The following includes content which is editorial in nature and reflects the views of the writer.
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RICHMOND, VA- If you need further proof that liberalism is a mental disorder, look no further than the Commonwealth of Virginia and the proposed change in history education standards.
PJ Media reports that the state is required to change standards for teaching history in its public schools every seven years. The last such change occurred in 2015, which means that Virginia is required to adopt new standards this year.
The overhaul began under former Gov. Ralph Northam, an unhinged radical liberal, who of course sought input from a number of left-leaning interests, as well as so-called “experts” on indigenous, African American, Asian American and Hispanic history, as well as from other cultures.
However as PJ Media notes, one important stakeholder was ignored…people who have a real understanding and expertise in American history. Now, under Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the Virginia Board of Education has delayed public hearings while some “kinks” are worked out.
As reported by Fox News, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow noted there are deficiencies in the proposed curriculum updates that need to be addressed.
“We’re on our way to having the best standards in the nation, and I don’t want any of us to settle for anything else,” she said.
What exactly are those deficiencies? For example, the standards use the word “succession” instead of “secession,” while also referencing the removal of the titles of “Father of Our Country” from George Washington and “Father of the Constitution” from James Madison. The BOE claims the errors were “inadvertent.”
If anyone believes the removal of Washington and Madison was an “inadvertent” error, we’ve got some beachfront property in Arizona to sell you. Clearly, the wokesters who were advising on the standards removed both founding fathers because…gasp! They were slaveholders, at a time when the practice, right or wrong, was legal in the U.S.
This is just another attempt of the far left to whitewash history and remove references which are part of our history, like it or not. Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
When parents found out about the proposed changes, some were livid, including Elizabeth McCauley of the Virginia Mavens.
“As a parent I am shocked by the nonsense of even a thought of the removal of the nomenclature, ‘George Washington, the Father of our Country,’ and ‘James Madison, the Father of our Constitution,’” McCauley said. “I am grateful for the five new Virginia Board of Education members who put the brakes on the aim to ram through these destructive ‘updates’ to the Virginia State history curriculum.”
Clearly the commonwealth has taken their eyes off the ball, as noted by McCauley who said they would be better off focusing on improving literacy rates across the state.
“The editing and removal of history is a slippery slope,” she continued. “We the parents stand behind Governor Youngkin, who has stated students should be taught all of history! What concerns me further is the low literacy rates in Fairfax County in particular
“Why are we even spending a second on this nonsense of low rewriting history as it will simply lead to further confusion for children, the removal of truth and fact and the open door to indoctrination rather than education.
When a process of curriculum revision is rushed it is a red flag that there are hidden agendas that need to be brought to light.”
Governor Glenn Younkin also weighed in on the controversy:
“I believe we should tell our history accurately, the good and the bad,” he said. “And part of the history we’re going to tell is that our Founding Fathers, including George Washington and James Madison, and let’s not forget about Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, and the others played an extraordinary role in the founding of our nation,” Youngkin said.
He further noted that his administration will “reinforce” the role the Founding Fathers played in the creation of America, while emphasizing that Virginia will tell America’s history “accurately and completely.”
Founder of the Virginia Mavens, Tyler Ohta was also apoplectic about the proposed erasure of American history proposed in the new guidelines.
“Without our Founding Father and first president, Virginia’s own George Washington, there is no United States of America, so it is appalling that it would even be considered to remove the title as ‘The Father of Our Country’ from the Virginia State curriculum,” he told Fox News Digital.
“Our greatest export, the longest running Constitution in the history of the world, was in large part a result of the work of our ‘Father of the Constitution’ James Madison. If we are not teaching our children their own history, we are no better than the Marxists who want to see our culture destroyed through cancel culture and the erasure of history.”
Some however defended the proposal, including Atif Qarni, former secretary of education under Northam. Qarni told VPM news that the current history curriculum in the state doesn’t provide enough details about so-called marginalized groups in the U.S., including history of Chinese Americans.
For example she notes current history standards only address the contributions that Chinese played in making railroads.
“When students walk away from an entire K-12 curriculum and the biggest contribution that Asian Americans had was in the railroad industry…that does a disservice,” Qarni said, ignoring the fact that the development of railroads was a key factor in the westward expansion of our country.
“It doesn’t give a holistic perspective of the Asian American diaspora and experiences throughout American history and it doesn’t do it for other groups as well.”
One history professor from Norfolk State University, Cassandra Newby-Alexander complained that details about lynchings of black people isn’t included in the standards.
“There’s a mythology that Virginia didn’t have too many lynchings, that somehow that was a lower South thing, which of course was not at all true. But that was the mythology built into the history of Virginia,” she said.
She further complained that some students felt current history curriculum focused too much on wars.
“I think that long ago, there were these thoughts that if we talked about these wars, it would build patriotism,” she told VPM News. “And actually, what it does is it builds a lot of complacency about history.”
Some parents took issue with other parts of the 400-page draft document, with one, Harry Jackson, a parent advocate with Parents Defending Education complaining about a change from “good citizenship” to “responsible citizenship.” That he argued is part of an overall attempt to push “non-academic related social justice issues.”
“The change from ‘good’ to ‘responsible’ is important, as a responsible person, by definition, has an obligation to act, or to care for others,” he told Fox News Digital.
“This is part of their stratagem in the larger context in our nation’s culture wars as they are teaching children that they have a responsibility to value diversity as it pertains to race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity. This change in the social studies curriculum will be used to advance non-academic related social justice issues regarding compelled speech to use one’s preferred pronoun as well as the responsibility to affirm one’s chosen gender identity.”
Virginia served as ground zero, particularly in Loudoun County, for parents dissatisfied with the veer to the woke hard left in the commonwealth’s schools. That was part of the reason Youngkin, a political newcomer, was able to defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who had previously served as the state’s governor.
In particular, McAuliffe stuck his foot squarely in his mouth in a debate with Youngkin when he made the brain-dead and ill-conceived statement that, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” That statement stuck fork in McAuliffe’s campaign.
The first day he assumed office, Youngkin issued an executive order to “end the use of inherently divisive concepts, including Critical Race Theory, and to raise academic standards,” Fox News Digital reported.
This past week was the first time the state’s Board of Education met with new members appointed by Youngkin.
Of course Virginia isn’t the only state where leftists were pushing woke curriculum. ICYMI, below is a piece about the Los Angeles Unified School District where they are pushing trans ideology in their schools.
DIG DEEPER
LOS ANGELES, CA – According to reports, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest school district in the state of California is allegedly teaching a curriculum promoting gender identity, including transgender and non-binary genders in K-12 school children.
LAUSD Imposes Radical Gender Teacher Training, Curriculum Materials, Instructs Teachers On Not Disclosing Students’ Gender Identity https://t.co/mXrUMo20ur pic.twitter.com/UqsaZawtFC
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) July 20, 2022
Public documents show that the Human Relations, Diversity, and Equity department at Los Angeles Unified School District is using presentations, training programs, and clubs to instruct K-12 students on gender identity, which include classroom instruction materials and district-sponsored event calendars.
These types of classroom instruction materials and district-sponsored events first appeared during the 202-2021 academic school year.
One example is when the district hosted a virtual conference featuring a panel of 7th graders who identified as LGBT.
Documents indicate that at that event, the panel of students were “advising” parents on what LGBT middle schools “want you to know.” The conference allegedly included a presentation encouraging student athletes who may identify as LGBT to “come out.”
Another event was a workshop on “International Transgender Day of Visibility,” which documents show said, “history has a disturbing way of elevating certain voices while silencing others.”
The presentation allegedly focused on raising awareness for the transgender community to achieve “trans justice.”
Learn about gender ideology in California Schools this Wednesday June 29th! pic.twitter.com/qmMejyaWWh
— GGLaRue (@gigilarue4) June 26, 2022
Another event, according to documents, the “Standing with LGBTQ+ Students, Staff and Families,” run by school administrators, taught local social justice engagement and gave out free gender-affirming clothing.
The districts “queer and trans-affirming” school calendar, titled “Queer all School Year,” features different pride events that take place each month, such as “Standing with LGBTQ Students” conference.
Another event, the “Queering Culture & Race,” allegedly promoted the abandonment of gendered expressions such as “boys and girls.” The presentation documents for that event stated:
“The black community often holds rigid and traditional views of sexual orientation and gender expression. Black LGBTQ youth experience homophobia and transphobia from their familial communities.”
Teachers in the district have been instructed to address a student by their chosen name and pronouns, and are allegedly not permitted to alert the parents of the student if they change.
Documents show that students were also told they can use any pronouns, including “tree” or “ze.”
Documents from Los Angeles Unified illustrate the extent to which gender ideology has entered the mainstream of the nation’s second-largest school district, writes @realchrisrufo. https://t.co/o9z8lqH87s
— City Journal (@CityJournal) July 29, 2022
Documents state that in as an “elimination of barriers,” the school has established a “gender neutral dress code and school uniform policy.”
More than 600,000 students attend the K-12 education in the school district that includes more than 115 schools and campuses, making it the second largest school district in the nation.
Los Angeles is not the only California school district adding gender identity to the curriculum.
According to a report by Christopher F. Rufo with City Journal, San Diego public schools want to “overthrow heteronormativity and promote genderqueer, non-binary, pansexual, and two-spirit” identities.
Rufo states that publicly accessible documents from San Diego Unified showcase the district’s new “ideology.” According to the district, the gender binary has created an unjust society that disrupts “heterosexual and cisgender privilege.”
San Diego Unified school district has allegedly created a program of gender-identity instruction with, as Rufo states:
“The explicit goal of undermining the traditional conception of sex and promoting a new set of boutique sexual identities, such as ‘transgender, ‘genderqueer,’ ‘non-binary,’ ‘pansexual,’ ‘asexual,’ and ‘two-spirit,’ that promise to disrupt the oppressive system of heteronormativity.”
In another document published by San Diego Unified, administrators reportedly celebrated “non-binary identities,” arguing that there just be a “linguistic revolution to move beyond gender binaries.”
The district adopted the term “Latinx,” which “makes room for people who are trans, queer, agender, nonbinary, gender non-conforming or gender fluid.” According to Rufo:
“If the case against queer theory as an academic discipline is strong, the case against queer theory as K-12 pedagogy is even stronger. The goal of dismantling heteronormativity is nonsensical and destructive to the basic building blocks of society.”
RedState went into more details about the curriculum:
Intimacy, evidently, is critical. Consequently, one of the district’s “Key Messages for Discussion” for students is that “sex can be fun and meaningful in a healthy relationship.” One group conversation asks, “What does ‘LGBTQ+-inclusive sex ed’ mean to you?”
And then:
Presentation:
Safe Oral Sex
Safer Vaginal Sex
Safer Anal Sex
Two sexual diagrams are shown — those of “reproductive anatomy of people with a penis” and “reproductive anatomy of people with a vulva.”
From there, the training — complete with practice exercises — serves sample questions from hypothetical kids: “Is it okay to masturbate?” “How do gay people have sex?”
Also:
What does semen taste like?
What might be the intent of the question?
What knowledge do they need to make healthy choices?
How could you make your response inclusive of all students?
How would you respond?
Report: Parents at school board meeting allege third-grade teacher pushed LGBTQ curriculum on 8-year-olds
April 24th, 2022
GLENDALE, CA- According to a report from the Daily Caller, videos shared from a public school board meeting show some parents reprimanded the board after emails uncovered a third-grade teacher allegedly conspired with administration to teach eight-year-olds about gender and sexual identity.
Glendale Unified School District Meeting pic.twitter.com/Gswnz0ft4g
— Ms. Muck Raker (@muckrakingmedia) April 22, 2022
A public records request made by a parent uncovered emails that a third-grade teacher in Glendale Unified School District showed students videos relevant to the LGBTQ community as well as comments about nudity.
During an April 19th Board of Education meeting, parents reportedly identified the third-grade teacher as Tammy Tiber.
According to the Daily Caller, Tuber reportedly sent an email to the district’s Teaching and Learning Department after a parent pulled her child from a Zoom session that focused around LGBTQ Pride month. The email allegedly read:
“Today I talked to my class about LGBTQ pride month and played 2 short videos from YouTube that were geared towards kids.
A parent who heard the lesson and discussion made her daughter leave Zoom and texted me asking me when I was done discussing sexual orientation so that she could let her kids back into Zoom. I was planning on doing more lessons tomorrow and Wednesday, but now I’m afraid to.”
Tiber allegedly listed YouTube video links that discussed LGBTQ topics as well as a video that talked about being attracted to nudity in film.
According to the emails obtained by the public records request from the parent, administration with the school responded to Tiber’s request by offering strategies to discuss LGBTQ topics “under the radar.”
One Glendale Unified School District mother, who spoke at the April 19th school board meeting, denounced the board for allowing this teacher to continue teaching such lessons. The mother said:
“These are eight-year-old children that she’s trying to hold a sexual orientation class with. You guys want us to believe that this isn’t a propaganda, that no agenda is being held. This wasn’t just any sexuality class, this was specifically designed. Three days a week she taught LGBTQ curriculum in her class.”
The mother added:
“It raises the question, how many of those students are excelling in that classroom? Is everybody in that class getting A’s in math, English, grammar, social studies that we can dedicate three days a week to teach eight-year-olds about sexual orientation?
I don’t care what kind of sex is being discussed. The words sexuality, nudity does not belong in the ears in a classroom of eight-year-olds.”
The mother then dubbed the board’s lack of attention with the matter an absurd “level of disrespect. Watch the video below:
https://twitter.com/InsideTheClass_/status/1517246025919983617
According to a report from Business Insider, a new poll found that majorities of parents across the country support instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation in K-12 public schools.
The National Parents Union survey of 1,000 parents of K-12 public school students found that parents of younger children were more resistant to such instruction, with 35 percent opposing it in elementary schools compared to 25 percent in middle and high schools.
According to the poll, nearly a third said that it should be “allowed, but not encouraged” in middle and high schools compared to 27 percent in elementary school. Keri Rodrigues, National Parents Union co-founder and president, said in a statement:
“The opposition from more than a third of parents with young children tells me that there hasn’t been enough communication with parents so that they trust schools to be able to engage in this conversation, that there’s a lot of fear about it, there are a lot of cultural issues around it, and that there needs to be a further discussion around what this curriculum is, how it’s introduced, at what ages its introduced.”
Report: School district teaching young kids gender doesn’t exist; refuses to disclose full curriculum
March 29th, 2022
WASHINGTON — A Washington school district is reportedly teaching 7-year-old children that gender does not actually exist, yet sometimes people can have two genders.
The school district is also allegedly refusing to disclose the full curriculum to the public, which is questioning what young kids are learning.
and the teachers should be fired for child abuse, enough is enough.
— 83475229 (@830ulrDUowSvCXx) March 27, 2022
In addition, some are saying the district is introducing the concept of gender identity two years before it should.
Gender identity is listed by the state as appropriate beginning in the fourth grade.
According to a report by KTTH Radio’s Jason Rantz, the Edmonds School District is pushing gender identity on 7-year-old kids and has even asked the children for their personal pronouns.
https://twitter.com/randybiscuits/status/1507091572080488468
Rantz said the school district also developed lesson plans on self-identity that includes the claim that sometimes gender does not exist, but at other times a person can have two genders:
“Other times, a person can have two genders. First graders learn about the ‘nonbinary experience’ and teachers are told to ask students to list their gender identities so that ‘gender nonconforming’ students can feel more comfortable.
“While a district spokesperson argues the lesson plan is mandated by the state, Edmonds goes above and beyond what state law requires. Perhaps it’s why the district refuses to disclose the full curriculum to the public.”
https://twitter.com/WokeLunacy/status/1508058307029778437
According to Rantz’s report, under state guidelines Washington public schools must provide age-appropriate lesson plans on a variety of sexual health topics:
“Under the theme of ‘self-identity,’ kindergartners and first graders should learn ‘that there are many ways to express gender.’
“But the intent does not appear to be to promote the concept of gender identity because that topic is listed by the state as appropriate starting in the fourth grade.
“Still, via its online portal, Edmonds School District pushed the lesson plan on the kids. It’s meant as a supplement to in-class instruction on gender identity.”
My son came home with this to read. Hackney school’s start them young. pic.twitter.com/Dp1IOeafYC
— Simon Love (@simonloverules) March 28, 2022
What do the lesson plans contain?
According to Rantz, one lesson plan shows a diagram of which gender pronouns are appropriate to use based on a person’s perceived gender identity:
“For people who either have ‘neither or both’ genders, students are told to use the pronouns ‘they/them.’
“The lesson plan also introduces ‘Jamie and Bubbie: A Book About People’s Pronouns (Jamie Is Jamie)’ to students.
“The book focuses on a woke child teaching a grandmother that you shouldn’t assume someone’s gender.
Why are they pushing all of this right now?
1. They have the levers of power right now and can do it.
2. They know there’s a reckoning brewing and they are screeching loudest before their demise.The sexual left knows their time is limited.https://t.co/p1lmf4vUS3
— Terry Schilling 🇺🇸 (@Schilling1776) March 29, 2022
“Jamie is not presented with a gender. It is meant to introduce children ‘to the nonbinary experience, the use of gender-neutral pronouns, and how to respectfully use personal pronouns.’
“It even hopes children will ‘begin to explore their own feelings about gender identity.’
“Though the book publisher says it’s meant for a second-grade reading level, the Edmonds School District uses it for students in the first grade.
“In a note to teachers, the publisher says the book ‘helps normalize the idea that gender identity is fluid.’”
“Gender clinics” need to stop treating girls and boys like bodies and start treating them like full human beings. Shame on them for experimenting on children and young people. This is irreversible harm and child abuse. Stop bullying parents. #WakeUpAmerica #CanIGetAWitness https://t.co/uNnKSMBrG6
— Partners for Ethical Care (PEC) (@ethical_care) March 14, 2021
One unnamed parent spoke with Rantz on his talk radio show. She said that she became upset upon learning what material was being taught to her son without her consent.
The mother said she felt it was her duty to stand up for children and wrote the following to the school district:
“Our child is 7 years old and in the first grade! This material is completely inappropriate for children this age and is the reason the state of Florida is looking to legislate this issue.
“We were not given any type of prior notice that this was to be taught and had we been informed we would have denied consent and requested our child be excused for the lesson.”
https://twitter.com/lonestarlegion/status/1508462137546522639
The mother referenced Florida recently passing legislation to stop age-inappropriate gender identity curriculum for K-3 students.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signs curriculum transparency bill into law, slams leftist groomer books like “Gender Queer” which shows children performing sexual acts and “Lawn Boy” which details acts of pedophilia.
If only he had the power, he'd #MAGA .
#USA pic.twitter.com/WUMVqeIdxh
— talk•time (@zoominfire1) March 26, 2022
When the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH reached out to Edmonds School District spokesperson Harmony Weinberg, who lists “she/her” in her email signature, she claimed that the lesson plans were based on state-mandated health standards.
This isn't education, it's indoctrination. Pronouns have been taught for years without tying it to gender bias. That's not appropriate for first graders. Challenge the curriculum that your tax dollars are funding. And if nothing changes, be prepared to pull him. pic.twitter.com/XPTkw4Lr2v
— Melissa Cochran (@mhathaway1015) March 25, 2022
In an email, Weinberg noted:
“Teachers use the standards to design lessons to provide a variety of age-appropriate and grade-level learning.”
However, Weinberg twice ignored requests to be allowed to review the full curriculum, according to Rantz’s report.
A parent in Michigan filed a FOIA request to obtain the curriculum for her district's "History of Ethnic and Gender Studies" course. The district refused to provide access and kept the materials a secret.
This is why we need curriculum transparency laws.https://t.co/GmUB0TQBEJ
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 23, 2022
Rantz wrote:
“The mother was correct to question the curriculum.
“Neither gender identity nor the idea that gender doesn’t exist is appropriate for first graders. Not only is it false to claim gender doesn’t exist, but it would also obviously be confusing to 7-year-olds.
“This lesson is part of progressive efforts to indoctrinate children with far-left views. Left-wing educators use schools to teach students their own political opinions, instead of leaving it to parents.
“Indeed, the parents might have the ‘wrong’ views in the minds of the narcissistic educators who cloak their intent around the notion that they’re just trying to be inclusive of their gender-nonconforming and transgender students.
“If you object, activists call you a bigot who doesn’t care about the emotional well-being of children. The truth is quite the opposite.”
LAWMAKER: Waukee Elementary session on importance of LGBTQ, gender-inclusive curriculum ‘sick, grooming-type behavior’ https://t.co/m9aStcSePq
— The Iowa Standard (@IowaStandard) March 27, 2022
The radio host pointed out that school districts also push other controversial content that some consider to be political propaganda:
“For example, educators are also hyper-focused on Black Lives Matter propaganda.
“The Edmonds School District consistently pushes far-left social views on kids, even pretending children are racist if they don’t adopt fringe, left-wing views on race.
“Educators don’t seem to mind that their students might be confused by the concepts, or even think that they’re gender nonconforming or nonbinary because their teacher is pushing the concept on them.
“They have what they believe to be a greater goal in mind. That’s why it’s so important for parents to be more involved in their children’s education. It’s wise to constantly review the curriculum.
“If a parent wants to teach gender identity to their child at an age they feel is appropriate, then so be it. After all, they know their individual child better than any teacher.
“These topics should be left to the people who care about them the most and who are less likely to use them to promote social change.”
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