http://ww3.startribune.com/kerstenblog/?p=430
The real agenda behind schools' anti-bullying
curriculum
KATHERINE KERSTEN, Star Tribune
The bully is the scourge of the elementary school playground. So who
could object to a new anti-bullying curriculum scheduled to be tested in three
Minneapolis elementary schools -- Hale, Jefferson and Park View -- and adopted
districtwide if successful?
But what if that curriculum is really a disguise for a very different
agenda brought to Minneapolis by the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington,
D.C.-based gay and transgender advocacy group? What if its lessons have little
to do with bullying, and much to do with ensuring that kids as young as age 5
submit to HRC's orthodoxy on family structure, even if it differs from their own
parents' view?
What if students who dissent are subjected to teacher-directed peer
pressure and negative evaluations?
In other words, what if anti-bullying advocates themselves turn out to
be the bullies?
Welcome to the "Welcoming Schools" curriculum.
In March, Minneapolis Superintendent Bill Green praised "Welcoming
Schools" as "a tool to combat bullying, by focusing on diversity, gender
stereotyping and name-calling." But the curriculum's underlying social/political
agenda leaps from every page.
"Welcoming Schools" has three sections. The first, on "family
diversity," drums into kids the idea that "traditional families" are outdated.
To emphasize this point, kids in grades 3-5 "act out" being members of
nontraditional families, including same-gender-headed families.
K-3 students study words like "lesbian" and "gay," while fourth- and
fifth-graders learn "bisexual," "dyke" and "transgender."
In the curriculum's second section -- "Looking at Gender Roles and
Stereotyping" -- children learn to "expand their notions of gender-appropriate
behavior." They read books such as "Sissy Duckling," which deals with
"characters challenging gender norms," and "King and King," in which a prince
proposes to and marries another prince.
"Welcoming Schools" does not address bullying until its third and final
section. It says relatively little about bullies' traditional targets -- kids
who are overweight, short or the wrong skin color, for example -- and places
heavy emphasis on anti-gay name-calling.
To promote its agenda, "Welcoming Schools" employs classic
indoctrination techniques.
Teachers begin lessons by questioning students to
identify their current beliefs. Then they use group exercises, films and books
to convince the kids that any traditional attitudes they harbor about family
structure and homosexuality are harmful "stereotypes." At the end of a lesson,
teachers "evaluate" students to ensure that their views now pass official
muster.
One fill-in-the-blank phrase that students are to complete during
evaluation says it all: "I used to think, but now I know ..."
The "Family Diversity Photo Puzzle," a typical lesson for grades 1-3,
exemplifies this approach.
In the exercise, the teacher instructs students
to arrange photos of adults and children to create seven families. But the
exercise is rigged, though children don't know it.
"The packets of photographs selected make it impossible to create seven
'traditional' families: that is, families that include a mother, a father and
children," says the curriculum guide. "Students will find that they must create
some families with adults of the same gender. ..." and then decide how to label
the members.
The guide advises teachers to use their authority to encourage the
right answer: "[I]t is helpful for students if you use your own set of photos to
create a family with two moms and/or two dads."
When the lesson is over, the teacher exhorts students to examine their
beliefs, confess their errors and commit to reform.
"Were there types of families you didn't create?" asks the teacher.
"Why do you think you didn't create those families?" (In other words, what's
wrong with you?) "If you did this activity again, would you do anything
differently?" (Hmm, I wonder what the right answer is to that one?)
"Welcoming Schools" uses the same strategy in its section on expanding
"gender norms." (The guide advises teachers to avoid referring to their class as
"boys and girls." "For some children," it explains, "identifying as a boy or
girl in order to participate in an activity creates internal dissonance.")
Students are evaluated on "whether or not [they] feel comfortable making choices
outside gender expectations."
At Hale School, some parents are up in arms. While they oppose
bullying, they say, this is not the way to address it. They have been explaining
their concerns since February, when Principal Bob Brancale announced in an
e-mail that "Welcoming Schools" "will be piloted ... regardless of the personal
issues or concerns of parents or staff."
"It's a direct slap at parents' face," said Hale parent Arbuc Flomo of
the newly formed Coalition for Parents' Rights. " 'I used to think, but now I
know ...'? It's like a teacher saying to your first-grader, 'what you learned in
your seven years before coming to first grade here -- what you learned from your
parents -- is wrong.' "
Dan Loewenson of the Minneapolis School District says that parents are
free to opt their children out of the program.
After Hale parents filed formal objections to "Welcoming Schools" in
March, district leaders referred the matter to the district's Curriculum and
Instruction Committee. On May 28, the committee will deliberate about next steps
after hearing from parents and staff.
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