Isn't this what the Progressive Left spoke of when referring to having painful but, honest conversations?
One of my best friends who tried to be a school teacher in the middle school grades, was so frustrated after every parent-teacher conference; the parents would lay into him, accusing him that he wasn't teaching their kid ergo, that's why they're failing, instead of being honest, seeking help and advice for establishing good stuff habits, eliminating distractions and working to understand the academic pathway.
A San Francisco school board member is under fire for comments made about racially marginalized families, attributing their challenges to “unstable family environments.”
Ann Hsu said in a candidate questionnaire to the San Francisco Parent Action Coalition shared over the weekend that a “lack of parental encouragement” was part of the cause for students being unable to focus on or care about school.
“… Especially in the Black and brown community, I see one of the biggest challenges as being the lack of family support for those students,” Hsu wrote. “Unstable family environments caused by housing and food insecurity along with lack of parental encouragement to focus on learning cause children to not be able to focus on or value learning.”
When asked to comment, Hsu later directed The Standard to a Twitter thread in which she said she “misspoke.” Like the two other commissioners appointed to the school board by Mayor London Breed in the wake of the recall supported by all three, she is up for election in November. Some on Twitter called for Hsu to resign.
“I believe that the institutional racism that is deeply embedded in our society harms students and their families,” Hsu wrote on Tuesday afternoon. “My statements reflected my own limited experiences and inherent biases. I made a mistake, and I am deeply sorry.”
However, Hsu’s apology wasn’t enough for Shamann Walton, the president of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors.
“It is disheartening that someone in a position responsible for making decisions for 50,000 children lead with racism and stereotypical characterizations,” said Walton.
He urged Hsu to resign because he said her statements are “flat-out wrong and racist to perpetuate harmful stereotypes on Black and Brown students and their families.”
Hsu’s remark about marginalized students wasn’t the first time Yvette Edwards—a Black parent of two San Francisco Unified School District students—has heard that kind of explanation for disparities in student outcomes.
“The original response was upsetting, and it’s obviously very disappointing to hear that narrative again,” said Edwards, a Parent Action Coalition board member. “It was a racially insensitive remark. There’s no way around this. A lot of people don’t have time—it doesn’t mean we don’t care.”
Edwards said disparities in academic performance come down to disparities in funding for structural support, and even simple accommodations like conducting parent-teacher conferences over the phone to make it easier on families with little time to spare. Before Hsu issued an apology, Edwards told The Standard she hoped Hsu would clarify what she meant, and acknowledge the harm caused by her statement.
Hsu later revised the answer in the questionnaire to say: “Due to historical inequities, many students in marginalized communities face extra challenges that create obstacles to their learning. We must recognize the inequities and work to mitigate the harms that stem from them.”
During a discussion about the creation of a virtual school at a May committee meeting, Hsu also drew attention for comments about wanting her son, who enjoyed online learning, to interact with “riff raff,” a term used in the past to refer to disreputable people or people from a low social class.
Edwards said the remark made her “uncomfortable.”
Meredith Dodson, executive director of the Parent Action Coalition, convened a meeting for Black families in their network on Monday, where they expressed hurt over the remarks. A meeting with the families and Hsu is scheduled for Wednesday.
“Right now we have a situation where there’s a current commissioner and candidate for November who has said some disappointing and hurtful things that’s impacting our community of families as well as the broad SFUSD community,” Dodson said. “We hope it’s a learning experience for Ann.”
Edwards also noted the need for larger, honest conversations around race in the district.
In just the last few months, some parents and school leaders have lamented Black and Asian communities being pitted against one another without nuance when it came to the board’s decision to reinstate selective admissions at Lowell High School, and the case of a principal reassigned over the use of a racial slur.
“It’s a whole different level,” Edwards said. “Yet no one seems to be able to have a truthful, engaged conversation without it turning it into … I call it the Mortal Kombat of the city. Everyone’s choosing their fighters instead of choosing the kids.”
Posts: 15190 | Location: Wine Country | Registered: September 20, 2000
I dunno. If you’re gonna speak the truth, you need to be as articulate as possible, then stick to your guns. If you turn right around and apologize for something you said, you should have thought more before you opened your trap.
I’d think it would be a lot better to couch the problem as related to instability on the home front, food insecurity, and lack of familial support for prioritizing education. Not a darned thing said about race or skin color. Not wrong that those problems may be seen more often in non-Asian families (to provide another spurious to race), but those are the problems not the skin color.
Posts: 7214 | Location: Lost, but making time. | Registered: February 23, 2011
Frankly, one speaking the truth doesn’t really matter.
This is like an addict. We can speak the truth to the addict all day long. But the addict needs to self admit they have a problem before real solutions can be adopted.
Lies, truths, whatever. First these social, cultural, economic groups need to admit they are a cause, if not the cause, of their predicament.
They need to start helping themselves in the right, meaningful long term manner before they expect anyone else to really help them.
And honestly, at my age, I really don’t care anymore. They made their bed.
"Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it." L.Tolstoy "A government is just a body of people, usually, notably, ungoverned." Shepherd Book
Posts: 13215 | Location: In the gilded cage | Registered: December 09, 2007
Truth, but truth today is absolutely meaningless. The comments were brash, unpolished and politically incorrect, however that doesn’t make them false, wrong or deceptive. However, we live in a society that believes your gender is what you feel it is, or you can change it by adding or deleting parts, and will outcast you if you’re not in an agreement. A Supreme Court Justice can’t define woman when she’s allegedly a woman. Truth is not anywhere near part of the equation today, sadly.
Posts: 2885 | Location: Boston, Mass | Registered: December 02, 2000
In just the last few months, some parents and school leaders have lamented Black and Asian communities being pitted against one another without nuance
oh hell no. Not without NUANCE! Woke talk without NUANCE is like pop without corn, like Roy without Trigger, like, I dunno, like saying what you mean without burying it in newspeak, a lingo that must pay for people to invent new meanings for perfectly good words.
You ought to be able to go on Amazon and order nuance so you don't get in trouble like this; of course then they would bellyache about nothing to bellyache about.
_______________________
Posts: 6586 | Location: Washington | Registered: November 06, 2006
Regarding the commissioner’s comments, do any of the offended groups dispute what’s she saying?
In my community, I see Asian and Indian family dedicate a disproportionate amount of time to education. No surprise, those groups always lead the academic pack.
P229
Posts: 3975 | Location: Sacramento, CA | Registered: November 21, 2008
SF school district has released its findings on the most recent academic year....and, the most basic, and easiest effort of going to class, some aren't able to do. If somebody else has the skills to post that Twitter graphic, the numbers don't lie...unless you believe white supremists cooked-up the data
Chronic absence rates have skyrocketed and high school readiness has dropped in San Francisco, according to data released this week by the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD).
SFUSD has historically had “chronic absence” rates of around 12-14% for elementary and secondary school students, but in the 2021-2022 academic year, 28.4% of students were chronically absent, defined by missing more than 10% of classes, the data showed. This corresponded with a marked downtick in high school readiness for the 2021-2022 academic year; SFUSD students’ high school readiness rate has been approximately 60% for each of the last three years, but in 2021-2022, just 47% were prepared, another report showed.
Both statistics varied greatly by demographic. The chronic absence rate for African American and “Latinx” students were 63.4% and 46.4%, respectively, whereas only 19.5% and 8% of White and Asian students missed more than 10% of classes.
For high school preparedness, just 15% of African American eighth-graders were deemed ready for secondary education whereas 71% of their Asian classmates were considered prepared.
SFUSD had some of the longest school closures in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting parents to protest to get their children back in classrooms. While schools remained closed, SFUSD attempted to rename 44 schools that were allegedly linked to racism, including schools named after former Presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, as well as Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
In February 2022, San Francisco residents overwhelmingly voted to recall SFUSD Board President Gabriela Lopez, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and Commissioner Alison Collins.
SFUSD Board President Jenny Lam did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Posts: 15190 | Location: Wine Country | Registered: September 20, 2000
A San Francisco school board member is under fire for comments made about racially marginalized families, attributing their challenges to “unstable family environments.”
Ann Hsu said in a candidate questionnaire to the San Francisco Parent Action Coalition shared over the weekend that a “lack of parental encouragement” was part of the cause for students being unable to focus on or care about school.
“… Especially in the Black and brown community, I see one of the biggest challenges as being the lack of family support for those students,” Hsu wrote. “Unstable family environments caused by housing and food insecurity along with lack of parental encouragement to focus on learning cause children to not be able to focus on or value learning.”...
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
For high school preparedness, just 15% of African American eighth-graders were deemed ready for secondary education whereas 71% of their Asian classmates were considered prepared.
Over a decade ago, I remember reading an article stating that the average high school graduation rate in Oakland's public school district was 1 out of 3, a pretty dismal number. But the numbers later vastly improved when Gov. Jerry Brown got rid of the high school exit exam, which was considered racist because it "denied graduation for people of color".
"I’m not going to read Time Magazine, I’m not going to read Newsweek, I’m not going to read any of these magazines; I mean, because they have too much to lose by printing the truth"- Bob Dylan, 1965
Posts: 17565 | Location: Texas | Registered: May 13, 2003
Her mistake was apologizing and back-walking her comment, not the comment.
If you wanted to blunt the ugliness of truth a bit she could have just eliminated the "especially in the black and brown community" because the truth holds across all cultures... kids without proper support at home don't do as well. It's real simple.
oh well.
Posts: 6520 | Location: Modesto, CA | Registered: January 27, 2005
She really didn't have much choice but to walk the comment back. In her location, she would have been in actual physical danger if she didn't promptly disavow the statements. The one thing you absolutely can't do with these people is confront them with reality.
I'm not a teacher, but I've taught Sunday School and teach professional development courses several times per year.
If betting on the outcome with everything being equal except:
Shiny, new Taj Mahal school (i.e. taxpayers spend a fortune). Home life is predominately single parent families and kids homework is rarely checked and neither are test scores.
50 year old school with a few 10 year old trailers to cover expansion. Home life is predominately two parent household and one of the parents inspects school work with the compassion of a drill instructor and reviews test scores like it depends on the kid getting into MIT.
I'll bet all day, every day on the kiddos in the second bullet.
Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity
DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.
Posts: 23942 | Location: Northern Suburbs of Houston | Registered: November 14, 2005
