Evanston Township High School senior Mika Parisien enrolled in an honors history class instead of Advanced Placement United States History to learn about Black history and other cultural narratives absent from the AP curriculum.
Her teacher, Corey Winchester, taught Black, Asian American and Chicano history units. She was pleasantly surprised when he also spent multiple months covering Haitian history. For Parisien, who is Haitian, this was her first experience learning about her own culture in school.
“He really challenged us to learn about equity and race, and how it tied into history, and how it tied to today,” Parisien said.
Erika Sanzi
May 01, 2021 9:45 PM ET
The contemporary obsession with identity has made its way into elementary school policy, curricula, and standards approved by state boards. While we continue to see poor reading and math scores, schools spend money and time confusing and shaming other people’s children. Many educators and elected leaders have good intentions; they believe deeply that they are part of a necessary and long-overdue movement to teach racial literacy, social justice, equity, and antiracism. But as virtuous as these terms may sound on their face, they mean something else in far too many classrooms. American schools are teaching young children race essentialism: reducing them to identity groups, putting them in boxes labeled “oppressor” and “oppressed,” and often inflicting emotional and psychological harm.
eye on the news
The Monster Is in the Classroom Schools indoctrinate children as young as eight in race and gender essentialism.
Education
The Social Order
Many American parents may assume that culture-war battles over critical race theory and “wokeness” are fought on legitimate terrain, involving such matters as how high school students can best grapple with our nation’s complex past. Perhaps they think that the suddenly ubiquitous topics of gender identity and preferred pronouns rankle only those parents who are old-fashioned in their thinking. If only. America’s youngest students are being bombarded with classroom activism and indoctrination that is inappropriate not only developmentally but for public school systems in general.
Maine South students receive support for inclusivity banner from Park Ridge community members chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Banners promoting student diversity, respect and messages against hate are part of work being undertaken at Maine South High School in Park Ridge to improve student equity and inclusion.