Annals of woke private school education: some more on Brearley and Dalton
[NOTE: Please see my previous post on Gutmann if you’re not already familiar with it.]
From the paper that often covers US stories in far more depth than our own MSM does (and with far less of a leftist slant), here’s the Daily Mail [hat tip: commenter “AesopFan”] with some background on Gutmann and Brearley:
Gutmann said he he refused to sign the school’s anti-racism pledge in October.
The school had started the required pledge after black alumnae accused the school of racism in posts made to the Instagram account account ‘Black at Brearley,’ according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The school’s antiracism and diversity plans are extensively described on its website.
‘I thought they were going to kick my daughter out then,’ Gutmann said. ‘They didn’t but next year they have the pledge built into the yearly school contract.’
So he’d already drawn attention to himself by becoming a dissident months ago. Also:
Gutmann said the thing he resented the most about Brearley is that the school “has begun to teach what to think, instead of how to think.”
Jane Fried, Brearley’s head of school, sent a message to the school’s families on Friday in which she slammed Gutmann’s letter as “deeply offensive and harmful.”
Yes, I have little doubt it offended Fried and she felt harmed. Too bad; boo hoo. I’d wager that Jim Best, the head of highly exclusive Dalton, felt harmed, too, because he seems to have quit in response to the fallout from complaints described in a letter from a group (not just one) of anonymous Dalton parents complaining about his “obsessive focus on race and identity.” In his farewell note, Best seemed upbeat, and I bet it’s true that this inclusion hero really is being offered plenty of other lucrative opportunities to bring his social justice diversity to institutions beyond Dalton. He wrote [statements in brackets mine]:
…[H]e was leaving to pursue “other exciting and inspiring opportunities” after 16 years at the helm…
He listed [as his Dalton accomplishments]…“attracting and supporting a historically diverse student body, assembling a historically diverse faculty, staff, and Leadership Team; reenvisioning and reinvigorating curricula in science, math, world and classical languages, physical education and athletics; advancing an ambitious Diversity, Equity & Inclusion mission.”
No obsessive focus on race there, no sirree.
Apparently, the school’s diversity head had left previously in response to the parents’ complaints, also to pursue those other great opportunities elsewhere.
But back to Brearley and its head Jane Fried:
“This afternoon, I and others who work closely with Upper School students met with more than one hundred of them, many of whom told us that they felt frightened and intimidated by the letter and the fact that it was sent directly to our homes,” Fried wrote…
“The upper schoolers are afraid of getting a letter at their home?” Gutmann said Saturday.
“They’re frightened and intimidated? The school has said it’s number one priority is to teach the girls intellectual bravery and courageousness. Either they are lying or else they have done an atrocious job.”
How about “both”?
I had assumed that Gutmann had contacted the other Brearley parents through emails. It’s still not 100% clear to me that he did it through snail mail – but perhaps that’s the case. At any rate, Gutmann goes on to say that he’s received supportive emails from parents throughout the city, and that there’s a whole “underground-like movement” about this.
It doesn’t surprise me in the least, nor does it surprise me that the vast majority of these people have been publicly silent. But have they also pulled their children out of these exclusive schools, as Gutmann did? I doubt it. However, my guess is that it was the threat of that – the monetary issue – that caused some of these “resignations” at Dalton.
As long as the acquisition of the proper credentials (the best public school, or, better still, a private school, being usually a ticket to one of the Ivies or to a comparable university) seems to most parents the sine qua non for ensuring that their children will be able to climb the ladder of corporate success or to obtain a well-remunerated sinecure within the administrative state, few indeed will be those with the courage to speak out publicly against the madness, as even the adults may feel the consequences in their own professional lives of daring to dissent from “woke” dogma and SJW orthodoxy. The only possible solution to this nearly intractable problem lies in the radical defunding of these radical institutions.
P.S. It has just been announced that, contrary to the leftist narrative, Officer Sicknick tragically died of natural causes.
I agree with the above. The undeserving rich are most fearful of losing their advantage. Most middle class people know they can do well without advantage.
While I certainly appreciate the organized pushback against enforced woke indoctrination, it must be asked: who did Mr. Gutmann vote for in the last Presidential election? Who did the rest of the protesting parents vote for?
If the answer starts with a ‘B’ and ends with an ‘N’ (and the odds are decent that it does), they are still, for the most part, part of the problem; unable, or unwilling, to see the forest through the trees. It’s that simple.
See The Naked Dollar blog on Jim Best. He was fired and the moderator’s confidential sources has it that the board was nearly unanimous in wanting him out: some for mishandling the COVID problems and some for the controversy over woketardiness. The moderator at the Naked Dollar is of the opinion that it was the bad publicity over the SJW rubbish, not the substantive policies, that bothered them.
Officer Sicknick tragically died of natural causes.
Remember the medical examiner’s name. The Democratic Party minions in the FBI and the US Attorney’s office couldn’t get him to lie.
Art Deco:
That’s why I put the word “resignations” in quotes in that last sentence. He was forced out, of course.
Ackler:
Gutmann took his original stand against taking the anti-racism pledge back in October. That gives me the sense that he may have voted for Trump. I don’t know, of course. But 12% of Manhattanites voted for Trump. My guess is that Gutmann was one of them.
Take a look at the map at that link. Interesting. Of all five boroughs, Manhattan went the most heavily for Biden. Eastern Long Island (not a borough) went narrowly for Trump. Staten Island (an outlier borough) went strongly for Trump.
“who did Mr. Gutmann vote for in the last Presidential election? Who did the rest of the protesting parents vote for?” Ackler
Given his letter, there’s certainly a chance that Gutmann voted for Trump. If not, he’s another Alan Dershowitz. A classical liberal unwilling to look deeply into the party he’s been supporting. Unwilling to confront the contradictions in his own positions.
it must be asked: who did Mr. Gutmann vote for in the last Presidential election?
On s’en fiche. We need to focus and set priorities. He’s the man taking a stand. Other stuff later.
While bias is intrinsic, prejudice is progressive. Stop exercising liberal license to indulge color judgments. Diversity breeds adversity.
usually a ticket to one of the Ivies or to a comparable university) seems to most parents the sine qua non for ensuring that their children will be able to climb the ladder of corporate success
My husband and I were talking about this on the way to Shot #2 today. It seems to us that these parents, having reached their present heights by this one path, and believing that everyone they encounter has done the same (because who’s going to admit they went to University of Oklahoma, bucked the odds to get the great first job, maybe by a bit of creative resume-ing, and made good by being really good at what they do?), have no idea how to teach their kids how to navigate any other path.
Or, as it’s been said, everyone is conservative about what she knows best.
it must be asked: who did Mr. Gutmann vote for in the last Presidential election?
Gutmann is a former investment banker who runs the family chemical business, Basstech International, which supplies specialty chemicals to manufacturing industries.
In my experience, people running successful family owned businesses tend not to be SJWs.
The Churchill quote for Neville Chamberlain seems relevant here: “You were given a choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”
People need to understand this war cannot be avoided. It’s happening, right now. The mob with the torches and pitchforks is at the gate.
Tucker Carlson reads Gutmann’s letter and exposes the cowering admin frauds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOw-efmw_qU
The next step? Radical defunding, as per j e above.
Rossi deep-sixed: “…numerous students requested [that he] be removed from his class because of his unprofessional conduct and because he demeaned them in the press…”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9488301/Math-teacher-woke-NYC-school-fired-speaking-against-schools-anti-racism-curriculum.html
Key graf (try not to puke):
” ‘The wellbeing of our community is our first priority, and we take it seriously whenever students raise concerns about the professionalism of a teacher.”
That’s right, education is being taken over by cowards, liars, shake-down artists and criminals as the “victim sweepstakes” dials up several notches… (But, then, all this is well known….)
Jim Best — the grift of Racist mongering is on! Plenty more at the naked dollar blog.
“…numerous students requested [that he] be removed from his class because of his unprofessional conduct and because he demeaned them in the press…”
Three wagers:
1. The ‘numerous’ students are fictional.
2. The ‘numerous’ students were recruited by Davison or some other woke-tard on the payroll.
3. The ‘numerous’ students amount to two kids who had ordinary teacher-pupil friction with him, about which nothing would be done in the ordinary course of events.
It’s a pity defamation suits are such a trial.
There’s getting rich, or kind of rich. And then there’s getting rich in the private school/Ivies social class.
I know some folks in their forties who are giving Croesus night sweats. And they have a couple of decades to go. And their recreations–they are frugal in terms of percentage of income spent frivolously–indicate great confidence in their future. I think that’s because they correctly measure their talents against the options.
Right off, I can think of four who went to public K-12 and state universities. The other two went to public K-12 and I don’t know about their college.
Their kids go to public K-12. But the folks add a lot of extra opportunity, the least of which is conversations about issues and then up to going on family field trips.
These folks’ situation would not be acceptable to the private K-12 and Ivies crowd. And while the latter’s world is not small–tey don’t know everybody in it–it is insular.
What might, I think, scare them is the prospect of blue-collar or college-educated blue collar guys working in the energy sector who are making a lot of money–saw a “hiring” piece for truckers in the Permian Basin. A friend who works near there says they start at $100k. With a blue-collar background, a lot of that is going to go into the bank, especially with the cost of living in Texas or other places not called NYC or Chicago And the next generation will have a heck of a start. And no Ivies with the protection for the real world that implies.
Of course, the energy sector is not the only place such things could happen.
@Richard Aubrey:
Problem is that a few strokes of the DC Autopen can make a lot of blue collar and middle class wealth disappear in a blink. Energy Industry being about the lowest-hanging fruit of all to the Busybody Bugpeople who should be learning all about hanging the hard way.
Zaphod. I was trying to think of a less pessimistic spin on your observation–which I had had myself. Maybe I’ll go mow the lawn or something.