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How My School Chooses Courage Over Fear to Prioritize DEI (weapons grade barf!)
EdSurge ^ | 2/8/24 | Deanna Watson

Posted on 02/14/2024 2:12:27 PM PST by Impala64ssa

As I drove down the lengthy driveway of Mercy Montessori Center, I called my great aunt from Athens, Georgia, whom we lovingly call Aunt Puddien. Aunt Puddien is like another mother to me and I trusted her wisdom. She always introduced me to a relative or friend of the family as the teacher to which they responded with praise and affirmation. To them, loving and teaching our youth was a great honor despite the devaluation educators often experience.

As an educator, I work within and around systems that are designed to lock out historically marginalized communities; this is why I lead and educate through a DEI lens. My passion for DEI did not change once I transitioned from the classroom to school leadership. If anything, the more I engaged in systems change work, racial equity training and audits, the more pronounced my passion and investment in DEI became. The opportunity to lead this work full-time in a K-12 setting felt like a natural next step.

Last year, I interviewed with multiple organizations for a new role that would focus on DEI initiatives and had just finished my third interview of the day at Mercy Montessori in Cincinnati. Shortly after the interview, I had a phone conversation with Aunt Puddien: “Hey, Suga! How did it go?” Aunt Puddien answered the phone. I had just participated in three interviews for a DEI role.

“Well…” I began. “I connect most with Mercy.”

“Mmm. Why do you think that is?”

“The school seems most committed to supporting and doing the work,” I responded.

“Well, baby, you have to go where they take it seriously,” Aunt Puddien encouraged. “You’ll be called where you’re meant to be.”

After witnessing companies and organizations renege on their commitment to DEI after the police murder of George Floyd, I promised myself that I would not work with an organization or a company that treated DEI as a trend or an item on a compliance checklist.

Since becoming the inaugural director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) at Mercy Montessori and leading the DEIB strategy for the school, I’ve found that progress can happen in the face of social opposition, political polarization and targeted campaigns that we are experiencing in our larger society. In fact, it is in this climate of fear and misinformation that DEI is critically necessary.


TOPICS: Education; Society; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: athens; dei; education; ga; georgia; miseducation; montessori; woketards
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Yeah yeah, this is cringy crap, but like Don Corleone said, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Notice they're now calling it DEIB, for belonging. As if to put a kinder gentler facade on their attempted mind control. The old attract more flies with honey than vinegar routine. Problem is, it's not honey that attracts flies, it's 🐂💩!
1 posted on 02/14/2024 2:12:27 PM PST by Impala64ssa
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To: Impala64ssa

Speaking of uh, ya know, does that mean they have tampons in the boys rooms?

Lol.


2 posted on 02/14/2024 2:14:01 PM PST by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: Impala64ssa

It doesn’t take courage to hate whitey. To hate heterosexuals. To hate Christians. To hate this nation.
All that takes is petulant ignorance combined with Marxism.


3 posted on 02/14/2024 2:17:38 PM PST by vpintheak (Pinko misanthrope)
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To: Impala64ssa
“the police murder of George Floyd,”

Mental illness indicator .....
The BARF is strong with this one.

They walk among us everyday ..... zombie apocalypse

4 posted on 02/14/2024 2:18:49 PM PST by 1of10 (be vigilant , be strong, be safe, be 1 of 10 .)
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To: Impala64ssa
Herself:

Any surprises there?

No?

Didn't think so.

5 posted on 02/14/2024 2:24:08 PM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Impala64ssa

Prioritizing DEI, like Rush Limbaugh said about Liberalism, is the most gutless choice you can make.


6 posted on 02/14/2024 2:25:28 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: NorthMountain

From the link...

“Deaunna Watson (she/her) is the director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at Mercy Montessori School in Cincinnati.”


7 posted on 02/14/2024 2:26:34 PM PST by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: mewzilla

And her LinkedIn page is...interesting.


8 posted on 02/14/2024 2:27:59 PM PST by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: mewzilla

An’ dat be her Official Portrait ...


9 posted on 02/14/2024 2:28:02 PM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Impala64ssa

But it’s the precise opposite of what it claims to be.


10 posted on 02/14/2024 2:28:50 PM PST by reasonisfaith (What are the personal implications if the Resurrection of Christ is a true event in history?)
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To: NorthMountain

FWIW, I don’t care what she looks like.

I care about what she’s doing to kids.


11 posted on 02/14/2024 2:29:13 PM PST by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: mewzilla

Indeed. What’s a “Transformative Storyteller”? Is that a fancy word for “pathological liar”?


12 posted on 02/14/2024 2:30:13 PM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: mewzilla

There’s a certain facial expression common to these creeps. Smarmy arrogant condescension ...


13 posted on 02/14/2024 2:31:14 PM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: vpintheak
It doesn’t take courage to hate whitey

I've been saying that about the ADO and SPLC for ages. Any schmuck can can call out nazis and White supremacists. But now that open Jew hatred is OK with the left they've been quite conspicuous by their silence. They'd crucify someone who flashes the OK sign because some crybullies pretend to find it offensive yet are oblivious to Jewish students being harassed and assaulted by the HamASS symps and BDSholes
14 posted on 02/14/2024 2:33:29 PM PST by Impala64ssa (EVERY TIME A HEMI STARTS, AN EV DIES!)
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To: Impala64ssa
Of course none of the white “cisgender” people at that school will give up their positions for black,transgendered,lesbians.
15 posted on 02/14/2024 2:43:40 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Proudly Clinging To My Guns And My Religion)
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To: vpintheak

Indeed.


16 posted on 02/14/2024 2:57:00 PM PST by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: Impala64ssa
As an educator

There is the first hint self-righteous drivel will follow.

Didn't they used to be teachers or instructors before they anointed themselves as "educators"?

PS I am a retired high school teacher.

17 posted on 02/14/2024 3:20:16 PM PST by pfflier
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To: Impala64ssa

Read the article in full.

There is not a word in it about raising students’ academic achievement.

There is not even a mention of the Great White Whale of educrats since at least the 1960’s: reducing the racial gaps in academic achievement.

It is all about building “intercultural competence,” which seems to be an end in itself.

As an abstract proposition, I have nothing against intercultural competence. I practice this every day. I know which parts of town are best avoided. I know what trouble looks like on the street. And being a well meaning classical liberal type, I am tolerant of cultural differences and sympathetic to people who have been dealt a lousy hand in life. Gender and skin color are not good proxies for competence. Etc., etc. But I don’t think that is what this gal has in mind.


18 posted on 02/14/2024 3:35:21 PM PST by sphinx
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To: Impala64ssa
Notice they're now calling it DEIB, for belonging.

When I saw the picture in post 5, I thought the B stood for "Buffet".

19 posted on 02/14/2024 3:43:57 PM PST by Bernard ("It ain’t that there are too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.” Twain)
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To: Impala64ssa
The ignorance of liberals is profound.

Diversity? Whites are about 16% of the world's population. Yes, whites are a majority race in the USA, but then, they founded the nation. They also, as a majority, stopped slavery (which continues to be practice in some non-white nations), have sent enormous amounts of aid to non-whites around the world, and have promoted non-whites into every venue of American society - though the response by many non-whites is to denigrate whites, call them privileged, and to call for a wide range of ‘punishments’ for ‘being white’.

America, the majority white nation, is one of the most diverse nations in the world, accepting people of all races, religions, and origins. Such diversity is not common in majority non-white nations. Whites are not safe in many of these nations.

So, what exactly does the left mean when they talk about ‘diversity’. I don't think they have a clue.

20 posted on 02/14/2024 3:50:39 PM PST by neverevergiveup
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