Appleton Area School District provides teachers with resources that recommend having students do “privilege walks”; promises to “incorporate SEL into every classroom”

The Appleton Area School District is working to “embed diversity, equity, and inclusion” into the work of the district’s educators with its “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Office.” The district claims that it will provide “inclusive services to support, empower, and inspire individual growth and leadership development.”

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office publishes a newsletter detailing what the department has accomplished for the school district. The issue for the 2020-2021 school year featured a video titled “AASD-Diversity presents The Spectrum: LGBTQ+ our desire is to always support and create safe spaces for our students.” Another video in the newsletter had the title “Equity versus Equality – Diversify your Mind Series of Conversations.”

The Appleton Area School District offers resources in an effort to help families teach their children about race and LGBTQ issues. Resources include documents titled “10 Tips for Teaching and Talking to Kids about Race” and “Racial Stress and Self Care,” along with a link to GenderSpectrum.org. The website GenderSpectrum.org offers resources for “transgender, non-binary, and gender expansive” children as young as 10 years old.

The Appleton Area School District also offers educators similar resources to assist them in teaching topics inspired by Critical Race Theory to children. Resources for teachers include documents titled “Talking About Race and Privilege Lesson Plan for Middle and High School Students” and “Toolkit for Talking About Racism and Police Violence with Students.”

The Appleton Area School District promotes social and emotional learning (SEL) and openly works “to incorporate it into every classroom.” The district explains that it uses CASEL’s roadmap to reopening schools in the COVID-19 pandemic. CASEL is known as an organization that promotes ideologies inspired by Critical Race Theory through SEL training. CASEL published a video last year titled “SEL As a Lever for Equity and Social Justice.”