November 11, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
Is political ideology regarding race being taught in the local school system?
At least one parent apparently thinks so and he addressed the Board of Education with his concerns during Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting.
“I want to discuss what types of lessons are happening in our school system,” said Mark Steff, parent of a middle school student.
Steff said he decided to speak out after learning recently that one of his child’s lessons for an RLA or Reasoning through Language Arts assignment came with a follow up video “that was purely opinion based for the first minute and 20 seconds claiming that everything is racist”
Steff never described the teaching as “Critical Race Theory” but said it was political ideology that should not be taught in school. In a prepared statement, Steff said “I fail to see how this helps our children. School is for learning facts and not ideologies. I do not want either side of the aisle being taught in school,” said Steff.
“How many parents do not know what is going on in our school system currently?. The only way I knew about this lesson was the fact that my child was on quarantine and mentioned it to me,” Steff continued.
“I emailed the teacher about this and copies of the email have been handed out to the school board members. I will not out of respect for this teacher say who it is but the email chain clearly shows that the teacher knows this is an issue and admitted to it. Further on the email claimed that other parents have voiced concerns over what is being taught in the class and alternate lessons have been given”.
“Why is this teacher sending out information that is known to cause an issue? If the teacher knew it was a problem then why was the video attached in the first place?”
“Children in school take what our teachers say as fact when it comes to learning new information. Many of them never question a teacher and accept what has been said as fact. When the facts start to introduce harmful ideologies such as systemic racism this is where it becomes a problem”.
“I do not think this is an isolated issue within the DeKalb County School System and I hope more parents speak up about these types of issues”.
“I do want to take the time and thank all of our teachers for the hard word they put in everyday to help the future of our community and country”.
“Thank you for allowing me to speak today,” concluded Steff.
Neither Director of Schools Patrick Cripps nor any member of the School Board responded to Steff’s comments during the meeting but afterwards Director Cripps told WJLE that the school district is only following the curriculum approved by the state board of education and that when this issue with Mr. Steff arose he tried to contact State Department of Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn. Cripps said she has not yet responded.
“The item in question was approved as part of the approved curriculum by the state board of education and state textbook commission. They vetted it and the teacher just taught exactly what was in the curriculum,” said Director Cripps.
“I contacted the commissioner by email and I tried to call her with the concerns that were brought up. I have yet to have a response from her. We will look into it but from what was taught, the item he (Mr. Steff) brought up, it was part of the state approved curriculum” added Director Cripps.