(The Center Square) – The University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ curriculum not only affects its own pupils but influences K-12 schools with its initiative that promotes ideas such as Black Lives Matter and “post-gender” to students, according to a Defending Education report.
Defending Education is a nonprofit “working to restore schools at all levels from activists imposing harmful agendas,” according to its website.
Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at Defending Education Paul Runko told The Center Square that “the University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ ‘Ethnic Studies Initiative’ is promoted as a way for K-12 classrooms to explore the ‘rich histories of Minnesota students and their communities.’”
“But when you look at the actual lesson plans – which include the ‘13 guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement’ and a ‘Social Identity Wheel’ that asks students to label themselves as ‘privileged’ or ‘marginalized’ – it’s clear this isn’t about education, it’s about ideology,” Runko said.
Runko is speaking of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ College of Liberal Arts’ Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies (RIDGS) “Ethnic Studies Initiative.”
The Initiative is “meant to unite ‘various stakeholders around the pursuit of creating free, accessible, and Minnesota-specific ethnic studies lesson plans and other resources aligned with the State Standards and Benchmarks in Social Studies,’” as shown in Defending Education’s report and the university’s website.
The Initiative “works ‘directly with K-12 teachers, staff, and students to ensure our programming meets their immediate and long-term needs,’” Defending Education’s report stated.
Additionally, the Initiative provides teachers “with free lesson plans and resources to teach ethnic studies courses in their respective schools.”
University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ did not immediately respond to The Center Square’s request for comment.
One lesson plan for sixth-graders entitled “Protest Art & the Movement for Black Life” focuses on the “Movement for Black Lives and the role of protest art in mediating power in the city” while teaching the “13 guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter Movement,” as the report shows.
The goal of this lesson is for students to learn the “guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement,” the report shows.
Another course document from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ Initiative is the “Social Identity Wheel Activity Guide,” as stated in Defending Education’s report and as Runko likewise noted to The Center Square.
The activity “prompts the students to identify their different identities including if they fall into a ‘privileged’ or ‘marginalized’ group,” with some of the social identity examples being man, woman, post-gender, Latin@, pan-attractional, owning class, and person of size, as stated in the report.
A slide from one of the course assignment to create “‘Protest Art’ for a ‘cause’ of the student’s choosing,” suggests “optional” causes of “Black Lives Matter,” “People Over Property,” “Defund the Police,” and “All Power to the People,” according to the report.
Paul Runko told The Center Square that on top of all of this, “future teachers at UMNTC can take a course on ‘Critical Race Theory,’ ‘heteropatriarchy,’ and ‘queer theory,’ ensuring these ideas flow straight into K-12 classrooms.”
For instance, the university offers a course that explores “hegemony and counter-hegemony,” “coloniality of power,” “Chicana feminisms,” “heteropatriarchy,” “queer theory,” “decolonial methods,” “Critical Race Theory,” and “Critical Latinx Indigeneities,” to name a few of the theories included, according to Defending Education’s report.
Several other courses include similar LGBT and racial themes, with one including a text “calling for the decolonization of Palestine,” the report stated.
