A recent May Day webinar has teachers unions openly laying out how to bring activism into the classroom, starting with kids who are barely out of preschool. That might sound shocking if you’re just noticing it now. It shouldn’t. This didn’t start with May Day.
From Maypoles to Protest Signs
It’s the result of years of shifting the classroom away from education and toward something else entirely. These people are not going to stop.
Many moons ago, when I was in school. May Day wasn’t about protests or activism. It was maypoles, flowers, and kids laughing while trying not to trip over ribbons during a student showcase for our parents.
Now it comes with a lesson plan and a training ground.
The webinar getting attention now involved the Chicago Teachers Union and the National Education Association, working through ways to bring “social justice” into the classroom ahead of May Day. That includes showing protests in a positive light and encouraging even very young children to engage with activism.
The webinar also included guidance on how educators could bring activism into the classroom, including with very young students, with speakers who encouraged lessons centered on activism for children as young as three, presenting such engagement as a way to build early awareness and participation.
“I did want to say I really encourage teachers of young children not to feel like this is stuff that’s way beyond their students, not to be afraid of raising up social justice issues, including workers’ rights, anti-racism, pro LGBT, LGBTQIA plus issues, immigration and immigrants rights,” Kirstin Roberts, a pre-school teacher in Chicago Public Schools, says in the seminar. – Fox News
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