Public school students in New York City will receive lessons critical of capitalism and asserting that Black Americans should receive reparations, that student loans are equivalent to “debt peonage,” the tenets of the Black Lives Matter movement and arguments for abolishing the police.
The 520-page Black Studies Curriculum, which is being implemented by New York City Public Schools this fall, provides lesson plan outlines for teachers on controversial topics like the case for reparations, voter ID laws and the difference between defunding, reforming and abolishing the police.
While many of the topics discussed would likely not be considered controversial, there are some classroom discussions that seem to be driven by stating controversial viewpoints as fact.
Included in the document for 11th-grade students are lesson objectives focused on reparations for Black Americans and the different arguments for reforming, defunding and abolishing the police.
“Students will be able to understand the need for reparations through the historical system of debt peonage, and its resurfaced form via student loan debt,” a Grade 11 plan overview objective reads.
The lesson defines debt peonage from Webster’s Dictionary as “The use of laborers bound in servitude because of debt” or a “A system of convict labor by which convicts are leased to contractors.”
The curriculum defines debt peonage as the system that replaced slavery in the American South which “exploited Black labor, families, and the attainment of wealth by keeping Black families/people in a continual state of debt – unable to catch up and close the wealth gap.”
That system is still in effect today, the curriculum asserts.
“It also shows up in various contemporary systems in the United States today like systems of incarceration, student loan debt, and housing,” the curriculum reads.
In another lesson, the curriculum requires teachers to explain to 11th graders the differences between reforming, defunding and abolishing police departments.
“Students will be able to understand the history of policing in America and identify, analyze and explain the difference between the terms reform, defunding, and abolition in order to answer the following essential question: Are Black communities policed differently than other communities in the United States? In New York City? Should we reform, defund or abolish policing in our communities?”
The lesson on policing assumes students “understand the BLM Movement origins, founders, policy and political aims” before the lesson begins. The lesson directs students to read a Vox article called “Police reform, defunding, and abolition, explained.”
“George Floyd’s murder and the violence that other Black and brown people have suffered at the hands of police across the country raise police reform concerns. There are many ways to address police reform, from ‘delegitimizing the police’ to ‘restoring legitimacy,” the curriculum reads.
Students are directed to visit three different stations related to the article “Station #1: Reforming the Police,” “Station #2: Defunding the Police,” and “Station #3: The Abolition Vision.” Students are directed to support one of the methods for police reform or an article explaining why they would not choose to reform the police.
Some of the lessons seem to take positions that would establish which political party students should emulate.
Back-to-back lessons for 12th-grade students call Vice President Kamala Harris a “Black Sheroe” in the “Fight for American Democracy” while using former President Donald Trump’s tweets as the basis for a lesson on voter suppression.
In the first lesson, students are directed to create biographies for Black Women in Politics, including Harris. Students were then told to have a “role play mixer,” where they would talk with other students to learn more about the historical and current “Black Sheroes.”
In the next lesson, called “The Black Vote and Current Trends in Voter Legislation in the United States,” teachers are told to use tweets from Trump on the 2020 election and ask students about whether the “ideas in Donald Trump’s Tweet influence voting or access to voting.”
Voter identification laws are described as a way to keep Black people from voting. Such provisions are contentious in states like Georgia, where Republicans passed measures requiring voters to show identification, citing election integrity.
Activists have argued that such measures are reminiscent of a poll tax and have filed lawsuits against the state. The curriculum invokes the Georgia law as an activity on voter suppression.
“Inform students they will be assigned an article from the Georgia Voting Law that they will read, annotate, and analyze,” the curriculum reads. “After distributing one of the articles to students, tell them they will share details about their article with a partner, and discuss if the actions in their article are a form of voter suppression.”
Students are also told how “slavery financed the American economy and built wealth for American companies and institutions.”
“Economic lessons include an investigation of the role slavery played in the development of American capitalism and wealth, as well as Black entrepreneurialism, cultural appropriation, and economic independence,” the document reads.
• This story initially published at Chalkboard News, a K-12 news site that, like The Center Square, is also published by Franklin News Foundation.
