It is important to be aware of what is going on in our community and surrounding communities, especially regarding our students’ education. An alarming rule and a bill have been approved and will take effect in all school districts in Illinois in the next few years. Regardless of your education choice it is important that you know what is going on in your public schools and be aware as parents.
IL Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards was approved February 17, 2022, and all IL school districts will have until October of 2025 to train all their teachers in these standards. All licensed teachers (coming from colleges) will also be required to take this course in college as a graduation requirement. ILpolicy.org sums up the new teaching standards perfectly, “[the IL board of education] is embracing left-leaning ideology and prioritizing political and social activism in classrooms at a time when IL students are underperforming on basic skills tests”. Educators are encouraged, by state rule, to incorporate these practices into their teaching: (https://www.isbe.net/Documents/23-24RG-P.pdf)
Section 24.5 A.1: Understand and value the notion that multiple lived experiences exist, that there is often not one “correct” way of doing or understanding something, and that what is seen as “correct” is most often based on our lived experiences.
Section 24.5 A.4: Include representative, familiar content in the curriculum to legitimize students’ backgrounds, while also exposing them to new ideas and world views different from their own.
Section 24.5 A.10: Assess how their biases and perceptions affect their teaching practice and how they access tools to mitigate their own behavior (racism, sexism, homophobia, unearned privilege, Eurocentrism, etc.).
Section 24.5 B.6: Understand how a system of inequity creates rules regarding student punishment that negatively impact students of color.
At Solid Rock we believe in teaching the core subjects with a biblical worldview – this will create leaders of tomorrow.
The National Sex Education Standards were also recently approved by Gov. Pritzker, on August 20th, 2021. This requires all school boards in Illinois to make the decision to either teach the National Sex Education standards as a whole (K-12) or no sex education taught at all. This puts our local school districts in a tight spot. We know sex education is important when children are at appropriate ages, but these standards are pushing Kindergarten-6th grade students to learn about things that are not age appropriate for every student.
National Sex Education Standards in K-2: (https://siecus.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/NSES-2020-web-updated-1.pdf)
GI.2.CC.1: Define gender, gender identity, and gender-role stereotypes
AP.2.CC.1: List medically accurate names for body parts, including genitals
National Sex Education Standards for 3-5: (https://siecus.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/NSES-2020-web-updated-1.pdf)
PD.5.CC.4: Describe the role hormones play in the physical, social, cognitive, and emotional changes during adolescence and the potential role of hormone blockers on young people who identify as transgender.
GI.5.CC.1: Distinguish between sex assigned at birth and gender identity and explain how they may or may not differ.
GI.5.CC.2: Define and explain the difference between cisgender, transgender nonbinary, gender expansive, and gender identity.
At Solid Rock we believe these topics are up to the parents to teach when their child is ready. At Solid Rock we plan to have a licensed Christian counselor come and meet with the parents after school to give advice, direction, and resources on how to teach this ever growing topic.
We do not write this blog to scare or pressure any parents – that is not our goal. It is simply to inform parents of the current agenda in public schools of Illinois. We believe all parent’s should be aware, and take the time to learn what their children are being taught in school.
