Our daughter attends San Francisco Day School, another so-called elite private K-8. I am a lifelong liberal Democrat. In fourth grade our daughter and her classmates were required to write down, as part of a homework assignment, their gender identity and sexual preference, i.e., whom they like to have sexual intercourse with. This is utter madness. Fortunately, the children just roll their eyes at what they see as incomprehensible nonsense and laugh at their teachers behind their backs.
I don't have a lot of sympathy for parents who are outraged by a core element of the subculture in which they swim, yet refuse to recognize it's the subculture itself that is the problem, and strive mightily to maintain their status within it.
I've been living in Flyover for six years now. I read the news and then stories like this and I get the idea the world really is going insane; but then I look around and realize, not the world, just some bits of it where western cultural elites hold sway. Sadly, those cultural elites have outsized voices, but they absolutely do not represent the attitudes of most Americans outside the bi-coastal and campus enclaves.
I read an article by Matt Taibbi recently that reminded me of this. What's disturbing in all this is the essentialization of race and gender. Regarding gender, one can no longer be a girl who doesn't like dresses. One must in that case be a transman or gender fluid. As bad as it was in the old days when genitalia were used to trap people in roles are these days when personalities are so stereotyped to a particular gender that we want to change the physical form to match very narrow and shallow ideas about gender and sex. We've gone backwards.
Let me guess. The Sinclairs are moving to Orange County. They won't be in a safe harbor for long. (If I were the Sinclairs, I would do what I have done. Move from CA to FL. California is hopeless.)
I am a current MCDS dad and a friend of the Sinclairs. I don’t have any knowledge of the comments made by the former teacher so will refrain from comments on that. And while I disagree with Paul’s opinion that the school is trying to teach children to not feel good about being American, I would say that most of the story posted here is a reasonable accounting of events as told from the Sinclairs’ perspective, including the mistake made by Paul that ultimately led to their threatened expulsion.
What the article leaves out is that MCDS has been very responsive to parents. Most of the parent community supports the teaching of tolerance and acceptance of people’s differences, including with respect to gender identity. We do have different views on how it should exactly be taught and many parents took issue with a particular classroom exercise where some kids were asked to choose their gender. The administration has held meetings with numerous families to hear feedback and has committed to revising the curriculum. The new curriculum will be discussed with parents in a roundtable this fall. Education is a partnership among parents, teachers, and administration and I have thus far been satisfied with the school’s response to our feedback.
My question for the author is how the reasonable accounting posted here turned into the sensational narrative posted on Common Sense. Was it your decision to write two articles or was that an editorial decision by the folks at Common Sense? You are a very sophisticated storyteller and clearly understand the power of narrative so I am sure you understand how different the two articles are. A few key order changes to how facts are presented, subtle changes to context, a few different quotes, and hiding some critical facts behind the paywall completely change the narrative and turn the reasonable account posted here into a tale with different heroes and villains. I would greatly appreciate it if you could share some insight on what led you to write two different stories with seemingly different purposes.
We are Undercover Mothers. We would have been THRILLED to speak with Leighton or Bari. Neither attempted to reach out to us. Neither displayed the slightest curiosity to speak to us, any of us from all over the country, or even UM at MCDS. We are indeed everywhere and we will work tirelessly to protect our children against the abuses of NAIS & the tyrannical headmasters and impotent boards of trustees at private schools. "If not us, who. If not now, when?"
Read our latest here. Leighton's piece gets a shout-out!
Leighton, Will you do a follow up on this? By follow-up I mean letting readers know if there are any changes in the school, more parents come forward, etc.
BTW, I also read the article version in Common Sense. I take it you know that Lowell High School in San Fran went back to merit based admissions....
It would be nice, maybe, if people broadly understood where they should forward the emails they get from schools so they don't end up sending them to the other bad guys (you don't fight Communists by becoming Nazis, eh?).
FIRE, maybe? Anyone know? If the Left is going to combat the bad ideas in it's own flock, it needs to use Left-ish, or at lease non-partisan institutions, it seems to me. One must never cede the high ground.
Our daughter attends San Francisco Day School, another so-called elite private K-8. I am a lifelong liberal Democrat. In fourth grade our daughter and her classmates were required to write down, as part of a homework assignment, their gender identity and sexual preference, i.e., whom they like to have sexual intercourse with. This is utter madness. Fortunately, the children just roll their eyes at what they see as incomprehensible nonsense and laugh at their teachers behind their backs.
i don't agree with a lot of the specifics of what chris rufo says, but how does he not capture the spirit of what's going on here?
I don't have a lot of sympathy for parents who are outraged by a core element of the subculture in which they swim, yet refuse to recognize it's the subculture itself that is the problem, and strive mightily to maintain their status within it.
I've been living in Flyover for six years now. I read the news and then stories like this and I get the idea the world really is going insane; but then I look around and realize, not the world, just some bits of it where western cultural elites hold sway. Sadly, those cultural elites have outsized voices, but they absolutely do not represent the attitudes of most Americans outside the bi-coastal and campus enclaves.
I read an article by Matt Taibbi recently that reminded me of this. What's disturbing in all this is the essentialization of race and gender. Regarding gender, one can no longer be a girl who doesn't like dresses. One must in that case be a transman or gender fluid. As bad as it was in the old days when genitalia were used to trap people in roles are these days when personalities are so stereotyped to a particular gender that we want to change the physical form to match very narrow and shallow ideas about gender and sex. We've gone backwards.
Let me guess. The Sinclairs are moving to Orange County. They won't be in a safe harbor for long. (If I were the Sinclairs, I would do what I have done. Move from CA to FL. California is hopeless.)
I'll make a bold prediction: The "friends" that the Sinclairs have lost are going to be raising some seriously messed up kids.
I am a current MCDS dad and a friend of the Sinclairs. I don’t have any knowledge of the comments made by the former teacher so will refrain from comments on that. And while I disagree with Paul’s opinion that the school is trying to teach children to not feel good about being American, I would say that most of the story posted here is a reasonable accounting of events as told from the Sinclairs’ perspective, including the mistake made by Paul that ultimately led to their threatened expulsion.
What the article leaves out is that MCDS has been very responsive to parents. Most of the parent community supports the teaching of tolerance and acceptance of people’s differences, including with respect to gender identity. We do have different views on how it should exactly be taught and many parents took issue with a particular classroom exercise where some kids were asked to choose their gender. The administration has held meetings with numerous families to hear feedback and has committed to revising the curriculum. The new curriculum will be discussed with parents in a roundtable this fall. Education is a partnership among parents, teachers, and administration and I have thus far been satisfied with the school’s response to our feedback.
My question for the author is how the reasonable accounting posted here turned into the sensational narrative posted on Common Sense. Was it your decision to write two articles or was that an editorial decision by the folks at Common Sense? You are a very sophisticated storyteller and clearly understand the power of narrative so I am sure you understand how different the two articles are. A few key order changes to how facts are presented, subtle changes to context, a few different quotes, and hiding some critical facts behind the paywall completely change the narrative and turn the reasonable account posted here into a tale with different heroes and villains. I would greatly appreciate it if you could share some insight on what led you to write two different stories with seemingly different purposes.
-Alton
We are Undercover Mothers. We would have been THRILLED to speak with Leighton or Bari. Neither attempted to reach out to us. Neither displayed the slightest curiosity to speak to us, any of us from all over the country, or even UM at MCDS. We are indeed everywhere and we will work tirelessly to protect our children against the abuses of NAIS & the tyrannical headmasters and impotent boards of trustees at private schools. "If not us, who. If not now, when?"
Read our latest here. Leighton's piece gets a shout-out!
https://undercovermother.substack.com/p/this-side-of-paradise
Leighton, Will you do a follow up on this? By follow-up I mean letting readers know if there are any changes in the school, more parents come forward, etc.
BTW, I also read the article version in Common Sense. I take it you know that Lowell High School in San Fran went back to merit based admissions....
https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/Board-Of-Education-Votes-To-Return-Merit-Based-17259839.php
It would be nice, maybe, if people broadly understood where they should forward the emails they get from schools so they don't end up sending them to the other bad guys (you don't fight Communists by becoming Nazis, eh?).
FIRE, maybe? Anyone know? If the Left is going to combat the bad ideas in it's own flock, it needs to use Left-ish, or at lease non-partisan institutions, it seems to me. One must never cede the high ground.