My mind keeps exploding, its very uncomfortable and I need it to stop. As a high school history teacher, when I read these laws and discussions about CRT, there are so many red flags going off, history repeating itself for the worst feelings, it blows my mind.
Let me tell you how ridiculous this proposal is. First, in about every set of standards for learning in history there is something about acknowledging different perspectives so officially it doesn’t work with how history is taught. The fact that people in American history often view actions, rights, and liberties through a racial lens is literally proven by the fact that some people want to ban that perspective. You can’t try to ban something that doesn’t exist.
That is just the intellectual side of it. The least offensive side of it. I teach on the south side of Chicago in a school that is 96% African American and 92% enrolled in the Federal free lunch program (Children from families with incomes at or below 130 percent of the Federal poverty level are eligible for free meals.) In US history or Law I teach a unit that involves the Supreme Court and we always go over Brown vs. Board of Ed. Inevitably, every year, we will get to this topic and after the kids learn what Brown vs. Board of Ed. was all about someone will ask, “Then why is our school like, all black kids?” Last year I taught it, it was D., one of the “class clowns.” Class clown, yet at the same time one of the smartest kids in the room when he pays attention.
There is a whole history to the answer to that question involving the segregated history of Chicago, especially the South Side, as well as why 92% of families from that neighborhood are at or below 130 percent of the Federal poverty level. I will not digress to get into it in this post but WTF is a teacher supposed to do if they teach in a state with one of these new CRT laws?
Are we not allowed to teach about the Supreme Court in US History?
The whole point of that case was that SEPARATE WAS NOT EQUAL, that indeed, RACISM EXISTS, and it does NOT treat people equally. That viewpoint is SETTLED LAW. Not only that, but by asking his question D. makes another point, RACISM IS ALIVE AND WELL IN HIS OWN NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE HE LIVES. Institutional racism is why there are like, all black kids in his school. Sometimes he puts his head down in class; I asked him if he is ok, is he getting enough sleep? His answer was, “Aww I was up last night Mr. ___ they be shootin down the street in the alley, I couldn’t sleep.” Part of institutional racism is why he can’t sleep.
I covered the George Floyd protests extensively in class. The students were very engaged, we were living through history, they learned to think like historians analyzing sources, history, finding out WHY people believed what they believed, questioning people’s actions. Seeing how these historical forces were playing out in their daily lives to the point where their parents had to travel out of their neighborhood to get their medication because the local Wallgreens was looted. Talking about stories about how police had killed one of their dogs during a raid on their house in the middle of the night. Debating if looting was justified or if it hurt the movement to stop police brutality. How are you going to suppress something like that from students; real learning about something that matters to them, to pretend something that affects their everyday life doesn’t exist or is so taboo that it can’t be discussed in a public school... because it might make a white person uncomfortable?\
Newsflash, some of the most important facts of human history are very uncomfortable. We don’t shy away from speaking about them because we don’t want to have to relive them. That’s what fucking learning is, analyzing situations, in hopes of creating better outcomes.
So, how are you going to ask students to ignore history? Kind of like how do you get a Supreme Court to declare racism is over and gut the voting rights act only to see literally the week the laws are no longer effective dozens of voter suppression laws are filed in states that have a history of racist voting laws?
That’s a rhetorical question, the current Republican party apparently actually has a game plan on exactly how to do it, and they are actually doing it. What are we doing about it?
No wonder some teachers find it difficult to engage their students, or that people think kids “nowadays” think school is bullshit. Teaching “Republican” history IS bullshit, because it’s not true. For all the things teenagers don’t know, one thing they can smell out with amazing intuition is sincerity. They are desperate for it in a world that assaults them with trying to make them mindless consumers.
I couldn’t do it in one of these states with these new CRT laws. Going to work would be pointless, or worse, unethical. I’m telling you, these CRT laws are not just bad because they force false narratives, they will destroy a generation of learning because kids will not be able to relate to what they are being told, will know its false, and will lose faith in ALL education as just bullshit. They will look for the “real” truth elsewhere — and you know what that means, we will all be living a tiktok reality.
Maybe that is the plan, with so many of Republicans attempts at destroying institutions, creating a world where reality is plastic and can be molded. Brave New 1984 World here we come.