A meeting yesterday packed with “stakeholders” showed the BoE is still debating how specific the district’s diversity, equity, inclusion policy should be. Should Ossining be the model?
Thank you for covering this in detail. I am no fan of laying down an anti-racist activist curriculum over all our students and teachers.
I was told by school administrators in the recent past that, we don’t teach students what or how to think, we provide the various points of views on a given topic and let students use critical thinking to come to their own understanding.
This is highly valuable to do. I would hope we continue on this path. Ossining’s DEI Policies don’t match at all what we do. I am very concerned about this. I also don’t like the idea of putting warnings on books for bias. That’s just ridiculous.
Oh wow. I literally spent an hour writing some thing I posted it it appeared to go through and then I started to write a PS. When I went to post that suddenly it tells me I need to create an account… Which means a whole hour down the drain…. and I’m not sure if the following ps will make as much sense by itself, will probably come off as a bit harsh… Oh, well
ps I wanted to quickly add that circa 2004 I worked as a substitute teacher, and Croton, where I myself went to school. Without any interest in continuing my education towards becoming a full-time teacher I just wanted the job because the money was OK and I liked being able to control my schedule. But I loved the job so much I briefly thought about maybe making it a career that was until I was fired For writing the title of the movie Siyriana on the chalkboard, and briefly talking about why I thought everyone in the class of seniors should make a point of seeing it. I was still young enough that the kids for the most part let me in so to speak, enjoyed my company, and I really wanted to be a good example until unfortunately a couple of girls who were in trouble and had to spend the morning in some little room between the library in the LRC, which may not be there anymore…. but I accidentally left the word “Asshole“ slip out, talking about someone who is worthy of the title I can promise you that, but yeah, that was unprofessional, but apparently one or both of these girls made a point of telling someone that I had said that and that was the only definitive reason they gave me four suddenly no longer calling me. In fact, they never actually fired me. They just left me hanging for like the entire month of January and part of February before I finally insisted somebody explain why they were no longer calling me. Some witchy looking administrator walked into the class where I had written Syriana on the board…. giving me these scolding eyes, as if that was somehow inappropriate and in fact back then everyone was all gung ho for the weapons of mass destruction lie, and the warning Iraq. No one dare criticize the war, so the feeling was I was in trouble for that. I think I substituted for Billy Tom and I can’t remember the name of the guy who is the other gym teacher but I convinced all the kids to do 15 minutes of yoga with me in 2004 mind you before it became as trendy as it would a few years later before everybody in the world was calling themselves a Yoga teacher, but anyway, I asked this guy “would it be OK if I see if any of them want to do some yoga?” He replied “sure if you wanna get laughed at.” That annoyed me enough to make sure he saw me with at least 20 kids doing 20 minutes of yoga while this former “football star” was basically just handing out basketballs till like five kids, while the rest of them just sat around talking that was their gym class OK….. by the way, I filled in for Robyn Sherbloom Cook at CET around the same time and I did 15 minutes of yoga with 3 3rd grade classes simultaneously and I didn’t lose their attention from almost a half an hour that had to be at least 75 kids right? In 2004 when everybody was laughing at the subject of yoga, I was giving it my all and what did my high school alma mater do to me? they fired me without telling me so I fell behind in my bills not realizing I wasn’t ever going to work there again. When I tried to call the office, they gave me excuses “yeah we don’t usually have a lot of people call out after the holidays blah blah, blah“ it was literally two weeks into February before it became quite clear to me what was happening and I was angry enough to send a group email out to the other teachers, suggesting that it didn’t have to be that way… No curse words, nothing impolite, just simply UNWELCOME! So what did they do? Did anyone reply to my email? No the high school principal at the time whose name I can’t remember call the Croton Police! I shutter to think what might’ve happened to me if I didn’t know Johnny Nikitopulus….. who simply left a message on my answering machine, asked me to call him. I did in his matter of fact way simply said I don’t know what happened, but no more emails OK?” I grew up in Mayberry RFT, and thank God a little bit of it was still lingering because I can’t even imagine what they thought they were doing by involving the police when they wouldn’t even tell me why they fired me… Maybe it was just a bunch of gossip? But the point I’m trying to make is I had an idyllic childhood I feel incredibly lucky to have gone to school and Croton and wouldn’t find out until much later in the real world that few people on the planet are that lucky… I was well liked, relatively popular, class, C, New York, state champions in volleyball! If only the kids today aren’t having all of that stolen from them because of their neurotic Nutter parents and no doubt school administrators in the whole shebang. But this last point, I’m trying to make is I was a good person. I am a good person, but look at how I was treated is that because they didn’t have DEI back then? No. I was treated badly because unfortunately, the world is full of hypocrites, and always will be. The only way that’s ever going to change is when people are inspired to live their lives as conscientious individuals. In fact, I used to believe that I don’t know what I believe anymore watching you all swallow this insanity, as if you all don’t have a choice. “All in all it’s just another brick in the wall”?
In my first post, I ended with “Teachers! Leave those kids alone!” Which I prefer to “just another brick in the wall“ but it’s all from the same song..
Thank you for covering this in detail. I am no fan of laying down an anti-racist activist curriculum over all our students and teachers.
I was told by school administrators in the recent past that, we don’t teach students what or how to think, we provide the various points of views on a given topic and let students use critical thinking to come to their own understanding.
This is highly valuable to do. I would hope we continue on this path. Ossining’s DEI Policies don’t match at all what we do. I am very concerned about this. I also don’t like the idea of putting warnings on books for bias. That’s just ridiculous.
Oh wow. I literally spent an hour writing some thing I posted it it appeared to go through and then I started to write a PS. When I went to post that suddenly it tells me I need to create an account… Which means a whole hour down the drain…. and I’m not sure if the following ps will make as much sense by itself, will probably come off as a bit harsh… Oh, well
ps I wanted to quickly add that circa 2004 I worked as a substitute teacher, and Croton, where I myself went to school. Without any interest in continuing my education towards becoming a full-time teacher I just wanted the job because the money was OK and I liked being able to control my schedule. But I loved the job so much I briefly thought about maybe making it a career that was until I was fired For writing the title of the movie Siyriana on the chalkboard, and briefly talking about why I thought everyone in the class of seniors should make a point of seeing it. I was still young enough that the kids for the most part let me in so to speak, enjoyed my company, and I really wanted to be a good example until unfortunately a couple of girls who were in trouble and had to spend the morning in some little room between the library in the LRC, which may not be there anymore…. but I accidentally left the word “Asshole“ slip out, talking about someone who is worthy of the title I can promise you that, but yeah, that was unprofessional, but apparently one or both of these girls made a point of telling someone that I had said that and that was the only definitive reason they gave me four suddenly no longer calling me. In fact, they never actually fired me. They just left me hanging for like the entire month of January and part of February before I finally insisted somebody explain why they were no longer calling me. Some witchy looking administrator walked into the class where I had written Syriana on the board…. giving me these scolding eyes, as if that was somehow inappropriate and in fact back then everyone was all gung ho for the weapons of mass destruction lie, and the warning Iraq. No one dare criticize the war, so the feeling was I was in trouble for that. I think I substituted for Billy Tom and I can’t remember the name of the guy who is the other gym teacher but I convinced all the kids to do 15 minutes of yoga with me in 2004 mind you before it became as trendy as it would a few years later before everybody in the world was calling themselves a Yoga teacher, but anyway, I asked this guy “would it be OK if I see if any of them want to do some yoga?” He replied “sure if you wanna get laughed at.” That annoyed me enough to make sure he saw me with at least 20 kids doing 20 minutes of yoga while this former “football star” was basically just handing out basketballs till like five kids, while the rest of them just sat around talking that was their gym class OK….. by the way, I filled in for Robyn Sherbloom Cook at CET around the same time and I did 15 minutes of yoga with 3 3rd grade classes simultaneously and I didn’t lose their attention from almost a half an hour that had to be at least 75 kids right? In 2004 when everybody was laughing at the subject of yoga, I was giving it my all and what did my high school alma mater do to me? they fired me without telling me so I fell behind in my bills not realizing I wasn’t ever going to work there again. When I tried to call the office, they gave me excuses “yeah we don’t usually have a lot of people call out after the holidays blah blah, blah“ it was literally two weeks into February before it became quite clear to me what was happening and I was angry enough to send a group email out to the other teachers, suggesting that it didn’t have to be that way… No curse words, nothing impolite, just simply UNWELCOME! So what did they do? Did anyone reply to my email? No the high school principal at the time whose name I can’t remember call the Croton Police! I shutter to think what might’ve happened to me if I didn’t know Johnny Nikitopulus….. who simply left a message on my answering machine, asked me to call him. I did in his matter of fact way simply said I don’t know what happened, but no more emails OK?” I grew up in Mayberry RFT, and thank God a little bit of it was still lingering because I can’t even imagine what they thought they were doing by involving the police when they wouldn’t even tell me why they fired me… Maybe it was just a bunch of gossip? But the point I’m trying to make is I had an idyllic childhood I feel incredibly lucky to have gone to school and Croton and wouldn’t find out until much later in the real world that few people on the planet are that lucky… I was well liked, relatively popular, class, C, New York, state champions in volleyball! If only the kids today aren’t having all of that stolen from them because of their neurotic Nutter parents and no doubt school administrators in the whole shebang. But this last point, I’m trying to make is I was a good person. I am a good person, but look at how I was treated is that because they didn’t have DEI back then? No. I was treated badly because unfortunately, the world is full of hypocrites, and always will be. The only way that’s ever going to change is when people are inspired to live their lives as conscientious individuals. In fact, I used to believe that I don’t know what I believe anymore watching you all swallow this insanity, as if you all don’t have a choice. “All in all it’s just another brick in the wall”?
In my first post, I ended with “Teachers! Leave those kids alone!” Which I prefer to “just another brick in the wall“ but it’s all from the same song..