CRT IS Taught in Public Middle & High Schools
School has just begun, and, unfortunately, many parents have no workable option other than placing their children in public schools that suffer from a host of serious problems, most of which are caused by feckless leftist policies derived from feckless leftist beliefs and values.
The problems include poor teaching resulting in lack of proficiency in basic skills; school violence; the erasure of recognition of and respect for biological differentiation; wildly inappropriate, sexualized reading material; collusion among teachers, administrators, and counselors to keep secrets from parents; and the topic of this post: critical race theory (CRT).
As the result of a recent Facebook debate, I realize that the lie that “CRT is not taught in public schools” has become embedded in society. That lie is a tricksy bit of sophistry socially constructed by leftists to deflect parental outrage from school indoctrination malfeasance.
To gain clarity on whether CRT is taught in public schools requires some understanding of what CRT is.
The scholars most closely associated with creating and promulgating CRT are Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Mari Matsuda, Richard Delgado, and Patricia Williams. CRT emerged in the mid to late 1970s but really took flight in 1989. As with many academic theories, CRT—a spawn of critical legal theory—has spawned ideological offshoots that morphed as its devotees marched through America’s institutions. Here are the major tenets of CRT as explained by Christopher T. Rufo:
Critical race theory is an academic discipline that holds that the United States is a nation founded on white supremacy and oppression, and that these forces are still at the root of our society. Critical race theorists believe that American institutions such as the U.S. Constitution and the legal system preach freedom and equality but are mere ‘camouflages’ for naked racial domination. They believe that racism is a constant, universal condition that simply becomes more subtle, sophisticated, and insidious over the course of history. In simple terms, critical race theory reformulates the old Marxist dichotomy of oppressor and oppressed, replacing the class categories of bourgeoisie and proletariat with the identity categories of White and Black.
Kimberlé Crenshaw, a student of Bell, expanded the focus on oppression to include other aspects of identity, particularly sex/gender. Her contribution to CRT looks at the “intersection” of power, race, and sex.
The CRT lens with its hyperfocus on oppression shapes (or distorts) how cultural phenomena are interpreted. Public school teachers who wear their oppression decoder glasses full-time see oppression everywhere and shape their curricula to lead students to (mis)interpret the world similarly.
With some rhetorical sleight-of-tongue and a straight face, leftists prevaricate with increasing fervency that CRT is not taught in public middle or high schools. No way, no how, never.
If by “teaching CRT,” leftists mean that public school propagandists are not teaching CRT as theory, they are correct. Leftist teachers in middle and high schools are not teaching units or courses on CRT. It’s doubtful they could if they wanted to because many middle and high school teachers are not experts in the field for which they were hired to teach, let alone knowing much about an academic theory like CRT.
These teachers are doing something much worse. They are teaching ideas derived from CRT but omitting mention of the source of these ideas. Instead, they present materials chock ‘o’ block full of arguable CRT assumptions as if they are objective, ideologically neutral truths.
These leftist teachers are selecting materials like the books of Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo that are embedded with CRT assumptions.
They teach literature through a CRT lens without identifying the lens. They teach American history through a CRT lens without identifying the lens.
They attend White Privilege conferences at taxpayer expense that disseminate CRT-infused ideas.
They hire expensive race grifters like Glenn Singleton (Pacific Education Group) to teach staff and faculty about their “whiteness” and their school’s institutionalized racism.
They lead professional development workshops that implement the CRT ideology.
Those leftists who insist that CRT is not being taught below the collegiate level must think all Americans just fell off the proverbial turnip truck. But Americans now understand the jargon of CRT. They know their kids are being taught that racism is systemic and intractable in America.
They know their kids are being taught that white, male, “cisgender,” heterosexuals are ipso facto oppressors.
They know their kids are being taught that because racism and sexism are endemic to all American institutions, those institutions must be dismantled.
They know that DEI offices and administrators are money pits swallowing up their taxes—pits that wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for CRT.
They know that their children are being taught that America is a uniquely oppressive—nay evil—country unworthy of respect. And now parents know these ideas derive from CRT.
It would be far better if teachers would teach CRT as theory—and only as theory. Then they should spend equal time having students study critiques of CRT.
In other words, if teachers, administrators, school boards, parents, and other taxpayers believe middle and high school students must learn about CRT, it should be within the context of “teaching the debate.”
Whenever I hear someone spew the cunning deceit that public high schools don’t teach CRT, I want to smack them upside their empty (or fib-filled) noggins. I don’t because my arms are weak, and I run slowly.
One correction: Kids in public schools are safe from CRT propaganda if they live in Florida.