Saturday, January 4, 2020

NYC Department of Education and their Anti-Hate Crime Curriculum


NYC Chancellor Richard Carranza
 Carranza lays out first pieces of new anti-hate crime curriculum
, NYPOST, Jan. 3, 2020
City officials rolled out the first pieces of New York’s new anti-hate crime curriculum Friday as the de Blasio administration reacts to a string of antisemitic attacks across the city and suburbs.
The first set of new lesson plans calls on teachers to lead classroom discussions about the Holocaust and the dangers of discrimination and bias.
The course work is being rolled out initially at middle and high schools in three predominately Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn — Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Borough Park.
The city plans to fully form a curriculum for a systemwide expansion next school year, said Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.
While the Holocaust is already a part of city history curriculums, the chancellor said new material will zero in on hate speech and discrimination.
“What is hate? What is a hate crime? What is hateful speech,” said Carranza during a visit to Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in Borough Park Friday to tout the initiative.
First Lady Chirlane McCray, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Councilman Mark Treyger joined Carranza to stress the need to better educate students on anti-Semitism and other types of hate crimes.
The Post has tallied 13 attacks during a holiday-season surge in violence against Jews in New York — including the machete attack during Hanukkah at a rabbi’s home in upstate ­Monsey on Saturday night.
As Carranza visited FDR High, the bulk of the City Council signed onto a letter to the chancellor demanding the new curriculum to do more to contextualize antisemitism around genocides and terror attacks through history.
“We clearly need a citywide improvement in the teaching of Jewish history and the Holocaust,” said City Council Member Mark Levin, one of 40 lawmakers to sign the letter. “The truth is the average kid on the street in New York City probably couldn’t name a single concentration camp.

Betsy Combier
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