OPINION by KELLY FREDRICKSON: Answering Why Westwood Teachers Are Discussing Racism in a Piano Lab Class

In response to the advertisement run by One Westwood in the HomeTown Weekly published 3/31 and an opinion piece of similar content run within Westwood Minute.

Why are Westwood teachers discussing racism in a Piano Lab class?

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, our country experienced a racial reckoning. This moment in our history forced us as a nation to confront the idea that we hadn’t really come as far as we had thought. While we have passed laws and legislation striving toward equality we are not really living up to the ideal of “liberty and justice for all.”

It is for this reason that I believe racism can and should be discussed everywhere, including Piano Lab.

Please don’t confuse that with “making white people feel bad” or “anti-whiteness.”

As white people, with white children living in a majority white town, we don’t really have to incorporate any thoughts about the effects of racism. We can go about our days with the confidence that we won’t be harassed, overlooked, misunderstood – we can send our children off to school knowing that they are getting a great education in a well-funded school.

Our BIPOC friends and neighbors however do have to incorporate and prepare for the biases that they and their children confront on a daily basis. So, we need to talk about it and our children need to learn about it because they are the future and they will be responsible to make the continued positive change that we need.

We need to raise our children to, as you say – “remain open to a healthy dialogue” – how can we do that without including books, lessons and conversations about racism, sexism, ableism – without including those it is not a healthy dialogue it is a one-sided view of the world. And, it closes our children off from what you say you want, “the ability to love our neighbors.”

I am grateful to the Westwood Public School system for providing a curriculum that gives our kids the opportunity to learn and grow in a safe environment and that strives to be inclusive to all. “Ironically our families do not feel included in the new Westwood school district.” I wonder why this would be, our teachers are trained to ensure that all voices are heard in these conversations.

No one is asking to take over the discussion, we are making room for an addition to it. And, unlike what our children are experiencing on Tik Tok and Instagram – all of the materials in our schools are age-appropriate. Taking a moment in a classroom to discuss a world view different from what you experience everyday goes a long way to making that one child who looks or is different from the majority in their classroom to feel included.

You aim to be a “positive voice and force in the town” but you took out an advertisement and paid the newspaper so that you could publicly attack teachers and the school system that is doing nothing more than working hard every day to make our children good citizens of the modern world they are living in. They are growing and moving forward in life and no one has the option to go backward, not to the 1950s or the 2010s.

And, unfortunately you chose to do it with sarcasm. Sarcasm: “here’s a fun fact” and “that doesn’t sound scienc-y.” That’s not the opening for a healthy dialogue. Sarcasm is divisive in tone and sadly condescending.

In writing this, I have no hope of changing anyone’s opinion, I only want to stand up for what I believe. I believe that we should talk about racism in Piano Lab and everywhere else, it’s the only way to make it stop.

I cannot be silent and run the risk that my silence is mistaken for my agreement with your rhetoric.

I feel compelled to speak up and share that I am in favor of the DE&I education that Emily Parks and Alison Borches have implemented in our schools. It is designed as a complement, not a replacement, to an already incredible curriculum.

I hope everyone who reads your advertisement takes a good, long, deep breath and realizes that in order to “love our neighbors as ourselves” we have to get to know them and the way to do that is to see them and the way to see them is to learn about them.

Kelly Fredrickson