This is wrong, but is a common and good faith mistake to make so not picking on Josh just using as an example: as those of us involved in designing curriculum and working w/kids can tell you, the reason these fights are being fought is because they in fact matter a great deal.
https://twitter.com/jbarro/status/1448763848761151488
Bethany is well known as a practical homeschooling advocate and curriculum expert, and so during the pandemic it was striking how many parents had their eyes opened by observing the kids' learning experiences and came to Bethany to talk about how to fix it.
You should hear the conversations that kids are having with their parents over history, civics etc and how much their absorbing on a values-level, shaping their understanding of the world around them. Those conversations tend to be pretty horrifying unfortunately.
This is to say nothing of the fact that a lot of ppl go to religious parochial schools and the worldview-shaping power of elementary education becomes much more obvious if you're in a place that necessarily grapples with bigger themes as part of daily life.
Additionally, some of the CRT-related stuff makes a huge impact. Example: there was a school in Manhattan doing the privilege walks and stuff but also setting aside time in the day for racially segregated time. One 4th grader told the teacher they were mixed race:
Mother was Hispanic, father was black. Guess what the 4th grader was told: well, for segregation hour they would have to choose which one they want to be primarily identified as. IOW, pick one of your parents' ethnicity/race over the other. Now, imagine what the parents said!
Parents were furious, and rightly so! The absolute insanity of dividing families this way by forcing a racial choice on a mixed race 4th grader? These exercises have an impact on the kid not least because of the conflict it sets off.
I don't talk much about the overall CRT debate because on Twitter that debate is very dumb and idk what's part of some full CRT textbook or whatever. What matters is what's done in the classroom. Some things are totally harmless and others are bonkers, and that's where to focus.
Which is to say: when teachers say they're not teaching a CRT curriculum they're usually right! But they also do pick up individual activities here or there that are inappropriate for these kids, which is all that matters, not if they read a specific book of theory.
And btw, our kids are taught about slavery and the legacy of anti-black racism in this country from a very young age. I was blown away by the passion our oldest had for civil rights related books and topics. And how much she understood.
So I don't think this debate as we have on Twitter tends to illuminate much lol. It's all much more nuanced and complicated! And it's important, because *how* they learn about these things really does matter, in a practical sense--it affects their friends, ppl they love dearly.
I'll say this: when I've covered the incidents in the past, in NYC for example, no one ever used the term CRT. What we saw were individual incidents involving race, and that's what (very liberal) parents were objecting to. I don't know much about CRT itself one way or the other.
So I generally stay out of the CRT debate itself because I haven't studied it and don't have much of use to say on it. I only know what I've seen happen and how that affected families, so it's always been less about theory for me bc that's how it usually is in a practical sense.
I'm not deciding one side or the other in the CRT debate I'm simply saying it's not my wheelhouse. But having covered local education and now being thee father of a homeschooling family, what I see are parents reacting to what they witness and they often don't like it.
And it's gotten so contentious precisely because teaching children values and shaping their character is so important, and everyone involved in the debate knows it, hence the high temperature of the current moment.
Last thing I'll say is that my perspective is shaped by the fact that Bethany is a phenomenal teacher. The way she taught our kids about racism and civil rights movement gave them an incredible sense of right and wrong, empathy, love of others, and speaking out against injustice.
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