Civice Overview
In 2018 it was determined that 8th grade social studies(?) would become a lesson in civics starting with the 2020-2021 school year. This appeared to be a great thing.
Lessons in civics have been sorely lacking in public schools for a long time. For the 2019-2020 school year parents were informed that one of the three 8th grade teams at
NAMS (North Andover Middle School) would be piloting a curriculum for the upcoming transition to Civics. Teacher Mr. McGravey and NAMS Principal Mr. Goncalves, with full
support of Superintendent Dr. Gilligan selected a program developed by Harvard University, in conjunction with the City of Cambridge entitled
“The Democratic Knowledge Project” (DKP) for this pilot.
To say that the NAMS curriculum isn’t what anyone would expect a Civics program to be is an understatement. Instead of adhering to the DESE (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education)
guidelines for topics in their framework, this curriculum starts with a unit labeled “Identity.” The first lesson in the NAMS Pilot ends with “One of the major goals of this
Pilot Program is having students become CIVIC AGENTS”. These students have been taught nothing of civics, nothing about our constitution, or anything else about the foundation
of our nation, but they are being told they should become “CIVIC AGENTS.” Maybe one could say this is just the foundation to get the kids interested. Civic agency certainly
isn’t a bad thing, we should encourage civic participation after all. So, what’s the problem? The second lesson answers this question, it is entitled “Whose Land”.
The course material includes this passage: “The fact of Indigenous presence should force non-Indigenous peoples to confront their own place on these lands.”
This is the second lesson after we tell the kids they should be civic activists, and now we are telling them to confront why they have any claim to the only home they have?
Afterall most people living in the USA today have never even met an ancestor that wasn’t born here, let alone be able to claim citizenship in another country. This lesson conclusdes with
“What intentions do you have to disrupt and dismantle colonialism beyond this territorial acknowledgement?”
Below is an image from the 3rd lesson taught in this “civics” pilot. This lesson was entitled “Internal vs. External Identity”. What does this have to do with Civics?
Note “Intersectionality” is a big part of this lesson. The concept of Intersectionality was developed by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989. This was, coincidentally, the same year that
the first meeting of those that named “Critical Race Theory” (CRT) occurred. Professor Crenshaw was at that meeting and, as described by Richard Delgado, author of
“Critical Race Theory, An Introduction”, is a prominent Critical Race Theorist.
The directions for the final project for this unit states “Privilege whether is be White, Male, or Straight is a very controversial topic which you all handled very well in Civics class.”
(direct quote, including typo).
In Dec. 2019 Mr. McGravey discussed the program and how the pilot came to be with Rick Gorman on his podcast. You can listen to it
here.
The 2021-2022 was the 3rd and final year of the DKP Pilot. The first week lesson started with asking students what the definition of civics was. Then, after inexplicably putting
in a link to a rap song we get to the Democratic Knowledge Project’s definition of civics:
Miriam Webster defines civics
as “a social science dealing with the rights and duties of citizens.”
Oxford dictionary defines civics
as “the study of the rights and duties of citizenship.”
Why are we using a curriculum that downplays citizenship as a component of civics in opposition to 2 of the most respected dictionaries?
Why are we using a “civics” curriculum that the teacher himself says their very definition of “civics” is “NOT the best”? This in the 3rd year of piloting this program?
At the end of September, and in the middle of the unit on “Identity” the curriculum takes a turn and starts discussing the influence of the Iroquois
on the Constitution.
One has to wonder if this incongruous lesson was timed to coincide with Columbus Day. The lesson features cherry picked topics from the Constitution juxtaposed with items from the
Iroquois Confederacy Constitution and includes a video featuring a Native American radio personality
who states that Jefferson met with the Iroquois at the same time as Franklin,
30 years before the Constitution was written. Jefferson would have been 16 at that time, and we have found no evidence this actually happened. Later, he makes the claim that
Iroquois chiefs were taken to Freedom Hall in Pennsylvania and put upstairs, locked in essentially as prisoners, and used to give guidance to the Constitutional Convention as the
Constitution was being written. We could find no evidence to support this claim. The lesson concludes with the following assignment:
For more on this lesson see our detailed discussion here.
Getting back to the identity unit after this turn there was a lesson entitled “Civics Orientation Activities”. These included 3 topics “Identity, Racism and exploring “Intersectionality,”
“Exploring the Concept of Privilege Within The United States,” and “Thinking About Racism.”
The following videos were also presented with the lesson:
Intersectionality 101
What Is Intersectionality? | Queer 101 | The Advocate
As mentioned above Professor Crenshaw is one of the founders of Critical Race Theory,
and Intersectionality is listed in Dr. Delgado’s book “Critical Race Theory, An Introduction” as one of the basic tenants of CRT.
To learn more about the Democratic Knowledge Project, see this link.