Draft SPHE curriculum wants children taught about white privilege

Ireland’s new draft SPHE curriculum features a range of recommendations, including around white privilege, male privilege, and gender ideology.

The draft was released this week by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), and among the many “learning outcomes” listed is included “allyship skills.” According to the document, this involves urging students to “recognise” their “privileged status” as a white person, a male, or an Irish person.

“Allyship involves recognising and using one’s privileged status (for example as white or male or Irish person) to support individuals from minority identity groups,” the document reads.

This is not the first time the NCCA has made a recommendation around “white privilege.” Last year Gript reported how the group urged teachers to hold classroom exercises dividing children along class and racial “privilege” lines.

Ireland’s curriculum body advised teachers to hold classroom exercises dividing children along class & racial lines, based on questions about ones’ race, household income, whether they were sexually abused by a family member, & more.#gripthttps://t.co/VH0UWbhkrr

— gript (@griptmedia) August 8, 2022

The same website linked by the NCCA adds that it is important to “learn from the history of whiteness and racism.”

In addition to this, the draft document says that students will be taught about “LGBTQI+” identities. It says that these identities include “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex,” adding: “The ‘plus’ is used to signify additional gender identities and sexual orientations that are not specifically covered by the five initials.”

It says that under the curriculum, “Students should be able to examine how harmful attitudes around gender are perpetuated in the media, online and in society and discuss strategies for challenging these attitudes and narratives.”

There is currently a public consultation underway regarding this document’s contents. Parents, students, teachers and individuals are invited to share their thoughts on the draft via an online survey, and can email written submissions to sphedevelopments@ncca.ie. The consultation closes on 18th of October 2023.

Gript has previously covered how the NCCA encouraged school teachers to inform students how to organise radical feminist protests, as well as discuss “challenging the patriarchy” and other far-Left talking points

Teachers’ guides from Ireland's official curriculum body include tips for students to organise radical feminist protests, & encourage students to challenge “the patriarchy” – the idea that men run society for the systematic oppression of women.#gripthttps://t.co/8L1xTBWVqo

— gript (@griptmedia) July 14, 2022

This outlet also reported how a state-funded Irish school programme circulated a document which encouraged teachers to oppose the entire concept of criminal justice and policing, and asked them to study militant “black power” organisations like the Black Panther Party. Dozens of Irish schools were also encouraged to teach children about “white privilege” – the idea that all white people have an unfair head-start in life because of their race, regardless of class, upbringing or income level.

A state-funded Irish school programme distributed materials which encourage teachers to study militant “black power” organisations, oppose the concept of police & prisons, & teach white children that they are “privileged” because of their race.#gripthttps://t.co/U98tAcM0vq

— gript (@griptmedia) August 2, 2022