School Board should reject proposed social studies curriculum
January 25, 2023
What is the nexus Among the Beaufort County NC School Board, NC Department of Public Instruction, and SAVVAS?
The Beaufort County NC school board has been reviewing new social studies curriculums for the past year of 2022. During the January 17, 2023 school board meeting several members of the school’s education staff presented their recommendation for a vendor to provide the new social studies curriculum. Their recommendation was to accept the proposal from SAVVAS for the new curriculum. The presenters indicated that the SAVVAS social studies curriculum was the only one recognized by the NC DPI. They made sure to mention there is no teaching of Critical Race Theory included in their curriculum proposal.
Now, let’s go back to the November 29, 2022 Beaufort County school board meeting. During this public meeting the board adopted a revision to the Beaufort County School Policy 3100, Curriculum Development. There was paragraph added at the end of the policy which in part states the following: “Beaufort County Schools System will not include social and other theories that are not (a) generally accepted as accurate by scholars in the academic fields aligned with the subjects and, (b) included in textbooks or other materials approved by the State Board of Education. (Emphasis added)
It appears now the school board knew what the SAVVAS material contained, and this statement added to Policy 3100 is intended to circumvent any objections to SAVVAS. Why did the school board not just convert the resolution against CRT into a board policy which they adopted in late 2021? Are they going to purchase a new curriculum and not use parts of it? A board member asked what this SAVVAS curriculum will cost and there was no answer. The superintendent said we will know later. Does this mean after the board approves the purchase? Another board member asked about other vendors, specifically Hillsdale College.
A citizen presented material to the superintendent in 2022 on Hillsdale College and other history curricula. To date, there has been no response, public or private. Hillsdale College provides classical K-12 education curriculum at no cost. Hillsdale College accepts no funding from local, state, or federal entities. The governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, wants to implement the Hillsdale curriculum in 50 charter schools during his term in office. Currently there are three schools in North Carolina utilizing or planning to use the Hillsdale curriculum in 2023.
What was not included in the presentation of January 17, 2023 is that the SAVVAS social studies curriculum leans heavily toward Social Emotional Learning, (SEL). SEL is just another tenant of Critical Race Theory, (CRT). A review of the SAVVAS web site reveals a page that displays the gay pride flag and highlights June as Gay Pride month touting the contributions of this community.
https://blog.savvas.com/the-great-work-begins-elevating-diverse-voices-during-pride-month/
The last statement on this blog post reads:
“Educators nationwide are working to restructure current systems and practices, both in their teaching and in their school communities. They are cultivating learning spaces that affirm and elevate those who have been excluded, silenced, and marginalized. This year’s tragic events have given new meaning and urgency to Pride Month 2020 and the vital groups that must be included. The Great Work Begins”
Where does the NC DPI fit into this equation? Catherine Truitt, Superintendent of Public Instruction has accepted a $17 million grant from the federal government to insert social workers into 15 North Carolina school districts and is requesting an additional $100 million from the NC General Assembly to expand this initiative. Upon review of National Association of Social Workers-North Carolina web site (NASW-NC), the following is observed.
Good Trouble: The Ethics of Social Work Resistance
Friday, March 17, 2023
8:15 am - 4:15 pm EST
Virtual on Zoom
6.5 Hours of Ethics CE
Social work history is filled with instances where social workers have had to make decisions of conscience about whether to obey the law, particularly when doing so seems to conflict with social work values. In the end, such decisions constitute some of the most difficult ethical dilemmas in the profession. These are the dilemmas that generate intense disagreement among practitioners, dilemmas that require earnest collegial consultation and supervision, and reflection on the implications of the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics. This conference will dive into the Ethics of Resistance: When Social Workers get into Good Trouble.
Below is the NC Legislative agenda for 2023 for the NASW-NC
We see this is a training course for advising social workers on methods to circumvent the laws of North Carolina in pursuit of social justice and equity. Is this what Catherine Truitt is planning to implement in North Carolina public schools? What exactly is ‘Social Work Resistance’? If the education department is not satisfied with complying with the NC general statutes, they should work on changing them, not working on circumvention. From the above slide, their lobbyists are doing that as well as actively circumventing current statutes.
Lt. Governor Mark Robinson has been loud and clear in opposition to indoctrination by the public school administration. Unfortunately, Governor Cooper’s appointees to the state school board have stymied his efforts to bring about meaningful changes to the DPI policies. There has also been very little push-back from local government, county commissions, city councils, and local school boards. When the superintendent of a county school board says, ”We have to do this or we will lose state funding”, no one questions it. With the advent of partisan elections of school boards in some NC counties, this attitude may change.
Okay. Now we have federal funding funneled through a state agency and said agency is going to force local school units to add staff which has not been approved by the local funding authority, the county commissioners.
Beaufort County has eight failing schools with ‘D’ scores as identified by the NC State Department of Public Instruction. Math and English proficiency scores are 35% to 50%. This is where education money needs to be applied, not on social engineering programs to further confuse students approaching puberty related to gender identity and sexual ethics. Should young persons need guidance on these issues, the parents should take care of this or seek professional help. It should not be left to public education to intervene in these matters.
Do you notice anything in this review of the “new” social studies curriculum that is missing or overlooked via lack of emphasis? Yes, indeed. There is no mention of parent participation in the review of these courses and their content or the instructional materials that are proposed to be used. Parents, and citizens in the general public, have a vested interest in seeing that this social engineering and indoctrination are age appropriate and that the values inculcated in the delivery of any curriculum be in conformity with the prevailing community values. We think that means local community values. That appears to be totally absent in Beaufort County development of this “new social studies.”
Moreover, there was nothing in this presentation about parents having a choice about what is taught, and not taught, to their children. The past Governor of Virginia had to learn this the hard way. There is no excuse for Beaufort County Schools to repeat those mistakes.
Beyond the curriculum development and instructional materials issues there are no procedures emanating from the “No CRT teaching” policy. How can parents know what is actually being taught? And if they become aware that the policy is being violated what procedures are in place to spell out the process for challenging the instruction or materials? The School Board should put an absolute stop to this process until the rights of parents are addressed.
Much of this issue is controversial. The smart thing for the Superintendent and Board to do is get out in front of these issues before it boils over into irate parents and citizens taking matters into their own hands, as has been done across the country in many school systems. Beaufort County can, and should, do better.
Comments
|
Victoria said:
( January 31st, 2023 @ 7:41 am )
It is frightening to think that the school board is even thinking about doing this to Beaufort County's children.
|
|
John: Even if polls were in favor of "Wokeness" and Superintendents did make an admiral defense of its supposed benefits, it is the elected purpose of our Representatives to act in accordance with how they campaigned that they would represent us, and, moreover, it is up to us to hold them accountable.
That is the democratic contract of this Representative Republic. |
|
|
Woke public school curriculums will be key topics in other GOP primaries in 2024. Do those three school board Republicans want to stay on the side of their own party in that primary? I would think they would, as the opposite course would likely be politically fatal.
In the Governor's primary, the two top candidates will be Lt. Governor Mark Robinson and State Treasurer Dale Folwell. Both are publicly opposed to woke curriculums in public school. For Robinson, it is his top issue, and he fought very hard and very publicly against the woke social studies curriculum at the state BOE. Folwell also is on the record opposed to that very curriculum. Facing GOP primary voters, are school board members going to want to be on the same side as their top gubenatorial candidates or on the same side as Roy Cooper and his state BOE appointees? Then there is the presidential primary, where the two top contenders, Donald Trump and Ron deSantis are both opposed to woke public school curriculums. DeSantis is making that a major part of his campaign, and the company SAVVAS that is inbolved here is one rejected in FLorida for being woke. Do candidates running in a 2024 Republican primary want to be on the same side as their top presidential candidates or on the same side as Biden's Education Department? These issues will clearly be in the forefront for voters in 2024 primaries in races beyond just the school board. What we have is a school superintendant trying to cozy up to what the education establishment wants to further his own career when he is ready to move up to a bigger system and throwing the schhol board members under the bus to do it. He cares nothing that following his proposal (and everyone knows his "committee" is just a smokescreen) would be fatal to the political careers of the school board members. To him, that is just collateral damage. Polls show that voters do not want wokeness in public schools, which is why this is a big issue in other races. It is what elected a full Republican slate in Virginia two years ago. Hopefully school board members are smarter than the superintendant thinks they are. |
|
|
SAVVAS clearly wants to sexualize young children and should be rejected for that, even without these other issues, which are also very serious. Their "gay rights" pride month material is directed at all ages, instead of just those old enough to understand sexuality. Since they seem to generally promote the homosexual lifestyle, this is likely not the only place they do this. Young children should not be sexualized with either heterosexual or homosexual material. Then there is the issue of whether deviant lifestyles should be promoted at any age to school children. The very worst, however, is promoting it in elementary grades. The question also isL Who in our school system is promoting this sexualization of young children and should they continue to work there>
|
|
|
Thanks for the compliment Steve.
I see all this so very clearly, and I am not even an "Educator;" however, I do know how teach others how to do stuff, some of it highly technical. What is perplexing me now is that so many in our prospective labor force do not have a sufficient understanding of the basics to embrace the perspective of basic logic. Basic knowledge or "common sense" is being replaced by the Cancel Culture's skewed perspective of what is real. I also have the capacity to learn from others, and from some individuals who possess no more than a high school education, maybe less. Funny how this construct is now evolving, and I am not alone in this understanding of the worth within those that intrinsically know how to do stuff, real stuff. Until, I see big changes if the aura of the Education Industry; its true purpose and place in a well functioning society, one that strives to create productive adults in far greater numbers, I will hound this issue, and I will seek to better fund what works by MY concept of what will work, and then what is proved to be working will be rewarded. We must have a productive workforce, and a population that will strive to become exceptional if this Republic can compete and survive. Rewarding the nonproductive, or poorly functioning must end in today's and tomorrow's America ... The insipid "Woke" among us be damned. |
|
|
It will take 5 votes to stop this bad curriculum. There are 9 school board members; 2 Democrat and 7 Republican. One of the Democrats is a flaming liberal and in a safe Democrat seat, so her vote is probably the only one guaranteed in support. The other Democrat is less liberal but his seat is heavily Republican and it comes up again next year. To win again, he will have to show Republican voters in his district that he stands for some of the things they do or he might as well save his filing fee.
Of the seven Republicans, this vote will tell us who the RINOs are and who the real Republicans are. The four elected this year are the most conservative and most likely votes against it for that reason. The other three face a potential primary in about 14 months and will likely not want to go into it having voted for woke. It should be clear to them from last year's primaries that Republican primary voters do not want that. |
|
|
Stan, I don't think you would make it writing a curriculum for the education industry. They don't seem to want anyone to the right of Bernie Saunders. The sad thing is that all of this should be neutral and non-partisan but it is not. I like the British school law that requires as a matter of law that on controversial subjects, all sides be presented to students in a neutral manner. Our education industry in the US is not even close to doing that.
|
|
|
Conservative Voter: Is it not so very standard for the Left to now be removing their made-up, cool analogy of "Woke" from their lexicon as if they had nothing to do with its origin?
The concept of "Woke" is what all normal people NOW despise. Now, all America needs are more normal people. |
|
|
The term "woke" was originated by the far left for their radical ideology. Now that those with good sense are pushing back, some on the left, like Bob below, want to run away from their term.
When it comes to education, one must drill down into the "woke" ideology to get to the parts of it that are a direct threat to education. The closely related concepts of CRT and DEI are the main danger. They are Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion. As to DEI, the three terms seem positive on the surface, but the left has redefined them to stand them on their heads, like Orwellian Newspeak and the left's twisted definistions are far from positive. In fact they are the opposite of the original meanings. Equity has been redefined to mean government induced equaity of result, much like Karl Marx called for in the Communist Manifesto. It is the polar opposite of the American concept of equality of opportunity. The term "equity" as spouted by the leftists of today connotes a kind of neo-Marxism that should not be promoted in the schools. "Diversity" and "inclusion" have also been turned on their heads. Instead of the old definition that involved bringing everyone together and treating them the same, the new leftie definition involves favoring some while disfavoring others. Some groups are lauded as "victims" while others are denounced as "oppressors" just like CRT. An example of the new use of "inclusion" came from a school board in a Frnech speaking part of Ontario which conducted a book burning of books in their library they did not consider "woke" enough. For example, they burned books about the early Frnech explorers of Canada because they did not approve of their relationships with the native tribes. This school board made a video of their book burning for the students, saying it was an example of "inclusion" and suggested students go home and burn similar books. Book burning is "inclusion"?? Who Knew? But don't let the Nazis find out. Then there is the new definition of "diversity". The UN held a conference on diversity last year and an Iranian representative got up and advocaaed exterminating the Jewish people. No one seems to have called him down on that monstrosity. So that's it, under these new definitions. If you want to burn books and exterminate a religious group, you are promoting diversity and inclusion. I like the old definitions a whole lot better. From those who have seen it, the 15 page description of this curriculum from SAVVAS is riddled with these terms, diversity, equity, and inclusion. DEI is equally bad as CRT, and in many ways there is ltttle difference. This is not what we need for the children of Beaufort County. |
|
|
Thanks Steve. Knowing the players help.
What if Stan Deatherage proposed a curriculum that offended the sensibilities of Leftists, and these Leftists checked me out, which is much to be discovered there, and then they ridiculed me as: "Stan is an extreme advocate of, primarily, the first amendment; has worked tirelessly to promote the 2nd Amendment to allow Concealed Carry in Beaufort County's government buildings, as a harbinger to extreme violence in his own county; and has even advocated the stopping of the chosen termination of pregnancy as solely a lifestyle choice for women." "Furthermore, even with all we now know about the infamous Donald Trump, who was Impeached twice, who was firmly behind the traitorous Insurrection of January 6th, 2021, who stole and stored Classified Documents to aid in the overthrow of a democratically elected President Biden, this Stan Deatherage, who just happens to have the title of Beaufort County Commissioner, still promotes the Treasonous Donald Trump as 'an outstanding president,' and has for some time audaciously referred to President Biden as 'America's First Idiot President' - www.beaufortcountynow.com - and yet this Commissioner Deatherage still walks the streets, woods and open spaces of Beaufort County as a free man. Yeah, it is good to know the players in every instance. |
|
|
There is a very good speech that went viral on the internet showing how many black folks do not appreciate the "woke" manipulations by the white left. It was given on the floor of the UK's House of Commons by Kemi Baddenoch, a native of Nigeria and serving as a Conservative member of parliament and Minister of Equalities in Boris Johnson's cabinet. It can be viewed at this link: www.facebook.com (make sure to unmute your speaker) The speech was called the "speech of the year" on the grassroots party activist site Conservative Home.
|
|
|
Nothing seems to have been revealed about how much this curriculum costs, which should be a consideration in which course to choose. Also, other options should be presented to the school board. It is arrogant by the administration to present only one on a take it or leave it basis. The content of this curriculum is of great concern, but cost should also be considered. The school board should have more than one course to choose between. The more the merrier, and the better to compare both content and cost. The superintendant seems to be usurping th duties of the school board and trying to turn them into a rubber stamp. The school board should not stand for this and neither should the voters.
|
View All Comments| Mass Market Artificial Intelligence ChatGPT Passes Elite Business School Exam | Editorials, Beaufort Observer, Op-Ed & Politics | George Santos Signs Lucrative Endorsement Deal With Whoppers |
