Thread by @AdamLaats

Thanks to @laurameckler @hannah_natanson for their coverage of the CRT frenzy.
It might seem like it came out of nowhere.
Here’s a thread on the history.
washingtonpost.com/education/2021…

It’s more than talk. 8 states have debated bills to fight the phantom CRT menace.
The bills would ban stuff like this:
edweek.org/policy-politic…

In the 20th century, as historians like @HartmanAndrew @nataliapetrzela @MicNick11 @Randall_Stps @DianeRavitch Jon Zimmerman (and me) have noted, schools saw campaigns like this over and over.
Imagined threats. Drastic responses.
adamlaats.net/2018/05/09/the…

One example: “Progressive Ed.”
Yes, progressive ed is a real thing.
But it was used as a cartoon bogeyman by conservatives.

Accusations that “Progressive Ed” was turning children against America led to “investigations,” like one in Pasadena, 1950.

Sometimes the anti-“progressive ed” language is the same as today’s anti-CRT.
E.g. from Texas, c. 1986: “Your tax dollars pay for the textbooks that glorify Marxist revolutionaries and their revolutions.”

The themes from the anti-“prog ed” campaign are the same as today:
1.)Colleges are the problem.
2.)It’s so sneaky you might not have noticed it.
3.)The “threat” is pervasive—we’re almost too late.
4.)You need expert “researchers” to fill you in.
adamlaats.net/2018/05/09/the…

The take-away: Today’s anti-CRT stuff is not really about CRT.
It is about spreading fear.
The only way the Ed Right wins is by making parents scared of public schools.
salon.com/2021/01/24/bet…