Dalton parents reportedly refused to send their kids to the party in protest of the president.
by SAM DANGREMOND
FEB 17, 2017
This is a story — like so many Upper East Side stories — that has its origins in the weird and wild 1980s. During that decade, the city of New York had promised to renovate Central Park’s Wollman Rink in two years, but the beloved landmark remained closed instead for six. In stepped Donald Trump, who convinced Mayor Ed Koch to let him finish the work in four months as long as he could manage the venue.
Trump made good on his side of the deal, and Wollman Rink is still managed by the Trump Organization today.
But the association with our new president apparently didn’t sit well with an elite Manhattan private school that counts Anderson Cooper and Claire Danes among its alumni.
According to the New York Post, the Dalton School canceled its annual skating party, "Dalton on Ice," because "parents refused to send their kids in protest of the president."
From Dalton’s website:
Tuition for 2016-17 in Grades K-12 is $44,640, which is among the lowest of our peer schools. … Depending on a student’s interests and needs, and to foster equity, there may be additional funds available for programs which require payment beyond tuition (such as the After School Program, global trips or student activities in the high school.)
Back to Town & Country:
The parent characterized Dalton as “definitely a progressive school,” and said “it’s a very diverse community.” …
… “How difficult is it to find an alternative venue without the controversy and ickiness attached to it?”
I’ve often mentioned how the word “controversy” has changed implications over my lifetime from positive to negative.
But “ickiness” is an illuminating word that helps us understand the latest stage of Ruling Class ideological evolution: Dalton parents fear that their children would be exposed to ritual pollution and thus risk losing their Brahmin caste status and drift down toward the horrors of Deplorableness.
Any good Hindu could have explained it to you at any point since the Aryan Invasion of India.
According to economic historian Gregory Clark’s research on surnames, India has by far the least social mobility of any major country.
To Dalton parents, whose children have nowhere to go except down, a lack of social mobility due to religious purity taboos is a feature, not a bug.
