The Pollyanna curriculum centers around advancing systemic change and enhancing racial literacy, according to its website. Topics discussed include implicit bias, intersectionality, systemic racism and LGBTQ issues. Though used by schools across the country, the curriculum is also bashed on conservative blogs as propaganda. Our goal should be unity, not promoting any sub-group based on religious beliefs, skin color, ethnicity or sexual preference, the letter signed by five of the school s former board chairmen said. If we do not stand firm in our history and mission, we face losing the support not only of our parents, current and future, but also alumni and financial supporters of Bolles.
Guest column: Bolles needs to deal with its angst
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Guest columnists
As a family with considerable experience of the Bolles community, we are writing to express our disappointment and dismay at the decision by Bolles to abandon the Pollyanna curriculum because of what was described as “angst” by some members of the school community. When asked, Jan Olson, the communications director, identified at least some of those with this angst as donors and others as trustees.
Angst, a condition of anxiety or nameless dread at the state of the world, is a powerful and telling word choice. Would that state be an examined world, one in which difficult subjects are raised, researched, and discussed in the hope of better understanding them? A world that had decided that the origins, power, and effects of such subjects needed to be brought out of the shadows, identified and, where necessary, addressed? A world committed to understanding and knowledge? A world very much like a school?