UPDATE: This piece has been updated to reflect a statement from Parents Defending Education (PDE).
Maryland teachers are educating children on “speciesism” and other types of oppression this week with a worksheet that the Parents Defending Education (PDE) found was in a Black Lives Matter lesson plan, according to Fox News.
The BLM lesson plan aimed to teach students about “Diversity and Globalism,” according to the lesson plan obtained by (PDE). Speciesism, one of the 13 other types of oppression listed on the worksheet, is oppression against animals, plans and flora, according to the worksheet obtained from Fox News.
“Instead of learning about great Black Americans like Frederick Douglass who brought our nation together, Howard County decided to use Black History Month to teach students about racial division and hatred. Black History Month should be about the black Americans who dedicated themselves to ensuring our country lived up to its founding principles. It’s shameful that schools like Howard County have allowed Black Lives Matter–an activist group that hates American and Western values–to co-opt Black History Month. A better understanding of black history belongs in our schools. Activism does not,” Alex Nester, Investigative Fellow for PDE, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The lesson plan comes as a part of BLM “Week of Action,” which the school system has been celebrating since 2021.
When passing the measure to approve this annual practice, the school board said, “this is a week intended to highlight, uplift and affirm the rich history and contributions of the Black community,” the resolution stated. The school board also said the lesson was “not using the external curriculum put out by the BLM organization,” according to Fox News.
“I understand and can advocate for the principles of Black Lives Matter,” is stated as one of the learning objectives of the lesson plan.
The lesson plan indicates that children must know their level of privilege or oppression to understand globalism, according to Fox.
Other types of oppression listed on the worksheet include ableism, ageism, racism, sexism. Each type of oppression indicates its variable, non-target groups, and target groups, or the oppressed.
Next week is Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. Revisit this LFJ article about the origins and purpose of this nationwide demonstration for justice in the classroom.https://t.co/bobPYdluLC
— Learning for Justice (@learnforjustice) January 30, 2023
Teachers are to close the lesson by thanking their students for being “honest and vulnerable” in their completion of the worksheet.
The Howard County Schools did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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