I recently received an email from a Virginia Beach teacher who wanted to share with me what they wrote on their exit survey. The teacher gave me permission to anonymously share what was written How many more teachers have left for the same reasons? I used to be very proud to say I worked for VBCPS, but our system has really changed over the years. We lack discipline and I am tired of worrying about what color the skin of the child is when there is a discipline problem. I am tired of feeling pressure to pass kids that don’t deserve it. We continue to make the curriculum easier and easier for the students. We don’t teach responsibility. We can’t give below a 49 when a kid should receive a 0 for not producing work. We shouldn’t have to take late work. I don’t get to do any of that in the real world. We are producing lazy children with no work ethic.
I am not a guidance counselor and should not be teaching SEL Lessons. I find much of the material divisive and offensive. We hardly have enough time for the 3 R’s....our kids need to be taught to critically think, not what to think. It is a real shame to see the directional change of our school system over the past few years. I am glad I no longer have children in the school system. My kids worked hard for their class rank and were very proud of their accomplishments. Students should be recognized for being the top of their class, not just an honor student. I was finally reading the school newsletter and saw the thing about grades. What if I have a kid that had a D first quarter and an E second quarter, so D for the first semester. Then he has an E for quarter 3 and an E for quarter 4. Would he end up with a D for the year? Here was the response: Typically, yes. But you may want to talk with the student's counselor
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Click on the link below (stop discrimination, wokeness and critical race theory) to send an email to School Board and Va Beach General Assembly elected leaders that makes the following statement:
I call on all leaders of Virginia Beach Schools and Virginia Beach General Assembly leaders to stop the violation of civil rights and radical indoctrination in our schools. Virginia Beach Schools sponsored a book study for teachers during the school day and paid for by tax dollars on a book called the Racial Healing Handbook. This book denigrates Christianity, decries "adultism" and discriminates against people based upon the color of their skin. Furthermore, there is an effort being led by School Districts including Virginia Beach to rewrite Virginia History curriculum utilizing Marxist ideologies. All of this information can be found on School Board member Victoria Manning's website: http://www.manningvbsb.com/blog.
I believe that this is a violation of law and call on all elected leaders who take an oath to uphold the constitution to end this discrimination now. Furthermore, I call on the Virginia Beach School Board to allow the resolution presented by Carolyn Weems to be added to the agenda and that School Board members vote to affirm the resolution. This resolution will bring clarity to equity training and teaching and prevent further discrimination in our schools. Resolution
The Virginia Beach Schools Superintendent and a majority of the School Board firmly deny that Critical Race Theory is being used in Virginia Beach Schools. I will prove to you that either they are giving “misinformation” or they don’t know what is going on in their own district.
Critical Race Theory and Wokeness have been quietly infiltrating our schools nationwide, in VA and even here in Virginia Beach for the last few years. In 2019, teachers and school leaders from Virginia Beach joined 6 other schools across the state in an effort to rewrite Virginia Public Schools History curriculum through a series of workshops in a group called the Virginia Inquiry Collaborative (VIC). The group has a partnership with C3 Teachers who assist in the Inquiry Design Model. Let me try to explain what I have found. I have downloaded most of the documents from the website but you can explore it for yourself and I will provide some highlights. I also have documents showing that Virginia Beach Staff and Teachers have participated and are participating in this VIC and some are leading. One of the top resources listed on the C3 Teachers website is “Making Inquiry Critical”. This document is also mentioned in one of the presentations. Let’s focus on this document as it seems to be a leading document that drives the work of the Virginia Inquiry Collaborative. The article states that “Critical Theory is one of the predominant schools of thought in social sciences… Critical Theory pays special attention to the social world, focusing on the hierarchical nature of social relations and examining how these unequal power relationships lead to privilege for some and oppression for others”. It goes on to say that “critical theory is about identifying and confronting social injustices” and “action taken from a critical perspective eschews neutrality, actively siding with the oppressed and promoting their liberation”. It further discusses the roots of critical theory which is traced to the Frankfurt School. They state that “these thinkers sought to extend Marxist theory into the changing social, political and economic landscape”… The “Making Inquiry Critical” document goes on to praise these Marxist ideals and states that “the Frankfurt School’s extension of Karl Marx’s call to produce knowledge and to take action from the standpoint of the oppressed may be its greatest impact”. The document then highlights the purpose of the C3 Framework: with citizenship education as its central mission and with content that allows for examination of past and current injustices, social studies should be a natural home for critical theory. The footnote at the end of that sentence references Gloria Ladson Billings article on “Critical Race Theory Perspectives on Social Studies”. The concluding thought is that “we hoped to make it clear that one must be purposeful when designing a critical inquiry. To truly stay within the bounds of critical theory, there must be a focus on identifying unequal power relationships in society coupled with the goal of transforming those unjust social relations. To remain true to critical pedagogy, teachers should work to identify questions that are important to students’ lives and that encourage them to reflect on the ways that they are either privileged or oppressed by social dynamics. Thank you to Fox News for getting the word out to the public regarding what is happening in Virginia Beach Schools. You can read their story here. It is difficult as a School Board member to get anything done when Chair Rye and Vice Chair Melnyk will not allow an agenda item to address concerns. My video on this can be viewed here. |
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