PART 2
TRUTH in QUALITY of LIGHT
“Achievement and Integration”
THE CULTURAL FOUNDATION OF EXCELLENCE TODAY inside South Washington County School District 833
A FIVE PART SERIES
PART 1
“A&I” DEFINED
The Districts Pathway to Equity
PART 2
“A&I” SPEECH
TRUTH in QUALITY of LIGHT
PART 3
“A&I” SOCIAL
FORCE against Family
PART 4
“A&I” RESULTS
The WORLD’S BEST?
PART 5
“A&I” GOALS
Unquenchable THIRST
( coming soon )
THE TRANSPARENCY SERIES
An Introduction
Dear Reader,
For those of you with kids in the public school, you have seen the changes happening gradually. Now the changes are fast and furious though and it can be difficult to keep up.
On the other hand, some of you may rarely step foot into public school buildings. Maybe you are a grandparent. Maybe you are a homeschooling parent. Maybe you have always sent your children to private school. Maybe you have left public school, and you rarely if ever look back.
I know many people who, after leaving, wipe their hands clean of the public school. I have an appreciation for the private schools my kids now attend because I have seen the other side. I KNOW first hand what I left behind and what I gained by doing so.
But I can’t wipe my hands clean. I can’t leave and never look back, because it is SO important that we SEE what is happening.
I hope this article and this Transparency Series brings LIGHT to the stories you have lived, heard, or read. We are in this together. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
JAiME KOKAiSEL
author and designer of JAiME for SCHOOLS
In the garden GREENHOUSE of The Transparency Series,
the quality of light is just as important as the glass house and the plant growing inside it. The light will represent TRUTH here, but the question is: What kind of truth (light) does the public school system use to teach its little seedlings?
EXAMPLES
SoWashCo’s version of “TRUTH” shared with me by Students, Parents, and Teachers
1. Student Homework
At Park High School, in Cottage Grove, students in tenth grade Honors English are reading graphic novels about microaggressions, world nationalities, and immigration. From what I hear, educators are now using graphic novels to engage reluctant and struggling readers. This however is a Sophomore Honors English class … ? Students were introduced to this unit by watching a series of videos in class. One was called “Everyday Racism” by Rapper Akala on The Guardian. Another video was called, “If Microaggressions Happened to White People” Decoded MTV News.
Lessons in Microaggression
This assignment was shared with me by a parent of Park High School. This is her tenth graders classwork. In slide 11 of 24, the teacher instructed them to write in the answers shown here.
In this 4 minute video, Rapper Akala begins by saying that racism is a business. He talks about his experience growing up with “everyday racism” and blames this on the “white norm.”
In this MTV video, non-white people make fun of white people for the ways in which white people fail in their attempt to connect with non-white people.
This Honors English “Choice Reading” unit on Microaggressions has a list of 24 graphic novels. I took some time over Christmas break to read a couple of the books on this list, and it honestly was a slap in the face. Most are written at a MIDDLE SCHOOL reading level that would NOT challenge a Sophomore HONORS ENGLISH student. In fact, this list might even make them doubt their intelligence. I found a handful of books on this list that pack a very powerful message, but to build an entire Honors English unit around microaggressions is politically motivated. Dozens of other quality pieces of literature come to mind for the rich study of diverse multi-cultural perspectives, but THESE books ? … I’m sorry but some turn their own culture into a joke.
Take the first book on the reading list, for example, “American Born Chinese.” It is crass and vulgar and rude, and when I think of my Chinese friends, this book would make them livid! I am disturbed that the school promotes a book like this which mocks Biblical prophesy and turns Christianity into hokus pokus. Meanwhile they have removed books with GOOD Christian morals from the curriculum, like “How to Kill a Mockingbird,” and replaced them with graphic novels?
Our children are smarter than this! They are fully capable of reading 50K+ word count novels at this age. American Born Chinese took me less than one hour to read from cover to cover.
JUST FOR CONTEXT, the tenth graders at my sons new private school, Concordia Academy High School, are reading books like Sophocles Antigone and Fahrenheit 451, then writing four page essays about unjust laws, rebellious armies, death by conviction, refused burials, consequences, arrogance, pride, power, forbidden books, and the depressive state of living in an alternate TV screen reality.
I REQUEST at this time for the District to please consider reintroducing some of the classic literature with positive Christian messages. All other religions are being lifted up and praised in the public school classroom while the Christian religion is being eliminated and/or made fun of. This is not a request for you to advocate the teaching of Christian Theology. This is simply a request to give Christians equal respect in the classroom dialogue and curriculum.
“Speech”
Let’s take a moment to learn how the district defines SPEECH.
102.1 Racial Equity and Inclusion Policy was adopted by the school board on August 26, 2021. They define what SPEECH means in the context of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion under Achievement and Integration. (Link to the Policy HERE)
HATE SPEECH : speech that lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value and: (1) disparages or demeans a person or group based on protected class status; (2) targets a person or group based on protected class status; or (3) threatens or harasses a person or group based on protected class status.
SPEECH : any form or expression that is intended to convey a particular message and is likely to be understood by those who view it or hear it. Speech can take many forms. Examples include, but are not limited to, written, verbal, and electronic words, statements, or expressions; images and graphic representations; messages on clothing, jewelry, and buttons; and posts on social media platforms.
GOVERNMENT SPEECH : speech or expression by or on behalf of a governmental entity, including a public school district. In determining whether speech is “government speech,” courts consider: (1) whether the governmental entity established the message; and (2) whether the governmental entity exercises control over the content and dissemination of the message.
GOVERNMENT SPEECH
“Established” and “Controlled”
by District 833
We see drastic changes happening inside our public schools. We see curriculum changing, books changing, homework changing. We see a school district openly embracing radical liberal left policies and highly controversial revolutionary social education. The emphasis is on SOCIAL learning, not CHILDREN learning.
2. School Hallways
Posters began showing up in school hallways across the district after approval of the Racial Equity RESOLUTION.
Why?
RESOLUTION Supporting Racial Equity and that Black Lives Matter
Passed by the School Board November 19th, 2020
This document can be found under District 833 School Board Meetings. PDF is in the November 19th, 2020 meeting file. Link to School Board Meetings HERE.
Please share your stories with me at jkokaiselforschools@pm.me
3. Staff Training
Leading up to the Racial Equity RESOLUTION, the School Board was presented with the District’s Racial Equity VISION on November 5, 2020. This included staff development training videos called
“Not a Moment, It’s the Movement”
2020 was a time when social media accounts across the Country were being shut down, website platform providers were cancelling the membership of conservative journalists, documentaries were being banned, and the information that was posted online one day would disappear the next.
In early 2021, I began to wake up. I began to pay very close attention to what the Superintendent was saying and what she was doing. I began looking for patterns and asking a lot of questions.
I felt it necessary to take screenshots of everything I found online, and District communication was one of them. I am so glad I did because my premonition turned out to be correct.
Soon after Supt. Nielsen replace Supt.Jacobus, the website went through a major redesign, and many links went missing. Quite a bit has slowly been added back into the website, and I am grateful for that, but access to staff updates entirely disappeared. Poof! Now, the only way to access District Staff communication is through a password protected portal.
These are the screenshots I took of Staff Updates on April 18th, 2021. (No link available since they have been removed.)
Why?
Achievement and Integration Plan submitted to MDE
July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023
Link to document HERE
I REQUEST at this time for the District to please consider reintroducing public access to staff news and training. Parents are not allowed in the secondary classroom, that I am aware of. Students are not allowed to record classroom lessons, videos or class work. Allowing parents to see district communication with staff seems like the very least that could be done out of transparency.
4. District Meetings
“We would like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the land of the Mdewakanton (Mid-ah-wah-kah-ton) Dakota people. Mdewakanton means, “dwellers of the spirit lake.”
Why?
Racial Equity and Inclusion POLICY
Adopted August 26th, 2021
102.1 Racial Equity and Inclusion Policy requires that the land acknowledgement occurs at School Board meetings, district committee/advisory meetings and other district gatherings.
Link to the Policy HERE
5. Committees, Committees, Committees
Why?
I REQUEST at this time for the District to please consider relaying the SAME message across ALL stakeholders. This means the teacher informs the parent of the same key talking points as he/she instructs the students about. This means the district provides a clear snapshot (possibly like I attempted to do in A&I DEFINED just prior to this and the one coming soon) of the entire A&I process from state legislature to district to teacher to student.
This is the letter that was given to the parents in Example #1.
Nowhere in this letter were microaggressions addressed nor the teaching of a privileged “white norm” America. the book list was not included either, as far as I am aware. A book list would have been very transparent, I think. Instead the student had to take a picture in class in order to show her mom.
The teacher is a UTSWC building representative. Based on District communication at board meetings I am aware that not all English teachers use the same reading list. I really hope this lesson was the exception to the norm rather than the standard for academic practice in SoWashCo.
Follow My Blog.
Through A&I, the government school system is replacing the “natural” with the “unnatural.”
It is not unlike the man made engineering of industrial greenhouses where plants are grown under lamps. The head turns toward the light in the same way as the sunflower turns toward the sun. No man made greenhouse grown under bulbs can replace nature. A plant growing under the sun, in its native soil, evolving through the environmental seasons of life is the ideal growing condition for it. All man made efforts outside of that are purely an attempt to replace the “natural” with the “unnatural”.
The danger of the unnatural is not so much that it IS, but more so that it is UNKNOWN.
When the unnatural is taught to BE the natural, who is the wiser? Who thrives? Who suffers?
As a culture, I think we are on this dangerous edge of knowing and yet NOT knowing what is natural.
The small, local, home-grown garden greenhouse is most often powered by the sun. Some gardeners might expand into the use of sun lamps as a complimentary tool, but sun rays remain the primary source of light.
The SUN LIGHT is natural truth.
For the most part, the small local school models – such as home and private schools – teach natural truths. This includes truths like how to LOVE thy neighbor, RESPECT the family unit, ESTABLISH safe boundaries, GUIDE young boys to become men, and NURTURE young girls to become women. Just like the home greenhouse, some might expand into the use of unnatural truths as a complimentary lesson, but natural truth remains their foundation. The localized effort is what makes this easier.
Government Schools are capable of teaching natural truths as well, but that requires a very connected community, and a very large network, to bring (and keep) them in the sunlight.
Employees within the large Government schools have the least amount of control in teaching natural truth. This is because higher powers at the district, state, national, and global level are always at work micromanaging the local effort. Those higher powers have banned speaking spiritual truth in public schools and have replaced it with their own man-made spiritual brand: Achievement and Integration.
Natural truth equals spiritual truth equals a whole human being.
The large industrial greenhouses may use a combination of bulb light AND sun light. Or they may use exclusively light bulbs/lamps.
The LIGHT BULB is unnatural truth.
It was created by man, and it is a great invention, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is not found in nature. It was inspired by nature.
Likewise for the most part, the large state public school models teach unnatural truths. This includes the man-made constructs of “media” truth, “cultural” truth, “social” truths, and living “your” truth through the spiritual lense of secularism.
Though government school leaders have more hoops to jump through when delivering natural truth to their students, they also have the GREATEST REPONSIBILITY and CAPABILITY to flip negative cultural influences around!
They can say “No!”
No, we will not contribute to the mental and moral decay of all things “social”. No, we will not pile the heavy burden of mature content and historical wrongs onto our little children without first giving them a strong foundation of natural truth. The time for growing roots is K-12. Children have just a small window of innocence before they DO have to grow up to solve the problems created generations before their time.
The time will surely come for kids to grow up, but this is NOT the age to be putting a shovel in their hands to tear up the garden when they do not understand the difference between a WEED and a PLANT.
District 833 has the ability to protect children from the influences of dishonest unnatural truths. How is it that the doors are wide open to the social entertainment industry and yet they are double, triple and quadruple locked to the parent?
CNN – MTV – Disney – MPR – BLM
The public school has turned into SOCIAL-izing SCHOOL. We will take a look at culture and politics next.