In New Jersey, educators are pushing new English language arts and math standards that include climate change and "environmental justice."
Second graders in Washington, D.C.'s school system will learn abut the “histories of same-sex relationships.”
In California, the new math curriculum includes classroom activities such as “math identity rainbows.”
"What should be a straightforward exercise in setting high academic standards has devolved, in several states, into a free-for-all of cramming woke nonsense into every corner of curriculum," Angela Morabito, a former Department of Education press secretary and current spokesperson of the Defense of Freedom Institute, wrote for The Federalist on Tuesday.
New Jersey's new standards stipulate that the rising generation of New Jerseyans must have the skills to “create alternate discourses to change the present and shape the future.” The standards also demand that teachers help students “become involved in the issues of our age, which include climate change and environmental justice.”
In D.C., students will learn “histories of same-sex relationships” in second grade and the history of the “Latinx resistance” movement in America in fifth. The word “resistance” appears at least 40 times in the new framework, Morabito noted. But other historical evils are nearly ignored; the word “communism” or “communist” appears only eight times; “socialism” appears four times, and “Nazism” appears twice.
D.C.'s eighth graders, Morabito added, "will soon be able to take an 'Action Civics' course — a topic that trains students to be activists for leftist causes."
California’s new math framework encourages “teaching toward social justice.” Sample classroom activities include “math identity rainbows,” in which students choose colors that represent their individual strengths to create an image of a “mathematical community.”
"The math plan prioritizes equity over, well, math to such an extent that academia has taken action," Morabito wrote. "As the framework was being crafted, more than 1,700 academics in the STEM fields signed an open letter decrying the lack of options for advanced students to receive advanced math instruction. Their letter also laments the setting aside of algebra and geometry, expressing concern that students will arrive at college ill-prepared to handle post-secondary mathematics."
Gender identity, not surprisingly, is also featured prominently in new education standards.
Massachusetts health education standards would have middle school students learn the difference between sex and so-called gender identity. The document describes sex as “assigned” rather than biological, implying that sex is not intrinsic but grafted onto a person’s identity when the doctor says, “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” in the delivery room.
"Parents have the right to opt their children out of sex ed lessons, but 'please don’t indoctrinate my child' is not a special favor parents should have to ask for from the government. It should be the norm," Morabito wrote.
Public education bureaucrats are perfectly content that most Americans don't think about statewide educational frameworks.
"Most parents have no idea what an educational framework is or what it means for their students," Morabito wrote. "They should not have to understand the intricacies of curricular frameworks any more than one who flips on a light switch should need to know how electric circuits work. Schools should provide a decent education just like a light switch should turn on a light. But public education has blown a fuse, and now it’s on all of us to look at the wiring to fix the problems."
Some are making a stand.
In Pennsylvania, parents and educators are suing the state’s education authority over its “culturally responsive teaching” guidelines, which instructed teachers to “believe and acknowledge that microaggressions are real.”
Morabito noted: "That’s right, the state Department of Education is telling teachers exactly what to believe and to share that belief with students. Ideas this rotten should never make it past the drafting table, but they become academic standards thanks to activist education bureaucrats."
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