The General Assembly has created a number of mandates for schools to teach students about racism, sexism, and other biases including, but not limited to: .
- Character education so that students are taught respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, trustworthiness, and citizenship intended to raise pupils’ honesty, kindness, justice, discipline, respect for others, and moral courage for the purpose of lessening crime and raising the standard of good character.
- Holocaust and Genocide Study.
- Black History, including history of slavery and the contributions of African Americans in Illinois and U.S. history.
- History of Women, including women’s contributions and the fight for suffrage and equality.
- U.S. History and the role and contributions of a number of defined ethnic groups made to Illinois and the U.S.
- History, roles, and contributions of the LGBT community.
- Civics education so that students are well-informed and can be productive citizens.
- Violence prevention and conflict resolution.
- Anti-bias education so students can understand differing groups.
- Anti-bullying prevention and education.
- Disability history and awareness.
- Social and emotional learning.
This amendment does not establish a “woke” curriculum on its own. What it does is create a vehicle by which curriculum will be curated to conform to the standards, which will ultimately have the same effect. In a recent article in National Review, the author examined the trend of creating new history and civics standards for which this amendment will be the implementing vehicle, using the initiatives that are found in IllinoisCivics.org as an example. The Chicago Public School system has begun to implement The 1619 Project Curriculum as part of its curriculum, even though the assertions in the 1619 Project as credible history have been strongly and effectively rebuffed. This amendment is nothing more than a Trojan Horse which will only accelerate the movement to get an undefined progressive agenda permanently into our schools.