Oregon Episcopal School

Our son attended the middle school at OES for a few years. If you look at the school reviews, it is easy to see the advantages that a school like OES has. Small class sizes (avg. 16 in middle grades), a safe environment, caring teachers and administrators. Compared to most public-school options, the education experience is good, which is to be expected with tuition and extras approaching $40,000.
What is generally missing from all the reviews I have read is that there is a decidedly radical liberal bias within the curriculum, teachers and administration. There is a strong focus within the school promoting the current in vogue topics of social justice and victim identity politics. If you look at the OES website, you can see full time ‘diversity & inclusion’ staff as well as some of the things they promote such as the mandatory ‘culture shock’ week. Last year some of the ‘breakout sessions’ included “Queer”, “Social Justice & Hip Hop”, “Decolonizing Disney’s Moana” and “Fighting the Landlord”.
Throughout their curriculum, the liberal slant is promoted, from the discussions in history class to the literature lists. In fact, there is an ideological imprint throughout the OES experience across all grade levels. It seems that these social justice issues are deeply imbedded into every aspect of OES life. In 2018 parents were encouraged to attend discussion sessions on ‘implicit bias’. One of the suggested ‘cures’ for white people is to recognize their deeply ingrained prejudice and atone for it with a life promoting social justice activism.
Staff regularly participate in ongoing diversity trainings and in the current year, teacher and admins wear name badges that include their requested personal gender pronouns from the official list of 63 gender possibilities, and verbal introductions at events include the same. I kid you not.
While the values of compassion are important and not to be dismissed, the overwhelming focus upon these radical progressive issues as a substitute for developing critical thinking skills is perplexing. A student at OES will get a full dose of the evils of the white male patriarchy, and gain familiarity with the latest intersectionality ally groups, but I daresay will come away without much exposure to the critical skills of a classical education.
The problem is best stated by Jon Haidt is his recent book “The Coddling of the American Mind”. If one follows the recent crises of the radicalized universities like Yale, Harvard, UC Berkeley & Evergreen, it becomes essential for institutions to include various perspectives from both liberal and conservative camps, and to engage in healthy dialogue of multiple points of view. Unfortunately, OES gets a failing grade as the administration promotes and at times tolerates only one point of view.

make sure you Google the school for facts!