Monday, July 12, 2021

Some additional reading on the current brouhaha

 A few more things about the ongoing national firestorm over critical race theory not actually being taught in K-12 schools: 

  • NBC News (which appears to be making this a regular part of their coverage?) notes that it is driving educators out of the profession
  • As has been noted earlier and elsewhere, it's made school board meetings across the country a battle zone. Axios noted last week that there has been an increase in school board recalls.
  • This New York piece has an amazing grabber of an opening: 
    Los Angeles public school teacher R. Tolteka Cuauhtin had Googled his discipline, ethnic studies, in March when he discovered he wanted children to honor the Aztec gods of human sacrifice and cannibalism. 

    That piece focuses on Christopher Rufo, who, in what he has said publicly is intended to be misleading, has been driving much of the online national activism.

  • And I really appreciate the clarity of this editorial from The Transylvania Times*:

      As parents and citizens, we expect our schools to teach facts – the full picture of American history. This includes the things we are proud of (the Constitution, free speech, freedom of religion and our efforts fighting fascism in W.W.II, for example), but it also must include a frank discussion of our crimes, flaws and shortcomings. All children must feel accepted, valued and protected at school, but education should not be compelled to censor the truth to protect the personal preferences of certain groups. Instead, we send our children to school to learn unbiased information that will allow them to think clearly for themselves. Ideally, we want them to become better people than we are and able to create a better world, a “more perfect union.”

    *yes, really: Transylvania County is in North Carolina, and it takes its name from the woods with which it is filled  

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