Parents in Connecticut are sounding the alarm over a “woke” worksheet handed out by a high school English teacher addressing political, gender and racial issues.
The worksheet, including terms like “white privilege” and “institutional racism,” is drawing swift backlash from parents and members of the Southington High School school board.
One of the enraged parents told “America Reports” Wednesday that public schools should be focused instead on teaching skills that are necessary for advancing to college and the workforce.
“My contention is that schools should be focusing on practical matters, things students will need after they graduate high school to continue on in college and be a successful college student, or to go into the workforce and begin a successful career… They need to know how to read effectively, write, communicate,” Michael Kryzanski, a father of five, said.
Kryzanski continued, “They need to have basic mathematical skills and science skills. This is what employers are looking for.”
The worksheet states, “Racism is a systemic issue. If you look the other way or deny that these systems exist, you are part of the problem.”
Vocabulary items that appeared on the worksheet included the terms “white privilege,” “indigenous peoples,” “transgender,” “institutional racism,” gender pronouns, the term “Latinx,” as well as other controversial issues. The worksheet appears to show how those terms can be used in writing and includes definitions and proper ways to include a lot of those terms in their writing.
Other parents, like Southington resident Jenny Cinquemani, called the lesson “divisive” at a recent school board meeting.
Kryzanski heard about the assignment on a Facebook group called “Families for Freedom” which “monitors” what’s happening in Connecticut.
“When schools are focusing on all these other things and missing the mark on these critical things that students need to learn, they’re underserving the students. And thus you can see what’s happening with students graduating without being able to read, to write, very basic skills,” Kryzanski said.
“In addition to that being an issue, these things are polarizing. They’re divisive, these terms being used. Many of them don’t have accurate definitions. No one actually knows what some of these things mean.”
Fox News’ Cortney O’Brien contributed to this report.
