Progressives have been engaged in a years-long campaign to inject their ideology on race, gender, and sexuality into K-12 classrooms. In most instances, they have attempted to indoctrinate students without their parents’ knowledge. If it weren’t for the COVID-19 pandemic, they might have succeeded, but now that parents are aware of how public schools are presenting far-leftist ideology to their children, they have been aggressively pushing back.
However, it would be a mistake to assume the left is only targeting public schools for this type of indoctrination. Indeed, they are doing the same in many private schools as well, meaning that parents are paying tens of thousands of dollars to have educators turn their children into left-wing activists.
A school bulletin in a Rhode Island private school urged students to write letters to lawmakers opposing the state’s version of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, which prevents teachers from instructing young kids on issues pertaining to sexuality and gender identity according to Parents Defending Education (PDE). The Daily Information Board (DIB), which is handled by school officials at Moses Brown School declared in a bulletin that “Florida Is Not the Only State Proposing a ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill.”
The bulletin also asserted that the proposed legislation would “ban discussions of race, gender, and sexual orientation in schools” and required students to “use their birth names and pronouns unless their parent or guardian gives explicit permission to use a chosen name.”
A number of students told PDE that the school distributed pins that read: “My pronouns are; They Them Theirs” during an event.
Nicole Neily, president of PDE told The Daily Caller: “It’s astonishing that a private school charging over $35,000 per year would miss an opportunity to constructively engage students in the political process.”
She continued:
“Not only has Moses Brown failed to objectively present what the bill says, the school also makes clear what the only ‘acceptable’ interpretation of the bill is – demonstrating that there is no opportunity for an alternative perspective.”
This is only the latest in a long line of stories in which private schools have infused progressivism into their teaching. In 2020, RedState’s Alex Parker wrote about the Dalton School in New York, which promoted anti-racism instruction. For those who don’t know, “anti-racism” is a term far-leftists use as another way to label as racist anything with which they disagree. The Free Beacon, which originally reported on the matter, wrote:
Other items on the list call for revising curriculum. Teachers proposed that administrators add mandatory courses that “center Black liberation and challenges to white supremacy” with a credit requirement “equivalent to or greater than” other departments. … Teachers and faculty also asked administrators to publish staff salaries based on race and gender and collect and release data on student discipline and race.
Another private school in New York has been exposed for promoting wokeism in its curriculum. RedState’s Mike Miller wrote:
Paul Rossi, a math teacher at Grace Church School in Manhattan — which costs a pricey $57,000 a year to attend — slammed his school in an open letter titled, “I Refuse to Stand By While My Students Are Indoctrinated,” published Tuesday by former New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss, from which the Post article was excerpted.
Earlier this year, the school, which “prides itself on being at the forefront of implementing woke ideology into classrooms,” made headlines for issuing an “inclusive language” guide that warned staff, students, and parents against assuming someone’s gender and using unwelcoming terms such as “mom and dad” and “Merry Christmas.”
Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York infuriated parents, who pay over $47,000 per year for their kids to attend, when they found out students attended a health and sexuality workshop under false pretenses. The students thought the class was “just going to be about condoms or birth control” but instead, they were subjected to a seminar titled “Pornography Literacy: An intersectional focus on mainstream porn.”
The class was conducted by Justine Ang Fonte, who also caused controversy when she taught young elementary school students about masturbation and other age-inappropriate sexual materials. The seminar taught about the “orgasm gap,” and featured pictures of partially-nude women. It also included a list of the most commonly-searched pornographic terms of 2019, which included “creampie,” “gangbang,” “anal,” and others.
Many, myself included, have suggested that school choice is likely the most effective solution for parents seeking to shield their children from the left’s attempts to indoctrinate them. However, we must not assume that just because a learning institution is private, it is safe. It is yet another area in which parents must be vigilant. If you or someone you love is looking to place their child in a private school, it is of the utmost importance that you do your research on every school you consider. Otherwise, your children might end up in the same situation as they would at a public school.
