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| Gary Trudeau’s Doonsbury denies CRT then says “hey, it’s fine" |
I came across an old Doosnebury that reminded me of one of the central issues in the States in the so-called “Culture Wars” -- namely the teaching of Critical Race Theory at schools.
Democrats first reaction is to say: we don’t teach CRT at schools. It’s only taught at college, and mainly in Law schools.
That’s been one of the ways of deflect criticism of CRT taught in schools. "CRT is not taught at schools”. You say: But it is!. The response then is: “Oh well, it’s good to teach it. It’s just learning about our history”.
Well, that’s also not true. Or false by omission. For certainly history is taught. But also a lot of other stuff, we could call “race essentialism”. Which has made race tensions measurably worse in America since CRT infiltrated public schools, right down to primary levels. We keep a watch on this, as it’s spreading, at least in the Anglosphere: in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Not so sure about here in Hong Kong, where we worry more about wolves and sheep.
As the the reality of what’s being taught in US schools here’s one US mother’s report in the WSJ:
The Bellevue School District, east of Seattle, is considered one of the best in Washington. Yet, in recent years, divisive ideology has taken root (“How Teachers Are Secretly Taught Critical Race Theory” by Nicole Ault and Megan Keller, Cross Country, Sept. 3).
My daughter’s sophomore English class replaced its unit on Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” with a two-monthlong unit on cultural identity in which students read articles about “whiteness,” “queerness” and “cultural assimilation.” The same year, she experienced cultural- or racial-identity units in three other subjects: world history, health and even band.Since middle school, her core subjects have routinely been interrupted for discussions of microaggressions, and she has been asked to create her ethnic and racial family tree five times. My younger daughter’s middle-school history teacher scrapped the required curriculum (the events leading to World War II) in favor of reading newspaper articles pushing for open borders and illegal immigration.
In my daughters’ history classes, essay prompts are no longer thought-provoking questions but slogans such as “No Human is Illegal” and “Decolonize Your Curriculum.” The slogan “Black Lives Matter” currently appears on the facades of our school buildings and on clothing worn by teachers.
Yet when parents express concern about CRT in the classroom, educators in our district deny its use or inundate us with psychobabble.
Laura Peterson
