Parents aren't singing "kum-ba-yah" about Palo Alto Unified's new ethnic studies class, reports Carolyn Stein in the San Francisco Chronicle. "They fear that students will walk away with an obsession over oppression and political struggles, with little understanding of commonalities between different ethnic groups."
“It would sure help if we as parents could see the curriculum,” said Alan Crystal, a parent with an incoming senior.
The class will be piloted for a small group of ninth graders in the fall. All California high schools must teach ethnic studies, starting in 2025-26, and it will be a graduation requirement starting with the class of 2030.
The state's model curriculum -- which is just a recommendation -- calls for focusing on the experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. A left-wing, "liberated" curriculum was rejected by the state, but is being adopted by some districts anyhow. Palo Alto Unified, which already offers an uncontroversial ethnic studies elective, is writing its own curriculum.
The Palo Alto Parent Alliance collected 1,400 signatures on a petition calling for pausing the rollout until parents have a chance to see what's planned.
Associate Superintendent Guillermo Lopez says the district's model is inclusive, not "liberated," but parents aren't convinced. According to the district's web site, the course will include units on: "identity," "power, privilege and systems of oppression," "resilience and resistance" and "action and civic engagement."
"Palo Alto is the latest district caught up in the debate," writes Stein. "Officials in San Mateo received hundreds of emails last year from parents saying that the district’s ethnic studies curriculum was pushing a left-wing political agenda onto students. In the Mountain View Los Altos High School District, a nonprofit sued the district to release documents surrounding its ethnic studies curriculum."
In my day, America was a melting pot, our teachers told us. Later, it was a "gorgeous mosaic" of cultures.
Inclusive ethnic studies is "as an opportunity to unite Americans by teaching the history of our nation with truth and optimism," write Dana Stangel-Plowe and Grayson Slover. By contrast, "critical" or "liberated" ethnic studies frames the United States not as a "nation of immigrants," but as a "nation of settler colonialists."
Just the other day, I was listening to a podcast guest on the Basecamp with Simone and Malcolm Collins. The guest had connections in SV as do the hosts. He observed toward the end that the recent move of some of the SV glitterati toward Trump/Republicans might be due to Elon Musk buying Twitter and seeing more diverse views than they did when Jack Dorsey, et al, curated the feed.
It was interesting to think that the top tech people could also find themselves prisoners of their own device so to speak.
Of course, it also could be, that though late in having children, they now have children in school and are applying their same obsessive evaluation to the curriculum…