Two Last Comments About Rod Dreher and Woodrow
Surely you’ve been following along. But if not: Dreher said Woodrow is a good school — if you’re white. Even Dreher’s own co-workers got all riled up. Jim Schutze called him an idiot. And the discussion continues all over the Internets. Eric and I had a 15-minute discussion yesterday about Dreher — and about race, class, culture, and education. We even let Trey join in.
So here’s the thing. While I disagree with Dreher (who is many things but certainly no idiot), I’m thankful for the column he wrote. That’s what a newspaper should do. Spark debate. Get you thinking. Rather than worry about redesigns, the DMN needs to figure out how to do this more often.
Finally, Dreher’s wife has shingles. He and his family are all stressed out. I consider them friends, so I gave Dreher some advice. I’ll pass it along publicly here. He needs to stop issuing such hot sports opinions. Take a cue from most of the other columnists at the paper. Go easy, man. Move to the suburbs. Write about how much you hate flying. Or how your gas mileage improves if you drive slower. And just feel that stress magically melt away.
Awards | Archives | Reprints | Custom Publishing | Jobs | Advertiser's Index
I wouldn’t wish shingles on anyone, hope they are over soon. Timing is everything, and I’m currently PMS – that’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.
You’re right, let’s find the solutions – ones that accomplish STUDENT goals first (and keep the district out of court oversight again).
“Move to the suburbs.”
Yeah, because I’m just a sea of tranquility.
If you define an idiot as someone who is too stupid to know what he is doing, then no, Rod Dreher is not an idiot.
If you are just using idiot as a general insult for someone who says stupid stuff to get a reaction because his livelihood depends on it, then yes, it would be accurate to call Rod an idiot. That would actually be one of the nicer things you could call him.
I’m delighted that we finally have an open venue for debate. Before the blogs, we were at the mercy of DMN to print our rebuttals. So thanks for the blog space. : D
It is frustrating that we can’t get through to Rod. Maybe he should look at it from this perspective:
Many people have known about the unusual combination of factors which makes Woodrow one in a million. Their families have been going there for generations. They aren’t movivated by fear – it’s love.
Another group of affluent Lakewood people takes the plunge into public school with trepidation – and they are shocked to find, yes, Woodrow is a gem!
These two groups want to spread the gospel about the school so that others don’t miss out – and deny their children something so wonderful.
“Wouldn’t it be great if we could all go to Woodrow and our kids could all be life-long friends instead of being carted to various elite private schools and those thinly disguised white-flight academies”?
What’s wrong with that message?
If my husband was encouraging people to cancel their media subscriptions and read Dostoyevsky instead while his boss stood to septuple his salary by cutting Dostoyevsky boy as an expense, I think I’d develop shingles, too.
In fact, I think I’d come down with freaking rabies as well and bite the stupid SOB.
OK – Terri’s just beat out Nancy’s “Vomit here” for funny.
Awe. Some.
Idiots have a better grasp on reality than
Rod Dreher. He is Ann Coulter. No substance in his content, just irrational verbiage that garners him attention. Attention is what he craves. I would take a case of the shingles anyday over being married to this man.
Tim maybe your experience as a DISD parent will help Rod to see the light and let his kids become Wildcats (I promise they will thank him for the rest of their lives). Be careful what you say to Rod, though, he might start attacking Hexter using recycled quotes while never visiting the campus.
Does Hexter feed into Woodrow? I thought it would be Bryan Adams.
“It is frustrating that we can’t get through to Rod.”
ah yes the sign of a true believer. We don’t need no stinkin’ introspection about our school, we just need to convince Rod he is wrong.
Remember Cassandra?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra
or the Emperor who had no clothes?
I’m not knocking Woodrow, but what I am saying is take a deep breath, and read what Dreher wrote with an open mind, then take a look at Woodrow through his eyes
Like someone else wrote thank goodness for the Internet where we can read a variety of comments on the column as well as posting our own comments
Someone should tell Dreher’s wife there is a highly effective vaccine for shingles out now. It even works if you have it already. Alas, there is nothing yet medically available to inoculate oneself from marriage to an idiot.
Well I’m not exactly a Pollyanna either (yes we studied both at Woodrow — Mrs. Dunlap’s class), Peterk.
The trouble is we have been hearing the same thing from outsiders since a sensational number in the Dallas Times Herald in 1975. The front-page article said black girls had razor blades in their ‘fros and hispanic girls carried knives..turns out the reporter interviewed a kid waiting on the bus to our rival, Skyline.
We know what is wrong with Woodrow and have done our best to try to improve things and get more minority participation for the last 40 years. The opportunity to go on to Ivy League schools is there at Woodrow. But there are others who would rather be a mechanic and hate algebra. I’m fine with both – we will still be friends when we are grandparents. Even the merely pragmatic will acknowledge that knowing a mechanic or plumber is a plus in life.
Meeting people and making memories is a part of our alma mater, too. There are going to be problems in any high school but for some cosmic reason it all comes together and works at Woodrow.
I invite you to come to the musical this week and see for yourself:
http://www.woodrowwildcats.org/musical.htm
“We know what is wrong with Woodrow and have done our best to try to improve things and get more minority participation for the last 40 years.”
I think this statement speaks volumes. it is okay for a Woodrow supporter to say this, but when someone like Rod Dreher points out the problems. all heck breaks loose. In my profession I help customers identify their problems and then we try to develop solutions.
but I do agree that not everyone in a school will go onto college and not everyone is meant to go on to college. I wonder sometimes if our college degrees are being diluted by too many folks who are seeking a degree that will get them a job when what they really need is an education. Just look at someone like Fred Florence who rose to be head of Republic Bank, didn’t go to college.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/RR/cor1.html
as for attending the Musical wish I could but I’m 1500 miles away
Well Peterk, many people fly in for the musical.
Rod Dreher in our eyes neglected to say anything good about Woodrow and really didn’t do his homework. Many of us think he has a bias because he has been on record as a strident proponent of homeschooling and private schools. He lives in Lipscomb Elementary (Woodrow feeder) district and refuses to send his kids there even though the school has been ranked exemplary for the last three years and the principal named “Principal of the Year” for Dallas. What could be his reason?
Why aren’t East Dallas private schools being asked tough questions?
Such as: Why can’t your private school’s top kids compete with Woodrow’s top kids for National Merit Scholars, AP results and scholarship dollars won?
Why are your kids really at a private school when the free public school down the street offers a better college-prep program?
Did you visit your local public school before writing your tuition check?
Why are you depriving your kid of the Woodrow experience?
billh: Hexter feeds into BA, you’re right.
“Why are you depriving your kid of the Woodrow experience?”
See this is what I call the reverse snobbism of the public school supporter. Parents of who send their children to private schools are always being questioned as to their motives. And underlying these questions is the attitude that if you only saw what we see at PS X you too would become a true believer
I suspect that private schools are being asked the tough questions, such as what universities do your graduates attend? What courses do you offer? How do you compare to other schools (both private and public). Besides the courses offered what else does your school do to make my child a whole person?
Could part of it be because the private schools are not constantly experimenting with the latest education fad, such as whole word reading, bilingualism, whole math and who knows what else?
(Rod)”…refuses to send his kids there even though the school has been ranked exemplary for the last three years and the principal named “Principal of the Year” for Dallas. What could be his reason?”
didn’t take much to find out why he and his wife favor homeschooling. He lays it out in this paragraph from an Aug 2007 column
“My wife and I believe in academic rigor and the old-fashioned idea that true learning requires education in virtue, as well. Given how unfashionable that view is, how disdainful Julie and I are of the permissive mores in mainstream culture and the stories public school teachers share about how maddeningly disengaged so many parents are from the moral imagination of their children, homeschooling seemed inevitable.”
and note that in the same column he is not exactly enamored of religious schools either.
” We considered religious schooling, but warily. Too often, faith is often not at the core of a school’s mission, but rather a deceptive veneer over an institution that actually embodies and transmits values traditionalists like us reject.”
http://tinyurl.com/5u2qbm
all I can say is Rod definitely struck a nerve with his column. This is what i want a newspaper to do get folks talking
anyway enuff for today
I believe supporting a school for 80 years would qualify us as ‘traditionalists’.
Quick clarification on schools. Hexter elem does indeed feed Bryan Adams H.S. Also, Lakewood elem feeds Pat Benetar H.S. and Robert E. Lee elem feeds Christopher Cross H.S.
Hank The Tank brings up some good information. For more like it, read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Graduates_of_Dallas_ISD
Sorry Hank but Pat Benetar and Cristopher Cross aren’t from Lakewood. However, Steve Miller wWw ‘61 and Dusty Hill wWw ‘67 are..
I started a conversation with a young hispanic man at my neighborhood grocery, he was wearing a school spirit shirt my son also owns. He graduated last year and is attending Richland, but will be transferring to North Texas next year on a full scholarship. His brow and lip were pierced, his front teeth were gold, but he looked me in the eye and shook my hand.
Last week I met a young man who owns his own landscaping business, it turned out he attended my son’s school as well. When I asked what year he graduated, he explained that his father had pulled him out to work for him (home school – just a different sort?), because he was concerned that the neighborhood gangs or a pretty senorita might cause problems. At 31, he owns his business, is married and has a 2 year old daughter. When I told him he should be sure to send his daughter to his former school, he laughed and said, “No, Catholic school”. Not good, not bad, just interesting.
My son’s teammate last year was kicked out of his fathers/stepmother’s home his junior year. His dad drove long haul and his stepmom didn’t like him much. He found a family to take him in, his church offered their support, and he completed school and is attending Rice on a full scholarship.
For three years, a group of moms and I (all white) ran a cub scout troup (half white) of 16 very active boys. Many have moved away or are attending magnet schools now, but one is still with us. He’s taking honors level and AP classes, is a starting lacrosse player and is one of my son’s friends. He is being raised by his grandmother (in 12 years I have never seen a parent) with his younger brother and sister while she works as a housekeeper on Strait Lane.
I guess I recount these episodes to point out that you really can’t know your neighbor until you get to know your neighbor.
I’m laughing my ass off that any of you nitwits might think Rod Dreher gives a flying crap about Woodrow or Dallas or anything in Texas for that matter.
He only left his beloved Brooklyn because 9/11 and the Muslims scared him so much he couldn’t take New York anymore, and because his wife is from here.
So five years later he’s still hiding out somewhere in East Dallas in the heart of the Great Babylon of the South spending most of his time online, won’t let his family get contaminated by the local Cletuses, particularly his kids in school, phones in some slapped together throwaway piece to TDMN every week, and spends 90% of his time scratching up free lance work and posting the 10 to 12 column length pieces he puts his real effort into to his personal religion blog where he can bask in the protective adoration of his devoted readers. And of course
“I’m grateful for the exposure, and more blog hits, which means money in my pocket.”
Woodrow? Race? ‘Getting us to talk’?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
That’s nothing but just that much more scrap meat to the ex-pat New York media whore sausage machine that’s Rod Dreher.
His kids becoming Wildcats…?
Inviting him to a Woodrow musical…?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Rod “Prince Of Snarkness” Dreher can dish it out, but he can’t take it.
I’m sure that he’s part of the reason, along with Michael “Mugabe” Landauer, why the DMN censored me by deleting all my posts going back for weeks, if not months.
It was fun reading “Prince Of Snarkness” vs “Mugabe”, AKA Lightweight vs Dead Weight.
I hope that they’ve all sent out resumes, because I don’t think that the DMN is long for this world.
They had just better hope that somebody’s recruiting for “Big Baby” or “Spineless Bimbo”.