“Dear Mrs. Trump” is a letter from a Cambridge Public School librarian to Melania Trump, who sent some Dr. Seuss titles to our fair city:
Our beautiful and diverse student body is made up of children from all over the world; from different socioeconomic statuses; with a spectrum of gender expressions and identities; with a range of abilities; and of varied racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds.
Yearly per-pupil spending in Cambridge is well over $20,000 [the statistic is correct, but most of the money is spent on administration and pensions; actual in-classroom spending is a small fraction of the total]
we still struggle to close the achievement gap, retain teachers of color, and dismantle the systemic white supremacy in our institution. [but if white students achieve more than students of color in the Cambridge Public Schools, isn’t the system actually working to increase “systematic white supremacy”?]
You may not be aware of this, but Dr. Seuss is a bit of a cliché, a tired and worn ambassador for children’s literature. … Another fact that many people are unaware of is that Dr. Seuss’s illustrations are steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes. … Scholar Philip Nel’s new book, Was the Cat in the Hat Black? The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books, further explores and shines a spotlight on the systemic racism and oppression in education and literature.
The librarian offers a list of ten books in return, e.g., “In this gentle story, Haitian American Saya’s mother is incarcerated because she has no papers. … doesn’t shy away from the realities … the trauma of saying goodbye at the detention facility.” and Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation. Transgender issues are represented by The Boy & the Bindi. (She left off Yo Soy Muslim: A Father’s Letter to His Daughter, prominently featured at the Harvard Bookstore last night.)
[Separately, the librarian complains that “many of us can’t afford to live in the city in which we teach,” but of course if she didn’t have a job she would be entitled to free apartment from the Cambridge Housing Authority. Alternatively, any school employee who studied Massachusetts family law should have been able to figure out a way to live anywhere in Massachusetts without working.]
Readers: Was the Cat in the Hat black? What about Thing 1 and Thing 2? Also, how did the Cat get hold of the alien robot technology that he used to clean up the house after his visit?
Related:
Seems like she was not actually against Dr. Seuss but rather just wanted to resist anyone associated with someone who was “not her President.”
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/09/29/librarian-who-rejected-melania-trumps-dr-seuss-books-dressed-as-cat-in-hat.html
If this librarian had similarly rejected a gift from Mrs. Obama, then she would have been fired as a racist.
This librarian is a racist. She admitted in the letter that she believes in making special efforts to hold on to teachers of certain races. That is a policy based on race.
Frau: Thanks for that photo of the Seuss-hating librarian dressed as Cat in the Hat. What would have been more interesting is if she’d decided that her cited “scholar” was correct, that the Cat in the Hat was in fact black, and therefore she’d appeared before her students in blackface underneath the red-and-white striped hat.
Michelle Obama reading racist books:
https://s26.postimg.org/rqfegil21/1506690123357.jpg
Off topic, but in Melania’s native Slovenia, university is free. US students are going there to avoid running up student debt.
Perhaps the librarian was right. Here’s a clear example of Dr. Suess’ racial propaganda in action:
https://i.redd.it/ushbm7o8yvoz.jpg
Yearly per-pupil spending in Cambridge is well over $20,000 [the statistic is correct, but most of the money is spent on administration and pensions; actual in-classroom spending is a small fraction of the total
This sounds highly implausible. A quick glance at page 94 of this document shows that less than a tenth of all salary spending goes to administrators.
http://www.cpsd.us/UserFiles/Servers/Server_3042785/File/departments/administration/financial/budget/fy2018/FY2018_ADOPTED_BUDGET_web.pdf
but if white students achieve more than students of color in the Cambridge Public Schools, isn’t the system actually working to increase “systematic white supremacy”?]
The answer is No. There’s no reason to think any such thing.
if she didn’t have a job she would be entitled to free apartment from the Cambridge Housing Authority.
This also sounds highly implausible. Consider all of the students in the city. Most don’t have full time jobs. They’re not all living in free apartments to save on dormitory fees.
Alternatively, any school employee who studied Massachusetts family law should have been able to figure out a way to live anywhere in Massachusetts without working
This doesn’t make sense either. There are enough high income guys in the state to fund all of those people. Consider the statement that Margaret Thatcher allegedly made about socialism.
It’s also interesting to see Fox News and Reddit people jumping all over this woman. I think that that’s called doxing on the internet. That’s a good job making the powerful accountable – going after librarians.
Vince: Of course it makes sense that they are spending the $$ in the classroom. Average class size is about 20 kids. Per-pupil spending was $26,184 for 2016, according to
http://www.cpsd.us/UserFiles/Servers/Server_3042785/File/departments/administration/financial/budget/fy2017/Budget-at-a-Glance_2016-17_draft5.pdf
So if the teacher is paid $523,680 per year (about the same as a stagehand in New York City; see http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/10/03/228809419/how-do-you-get-paid-400-000-at-carnegie-hall-be-a-stagehand ), and brings his or her own chalk to school, the budget will be entirely consumed by in-classroom activities.
[Page 10 of the PDF says that, of the $26,184 in per-pupil spending (an under-stated number because it doesn’t include capital/real estate costs; see page 8 for how these are “funded through City-issued bonds and managed directly by the City”), $7,773 is spent on “classroom & specialist teachers”, roughly comparable to the $6,316 spent on “Insurance, Retirement Programs & Other”.]
Vince: Why don’t students at Harvard and MIT have free $5,000/month apartments in luxury apartment buildings? There’s a waiting list to get a free house from Cambridge! See http://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2015/09/16/cambridge-housing-authority-inequality-in-public-housing/
for the stark inequality (much worse than for wage labor).
Also, the queue is much shorter if you have (a) zero income, and (b) custody of one or more children. Most college students don’t have children (because they haven’t read the Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines and therefore think that their college degree will yield more cash than a child!).
[I am kind of confused by government-supplied housing. If there is a basic human right to a free house, why isn’t one provided immediately to anyone who can demonstrate need? That’s how it works with health care (Medicaid) and food (SNAP). Why not with shelter? If there is no basic human right to a free house, why do taxpayers work extra hours to provide free housing to some favored citizens while others are on a waiting list and get nothing?]
$7,773 is spent on “classroom & specialist teachers”, roughly comparable to the $6,316 spent on “Insurance, Retirement Programs & Other”.
This raises more question than it answers. What sort of insurance is it? If it’s health insurance for employees, that’s mostly compensation for the teachers. Perhaps it’s fire insurance for the school buildings. Other information document indicates that money has to be spent to heat the buildings, and pay for textbooks and so forth. Perhaps that should be considered spending on in-classroom activities.
Why don’t students at Harvard and MIT have free $5,000/month apartments in luxury apartment buildings? There’s a waiting list to get a free house from Cambridge!
There’s a waiting list for those luxury apartments? So that must mean that the librarian can’t quit her job and get a apartment!
Also, the queue is much shorter if you have (a) zero income, and (b) custody of one or more children. Most college students don’t have children (because they haven’t read the Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines and therefore think that their college degree will yield more cash than a child!).
They must not have read anything about the Cambridge Housing Authority. Yet they spend lots of money on books, those students. They’re reading the wrong stuff, aren’t they? Harvard and MIT kids must not be so smart after all!
Vince: Some Harvard students are smart. About 15 years ago I met a Harvard undergrad who had two children. The taxpayers paid for her 3BR apartment in West Cambridge (worth about $4,000 per month today) and also paid for daycare expenses because she was (a) on welfare, and (b) in school. Harvard gave her free tuition because she had zero earned income. So her classmates are likely going through IVF now trying to have kids during the sunset of their fertility. They’re making their final student loan payments if they’re lucky. This gal, on the other hand, is enjoying the pleasures of being a grandparent, living debt-free with the Harvard degree that didn’t cost her anything, etc.
Regarding the librarian individually… as with most careers, a person will be more successful by planning properly and starting young. The librarian probably went to school for five years (undergrad plus master’s in library science). If she had a baby instead of matriculating for her Bachelor’s degree I think it is safe to say she would have made it through the waiting list within five years. So she could have enjoyed living in Cambridge without the stress of working or student loans.
“Harvard gave her free tuition because she had zero earned income.”
Um. My kids have zero earned income. Obviously kids can never afford college. Parents are supposed to pay for it.
Marco: This is true only for kids and parents who aren’t thoughtful. See http://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2017/08/24/should-college-students-from-upper-middle-income-families-fly-to-las-vegas-this-weekend-and-get-married/ for example. (It is possible that this young lady had been married at one point, which would have eliminated her parents from being targeted by Harvard.)
BTW, here is a photo of the librarian in question:
https://i0.wp.com/lj.libraryjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Movers2017bigPhippsSoeiro.jpg
Will there someday be AI to detect smug, self-satisfied liberals from their photos, the way they can now detect gay-face? It strikes me that it wouldn’t be hard.
Given that this same woman was dressing as the Cat in the Hat herself not so long ago, I am guessing that Ms. Smug’s beef was not really with the suddenly “racist” Seuss but with Melania and her husband, such that she would have found some excuse to throw manure on ANY gift from Melania. I am also guessing that if she had received the same exact gift from Michelle she would have praised her thoughtful choice and thanked her effusively.
It appears that this whole episode backfired on Ms. Smug, even in super liberal Cambridge, where the school district was forced to issue a press release to the effect that Ms. Smug didn’t really have the authority to accept or reject gifts on behalf of the school system and has been “counseled” accordingly.