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July 2, 2021
To the editors:
The email below was recently circulated to the families with children in our town’s PAWS (Preschool at Wellesley Schools):
June 7, 2021
Dear PAWS Families,
Thursday, June 10th, the new Black Lives Matter and LGBTQIA+ flags will be installed at P.A.W.S. All classrooms will then create individual classroom flags that represent the children in each classroom and the smaller classroom flags will be added to a larger unified PAWS flag that will be hung up in the school. Here is what each classroom will be discussing:
1. Teachers and students will talk about symbols such as: Stop Sign, Lego, Target Symbol, American Flag
Teacher: “Have you seen these before? Where? What do you notice? Tell me about them.
Acknowledge any responses.
Teacher: “Yes, these are symbols that mean something. When you see this symbol you know it means ‘Stop’ etc.”
2. Show the BLM and LGBTQIA+ Flags:
Teacher: “Have you seen these symbols before? Where? What do you notice? Tell me about them.”
Acknowledge any responses.
Teacher: “This is a Black Lives Matter Flag and this is an LGBTQIA+ Flag. Sometimes flags can be symbols. These flags mean we want everything to be fair for everyone, no matter who you are. They mean we can focus on taking care of each other.
These flags will be hung up at PAWS and in other schools in Wellesley. You might also see them in your community. We will create a classroom flag. Everyone will draw a symbol or picture that represents or means YOU! We will put the pictures all together to make a classroom flag. Our classroom flag will be added to a big PAWS flag hung up in the building. Every class will have a symbol on the flag! It will be a PAWS Flag! Once it is hung up, we will get to see it in the hallway at the PAWS school!”
3. Each student will have the opportunity to create a symbol/picture that represents them. We will use these to create a classroom flag, which will then be added to a larger P.A.W.S. Flag to be hung on the front bulletin board at P.A.W.S. We will share a photo of the finished PAWS Flag hanging on the bulletin board once it is complete with all classes represented.
Thank you to the PAWS PTO for purchasing the flags and for the parents and faculty who have joined our conversations about the flags over several weeks of meetings. We appreciate your support in our important work! If you are interested in learning more about equity work in preschool you might enjoy looking at the Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education Position.
Editor: end of PAWS letter.
I will not comment on the specific flags/organizations chosen by the school staff to be highlighted. There is no space here for this particular discussion, which has actually been recently incurred to in this very forum. I will say, though, that one of my own sisters is a member of the LGBQ community. I could not love and respect her more. What I must do here is to expose the structure of the activity imposed on the children. As per the email, the exercise is centered on the division of the class in groups with specific identities, to be represented by symbols that reflect such identities, all of it steered by the examples of the two flags/entities featured by the staff.
This constitutes the essence of identity politics. That is, the breakdown of society into various groups, in this case artificially created by a higher authority, the teachers, to be represented by symbols that will be compared with others. The grand finale is the subterfuge of a unification of the different identities/symbols in a final “class flag”. Cunningly, however, the central message is that we all belong to groups with different identities and must learn how to make a conscious effort to take care of each other, as if this were not a native human quality, or as if some of the different identities were even substantiated at all. Further, such message also implies, albeit perhaps not openly, that oppression and repression are common to the existence of identity groups, as evidenced by the flags specifically chosen as chaperons of the activity.
As much as I am among the vast majority of us who want to see any form of prejudice disappear, and as much as I do believe in the good intentions of some of the partakers in this activity, this is not the way, or age, to do it. There is no such thing as a bigoted preschooler. Prejudice is not inborn. This vile form of rancor is always imparted, never innate. Preschoolers should not be introduced to it, be it overtly or covertly, let alone to gender ideology and/or to racism, especially at school. Innocence is one of the most treasured and consequential facets of early childhood. It behooves us to embrace, celebrate, and protect it.
This is yet another example of an ongoing, increasingly brazen and intrusive child indoctrination program based on moral values shrewdly picked to be operated at school, as opposed to only at home, which has all the inklings of being centrally coordinated. Indeed, as one would expect from central coordination, the whole exercise is carefully scripted (including the preceding consultation with parents and the subliminal public shaming of those who may disagree with it) and its target has progressively
expanded under a well calculated strategy now boldly aiming as low as possible, i.e. at the preschool age group (!). This scenario concurs with the decay of our academic standards both locally and nationally, more patently reflected in the continuous drop of Wellesley school rankings at the state level and in the country’s equally embarrassing rankings at the international level. This concurrence is not coincidental.
How disturbing is all that, and how very sad…
I will take this opportunity to remind the teachers and their Superintendent that our flag has 50 stars and 13 stripes, all with beautiful symbolisms of their own, not the least our fundamental united national identity. The email does contain a timid afterthought stating that the American flag will also be mentioned, if only after the “(…) Stop Sign, Lego, and Target Symbol (…)”. How thoughtful.
Dario Fauza
Wellesley resident
Thank you so much for your thoughtful letter, which actually made me tearful. I agree with your every point. In fact, I would go further and say that this is child abuse.
Why do the schools continue to want to create division? Why do they want to separate people? Why do they discourage us from coming together and supporting each other as neighbors and as a community? What happened to being One Wellesley? Why can’t we be recognized for what we are — all human beings who individually deserve respect and dignity?
I appreciate your courage in writing this. I support questioning this rhetoric far and wide as it’s divisive and dangerous.
I agree. Identity politics and critical race theory have infiltrated our day-to-day lives, and inappropriately so. This is an example from my world.
I volunteer at a museum. Every Friday afternoon, we volunteers receive a detailed e-mail message from a museum staffer providing announcements and information related to our work at the museum. This message was included in today’s e-mail:
“I know not everyone observes Independence Day (given freedom was only achieved for a select few, and at the expense of enslaved, indentured, and displaced communities) . . . but happy fourth to everyone who does celebrate.” There was also a link to an article about George Washington as a slaveholder.
My response: “Happy 4th of July and God bless America!”
Thank you Dario and the Swellesley report for publishing.
What parents across the nation are objecting to is not teaching history, or being kind to one another, but this dramatic shift to labeling students by identity.
It is absolutely false that “ the only way to eliminate past discrimination is present discrimination. They only way to eliminate present discrimination is future discrimination” – Kendi.
These are the words many educators are preaching to students today.and they are completely illogical. I have serious concerns about our DEI department and the money we are spending to educate our students in such a divisive manner.
One last word of caution to parents: be very alert to any future DEI surveys your child is asked to complete. Many are very intrusive and collect quite a bit of person information.
Thank you again Dario for speaking up for common sense., there are many people in. this town who agree with you.
You hit all the highlights: indoctrination (especially of our youngest students), divisiveness, victimology, schools replacing parents, one-sided politics where it doesn’t belong, feelings over facts and, of course, the inevitable result— falling educational outcomes and a lack of respect and knowledge of our national character and the symbols that reflect it. Stop the madness. Bring back excellence. Replace easy virtue signaling with the hard work of academic rigor. Thanks for sharing this frightening letter.
Dario,
Thank you for having the courage to write this important letter. I agree with the content.
Although the email specific to PAWS thanks “the parents and faculty who have joined our conversations about the flags over several weeks of meetings”, it appears throughout the rest of WPS only parents on School Council were apprised of what was planned related to flags across WPS. This can often mean as few as 2-3 parents were involved in these “conversations.” It is exceedingly rare in WPS for parents to know anything or hear anything about the goings on at WPS School Council meetings throughout the district and yet the district uses these meetings as a ruse by which they can claim parents are being kept in the loop and involved in decision making.
I therefore agree with the following sentence from your letter and feel it is worth reiterating: “Indeed, as one would expect from central coordination, the whole exercise is carefully scripted (including the preceding consultation with parents and the subliminal public shaming of those who may disagree with it) and its target has progressively
expanded under a well calculated strategy now boldly aiming as low as possible, i.e. at the preschool age group (!).”
As a community, we need to begin asking for: 1) full curriculum transparency pre-K through 12th, 2) full transparency related to any curriculum consultants or professional development consultants brought into the district for any reason, 3) full transparency related to all teacher and/or student surveys performed either internally or by 3rd party vendors on any topic and 4) full transparency of all WPS School Council meetings and a requirement that detailed agendas and minutes be publicly available covering every single meeting (currently not happening).
Thank you for writing this important letter.
I am the parent of young adults who have attended three of Wellesley’s public schools. I am extremely disturbed and alarmed about what is happening at PAWS as well as the other schools. Let’s be honest about what is really going on here. Very young children who are naturally starting to develop an individual identity (“I am a kind person”, ” I can run fast”, etc..) are being conditioned by their preschool to see themselves in terms of predetermined intersectional identity groups, based on qualities over which they have no or very little control. And as they grow older they will inevitably learn that these identity groups are assigned an “oppressor” or a “victim” status, and that their individual character qualities do not matter very much. The oppressors will be taught that they are irredeemably “bad” and there is nothing they can do about it. The victims will be taught that they will not be able to overcome obstacles that they will face in life, no matter what they do, because the deck is always stacked against them. Resilience is one of the most important qualities that a child can develop throughout their childhood. If we as parents are going to nurture this quality in our children, the identity politics approach is the opposite of what we should be doing.
From the book “Raising Resilient Children” by Robert Brooks, PhD and Sam Goldstein, PhD, p. 5. The Mindset of a Resilient Child: “Resilient youngsters feel special and appreciated. They have learned to set realistic goals and expectations for themselves. They have developed the ability to solve problems and make decisions and thus are more likely to view mistakes, hardships, and obstacles as challenges to confront rather than as stressors to avoid.” “Their self-concept is filled with images of strength and competence.” “Finally, they are able to define aspects of their lives over which they have control and to focus their energy and attention on these rather than on factors over which they have little, if any, influence.” That last sentence describes the opposite of what the school is trying to teach our children.
Thank you for your letter, Dr. Fauza. As a Wellesley tax payer, I would like to understand the sources of the new PAWS curriculum and its cost to the Town. Was an outside consultant or company hired? If so, please identify the source and the cost. Did an individual or a non-profit organization provide or contribute to the curriculum at no cost? If so, please identify the source(s). Can the School Committee provide the public with concrete answers to these questions?
Christopher:
Those are really good questions. Looks like the teachers planned how to teach this topic in detail. Such as how to teach it — start with american flag, then bml flag. What to say –” These flags mean we want everything to be fair for everyone,” and follow up activities –‘make a class flag”. It is not just a few flags, it is well planned out curriculum. I would like Dr. Lussier to clarify those questions.
Lucy
Dario, thank you! … many of us are disgusted and have questions, some follow, with a recurring request for more transparency and accountability.
First, the backdrop – how long are we going to pretend that it is acceptable to slide in the state’s academic performance rankings to lower than rank 25 now? Does anybody recall being ranked in the top 10? Are we happy with rising taxes and declining school performance? What assumptions are applied when the superintendent is rewarded for this performance?
Next, personnel – where do these town-school employees (many of whom are non residents) get the right to impugn the town’s reputation on a national news basis by acting unprofessionally (ie, ambiguous defense of civil rights?) in their capacity as teachers/administrators, and do so without job consequences? The negative national press showered upon our town is shameful.
Next, curriculum and delivery – Given the above, how much longer should we stand by idly and allow the WPS administrators to overemphasize and experiment with their DEI social policies (teach race and diviseness) when our children’s educations and resulting futures are at stake? They are crushing the academic spirit in the classroom, when kids tell me it is easier to shut up and survive than to speak. Way to go WPS – we pay for this?
Given the CRT and cancel culture narrative, how can we possibly promote creative mindsets? It is well established that creative minds are needed in the future workplace to match up with STEM skills. But indoctrinating and creating fear to speak, debate, and exchange opinions in the classroom is not planting the seeds of creativity. For those parents who have not looked, or maybe are unaware, we have discussions/lessons on racism finding the way *daily* into every class our children take – that is we discuss racism in math, art, english, history, science, everywhere. This is all starting to look like a forced education-cult. Right here in Wellesley. How many times in a day, in a week, in a lifetime, do children need to be told that they are racist because of their skin color, that is before they just turn off the messaging? The outcome is easy to see- social-justice oriented warriors in WPS are known and have lost credibility with the families and kids. It is easy to hear their response to “double-down” as the leadership are known to say. Meanwhile, it is time for some honest town discussions about the intent of our system and its current performance. Is the administration using DEI as a convenient foil to explain its lack of academic rigor? The failure to perform?
And did anybody see any high school summer reading lists? I saw one – weak.
Given the above, where is the School Committee? Why hasn’t it taken a hard and transparent look at the direction, the entire leadership, the curriculum, the classroom delivery and the budget? How much money are we planning to waste with this experiment/the DEI propagandist agenda, as our entire school system is oriented by DEI indoctrination to grind an axe on our children’s self esteem? Common wisdom is that doing the same thing over and again, and expecting a different result, is insanity. And what is extra maddening is when taxes go up in exchange for declining services? And worse, having our children be told they or their families or grandparents are inherently bad given their skin color or their professions. Note to the “educators” in our midst – the children did not pick their skin color or their circumstances, so lay off. We used to have an emphasis in the schools on no bullying.
Going forward – families and taxpayers need more accountability and a means to address classroom underperformance promptly. As a start, we should expect all who work here on our tax dollars to be professional and not spew their social and political wisdom at work. Many are smart enough not to do that already, but certainly not all. For the schools, the data (including from this years many zooms, and slides, plus the Sprague video??, etc) suggests we need to go back to basics with this crew so they recall / recognize that academic performance is how we judge one’s longevity on our payroll, not the political skills, oratory, film, and social scales they choose to apply in the class? Objectivity was key. We need it back. WPS teachers need to convince us (the parents and taxpayers) of their merit to be entrusted with a classroom. They could start by providing and honoring written pledges to deliver an objective classroom, so our kids will speak again and learn and grow; and the teachers should sign it every school year as a good reminder. And Wellesley taxpayers should have recourse when they don’t. We as taxpayers must certainly honor pay and benefits and retirement schemes in exchange for service, it only seems appropriate that we should be expecting top-tier classroom performance. I wonder if they are up for the job?
Concerned HoneyWeller: you just wrote what the majority are thinking. Thank you.
What majority is that, exactly. Saying “I am the majority” (1) doesn’t make it so and (2) even if true wouldn’t make you right.
I support the Paws updates and their new flags! Excited for my preschooler to learn about this!
Thank you for writing this letter!
It’s powerful and on point!
I believe that many families are unhappy with the academic standing and rating of our Wellesley schools. It is significantly dropping. With missed school because of COVID, dare I mention we have been even supporting our WPS teachers by assisting our children in learning a large chunk of the last year abs this year. They must know first hand that all of our kids have fallen behind in learning.
Our kids need a more rigorous education (math, science, history and English) without prejudice and without any political agendas. I’m confused why the WPS teachers think adding CRT is the best use of their time while they are with our children.
I am shocked that our teachers think our young children and families are so ignorant and racist that we need help us educate our kids in how not to be racist.
I am a very open and loving person – I honestly believe that I do not have one ounce of racism in my being. In the last year my high schooler has returned home for school to tell me that because I’m white, I’m therefore prejudice and racist. My biological kids are a mixed race. Whatever the schools are trying to achieve (I’d like to think it’s good hearted) it is truly misguided and causing conflict where it didn’t exist – in our community and in our homes.
I’m a former college professor and think education is best served in teaching our kids how to think and NOT what to think!
For our neighbors who may or may not have any sources other than right leaning media in their newsfeeds, I thought it would be helpful to provide a meaningful contrast to the views expressed above:
Did you know Fox has mentioned “critical race theory” nearly 1,300 times in the past 3.5 months?
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-has-mentioned-critical-race-theory-nearly-1300-times-past-35-months
https://www.vox.com/first-person/22568672/critical-race-theory-crt-education-racism-teachers
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/guest-blog-where-does-bizarre-hysteria-about-%E2%80%98critical-race-theory%E2%80%99-come-follow
http://bostonreview.net/race-politics/david-theo-goldberg-war-critical-race-theory
Here is a brief excerpted TLDR breakdown of the Boston review essay:
“The exact targets of critical race theory’s critics vary wildly, but it is obvious that most critics simply do not know what they are talking about. CRT functions for the right today primarily as a catch-all specter lumping together “multiculturalism,” “wokeism,” “anti-racism,” and “identity politics”—or indeed any suggestion that racial inequities in the United States are anything but fair outcomes. The conservative attacks weaponize colorblindness in an effort to neoliberalize racism—to reduce it to a matter of personal beliefs, rather than structural injustice. It is true that anti-racism today has been turned into something of an industry. But an honest critique of CRT would take issue with its actual assumptions, logic, and conclusions. The strategy is to create a straw house to set aflame in order to draw attention away from the right’s outright refusal to address cumulative, especially racial, injustice.”
DAVID THEO GOLDBERG Boston Review May 07, 2021
Let me end with a question:
How many of you had honestly heard of the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 before HBO’s Watchmen singlehandedly reminded an entire nation of its history in late 2019? We all have a long way to go.
BTW, check out: https://www.allsides.com/ it is a great place to start balancing your newsfeed and learn about the bias and worldview of each news-media source from every corner of the political spectrum. They have a special section on this topic:
https://www.allsides.com/tags/critical-race-theory?search=critical%20race%20theory
Has the Town of Wellesley gone nuts.
Since when does the Wellesley Public School System take over the roll of the Wellesley Parents.
It is apparent that Wellesley Parents need to stand up and be counted.
Do you want the Wellesley Public School System to take over your job as parents teaching their own social justice agenda, causing children to hate each other.
I have never seen Wellesley in such a Social mess with the Wellesley Public School leadership at the forefront of this, stealing away parents rights as to what their children should be taught and ruining their children’s educational future.