Common Core: ‘Educating’ 4th-graders about ‘white privilege’

The JacketAh, the four R’s of education: Reading, writing, ‘rithmetic, and resentment over white privilege.

If the last of these is unfamiliar, then you are unfamiliar with the wondrous new Common Core curriculum being peddled to schools, which are funneling insidious propaganda into the minds of impressionable middle schoolers.

Kyle Olson of EAGnews, an education reform non-profit headquartered in Michigan, recently produced a video (below) exposing the teaching materials that Common Core advocates are using to realize its “national standards” in math and English.

EAG examined teaching guides designed for grades 1 through 4. In the video Olson narrows his focus even further, concentrating on a grade 4 lesson on the theme of “meeting challenges” and in particular on a children’s book within it titled “The Jacket.”

The two-week-long lesson plan that drives the reading is emblematic of the program as a whole. So what’s in the book? Olson explains:

The story centers around a young white boy named Phil who wrongly accuses an African-American student of stealing his brother’s jacket.

This is a fun little book about racism and white privilege — a left-wing concept that teaches students the values of an American society are actually designed to benefit white people.

The phrase ‘white privilege’ is never used in the book, and you may be thinking, ‘Surely, he’s reading too much into this.’

But the video includes an in-service instruction segment for teachers provided by multicultural educator, Dr. Marguerite Parks of the University of Wisconsin. Parks is unequivocal in extolling the benefits of the book, which she explains is at its core “about white privilege.” She tells those in attendance:

What ‘The Jacket’ is trying to get at is if we’re honest in our discussion and we skirt around [white privilege], then white people think they can skirt around the issue [of race] and not have to be honest….

I start with this book because first thing is they have to understand who they are as whites and the white privilege issue.

Is there racism in the country? Undoubtedly. Is there any value in teaching children about prejudging others who are different based on features of group identity? Absolutely — and not just in the case of white-on-black prejudice. Which is why the whole notion of white privilege is so insidious and counterproductive. Instead of having their young charges read works of literature, teachers may as well just announce to their classes that people of color are the victims with a legitimate grievance toward white people, who are the oppressors.

Basically, that’s what Common Core does.

LU Staff

LU Staff

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