Submitted by Communities In Schools of Lakewood.
We are looking for two youth-development rockstars who are committed to working alongside school, youth and their families to join our team at Communities In Schools of Lakewood. Please spread the word that we’re hiring! We are especially looking for folks with youth-experience and deep alignment with our commitment to equity and anti-racism (see Values, Beliefs and Commitments document on our website). The position description and application instructions are on our website: www.lakewoodcis.org/jobs/sitecoordinator/
Start date will be mid-August with possibility of summer hours (if available for an early start). Interested candidates are encouraged to learn more at https://lakewoodcis.org/jobs/sitecoordinator/ and submit their application (resume, cover letter and reference) as soon as possible, with a priority deadline of June 6th for initial application review.
I’ve mulled over commenting on the job solicitation by Communities In Schools-Lakewood (CIS-L) all day. As a grandparent I care about education, our youth and the drift toward faux education in our schools. So, I opened this post to find out what it was about.
The phrase “our commitment to equity and anti-racism” caught my eye, as a red flag, leading me to dig deeper. Looking at their 2 1/2 page statement of Values, Beliefs, and Commitments buried as a link at page 2 of the “Job Description/Application Instructions,” it became clear that this is not a benign mentoring and tutoring program, as implied, designed to further academic excellence.
There is no discussion about helping students with STEM skills or other fundamentals of education. Rather it is a “social justice” program designed to create student advocacy in the vein of the BLM,Inc and CRT Marxist racism and radicalism ascendant in our culture.
CRT is particularly pernicious. It has injected RACE into the Marxist concept of Critical Theory which was intended to subvert and destroy “Capitalism” via “class struggle.” Today the same forces seem bent on using this intellectual poison to destroy our country and citizenry via “race struggle.”
People are beginning to wake up to this danger nationally. I note that Mr David Anderson in our community has posted several articles expressing concern about the CPSD in this regard, especially at the board level. His well written 24 March 2021 letter in this forum titled “Is it Education or Political Activism?” is worth the time and touches on my concerns with CIS-L.
I urge parents and our community to pay attention to this situation and push back against this program. CIS-L has no place in our schools. Speak up and demand CPSD disassociate itself with CIS-L. If they refuse, vote them out and replace with people who care about education – real education – first.
Hurrah for you! You hit the nail right on the head! Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a profanity based upon the failed Marxist ideology that has been used so unsuccessfully and at the point of a gun in communist countries throughout history. CRT is nothing more than racism masquerading as “anti-racism”. Its the natural progression ultimately leads to segregation by race: black students in black classes taught by black teachers. In other words……….the Deep South in the early 1950’s.
When people’s minds are vacuous and devoid of any firm foundation built upon the values and principles that made/make this Country great, then any value system that comes along will get sucked into that void and fill the need for personal meaning. Nature abhors a vacuum.
This is the same radicalization process we see among young Muslim jihadists that come from erstwhile “moderate” westernized Muslim families. With no real foundation in either Islam or the west’s values and principles they are entranced by the apparent solidity that radicalization offers them.
As a result, we see the left’s new religion of CRT and trinity of diversity, inclusion and equity using the same techniques used by radical Islam: character assassination (vs. physical), pejoratives (racist name calling); shaming; silencing free speech; intimidation; religious fervor; rapid “infection”; government sponsorship; lack of rational thought; belief without proof; destruction of our social institutions; and physical violence.
The CRT proponents are not progressives! They are instead regressives trying to destroy our individualism based society and transforming it into a tribal society where we are merely faceless members of competing groups. CRT is just the latest attempt at identity politics. Stand up against this mental “viral infection”. Choose carefully in the upcoming election for Clover Park School District Board members. You can turn this trend around and “inoculate” our community against this infection.
Please identify how the School district is teaching CRT. If you are trying to claim CRT and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is the same concept; you lack education on the difference of theory, framework, and concept. What about equity bothers you? CRT, Racial equity, and equity are not the same. You seem so triggered, and I want to know why? For weeks you have been putting together these fancy essays, and yet they are all opinion-based. Not one single fact that is not right-wing bias. What can you tell me about CRT, Race Equity, and equity? What is the problem with ensuring all students have people who look like them, having their barriers to their education eliminated, and all children feel seen and included? You are fighting against this because you believe it puts focus on black kids; when EDI is for all children regardless of their skin color. We see who supports the new candidates for the school board; one of them is a self-proclaimed Trump supporter, white nationalist, and part of the 1776 patriots group who hates gay and trans people so much so that she became known nationally for hate against trans people. She touts being a Christian, though she does not display Christian principles. The people she supports are running on a hate fueled campaign and not because they genuinely care for all children. If they were concerned for all the children in the district they would be trying to find out what the community is asking for and not what they think they should have. Regardless of the color of the community is asking for equity. Every parent group wants barriers removed so that their student has what they need when school starts back again. They are asking for tutoring, to being in the class full time, to counseling services, to reduced lunch (which by the way is equity also). The problem with not having students in the district is we tend to forget what it is like to watch our children struggle with various issues. A equity policy provides insurance and a commitment to the parents, guardians, and students that the district will be intentional in how they work with and create plans for our students. Currently the students are not learning as they should a one size fits all has never worked for everyone not even clothes so why would it work for children? It is time the district does something different. Your false narrative and lack of understanding is hurting more than it is helping and the families who need it the most will fight against what is going to help them because of your irresponsible post.
“RACE” is CRT’s middle name. It’s all about race despite attempts to deflect that emphasis. Yes individual need, rather than group membership based upon skin color, is what should be considered in the allocation of school effort. But that’s not CRT. How is the child of a wealthy black CEO more “marginalized” than a poor white single mother with 3 kids and a minimum wage job simply because of their race? That is the fallacy of CRT.
Perhaps you need to read the District’s Superintendent’s recent letter to parents where he extols “…..our core beliefs…” of diversity, inclusion and equity and the recently passed law that requires 1/3rd of teacher training days be devoted to CRT. Want to bet that CRT will be addressed 100% favorably in that training without any counter viewpoint? That too is part and parcel of CRT: accept the dogma and no opposing views allowed. Why do you think that indoctrinated teachers will not apply CRT to their class room settings? Want to bet that CRT is coming next to the classroom?
Young children typically make friends with others regardless of their skin color or ethnicity. Boys may stick together with boys and girls with girls but they don’t learn to consider race until later when they’ve been influenced by the prejudice they learn from adults. Yet that is exactly what CRT attempts to do as a first order of business when a child enters the school system.
As such, CRT is a profanity which seeks to radicalize racism at the earliest age and continue that through the child’s formative age. In 20 years you will have a segregated society at war with itself which is the ultimate goal of CRT: deconstruction of our national system. its values and principles.
I suppose that the left’s cancel culture will have to “erase” this historical statement too since it is diametrically opposed to CRT: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Martin Luther King
You don’t create equality by creating and implementing racist policies! Hiring and disciplining students based on a “lens of equity” is racist. Forcing teachers to have “training” that assumes their intentions and beliefs based on their skin color is racist!!! Equal opportunity is what we need, not more racism that is directed at a different race now.
I have been watching this debate from a distance of 10,000 miles where the forces of authoritarianism are likewise at work. I would commend Helen Plukrose & James Lindsey’s book “Cynical Theory” to your readers. It discusses the historical roots of CRT, how it was embraced by academia and molded and adapted to advancing an ideology designed to “deconstruct” societal norms by cultural and political means. The purveyors of this ideology deny objective truth and the scientific method and accuse language as the means of suppression of the various victimized groups. The ironical part of their idea is the are using the very same language they attack to convince us that their point of view is “true” and should be believed and embraced. I wish those who want to dramatically change the education system into state sponsored indoctrination, might give the system that produced many accomplishments, including putting a man on the moon, the credit it is due rather than trying the “deconstruct” it and replace it with a feelings base (subjective truth) system, that evidence will prove a recipe for “FAILURE.” I will sight one glaring example, the movie “Hidden Figures.” These minority black women in a segregated south in the very education system being accused of keeping this “group” suppressed, achieved excellence in advanced mathematics and plotted trajectories for entering and returning from space using a slide rule (no computers). Lets hold their example up to our young people, regardless of race, and encourage our children to pursue excellence rather than retribution. I remember being taught to look for the good in other people. This CRT ideology only wants to impute blame and guilt where it does not exist, to gain political power and pit groups against each other. And do not let S.M. whoever they are, deceive you. CRT is foundational to EID curricula and it will poison the minds and hearts of anyone who embraces it. Thank you for listening. Educate yourself with the truth and it will lead to true freedom.
Oh, where do I begin? Lol, you are reaching; I asked you for specific examples of how CRT is being implemented in Clover Park Schools, and you came with half-truths rooted in bias and right-wing talking points, which makes your statement FALSE. Again CRT, Equity, and Racial Equity are all different concepts. Your Hidden Figures comment, though well written, was also not the complete truth. You forgot to mention that those women graduated from segregated schools; one of the schools was founded by Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Hampton University. Thank you for providing an example of how students thrive when they have teachers with cultures they can relate to. Your example is perfect for why ALL students need a teacher they can relate to and why diversity in schools is essential.
Equity has been around for a long time and has not been identified or defined. School lunch reduction based on income is equity. 504 plans and IEPs are equity. Providing vaccinations at school is equity (pre-COVID). After School programs are equity. Please tell me how any of this is political and race based. The district intentionally creates a policy that confirms their commitment to addressing barriers in a way that will help students who need it. All of a sudden, equity is CRT and political? The worst part is that those who are spreading the lie utilize one of the services mentioned above or do not need them and can afford other options like a private school. The Clover Park School District data is clear, and what the district has been doing for over 20 years is not working, and the problem is that people who do not have students in the district are trying to speak for the ones that do. You said you are 10 000 miles away, but you feel compelled to weigh in on something with nothing to do with you. You are trying to warn parents about something the district is NOT doing by lying to them while you do not have students in the district because you read a book and now think you are an expert. Oh, and the book you are referring to, you should reread it because you missed the book’s point.
The book talks about several theories, not solely CRT, as you implied, another half-truth/lie. The theories talked about in the book are post-colonialism, queer theory, critical race theory, and feminism and gender studies (along with inter-sectionality). The study then turns to disability and fat studies before a full exploration of the scholarship of “Social Justice” (not to be confused with social justice) and an account of how that theory impacts the world outside of academia.
I see the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. lol