IS YOUR CHILD RACIST?
The obvious answer to any parent would be “NO”. However, by looking at some of the new curricula adopted by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, you may wonder that the School District may not agree with you.
The Second Step SEL lessons adopted by PVPUSD implies that your child is racist and leads children towards transformative SEL. The leading SEL framework from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) explains that transformative SEL is “aimed at redistributing power to more fully engage young people and adults in working toward just and equitable schools and communities.”
Is this an appropriate curriculum for young children?
The Second Step website claims that “Engaging in this form of SEL is challenging—it pushes us to question long-standing beliefs, assumptions, and policies—but it is necessary to move toward a more just and equitable future.”
The assumption here is that the child is already a racist, and that school policies are either unjust or not applied equally to everyone. Based on these assumptions, Second Step lessons are used to re-educate the child into a specific world view or political belief system.
This statement is clear violation of the California Education Code
According to California Education Code 49091.12
“a pupil may not be compelled to affirm or disavow any particular personally or privately held world view, religious doctrine, or political opinion. This section does not relieve pupils of any obligation to complete regular classroom assignments.”
SEL and Transformative SEL directly challenge students’ beliefs and world views. Second Step specifically targets elementary-aged children, who are not at an appropriate age to understand how their beliefs are being challenged. Not only is this practice illegal in California, but these concepts are best taught at home by parents.
Here are the concerns:
Do unjust policies exist in PVPUSD that create an unequal learning environment? If so, is student activism the solution?
Are PV schools teaching students to categorize their classmates into specific racial or sexual groups, rather than treating each person as an individual?
Are PV schools attempting to indoctrinate students into a particular world view rather than prioritizing students’ proficiency in core subjects?
Is PVPUSD breaking the Education Code?