Parents Defending Education is primo astroturf, a group of seasoned political communications professionals with the usual connections and deep pocketed backers, pretending to be a grass roots organization. PDE has come out opposed to Black Lives Matter At School
They claim to be "working to reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful agendas" but it looks to me more like they're working to promote their own agendas which could be equally or more harmful than what they deplore. The anti-immigrant stance is a clear example of the kind of agenda that they are "defending".
Funny thing about Springfield, MA. It's had immigrant students since the 1970's - a lot of them Puerto Rican kids, who are, ya know, citizens. A common pattern of Puerto Rican migration is that families flow between island and mainland schools, and island schools are taught in Spanish. But PDE has just found this out, somehow.
"and for the restoration of a healthy, non-political education for our kids." It saved me a lot of grief to realize that everything is political, and only the most unthinking, ideological and narrow-minded people believe they can live an apolitical life. The assumption being "everything I believe, even if it may change over time, is always correct and true and anything else is therefore political."
When average people, not these culture warriors, engage in good faith contemplation of immigration, they can certainly have some legitimate concerns about their community. It largely boils down to one that is hard to define, but is intuitively understood - does this Vulcan want to become an American of Vulcan descent/heritage or do they want to be a Vulcan just living in America? The first involves those nebulous feelings of belonging or acceptance while the second is strictly transactional. The presence of a “China town” or “Little Havana” in one’s community can be enormously conflicting. We can recognize that our own lack of immigrant acceptance has a role in creating them, but that we in turn are not accepted by them is uncomfortable.
They claim to be "working to reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful agendas" but it looks to me more like they're working to promote their own agendas which could be equally or more harmful than what they deplore. The anti-immigrant stance is a clear example of the kind of agenda that they are "defending".
Funny thing about Springfield, MA. It's had immigrant students since the 1970's - a lot of them Puerto Rican kids, who are, ya know, citizens. A common pattern of Puerto Rican migration is that families flow between island and mainland schools, and island schools are taught in Spanish. But PDE has just found this out, somehow.
"and for the restoration of a healthy, non-political education for our kids." It saved me a lot of grief to realize that everything is political, and only the most unthinking, ideological and narrow-minded people believe they can live an apolitical life. The assumption being "everything I believe, even if it may change over time, is always correct and true and anything else is therefore political."
When average people, not these culture warriors, engage in good faith contemplation of immigration, they can certainly have some legitimate concerns about their community. It largely boils down to one that is hard to define, but is intuitively understood - does this Vulcan want to become an American of Vulcan descent/heritage or do they want to be a Vulcan just living in America? The first involves those nebulous feelings of belonging or acceptance while the second is strictly transactional. The presence of a “China town” or “Little Havana” in one’s community can be enormously conflicting. We can recognize that our own lack of immigrant acceptance has a role in creating them, but that we in turn are not accepted by them is uncomfortable.