It seems like every day a new and more outrageous angle is being promoted against the teaching / discussion / thinking of Critical Race Theory. Mostly by folks who don’t know or care what it is, but are very outraged by the entire concept. Or maybe I should say mostly by white folks who are really excited by the idea of having something to be outraged about. Something just as outrageous as being asked to wear masks in the face of a world pandemic, or having to accept the results of a free and fair presidential election.
Actually, putting it like that, it almost makes sense. These outraged people are raging against the truth, and they don’t want it being taught in our schools. The “truth” offends them. Our nation’s history offends them — so let’s ban it! If we don’t tell the kids, they’ll never know! (That’s always worked out well in the past./s)
Somebody needs to explain this to Senator Ted Cruz and his fellow hatriots in Texas. It’s not Critical Race Theory they are trying to “outlaw” — it’s any reference to race and thinking whatsoever.
This has been my life’s work.
This is my story.
As a former classroom teacher who developed and taught my own Black History in America curriculum beginning in the early 1990s and into this century, I am stunned. Mortified.
The Law in Colorado — Passed in 1998 — Updated in 2019
While teaching, I also worked hard to implement and promote the then new (1998) inclusive state legislation in Colorado. Proudly I printed and hung posters of AN ACT around the district. I recited to entire school staffs and school boards the mandate that “the history and civil government of the United States, WHICH INCLUDES the history, culture, and contributions of minorities, including but not limited to, the AMERICAN INDIANS, HISPANIC AMERICANS, and the AFRICAN AMERICANS shall be taught in all the public schools of the state.”
That inclusion legislation was updated (and even financed) less than two years ago! CO HB19-1192
Inclusion Of American Minorities In Teaching Civil Government
It’s actually the law to teach the truth to our students in Colorado!
I happen to be white, but the elementary school I began teaching at in the early 90s was both the poorest and the blackest school in the city. I had taken quite a bit of Colorado, Native American and Afro-American history in college and over the years. Now finding a severe lack of materials and resources to use, I developed a curriculum that taught reading and writing through Social Studies. My team mate did the same for Science, and instead of teaching out of basal readers, we taught Social Studies and Science to every 4th grader for 70 minutes every day, integrating reading and writing skills. (She also taught Computer and I taught Art once a week to both classes — which we also integrated into the Social Studies/Science lessons.) The kids’ spelling words were 5 words from Science, 5 from Social Studies, 5 from math or a specific spelling skill we were teaching, like contractions. (We also had Readers’ Workshop for 50 minutes a day — the students chose books at whatever level or interest they wanted. I built up a personal library of over a thousand books (thank you Scholastic) about all kinds of social studies topics at every level — even advanced — and of course some fun novels and easy books. Readers’ Workshop was based on reading for fun and interest.)
Our students raised funds all year for our annual Colorado field trips.
My teammate and I aligned our curriculum with State Standards and district goals, making sure our lessons always met the requirements, and then approached the district administration for approval of a “Deviation Plan,” which was granted. We didn’t have to follow the prescribed basal reading curriculum, which didn’t fit our students’ needs anyway. She was an award-winning science teacher, and I was an award winning social studies teacher. Our students thrived.
I simply taught American History through the lens of Black History, meeting a list of state standards across many subjects. I taught Colorado history through the lens of Native American History. It made perfect sense; the social history of our state basically begins with the Anasazi over 2,000 years ago, and continues through a past chock full of (his)stories of the many Native tribes who have lived here over the many centuries. (Uh oh. The cowards are not going to like some of those true stories either...)
Colorado didn’t even become a state until 1886.
Colorado was also part of Mexico for a period. (When I was a child growing up in Denver, Spanish language lessons were mandatory for everyone in certain grades. Being bi-lingual was/is considered an attribute in the job market in CO. Now people are shamed and harassed for speaking Spanish? Many of the Hispanic families of Colorado students go back hundreds of years!) White men and settlers and “civilization” only arrived in Colorado in the last two centuries.
It wouldn’t make much sense to teach our state’s history from an anglo-European Point of View. It’s just part of the story.
We created beautiful art, had big shows, and put on some amazing Black History music programs over the years. The entire school and community supported us lovingly. It was a long-known low-achieving school, our students did well and nobody in the district seemed to pay much attention to what we did for years.
Then No Child Left Behind came along. It was all about the test scores. They “reconstituted” our low-achieving school. Every single person working there was let go and had to find new jobs at different schools. They didn’t tell the parents. The kids came back in the fall to all new teachers and all new staff. (Never could have pulled that off at the white schools in the district!) It was brutal.
I moved to a much lighter, wealthier school closer to home, but I kept teaching Social Studies the same way. I continued teaching American history through the lens of Black History, and Colorado history through the lens of Native American History, incorporating Art and Music into the curriculum. At least now I had resources — and a parent helper every day of the week! At first I was a little nervous, but I saw right away that my white students were every bit as engaged as my Black and Hispanic students had been. The lessons rolled out exactly the same has they had at the other school. The kids were transfixed.
Almost every year I’d have a few parents tell me, “Her/his favorite subject was Black History. I don’t know why, but that’s what she/he says.” Years later, I would run into some of these 4th and 5th graders in the high school I taught, and they would often mention, “I’ll never forget learning about Black History. I just loved that!”
The students seemed to thrive on putting difficult concepts or subjects into a factual, chronological context. I know we were barely scratching the surface. But they seemed to love the scratch.
I was careful to present events and people in both historical and geographical context. Students naturally want to know the truth about how we all got from there to here.
I was just telling stories. True stories. (We all know how to do be sure they’re true stories now.)
About Africa. About explorers — Estevanico, du Sable and Henson. About inventors. About soldiers and scientists. About slavery and the UGRR. About the Civil War. About writers and artists and the Harlem Renaissance. About Jim Crow and segregation. About Malcom X and MLK, Jr. About Civil Rights. About gangs and athletes and dreams for the future.
Every one of those kids had already heard about Rosa Parks and slavery and Martin Luther King, Jr. They all already knew someone of a different race, even in the mostly white school. But most of them didn’t know the order of events, or how it fit into their own story. They were eager to learn all of it. I sometimes suspected that society being avoidant of such topics as race only made them more interested. It did occasionally seem that some students were thoughtful about wanting to be on the right side of things.
I was a rarity then, I’d be a rarity even now. But no one was hurt, and I believe many benefited.
BTW, I won the state Newsweek Social Studies Teacher of the Year Award in 2000, as an elementary school teacher. Somebody thought I was doing something right! I think the No Child Left Behind movement likely slowed progress, but progress was made. During the Bush and Obama years school districts across the country slowly implemented similar Ethnic Studies and Inclusion Curriculums in their schools — for the same good reasons.
How will State Social Studies Councils deal with the CRT attack? Find out about your state.
Teachers Like Me are Now Under SERIOUS Attack
Who would guess that after the Trump Nightmare we would emerge into the Zombie Trump Nightmare — also known as the Present. Where the denial of reality is the norm with half the governing body and way too many people in this country. Now it’s the CRT ATTACK.
Just last week we heard of highly qualified professors and teachers being threatened, and dissuaded from their jobs for trying to institute just such Inclusion programs! Teachers are being threatened and suspended for hanging BLM flags in their classrooms! WTF? WTF??
Suddenly, in 2021, after not quite surviving a pandemic and an insurrection, America is having the exact opposite of an ah-ha moment.
Suddenly, the cowards who have been counting on their privilege to continue to ensure their power realize that they are in big trouble. They realize that between video tape, DNA, data collection, and computer graphics, all kinds of people (even children!) all over the country have begun to connect the dots of our racist history. The depth and breadth of the ongoing institutional racism that plagues our nation even today is increasingly difficult not to see.
They be scared, people. And scared people can be dangerous.
It’s true that a few institutions of higher learning began exploring this cataclysmic phenomenon known as Critical Race Theory academically some while back. It never trickled down to K-12 schools in any form, but that is not what they are upset about. That is a false flag — but Ted Cruz and his ilk are ready to take the whole boat down over it. (I doubt there was one teacher in 1,000 that had ever heard of Critical Race Theory before this whole thing started — I hadn’t.)
What they are really upset about is that hundreds of thousands of people of all colors and ages saw a videotape of a Black man being murdered by the police and were so moved that they took to the streets in the middle of a pandemic. (No wonder they’re scared.)
They are so scared, that suddenly, telling the truth about our history is “brainwashing.”
How can we fight back?
Artists, Actors, Musicians, Producers, Authors — Tell the Stories! (Truth will Out)
Hollywood, Broadway,YouTube? Help us tell the truth they want to hide!
Support and/or Lobby Artists, Actors, Musicians, Producers, Authors to Tell the Stories!
Shout out to Spike Lee and John Legend and Who do you know???
Show up to your district’s school board meetings and make yourself heard. Bring a friend. They are doing this and it’s effective and dangerous!
Run to be on your district’s school board. This is where it all begins.
Look up your state’s standards for Social Studies and Diversity.
Research your state’s legislation. What laws are already in place? Is your school district compliant? Have they even been meeting the requirements in the past? On what grounds would such legislation now be overturned?
Tell your own story!
Host movie nights for friends and students. Hollywood has already done a great job with many of the stories/ truths. Educate your community and kids.
Book clubs for kids?
Saturday Schools? This concept helped the Black Panthers turn kids into scholars.
Write a letter to the editor, your congressperson, your pastor, your mayor, your governor.
Contact your State Social Studies Council. Find out their position on Inclusive and Diversity Education, see how you become informed, offer to help?
Run for office!
Vote these assbats out! GOTV! Of course, that’s under attack as well.
Help to fund lawyers for teachers and to file lawsuits against this lunatic legislative tendency!
And please, please, TALK TO YOUR KIDS.
It doesn’t matter if they are children or adults. Keep these stories going. And listen to what they are hearing — talking is a two-way street.
WE MUST FIGHT!!!
Got another idea? Please share in the comments.
