Fairfax Public School Curriculum Says Children From Military Families Are Privileged

Fairfax County Public Schools included “military kid” as a privileged category during a bingo-style exercise instructing children to identify their privilege. 

Set up as a kind of bingo card with a free space in the middle, the exercise asked students to identify different categories of privilege based on race, gender, family dynamics, and socioeconomic status.

Assistant Superintendent Douglas Tyson told parents who complained about the exercise that it came from “an approved FCPS English Curriculum lesson that is centered around students selecting a ‘choice’ test and examining in detail the author’s perspective on a wide-range of issues,” the Daily Wire reported

Besides the “military kid” square, tiles on the bingo card, which was titled “Identifying Your Privilege,” included “having your own bedroom,” “feel represented in the media,” and “involved in extracurricular activities.”

Fairfax County, a suburb of Washington, D.C, has a heavy presence of military families, increasing the likelihood that at least some students in the class came from military families. 

“Students are asked, in the lesson, to read critically and think critically about the author’s perspective on several fronts including the author’s privilege that may or may not be present in the work,” Tyson wrote. “Students are then asked independently and self reflectively to juxtapose their thoughts regarding any perceived privilege they think they may have and how they would potentially rewrite portions of the text.” 

Who “the author” is was not immediately clear. Fairfax County Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment. 

In a statement provided to the Washington Examiner, Nicole Neily, the president of the parent activist group Parents Defending Education, said it was “appalling” that Fairfax County Public Schools “would include a blanket statement that America’s military families have ‘privilege.’”

Neily said military families, in addition to having loved ones “in harm’s way,” often have to relocate on a regular basis and that “military suicide rates are four times higher than deaths that occurred during military operations.” 

“FCPS should be ashamed to include such gross misinformation as part of its ‘approved’ curriculum,” Neily said. “Students deserve to be viewed by their peers and teachers as individuals, and not to be denigrated based on harmful, false stereotypes.”

LATEST VIDEO