November 1, 2024

"One of New York City’s elite private schools told families on Thursday that 'students who feel too emotionally distressed' the day after Election Day will be excused from classes..."

"... and that psychologists will be available during the week to provide counseling. In a section of an email to members of the school’s community headed 'Election Day support,' Stacey Bobo, principal of the upper school at the institution, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, said that it 'acknowledges that this may be a high-stakes and emotional time for our community.' 'No matter the election outcome,' she wrote, the school 'will create space to provide students with the support they may need.' No homework will be assigned on Election Day, the email said, and no student assessments will take place on Wednesday. Excused absences will be allowed on Wednesday or whatever day the election results are announced for students who feel unable to 'fully engage in classes.'"

From "Elite School Will Offer a Day Off for Students Distressed by Election/Attendance on Wednesday, or whatever day the results are announced, is optional for high school students at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City, families were told" (NYT).

Annual tuition at this school: $65,540.

"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" — said Jerry Seinfeld, whose kids used to go to this school.

83 comments:

Aggie said...

What's 'Elite' about that? Sounds more like 'madness of King George' kind of 'Elite' to me.....

Unknown said...

A good guess as who the school expects to win the election. Does anyone think that the school would act the same way if they expected Harris to be elected.

Joe Bar said...

Heh. They think He's going to win. Oh well, I have $250 bet on Officer Harris, just so I won't be completely disappointed if they're wrong.

Ann Althouse said...

I'd forgotten the old term "snowflake." Haven't see it in a long time. But this made me remember it.

Ann Althouse said...

I blame the adults for cranking the kids up, setting them up for a freakout.

Joe Bar said...

Heh. They think He's going to win. Oh well, I have $250 bet on Officer Harris, just in case they are wrong, I won't be completely disappointed.

Lilly, a dog said...

"Why do they call it Ovaltine? The mug is round. The jar is round. They should call it Roundtine. That's Gold, Jerry! Gold!"

Luke Lea said...

It's the parents, not their children, who may need special care.

mezzrow said...

Mark Halperin: I say this, not flippantly. I think it will be the cause of the greatest mental health crisis in the history of the country. I think tens of millions of people will question their connection to the nation, their connection to other human beings, their connection to their vision of what their future for them and their children could be like. And I think that it will require an enormous amount of access to mental health professionals. I think it’ll lead to trauma in the workplace. I think there’ll be some degree of — 100% serious? 100% serious. I think there’ll be alcoholism. There’ll be broken marriages.
They listen to their parents, and Mark talks to (and works with) the parents. We listened to a young man on the 2Way podcast this AM who is voting Harris to avoid the freakout and waiting it out in Saudi (!) until a while after the election is over. These are the folks you got to know so well while they visited your lovely city a few years ago. You know what they are capable of. Angst will be rampant.

Hubert the Infant said...

When I was growing up in the Bronx, you went to Fieldston or Horace Mann because you were not smart enough to do well in public school. Think of the situation now. First, very few wealthy parents send their kids to public school. Second, going to a school such as Fieldston pretty much assures admittance to an elite college even though the education one receives is not great. There is no hope for this country unless we fix the education system.

Democratic Paychecks for Perks/ Dems for Demolition of Democracy/ fake-cares 4-U said...

If Trump wins - those poor kids won't be able to transition or have abortions. Truly tragic. On the good side - they won't be shipped off to war.

Democratic Paychecks for Perks/ Dems for Demolition of Democracy/ fake-cares 4-U said...

Imagine these kids sitting in front of D-MSNBC. No wonder they are freaked out. That's some mighty fine Soviet propaganda.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Stacey Bobo? Hmmmm.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

I thought that read ‘executed’.

pacwest said...

Of all the appointments Trump will make i consider head of the education department the most critical to the future of the nation.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Ditto.

TreeJoe said...

In 2016 I worked at a small company headquarted in NYC with a fairly liberal staff.

After election night, I'd say 50% of the staff freaked out. Actual meltdowns, unable to function, took 1-2 days off, and likely was at 50% capacity for weeks thereafter. FIFTY PERCENT of the professional staff.

I'm not surprised 8 years later this has trickled down to be encouraged in kids. It was accepted behavior in what is likely their adults, in a professional services setting.

tim maguire said...

If they’re like teenagers everywhere, the cool kids will all be too grief stricken to come to school. Instead they’ll spend the day laughing at the idiots who gave them this freebie.

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

They've been doing it about the "climate emergency" for 20 years. What do you expect? FWIW, I've actually done palæoclimate research analysis work for the early Permian, 300 million years ago, and Earth is an astoundingly long way from the "hottest it's ever been". Heck, it isn't even as warm as it was 7,000 years ago.

But creating a "traumatic crisis mentality" is the most effective way to push people out of any rational analysis. And you cannot reason people out of ideas they did not reason themselves **into** in the first place.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

The Liz Chaney post was still fresh in my mind… or something.

tim maguire said...

For every kid who is too freaked out to come to class, at least 5 will say they are.

tim maguire said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dave Begley said...

Stacey Bobo? Ann! Are you sure this isn't from the Babylon Bee?

Yancey Ward said...

I would encourage anyone to avoid these Democrat run cities next week- if Trump does win there is a 50% chance parts of cities will be burnt to the ground in the angry backlash. It will be mostly peaceful, but you know what I mean.

Yancey Ward said...

And the name Stacy Bobo is just proof that we all live in a giant simulation running on some being's computer- that name couldn't be more appropriate.

gspencer said...

Lefty principal said that it (the school) "'acknowledges that this may be a high-stakes and emotional time for our community.''"

Sign certain that Trump will win.

Duke Dan said...

Remember the google all hands video from after 2016? This is what creates that type of adult.

gspencer said...

"Trump's been working out. His win is gonna be huge."

Michael Fitzgerald said...

This is Progressive ideology. It is the fastest way to decay, destruction, and death.

tcrosse said...

Imagine the consternation when the people you are convinced are your intellectual and moral inferiors take over.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"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"

The kind of lives where the fix is in. Where someone will fix it for them, and at $65,000 and change someone probably always will.

PM said...

That's awful. The kids oughta have a couple of belts like adults - not miss school.

hawkeyedjb said...

Oh for God's sake. Adults projecting their own miserable pretend-world bullshit onto children. The truth is, the kids will be fine but the teachers and administrators all need time off to comfort themselves. And guess what: they get the day off whether their candidate wins or loses!

donald said...

Doesn’t sound elite to me. Buncha pussies.

Money Manger said...

Pair this with the NYT story this morning reviewing the Rogan/Vance interview, which had a mocking lead that Vance believes kids may adopt a transgender pose as a ticket to Harvard or Yale. The Times, of course, missed core of the interview, and mocked something that was spot on.

Danno said...

It's yuge!

RMc said...

Gee, I wish I could've used that excuse in the third grade when Nixon was elected...

MadisonMan said...

Parents parenting particularly poorly.

Quaestor said...

Any institution that so loudly proclaims its right-minded nobility is certainly, without doubt, unscrupulous and two-faced. At $65 grand per annum those con artists posing as educators can prey only on those in the upper tenth of 99th income percentile. The fact they they'd choose a school with such a bombastic boast on its letterhead, suggests that the parents are performing for the rubes as well. Of course they're being cheated, but not nearly so grievously as their children.

Quaestor said...

"Angst will be rampant."

The shortage of popcorn will be more burdensome.

hombre said...

A nation of weenies. The CCP needs a war to fix their economy and cull their population. Who will oppose them? The garbage, deplorables will be bitterly clinging to their guns and bibles. The looters and Jihadists will be waiting? So who? Not these pussies. The illegals? Antifa? The rainbow brigade?

Narayanan said...

smart move by teachers to couch in language about caring for children when it's they are needing days off for grief

Gusty Winds said...

This isn't surprising. This is what the education establishment has done for the last 30 years.

Mary Beth said...

I worked at a non-profit. The day after the election was wonderful. They had been so sure of a Clinton win while I tripled my money on PredictIt.

Narayanan said...

smart move by teachers to couch in language about caring for children when it's they are needing days off for grief

gilbar said...

Ethical Culture Fieldston School is a K-12 school..
Assuming an annual tuition of $65,540; that comes to:
$852,020
let's just round that to: NEARLY A MILLION DOLLARS

WTF?!?!?!??
What is your child getting for that (nearly) Million Dollars?
contacts with other super rich kids?
a hope of getting into "a really good college" ?
learning how to derive the quadratic equation ?
maybe learning the difference between the Mexican war, and the Spanish war?

I'm JUST KIDDING about those last two.. But Seriously, it seems like (as a rich parent) your money would be better spent on a home schooling tutor

Gusty Winds said...

At least we know we will lose the next war Liz Cheney wants these kids to fight. Maybe we should appreciate the heads up.

Gusty Winds said...

But in all fairness, these rich kids aren't the one's that have to fight and die for Liz Cheney,

paminwi said...

Jerry will be forced to apologize. Just as he did a few months ago about something he said.
He’ll grovel because his wife needs her friends to do lunch, manicures & pedicures with.

narciso said...

Any institution with Ethical as the prefix run, good grief they are melty snowflakes

and yes Russian soldier endure brutal hazing 'devdochina' those who survive make it to the next step, I can't imagine PLA troops are any more lenient,

typingtalker said...

Poor babies.

Narayanan said...

smart move by teachers to couch in language about caring for children when it's they are needing days off for grief with belts numerous ...

Danno said...

pacwest, why is a national level Education Dept. even necessary? The schools were better before it was created.

Danno said...

Hopefully they will not be rebuilt.

Danno said...

The definition of elite has been modified to be akin to privileged. It has nothing to do with higher functioning.

Danno said...

Most of the children of former members of the armed services are aware of the fact they are at peril and are not enlisting. They may even resist a draft.

Scott Patton said...

In case anyone is not sure what's the reference... Bobo.
Imagine going through a stack of resumes and seeing "Stacy Bobo". She probably worked for David Brooks as a researcher.

MadTownGuy said...

They need time off to scream at the sky.

loudogblog said...

I knew a guy when I used to work at a theme park. He was a very intelligent and skilled employee but he was far left, politically. When Trump won in 2016, he stopped coming to work for two weeks. He was really lucky that he wasn't fired. He eventually quit because he said that the other employees in his department were too conservative and he felt it created a hostile work environment. And that, my friends, is how college "prepared" him for the real world.

The Vault Dweller said...

Yeah when I saw the last name Bobo, I thought of David Brooks' "Bobos in Paradise." book. This sort of learned helplessness and fragility kind of meshed with what I imagined Bobos to be like.

mikeski said...

I know. Dickens himself couldn't have done a better job with that name.

mikeski said...

Tin soldiers and NIXON'S coming, Teach!

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

This is the weekend for traditional last-minute dirty tricks like the Bush DUI story. Also, don't forget to turn your clocks back tomorrow night.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

It's quite a sacrifice for the teachers too. That's one (or two) fewer days they will have to try and convince the confused and curious kids that they were born in the wrong body.

Democratic Paychecks for Perks/ Dems for Demolition of Democracy/ fake-cares 4-U said...

Progressives ruin their kids? News at 11.

walter said...

But how will they have access to various emotional support animals?

walter said...

"wee wee'd up"

Gator said...

To quote game of thrones, if you have to say you are elte , you aren’t elite These kids couldn’t put air in a tire. Let alone change one

Hassayamper said...

I knew a Bobo family from Texas. It's found infrequently in the South. Derivation is from Spanish: bobo 'fool', from Latin balbus 'stammering'.

It's also found in southern France and Italy, but is more commonly "Balbo", like the famed Italian aviator and fascist politician Italo Balbo.

Hassayamper said...

Any institution with Ethical as the prefix run, good grief they are melty snowflakes

"The louder he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our silverware"

Interested Bystander said...

A nation of veal calves is what one talk show pundit calls it. What happened to teaching kids toughness adaptability and resilience. It’s true, good times breeds soft people. Soft people create bad times. Bad times makes hard people and hard people make for good times.

BUMBLE BEE said...

C'mon man! You've forgotten Willie Bobo? Like Carlos Santana.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz23H5aW5PY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCMaYeLTHBc

Freeman Hunt said...

Sounds like the adults have created an environment of hysteria. People should send their kids to a different school where the adults don't do that.

JaimeRoberto said...

I thought kids were resilient. That's what they were telling us four years ago anyway.

Oh Yea said...

My son's school in Yellow Springs Ohio had a special session on one of the nights immediately after the 2016 election where the parents and faculty could get together and discuss how to provide emotional support to their children. This was for grades K-6. I'm not sure how they will react it Trump wins this time.

Real American said...

If Harris wins, they'll cancel all this nonsense. Republicans don't need this sorry pussy bullshit.

Eva Marie said...

Shrieking woman is their mascot.

gspencer said...


"Serenity now!"

Wilbur said...

Mike Bobo, former Georgia quarterback and current assistant coach there.
And I had a cat named Bobo.

n.n said...

Elite and effete are easy to misconstrue.

mccullough said...

Freak out in a moonage daydream

Leland said...

Why Wednesday? I get Election Day is Tuesday, but the only way the results are known on Wednesday is if Harris concedes. Otherwise, we have been assured key counties will need several days before they’ll know if the have all the ballots.

traditionalguy said...

Whoa…does this post mean Professor Althouse will need a day off for the 6th to deal with a Trump- Vance landslide? She hasn’t had a day off in 20 years.