A newsletter made available to teachers and staff at Meridian Middle School encourages readers to engage in “culturally relevant teaching,” a nice-sounding phrase that masks what the document actually seeks.
The document, entitled “Stall Seat Journal” because it’s available in bathroom stalls at Meridian Middle School, encourages educators to see students’ skin color, a key tenet of critical race theory, which is a destructive and harmful ideology that’s creeping into schools nationwide.
The document, forwarded to the Idaho Freedom Foundation, tells educators, “Colorblindness is a myth, and one that denies our students validation of their whole person.”
The newsletter, through deceptive gentleness, condemns those who seek to ignore skin color by suggesting that doing so is a form of white supremacy. “It also perpetuates the idea that ‘white’ is the norm and everything else is not. We should see the differences that make our students who they are, and make sure that each person's experience is celebrated.”
To become “culturally responsible,” the document suggests that educators should “reject the myth of colorblindness,” and “be aware of the area you may experience privilege based on your gender, race, and sexual or gender identity.”
It contains a variety of other instructions for creating a so-called culturally responsive learning environment. For example, educators should also “acknowledge your role as a social activist! Even if you don’t identify as such, your work changes lives. You have a profound effect on the world.”
The Idaho Freedom Foundation requested a comment from Meridian Middle School Principal Lisa Austin, but she has not returned the call.
The document is just one piece of evidence confirming that controversial curricula and methods, often informed by politically-motivated actors, are coming to Idaho classrooms.
This new ideology, foisted by leftists onto unsuspecting students, teaches that American institutions exist to oppress people of color, America is an irredeemably racist country, and all white people are inherently racist.
The revelation that Meridian Middle School is advancing this doctrine should inform the ongoing debate in the Idaho Legislature about the pervasiveness of such ideologies in Gem State classrooms. Earlier this week, the Idaho House of Representatives killed a portion of the public school budget over concerns that the spending plan didn’t contain safeguards against teachers being trained in critical race theory and social justice.
The budget committee will take up the issue next week and may insert the sought-after safeguards to satisfy concerned lawmakers.
See the Meridian Middle School document below:
