Cozad Stands for Cozad Kids

09/07/2023

UPDATE:
As we have learned through this process, it is long and slow. We have been working and will continue to work for what is best for the kids of our community.
We met with the curriculum director again to go over some of the changes made.
The school did omit and modify some lessons.
Our largest concern currently is within the 4th grade curriculum. There were no major changes, only minor supplementations.
We still stand in our position that the topic of World Religion is not age appropriate.
There is not equal representation of religions within each grade level or as an entire curriculum.

What should parents do?
1. OPT OUT. We are attaching the form for parents to use to opt out of these lessons. ATTENTION 4th GRADE Parents!
This has to be done 3 weeks prior to the unit starting per school policy.
2. Read the curriculum. Email the curriculum director: [email protected]
He has a form for you to fill out to check out the material.
3. Call or email your school board representatives to voice your concerns.
4. Attend school board meetings.
5. Share with other parents.
6. Watch for more informational post. We have more information to share over the next couple weeks. Religion is only one of many concerns within the CKLA curriculum!!!

Cozad Elementary Religion Lessons
1st Grade
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
2nd Grade
Hinduism and Buddhism
3rd Grade
Greek and Roman gods
4th Grade
Empires in The Middle Ages: the Power of the Church and Islam.
5th Grade
Native Beliefs and the Reformation

08/01/2023

If you have questions, please reach out to us!
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07/27/2023

07/20/2023

Parents, Grandparents and Members of the Cozad Community,

We are writing this letter to share our deep concerns with our community about the English Language Arts Curriculum (ELA), Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) Amplify that was newly adopted into our elementary school last school year.

There are several issues of concern with CKLA, but the primary focus of this letter regards to the religion sections throughout this curriculum resource.

We believe the topic of religion is not age appropriate for elementary aged students to be learning in the school setting. Greek gods, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all covered throughout different sections and grades within CKLA. We are asking that ALL sections on religion be removed.

Elementary aged students simply do not have the cognitive abilities to comprehend these types of ideas. They believe what trusted adults tell them and take those as facts. There have been direct examples of this happening in our elementary school this past school year. These topics should be left for parents to discuss at home. Aside from it not being age-appropriate, the religion lessons are also not equally represented at all grade levels.

Our school is also expecting our teachers to go against their better judgement or worse yet against their moral and religious values. We have teachers who are not comfortable teaching this content and the administrators are not willing to omit the religion sections. Just as a reminder, this is English curriculum we are talking about, not social studies or science. We would also like to note, none of the Nebraska Education State Standards require world religion to be taught in elementary school. These lessons could and should be omitted. Students learn world religions in middle school and high school per state standards when they are developmentally ready to learn about these topics.

Please join our efforts to remove this content from our children’s education.
#1. Sign our petition @
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/remove-world-religion-from-cozad-elementary
#2. Reach out to our school board members.
#3. Attend the next school board meeting.
#4 Follow our page for updates.

Cozad Stands for Cozad Kids

Cozad Stands for Cozad Kids