At Connecticut’s Southington High School, an English teacher attempted to educate her students on vocabulary words regarding race and gender. But according to Patch, angry, anti-CRT parents gathered at the following school board meeting to argue these terms were “off the wall” and seeing them again was “frustrating as hell.”
Here’s what this controversial worksheet looked like:
Although the worksheet included terms like “indigenous people” and “transgender,” we all know it wasn’t “Indigenous/American Indian” that got everyone mad. It was “white privilege.” Now, any other teacher could’ve just thrown these terms at their students without context. But this one crafted a guide on how to discuss these terms - which is clearly more important than the terms alone.
But one student reported the worksheet to a counselor, leading the Republican-majority school board to open the floor for the real children to voice their concerns. Those concerns were just board members and parents complaining that white privilege doesn’t exist.
Read the parent’s remarks from Patch.com:
Southington Board of Education Vice Chairman Joseph Baczewski, a Republican, said this situation represented a “teaching opportunity.”
“To hear about the white privilege thing again? I’m tired of it. For this to be the talk? Out of all the crap that’s going on and this is it?” said Baczewski. “It’s frustrating as hell.”
Resident Michael Kryzanski said the three-page worksheet has nothing to do with what should be taught in that particular class. “Social justice? Why is it even in this document? What does it even mean, aside from it being a term politicians use to buy votes,” he said.
Local resident Pat Tavalozzi went so far as to suggest classroom monitors be used to make sure teachers don’t impart the types of issues raised in the worksheet to their students. “We need to police the teachers bringing these ideologies that are just completely off the wall,” she said.
WOW. I can’t say I’m surprised at the tantrums these parents threw at this meeting. It’s just appalling to see they’d rather their children be ignorant to literal terms used to describe things relevant to society today.
It’s just another example of basic education being used as a tool of political warfare.