It looks like Brain Pop is in many New Hampshire schools as an “educational resource.” Parents probably think that their kids are focused on academic content when they are working with this vendor. But there is much more to this vendor than a focus on the core classes.
When you go to Brain Pop’s home page, you will see the anti-racist link. They want to gather data on your child’s racial attitudes with this survey.
Brain Pop is described as, “an educational platform that offers digital content across the curriculum including animated movies, coding projects, student creation and reflection tools, learning games, and interactive quizzes. BrainPOP also offers various forms of support for that content such as customizable and playful assessments, lesson plans, and professional development opportunities.”
The website raises red flags, but when a teacher spoke before his school board warning about other aspects of Brain Pop, it has raised big concerns about students learning Critical Race Theory through Brain Pop, and other political agendas that do not respect the inclusivity of all parents whose children attend the local public school. Brain Pop’s message is one that pushes stereotypes and prejudice on children.
This should show parents that when there are online resources that are teaching their children, those need to be vetted. It is also abundantly apparent that online resources can and do carry political biases, and push radical political agendas too.
This comes as no surprise to me because this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this happen. Years ago, Texas piloted an online program in their public school classrooms. C-SCOPE was a way for children to learn via the computer.
Teachers began reporting some of what they were seeing in their classrooms. Parents were disturbed and C-SCOPE was put to rest. Even if there are problems with a small number of teachers in the classroom, the C-SCOPE platform was worse. Parents wanted that direct contact with the teacher in order to establish some boundaries for their children. C-SCOPE was the experiment that showed the serious problems that can come from these kinds of education platforms.
Whether it’s a dose of CNN every morning as students walk into the classroom or Brain Pop, this isn’t a quality education for children, it’s an indoctrination with an element of academics thrown in to keep parents unaware. This is education neglect that drives parents to opt for private school options. If you care about public education, you will correct this horrible mistake and go back to a quality academic education free from political biases forced upon children.
If you ignore that plea, don’t complain when parents demand school choice options. You are part of the problem.
Those districts in NH that popped up on a scan of school districts using Brain Pop:
