Other parents of students in teacher Andrew Cupo’s advanced drama class believe the concerns are overblown, and resent parents who questioned their children about the sexually explicit play without their permission.
Parents attended the governing board meeting for the Cave Creek Unified School District Tuesday and shared about two hours of public comment on the play “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” by Edward Albee, which revolves around a character who falls in love with a goat and has sex with it,AZCentral.com reports.
The public discussion – in which three parents and two students spoke against the play, and about three dozen students and parents supported the material – came after a parent called governing board members to complain. Board President David Schaefer told the parent over the weekend to contact the school principal and teacher, according to the news site.
On Monday, 10 parents went to the high school and urged a school resource officer to investigate their complaints about the play’s explicit content. The officer interviewed several students and drama teacher Cupo was put on paid administrative leave – a district policy during ongoing investigations.
“Elissa Ericson, head of the fine arts department at Cactus Shadows, said that Cupo had warned the students several times about the explicit content and offered several opportunities to opt out and study an alternative script,” AZCentral.com reports. “In addition, parents must sign a syllabus at the beginning of the semester that includes a statement that ‘students may be exposed to stories or characters that express views and beliefs that differ from their own or those of their parents.’”
Just like with everything 'Read what you sign and ask for a sylbus of what is the lesson plans for your student' Love and Beastility with a farm animal' to teaching Third Graders about striking janitors has no place in a public school Elementary School in The United States! ~ beautifulnightmare
Third-graders learn to protest against their school SEIU-style – courtesy of Common Core-aligned lesson
One might argue that there’s a firewall against such political mischief, since it’s up to local school districts to decide how they’re going to teach the new math and English standards to students.
But most school districts in Common Core-aligned states won’t be designing their own unique curriculum. That would require a lot of time, money and brainpower.
Instead most districts have purchased – or will purchase – a pre-written, Common Core-ready curriculum from a major textbook company, like the Zaner-Bloser company.
EAGnews recently purchased a stack of Common Core-aligned teacher guides produced by Zaner-Bloser because we wanted to know what students are being taught about America’s history, economic system and predominant culture.
The guides we purchased are for grades 1-6 and feature different texts promoted by the Common Core learning standards. Each text comes with a week’s worth of related lessons.
Handling ‘problems,’ SEIU-style
One of the books recommended in the third-grade teaching guide is “Si Se Puede/Yes We Can!”
Zaner-Bloser includes this book – with its very familiar title – in its “Rights and Responsibilities” unit.
Most Americans would probably expect a unit about citizen “rights and responsibilities” to be firmly rooted in the Constitutional principle of individual rights – as described by the Bill of Rights – and checks on the power of government.
But that’s not the goal of the “Si Se Puede” book and lesson plans.
According to the Zaner-Bloser guide, the “central question” for students to grapple with is, “How can we work together as a community to stand up for our rights?”
You can already see where this is going.
“Si Se Puede” tells the story of a 1985 SEIU-led janitors strike in Los Angeles.
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