As the school year kicks off, education is under the microscope, with parents and organizations scrutinizing curricula.Now, the North American Values Institute (NAVI), a nonpartisan education watchdog, is sounding the alarm over Pittsburgh Public Schools' (PPS) new ethnic studies course for high school seniors.
The organization claims that rather than focusing on teaching students history, the course appears to be a how-to guide for political activism."I have a simple philosophy: Teach kids about revolutions, don't recruit them to be in one," NAVI Pennsylvania Director Steve Rosenberg told Fox News Digital.Referring to PPS documents that NAVI obtained through right-to-know requests, Rosenberg expressed concerns over how the school was planning to approach the course topic and the lack of counterarguments in provided class materials.NAVI sent the documents to Fox News Digital.CONTROVERSIAL TEACHER TRAINING TARGETS PARENTAL AUTHORITY AS OPPRESSION, EDUCATION EXPERT WARNSThe North American Values Institute is sounding the alarm over an ethnic studies curriculum in Pittsburgh, Pa.
(Goodboy Picture Company via Getty Images)When asked to confirm if the documents were in fact accurate and current, Dr.Ann Fillmore, executive director K-12 Literacy, Humanities and Library Services for Pittsburgh Public Schools, said in a statement, "We provided the organization unit overview — not full curriculum. Some of the documents included, are individual course syllabi created by teachers."Fillmore also noted that some of the individual teacher syllabi were specifically for a College in High School (CHS) dual-enrollment course affiliated with LaRoche University, rather than curriculum written by the district. "In addition, the CHS [College in High School] course syllabus are [sic] included and that course is not created through Pittsburgh Public Schools C&I [Office of Curriculum & Instruction]," Fillmore said, adding that the district's unit overviews have been revised f...