Opinion piece on schools and CRT
08 Nov 2021, 7:24 pm
Ignoring the title, I thought there were some good points and details in this Washington Post opinion piece:
Quote:
Opinion: Democrats can win the debate over critical race theory. Here’s how.
By Max Boot
Columnist
Democrats, beware: Glenn Youngkin’s successful campaign for governor of Virginia will serve as a template for Republican candidates eager to exploit fears of critical race theory by demanding “parental control” of education. Democrats must do a better job of responding than Youngkin’s hapless opponent, Terry McAuliffe, did.
The absolute worst thing you can say is what McAuliffe said: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” At some level, he was right; there would be chaos if every teacher had to run every lesson plan by the parents of every student. But his comment came across as tone-deaf after parents had spent 18 months supervising their kids’ education at home — and stewing about shuttered classrooms. McAuliffe paid the price for not feeling parents’ pain.
It’s also not productive to argue, as many on the left have, that critical race theory, or CRT, isn’t being taught and that raising the issue is nothing but a dog whistle to racists. It’s true that “parental control” has become the new “states’ rights” — a deceptively anodyne slogan for tapping racist fears. It’s also true that even those who are most hysterical about CRT have trouble defining it. Fox News host Tucker Carlson just admitted: “I’ve never figured out what ‘critical race theory’ is, to be totally honest, after a year of talking about it.”
But as a practical, political issue, none of that matters. CRT might have started off as an esoteric academic theory about structural racism. But it has now become a generic term for widely publicized excesses in diversity education, such as disparaging “individualism” and “objectivity” as examples of “white supremacy culture” or teaching first-graders about microaggressions and structural racism. You don’t have to be a Republican to be put off by the incessant attention on race in so many classrooms.
George Packer wrote in the Atlantic in October 2019 that he knew “several mixed-race families” that transferred their kids out of a New York City school that “had taken to dividing their students by race into consciousness-raising ‘affinity groups.’” Packer spoke for many liberal parents when he protested the tendency to make “race, which is a dubious and sinister social construct, an essence that defines individuals regardless of agency or circumstance.” As an example, he cited Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) saying, “We don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice; we don’t need black faces that don’t want to be a black voice.”
This is the kind of “stupid wokeness” that Democratic strategist James Carville blamed for his party’s setbacks in Virginia and New Jersey — and it is something that Democrats need to disavow if they want to win outside of deep-blue enclaves. Democrats should admit that, even as racism remains a pervasive problem, some efforts to combat it backfire if they exacerbate racial divisions or stigmatize White students.
But while acknowledging some conservative concerns as legitimate, Democrats also need to call out the GOP’s cynical and destructive use of the CRT issue. Just as an earlier generation of liberals protested all the lives Joseph McCarthy was destroying in the name of anti-communism, liberals today need to focus on the collateral damage that Republicans inflict in the name of fighting CRT: They are trying to ban books and fire educators. In short, they are practicing the very “cancel culture” they decry.
Seven states have outlawed teaching CRT, and 13 others are considering such bills. These laws have provoked opposition even from staunch conservatives, such as David French, who worry about the chilling effect on speech. French lives in a Tennessee county where right-wing activists are trying to use an anti-CRT law to purge from the curriculum books about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges. They even take issue with Normal Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With,” which shows Bridges being escorted to her New Orleans elementary school in 1960 by federal marshals enforcing desegregation.
The chairman of the Texas House Committee on General Investigating demanded on Oct. 25 that schools in that state report whether they stock any books “that might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex” — and included 850 examples of such suspect works. In Southlake, Tex., an anti-CRT law was even invoked by a school administrator who instructed teachers to offer an “opposing” perspective on the Holocaust. What would that be — neo-Nazism?
James Whitfield, the first Black principal of a high school in Colleyville, Tex., is in the process of being fired. His apparent offense was writing, after the George Floyd murder, that systemic racism was “alive and well” and asking students and parents to be “anti-racist.” (The school district denies that CRT was a factor in its decision.) In Blountville, Tenn., a teacher was fired in part for assigning an article by Ta-Nehisi Coates arguing that Donald Trump was elected by harnessing white grievances.
Conservatives argue that CRT, with its focus on group identity, is un-American. But what’s more un-American than attempting to ban books and fire teachers for their views? That’s what happens in China. Democrats can win the CRT debate if they call out the illiberal excesses of both the woke left and the anti-woke right.
By Max Boot
Columnist
Democrats, beware: Glenn Youngkin’s successful campaign for governor of Virginia will serve as a template for Republican candidates eager to exploit fears of critical race theory by demanding “parental control” of education. Democrats must do a better job of responding than Youngkin’s hapless opponent, Terry McAuliffe, did.
The absolute worst thing you can say is what McAuliffe said: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” At some level, he was right; there would be chaos if every teacher had to run every lesson plan by the parents of every student. But his comment came across as tone-deaf after parents had spent 18 months supervising their kids’ education at home — and stewing about shuttered classrooms. McAuliffe paid the price for not feeling parents’ pain.
It’s also not productive to argue, as many on the left have, that critical race theory, or CRT, isn’t being taught and that raising the issue is nothing but a dog whistle to racists. It’s true that “parental control” has become the new “states’ rights” — a deceptively anodyne slogan for tapping racist fears. It’s also true that even those who are most hysterical about CRT have trouble defining it. Fox News host Tucker Carlson just admitted: “I’ve never figured out what ‘critical race theory’ is, to be totally honest, after a year of talking about it.”
But as a practical, political issue, none of that matters. CRT might have started off as an esoteric academic theory about structural racism. But it has now become a generic term for widely publicized excesses in diversity education, such as disparaging “individualism” and “objectivity” as examples of “white supremacy culture” or teaching first-graders about microaggressions and structural racism. You don’t have to be a Republican to be put off by the incessant attention on race in so many classrooms.
George Packer wrote in the Atlantic in October 2019 that he knew “several mixed-race families” that transferred their kids out of a New York City school that “had taken to dividing their students by race into consciousness-raising ‘affinity groups.’” Packer spoke for many liberal parents when he protested the tendency to make “race, which is a dubious and sinister social construct, an essence that defines individuals regardless of agency or circumstance.” As an example, he cited Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) saying, “We don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice; we don’t need black faces that don’t want to be a black voice.”
This is the kind of “stupid wokeness” that Democratic strategist James Carville blamed for his party’s setbacks in Virginia and New Jersey — and it is something that Democrats need to disavow if they want to win outside of deep-blue enclaves. Democrats should admit that, even as racism remains a pervasive problem, some efforts to combat it backfire if they exacerbate racial divisions or stigmatize White students.
But while acknowledging some conservative concerns as legitimate, Democrats also need to call out the GOP’s cynical and destructive use of the CRT issue. Just as an earlier generation of liberals protested all the lives Joseph McCarthy was destroying in the name of anti-communism, liberals today need to focus on the collateral damage that Republicans inflict in the name of fighting CRT: They are trying to ban books and fire educators. In short, they are practicing the very “cancel culture” they decry.
Seven states have outlawed teaching CRT, and 13 others are considering such bills. These laws have provoked opposition even from staunch conservatives, such as David French, who worry about the chilling effect on speech. French lives in a Tennessee county where right-wing activists are trying to use an anti-CRT law to purge from the curriculum books about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges. They even take issue with Normal Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With,” which shows Bridges being escorted to her New Orleans elementary school in 1960 by federal marshals enforcing desegregation.
The chairman of the Texas House Committee on General Investigating demanded on Oct. 25 that schools in that state report whether they stock any books “that might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex” — and included 850 examples of such suspect works. In Southlake, Tex., an anti-CRT law was even invoked by a school administrator who instructed teachers to offer an “opposing” perspective on the Holocaust. What would that be — neo-Nazism?
James Whitfield, the first Black principal of a high school in Colleyville, Tex., is in the process of being fired. His apparent offense was writing, after the George Floyd murder, that systemic racism was “alive and well” and asking students and parents to be “anti-racist.” (The school district denies that CRT was a factor in its decision.) In Blountville, Tenn., a teacher was fired in part for assigning an article by Ta-Nehisi Coates arguing that Donald Trump was elected by harnessing white grievances.
Conservatives argue that CRT, with its focus on group identity, is un-American. But what’s more un-American than attempting to ban books and fire teachers for their views? That’s what happens in China. Democrats can win the CRT debate if they call out the illiberal excesses of both the woke left and the anti-woke right.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... eydJHbRYLA
_________________
Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).
08 Nov 2021, 7:32 pm
From the opinion piece.....
"liberals today need to focus on the collateral damage that Republicans inflict in the name of fighting CRT: They are trying to ban books and fire educators. In short, they are practicing the very “cancel culture” they decry. ( Off topic - I posted this many months ago and was told I didn't understand what cancel culture was by the OP)
"French lives in a Tennessee county where right-wing activists are trying to use an anti-CRT law to purge from the curriculum books about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges. They even take issue with Normal Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With,” which shows Bridges being escorted to her New Orleans elementary school in 1960 by federal marshals enforcing desegregation."
"In Southlake, Tex., an anti-CRT law was even invoked by a school administrator who instructed teachers to offer an “opposing” perspective on the Holocaust. What would that be — neo-Nazism?"
"Conservatives argue that CRT, with its focus on group identity, is un-American.
"
And there you have it....the anti-CRT bills passed in a number of republican states are simply designed to cancel/remove exposure to history - the essential definition of cancel culture
08 Nov 2021, 7:42 pm
cyberdad wrote:
From the opinion piece.....
"liberals today need to focus on the collateral damage that Republicans inflict in the name of fighting CRT: They are trying to ban books and fire educators. In short, they are practicing the very “cancel culture” they decry. ( Off topic - I posted this many months ago and was told I didn't understand what cancel culture was by the OP)
"French lives in a Tennessee county where right-wing activists are trying to use an anti-CRT law to purge from the curriculum books about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges. They even take issue with Normal Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With,” which shows Bridges being escorted to her New Orleans elementary school in 1960 by federal marshals enforcing desegregation."
"In Southlake, Tex., an anti-CRT law was even invoked by a school administrator who instructed teachers to offer an “opposing” perspective on the Holocaust. What would that be — neo-Nazism?"
"Conservatives argue that CRT, with its focus on group identity, is un-American.
"
And there you have it....the anti-CRT bills passed in a number of republican states are simply designed to cancel/remove exposure to history - the essential definition of cancel culture
"liberals today need to focus on the collateral damage that Republicans inflict in the name of fighting CRT: They are trying to ban books and fire educators. In short, they are practicing the very “cancel culture” they decry. ( Off topic - I posted this many months ago and was told I didn't understand what cancel culture was by the OP)
"French lives in a Tennessee county where right-wing activists are trying to use an anti-CRT law to purge from the curriculum books about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges. They even take issue with Normal Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With,” which shows Bridges being escorted to her New Orleans elementary school in 1960 by federal marshals enforcing desegregation."
"In Southlake, Tex., an anti-CRT law was even invoked by a school administrator who instructed teachers to offer an “opposing” perspective on the Holocaust. What would that be — neo-Nazism?"
"Conservatives argue that CRT, with its focus on group identity, is un-American.
"
And there you have it....the anti-CRT bills passed in a number of republican states are simply designed to cancel/remove exposure to history - the essential definition of cancel culture
It is important to note that opinion piece, to me, read as a two sided discussion, making clear charges against Democrats, as well. It isn't fair to focus only on the charges against Republicans. In many ways, the missteps by Democrats ended up inviting the reaction of Republicans. To undo the damage, Democrats have to back up and adjust their approach, and not just yell at Republicans about the errors in theirs.
When it comes down to it, issues of race are inevitably going to be a tricky and painful discussion. What we need is people willing to take hard looks at their own failings, whatever they may be, without worrying so much about the failings of others. I do believe students need to be able to have these discussions, as well, and not be shielded from the reality of different experiences, but we do have to think more about what that conversation should look like in a classroom.
_________________
Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).
08 Nov 2021, 8:04 pm
DW_a_mom wrote:
[ In many ways, the missteps by Democrats ended up inviting the reaction of Republicans..
I completely disagree with this one point. The republicans are using CRT to enrage white parents to simply blame the democrats. It's no secret that most white parents opposed a desegregated public education system and this repercussions of forced assimilation in the 1960s. It's a vein the republicans tap into to get votes.
08 Nov 2021, 8:24 pm
I found this piece on the subject interesting as well:
Quote:
Over the past few months, I have engaged in countless debates with colleagues over whether critical race theory is in our school district. Teachers deny critical race theory’s existence because they do not truly know what it is and hence cannot recognize its influence on their practices. Critical race theory rests on two presuppositions: The first is that racism in America is not aberrational but normative, and the second that America’s social, legal and political institutions are inherently racist as a consequence of our admittedly shameful racial past. In other words, racism permeates our modern sociopolitical fabric.
Critical race theory is the practice of interrogating race and racism in American institutions and society using the aforementioned presuppositions. It is a critical analytic lens for understanding the racial disparities in our country and an activist imperative for action. Unlike social science theories constructed on empirical evidence, critical race theory uses a new epistemology in which truth is subjectively determined by “lived experiences” rather than what can be impartially observed, quantified or falsified.
If one expects to find critical race theory to be listed in school district training manuals or curriculum maps, they’re going to be disappointed. However, one mustn’t allow oneself to become pigeonholed into this idea that to identify critical race theory’s influence and application, it must be explicitly named. It does not exist in education as a course of student studies but as praxis (the practice of theory).
Think of critical race theory like the scientific method, which is both a theoretical framework and tool. The study of and training in the scientific method takes place in institutions of higher learning, which is then applied in professional practice. That your doctor does not mention it during their work does not mean it is not embedded in the field. It is entirely possible, even likely, that the scientific method is seldom named or discussed as a topic of conversation in most medical practices. Would anyone use that as evidence that the scientific method does not exist in medicine? Of course not. Therefore, knowing the distinction between theory and praxis, we must look for applicational evidence of critical race theory in education.
[...]
Critical race theory is the practice of interrogating race and racism in American institutions and society using the aforementioned presuppositions. It is a critical analytic lens for understanding the racial disparities in our country and an activist imperative for action. Unlike social science theories constructed on empirical evidence, critical race theory uses a new epistemology in which truth is subjectively determined by “lived experiences” rather than what can be impartially observed, quantified or falsified.
If one expects to find critical race theory to be listed in school district training manuals or curriculum maps, they’re going to be disappointed. However, one mustn’t allow oneself to become pigeonholed into this idea that to identify critical race theory’s influence and application, it must be explicitly named. It does not exist in education as a course of student studies but as praxis (the practice of theory).
Think of critical race theory like the scientific method, which is both a theoretical framework and tool. The study of and training in the scientific method takes place in institutions of higher learning, which is then applied in professional practice. That your doctor does not mention it during their work does not mean it is not embedded in the field. It is entirely possible, even likely, that the scientific method is seldom named or discussed as a topic of conversation in most medical practices. Would anyone use that as evidence that the scientific method does not exist in medicine? Of course not. Therefore, knowing the distinction between theory and praxis, we must look for applicational evidence of critical race theory in education.
[...]
Source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-critical-race-theory-schools-20211108-l77lxp4w5bgoljetdg42iv3dy4-story.html
08 Nov 2021, 8:33 pm
cyberdad wrote:
DW_a_mom wrote:
[ In many ways, the missteps by Democrats ended up inviting the reaction of Republicans..
I completely disagree with this one point. The republicans are using CRT to enrage white parents to simply blame the democrats. It's no secret that most white parents opposed a desegregated public education system and this repercussions of forced assimilation in the 1960s. It's a vein the republicans tap into to get votes.
Yes, they are, but they would not have found such successful examples for their messaging if it were not for some well publicized missteps. Democrats in their exuberance for change forget just how good Republicans are at turning the oversteps normal to such exuberance into divisive weapons.
_________________
Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).
08 Nov 2021, 8:36 pm
Brictoria wrote:
I found this piece on the subject interesting as well:
Source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-critical-race-theory-schools-20211108-l77lxp4w5bgoljetdg42iv3dy4-story.html
Quote:
Over the past few months, I have engaged in countless debates with colleagues over whether critical race theory is in our school district. Teachers deny critical race theory’s existence because they do not truly know what it is and hence cannot recognize its influence on their practices. Critical race theory rests on two presuppositions: The first is that racism in America is not aberrational but normative, and the second that America’s social, legal and political institutions are inherently racist as a consequence of our admittedly shameful racial past. In other words, racism permeates our modern sociopolitical fabric.
Critical race theory is the practice of interrogating race and racism in American institutions and society using the aforementioned presuppositions. It is a critical analytic lens for understanding the racial disparities in our country and an activist imperative for action. Unlike social science theories constructed on empirical evidence, critical race theory uses a new epistemology in which truth is subjectively determined by “lived experiences” rather than what can be impartially observed, quantified or falsified.
If one expects to find critical race theory to be listed in school district training manuals or curriculum maps, they’re going to be disappointed. However, one mustn’t allow oneself to become pigeonholed into this idea that to identify critical race theory’s influence and application, it must be explicitly named. It does not exist in education as a course of student studies but as praxis (the practice of theory).
Think of critical race theory like the scientific method, which is both a theoretical framework and tool. The study of and training in the scientific method takes place in institutions of higher learning, which is then applied in professional practice. That your doctor does not mention it during their work does not mean it is not embedded in the field. It is entirely possible, even likely, that the scientific method is seldom named or discussed as a topic of conversation in most medical practices. Would anyone use that as evidence that the scientific method does not exist in medicine? Of course not. Therefore, knowing the distinction between theory and praxis, we must look for applicational evidence of critical race theory in education.
[...]
Critical race theory is the practice of interrogating race and racism in American institutions and society using the aforementioned presuppositions. It is a critical analytic lens for understanding the racial disparities in our country and an activist imperative for action. Unlike social science theories constructed on empirical evidence, critical race theory uses a new epistemology in which truth is subjectively determined by “lived experiences” rather than what can be impartially observed, quantified or falsified.
If one expects to find critical race theory to be listed in school district training manuals or curriculum maps, they’re going to be disappointed. However, one mustn’t allow oneself to become pigeonholed into this idea that to identify critical race theory’s influence and application, it must be explicitly named. It does not exist in education as a course of student studies but as praxis (the practice of theory).
Think of critical race theory like the scientific method, which is both a theoretical framework and tool. The study of and training in the scientific method takes place in institutions of higher learning, which is then applied in professional practice. That your doctor does not mention it during their work does not mean it is not embedded in the field. It is entirely possible, even likely, that the scientific method is seldom named or discussed as a topic of conversation in most medical practices. Would anyone use that as evidence that the scientific method does not exist in medicine? Of course not. Therefore, knowing the distinction between theory and praxis, we must look for applicational evidence of critical race theory in education.
[...]
Source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-critical-race-theory-schools-20211108-l77lxp4w5bgoljetdg42iv3dy4-story.html
I'm not entirely convinced this author understands what CRT is, either, but as WaPo article pointed out it no longer really matters. CRT has become a buzz word for something else. It bugs the heck out of me but I have to accept reality.
_________________
Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).
08 Nov 2021, 9:00 pm
DW_a_mom wrote:
cyberdad wrote:
DW_a_mom wrote:
[ In many ways, the missteps by Democrats ended up inviting the reaction of Republicans..
I completely disagree with this one point. The republicans are using CRT to enrage white parents to simply blame the democrats. It's no secret that most white parents opposed a desegregated public education system and this repercussions of forced assimilation in the 1960s. It's a vein the republicans tap into to get votes.
Yes, they are, but they would not have found such successful examples for their messaging if it were not for some well publicized missteps. Democrats in their exuberance for change forget just how good Republicans are at turning the oversteps normal to such exuberance into divisive weapons.
I think the republicans use education as an issue they can go back to rile up voters. In Australia we have what's called the "history wars" which is almost exactly the same thing except we call it a "black armband" view of history being taught in schools.
It's no great surprise that when public debates are held that the republicans agitating against CRT are unable to pin point what it is they oppose.
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/0 ... ually-know
One GOP clown (when pressed) even claimed he wasn't required to explain why he opposed CRT in a public debate, He just did
If the people leading the charge against CRT are unable to identify what about it they oppose, how do you expect ignorant parents to know what they dislike other than parroting the same nonsense their politicians utter. Most parents have no idea what their kids learn in the classroom. They just make things up based on emotion.
Kraichgauer
Veteran
Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 47,784
Location: Spokane area, Washington state.
08 Nov 2021, 9:22 pm
I personally consider Max Boot to be a man of true moral courage. He has spoken out against his own Republican party now that it's been taken over by the Trump cult, and all the white nationalism and QAnon kooks that come with it.
_________________
-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
08 Nov 2021, 10:59 pm
Kraichgauer wrote:
I personally consider Max Boot to be a man of true moral courage. He has spoken out against his own Republican party now that it's been taken over by the Trump cult, and all the white nationalism and QAnon kooks that come with it.
Ah, to be honest, I didn't look into the author. I don't have that many pundits memorized by name. I just thought what he said made sense. I prefer the idea of reading relatively blind, evaluating opinions on their own merit (obviously I did know it was published by the WaPo). It's also interesting how often I'll read and see games being played, buzz words used, or positions taken that push me to look into the author. I'd like to think I have a good nose for the extremists and party-line loyalists, so hopefully I'll never share a true wacko.
_________________
Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).
09 Nov 2021, 1:09 am
DW_a_mom wrote:
Ah, to be honest, I didn't look into the author.
He's not the best, he's an old neo-con who changed his spots a few years ago when he figured out there was more money to be made working the other side of the aisle, basically a con man. I'm all for changing your opinion as new information comes to light, or you come to see things differently, but this guy literally repudiated his entire political life overnight as if it were a religious conversion (he wasn't the only one, Jen Rubin is another good example), and that's just not something that occurs naturally, it's more a signal that he never really had any principles to begin with.
_________________
“The totally convinced and the totally stupid have too much in common for the resemblance to be accidental.”
-- Robert Anton Wilson
09 Nov 2021, 1:15 am
Hah, if Democrats want to stem the bleeding from this whole thing, first they need to drop the "CRT is not being taught in schools" shtick, as it's a middle school debate team tactic that everyone who has honestly engaged with the issue sees right through, the people on the other side have been clear from the start that they're using the term as a catch-all for divisive identitarian teachings that have been creeping their way into schools for years. That, however, would require the Democrats to grapple with the fact that this whole woke thing they've been doing for the last 6-8 years is misguided, and more importantly to them, wildly unpopular outside of a very narrow demographic who they don't need to pander to, as they'll vote for them regardless. Since I don't see them doing that, I expect to see this issue continue to cost them, and rightfully so, it's just bad politics on top of being bad education.
_________________
“The totally convinced and the totally stupid have too much in common for the resemblance to be accidental.”
-- Robert Anton Wilson
09 Nov 2021, 1:20 am
Don't take my word for it, Matt Yglesias (who spends most of his time trying to figure out how to elect more Democrats) has a very nice piece up on it in public this week:
https://www.slowboring.com/p/critical-r ... -education
Quote:
The last few years have seen a demagogic conservative push against the use of “critical race theory” in schools. This effort has featured some obvious villains, including policy entrepreneurs exploiting the issue for gain and racist parents getting mad about children learning the story of Ruby Bridges.
If you are so inclined (and many progressives are), you can point to the bigots and the opportunists and dismiss the whole thing as fake or a “moral panic.”
But I think we’ve seen that this is electorally unconvincing. Beyond that, though, I’d say that it’s substantively unconvincing. The country was roiled by a huge racial reckoning last year, and the truth is that there have been changes. Some of those changes have been positive, some have been negative, and some are things adults love to fight about but that aren’t actually very important for children. And it’s worth trying to understand and evaluate those changes.
This is an enormous issue that warrants (at least) a two-part post. Today’s is about three related and widespread trends in progressive education circles:
Extended closures of schools that hurt students’ measured learning outcomes and widened the racial gap in measured learning outcomes
The adoption of racial equity initiatives with little demonstrated efficacy in improving outcomes
The stigmatization of the kinds of tests that are our main tool for assessing whether or not children are learning
Democrats at the national level largely have not endorsed these ideas, but they have been pushed by a number of state and local governments, and elected Democratic leaders have generally not spoken out vocally against them. That trend is, I think, both politically damaging and substantively bad. If we stigmatize tests because they tell us bad news about racial gaps in academic achievement and then flood the zone with questionable initiatives whose efficacy we refuse to even try to measure, bad things are going to happen to the country.
If you are so inclined (and many progressives are), you can point to the bigots and the opportunists and dismiss the whole thing as fake or a “moral panic.”
But I think we’ve seen that this is electorally unconvincing. Beyond that, though, I’d say that it’s substantively unconvincing. The country was roiled by a huge racial reckoning last year, and the truth is that there have been changes. Some of those changes have been positive, some have been negative, and some are things adults love to fight about but that aren’t actually very important for children. And it’s worth trying to understand and evaluate those changes.
This is an enormous issue that warrants (at least) a two-part post. Today’s is about three related and widespread trends in progressive education circles:
Extended closures of schools that hurt students’ measured learning outcomes and widened the racial gap in measured learning outcomes
The adoption of racial equity initiatives with little demonstrated efficacy in improving outcomes
The stigmatization of the kinds of tests that are our main tool for assessing whether or not children are learning
Democrats at the national level largely have not endorsed these ideas, but they have been pushed by a number of state and local governments, and elected Democratic leaders have generally not spoken out vocally against them. That trend is, I think, both politically damaging and substantively bad. If we stigmatize tests because they tell us bad news about racial gaps in academic achievement and then flood the zone with questionable initiatives whose efficacy we refuse to even try to measure, bad things are going to happen to the country.
Check out the original at the link, he's got lot of links and graphics to make sense of everything.
_________________
“The totally convinced and the totally stupid have too much in common for the resemblance to be accidental.”
-- Robert Anton Wilson
Kraichgauer
Veteran
Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 47,784
Location: Spokane area, Washington state.
09 Nov 2021, 1:27 am
Dox47 wrote:
DW_a_mom wrote:
Ah, to be honest, I didn't look into the author.
He's not the best, he's an old neo-con who changed his spots a few years ago when he figured out there was more money to be made working the other side of the aisle, basically a con man. I'm all for changing your opinion as new information comes to light, or you come to see things differently, but this guy literally repudiated his entire political life overnight as if it were a religious conversion (he wasn't the only one, Jen Rubin is another good example), and that's just not something that occurs naturally, it's more a signal that he never really had any principles to begin with.
Being disgusted by Trump constitutes changing his spots? I've listened to Boot, and he sounds like a decent enough guy.
_________________
-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
09 Nov 2021, 2:00 am
Kraichgauer wrote:
Being disgusted by Trump constitutes changing his spots? I've listened to Boot, and he sounds like a decent enough guy.
Did you listen to him before his "conversion"? He was a full blown Clinton hating, W boosting, GWOT supporting Neo-conservative, and now he's a bog standard liberal, that's not a simple reaction to Trump.
Imagine that the Democrats listen to me, that this woke stuff is killing them, but they over-correct and go full blown racist in response. You might say "I can't be a Democrat anymore, I'm not racist" and vote against the party, but you'd not suddenly start believing in small government, low taxes, big business, the Gipper, etc, you'd have the same beliefs as before, but you'd just refuse to call yourself a Democrat. Max Boot said he couldn't be a Republican anymore because of Trump, but then he changed every single one of his political beliefs, including ones that had nothing to do with Trump (remember, in substance Trump was basically a big government Republican, not super right wing), which suggest opportunism rather than genuine conversion.
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Kraichgauer
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Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 47,784
Location: Spokane area, Washington state.
09 Nov 2021, 2:20 am
Dox47 wrote:
Kraichgauer wrote:
Being disgusted by Trump constitutes changing his spots? I've listened to Boot, and he sounds like a decent enough guy.
Did you listen to him before his "conversion"? He was a full blown Clinton hating, W boosting, GWOT supporting Neo-conservative, and now he's a bog standard liberal, that's not a simple reaction to Trump.
Imagine that the Democrats listen to me, that this woke stuff is killing them, but they over-correct and go full blown racist in response. You might say "I can't be a Democrat anymore, I'm not racist" and vote against the party, but you'd not suddenly start believing in small government, low taxes, big business, the Gipper, etc, you'd have the same beliefs as before, but you'd just refuse to call yourself a Democrat. Max Boot said he couldn't be a Republican anymore because of Trump, but then he changed every single one of his political beliefs, including ones that had nothing to do with Trump (remember, in substance Trump was basically a big government Republican, not super right wing), which suggest opportunism rather than genuine conversion.
Well, if he changes back to an a$$hole after Trump is just a distant image in the rearview mirror, then I'll concede you're right. Till then, I'll verbally continue to slap him on the back.
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-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
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