What are children taught in school? That used to be an easy question to answer. Beyond the three "R"s (reading, writing, and arithmetic), they learn the sciences, history, arts, and many other readily described vocational and academic subjects - and we used to know what each meant.
Today's educational landscape - around the country and New Jersey - has become so politically charged that no traditional subject can escape contemporary politics. The law demands it.
Even classes that we thought were safe have succumbed. And so we learn that what we thought was an objective math truth - two plus two equals four - should instead be looked at under the microscope to find the percolating molecules of white supremacy. The sciences are not much better.
But that's not what this column is about. Rather, it is about how the public can discover what is being taught.
I first became interested in this subject in my second term as a school board member 12 years ago. It was the tenth anniversary of 9-11 and I wanted to know if our school district had a lesson about 9-11 and what was in the lesson. You would think that type of information would be easy for a board member to get. LOL.
In all fairness, the assistant superintendent was happy to show me the 9-11 curriculum. There were definitely a lot of typewritten words on that printout. The problem was that most of them were in the form of a question.
What I needed were the answers. For example, how were teachers answering the question, "What motivated the 9-11 hijackers?" It seems like that would be essential but that information wasn't available. It's all roses and hedgehogs to pose a bunch of important-sounding questions - but what were the answers?
You might say that there is no one correct answer to that question. OK. Then let me know some of the answers. Nope. Board members don't need to know that because that crosses the line into managing the schools. What hope is there for parents to know what their children are being taught if board members don't even know?
This sort of came to a head during the major 2020 to 2022 New Jersey Social Studies curriculum revisions. I asked to see a representative lesson plan - for any Social Studies topic. It was not going to happen. How dare I ask to see a lesson plan. Who did I think I was? That is for the professionals, not lowly board members. It was the first time I remember board members voting NO on curriculum.
As we pay our respects today to the victims of 9-11, let's pray that their deaths were not for nothing and that our children may know that.
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