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Author: Katya Rapoport Sedgwick

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Katya Rapoport Sedgwick

Mom. Wife. Writer. Mom. Grad school dropout. Wrong kind of immigrant.

Recent visitors to Russia (and Ukraine, and Belarus) note the dearth of masks on crowded sidewalks. In early March, as the COVID pandemic was raging in the region and intensive care units were filled over capacity, restaurants were also filled over capacity — all booked up for corporate parties celebrating International Women’s Day, a major holiday in the post-Soviet world. A veritable woke feast in the time of pestilence. 

There are features of American wokeness that make me gasp that socialism in the U.S. is going to be worse than the USSR where I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. The ongoing effort to transform mathematics education into a crypto-Marxist indoctrination vehicle seems like the sign of things to come.

Last month the San Francisco Board of Education (SFBOE) made a splash with their decree to rename 44 of its schools, including those celebrating presidents Washington and Lincoln, but now, after a round or two of ridicule and a lawsuit, it looks like the the renaming affair is going to fizzle outAt first SFBOE conceded that they should have consulted experts, and now they've promised to vote on the issue again once students return to school full time. 

San Franciscans may think they are the smartest people in the world, but look who they put in charge of educating their kids. The city’s Board of Education drew nationwide attention when it decided to rename its 44 schools, including those honoring Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Paul Revere — the world historic figures and beloved personalities whose biographies shaped our understanding of the American experience.