LANGUAGE ARTS CLASSES TELL STUDENTS TO FIND RACISM IN EVERYDAY CONVERSATIONS
Assignment: CNN Article
“How to respond to microaggressions”
In language arts classes, 8th graders learned to find racism in conversations, even if none was intended.
They read this article and did other assignments about microaggressions. Microaggressions are unintentional insults.
Parents said learning about “microaggressions” was divisive and had nothing to do with language arts.
Additionally, they said microaggressions were only portrayed from white people toward black people, and not both ways.
PARENT REACTION
“Some of the problems with the lessons are that they don’t show more than one side. Which is why it’s easy to believe they (district) have an agenda.”
—Rockwood 8th grade parent
The article was assigned in the Critical Literacy unit.
Link to the article: The Article
Rockwood teachers are allowed to choose lesson materials for their classes, with little oversight.
Excerpts from the article:
“Microaggressions...communicate hostile, derogatory or negative racial messages or assumptions to the receiver.”
“Make the invisible, visible.”
"Oftentimes the perpetrator is unaware that they have engaged in demeaning or offensive comments, so you have to make that visible to them," Sue said.
The article also stated it’s offensive to say white privilege doesn’t exist.
The article accompanied movie clips from "The Hate U Give," which tells the story of a black teenager who is oppressed in her affluent school, and, how she struggles after watching a white police officer shoot and kill her black friend.
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| Screenshot from Canvas, Rockwood's online learning platform. |
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| Screenshot from Canvas, Rockwood's online learning platform. |
8th grade language arts
Critical Literacy unit
Spring semester, 2021
Parent Concerns:
Teaches kids to perceive interactions as racism.
Not academics.
Status: Unknown; Rockwood hasn’t answered our questions about what lessons they'll be using this semester.
_________
Action:
Parents challenged the Critical Literacy unit, which is where students used this article.
Decision:
Retained without restriction.
But: The district also said in its summary report that it had already decided to stop using lessons from the Critical Literacy unit.
It is not clear what the district stopped using.
We have asked repeatedly for the names of the lessons they say are no longer “available” and have asked which lessons are being “rewritten.” We have not received answers.