PEDAGOGY OF PALESTINE
Hamas’ horrific massacre of Israelis was shocking even for Hamas. But subsequent statements blaming Israel by student groups at Harvard and countless other universities? Not shocking in the least. This is what we have been warning you about for the past several years. Where do you think these idiot kids learned this? How do you think they got there? We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Independent X School starts critical pedagogy in kindergarten by having children paint their own skin colors. Well before Howard Zinn, your ten-year-old is learning about indigenous Americans facing violent European colonists, reading about kids immigrating from Somalia to a racist America, and hearing about “occupied” Palestine. Everything is victimhood, intersectionality, colonizers, oppression Olympics. Nothing is unity, character, growth, stoicism.
In a 2018 HuffPo piece, a former student described Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School (NY) and Riverdale Country School (NY) History Department head Joel Doerfler, who would post newspaper headlines on his door “ISRAELIS KILL DOZENS IN GAZA” with a personal note: “I support Palestinian human rights.” According to the former student, Doerfler, who taught for decades, made his lefty opinions known but was “never dogmatic about it.” He introduced them to Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, but “didn’t push any political doctrine so much as he inculcated in his students a powerful desire to understand how the world works.” Um, yeh. That’s the thing. Independent X School convinces children that pedagogy of the oppressed is not a political doctrine, it’s simply fact – “how the world works,” before calling on them to be global activists for these causes. Even Elon Musk (parent Mirman alum - CA and Crossroads alum- CA), modern day oracle of the obvious, said in the Financial Times that his trans child’s (Crossroads, CA) decision to distance himself from Musk has been influenced by “neo-Marxists” at his school who taught “full-on communism and a general sentiment that if you’re rich, you’re evil.”
In furtherance of these Marxist aims, the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) has commandeered principles, frameworks, structures, and resources into every NAIS School to inculcate pedagogy of the oppressed through abolitionist teaching at every level and groom activists who show up at Harvard, Cal, NYU, Yale, Columbia, GW to lead candlelight vigils for terrorist “martyrs.” Remember all the way back in 2020 when NAIS Schools sent out emotionally effusive synchronized BLM statements? Remember when some of us pointed out BLM was a Marxist anti-Israel organization that supported the likes of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement which calls for the extinction of Israel? Remember when Headmasters like Pace Academy (GA) Headmaster Fred Assaf led BLM marches? Well, after the myriad of statements for only leftist positions, NAIS Schools reluctantly sent out more staid statements this week about the massacre of Israelis.
While statements from NAIS Schools on the massacre in Israel do not seem as synchronized as 2020 in their tone or more subdued sentiment, they all followed NAIS dictates to create Community! The statements called on us to lean into Independent X School’s shared values and community and included the same subtly leftist resources - Common Sense Media, Learning for Justice, UNICEF, American Psychological Association. In doing so, NAIS Schools are increasingly pushing parents to see them as our mental wellness center and depend upon them for our children’s psychological needs. Abdicating our role as parents and allowing Independent X School, which is run by NAIS’ agenda, to be a sociopsychological community is exactly how we get more ignorant American activist leaders who call for violence against minority groups.
So, Bill Ackman (parent Horace Mann – NY, Dalton alum – NY), you’ve pledged and called on other CEOs not to hire signatories of the Harvard Hamas support statement. When Independent X School’s systems are being used to grow Marxist activists instead of instilling knowledge and ethics, what is the intrinsic value of Independent X Schooling? We trust you to understand this better than anyone. Let us repair Independent X School together. We call on you to pledge and call on fellow donors to cease giving to Independent X Schools until they end all use of pedagogy of the oppressed.
