A Bellevue High School student was ready for his US history class, but he soon found the class wasn’t what he signed up for. Instead, it was a radical history course taught through critical race theory, identity, and socialist lenses.
“Totally cheated. And I’m concerned for other parents who haven’t done the research I did to get a real understanding of what ‘US history’ course they’re taking,” said the student’s mother, Michelle, of the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH.
The student’s history teacher sent home a syllabus. It calls the course Decolonizing US History. But the student’s schedule provided to The Jason Rantz Show refers to it as “American history.”
Michelle and her husband Cal took a closer look at what was being taught This Class. They were angry. And now her son has to take a course outside of school to graduate.
Rantz: Bellevue High School teaches critical race theory with the intention of creating activists
Switcheroo of US history
Decolonizing US history is not a traditional history course; It is a far-left, agenda-driven analysis that teaches through a critical race theory lens.
The curriculum begins with a land recognition, a left-wing public statement claiming that they are occupying stolen land. Educators use it to teach children to be ashamed of the country they live in.
It goes on to say that the course will provide “a more complete story, derived from … voices that have historically and currently been unheard and underrepresented.” During the course, the teacher warns that students must agree to “experience discomfort,” presumably from the anti-American perspective of Howard Zinn, a socialist radical whose text will be used for the coursework.
“What just pisses me off is that history matters, and learning history through the lens of an anti-American socialist isn’t history. This is indoctrination and propaganda,” the student’s father, Cal, told The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH.
A copy of Bellevue High School’s syllabus (photo courtesy of The Jason Rantz Show)
That is necessary
A county spokesman told the Jason Rantz Show that this history course is an elective. But Michelle says the director told her it was mandatory because her son “must have a year-long course in US history to meet his requirements for the degree.”
“And when we met with the principal, we said, ‘We get that. We would like to take a US history class. We’re just not happy to take this one. So find us something else for my son to take.’ No, that wasn’t an elective. no If that’s what you’ve been told, that’s a surprise to me,” Michelle explained.
The online course description does not call the course “Decolonizing US History”. If you don’t read the course description carefully, you may not realize that this is a left-wing propaganda course.
The online catalog lists the course as “History of the United States” and provides a description that frames the course around the “decolonization” of the subject to “cover previously unheard stories and experiences of, and the impact of events and policies on, historical and to prioritize currently marginalized groups. These groups include “Indigenous peoples,” “Black people,” “Latinx,” and oddly enough, both “transgender and gender non-conforming people.” and “LGBTQ+.”
The district has not made clear why the principal said the course is a requirement when the district designates it as an elective. The speaker did not explain why the syllabus title did not match the catalog title.
Meeting with the principal
When Michelle and Cal met with the principal, the meeting was cordial. But they said the principal seemed keen to discuss the course material with them.
“When we met with the principal, he had the textbook in his hand and was dying to open the book and discuss Howard Zinn, and we kind of had to short-circuit that,” Cal said. “And we presented it as no, that’s a done deal. Howard Zinn is in the rearview mirror. My son is not taking this course.”
The parents know the meaning of the story. And they want a propaganda-free course.
“Honestly, I don’t want to have to unpack what the district put into my son’s head every night and then reteach proper US history,” Cal explained. “I want my son to know that George Washington was an amazing leader and did some amazing things… I don’t want my son to know that George Washington was evil, he had slaves, period. Point.”
Michelle said the director was “a little taken aback” by her pushback. Eventually, he informed them that their son needed to take a course outside of school in order to graduate.
“After speaking to our Social Studies Curriculum Developer, I learned the only way [your son] will be able to complete his degree requirements is to earn and earn a full credit in US history. You have the choice [him] removed from the course we offer, you must enroll him in an approved course outside of the district and request that credit be added to his transcript. I have attached the form for applying for external learning credit approval and the list of state-approved providers can be found here,” the principal told Michelle and Cal, according to an email delivered to The Jason Rantz Show.
A lesson in paying attention and being your child’s advocate
Michelle and Cal are reaching out because they don’t want other parents to have a similar experience.
“I went straight to the district website and looked up the history courses and their full, detailed analysis of what the course was supposed to be. And that’s when I discovered what this class was. But you know, that’s a whole step that a lot of parents just won’t take,” Michelle said.
To help spread the word, she is part of an online parent group. She said that the district mothers and fathers were dissatisfied with the district schools’ leftist agenda. Some, she said, pulled their children out of public schools. They either put them in private schools or left the district altogether.
The district does not hide its left-wing agenda.
Five schools in the Bellevue School District teach Race in the United States as an elective. The curriculum for the class is the same in all schools.
According to the course descriptions, these classes teach “topics related to the social construction of race, movements as catalysts for change, cultural inclusion, institutionalized racism, and politics for equality and social justice.” The courses aim to give students the tools to discuss leftist views of race and use progressive worldviews to lead in the community.
“They shape young minds into a warped, wrong, agenda-driven version of socialist history, which I don’t want my son to do,” Cal said.
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