Keri, Are you still involved with Unsafe Space? I have been away for some time and was surprised to come back and find the YouTube channel had changed.
Because of your clear and precise writing style, I also wondered whether you have any inclination to write a primer explaining CSJ and its core tenets. I know Lindsay and Pluckrose have done something similar, but their book is pretty heavy going and it is difficult to parse the faith-based assumptions/core tenets that form the catechism of CSJ, from their genealogical approach.
Thank you, Keri, for this succinct response to the Cultural Marxism that is engulfing our society. In July of 2020, I was offered a teaching job at a Montessori school. Because we were in the early days of the pandemic, all of the interviews were done online. I had thoroughly investigated every page of the school's website during the interview process. After the final interview, I took one last look at the website and saw that it had been updated to include information about the school's response to the supposed injustice in our society. (This was the summer of George Floyd.) The teachers were required to read one of a set of books, which were all on the woke side of the culture war:
From the school website:
"Level 1: For those in the Awareness and Analysis stages of Barbara J. Love’s Liberatory Consciousness
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo; foreword by Michael Eric Dyson
Intersectionality by Patricia Hill Collins
Level 2: For those in the Analysis and Action stages of Barbara J. Love’s Liberatory Consciousness
How to be Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Level 3: For those in the Action and Allyship/Accountability stage of Barbara J. Love’s Liberatory Consciousness
Pushout by Monique Morris
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (It is recommended that you pair this with the documentary, 13th on Netflix.)"
The plan was that they would have a faculty discussion about what they had read.
I called the school with the purpose of telling them that while I was willing to read any book they required and to participate in a discussion, I am a Christian, I am aware of Cultural Marxism and am not an adherent to it, and that if I was required to be an adherent to Cultural Marxism in order to work at their school, I would not be able to work there. When the Director got on the line with me, she did not wait to hear the reason that I called, but went straight into a gushing offer of employment, detailing salary, benefits, etc. When I responded with the reason for my call, she dismissed my concern, saying that their other staff also did not understand the issue when they launched this initiative and that as I read and learned, I would understand the need. I made it clear that I knew all about CRT and knew that I did not adhere to it. I tried to use the knitting wars as an example of how CRT rips through once well integrated institutions and destroys them, but she thought I was talking about a local knitting circle, even though I emphasized the international ramifications of that one sad incident. She was deaf to my presentation of why I cannot adhere to CRT. Well, she handed her new problem of me off to a subordinate and after a few phone calls, I was told that someone else was hired for the position, even though they never formally withdrew the offer of employment that was presented to me when I clearly gave them a perfect opportunity to do so. Very unprofessional. I ended up doing long term subbing at another school that school year. That school needed me pretty desperately, so, initially, there was no fussing about CRT book clubs or whatnot. I left there to take a permanent position at still another school for the present school year. When I look at the website of the second school, where I was employed as a long-term sub during the spring of 2021, they are now past the COVID disruption and have a new page on their website announcing their retention of Dr. Taryn Fletcher, founder and CEO of Truly POC INC., and author of In All Lanes: Action Steps for New Leaders to Empower Black and Brown Students, Rethink School, and Transform Behavior.
She is "assisting our staff and teachers in cultivating our mission for diversity and inclusion within our classrooms and community". So, another one bites the dust. It is getting hard to find work in a Montessori School if you do not bow to the woke gods. Fortunately, the school I work for now is run by an elderly couple who does not really keep up with the times, so woke has not infected my present job, yet. Thanks for your clear voice on this, it is very much needed!
Keri, Are you still involved with Unsafe Space? I have been away for some time and was surprised to come back and find the YouTube channel had changed.
Because of your clear and precise writing style, I also wondered whether you have any inclination to write a primer explaining CSJ and its core tenets. I know Lindsay and Pluckrose have done something similar, but their book is pretty heavy going and it is difficult to parse the faith-based assumptions/core tenets that form the catechism of CSJ, from their genealogical approach.
Social justice sounds great on paper, until you start asking questions.
Lovely. Succint and well-thought-out. This ought to be seen by every parent in America.
Thank you, Keri, for this succinct response to the Cultural Marxism that is engulfing our society. In July of 2020, I was offered a teaching job at a Montessori school. Because we were in the early days of the pandemic, all of the interviews were done online. I had thoroughly investigated every page of the school's website during the interview process. After the final interview, I took one last look at the website and saw that it had been updated to include information about the school's response to the supposed injustice in our society. (This was the summer of George Floyd.) The teachers were required to read one of a set of books, which were all on the woke side of the culture war:
From the school website:
"Level 1: For those in the Awareness and Analysis stages of Barbara J. Love’s Liberatory Consciousness
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo; foreword by Michael Eric Dyson
Intersectionality by Patricia Hill Collins
Level 2: For those in the Analysis and Action stages of Barbara J. Love’s Liberatory Consciousness
How to be Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Level 3: For those in the Action and Allyship/Accountability stage of Barbara J. Love’s Liberatory Consciousness
Pushout by Monique Morris
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (It is recommended that you pair this with the documentary, 13th on Netflix.)"
The plan was that they would have a faculty discussion about what they had read.
I called the school with the purpose of telling them that while I was willing to read any book they required and to participate in a discussion, I am a Christian, I am aware of Cultural Marxism and am not an adherent to it, and that if I was required to be an adherent to Cultural Marxism in order to work at their school, I would not be able to work there. When the Director got on the line with me, she did not wait to hear the reason that I called, but went straight into a gushing offer of employment, detailing salary, benefits, etc. When I responded with the reason for my call, she dismissed my concern, saying that their other staff also did not understand the issue when they launched this initiative and that as I read and learned, I would understand the need. I made it clear that I knew all about CRT and knew that I did not adhere to it. I tried to use the knitting wars as an example of how CRT rips through once well integrated institutions and destroys them, but she thought I was talking about a local knitting circle, even though I emphasized the international ramifications of that one sad incident. She was deaf to my presentation of why I cannot adhere to CRT. Well, she handed her new problem of me off to a subordinate and after a few phone calls, I was told that someone else was hired for the position, even though they never formally withdrew the offer of employment that was presented to me when I clearly gave them a perfect opportunity to do so. Very unprofessional. I ended up doing long term subbing at another school that school year. That school needed me pretty desperately, so, initially, there was no fussing about CRT book clubs or whatnot. I left there to take a permanent position at still another school for the present school year. When I look at the website of the second school, where I was employed as a long-term sub during the spring of 2021, they are now past the COVID disruption and have a new page on their website announcing their retention of Dr. Taryn Fletcher, founder and CEO of Truly POC INC., and author of In All Lanes: Action Steps for New Leaders to Empower Black and Brown Students, Rethink School, and Transform Behavior.
She is "assisting our staff and teachers in cultivating our mission for diversity and inclusion within our classrooms and community". So, another one bites the dust. It is getting hard to find work in a Montessori School if you do not bow to the woke gods. Fortunately, the school I work for now is run by an elderly couple who does not really keep up with the times, so woke has not infected my present job, yet. Thanks for your clear voice on this, it is very much needed!