A report from Parents Defending Education (PDE) reveals that activist groups have developed a “critical media literacy” toolkit aimed at guiding educators in discussing the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The report highlights the influence of these groups in at least 18 school districts and a state education agency.
The toolkit promotes anti-American, pro-Palestinian, and anti-colonialist resources and emphasizes critical media literacy focusing on indigenous and racially marginalized people. (Trending: Trans Athlete Breaks College Record After Joining Women’s Team)
It encourages students to take action and provides resources advocating for anti-Israel sentiments.
The report identifies several school districts associated with these activist groups and raises concerns about the potential impact of the toolkit in classrooms.
“We don’t know the extent of how many schools these people are working in at the moment,” PDE researcher Rhyen Staley said.
“This will be used in schools if it is not already. The people behind it are not good actors. They vehemently hate the United States.”
“As we watch and listen in horror as an unimaginable catastrophe catapults forward in Gaza, we are grieving,” the toolkit reads.
“This is both difficult and critical because the mainstream media, as well as our local, state, and national governments, are almost completely dominated by the Israeli narrative, and any mention of Palestine, liberation, anti-zionism, occupation, or stopping the genocide is immediately marked as anti-semitic.”
“They already set the mindset that they are oppressed by the Americans and the Israelis. That’s how they do everything, that’s their mindset,” Staley said.
“They’re all oppressed and Western civilization is the oppressor and they’re seeking liberation from Western values.”
The toolkit encourages users to “discern which you believe would be appropriate for students and which are more appropriate for educators and adults.”
“They are training the kids mentally. They are training the kids that Israel was stolen by the Israelis,” Staley said.
“And the same in the U.S., how we Americans ‘stole’ the U.S.”
“They’ll take this information and they may not have it written down, they may not use this lesson plan. But what they’re going to do is have a conversation that, unless a kid records it and posts it on social media, we’ll never know what the conversation was,” he said.
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