A public elementary school in California reportedly instructed third-grade students to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities in order to understand “power and privilege,” according to Discovery Institute scholar Christopher Rufo.
R.I. Meyerholz Elementary School, part of the Cupertino Union School District in San Jose, Calif., reportedly held a lesson on “social identities” during a math class for third-grade students where the teacher asked students to list their race, class, gender, religion and family structure in an “identity map,” Rufo reported, based off of documents he obtained.
SCOOP: A Cupertino elementary school forces third-graders to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities, then rank themselves according to their “power and privilege.”
I’ve obtained exclusive whistleblower documents from inside the classroom. They will shock you. ????
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 13, 2021
The teacher reportedly began the lesson with a slide entitled “Dominant Culture,” which includes “white, middle class, cisgender, educated, able bodied, Christian” individuals who “hold power and stay in power.”
First, the teacher told the eight- and nine-year-old students that they live in a “dominant culture” of “white, middle class, cisgender, educated, able-bodied, Christian[s]” who “created and maintained” this culture in order “to hold power and stay in power.” pic.twitter.com/vxFaDSVl4z
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 13, 2021
The teacher then reportedly read to the students from “This Book Is Anti-Racist” by Tiffany Jewell, explaining “intersectionality.” One of the examples the book gives is that a “heterosexual considered handsome and speaks English has more privilege than a Black transgender woman.” The teacher told the students that people who have privilege “have power over others” and some people may have features of their identity that give them power while other features mean they’re oppressed.
Reading from This Book Is Antiracist, the teacher taught the children the theory of “intersectionality” and claimed that “those with privilege have power over others” and that “folx who do not benefit from their social identities … have little to no privilege and power.” pic.twitter.com/GX77Og36Ai
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 13, 2021
Students were reportedly then asked to create an “identity map,” where they would list their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, gender and age. Genders listed included “female, male, nonbinary, cisgender, transgender.”
Students then had to circle the identities “that hold power and privilege” on their maps, according to Rufo. White, middle class, cisgender male, and Christian were reportedly among the characteristics listed as having power and privilege.
The teacher asked students to create an “identity map,” listing their race, class, gender, religion, family structure, and other characteristics. They were told to “circle the identities that hold power and privilege.” pic.twitter.com/pENBJeZ3cF
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 13, 2021
Students also had to write about two of their identities that hold power and privilege, and two identities that don’t. The example that the presentation gave was a paragraph about transgenderism and nonbinary sexuality, according to Rufo.
In a related assignment assignment, the children were asked to write short essays describing which aspects of their identities “hold power and privilege” and which are “oppressed”—in effect, ranking themselves according to the intersectional hierarchy. pic.twitter.com/kAJurjRlAp
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 13, 2021
Parents rebuked the lesson once they learned of it, according to Rufo, who spoke to a parent that said “they were basically teaching racism to my eight-year-old.” Another parent in the majority nonwhite school told Rufo that such lessons are reminiscent of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
A group of a half dozen families reportedly met with the school’s principal to demand that the lessons be ended, and the administration agreed to end the program.
Jenn Lashier, the principal of Meyerholz Elementary, told Rufo that the training was not part of the “formal curricula, but the process of daily learning facilitated by a certified teacher.”
The Cupertino Union School District did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller.
Rufo has reported on critical race theory training at numerous public schools across the country.
Most recently, he reported that the San Diego Unified School District held a training that told teachers that “whiteness” caused failing schools and that white teachers must undergo “antiracist therapy” to remedy their ignorance. (RELATED: REPORT: Public School Hosts Training That Touts ‘Free, Antiracist Therapy’ For White Teachers)