Seattle Public Schools and Race

The columns and live chat by the Seattle Times' Danny Westneat about Madrona K-8 and race issues have been interesting this week. (see Danny Westneat)

Crosscut, the new online newspaper for the Pacific Northwest, has some more interesting articles about Seattle Public Schools and race.

- The Seattle School District is sending students to a 'white privilege' conference (4/9)

- It isn't racism that's oppressing Seattle Public Schools students, it's inflexibility (4/3)

- 'Can we go to school together?' (4/1)

Comments

Charlie Mas said…
For me, the line comes down here:

"Q: I struggle with what Caprice Hollins, Chris Drape, and others want white middle-class public school parents to do differently - I would really appreciate specifics."

- Mary (Guest)


A: Well, I am clearly in dubious position, speaking for them. But my understanding from Drape, who is an eloquent speaker on the topic and has been working on racial reconciliation issues for two decades or more, that well-off whites need to be aware that even their most well-intentioned efforts come off as "takeover" attempts. He says we literally need to go to school with social justice as a goal, not just advanced academics and enrichment programs. My view is we're not doing all that well on the academics and the enrichment, and should focus on those. But therein lies the debate."

- Danny Westneat

I certainly value Social Justice, but I will not sacrifice my children's education for it. It is completely unclear to me how Social Justice - or any other greater good - is served by my family accepting a sub-standard education for my child.

How is ANYONE served by my children sitting through lessons on material they already know?

How is ANYONE served by my children becoming de-motivated and disruptive in school?

Is this how we close the gap? By bringing down the top?

What vision of equity is this when the class moves only as fast as the slowest member?

The District tells us to read to our children, to support their education, to get involved, but, wait, they didn't mean that message for affluent, educated White people! You folks need to just stop. Your children already have too many advantages, so we need to stop serving them until the others catch up and YOU need to stop serving them also. Stop contributing money to their schools, stop buying them books, stop taking them to the zoo, stop volunteering in their classrooms - or anyone else's classrooms either because that smacks of paternalism and charity.

What kind of Social Justice is it that asks me to pluck out my eyes because someone else is blind?
4/10/07, 1:17 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, grief, that is to come fro
Read more

MEETING CANCELED - Hey Kids, A Meeting with Three(!) Seattle Schools Board Directors

 Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting.  In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance.  - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Read more