CRT debate shows need to go back to school
The American Conservative Union, a group as hyper-partisan as the name implies, sent out a clarion call to followers.
Back-to-school will be here soon, the email blast alerted. Anyone, whether they are the parents of school-aged children or not, must be an activist. Attend meetings, write letters, organize!
“The radical Left has insisted on implementing an ideologically-driven curriculum program known as Critical Race Theory. Even children in Kindergarten have been subjected to the racist teachings of this propaganda.”
That’s a bald-faced lie. And it’s also a predictor.
Expect the fury over the misrepresentation of CRT, a college-level, relatively obscure field of study to continue to dominate the national conversation. Expect to see school leadership teams across the country struggle to convey what’s being taught in the classroom in an attempt to push back against people who have absorbed so many stilted views, they struggle to decipher fact from fiction.
Conversely, self-described “woke liberals” will rant vehemently back. The self-righteous can be insufferable, no matter their political leanings.
I’m offering a different approach. As a country we’re past due in admitting an epic failure.
There’s a reason why critical race theory, or anything that mentions race, is such a trauma-inducing affair for so many in the United States. And it’s not because the nation is packed full of racists.
We are packed full of people who never attained a comfort level critically thinking about race; the ability to be introspective, to assess where and how our views are formed, to seek empathy through a curiosity about others, rather than fear.
Many missed or were never offered these lessons. And then life piled on.
Our current state of disillusionment is also an indictment of every failed multicultural, diversity, equity and inclusion program of the past several decades.
There’s a lot of blame to go around. Far too many within corporate America were and continue to be ill-conceived, set-up-to-fail, and for windowdressing alone.
In fact, it’s accelerated in recent years. A person can order up a DEI (diversity/equity/inclusion) certificate online and hang it on their wall without much training at all.
Possessing the skills necessary to guide in-depth conversations around difficult topics, particularly in an emotionally charged environment, takes training and study.
Unfortunately, what is being labeled a “national reckoning” with race is really still the denial phase. We are in the preaching-to-the-choir phase. Liberals like to live there, as do conservatives.
It’s very difficult to have productive conversations when defensiveness is the first emotion riled. And some people are very into riling, incentivized by clicks and likes.
So rather than pressing schools to take a hands-off role with race, we need to do the opposite. Train educators in the insights and tools to impart critical thinking skills, and then grade these educators on the emotional maturity to do that work well.
Education needs to be about retaking ground that never should have been ceded to politicians trolling for votes, to divisive cable news and radio hosts ranting for ratings, or executives seeking to check a diversity box to satiate critics.
The child who grows up comfortable in and out of differing racial and ethnic groups, class levels, faiths or other ways people define themselves, is going to be better suited to navigating life.
There is no room for teaching someone to feel shame there; it’s the opposite. It’s the basics of getting along, which does sound a lot like kindergarten.
Mary Sanchez is a columnist at the Tribune News Service.