“Our schools are becoming indoctrination camps.”
A middle school choir teacher in Minnesota recently taught a class full of sixth-graders about various “types of oppression” by separating students into “privileged” and “targeted” categories. This is the latest example of educators and administrators teaching critical race theory and progressive political ideology to young, impressionable students — often while the social engineering campaign goes completely unnoticed by parents.
According to lesson plan documents obtained by The Blaze the teacher told students, “Last week, we talked about how hard it is to talk about race, and the level of difficulty is different for different people. For people who are privileged, it’s much easier to talk about race and other issues. For people who are not privileged, it’s much harder. Today, we will look at different types of oppression, and whether each of us is in the privileged group or the targeted group.” The lesson plan included a chart listing five types of oppression for the students’ consideration: racism, sexism, religious oppression, heterosexism, and xenophobia.
Ray Richardson is a talk radio host in Maine at WLOB radio and the father of four children and four grandchildren. He is sick and tired of examples like this that he believes are destroying our public school system. He said it’s a new phenomenon and nothing like what he experienced growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s. “There’s a lot of good teachers in America,” Richardson explained. “I was fortunate that three of my teachers had a huge impact on my life. One was Mrs. Clinton, my English literature teacher. She has given me literally a lifelong love of William Shakespeare. At one point, I could recite word for word every line of ‘Macbeth’ because she really broke down Macbeth and the human conflict of ‘Macbeth’ was all about. That’s what teachers are supposed to do, they’re supposed to open your minds to ideas.”
But Richardson said many teachers today believe they have the right to indoctrinate our children with their own personal ideology.
“It’s the biggest problem we’re facing in this country today,” Richardson said. “Politicians and people in the bureaucratic structure are using our institutions to push an agenda, as opposed to, in this case, education. Our children are being used as pawns in the chess game, and our schools have become largely indoctrination camps.”
He said this is a topic he brings up a lot with his radio listeners and they always want to know what they can do to fight back. His advice is to start at the dinner table. “Too many Americans have gotten away from that the dinner table, which is unfortunate because it has always been the most important address in America.”
He believes parents must sit down with their children and talk about life. “They need to talk about philosophy,” Richardson said. “Talk about country. Talk about family and faith.” Richardson said the fact that so many families have gotten away from this tradition has had devastating consequences. “So that when children encounter the culture, and the schools have very much now become the culture, they don’t have a foundation to know what they’re hearing whether it makes any sense whether it’s true,” explained Richardson. “Many of them buy into it because they don’t have anything else to counterbalance it.”
Richardson believes this woke political agenda will have a far-reaching negative impact on our students. “Because while they’re indoctrinating them with ideology, they’re not preparing them to compete against Japanese kids who are in the classroom learning things that will actually prepare you for adulthood and the challenges of a global economy.”
Richardson notes that America’s education system used to be the envy of the world, but today, we have fallen behind many industrialized nations. “It’s a shame because I’ve always believed that a quality educational experience is a great economic equalizer. You can take a kid who comes from the most impoverished of circumstances. And if you open up their minds to big dreams and teach them the basics, that child can grow up to be whatever they want to be because they know how to go about learning things.”
For Richardson, the bottom line is this: Americans have got to care about the country. “And part of that is, we can’t just look at the public education system as a place we send our kids off and hope it works out. Americans have got to be involved actively in their child’s education. You’ve got to show up, because if you don’t show up, people who have nefarious ideas about things will get away with them.”
According to the Blaze:
White Bear Lake Area Schools director of communications Marisa Vette confirmed the details of the lesson plan in full.
In the email, Vette explained that the purpose of the lesson was “to help students understand that everyone is different and everyone experiences the world differently,” adding, “We wanted our students to listen to each other’s perspectives and put themselves in others’ shoes.”
She also noted the activity is a part of a series of “social-emotional lesson[s]” conducted by the school during the homeroom hour “a couple times a week,” in which students are instructed about a number of topics, “including self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.”
Catherine Mortensen is Vice President of Communications at Americans for Limited Government.
