Index
- School Policy Request - Parent request
- Link to Protection of Pupil Rights
- Protecting Student Privacy
- Should Parents Be Concerned About Social Emotional Learning?
- TIK TOK is following you
- Why Should Parents Be Concerned About Critical Race Theory?
1. School Policy Request
A parent sent an email to the School Committee and the Superintendent.
I know there is a School Committee subcommittee dealing with reviewing the currently documented School Committee Policies, but I wanted to submit two policy requests and was unsure to whom I should direct the request. Is the public allowed to attend the subcommittee policy review meetings?
Show your support by contacting the School Committee and the Superintendent. 'Libby Corbo' <[email protected]>; [email protected]; 'Ruth Lynch' <[email protected]>; [email protected]; [email protected]; 'Matt Ferron' <[email protected]>
Policy Request language (1):
The Hanover Public Schools will not administer any optional state or federal pilot programs regarding, but not limited to, academics, health, or behavior without the consent of the Hanover School Committee. If the Hanover School Committee approves the administration of a pilot program, parents/guardians of all students will be notified so that parents/guardians may make the final decision concerning their child’s participation.
Based on the above policy request, we request any pilot programs be discontinued until there is a School Committee Policy can be implemented.
Policy Request language (2):
The Hanover Public Schools will not administer any private, state or federal surveys regarding, but not limited to, academics, health, or behavior without the consent of the Hanover School Committee. If the Hanover School Committee approves the administration of a private, state or federal survey, parents/guardians of all students will be notified so that parents/guardians may make the final decision concerning their child’s participation.
Based on the above policy request, we request any surveys be discontinued until there is a School Committee Policy can be implemented.
2. Protection of Pupil Rights
3. Protecting Student Privacy
The first day of school getting to know your surveys….no longer ask about hobbies and favorite colors. Send an email to your teacher and principal before the first day opting out of inappropriate and intrusive surveys.
Dear TEACHER, PRINCIPAL
My child is very excited for the first day of school. I just want to have this opt-out on file in advance.
- My child will not participate in any surveys that ask about sexual orientation and gender identity. Please notify me in advance as required by MGL Ch 71 Sec 32a.
- My child will not take any mental health surveys, or surveys that cover topics protected under Federal Title 35 Section 98 PPRA.
- I also request my child be in a different room during all lessons involving human sexuality (this includes sex-Ed, planned events for PRIDE month, LGBT lessons during Banned Book Week, and transgender day of visibility). All planned activities are covered under MGL Ch 71 S 32a and I request I be notified in advance as required by law.
- My child will not participate in any “identity chart” or “privilege” assignments that ask about race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. This opt-out applies to all topics covered by MGL Ch 71 S 32a and Federal Title 35 Section 98 PPRA.
https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/content/ppra
https://malegislature.gov/.../TitleXII/Chapter71/Section32A
4. Should Parents Be Concerned About Social Emotional Learning?
Many parents are aware of the threat to their children’s education and mental health posed by Critical Race Theory and gender ideology. But with numerous states already banning teaching harmful woke ideologies, and many more considering legislation, educators are looking for new ways to sneak subversive materials into classrooms.
One way is through Social Emotional Learning classes.
Kirsten Hill, who sits on the Ohio State Board of Education, has described Social Emotional Learning as a ‘Trojan Horse’, while James Lindsay, founder of New Discourses and an expert on the subversion of America’s educational system by radicals has called it “possibly the most important topic happening in education, at least if you care about the well-being, health, and safety of children and the future of this country.”
But what is it? And how exactly are activists using lessons in emotional awareness to harm American children?
What is Social Emotional Learning?
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has been around since the early ‘90s, and started out innocently enough. Originally it was designed as a way to encourage children experiencing emotional difficulties to cope better with their emotions, with the aim of helping them to do better at school.
The concept was originally developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), which defines SEL as “the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.”
The idea, in other words, was for children to learn to self-manage their emotions and learn responsible decision making. However, over the years, CASEL refined and developed their program, eventually introducing “Transformative SEL”, which they say is “aimed at redistributing power to more fully engage young people and adults in working toward just and equitable schools and communities.”
A 2018 briefing paper explicitly stated that Transformative SEL was developed “to reflect our interest in making explicit issues such as power, privilege, prejudice, discrimination, social justice, empowerment, and self-determination in the field of SEL.”
This should be a big red flag to concerned parents. As James Lindsay warns: "'transformative' is a Marxist watchword. Transformation of society is one of [...] their key goal[s].
“'Transformative' in Marxism refers to the idea that you're going to transform society and transform yourself so that society and you become socialist together. That's really what it's about."
Isn’t it good to teach children how to control their emotions?
Yes it is, but that's not what's happening. While SEL as first developed was useful for children who were struggling at school, Transformative SEL is a completely different matter. Concepts such as the redistribution of power in society, and the need for equity (rather than equality) are lifted straight out of Critical Race Theory, which teaches that America is an institutionally racist country, and that discrimination against white Americans is required to redress the balance of power (you can find out more in our blog on Critical Race Theory).
“It’s a game of semantics,” Jennifer McWilliams, a parental rights education consultant, told The Daily Caller. “They’re literally training these children to dismantle our country. Critical Race Theory is the ideology, but Social Emotional Learning is the delivery system of the ideology into our K through 12 schools.”
For example, in 2020, Montgomery County, Maryland informed all public school principals that they would “be required to implement a student psychoeducational lesson during one of the school’s mandatory Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) block [sic] before September 18, 2020. This lesson will provide students crisis facts about the dual pandemic (COVID-19 and systemic racism) that is occurring around the country and here in Montgomery County,” according to the New York Post.
Materials provided to teachers recommended that they buy Antiracist Baby by Ibram X Kendi, a book aimed at 0-3 year olds which teaches very young children to be highly aware of race and discriminatory in their behavior.
Teachers were also given a script to follow for Zoom lessons, in which they were told to tell their students: “A pandemic is defined by an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population. As you can see from this slide [featuring a Black Lives Matter protest poster], both are affecting lives of people in our community and around the world.”
Principles were also informed: “students can not opt-out of the lessons.”
What can I do as a parent?
First and foremost, parents need to be aware that Social Emotional Learning lessons are being used to deliver divisive and damaging lessons in Critical Race Theory to children in schools. Ask your child’s teacher whether SEL is implemented in their school, and to see the content of the lessons. This may require filing a request for the documents under the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA).
You may want to join a parents’ rights group such as Moms for Liberty, to try to overturn any policies mandating the lessons.
However, there is also much you can do at home. Home and family are much more important to your child than teachers and school, so take the time to overturn harmful lessons in the evenings by teaching your child to think critically about what they are being taught.
Books such as those offered by Heroes of Liberty are a great way to undo the harm done at school, opening children up to learn about figures and ideas that they may not come across at school. Thomas Sowell, for example, is a great person to introduce children to when teaching that success should be based on merit, not skin color.
5. TIK TOK
6. Why Should Parents Be Concerned About Critical Race Theory?
One mother told the assembled group that she had been forced to put her seven-year-old daughter in therapy after she had come home from school one day and said: “I’m ashamed that I’m white.” The daughter then asked “Is there something wrong with me? Why am I hated so much?”
“She is depressed. She doesn’t want to go to school,” the mother said, adding: “She is scared to death and has even had thoughts of killing herself. Again, we are talking about a seven-year-old child.”
With more stories like this emerging across America, parents and representatives are starting to take a stand. At the time of writing, seven states have banned Critical Race Theory in their schools, and a further 16 are considering bans.
States that have banned Critical Race Theory. Source: World Population Review
So why were parents told that Critical Race Theory isn’t being taught? To answer that, let’s take a look at what Critical Race Theory is, how it is taught in schools, and why parents have a right to be concerned.
Critical Race Theory – a definition
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is an intellectual theory which holds that American society (including economic, political and social structures) is systematically racist, and was purposefully created by white people for white people, to keep everyone else powerless.
Critical Race activists see it as their duty to criticize (hence ‘critical’) American society, with the goal of changing it. As one of the founders of Critical Race Theory, Richard Delgado, explained, this means criticizing the foundations upon which America is built “including equality theory [i.e racial equality], legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law.”
For this reason, Critical Race Theory is opposed to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s in which black Americans fought for and won equal rights. Critical Rights activists don’t want America to realize the vision laid out by Jefferson when he wrote: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Instead, they want a revolution to overturn the American way of life, to replace truth with power.
How is Critical Race Theory taught in schools?
The ideas found within Critical Race Theory are taught from Kindergarten all the way up to 12th Grade – and on into college. The way it is taught will depend on what grade is being taught, and in which class.
The most obvious examples of Critical Race Theory in the classroom come in American history classes. Instead of being taught that America was founded by people who believed in equality and strove to create a country in which everyone could be free, students are taught that white people exploited black people and built a country for the benefit of white people only.
One of the ways schools teach this is through the 1619 Project, which rewrites American history by marking the founding of America not with the Declaration of Independence in 1776, but with the landing of the first African slaves in Virginia, in 1619. The project was launched with an essay published in New York Times Magazine, in which the author claimed that the colonists declared independence from Britain “to protect the institution of slavery,” and that therefore “this nation was founded not as a democracy but as a slavocracy.” In this way, the whole history of America is re-framed to be the history of slavery in America.
However, Critical Race Theory isn’t confined to history class. It sneaks into all sorts of classes, from English literature to civics, and even science and math. At all ages, white children are taught that they have inherent privilege and should give up that privilege to non-whites, while all other children are taught that they are the powerless victims of an unfair system.
Why do some people deny Critical Race Theory is being taught in schools?
Some people involved in education have claimed that Critical Race Theory merely teaches children about history, and have accused concerned parents and lawmakers of trying to censor teachers.
For example, during a conference in July last year, Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) accused Republicans of “bullying teachers and trying to stop us from teaching students accurate history.” Yet clearly it is not ‘accurate history’ to claim that the founders of America were determined to break away from Britain so that they could create a systematically white-supremacist nation.
Others have claimed that bans on Critical Race Theory in schools will prevent teachers from teaching about African American history. Again, this is not the case. Students in states where Critical Race Theory is banned are still taught about slavery and the abolition movement, about Jim Crow, and about the Civil Rights movement.
And yet others have used word games to deny that Critical Race Theory is being taught in classrooms. For example, Loudoun County Public Schools board chair Brenda Sheridan told NBC’s Meet the Press: “It’s not in our curriculum, because it would be inappropriate. … It is a graduate-level theory, and it would be inappropriate if a fifth-grader was doing that.”
Yet no-one is claiming that the academic theory of Critical Race is being taught to children. The concern is over the teaching of harmful ideas which promote racism and discrimination.
Writing in the Washington Examiner, former teacher Kevin Roberts spoke for teachers and parents across the nation when he commented: “I spent many years in the classroom, with a roomful of students looking to me for knowledge, instruction and guidance. I can’t imagine looking back into their eyes and telling them that they’re irredeemably bad, that their nation is built on a lie, and that some of them are worth more than others—depending on the color of their skin.”
What Can Parents do?
Our children deserve to grow up in an America that is not divided by race. White children shouldn’t be made to feel guilty just because of the color of their skin, and non-white children deserve to know that they are not doomed to be victims, but can make something of their lives.
Although it feels like a David and Goliath battle, it’s important to remember that the most important place in a child’s life is not school, but home. As a parent you can make all the difference in the world to your children, simply by making sure your children learn about the classic American values that are ours by constitutional right.
A great way to do this is with books from Heroes of Liberty. Each one tells the story of someone who, in their own lives, embodied the values that built this nation: love of freedom, a belief in true equality, the courage to pursue dreams, and the fortitude to see them realized. As children learn by example, giving them a bookshelf full of outstanding role models is the perfect way to protect them against damaging ideas.
Some parents might also want to get more active politically, by standing up to the school boards who allow Critical Race Theory to be taught. There are a number of great resources on the internet for those who do, for example, Heritage Action recommends filing Freedom of Information Act requests to hold lawmakers to account, and gives details on how to do that, while Citizens Renewing America has put together a detailed pdf pamphlet on Critical Race Theory and how to resist it. Or why not join your local chapter of Moms for Liberty to meet like-minded parents and get involved?
Whatever you choose to do, whether by introducing American values into story-time at home or by getting out and protesting, you can rest assured that you are doing your best to protect your child.
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