I’ve never seen this movie, so did some research:. Here’s what Common Sense Media had to say (great website for parents to learn how movies might affect kids, by the way):
Overall, this movie is an unforgettable history lesson about soldiers who transcended the profound racism and ignorance of their time to find dignity, courage, valor, and self-respect when given the opportunity to prove their worth.
IMDB has a great list to other reviews published about the movie if you’d like more perspectives.
What does Woodland Park school district, the only district in the nation to have adopted the American Birthright standards for social studies, teach first graders about national holidays? Linked below are images of the handout talking about “National Patriotic Holidays”. Let’s talk about what students are being taught about these holidays…the WPSD definition, and the one from Wikipedia:
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
WPSD: “Martin Luther King Jr. believed all people should have the same rights. He worked hard to make this happen. He taught us to show respect for all people.”
Wikipedia: “King was chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial discrimination in federal and state law and civil society. The movement lead to several groundbreaking legislative reforms in the United States.”
Juneteenth
WPSD: “Juneteenth is the country’s newest holiday. It is known as Freedom Day. We celebrate freedom on Juneteenth.”
Wikipedia: “Juneteenth…is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the end of slavery.”
What I believe is noteworthy here is how slavery and civil rights, the core tenets of those holidays, are being portrayed by our district. These are not difficult concepts to teach to a first grader…but our school district chooses a whitewashed version of history instead.
There’s also then the issue of Labor Day, omitting the significant impact unions had on labor in this country and that this holiday was proposed by them.
WPSD: “Workers have made our country strong. We celebrate them on Labor Day.”
Wikipedia: “Labor Day is…to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States.”
As for Thanksgiving, first graders are not being taught how some of those first Thanksgiving celebrations were in thanks for the assistance Native Americans provided to those early settlers.
There has been a whirlwind of responses after ABS was proposed for Garfield Re-2, including a local effort to recall May from the board. The recall effort comes amid emails obtained through open records requests revealing Fletchall and May requested ABS guidance from the Woodland Park District. Woodland Park, northwest of Colorado Springs, voted to incorporate ABS and has since then seen 40% of its teachers resign in protest.
A community social studies committee made up of teachers, parents and community members was established to review the social studies curriculum, study alternatives, survey the community on their preferences and make recommendations.
“We don’t want our community to be torn apart like Woodland Park, where vocal ideologues took over the school board, causing chaos where there used to be peace,” Willow Brotzman, a parent with two students in the Re-2 District, said in the release. “They’ve bulldozed their community to institute American Birthright despite community opposition, opposed school mental health programs and bullied educators by barring them from speaking publicly on school matters and firing those that did.”
— Read on www.postindependent.com/news/garfield-re-2-community-pushes-back-in-denying-american-birthright-standards-curriculum/
For students planning on playing college sports, taking classes that meet NCAA requirements is super important. A lot of parents have been wondering whether the American Birthright Social Studies standards would impact NCAA eligibility? It’s understood that any course curriculum change requires that class to be re-submitted for review. So where do we stand? The NCAA has a helpful website where you can look up each school and see the status of all classes, and it turns out we have a LOT of classes where the NCAA is holding off approval while they await information from the district. Here’s the list:
I suspect – but really don’t know – that the American Birthright Standard is only responsible for the seven classes in the ‘social science’ section. I also believe that the district might never seek NCAA approval for many classes on this list, so keep in mind the situation probably isn’t as bad as this list makes it seem. Just be sure your kids are choosing classes that meet their needs and paying attention to the NCAA status of each.
In February, the district attempted to reassure parents by saying their goal was to finish this work by registration time in August:
What do we know about the district’s work done so far on this? Unfortunately, not much, apart from the large list of classes pending approval. However, the people at the NCAA are very helpful and told a caller today that district executive assistant Kelley Havin called today to reset their admin password – it seems they couldn’t even access the school information. Which really suggests that they haven’t been working on this! Keeping all this in mind, here’s the email the district sent to parents yesterday about this topic:
That email does little to address the concerns about pending status of classes, and what timeline we’re looking at to resolve all this.
The NCAA has a comment line that they listen to on a daily basis. The number is 317-917-6762.
Hand and 80 of her colleagues with the Woodland Park School District have signed a letter addressed to their community in Teller County that calls for the board to “prioritize our children’s futures over politics.”
The letter specifically criticizes the “American Birthright” social studies model. Woodland Park’s school board was the first in the country this year to adopt the conservative civics education program, which promotes American patriotism and deems social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion topics to “inhibit student learning.”
The Colorado State Board of Education has rejected this syllabus.
— Read on www.9news.com/article/news/local/next/next-with-kyle-clark/teachers-southern-colorado-jobs-at-risk-speaking-publicly-curriculum-american-birthright-woodland-park/73-01dca652-5c24-4839-8543-cb2337d40173
Check out this TikTok video providing more information about the American Birthright standards that our district adopted in January without public discussion:
