What is the “purpose” of an all-girls school?
For years, The Winsor School, an all-girls school in Boston, has had a strong reputation. Winsor commanded the respect and admiration of parents and their young girls across New England. Today, the picture is different. This past year, half of the school's ninth-grade class looked to leave the school, and by year's end, Winsor had announced it was looking for a new Head of School, a seemingly hastily arranged announcement suggesting the Board (finally?) had had enough.
How did this happen?
On the surface, the school appears to be focused on academic excellence; however, its prioritization of DEI and commitment to the “disruption of all systemic oppression” contradicts this. Parents have expressed concern that Winsor seems more focused on creating social justice activists than on “empowering girls to lead lives of purpose.” Of particular concern for any parent who sends their daughter to an all-girls school is the school’s fealty to gender ideology. The “queering of the school” is not part of the school’s stated mission.
First, the use of “gendered language” was removed. As described by Carly Mayberry, “faculty and staff are discouraged from addressing groups of students as ‘girls’ and ‘ladies’ and teachers now address students by their preferred pronouns.”
Then, at the 2023 graduation ceremony, the speaker proudly proclaimed that the school is “43% queer and hoping for more.” This means that almost half the girls at school don’t want to be girls. Why?
Their Guidelines for Gender Inclusion at The Winsor School state that:
“Winsor will consider for admission any applicant who identifies as female or any applicant assigned female at birth who does not identify as male… Should a current student identify as a different gender while at Winsor, the school will support the student and their family as members of the Winsor community; the student will always have a home here.”
Unscientific concepts like “sex assigned at birth,” “born in the wrong body,” and “gender fluid” should not be presented as fact in the classroom. There is no such thing as a trans child. Winsor is taking a political stance in promoting gender ideology. Being queer is a political activity and means opposition to the “norm.”
As Glenn Loury writes, “This is a political move, not a call for respect. It’s a power grab intended to silence even those of us with honest questions about trans identity and to crowd us out of the public discourse.”
Under whose watch did this happen?
Who are the trustees tasked with upholding the school's mission? If they decide to change it, they should be very transparent about what they are doing and why.
How are trustees selected, and how often?
Are all of the trustees equally “engaged?”
How big is the board? Who serves on which committees?
Would the board knowingly elect an activist to the position of trustee, given how many talented alums and parents there are from which to choose? If so, why?
Is there a conflict of interest when a trustee pushes a political agenda that goes against the school’s core mission?
Parents researching the Winsor Board of Trustees might be interested to learn that a trustee who joined the board several years ago serves in a professional capacity as the Director of Family Advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) and Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Parentage Act Coalition. In these roles, she has vigorously lobbied to pass the controversial MA “parentage equality” bill, which, among other things, redefines the family, removing the words “mother” and “father” from birth certificates to make them more “inclusive.” This might explain the school’s capture and why it has become so focused on gender ideology and producing conformist social justice activists instead of independent-thinking truth seekers. Sometimes, it just takes one trustee with an agenda to hijack an independent school.
In the meantime, the school is in the middle of a capital campaign to raise $100 million. For a school that costs over $60k, it will be interesting to see what kind of school Winsor wants to be and if donors want to fund it.