Thousands of schools in the UK have been told to teach controversial theories about race to children as young as five.
Primary age pupils are being taught about police brutality in the US, the death of George Floyd and that white children are “strongly biased” in favour of their race.
According to The Times:
Efforts by schools to tackle sensitive conversations about race have been welcomed, but campaigners and academics are critical of the specific research being used because it relates to racial divisions in the US and teaches theory as fact.
The Key, a national information service with a £30 million turnover, provides learning and leadership resources to more than 13,000 schools and educational trusts in the UK.
Analysis of its anti-racism guidance and training tools has found instructions that critics claim are grounded in critical race theory, the idea that racism is entrenched in society.
In one document, “How to talk to pupils about racism”, teachers are told their pupils are “never too young” to talk about it and directed to a US infographic which states that white five-year-olds are “strongly biased in favour of whiteness” compared with their black and “Latinx” (Latino) classmates, who show no preference towards their own groups.
The guidance suggests discussing similarities and differences between people in an open, positive way, but insists that teaching staff do not “shy away from more difficult topics”.
The document says: “Police brutality and incidents like the death of George Floyd might not seem age appropriate for primary school pupils, but children of all ages are likely to have heard about these issues in the news or discussed them at home.”
Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man, was murdered by police in the American city of Minneapolis in 2020.
In separate guidance on dealing with the issue of “white privilege” in a whole-school setting, teachers are told to adapt the way they speak to disadvantaged students who are white but do not feel privileged.
It says that some pupils “may not accept” that they have privilege because of their skin colour and may become “defensive” because they belong to another marginalised group. If challenged by those who say “but I’m gay, poor, female”, teachers are told that this “doesn’t erase their white identity”.
The Key also provides tools including a “whole-school anti-racism audit” and a curriculum review guide to help staff “decolonise” lesson plans and school trips, and diversify recruitment.
In history lessons, teachers are told to avoid teaching “white saviour narratives” by focusing lessons on slavery around white abolitionists such as William Wilberforce. Music lessons should aim for at least 50 per cent of the musicians or composers in the curriculum to be from an ethnic minority background.
The Key was featured among dozens of other companies in a recent report by the pressure group Don’t Divide US (DDU), which found that a growing number of British schools had been teaching contested racial views as fact after turning to third-party organisations to curate anti-racism strategies.
