Forget the 3Rs. Reading, ’Riting and ’Rithmatic are being replaced by the 5Rs: Race, Resources, Relationships, Restorative Justice, and Representation.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Education Chancellor Richard Carranza are turning the Big Apple’s school system (the largest in the nation, with 1.1 million students) into a political boot camp for churning out legions of “woke” crusaders for whichever cause du jour is scheduled as their current priority agenda item. The new “social studies” and “civics” curricula of the city’s Department of Education (NYCDOE) not only indoctrinate their K-12 captives in race theory, gender theory, LGBTQ rights, social justice, environmental justice, and a continually evolving potpourri of made-to-order Marxist grievances, but also encourages and directs students to take to the streets to demonstrate their righteous zeal.
When Swedish teen phenom Greta Thunberg delivered her screechy, preachy, snarly, sneering, “How dare you!” diatribe at the United Nations this past September, the American public got a foretaste of the future that “progressives” have in store for us. Not only did we see Little Miss Pigtails, the media-anointed climate crusader, at her bratty, arrogant, spiteful worst, we also witnessed hundreds of thousands Greta wannabees swarming onto New York City’s streets to demand that politicians enact “green” socialist programs and implement UN schemes for the ostensible purpose of combatting “climate change,” which they insist is an “existential crisis” of apocalyptic dimensions. Many of them mouthed Greta’s claim that Earth is only 12 years away from Doomsday, and they are fearful that they will “die from global warming.”
Naturally, Greta and her mob of puerile myrmidons had plenty of adult help and direction for this massive display of “youth-led” civics. Among those most responsible for this Mao-style mobilization of child and adolescent cadres are, of course, de Blasio and Carranza, who enjoy the indispensable assistance of the city’s radical teachers union, the United Nations, the Fake News Media (led by the New York Times), the Big Green environmental lobby (Sierra Club, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, et al.) and a surging menagerie of ultra-left-wing organizations ranging from the Democratic Socialists of America and Make the Road New York to the Working Families Party, the Revolutionary Communist Party, and the Communist Party USA.
To assure that there would be a terrifyingly large child-youth turnout for Greta’s Youth Climate Strike, de Blasio and the NYCDOE excused kids from school for the day — as long as they participated in the strike. “New York City stands with our young people. They’re our conscience. We support the 9/20 #ClimateStrike,” Mayor de Blasio tweeted.
The kiddies were dutifully prepped for the occasion thanks to the Teaching Social Activism program of the NYCDOE’s new “Civics for All” social-studies curriculum. “NYC believes that teaching the foundations of American government and the democratic process is necessary in order to build a more engaged, active future citizen and informed voter, which is why it is making a significant investment in this work through Civics for All, a new initiative announced in Spring 2018. The DOE believes civic education is an essential part of every students’ core academic program,” states the NYCDOE website.
“Teaching Social Activism is a professional learning workshop focused on teaching students about social activism, both historically and in the present day,” the course description continuies. “Participants will explore resources for teaching about social activism in history and consider strategies for encouraging active civic engagement in students today. Teachers will have the opportunity to tour Museum of the City of New York’s ongoing exhibition Activist New York and explore connected curriculum resources.”
Under the de Blasio/Carranza indoctrination scheme, students in Gotham’s crumbling school system are marinated in non-stop propaganda on race, gender, ecology, inequality, etc. They may be illiterate and innumerate, but they can spout all the “progressive” tropes about issues that demand their outrage. However, many of these budding revolutionaries, no doubt, feel overwhelmed by the vast array of existential threats they are being called upon to fix. After all, which is the more imminent menace, a fossil-fueled carbon footprint or toxic masculinity? White nationalism or homophobia/transphobia? Economic inequality or systemic police brutality? The “white privilege culture” or the “American gun culture?” The answer, according to the revolutionaries at NYCDOE, is that our children must not only master all of the Marxist gibberish associated with the above-mentioned exigent “crises” — and many more as well — but also demonstrate proper “social activism” in favor of the approved politically correct causes.
This writer attended and reported on the UN’s Civil Society Summit in Salt Lake City in August, which provided a youth warmup for the UN’s September Climate Action Summit in New York City. More than a thousand “youth thought leaders” from around the globe were brought to the Salt Lake City confab, with one of their major priorities being to help lead, and be “spokesyouth” for, the forthcoming Climate Strike at the UN.
(See here, here, here, here, and here.)
If you think that it’s perfectly natural for un-coached pre-teens and teens to spout politically correct slogans about “sustainability,” “carbon sequestration,” “tipping points,” “existential crises,” “species extinction,” “climate deniers,” “scientific consensus,” and the like, then you probably also won’t have any trouble accepting that when the same ragamuffin chorus spews politically correct memes about “racial advantage hierarchy,” “proximity to white privilege,” “racial equity,” “implicit bias,” “racial reparations,” and “racial oppression” these too are spontaneous, organic, unrehearsed adolescent expressions. No reasonable person would accept that explanation, of course, especially since the evidence plainly shows that these “articulate” young “thought leaders” have been programed in this Orwellian Newspeak by the NYCDOE brainwashers. This institutionalized child abuse by ideological propagandists posing as “educators” is not limited to New York City; it is flourishing across the country and around the world, as testified by the parasympathetic Climate Strike demonstrations organized in dozens of cities throughout the planet. But the Big Apple does seem to pride itself in leading the pack.
3Rs out! 5Rs in!
New York City’s racially saturated social-studies program claims to derive its impetus from a “youth-led” movement. Making the Grade: The Path to Real Integration and Equity for NYC Public School Student, the 2019 report of the city’s School Diversity Advisory Group, is a major guidepost to the NYCDOE plan for picking at racial scabs and enflaming racial turmoil under the guise of promoting “equity” and “diversity.”
In its introduction to the report, the School Diversity Advisory Group’s executive committee writes: “Inspired by students, we adopted IntegrateNYC’s 5Rs of Real Integration — Race and Enrollment; Resources; Relationships; Restorative Justice; and Representation — four of which apply to all schools, irrespective of enrollment.”
That executive intro is followed by a “Letter from NYC Students,” which is actually a letter from a radical-left organization purporting to speak for all of the 1.1 million NYC students. “We, the students of IntegrateNYC, stand for integrated schools that value students of color,” it proclaims. “We believe diversity initiatives that do not invest in cultural competency, disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, recruit and retain diverse teachers and staff, and equitably fund all schools, are insufficient.”
“IntegrateNYC is a youth-led organization that stands for integration and equity in New York City schools,” the missive continues. “Students developed the 5Rs of Real Integration, a framework that redefines integration as more than the movement of bodies.”
Here are the 5Rs of Real Integration as proclaimed by the “youth” of IntegrateNYC: “We reclaim our right to: Racially integrate our schools through admissions processes that prioritize diversity by race, class, ability, and home language. Resource our schools through equitable distribution and monitoring of resources and opportunities. Relate through supportive relationships and culturally responsive curriculum and professional development for educators. Restore justice by interrupting the school-to-prison pipeline … Represent diverse communities through school faculty and leaders that reflect the cultures and identities of students and families.”
“This framework was created by students, for students,” the letter disingenuously claims, “and we believe it is necessary for all five components to work in conjunction to transform our schools into spaces that affirm, empower, and educate young people.”
Is IntegrateNYC truly a “youth-led organization”? Just asking. Apparently no one in the “mainstream media” even thinks of questioning this obviously fatuous claim. It doesn’t take a whole lot of digging on IntegrateNYC’s website and Facebook page to discredit the suspicious assertion. Right at the top of the organization’s Facebook page currently is a video of their “Still Not Equal” group demonstration on the steps of New York City Hall. While the students hold signs, an adult coach runs up the steps to position them more strategically, instruct them on holding the signs, and direct their movements. Adult cameramen with professional cameras are filming the entire adult-scripted operation.
Also currently at the top of their Facebook page is a promotion for “A Youth Mandate for Presidential Candidates: Permanently Dismantle The School-to-Prison-and-Deportation Pipeline.” IntegrateNYC is listed as one of the more than 100 faux “youth-led” groups endorsing the kiddie “mandate.” Other left-wing endorser outfits include the Youth Activism Project, Youth Everywhere Rising and Resisting (YERR), Youth First Initiative, Youth on Board, Youth Rise Texas, YVote/Next Generation Politics, Campaign for Youth Justice, Make the Road New York, Center for Teen Empowerment, Center for Youth & Community Leadership in Education, and many more.
As is the case with virtually every other Astroturf activist lobby masquerading as a grassroots movement, the “youth-led” movement is funded by the usual sources: government agencies and the globalist tax-exempt foundations (Ford, Rockefeller, Soros, Gates, Tides, et al.)
Is the de Blasio-Carranza New York City model the prototype for the entire nation? It would seem so, since schemes similar to the NYCDOE version are being implemented in government schools (as well as many private schools) across the land. Parents who leave their children in these indoctrination centers are acquiescing to the subversive brainwashing of an entire generation. Taxpayers and voters who continue to fund these schools and tolerate these subversive social engineers are complicit in their subversion.
Photo: AP Images
William F. Jasper has a well-earned reputation as one of America’s top investigative reporters and has attended several international conferences hosted by the United Nations. He is most known for his work on the Oklahoma City bombing and its aftermath.
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