“In the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell, the Two MinutesHate is the daily, public period”
Today I await the Two MinutesSelfHate becoming a daily school ritual. (those who are not White may do the Two Minutes Hate)

I left the UK for various reasons in the early 2000s. One reason was the children`s education.
I could see already the way it was going as I lived in London in a bourgeois area but with even then quite a lot of diversity. I do not really have the money without a struggle for the private sector, and anyway I prefer the state sector if it is run well.
I thought it would be a bad thing if frequently the children were to come home, tell me what they had been told about the world, and I would have to tell them that is not a fact, it is an opinion, and I believe it is wrong for the following reasons. It undermines their belief in authority at too early an age, and in fact it would be reasonable for a child to think the teachers were perhaps talking nonsense even about more factual matters like maths or physics.
I think I made a good choice – the country my wife was born in, where politics and ideology make little (although even here, a little) intrusion into the schools. I think they have had a good education – although no doubt many UK educators would be appalled at their lack of, or even opposition to, wokeness.

Wokeism is a secular counter-Enlightenment movement. It’s the first time a secular critique of Enlightenment went mainstream and I think this took many by surprise.
There’s also the political angle. It helps Democrats cast the widest net for minority vote at a time of right-wing populism in US. It looked like it was working in pushing the Right back for a while.
But now, a valid question is whether this will all backfire and strengthen right-wing populism after all, by potentially providing confirmation for some of the things far-righters had been saying about the establishment (e.g. political correctness gone mad) for large parts of the population (e.g. trans rights movement, defund police, white fragility, …).

In Australia they are teaching very young children that Jesus was non-binary and wore a dress. We learned this from a video of a bewildered Aussie mum on Alex Belfield’s Voice of Reason podcast this morning. Notwithstanding the fact the religion should not even be taught in schools, this is crazy even by the standards of what passed for education in the West today.

Raised Catholic but never believing in original sin, I see here a repetition of that obnoxious doctrine: born white, you are born more or less a psychopath, or vicious oppressor, etc. I later learned that the Eastern CHurch has a different and older definition of what is called the sin of Adam and Eve: we all bear the consequences of that sin (the cruelty and inhumanity we so easily inflict on each other and, yes, class and racial oppression) but we bear no guilt. We are only guilty of the sins we ourselves personally commit.
We are only guilty of the wriongs we ourselves commit. And those wrongs can be repaired by a non-ego focused acknowledgement of them, a resolution to do those wrongs no more, and action to perform what reparation we can.
Racism certainly exists and is deeply ingrained in our society. So is the easy assumption of superiority by the class of one’s birth, or by “meritocracy.” The wrongs of society need to be explored with a view to advancing justice. A medieval theological approach does not advance justice or challenge the priviliged to stop fcusing on themselves and their guilt and instead focus on social and class realities with a commitment to advance solutions to the wrongs that are there. I favor ecomnomic security for everyonne and access to certtain resources for everyone. in other words, a well regulated social democratic form of a capitalist economy and democratic governance. But other approaches can be discussed, especially ones that assure economic security and the right to govern one’s own life without hectoring form preachers (religious or secular, right or left) within an orbit of relationship and civic obligations.
Dwelling on one’s guilt is a form of egoistic focus on one’s self. Focusing on shared problems and solutions is one way we escape the human dilemma and harm of egoism.
I am sure there are good aspects of critical race theory. But a far better way to confront and work out solutions to our race (and class) problems are avaiiable. Parents need to discover what has been emppiricalluy proven to solve poverty, class, race and police problems and demand that these solution oriented approaches be taught. A good resource, one that catalogs proven effective solutions, is the Shriver Center at the University of Maryland.
We all remember Martin Luther King’s, “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” This humanistic approach, respectful of people of good will from all backgrounds, did not prevent him from seeing the injustices perpetrated on working class people, especially blacks and other not mainstream white populations, and aiming for radical economic reform as a result.

It certainly seems as though the advance guard of the Woke are adhering to the supposed Jesuit maxim : …give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man…..
I applaud Mr Gutmann but Iam appalled that it should come to this. This Woke movement is innately stupid, being unable to see that it represents a most illiberal, racist body of people all proclaiming their egalitarian credentials…….irony does not begin to describe this…..
The next hurdle of course will be what University will these well educated young people attend. I cannot imagine a university that would accept them unless they were prepared to conform…….