Transitioning And Coddling: A Combination To Weaken Our Youth

To illustrate the “coddling” point perfectly, look at the ridiculous lengths a private school in New York is taking. The school, which costs $65 thousand a year to attend, is so woke that it is allowing “emotionally distressed” students to take the day after the election off.

In a letter to the parents titled “Election Day Support,” the Ethical Culture Fieldston School administration wrote that the election “may be a high-stakes and emotional time” for students.(New York Post, Nov. 1, 2024)

According to an email obtained by The New York Post, students will not have homework assigned on Election Day, and there will be no assessments on Wednesday. Additionally, students will be granted “excused absences” on Wednesday or whenever the election results are announced if they feel unable to “fully engage in classes,” as noted in the communication, first reported by The New York Times.

Psychologists will be available during the week to provide counseling services. This announcement prompted eye rolls from parents, including Jerry Seinfeld, who told the New York Times that decisions like this drove him and his wife to transfer their son out of the disconnected prep school located in the affluent Bronx suburb of Riverdale.

“This is why the kids hated it. What kind of lives have these people led that makes them think that this is the right way to handle young people? To encourage them to buckle. This is the lesson they are providing for ungodly sums of money.”

Former Fieldston parent Dr. Logan Levkoff expressed similar concerns, stating that the school was not adequately preparing children for life.

“To say that this is absurd is a gross understatement,” Levkoff told The Post.

“Young people need to engage in thoughtful debate, learn to deal with disappointment and develop resilience. Catering to the ‘trigger warning’ generation is not a successful strategy for life or adulthood. And it’s certainly not the way to develop bipartisanship politically or in our friendships.”

The school, which considers itself a center of cultural diversity, is no stranger to controversy. It recently faced criticism for failing to support Jewish students and parents amid antisemitic bullying and graffiti following Hamas' surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

In May, two seniors wearing keffiyehs wrote "Free Palestine" in chalk on the brick wall above the front entrance of the Bronx campus.

The incident led administrators to organize a "listening session" with parents, including those from the Jewish affinity group, as reported by The Post at the time. A source claimed, "The biggest issue is that when incidents of antisemitism arise, they are not taken as seriously as issues like racism or homophobia."

“They only care about the impact that something involving race or homosexuality has on students. It’s a big double standard, like antisemitism doesn’t matter as much.”

One former parent stated:

“This pro-Palestine, pro-Hamas stuff is not just coming from the students, it’s coming from the teachers as well.”

Many parents now believe that this liberal coddling of students is an attempt to prepare students for a Trump election victory. Subconsciously signally to them that Trump is a flawed candidate, so flawed in fact, that they will need a day of rest and possibly even psychological counseling if he wins.

One current Fieldston parent told The Post:

“To me, this is the school just being consistent with their stance on Jews and non-Jews. Fieldston is so arrogantly sure who the good guy is and who the bad guy is,” the parent complained.

“Israel is the bad guy all year round, and Palestine is the good guy, and now they are clearly saying that Trump is the bad guy and Kamala is the good guy in this election, and they are worried about what will happen if Trump wins. They’re apparently more worried about a Trump win as far as the kids go than they are about the rampant antisemitism on campus.”

One mother of a Fieldston student, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed her outrage that the school had raised concerns about Jewish students wearing yellow ribbons on October 7 this year. However, she feels the school is being overly indulgent towards students regarding the election outcome.

“But my frustration now is that this is such a tacit endorsement of Kamala and further evidence of the left-leaning groupthink that we’re all supposed to go along with at the school. They’re basically endorsing Kamala and telling us that you expect our kids to fall apart. I agree with what Jerry Seinfeld said. It’s not giving our kids credit for any emotional maturity. I told my daughter, ‘You’re going to school no matter what happens,’ and she said, ‘Of course I am. I don’t even care what happens or who wins. They both suck.’”

Ironically, the school was founded in 1878 by Felix Adler, the son of a rabbi. Adler was a German American professor of political and social ethics, a rationalist, an influential lecturer on euthanasia, a religious leader, and a social reformer who founded the Ethical Culture movement.

Felix is the son of Samuel Adler, a prominent figure in European Reform Judaism, and Henrietta Frankfurter. The family immigrated to the United States from Germany when Felix was six years old so that his father could take on the role of head rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in New York.

On their website under the “Who We Are” section, the school explains”

The Ethical Culture Fieldston School offers a world-class progressive education in Pre-K–12th Grade at two historic campuses in Manhattan and the Bronx. The core of our educational program is the study and practice of ethics, which prepares and compels us to take care of our world, ourselves, and each other.

At ECFS, we don’t teach students what to think, what to question, or what to explore — but how to think, how to question, and how to explore. Our tenets of progressive education focus on the whole child, ensuring that education is responsive, relevant, experiential, and playful, among other traits.

With an enduring commitment to excellence, equity, and inclusion, we inspire a diverse and joyful community of passionate learners, critical thinkers, and ethical individuals who aim to make the world more humane and just.

Translation: The school is a place where liberals brainwash the children who are enrolled there. The American educational system has ceased to educate and instead focuses too much on molding the children into what the radical left wants them to be.

Left unchecked, the future of society as we know it will be dominated by insecure leaders who are told “how to think, how to question, and how to explore” instead of educated individuals who plan and do what is right for the country and the world.