Saratoga Springs Teachers Speak Out Against New Curriculum
In November, Moving Saratoga Forward wrote a story about K-2 Teachers in Saratoga Springs School District complaining about the new curriculum created by the American Reading Company or ARC.
We have taken the time to speak with a couple of teachers in the district about their concerns and the districts response. We will anonymously quote those sources in this story.
To assure our readers that teacher complaints are legitimately happening, we have posted below an email conversation between Saratoga Springs School Board Trustee John Ellis, and Teacher Union President, Tim McGuggian.
What is American Reading Company?
According to their website; "ARC Core® is a K–12 high-quality curriculum, available in English & Spanish, and is designed to accelerate learning, dramatically improving outcomes for both students and teachers.
Our instructional materials and professional learning services underwent a thorough review process by a national team of experts from EdReports and Rivet Education. ARC Core is backed by research, additional independent reviews, and implementation results across the country."
Why Are Teachers Complaining?
Three reasons remain the primary source of teacher complaints:
First, the teachers are being instructed to not deviate from the curriculum. This means that if a teacher thinks that there is a better resource to use when teaching K-2 children, how to read for example, they are not allowed use them.
Second, the teachers we spoke to believe that much of the content is not age inappropriate.
Finally, some teachers believe that certain resources amount to political propaganda.
Age-Inappropriate Content
District teachers (K-2) explained to us that they feel many of the books assigned in the curriculum are age inappropriate. Our source pointed us to three books in particular.
1. The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron
“Chapter 1 – The Pudding Like a Night on the Sea appears to instill fear, promote racial stereotypes and introduces 2nd graders to topics and vocabulary that are not age appropriate;" said the district teacher.
The story is about an African American family making pudding and appears to be a means to teach children that words can have different meanings.
There is a point in the story where the African American Children are hiding under their beds worried that their father is going to “whip” and “beat” them
The teachers we spoke with explained to Moving Saratoga Forward that there are other ways to teach children that words can sometimes have double meanings without the violent imagery and innuendo.
2. For the Right to Learn – Malala Yousfazai’s Story by Rebecca Langston-George
“Instills fear. Graphic depictions of violence. Introduces kids to topics, vocabulary and situations not suitable for the age.” For example; “The man pointed a gun at Malala and Malala was on their hit list;" said our source.
Additional examples include Bombs started to rain down on nearby schools as warnings.” Gunfire and screams filled the air.” "Doctors performed surgery to reduce the swelling in their brain."
The book includes an illustration of a book with blood dripping on it, children with fear on their faces.
3. Separate Is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh
This book about discrimination tells the story about a Mexican student being forced to go to the 'Mexican school" which according to the illustrations had dilapidated buildings and grounds, where the children were forced to eat lunch outside.
"This book is actually great, well written, artful illustrations etc. But definitely not suited for second graders. More like a late 4th grade and beyond book;" said the teacher.
Political Propaganda
One book in particular struck our teachers as political propaganda.
The book titled; A Field Guide to Your Community by Sara Murphy and Traci
The book introduces concepts such as the gender pay gap, suggests racial
discrimination in hiring practices is commonplace and that people of color are paid less than whites.
It advocates for a “living wage” suggests hunger is caused by low paying jobs and uses the preamble to the declaration of independence, “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” to lead children to believe that the country’s founding document is a fraud.
Worst of all it provides no evidence or balanced argument when presenting these concepts to children.
For example, ample evidence exists to prove that the Gender Wage Gap is not caused by discrimination as the book suggests, but rather it is caused by a multitude of factors that when combined explain the entirety of the difference in pay between men and women.
What Was The District’s Response?
A teacher we spoke with told us that rather than address their valid complaints, the administration made the teachers sit through a re-education seminar about the importance of the ARC curriculum.
“This was stupid and ridiculous waste of time. So now we don’t complain anymore. We just pull the books that they want us to use. No time for additional wrist slapping, we have classrooms to run."
Additionally, teachers in the district are being forced to go through demoralizing “professional development” sessions with the district’s equity consultant, Anna Munoz of Generation Ready.
“Overall, the trainings are terrible for teacher morale. Whether a teacher believes in what the trainings are about or not is irrelevant at this point because we all agree that being told that you are a bad person (and there’s nothing you can do about it because your bias is biologically ingrained) does not sit well with any human being.
From 8-8:55am we are berated via pretty PowerPoints and Anna Munoz. Then we are asked to flip a switch at 9am, put on a smile, greet the kids at the classroom door and act like the past hour isn’t still spinning in our heads. Its such a poor practice; said the teacher.”
