Educational declines in the U.S. predated the pandemic, but school lockdowns, forcing kids into remote learning situations, greatly exacerbated the problem. The “Nation’s Report Card,” which was released earlier this year, showed “historic” declines among U.S. teens in math and reading scores. For 13-year-olds, for example, math scores fell 9 points, according to data from The National Assessment of Education Progress, while reading scores fell 4 points.
In California, Smarter Balanced’s 2022 test results paint an even more troubling picture of educational declines among certain populations, with only 30 percent of black students meeting English language standards and only 16 percent meeting math standards. Statewide, less than half, 47 percent, meet English standards, and 33 percent meet math standards.
Needless to say, in California and across the country, such results are what Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has called a “five-alarm fire” that puts a “generation at risk.”
One would think, then, that attention would be laser-focused on doing everything possible to give students a solid foundation in the three Rs, but instead, LGBT activism is being pushed on children as young as 5.
Starting Monday, Los Angeles elementary schools will celebrate “National Coming Out Day” with week-long lessons planned:
The "Week of Action Toolkit – Elementary," sent from the Los Angeles Unified School District's Board of Education, outlines suggested lesson plans for elementary students around LGBTQ+ topics. The document, which a teacher shared with City Journal, noted teachers can adapt the lesson plans to better suit the needs of their students.
The toolkit includes an "Identity Map activity" for students to complete at the start of the week, preparing "students to think critically about identity and intersectionality." Teachers are encouraged to have students create an image representing their identity that includes features like their race, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexuality and mental health.
The toolkit suggests students "engage in a gallery walk of everyone's identity map" and respond to writing prompts like, "Who am I? What did I learn about my identity? What were some of your identities that were the same or different than your classmates?" Teachers are also told to share images of students’ maps with the district.
The toolkit’s lesson plan suggests highlighting biographies of major LGBTQ+ advocates each day of the school week. Among those listed include transgender reality star Jazz Jennings, transgender actor Elliot Page and Carl Nassib, the first openly gay NFL player.
The document also includes an allyship pledge for students to sign. It states that students will "use kind language when talking about all teachers, staff, classmates and their families even if they are different from themselves," "be an Upstander by sticking up for others, if safe to do so, otherwise they will ask a grown up for help," and "encourage and teach others to be allies." (Fox11)
Welcome to *elementary school* in Los Angeles Unified School District...this is happening next week.
— Erika Sanzi (@esanzi) October 2, 2023
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