[Merged] $25,000 Spent on programes that made things worse./Woke kindergarten

[Graham2001]

To try and increase attendance and literacy a school district in California bought in a provider called 'Woke Kindergarden' and the results were declines in those benchmarks.


From the San Franscisco Chronicle (Archived version of the article is linked below the quote)

A Hayward elementary school struggling to boost low test scores and dismal student attendance is paying $250,000 for an organization called Woke Kindergarten to train teachers to confront white supremacy, disrupt racism and oppression and remove those barriers to learning.

The Woke Kindergarten sessions train teachers on concepts and curriculum that’s available to use in classrooms with any of Glassbrook Elementary’s 474 students. The sessions are funded through a federal program meant to help the country’s lowest-performing schools boost student achievement.

But two years into the three-year contract with Woke Kindergarten, a for-profit company, student achievement at Glassbrook has fallen, prompting some teachers to question whether the money was well-spent given the needs of the students, who are predominantly low-income. Two-thirds of the students are English learners and more than 80% are Hispanic/Latino.
English and math scores hit new lows last spring, with less than 4% of students proficient in math and just under 12% at grade level in English — a decline of about 4 percentage points in each category.


...



Woke Kindergarten, aimed at elementary-age students, is founded on the relatively new concept of abolitionist education, which advocates for abolition, or “a kind of starting over,” said Zeus Leonardo, UC Berkeley education professor. The idea is that certain things can’t be reformed, tweaked or shifted, because they are inherently problematic or oppressive. It’s not about indoctrinating or imposing politics, “but making politics part of the framework of teaching,” Leonardo said.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/woke-kindergarten-glassbrook-hayward-18635504.php


The website of the company hired which has been in the education buisness since 2020 is linked below, their 'about us' page is quoted below in it's entiriety, the rest of the website is fairly self explanatory.

Akiea “Ki” Gross (they/them) is an abolitionist early educator, cultural organizer and creator currently innovating ways to resist, heal, liberate and create with their pedagogy, Woke Kindergarten.

https://www.wokekindergarten.org/

 

[Thermal]

Might want to alter the title from a spending of $25,000 to $250,000 as reported.

Eta: and if a kindergarten school system is dumping a quarter million into a for-profit company with "woke" in its name, imma go ahead and say they are saps.

 

[Stout]

And here I was, thinking that The Daily Mail and Fox News were just making things up then...

I run into it on Jerry Coyne's blog.

Considering that San Fransisco just gave $5 million to every Black resident, a mere quarter mill is just a drop in the bucket.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

Considering that San Fransisco just gave $5 million to every Black resident, a mere quarter mill is just a drop in the bucket.

They did?

California unveils ambitious first-in-nation slavery reparations package

Feb 02, 2024

A set of 14 bills that were two years in the making aims to correct centuries of racism in a state with 2.6 million African Americans, but the initiative will face an uphill battle in the state legislature
After years in the making, a group of California lawmakers has presented a long-awaited, one-of-a-kind proposal to repair the historical harm caused by slavery. The initiative consists of an ambitious package of 14 measures covering topics as diverse as the prison system, compensation for land expropriation, the elimination of obstacles for entrepreneurs with criminal records and even discrimination over hairstyles at sports competitions. There is one big absence, however: the package does not include an earlier proposal for cash payments to descendants of slaves.

 

[Stout]

That's a different thing than the one I'm talking about but a quick check shown that the wokesters in San Fransisco haven't actually gotten their checkbooks out yet. Any day now, I'm sure.

 

[Norman Alexander]

That's a different thing than the one I'm talking about but a quick check shown that the wokesters in San Fransisco haven't actually gotten their checkbooks out yet. Any day now, I'm sure.

"wokesters"?? Srsly?

 

[smartcooky]

They did?

California unveils ambitious first-in-nation slavery reparations package

"wokesters"?? Srsly?

As usual, Stout has got it completely wrong. Is anyone surprised?

 

[Stout]

"wokesters"?? Srsly?

You have a preferred term of endearment for the practitioners of Woke? Please post it so I can avoid causing further offence.

 

[Stout]

As usual, Stout has got it completely wrong. Is anyone surprised?

Nope, as usual, Mr. Stout was deadly accurate. There was even a thread on what I'm talking about on this very forum.

Now to bring up up to speed on SF and their reparations plan, here's an easy-to-digest recently made video on the topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AqhAxeiSFw

Write the checks...Or this Woke Kindergarten influenced elementary school may just end up marching on your City Hall.

 

[Darat]

Nope, as usual, Mr. Stout was deadly accurate. There was even a thread on what I'm talking about on this very forum.

Now to bring up up to speed on SF and their reparations plan, here's an easy-to-digest recently made video on the topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AqhAxeiSFw

Write the checks...Or this Woke Kindergarten influenced elementary school may just end up marching on your City Hall.

You said:

"...Considering that San Fransisco just gave $5 million to every Black resident..."

Any evidence that has happened?

 

[Stout]

You said:

"...Considering that San Fransisco just gave $5 million to every Black resident..."

Any evidence that has happened?

Then I said it hasn't actually happened. I'll admit, maybe I overreacted a little with all the excitement of seeing that SF had spent $250K on 474 students and just assumed they'd followed through on their other financial commitments progressive causes. My bad, the reparations are still in the performative stage.

 

[Thermal]

Regarding the SF reparations plan, recipients needed to show that they were born in Frisco between 1946 and 1995, demonstrate continuous residency in SF for I think it was 13 years, and self-identity as black in public records. That makes the potential recipient base very very small, as for instance a homeless black man has poor public records, and many moved out of the area at one point or another due to sky high cost of living. Professional athletes and very well-off professionals and business people might actually might be the largest block of recipients that can meet the criteria.

 

[Brainster]

Some of the "Woke Wonderings" at the website:

I wonder... if we challenge the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, how might we transfer power back to the people

.

I wonder... if we abolished the police, what else could we do to keep the world safe?

I wonder… if the united states defunded the israeli military, how could this money be used to rebuild Palestine?

I wonder... if there's any educational value to teaching these sorts of complex concepts to children who can't read and write? I get that it allows radical teachers to talk about all sorts of stuff that interests them, but how are you going to engage second-graders with arguments about the Supreme Court and Israel?

 

[theprestige]

Regarding the SF reparations plan, recipients needed to show that they were born in Frisco between 1946 and 1995, demonstrate continuous residency in SF for I think it was 13 years, and self-identity as black in public records. That makes the potential recipient base very very small, as for instance a homeless black man has poor public records, and many moved out of the area at one point or another due to sky high cost of living. Professional athletes and very well-off professionals and business people might actually might be the largest block of recipients that can meet the criteria.

I for one am interested to see the City of San Francisco's documented history of doing ~$385,000 worth of oppression per year, to any black person living in the city between 1946 and 2008.

What's the dollar amount of how much the Chinese people were oppressed per year, over the same period? What about Mexicans? Russians? Poor whites? Women?

Also, what changed in 1995 (2008?)? Is that the year San Francisco elected its first woke mayor, and stopped oppressing black people to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year?

 

[Brainster]

Regarding the SF reparations plan, recipients needed to show that they were born in Frisco between 1946 and 1995, demonstrate continuous residency in SF for I think it was 13 years, and self-identity as black in public records. That makes the potential recipient base very very small, as for instance a homeless black man has poor public records, and many moved out of the area at one point or another due to sky high cost of living. Professional athletes and very well-off professionals and business people might actually might be the largest block of recipients that can meet the criteria.

I suspect there's a fair amount of folks who would qualify; San Francisco does have some areas with significant Black population: Bayview-Hunter's Point and the Western Addition (although that area has gentrified quite a bit). The real issue is that SF doesn't have the money; they are currently trying to cut the city's budget by 10%. That's just for the coming year; further reductions are likely:

San Francisco officials are now projecting a deficit of nearly $800 million over the coming two budget years — $245 million in the 2025 fiscal year and $554 million in the 2026 fiscal year. Breed previously said the deficit could reach $1 billion by the 2028 fiscal year if no spending reductions were made.

 

[Thermal]

I for one am interested to see the City of San Francisco's documented history of doing ~$385,000 worth of oppression per year, to any black person living in the city between 1946 and 2008.

What's the dollar amount of how much the Chinese people were oppressed per year, over the same period? What about Mexicans? Russians? Poor whites? Women?

Also, what changed in 1995 (2008?)? Is that the year San Francisco elected its first woke mayor, and stopped oppressing black people to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year?

Yeah, that's my biggest hitch with reparations in general. To who, for what, in what values, and where do you start and end responsibilities? It seems like a well-meaning idea I'm the abstract, but when the rubber hits the road, somebody's a-getting slapped in the face, value-wise.

 

[Thermal]

I suspect there's a fair amount of folks who would qualify; San Francisco does have some areas with significant Black population: Bayview-Hunter's Point and the Western Addition (although that area has gentrified quite a bit). The real issue is that SF doesn't have the money; they are currently trying to cut the city's budget by 10%. That's just for the coming year; further reductions are likely:

You'd think with all the property and commercial taxes that they'd be doing pretty ok. Do you know offhand where their shortfall originates?

 

[Brainster]

You'd think with all the property and commercial taxes that they'd be doing pretty ok. Do you know offhand where their shortfall originates?

Google "San Francisco doom loop." It starts with a downtown office market that is officially 30% vacant, but in reality is probably only 50% occupied (the difference is that there is a lot of leased space that is not being used). Basically the Covid year gave everybody the chance to work from home and they discovered it was a lot better than coming into the city. Plus the tech sector has been particularly weak the last few years, and SF has become something of a one-industry city.

All those missing workers used to buy lunches and go out after work for a few beers, contributing sales tax dollars to the city's revenues.

 

[Thermal]

Google "San Francisco doom loop." It starts with a downtown office market that is officially 30% vacant, but in reality is probably only 50% occupied (the difference is that there is a lot of leased space that is not being used). Basically the Covid year gave everybody the chance to work from home and they discovered it was a lot better than coming into the city. Plus the tech sector has been particularly weak the last few years, and SF has become something of a one-industry city.

All those missing workers used to buy lunches and go out after work for a few beers, contributing sales tax dollars to the city's revenues.

Thanks. I guess I think of SF as being mostly high end residential and a tourist destination,and hadn't realized it was hit so hard by commercial office vacancy.

 

[Mojo]

Nope, as usual, Mr. Stout was deadly accurate.

Then I said it hasn't actually happened.

 

[Stout]

Ready for some more lulz?

Non-binary activist Akiea Gross who founded controversial for-profit 'Woke Kindergarten' program that calls to abolish police and Israel now posts online rant saying 'US has no right to exist'

I think I've found her paradise for her. No police, everyone is Black and the place is one big huggy wuggy money-free paradise.

Haiti

With that quarter mill, she could easily fly down there, rip up her US passport, apply for demand asylum and live a wonderful stress free life free for the jackboots of American oppression crushing her windpipe.

 

[Norman Alexander]

"wokesters"?? Srsly?

You have a preferred term of endearment for the practitioners of Woke? Please post it so I can avoid causing further offence.

How about "Stuff stupid MAGA morons imagine happens but doesn't in real life because they are so busy being snowflakes who are frothing about stuff told to them by patent ****-stirrers rather than using their God-given brains and actually thinking for themselves for a change".

Could be shorter, I guess.

How about "normal rational folks".

 

[Brainster]

How about "Stuff stupid MAGA morons imagine happens but doesn't in real life because they are so busy being snowflakes who are frothing about stuff told to them by patent ****-stirrers rather than using their God-given brains and actually thinking for themselves for a change".

Could be shorter, I guess.

How about "normal rational folks".

Good one!

 

[Jim_MDP]

Good one!

Heh heh... she funny. [emoji38]
Still, as a gifter, she's a piker compared to the many right wingers who used PPE loans and such to scam congress during the pandemic.
She should up her game.

 

[Puppycow]

"$25,000[sic] Spent on programes[sic] that made things worse."

Anyone else notice the irony?

 

[Stout]

How about "Stuff stupid MAGA morons imagine happens but doesn't in real life because they are so busy being snowflakes who are frothing about stuff told to them by patent ****-stirrers rather than using their God-given brains and actually thinking for themselves for a change".

Could be shorter, I guess.

How about "normal rational folks".

Hummmmm yes, yes, perfectly normal and rational. Completely made up by Trumpers.
Yes, I see.

A deep cover psyop perhaps? A deep fake created using technology salvage from spacecraft stored at Area 51?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ODeWkfHGFeGGYSsGpHhlYtP7X9746Cg5/view

She's totally not calling for segregation of schools (starting at 3:10) no, not at all.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

Yeah, that's my biggest hitch with reparations in general. To who, for what, in what values, and where do you start and end responsibilities? It seems like a well-meaning idea I'm the abstract, but when the rubber hits the road, somebody's a-getting slapped in the face, value-wise.

The 'reparations' are mostly about fixing the damage caused by discrimination and poor treatment of black slaves. The cash payments idea was a bit silly but that's been dropped now. It's not the only time a scheme like this has been mooted though. Not so long ago the government sent checks with Trump's name on them to 35 million Americans, in a half-hearted attempt to compensate them for covid lockdowns.

 

[Stout]

Heh heh... she funny. [emoji38]
Still, as a gifter, she's a piker compared to the many right wingers who used PPE loans and such to scam congress during the pandemic.
She should up her game.

With all the recent publicity there could be hundreds, nay, thousands of schoolboards discussing bringing the Woke Kindergarten program into their schools. By this time next year we could be looking at a Forbs 500 company.

 

[Jim_MDP]

With all the recent publicity there could be hundreds, nay, thousands of schoolboards discussing bringing the Woke Kindergarten program into their schools. By this time next year we could be looking at a Forbs 500 company.

And here I was, scrolling down, thinking ""when you think there's a chance her idiocy will become mainstream, get back to us". Which would be ridiculous.
Oops, you're already there. [emoji853]

 

[theprestige]

And here I was, scrolling down, thinking ""when you think there's a chance her idiocy will become mainstream, get back to us". Which would be ridiculous.
Oops, you're already there. [ emoji853 ]

I think that when this idiocy scores a $250,000 contract with a school in major metro area, and endorsed by professors at the University of California, it's already mainstream. This isn't some fringe nonsense that has no hope in hell of ever getting academic recognition, let alone government contracts. This nonsense is already mainstream. There's already too many people thinking it, believing it, selling it, and buying it.

There's a recurring trope from progressives, about these sorts of concerns: Oh, it's not happening, it's not as bad as you think, stop worrying. Guess what, Jim? It is happening, it's worse than you thought it was before you found it was actually happening, and progressives refusing to worry about it is a big part of how it already got to be as bad as it is.

 

[Stout]

And here I was, scrolling down, thinking ""when you think there's a chance her idiocy will become mainstream, get back to us". Which would be ridiculous.
Oops, you're already there. [emoji853]

Look at the responses in this thread. See much calling out the absurdity of this educational approach? No, right? That's proof that this sort of absurdity is well into the mainstream.

Consider this: Woke is to liberalism what MAGA is to conservatism. They're both extreme ends of their respective political spectrums.

 

[theprestige]

How about "Stuff stupid MAGA morons imagine happens but doesn't in real life <unhinged rant snipped>

This is a story of an actual real life company calling itself Woke Kindergarten, peddling nonsense and getting government contracts for it.

 

[Norman Alexander]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ODeWkfHGFeGGYSsGpHhlYtP7X9746Cg5/view

She's totally not calling for segregation of schools (starting at 3:10) no, not at all.

No, actually, she isn't. Did you not watch it? She is arguing against racism in schoolteacher positions. And since you are making fun of that position because it's "woke" (a term not used in that context), I take it you are opposed to all that "wokeism", i.e. in favour of racist segregation for teacher positions.

Correct?

 

[Stout]

No, actually, she isn't.

Yes, actually, she is. Having black teachers teaching classes of all black students is what segregation is. Defacto segregation, but segregation nonetheless.

I'm still not seeing any arguments that spending funds on political indoctrination is the best way forward for helping students who are failing as opposed to, say, hiring more teachers.

 

[theprestige]

No, actually, she isn't. Did you not watch it? She is arguing against racism in schoolteacher positions. And since you are making fun of that position because it's "woke" (a term not used in that context)

The person advocating this position has literally made Woke their brand name.

 

[Brainster]

This is a story of an actual real life company calling itself Woke Kindergarten, peddling nonsense and getting government contracts for it.

Note as well that we have gone from "critical race theory is only taught in colleges and universities" to "woke kindergarten" in only a few short years.

 

[theprestige]

Note as well that we have gone from "critical race theory is only taught in colleges and universities" to "woke kindergarten" in only a few short years.

I find it hilarious well, tragicomic, anyway, that Norman Alexander is still stuck on the "woke is a right-wing invention, progressives would never indulge in the kind of nonsense right-wingers accuse them of" talking point.

 

[Brainster]

I'm still not seeing any arguments that spending funds on political indoctrination is the best way forward for helping students who are failing as opposed to, say, hiring more better teachers.

FTFY.

 

[Stout]

Better teachers might do it. This is San Fransisco so they might have a problem attracting talent.

A few years ago I ran into this kid, hiding out in the Honduran jungle, who'd just finished his teaching degree and he was scared to go home and face his student loan. He was saying with what teachers make in California and what he owes, a jungle hut was the best option while he thought things through.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

With all the recent publicity there could be hundreds, nay, thousands of schoolboards discussing bringing the Woke Kindergarten program into their schools. By this time next year we could be looking at a Forbs 500 company.

Right.

They tried it at one school. Seems it wasn't well received and didn't have the desired effect. I doubt they will continue this program on a large scale if at all.

Personally I wouldn't have approved this program because the word 'woke' is in it, guaranteeing a ton of negative publicity even it works. Then you get crap like this thread.

Meanwhile the planet is going to hell as we continue to trash it and what is everybody doing to stop it? Nothing. We're all so worried about 'more important' things like 'woke' kindergartens that the really important stuff is ignored. But that's humans for you. We think we are so smart...