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Tonight is the school board work session. On deck for discussion are spot rezoning, board ethics and social media use, which was added after the agenda went out. Social studies and world religion are also on the agenda tonight. Keep in mind the following:
There is zero evidence that WCS seventh graders are being indoctrinated – i.e. pushed to believe and adhere – to Islam. ZERO. We have not heard of a single parent with a WCS seventh grade student who has said there was any religious indoctrination. Given that the basic standards have been in place since 2000, tens of thousands of WCS kids have been taught under the current curriculum standards.
This whole issue of alleged Muslim indoctrination is being driven by political activists. It appears that this is about politics, NOT kids. Organizations are even fundraising off it! We think our school board should keep its focus on actual issues in our schools.
To think that WCS’s (mostly Christian) teachers are knowingly or unknowingly indoctrinating their (primarily Christian) students into Islam strikes us as both laughable and offensive.
You may have seen elsewhere a draft resolution that Beth Burgos is proposing for board discussion tonight.
Burgos’ resolution proposes both local changes and state changes: textbooks and terrorists, verifying “theological truthfulness,” changing history standards to reflect “Tennessee values,” and excluding an understanding of world religions from tests.
We urge you to read the proposed resolution for yourself. We will wait and take a closer look at the specifics of the resolution based on what the board members say tonight.
We want to emphasize that this is Beth Burgos’ proposal. If you communicate with board members (and we always encourage that!), please clarify that you understand that at this point it is Burgos’ proposal only. The full board will discuss it for the first time tonight.
Read portions the 10/15 work session resolution discussion here.