In April 2023, Barbara Cooper, head of the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education had to forcefully resign when it was found that the department was distributing teacher training materials that included so-called “woke content". Now, the officials from Alabama’s Department of Education have thrown away this $16,500 worth of “woke” teacher training materials. The materials were the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) Developmentally Appropriate Practice Book. The books contained a section suggesting LGBTQIA+ people need to hear and see messages that show equality, dignity, and worth. This section also discussed systemic forces that perpetuate systems of White privilege. The books were intended solely to help preschool and elementary school teachers improve their classroom skills and were never meant to be read by young children nor have their contents taught to them. A photograph, taken on May 2, showed over 100 newly purchased NAEYC booklets scattered across the floor of a Montgomery waste recycling plant about five miles from the offices of the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education (ADECE). The books and their accompanying registrations each cost $165. This year wasn’t the first that state teachers received the books. In 2022, $37,950 of taxpayer funds paid for 230 registrations for the book’s fourth edition. #Queer Up Education