It was March 9, a cold and overcast day in the northeast, when the Bari Weiss article, The Miseducation of America’s Elites, appeared on the Internet. Two days later, on March 11, Caitlin Flanagan published a piece that could have been a companion to the Weiss article. Both appealed to an audience that enjoys knowing elite educational bastions of power sometimes have serious cracks, becoming center stage, not for their educational excellence, but for alleged scandal or malfeasance. After reading both articles and supporting materials, I decided to approach our resident expert, Pat Bassett, about a possible conversation on the topic of what happens when private schools confront the intersection of their parent community and a livewire issue such as anti-racism. Pat graciously agreed to speak with me on March 17, and we had an enlightening and inspiring conversation. Many of you know Pat Bassett as a life-long independent school teacher, head of school, and association leader, most recently the retired President of NAIS (2013). His thinking and observations certainly resonated with me, and I hope they will with you as well.

How parents’ view of raising children has evolved

We began by talking about the…