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

So basically you want a school with a “slavery was bad but there were some GOOD slave owners” kinda vibe.

Anonymous

12/29/2022 10:27 Subject: Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WIS! Some of the people in the WIS community who are most confused by the concepts of being woke are black foreign nationals from places like France, Ghana, Morocco and Nigeria. Thus, there is highly legitimate, non-racist questioning around woke-ness amongst the parents. Where it comes to the students, the teachers and administrators follow the IB to a T.

There probably is highly legitimate, non-racist questioning about what people like you call “woke-ness”.

So let’s pause for a moment and think seriously about why you had to reach to “black (sic) foreign nationals” to believe that you could find it.

Note: At least some of those people surely realize that without the efforts of the “woke” their children would not legally be able to attend WIS, since prior to the 1970’s schools were racially segregated.

There are 7 billion people on this planet. 300m live in America. That means there are over 6 billion who have no clue what you’re talking about. Some of them move here with a focus on bringing energy or health care to people living in horrific poverty. Truly horrific. They have a desire to see their kids grow up with a world perspective, perspectives that you may be ignorant about. Ignorance is why we have education, and we can want to be educated about different parts of humanity and all be good people.

I got lost counting the weird, vague generalities in your answer. So let's take a look.

1. US media and culture are transmitted by satellite and Internet to every country on the planet. Only a minority are ignorant of US history and society, not 6 billion. Look at movie ticket sales worldwide.

2. Only a tiny minority who come here are involved in aid projects for their home countries. The vast majority in DC and around the US are parents who immigrated for economic opportunity and educational opportunities here. Survey any set of private school parents here.

3. What is "a world perspective" since there are 200 countries and even more languages and cultures in the world, each with its own history and perspective? Anyone who has been to more than a handful of countries knows that.

4. Education about different parts of humanity to be a good person is the foundation of understanding that the world is both a diverse and often unfair place, even moreso in the past than now. That's the ignorance that modern education aims to l
So whatever point you were trying to make got VERY lost along the way.

You are either being obtuse or cannot see that the poster to whom you are responding is clearly part of the international community in D.C. that includes the thousands of people who work at the World Bank, IMF, IFC, etc. who have a more global focus in both their work and personal perspectives and possibly give short shrift to the internecine warfare over wokeness as they are focused on addressing the poverty and problems afflicting billions of people outside the US. It’s pretty easy to see that someone working on poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa or the economic empowerment of women on the Indian subcontinent might roll their eyes at some of the interminable talkfest over wokeness and want their children to go to a school that shares more of their international outlook. I’m a foreigner myself and find the approach to diversity at my kids’ schools frustrating at times. When my DD was in 4th grade, she told me that at her school you had to have an identity. Of course, that had to fit within certain boxes. I’ve learnt to bite my tongue and focus on whether the academics are good.

Anonymous

12/29/2022 10:22 Subject: Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

This is fascinating, in a car-crash kind of way.

Anonymous

12/29/2022 10:08 Subject: Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

Independent Catholic Schools and some Episcopal schools will get you there. Example: There was an attempted woke takeover at Stone Ridge two years ago by an activist head of DEI which was stopped dead by parents. This woman was literally having students identify their intersectional disadvantages / privileges in a struggle session--parents went ballistic, and she's gone. It's now back to a centrist approach (diversity's great, let's be tolerant and focus on our shared humanity--I know, crazy, Fox News stuff.)

Anonymous

12/29/2022 09:52 Subject: Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

Anonymous wrote:Which schools - esp HS/US - teach students how to think rather than what to think?

Hard to find the former in DC.

The Jesuit schools. They teach questioning and to think. Quest for knowledge, rip the cover off. Definitely not teach to the test. They teach other religions too.

Anonymous

12/29/2022 09:36 Subject: Schools that are neither "woke" nor conservative?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP again. I recognize the above debate is not on-topic, so to actually respond to OP's question, assuming it's coming from a good faith desire to find a school whose curriculum doesn't bend to the slightest breeze: another recommendation for an Episcopal or Catholic school.

I am not the OP, but the PP you are debating with about the Democratic Party. Back to this topic, are Catholic schools really moderate? Serious question because I’m not religious, but I would guess they skew conservative given the Church’s stance on things like gay marriage.

Sorry, I misspoke - I meant to say Episcopal or Lutheran.

You didn't misspeak. Most Catholic schools are moderate in the way OP describes.

I agree with this. I have a DC at a Catholic HS. In addition most really conservative Catholics even those that lean toward MAGA feel that the church is now way too liberal and many are not happy about that. This would indicate that it is heading in the right direction.