Black Lives Matter not allowed to be discussed in class

[Geppili]

AIBU to be shocked that my primary school DS told me that they are not allowed to mention or talk about Black Lives Matter. Apparently teacher said that it is a political issue and therefore against the rules to discuss? They are Year 5. I am angry and shocked.

@cstaff

To all teachers out there - What was talked about in schools when other major political incidents happened around the world. For instance was 9/11 discussed, the paris bombings or a war.

If these were all discussed in schools then there is no reason not to discuss blm.

I could do these in depth without fear of losing my job for either stating facts about the manifesto or not towing the line and being classed as racist.

The East European people told to go home the day after the referendum were victims of racism.

My child has had assemblies where stuff like the Manchester bombings were discussed but they were told that the chat about it would end there and they didn't want talk about it to continue in the playground (primary school) They did the same with "killer clowns" and "swine flu"

The problem is that this is a very nuanced matter.

Matthew Syed wrote one of his better pieces about it in the Times recently.

For instance defunding the police is possibly the worst thing to do to help the least well off black people. Strong policing is what is needed to keep them safe from knives and gang violence and, ultimately, to give them the safe space to make real progress.

What BLM wants and what will best help black people are not necessarily the same thing.

Which is why PROPER discussion, not sloganeering, is what is needed in schools.

fromdownwest and LolaSmiles - yes.

Year 5 kids don't need to know about extremist groups who want to defund the police - many will struggle to name the 3 main political parties in the first place as there's no politics taught really.
I agree with you.
We explore politics in Y7-9. Students learn about voting, the overall policies of different parties and tolerance. When they move further up the school we cover extremism in a range of forms, for example EDL and religious extremism.

Aside from BLM, we have to be careful about the agendas of pressure groups and social media figures wanting to promote unquestioning acceptance of right think on children when they are more likely to swallow friendly sounding soundbites but not have the critical thinking to unlock bigger agendas. If we don't promote critical thinking then we risk ending up with even more university campuses filled with students desperate to no platform anyone who breaks their echo chamber.

If these were all discussed in schools then there is no reason not to discuss blm.

I would hope all the other topics were given more than 5 minutes at the end of a zoom call. I certainly would not want to do that off the cuff to a camera and the teacher is pretty much in damned situation whatever they do. As many of the teachers here have said, these topics need - and deserve - more consideration than could be given at the time.

I find it interesting that it seems multiple schools are sending home what is being called 'BLM work' by some posters. My Y8 DD has over the last month been given plenty on the American Civil Rights Movements (though the resources that are being sent have a few times just called it the Civil Rights Movement, much to my frustration) and I wonder if others have had the same.

At first I thought it was timely and helping to review what they'd recently done in school, then I started to ensure her writing on it included relevant British events (like the Bristol Bus Boycott when discussing Rosa Parks as they have said her and her communities actions inspired them) but I'm now at the point of giving her alternatives with Black activists that worked in Britain (some British, some now) and UK civil rights events because I really don't want my daughter to think it's all '50s-60s and/or an American issue. Honestly, some of the resources have felt more of a whitewash than the Americans ones I was raised with which has felt very weird (anything for this age on MLK that doesn't discuss his time in jail or some of the actions of the US government is off, I think, especially if discussing his leadership) and I worry about the black students getting week after week of this, including the image of Emmett Till's body (which has since had another picture put over it) being asked how the image makes them feel and think... Some of these topics are not suitable for PDFs or the end of Zoom calls and consideration has to be made for all students and the teachers.

It's common to do American Civil Rights in y8- it's not a BLM thing for this year. My kids did Gandhi and Mandela too. Totally agree that it's a shame that we don't learn stuff like the Bristol bus boycott at the same time. I only heard about it when it was mooted as an alternative to the statue taken down in Bristol.

Addressing racism is not complicated nor indoctrination hmm

Actually it is when there is already confusion between BLM the organisation and their aims, some of which could be interpreted as being racist against other groups such as Jews (my kids are Jewish so I am not going to support that) and black lives matter (as a statement which of couse I support).

Young kids are not going to be able to understand that one is a statement that most people support and another is a group which many people don't support the aims of but they use the same phrase.

And I don't support politics being brought into the classroom generally on other topics. This politicisation of the classroom began with Blair and it has just gone on and become more insidious.

Yy @Lolasmiles

FredaFrogspawn
People with non-white sounding names have to apply for around 60% more jobs before they are given an interview than their white-sounding named peers.

Not quite - from your link;

"A more nuanced analysis reveals interesting differences by gender"...
"Male applicants from India and East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam), commonly referred to as ‘model minorities’, fare just as well as male applicants from the majority [white British] group."

In fact, from the data table in the report, male applicants with Indian and East Asian heritage received a slightly better response rate than male applicants from the majority group [white, British background].

I know this isn't specific for BLM for Y8, but I'm curious if the American Civil Rights Movement is what others are referring to as 'BLM work' which has shown up a few times in this thread or if it's current events work or something else.

That curiosity just kinda turned into a babble about my confusion (as an American in the UK) on seeing how the topic is being covered - very individualistic (a lot of focus on famous individuals and what my DD things of them or thought they felt, little on collective work) and disconnected from the UK.

I wasn't educated in the UK at secondary (I went to an American school overseas) but my kids are educated in the state secondary system here.
Their history syllabus is more "choppy" than mine. I think they did the Spanish Armada before Civil Rights. When I did history at my school grade 8 was Ancient Civilizations, grade 9 was 20th century European History year and grade 10 was 20th century World History.

I think racism , sexism and homophobia is covered in Life Skills but my y9's current topic in that is smoking.

We live in a country, thank god, where people of all skin colours are equals in society and under the law. Of course there will always be pockets of racism here and there but as far as institutional affairs go we all have equality. This is not an issue for children in school.

Well that is not true at all. And that's why kids still get racism in school. Every institutional is riddled with racism espescially the justice and social institutions of this country. Have you ever read anything?

Look outside your own experience.

Really annoyed at that statement, can't believe someone truly believes such crap.

My school has positively engaged with the racial inequality issues( not with the specific pressure group BLM)
We are re writing the curriculum

Making policies
Making a song - god help us all

Parents should always take a pinch salt with any info that comes home from school. teacher maybe had just had enough and wanted to change the subject and get on with something less inflammatory
How many of us have told little white lies to smooth our day?

BLM is an anarchist, marxist organisation.

How many of us have told little white lies to smooth our day

White lies?

Genuine question what is wrong with saying "white lies" what is the correct phraseology?

White lies is used to show little, harmless lies told to save others' feelings type lies. White, being the harmless, good type.

In contrast with...? I'm sure you can see there that leads.

Genuine question what is wrong with saying "white lies" what is the correct phraseology

Isn't it interesting

White lies are harmless lies, often to the benefit of the person lied to.
But black lies aren't.

See also blackballed, blackmail, black market, black listed,

Subtle use of language....

I agree with the school. BLM is a political organisation with a neo Marxist agenda, why would it be discussed unless it was in a politics class?

And what is the correct phraseology
When talking about while lies ?

And what is the correct phraseology

Who knows...