As I was watching the House Education Committee discuss Rep. Jody Barrett’s (R – District 69) bill regarding the teaching of communism this week, I had to pause the video and rewind to make sure I heard Rep. Gloria Johnson (D – District 90) correctly as she said, “teachers teach standards, they teach facts, they don’t teach their experience on any of these things”.
Many groups across the state have spent the last five years bringing complaints to School Boards which would directly contradict Johnson’s statement.
If teachers are Christians with a Biblical worldview, their experiences would have them, or should have them lean heavily on the miracle of our founding. If a teacher is Jewish, their perspective on World War II would have them speak into the atrocities in a much different way. If a teacher is Cuban, the way they would unpack the communist ideology and the impact it had on their family would be deeply personal.
If the teacher is a graduate of Harvard, the way they would teach communism would be based on their experiences of themselves being taught that there is always an oppressor and an oppressed, a separation of classes based on different criteria.
A teacher does not have to be a graduate of Harvard University to infiltrate our public schools. In Hamilton County, the entire school district has partnered with Harvard University’s EdRedesign to implement a strategy to walk children from the “cradle to career”. Hamilton County’s Department of Education website states, “Student Success Planning does away with the one-size-fits-all model of education and intentionally addresses every child’s comprehensive and personalized needs – in order to truly prepare all Hamilton County students for a bright future.”
It further states, “An individualized plan for every child is the cornerstone of Student Success Planning. The plan is created by a school counselor or social worker in partnership with the student’s classroom teacher; they assess the child’s strengths and needs across four domains – academic, family, health, and social/emotional/behavioral – and then continuously work with families to match students to in and out-of-school services that leverage each child’s unique strengths and individual needs.”
If you go to Harvard University’s EdRedesign website, you’ll see that their Mission is “to ensure the social, emotional, physical, and academic development and well-being of all children and youth, especially those affected by racism and poverty.”
Their primary value, according to their website, is Equity. “Equity is our north star and our guiding principle. It is central to the ways in which we work and the education, health and well-being, economic mobility, and social justice outcomes we seek.”
Now let me bring all this together. The 5th largest county in the state of Tennessee has partnered with Harvard University to improve student success, defined by the classroom teacher and school counselor or social worker. Their mission behind this type of success planning is to target those children who are victims of racism. In order to accomplish this mission, they look to their driving factor (north star) of equity so that their social justice outcomes can be accomplished.
This is communism.
Communism seeks to promote fairness, to remove all forms of meritocracy and break down the family unit. As we know, under Mao’s Red Guard, children were taught to turn on their teachers who promoted free thought and their parents who were trying to pass down family traditions and values. Today, we see this through the growth of Social Emotional Learning, where school social workers and counselors become the voice of comfort and reason, encouraging children to trust them rather than their parents.
We’re also seeing communism play out in New York City, where Mamdani recently opened the first free grocery store in the West Village. Customers lined the block, taking turns to fill their free tote bags. Polymarket, the first of its kind, was met with rave reviews, people so grateful to receive free food, paper towels and other necessities. It’s a pop-up concept, which means the government will open it and close it as they decide.
If we don’t ensure the realities of communism are taught in our schools, children will have no ability to discern that these tactics of our government are intended to keep them in bondage, limiting their ability to work and feed themselves. Children won’t be able to recognize when their social worker, who is asking them how comfortable they are in their gender, without any parental consent, is completely out of line and inappropriate.
If you’re a homeschool parent, this should still be incredibly concerning. Remember, the generation being raised in public schools will be of adult age one day, running for political office, owning businesses where your children will apply for jobs.
We absolutely must support bills like this. It will always be an uphill battle to keep left-leaning teachers from supplementing material, but we can ensure the curriculum is civics based and supports pro-Judeo Christian values as our founders hoped the public school would always promote.
If you’re curious, here are the Tennessee State Standards regarding communism currently in the Social Studies curriculum. Rep. Johnson (D – District 90), in her defense of not supporting this bill, stated that teachers already teach communism because the standards require it. See for yourself the extent to which it is currently taught. If we weren’t in a battle for the future of America, maybe this would be sufficient. Unfortunately that’s not the case. Perhaps the most concerning are the Sociology standards, where a counter narrative isn’t even required.
9th – 12th Economics
E.07 Compare and contrast the theoretical principles of capitalism, socialism, and communism, as expressed through theorists such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx
9th – 12th Sociology
S.29 Identify common patterns of social inequality (i.e., privilege, poverty, power, race, ethnicity, class, gender). C S.30 Analyze effects of social inequality on groups and individuals (e.g., life chances, social problems, achievement, education, inter- and intra- group conflict among groups and individuals).
C S.31 Explain how social institutions distribute power among groups and individuals and how institutions can produce, reinforce, or challenge inequality.
9th – 12th Social Studies
W.57 Analyze the rise of communism and Mao Zedong in China, as well as the related political, social, and economic impacts on China.
W.64 Explain reasons for the rapid decline of communist systems in the late 1980s, including: economic inefficiency, mass protests in Eastern Europe and unsustainable military spending, Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, 1991 Soviet coup d’état
W.65 Analyze the political, economic, social, and geographic consequences of the collapse of communist governments in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Resources:
https://hcde.org/student-success-planning/
https://edredesign.org/about/our-mission-vision-and-values
https://bronx.news12.com/first-free-grocery-story-in-nyc-opens-in-manhattan
https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/education/standards/ss/Social_Studies_Standards.pdf
Why Tennessee Standards Should Address Communism’s Anti-American Values
As I was watching the House Education Committee discuss Rep. Jody Barrett’s (R – District 69) bill regarding the teaching of communism this week, I had to pause the video and rewind to make sure I heard Rep. Gloria Johnson (D – District 90) correctly as she said, “teachers teach standards, they teach facts, they don’t teach their experience on any of these things”.
Many groups across the state have spent the last five years bringing complaints to School Boards which would directly contradict Johnson’s statement.
If teachers are Christians with a Biblical worldview, their experiences would have them, or should have them lean heavily on the miracle of our founding. If a teacher is Jewish, their perspective on World War II would have them speak into the atrocities in a much different way. If a teacher is Cuban, the way they would unpack the communist ideology and the impact it had on their family would be deeply personal.
If the teacher is a graduate of Harvard, the way they would teach communism would be based on their experiences of themselves being taught that there is always an oppressor and an oppressed, a separation of classes based on different criteria.
A teacher does not have to be a graduate of Harvard University to infiltrate our public schools. In Hamilton County, the entire school district has partnered with Harvard University’s EdRedesign to implement a strategy to walk children from the “cradle to career”. Hamilton County’s Department of Education website states, “Student Success Planning does away with the one-size-fits-all model of education and intentionally addresses every child’s comprehensive and personalized needs – in order to truly prepare all Hamilton County students for a bright future.”
It further states, “An individualized plan for every child is the cornerstone of Student Success Planning. The plan is created by a school counselor or social worker in partnership with the student’s classroom teacher; they assess the child’s strengths and needs across four domains – academic, family, health, and social/emotional/behavioral – and then continuously work with families to match students to in and out-of-school services that leverage each child’s unique strengths and individual needs.”
If you go to Harvard University’s EdRedesign website, you’ll see that their Mission is “to ensure the social, emotional, physical, and academic development and well-being of all children and youth, especially those affected by racism and poverty.”
Their primary value, according to their website, is Equity. “Equity is our north star and our guiding principle. It is central to the ways in which we work and the education, health and well-being, economic mobility, and social justice outcomes we seek.”
Now let me bring all this together. The 5th largest county in the state of Tennessee has partnered with Harvard University to improve student success, defined by the classroom teacher and school counselor or social worker. Their mission behind this type of success planning is to target those children who are victims of racism. In order to accomplish this mission, they look to their driving factor (north star) of equity so that their social justice outcomes can be accomplished.
This is communism.
Communism seeks to promote fairness, to remove all forms of meritocracy and break down the family unit. As we know, under Mao’s Red Guard, children were taught to turn on their teachers who promoted free thought and their parents who were trying to pass down family traditions and values. Today, we see this through the growth of Social Emotional Learning, where school social workers and counselors become the voice of comfort and reason, encouraging children to trust them rather than their parents.
We’re also seeing communism play out in New York City, where Mamdani recently opened the first free grocery store in the West Village. Customers lined the block, taking turns to fill their free tote bags. Polymarket, the first of its kind, was met with rave reviews, people so grateful to receive free food, paper towels and other necessities. It’s a pop-up concept, which means the government will open it and close it as they decide.
If we don’t ensure the realities of communism are taught in our schools, children will have no ability to discern that these tactics of our government are intended to keep them in bondage, limiting their ability to work and feed themselves. Children won’t be able to recognize when their social worker, who is asking them how comfortable they are in their gender, without any parental consent, is completely out of line and inappropriate.
If you’re a homeschool parent, this should still be incredibly concerning. Remember, the generation being raised in public schools will be of adult age one day, running for political office, owning businesses where your children will apply for jobs.
We absolutely must support bills like this. It will always be an uphill battle to keep left-leaning teachers from supplementing material, but we can ensure the curriculum is civics based and supports pro-Judeo Christian values as our founders hoped the public school would always promote.
If you’re curious, here are the Tennessee State Standards regarding communism currently in the Social Studies curriculum. Rep. Johnson (D – District 90), in her defense of not supporting this bill, stated that teachers already teach communism because the standards require it. See for yourself the extent to which it is currently taught. If we weren’t in a battle for the future of America, maybe this would be sufficient. Unfortunately that’s not the case. Perhaps the most concerning are the Sociology standards, where a counter narrative isn’t even required.
9th – 12th Economics
E.07 Compare and contrast the theoretical principles of capitalism, socialism, and communism, as expressed through theorists such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx
9th – 12th Sociology
S.29 Identify common patterns of social inequality (i.e., privilege, poverty, power, race, ethnicity, class, gender). C S.30 Analyze effects of social inequality on groups and individuals (e.g., life chances, social problems, achievement, education, inter- and intra- group conflict among groups and individuals).
C S.31 Explain how social institutions distribute power among groups and individuals and how institutions can produce, reinforce, or challenge inequality.
9th – 12th Social Studies
W.57 Analyze the rise of communism and Mao Zedong in China, as well as the related political, social, and economic impacts on China.
W.64 Explain reasons for the rapid decline of communist systems in the late 1980s, including: economic inefficiency, mass protests in Eastern Europe and unsustainable military spending, Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, 1991 Soviet coup d’état
W.65 Analyze the political, economic, social, and geographic consequences of the collapse of communist governments in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Resources:
https://hcde.org/student-success-planning/
https://edredesign.org/about/our-mission-vision-and-values
https://bronx.news12.com/first-free-grocery-story-in-nyc-opens-in-manhattan
https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/education/standards/ss/Social_Studies_Standards.pdf
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Anne Lowery
Anne Lowery