The Columbia County Board of Education has had ELA books for public review open to the public over the last month. The Board initially put the approval on hold after a substantial amount of concerns were raised, and the Board has extended the approval date again to March 14th; another 2 week delay. I reviewed the 6th grade literature book and here was my outtake.
Opinion
The ELA books are from Saavas and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Both companies support Diversity, Equity and Inclusion according to their websites, which is another term for Critical Race Theory. Gloria Ladson Billings sits on the Board for Saavas and has been an outspoken supporter of Critical Race Theory. Theresa Santos-Volpe is another Board Member who is a LGBTQ+ family advocate and consultant, journalist, and children’s book author with 28 years of educational publishing experience. And Saavas’ CEO is a large supporter of the social justice movement.
The book appears to teach in a manner that a teacher is not needed.
The book opens to Social Emotional Learning and discusses the CASEL framework- Self-awareness, self-management, etc., which doesn’t in fact have anything to do with studying literature. SEL is woven through the entire context of the book, and after almost every reading asks the student how they can “make themselves be heard.”
My concerns are:
1. It’s teaching the students to talk through their feelings at school (SEL). There was a lot of “Think about how it made you feel reading the text.”
2. This has nothing to do with learning literature.
3. It’s a slow fade of separation of the family unit (talking about your feelings at school and not at home), and
4. There’s a slight push for social justice (also not the place of the school).
SEL trades reason for how we feel. It emotionally manipulates. It replaces parents with teachers. Parents teach how to be aware, not the school.
The school district did not comment on if/how student data would be shared through the online portal.
It teaches how to “Become a Better You.” (Isn’t that a parent’s job? It introduces how “we, through the school’s help, can become better versions of ourselves,” but is in direct adversity with a Godly view.)
One of the first excerpts was “Brown Girl Dreaming.” While I feel it’s insinuating social justice, one of the questions it asks the students after – “Adults sometimes can make children feel that their dreams about life are silly. What would you say to someone who feels that a child’s dream is unrealistic?” It’s slipping that invisible line between an adult (or parent) because we might make a child feel silly, but write your feelings down here and share with the trusted school.
There were places for students to fill in the blanks of “I see,” “I hear,” “I feel”- after reading each context – it’s all about their feelings.
Some context was talking about taking selfies and how it’s not narcissistic because painters have done it that way for hundreds of years and it’s all about “self discovery.” Selfies really are better than words, according to the text. While you may not agree with me on this, it comes off as it’s ok to be self-absorbed. It also continues the shift to less meaningful conversations that children already don’t know how to have.
Little educational value outside Social Emotional Learning; however, it should be teaching literature.
Have you studied the social credit score in China? If not, I would encourage you to do so and think about how SEL runs a close parallel line with it.
My concern is also the additional online books with similar content. As parents, we should ask ourselves what the educational value is for our students, and if we agree the school is a place for our children to be taught about their feelings, or if that’s the parents responsibility, and are they pushing our children to have feelings around current social issues separate from family values. It appears this literature is more focused on social justice, feelings and Social Emotional Learning than teaching in a form of literature that’s worked for decades to the adults who currently supply our workforce and parent the students reading this material.
I encourage you to read the 1963 Communist Goals. It has 45 declared goals to take over the US. Here are just three goals listed. No. 17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks. No. 40. Discredit the family as an institution. No. 41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
The books will be available for public review until the next Board Meeting. I highly encourage you to take time to review them at the district building on Hereford Farm Road and provide your feedback to the district before March 10. You can also email Dr. Kellye Bosch to request to check a book out for the day. Her email is kellye.bosch@ccboe.net.
Ashley Lee
