Tea at Trianon: Parents Need To Speak Up

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Parents Need To Speak Up

From The Federalist:

This story is instructive for a few reasons. First and foremost, it shows the public what critical race theory training actually looks like. In this case, critical race theory asserts that society is racist, whiteness is a problem, and that all unequal outcomes between different racial groups are proof of racism. To address this, employees are asked to denounce their whiteness, pledge their support of antiracist organizations, and work to equalize outcomes by penalizing privileged groups and rewarding victimized groups.

One can easily imagine how this kind of thinking can easily corrupt any organization. On an intellectual level, it is divisive, illogical, and unfair. On a practical level, it only worsens the problem it intends to solve. A school district that adopts critical race theory training and antiracist policies in the hopes of improving the academic performance of racial minorities only enables the behaviors and attitudes that create academic disparities in the first place.

Second, the story of critical race theory in Southlake shows that this type of thing can happen anywhere — even in a ritzy suburb in the heart of Dallas-Fort Worth. Unlike the people in the far-left suburbs of Illinois or California, people in Southlake lean conservative.

This fact is probably why the president and vice-president of the Carroll Independent School District school board likely broke the law by deciding by adopting critical race theory without public discussion. Few parents and employees would have approved of it and would loudly protest it if they knew — which is exactly what happened when they finally found out. (Read more.)