Wednesday 6 July 2022 01:00 PM Woke LA teachers are being told to challenge the concepts of 'merit' and ... trends now
Los Angeles teachers are being taught that they must challenge the concepts of 'merit' and 'individualism' because they are rooted in 'whiteness' as part of their training into unconscious bias.
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has required all teachers and staff to complete 'implicit/unconscious bias training' provided by Tyrone Howard, a critical race theory (CRT) advocate and a professor of education at the University of California.
The training materials, obtained by Fox News, teaches staff that they must be 'antiracist' - and they achieve this by challenging 'whiteness' in schools.
Howard argued during the training that 'whiteness' exists in the concepts of 'merit' and 'individualism'.
'This idea that white is the standard, white is the norm, white is our default has to be challenged,' Howard said in the training video obtained by Fox News.
The training materials, obtained by Fox News, teaches staff that they must be 'antiracist' - and they achieve this by challenging 'whiteness' in schools
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has required all teachers and staff to complete 'implicit/unconscious bias training' provided by Tyrone Howard (pictured), a critical race theory (CRT) advocate and a professor of education at the University of California
The training handout said that 'whiteness' refers to the concept or idea that 'white is normal and is the highest standard in the hierarchy'.
Meanwhile, merit, or meritocracy, 'assumes that each person operates and achieves based on his or her own personal capacity', the training handout said.
It added: 'It incorporates the notion that the work put forth, the effort invested, explains why some groups and individuals do well and others do not.
'It does not consider historical factors or account for opportunities, advantages, and privileges to which some groups have access both historically and in the present.'
Howard said in the video: 'The idea of meritocracy, I think we have to challenge that because we have to recognize that some groups have had much more opportunities, some groups have had far more advantages, and some groups have certain types of privileges that other groups have not had.'
Meanwhile individualism, according to the handout, 'proposes that each person is responsible for his or her outcomes.
'It is very much tied to merit, wherein group responsibility and accountability are not goals. Personal success and achievement are the goals. This belief operates from a survival-of-the-fittest approach that stresses singular pursuit and accomplishment.'
Ben Vallejo instructs students in a physical science class during summer school at Canoga Park High School
Howard argued that the 'the notion of individualism runs counter' to many LAUSD students' 'own cultural norms, which say "it's not about me, it's about we".'
The teachers and LAUSD staff who went through the training were also required to 'identify the
