The good news, based on what I’m continuing to see and hear, is that people have had their eyes opened to the threat of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in our education system. This was recently evidenced in part, by the backlash of parents in Palm Beach and Duval Counties at the introduction of tenants of CRT into the school district's mission statements.
This leads me to the bad news. Most are still trying to figure out what exactly it is at a time it’s already infiltrating classrooms. In a story I brought you before, I broke down the history of CRT and what it’s about. The difference in Florida, in just a little over eight months, is that we’ve gone from no school districts incorporating tenants of CRT to at least two that are attempting to move in that direction.
Thankfully at the state level Governor DeSantis has condemned CRT and has stated he’ll “whack mole’s all over the state” if need to stop it, however the push towards it is pervasive, especially by the education establishment led by the teachers' unions. The need to be informed and engaged is important.
The first publication of Critical Race Theory took place in 2001 but had widely been ignored by the education establishment until recently. The proliferation of social justice adaptation by companies, sports leagues and other aspects of our society has helped the movement accomplish more in the past year than they had in the prior two decades.
First, let's take a look at what Critical Race Theory teaches. It's based on five assumptions. One, the notion that racism is ordinary. Two, the idea of an interest convergence (where the majority, whites, allow for repression of minorities for personal benefit). Three, the social construction of race. Four, the idea of storytelling and counter-storytelling, and lastly, the notion that whites have been recipients of civil rights legislation.
The Florida Department of Education sets the curriculum, and it doesn’t include CRT. Now, is it possible for a teacher here and there, or perhaps even a school to go rouge? Yes, especially with the books being made available in the libraries at our schools.
This is why as parents and concerned citizens we have to become informed and engage. As I’ve outlined consistently over the years, many of our issues in society today can be traced directly to the takeover of public education by the Department of Education in 1980. If CRT is allowed to infiltrate our schools, rest assured current problems will only worsen. That’s why it’s important we all become informed and engage.
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