Now that children are back to school around the country, the question is: "What will they be taught?" Many states and school districts have adopted radical left "Woke" curricula, especially in the areas of gender identity, race and sex education. Other districts are struggling with the decision, including many in New Jersey. Wayne Township is among them. Education Harbinger, here and in future stories, will try to simplify explanations of what is frequently complicated radical theory. Here are two examples.
Gender Identity
The hot issue in 2022 deals with gender identity. Gender theory argues that sex is biological, but gender is a "social construct" subject to things like ethnicity, race, class and sexuality. The theory argues that gender is "performative." In other words, a person's gender is a choice determined by how that person chooses to present themselves. Sometimes girls identify as boys or boys sometimes feel like they are really girls. The more radical theorists argue that a child can make this choice as early as four-years-old.
The theory of gender identity became very popular on college campuses. Whole academic departments are now dedicated to gender studies. This, in turn, gave rise to transgenderism and transgender rights. Some radical K-12 administrators and educators now seek to bring transgenderism to elementary and secondary schools.
Many parents in the United States and Europe are facing an educational system that is completely foreign to them. Educators are teaching things like "preferred pronouns" that are often at odds with both sex, gender and even simple grammar. A little second grade girl might insist on being considered a boy with male pronouns (he/him). Under such a school protocol, the student might even insist on a plural pronoun (they/them).
In some school systems, parents are not informed that their child has made such a choice. The difference between classroom theory and classroom advocacy -- especially dealing with younger minds in the lower grades -- can result in a gender confusion that can ripen into gender dysphoria, the agony that you are a girl in a boy's body or vice versa. Parents often fear that public schools are interfering with the relationship between them and their children. Such parents feel that they have a HUGE interest in what is taught to their children when it comes to gender identity.
Critical Race Theory
Critical Race Theory (CRT) was especially controversial in 2020 and 2021. CRT became prominent in law schools around the country. The godfather of the movement was Professor Derrick Bell of Harvard University. Bell argued that there was insufficient focus on racism within legal, economic and social structures. Bell critiqued much of the legal progress in race relations in the 1950s and 1960s as being the result of the convergence of black and white interests. He even criticized the 1954 United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education as an example of this interest convergence.
As CRT evolved, almost everything began to be viewed through the lens of race. Revisionist history became a key feature in CRT thus opening the door to seeing American history as one long epoch in which some races of color were seen as oppressed and Caucasians as oppressors.
As non-academic, ordinary citizens began to hear what seemed to be constant calls of racism, they became concerned about what was being taught to their children. Those who grew up believing in America as a "melting pot," were shocked to hear that color blindness was considered racist. More modern radical Critical Race theorists such Ibram X. Kendi even argued that the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act was simply a political stunt by then President Lyndon B. Johnson who was running for reelection. (Kendi's book Stamped, written for middle school children, made this claim. In 2021, Stamped was part of Wayne Township's summer reading list for middle schoolers.) Parents were concerned that CRT, which is a theory, was being or about to be taught as fact. Parents saw CRT as divisive. Today they are concerned that American history will be taught in the CRT revisionist style.
The debates over what will be taught to our children this year will continue to vex teachers and parents alike, be it health, science, American history, and even math. Education Harbinger will keep you informed.