Test scores drop at SF elementary school that spent $250K on 'Woke Kindergarten' program to teach anti-police lessons, 'disrupt whiteness
'https://www.theblaze.com/news/woke-kindergarten-antiracism-school-dirupting-whiteness
A struggling elementary school in California paid $250,000 to an organization called “Woke Kindergarten," which advocates messages of anti-police, anti-capitalism, anti-Israel, and disrupting whiteness.
Glassbrook Elementary School in Hayward reportedly was one of the lowest-performing schools in the nation. In an attempt to boost test scores, the San Francisco-area elementary school spent $250,000 to hire "Woke Kindergarten." The school used federal funds that are provided to help some of the country's worst-performing schools improve.
Woke Kindergarten is a self-described "global, abolitionist early childhood ecosystem and visionary creative portal supporting children, families, educators, and organizations in their commitment to abolitionist early education and pro-black and queer and trans liberation."
The woke program attempts to provide so-called "anti-racism" lessons to elementary school teachers.
The San Francisco Chronicle noted that Woke Kindergarten has a mission "to train teachers to confront white supremacy, disrupt racism and oppression, and remove those barriers to learning."
Zeus Leonardo, a UC Berkeley education professor, claimed that the Woke Kindergarten agenda is not about indoctrinating children, "but making politics part of the framework of teaching."
However, teachers at Glassbrook say that the curriculum is "wrongly rooted in progressive politics and activism with anti-police, anti-capitalism, and anti-Israel messages mixed in with the goal of making schools safe, joyful and supportive for all children."
Tiger Craven-Neeley – a self-described "gay moderate" teacher – said he supports discussing racism in the classroom, but revealed that the Woke Kindergarten's primary objective was to "disrupt whiteness" in the school.
Craven-Neeley said he was temporarily banned from the Woke Kindergarten sessions after he asked what it was meant by "disrupting whiteness."
The organization's website features a "woke wonderings" section that proposes radical ideas such as challenging the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, abolishing the police, eradicating borders, defunding all militaries, abolishing money, eliminating landlords, and diverting U.S. aid from Israel to rebuilding Palestine.
The Woke Kindergarten website has a "Woke Words of the Day" section that teaches young children about ceasefires, work strikes, anti-racism, and protesting.
The website features a guide called "So you made it to a protest! A sensory guide for kids." The guide for children has images of protests for "Free Palestine," Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, and prison abolition. The guide offers kids with advice on how to protest, such as "speaking your truth," wearing sunglasses and head coverings, and chanting. The guide has an image that reads: "Police do not keep us safe."
There are also sections titled "Lil Comrades Convos" and "Teach Palestine."
The founder of Woke Kindergarten is Akiea “Ki” Gross – who is a self-described "abolitionist early educator, cultural organizer, and creator currently innovating ways to resist, heal, liberate and create," and goes by the pronouns they/them.
The school's academic performance actually fell after hiring Woke Kindergarten.
"English and math scores hit new lows last spring, with less than 4% of students proficient in math and just under 12% at grade level in English — a decline of about 4 percentage points in each category," the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Glassbrook Elementary School also remained on the state watch list, and had actually dropped to a lower level.
School district officials attempted to defend the decision to hire Woke Kindergarten, by claiming that the program was not hired to improve academic performance, and that attendance has gone up by nearly 20%.
Hayward Unified School District Superintendent Jason Reimann told the Chronicle that Woke Kindergarten is "helping students feel safe and whole is part and parcel of academic achievement," but admitted that the program costs "more money than we would have liked to have spent."
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