Public school teacher forces third graders to acknowledge their privilege: reports

[canada-man]

Dropped lesson after backlash from parents

A third grade teacher at a California public school forced students to learn about “power and privilege” as part of a classroom exercise.

The students at R.I. Meyerholz Elementary School also had to create an “identity map” with traits such as race and religion. The teacher then required students to “circle the identities that hold power and privilege,” according to a report from City Journal contributing editor Christopher Rufo.

The unnamed public school teacher read from a book called “This Book Is Antiracist” that discusses how people can become committed anti-racists and how to identify privilege.

“[A] white, cisgender man, who is able-bodied, heterosexual, considered handsome and speaks English has more privilege than a Black transgender woman,” the book said.

However, the school dropped the lesson after an Asian-American parent at the school organized opposition to the exercise. Asian-American students are a majority of the Silicon Valley public school.


The parent said the lesson is “racist” according to Rufo. The parent “rallied a group of a half dozen families to protest the school’s intersectionality curriculum,” according to Rufo. “The group met with the school principal and demanded an end to the racially divisive instruction. After a tense meeting, the administration agreed to suspend the program.”

A parent also told Rufo that the lesson reminded her of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

“[It divides society between] the oppressor and the oppressed, and since these identities are inborn characteristics people cannot change, the only way to change it is via violent revolution,” the parent said, according to Rufo. “Growing up in China, I had learned it many times. The outcome is the family will be ripped apart; husband hates wife, children hate parents. I think it is already happening here.”

The lesson may have broader implications for the direction of the school, according to the article.

“At Meyerholz Elementary, the Asian-American families are on high alert for critical race theory in the classroom,” the article said. “Since their initial victory, they have begun to consider campaigning against the school board.”

Woke Elementary

An elementary school in Cupertino, California—a Silicon Valley community with a median home price of $2.3 million—recently forced a class of third-graders to deconstruct their racial identities, then rank themselves according to their “power and privilege.” Based on whistleblower documents and...

www.city-journal.org

Public school teacher forces third graders to acknowledge their privilege: reports | The College Fix

 

[mandrill]

Already a major scandal on the Net. The teacher is obviously an idiot.

 

[Charlemagne]

This is nothing knew, especially if you went to catholic school.

 

[curr3n_c1000]

I guess abc's and 123's aren't good enough anymore.

 

[james t kirk]

I guess abc's and 123's aren't good enough anymore.

Now now now.

Math is hard.

Science is hard.

Grammar is hard.

You can't expect children to be subjected to that kind of dated thinking. They won't all feel safe and included. It's not fair.

 

[Jenesis]

People are going to get pissed at me but .....

“[A] white, cisgender man, who is able-bodied, heterosexual, considered handsome and speaks English has more privilege than a Black transgender woman,” the book said.”

That is true. Why is that wrong to teach?

 

[james t kirk]

People are going to get pissed at me but .....

“[A] white, cisgender man, who is able-bodied, heterosexual, considered handsome and speaks English has more privilege than a Black transgender woman,” the book said.”

That is true. Why is that wrong to teach?

Is that really "privilege" per se with respect to those items you listed or is it just simply the fact that he is more like the majority of males in a given society? The privilege of simply being in the majority? If society was composed of black transgendered women (try to imagine how well that would work), the shoe would be on the other foot simply based on numbers. The tyranny of the majority as they say.

Plus, there are many kinds of privilege in this world.

Women have privilege.

Youth has privilege on all levels. A 25 year old will always have power over a 60 year old on so many levels.

Good looking people have privilege over not so good looking people

Slim over fat

You name it. The list is endless. It's the reality of humanity.

 

[Jenesis]

Is that really "privilege" per se with respect to those items you listed or is it just simply the fact that he is more like the majority of males in a given society? The privilege of simply being in the majority? If society was composed of black transgendered women (try to imagine how well that would work), the shoe would be on the other foot simply based on numbers. The tyranny of the majority as they say.

Plus, there are many kinds of privilege in this world.

Women have privilege.

Youth has privilege on all levels. A 25 year old will always have power over a 60 year old on so many levels.

Good looking people have privilege over not so good looking people

Slim over fat

You name it. The list is endless. It's the reality of humanity.

Caveat-I’m in discussion mode, not fight mode so please take my post that way.

There is nothing wrong with recognizing what your privilege is and why it is important to know what yours is.

And yes - a white, cis, heterosexual male has way more privilege then a black trans woman. And majority has nothing to do with it. Who are you (maybe not you personally, but your “majority” ) going to give a job too? The white heterosexual guy or the black trans woman? That is the point of privilege

And the fact that you think white, cis, heterosexual men are the majority in this world, is in itself very telling.

Sorry but you (white heterosexual men) are not the center of the universe. I don’t mean that negatively, but factually. Your “majority” is within the top level of businesses, of the 1%, of those in charge so others of “your type” get further ahead while others who don’t match up, get further behind.

But don’t get me wrong, I have always said that privilege is intersectional. There is race, age, gender, sexual orientation, financial classes, etc. When one has more of these in the privileged category, you have more. A man has more then a woman, but a white woman has more then a black man.

This is why learning what your privilege is, is important.

 

[I'm Me]

People are going to get pissed at me but .....

“[A] white, cisgender man, who is able-bodied, heterosexual, considered handsome and speaks English has more privilege than a Black transgender woman,” the book said.”

That is true. Why is that wrong to teach?

As long as it was taught that the latter chose their identity. The former did not. Choices have consequences.

 

[Jenesis]

As long as it was taught that the latter chose their identity. The former did not. Choices have consequences.

A black trans woman doesn’t choose to be black. My personal opinion, they don’t choose their identified gender role either so I will agree to disagree on that part.

But you don’t choose to be born black. Nice try though.

 

[I'm Me]

A black trans woman doesn’t choose to be black. My personal opinion, they don’t choose their identified gender role either so I will agree to disagree on that part.

But you don’t choose to be born black. Nice try though.

The point about the lesson was identity politics. Keeping people divided not bringing them together and parents saw threw it. They know west coast political games and in this case the parents put a stop to child abuse.

 

[Jenesis]

The point about the lesson was identity politics. Keeping people divided not bringing them together and parents saw threw it. They know west coast political games and in this case the parents put a stop to child abuse.

That is your opinion of the lesson. I don’t believe it was that at all.

 

[I'm Me]

That is your opinion of the lesson. I don’t believe it was that at all.

The parents did.

 

[Jenesis]

The parents did.

They didn’t agree with the lesson. I didn’t see where a lesson plan is consider child abuse. As a victim of child abuse, I’m telling you that is reaching.

And I can disagree with parents as well. Plenty of things I disagree with parents on. They are not the center of the universe either.

To clarify I don’t think I am. Just point out these are opinions. Nothing more.

 

[basketcase]

People are going to get pissed at me but .....

“[A] white, cisgender man, who is able-bodied, heterosexual, considered handsome and speaks English has more privilege than a Black transgender woman,” the book said.”

That is true. Why is that wrong to teach?

My only question is whether the teacher adapted the lesson in a way that grade 3s could understand.

 

[basketcase]

The point about the lesson was identity politics. Keeping people divided not bringing them together and parents saw threw it. They know west coast political games and in this case the parents put a stop to child abuse.

"Keeping people divided" seems to be the latest excuse to justify right wingers holding on to the perception of control in their lives.

 

[oil&gas]

That is true. Why is that wrong to teach?

It is no more wrong than teaching kids Muslims
are subject to discrimination in society, Jews
are not all penny-pinching and Donald Trump
is a narcissist. But there are more essential
knowledge and skills for kids to learn in the
classroom.

 

[redshank]

Imagine meeting an 8 year old that tells you about how they are privileged. Kids hardly get any free play activity any more and now "adults" think it's appropriate to tell them how they were born "privileged". The World is unfair...what a revelation. With teachers like these we'll need the Bell "Let's Talk" campaigns to be rolled out quarterly FFS

Anyone on board with this reminds me of this scene.

 

[ziprogers]

People are going to get pissed at me but .....

“[A] white, cisgender man, who is able-bodied, heterosexual, considered handsome and speaks English has more privilege than a Black transgender woman,” the book said.”

That is true. Why is that wrong to teach?

The article reeks of writer bias and fake news.

The story is missing a lot of details, like the teacher's intention or agenda, for one. Social studies is associated with the history curricula in the United States. Do some research into the book mentioned in the story, and despite the method (and misspellings), it functions as a way of having a constructive conversation with adults about race and gender orientation. My gripe with it is that this is taught to 8-9 year-olds in third grade.

Many kids who do hit that "woke" stage do so in their mid-late teens, or the first few years of post-secondary academia.

The story is also written in a tone that implies that the teacher wanted to enforce a pro-racist agenda, with incomplete excerpts of the book e.g., "folx(sp) who do not benefit from their social identities, who are in the subordinate culture, have little to no privilege and power."

 

[gharamlifter]

8 year old kids are learning about transexuals smh.