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Woke Elementary
City-Journal ^ | 1/13/21 | Christopher Rufo

Posted on 01/16/2021 5:58:21 AM PST by Renkluaf

An elementary school in Cupertino, California—a Silicon Valley community with a median home price of $2.3 million—recently forced a class of third-graders to deconstruct their racial identities, then rank themselves according to their “power and privilege.”

Based on whistleblower documents and parents familiar with the session, a third-grade teacher at R.I. Meyerholz Elementary School began the lesson on “social identities” during a math class. The teacher asked all students to create an “identity map,” listing their race, class, gender, religion, family structure, and other characteristics. The teacher explained that the students live in a “dominant culture” of “white, middle class, cisgender, educated, able-bodied, Christian, English speaker[s],” who, according to the lesson, “created and maintained” this culture in order “to hold power and stay in power.”

Next, reading from This Book Is Antiracist, the students learned that “those with privilege have power over others” and that “folx who do not benefit from their social identities, who are in the subordinate culture, have little to no privilege and power.” As an example, the reading states that “a white, cisgender man, who is able-bodied, heterosexual, considered handsome and speaks English has more privilege than a Black transgender woman.” In some cases, because of the principle of intersectionality, “there are parts of us that hold some power and other parts that are oppressed,” even within a single individual.

Following this discussion, the teacher had the students deconstruct their own intersectional identities and “circle the identities that hold power and privilege” on their identity maps, ranking their traits according to the hierarchy. In a related assignment, the students were asked to write short essays describing which aspects of their identities “hold power and privilege” and which do not. The students were expected to produce “at least one full page of writing.” As an example, the presentation included a short paragraph about transgenderism and nonbinary sexuality.

The lesson caused an immediate uproar among Meyerholz Elementary parents. “We were shocked,” said one parent, who agreed to speak with me on condition of anonymity. “They were basically teaching racism to my eight-year-old.” This parent, who is Asian-American, rallied a group of a half dozen families to protest the school’s intersectionality curriculum. The group met with the school principal and demanded an end to the racially divisive instruction. After a tense meeting, the administration agreed to suspend the program. (When reached for comment, Jenn Lashier, the principal of Meyerholz Elementary, said that the training was not part of the “formal curricula, but the process of daily learning facilitated by a certified teacher.”)

The irony is that, despite being 94 percent nonwhite, Meyerholz Elementary is one of the most privileged schools in America. The median household income in Cupertino is $172,000, and nearly 80 percent of residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher. At the school, where the majority of families are Asian-American, the students have exceptionally high rates of academic achievement and the school consistently ranks in the top 1 percent of all elementary schools statewide. In short, nobody at Meyerholz is oppressed, and the school’s high-achieving parents know that teaching intersectionality instead of math is a waste of time—and potentially dangerous.

One parent told me that critical race theory was reminiscent of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. “[It divides society between] the oppressor and the oppressed, and since these identities are inborn characteristics people cannot change, the only way to change it is via violent revolution,” the parent said. “Growing up in China, I had learned it many times. The outcome is the family will be ripped apart; husband hates wife, children hate parents. I think it is already happening here.”

The small fight at Meyerholz reflects a larger development: for the first time, Asian-Americans on the West Coast have become politically mobilized. In 2019, Asian-Americans ran a successful initiative campaign against affirmative action in Washington State; in 2020, Asian-Americans ran a similar campaign in California, winning by an astonishing 57 percent to 43 percent margin. In both cases, they defended the principles of meritocracy, individual rights, and equality under the law—and roundly defeated a super-coalition of the states’ progressive politicians, activists, universities, media, and corporations.

The stakes are high for the Asian-American community. For progressives insisting on the narrative of “white supremacy” and “systemic racism,” Asian-Americans are the “inconvenient minority”: they significantly outperform all other racial groups, including whites, in terms of academic achievement, college admissions, household income, family stability, and other key measures. Affirmative action and other critical race theory-based programs would devastate their admissions to universities and harm their futures.

At Meyerholz Elementary, the Asian-American families are on high alert for critical race theory in the classroom. Since their initial victory, they have begun to consider campaigning against the school board. “We think some of our school board members are [critical race theory] activists and they must go,” said one parent. The capture of our public institutions by progressives obsessed by race and privilege deserves opposition at every level. The parents of Cupertino have joined the fight.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: racism
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Hmmm! And what company is located in Cupertino?
1 posted on 01/16/2021 5:58:21 AM PST by Renkluaf
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To: Renkluaf

+ VIPP Very Important Post Patriot


2 posted on 01/16/2021 5:59:51 AM PST by PGalt
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To: Renkluaf

One problem with this story....a lot of the Silicon Valley employees are younger people with no kids to tie them down.

Around 20 years ago, I knew military people who exited and landed jobs there....then packed up within two years because of the cost of living in the region didn’t relate to the pay scale.


3 posted on 01/16/2021 6:04:56 AM PST by pepsionice
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To: Renkluaf
An elementary school in Cupertino, California—a Silicon Valley community with a median home price of $2.3 million—recently forced a class of third-graders to deconstruct their racial identities, then rank themselves according to their “power and privilege.”

Heck, I got that for free back in my old neighborhood!

That was back in the early 1960s, in Georgia, and we kids had mastered the lesson long before the third grade!

Regards,

4 posted on 01/16/2021 6:08:51 AM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: Renkluaf

There’s going to a lot to answer for. Anyone who divides and pits one against another is an evil POS. Especially when your teaching kids.


5 posted on 01/16/2021 6:15:02 AM PST by HighSierra5
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To: Renkluaf
The operative word in this effort is deconstruction (as in "deconstruct their racial identities").

Here a brief introduction to the concept of "deconstruction" as used by the Woke:

Deconstruction was both created and has been profoundly influenced by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Derrida, who coined the term deconstruction, argues that in Western culture, people tend to think and express their thoughts in terms of binary oppositions (white / black, masculine / feminine, cause /effect, conscious /unconscious, presence / absence, speech writing). Derrida suggests these oppositions are hierarchies in miniature, containing one term that Western culture views as positive or superior and another considered negative or inferior, even if only slightly so. Through deconstruction, Derrida aims to erase the boundary between binary oppositions—and to do so in such a way that the hierarchy implied by the oppositions is thrown into question. Source

6 posted on 01/16/2021 6:16:44 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: RoosterRedux
Added comment to deconstruction.

As we all know, what the Woke are doing is "deconstructing" (i.e., destroying) Western civilization. That's the goal.

7 posted on 01/16/2021 6:19:17 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: Renkluaf

Life is so good and easy that people have time to invent this nonsense.


8 posted on 01/16/2021 6:19:22 AM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: Renkluaf
Am I correct that this took place in a Math class? If so no wonder our students are not doing well in math compared to other countries
9 posted on 01/16/2021 6:24:19 AM PST by GOWM (grumpy old white man)
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To: Renkluaf

Apple World Headquarters
(Cupertino)

10 posted on 01/16/2021 6:29:34 AM PST by blam
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To: bk1000; GOWM
"Life is so good and easy that people have time to invent this nonsense."

I'm a 77 year old White male and I scan the internet each morning to see what's new on how they're going to 'get me' each day.

This one caught my eye this morning:

Stanford Scientist Can Tell If You’re A Liberal Just By Looking At Your Face

11 posted on 01/16/2021 6:35:21 AM PST by blam
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To: Renkluaf

Why is this even being “taught” in school anyway? This is not teaching, it is indoctrination of students with the teacher’s ideology (and apparently the school board too)


12 posted on 01/16/2021 6:50:28 AM PST by falcon99 (qu)
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To: Renkluaf

Anyone who can afford a $2.3 million home and accepts this nonsense deserves everything they get.


13 posted on 01/16/2021 7:30:31 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("There's somebody new and he sure ain't no rodeo man.")
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To: Renkluaf

Child abuse.


14 posted on 01/16/2021 7:31:24 AM PST by Vision (Elections are one day. Voter Reform Now. Obama is an evildoer. Say No to Chicago Style Corruption.)
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To: blam

Modeled on “The Doughnut” in Cheltenham (GCHQ)?


15 posted on 01/16/2021 8:03:35 AM PST by Fred Hayek (Antifa=BLM=RevCom=CPUSA = CCP=Democratic Party )
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To: Renkluaf
began the lesson on “social identities” during a math class. The teacher asked all students to create an “identity map,” listing their race, class, gender, religion, family structure, and other characteristics.

Yes, isn't that what math classes are for?

16 posted on 01/16/2021 8:50:43 AM PST by libertylover (Remember: Democrats hated Lincoln and Deep State hated Jesus too.)
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To: Renkluaf

The money quote:

“... since these identities are inborn characteristics people cannot change, the only way to change it is via violent revolution...”

Excellent evaluation by one of the parents, who is familiar with the Chicom Cultural Revolution.


17 posted on 01/16/2021 8:52:40 AM PST by VanShuyten ("...that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals.")
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To: Renkluaf

Wouldn’t it be fun to ask the teacher to explain the meaning of a^2 + b^2 = c^2

You’d probably get a blank look.


18 posted on 01/16/2021 8:53:00 AM PST by libertylover (Remember: Democrats hated Lincoln and Deep State hated Jesus too.)
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To: Renkluaf

“”that the training was not part of the “formal curricula, but the process of daily learning facilitated by a certified teacher.””

Certified teacher - certified insane!


19 posted on 01/16/2021 9:48:22 AM PST by Thank You Rush ( )
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To: blam

What are the coordinates......I mean what is the address of that place?


20 posted on 01/16/2021 9:55:21 AM PST by Archie Bunker on steroids (You may not take an interest in politics, but politics takes an interest in you "Pericles" )
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