Indoctrination in Your State & District

Brooklyn Middle School

New York City Department Of Education, New York

Submitted: 2021-10-29

Story:

My child goes to a highly sought after middle school in District 15 in Brooklyn. I'm very concerned about how things have started this year in terms of curriculum and overall approach this year. It's ALL DEI, CRT based pedagogy across all classes. Some highlights --

-- over the summer the principal announced the school is using Cultivating Genius by Gholdy Muhammand, an equity based framework for teaching across all subjects. This framework views teaching explicitly thru the lens of oppressor/oppression etc. The book's forward is written by Bettina Love, the educator who said white teachers "spirit murder" black & brown kids.

-- over the summer the school teachers and administrators met in affinity groups over the summer.

---One of the first assignments my 13 year old daughter had in her English Language Arts class was to indicate what her identities were in terms of race, national origin, economic status, sexual orientation etc.

---When she came home from her first day of in person school (in 18 months) she had a name tag on with her "preferred" pronouns.

-- My 13yr old came home a book from her ELA class called "Something InBetween" about a boy/girl teen couple falling in love, but the girl realizes she actually has a penis.

-- the school hands out political & social justice related postcards and flyers to students -- including the one that came home recently which was all about "coming out day" and provided resources for kids like "how to use correct pronouns", "how to come out if your parents don't know" etc

-- when I emailed the principal about my concerns regarding the privacy rights for students with these identity questions at schools she dismissed me and said -- kids don't have to answer anything they don't want to, but that it's important to ask tough questions.

-- the 8th grade social studies teacher said on curriculum night that they would be asking tough questions in the class all year like when they get to the Holocoust unit they will dive into "how America was responsible for the Holocaust"