Lesson plans go 'out the window' as educators pivot on Csar Chvez amid abuse allegations

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Intense angst over César Chávez’s legacy amid sexual abuse allegations is ripping through California classrooms, prompting teachers, scholars and school systems to urgently revamp lessons about one of California’s most widely taught historic figures.Educators at K-12 and university campuses are rewriting lesson plans, reframing discussions and preparing for difficult conversations with students about the labor leader’s life and contradictions.Teachers say they don’t have the luxury of waiting for new state, district or university guidance.

Instead, they are pivoting in real time, with little more than rapidly evolving news coverage, student input and their own judgment to guide them.California Allegations of sexual abuse by the late Cesar Chavez are roiling California’s farmworker community, leaving many stunned.“The regular class plan went out the window,” said Kimberly Young, who teaches ethnic studies at Culver City High School and led a discussion last week on the allegations first revealed in the New York Times.At UCLA, Chicana/o and Central American Studies faculty are grappling with how to present Chávez’s influence on social movements after they voted to cut his name from the department title.

Schoolteachers are girding to address students’ questions, anger and confusion over a figure whose name and books are deeply embedded in state curriculum and celebrations.Los Angeles librarians say they are keeping Chávez-related children’s books on the shelves.But they are preparing to field check-out counter inquiries from parents and, if asked, explain the titles were published before the allegations arose.The California Department of Education and Los Angeles Unified School District issued statements that instructors should de-emphasize the importance of teaching about Chávez as an individual and instead focus on the farmworker’s movement that he was...