Friday, March 29, 2024

SPLC Has a New Target: Parents Who Oppose Common Core

The radical Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) just can’t leave conservatives alone. Already under fire for their thoroughly discredited and bogus “hate watch” list, the left-wing group recently included former CIA analyst Stella Morabito and I as part of a recent “anti-LGBT roundup” in which they addressed our participation in an upcoming Child Protection League fundraising event — presumably marking us as “anti-LGBT.” They also, puzzlingly, criticized many parents’ concerns about Common Core standards and tests using SEL to indoctrinate, monitor, and data mine our children, implying that it is all purely uninformed conspiracy theory.

There is so much to respond to here, one hardly knows where to begin.

First, the fundraising event. For those unfamiliar, the Child Protection League (CPL) is a Minnesota advocacy organization that describes their mission as follows:

The Child Protection League is committed to promoting the welfare of children and protecting them from exploitation, indoctrination and violence. We educate on issues that threaten the safety of children.

The exposure of your children to sexually explicit and obscene material is occurring in your schools. We expose these dangers and offer ways to combat this raging war on the innocence of children. Parents are the first line of defense in protecting children. We are here to assist you!

They have worked on many fronts to educate and protect the innocence of children. Here are just a few examples:

  • CPL worked to discover and warn about social emotional learning programs and data gathering in Minnesota schools, which is becoming a major problem all over the country.
  • CPL warned and fought against the Minnesota transgender policy and tool kit that continued the withdrawn Obama administration Dear Colleague letter allowing students and athletes access to restrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity instead of their biological sex.
  • CPL stood with a mother whose son was given hormone blocking and other medications to begin the gender transition process without her consent and without due process to terminate parental rights.

The title of CPL’s September 26th event, at which Ms. Morabito and I have the honor of being the featured speakers, is “Hijacking Their Minds: How ‘safe schools’ and social emotional learning (SEL) indoctrinate our children.

Evidently, all this is highly problematic to SPLC, as is our concern — a concern shared by a nationwide movement of parents — with the Common Core and SEL. SPLC is apparently unaware of the well-documented writings of Jane Robbins, Emmett McGroarty, myself and many others calling attention to these admissions by the very stake holders and proponents of these programs that show they are inextricably linked to Common Core:

  • SEL
  • Competency-based education (personalized or machine based learning)
    • “ASCA [American School Counselors Association] Mindsets & Behaviors align with specific standards from the Common Core State Standards through connections at the competency level.” [Emphasis added]

SPLC is also apparently unaware that major proponents like Education Week have admitted SEL is being used for social justice and other controversial issues:

Like many other teachers of language arts, social studies, and math, Hollins is using social-emotional learning, or SEL—teaching students to manage emotions, make responsible decisions, build relationships—to turn everyday lessons into preparation for civic engagement. The goal is to get students to reflect on their emotions and to deal with them in productive ways. A reading or math lesson can teach students to see their personal challenges as part of a wider struggle, where people work together to bring about change, what these teachers call social justice. [Emphasis added]

So, kudos to CPL for putting on an event that has the radical Left trying to defend the indefensible psychological manipulation and profiling of our children along with the detestable Common Core. If you are anywhere in the area of Bloomington, Minn., on September 26th, I highly encourage you to attend.

Photo credit: CollegeDegrees360 via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0

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