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Top Three Takeaways – November 11th, 2021
- Know what’s happening in the classroom. Any good magician creates distractions. The key to figuring out the trick is to know what the other hand is doing. All throughout the course of this school year while the debates were being waged in school board meetings and in courts, I’ve posed the point that my bigger concern isn’t about masks. It’s been about the principal. If school districts are willing to break the law by usurping parents' rights in plain sight – my concern has been about what the “other hand has been doing” or would be willing to do. A la teaching Critical Race Theory or other forms of indoctrination. Remember, the reason CRT and related issues came to the forefront when they did was a combination of greater racial activism surrounding the BLM movement last year combined with parents actually seeing and hearing what was being taught through online education during the pandemic. Indoctrination in the classroom isn’t new. I was confronted with it 30 years ago pertaining to creation while in a physical science class. There’s no telling where specifically you’ll find it but these days the CRT concerns should be real. Anyway, the reason I’ve specifically mentioned this again today is due to the alarming statement made by Palm Beach County School Superintendent Michael Burke to State Representative Rick Roth when Roth posed the question as to if Critical Race Theory was being taught in schools. Burke’s response wasn’t a simple no. It was this...
- Critical Race Theory is a manufactured term to incite, to try to divide us. That’s more than a little disturbing for multiple reasons. First, that’s a demonstrably false characterization. Critical Race Theory isn’t a term, it’s the title of a book that proposes a curriculum. As I’ve covered multiple times over the past couple of years... The first publication of Critical Race Theory took place in 2001 (after a predecessor was published in 1993) but had widely been ignored by the education establishment until recently. As for the adaptation by schools... Critical Race Theory was the basis for the 1619 Project which was created by the New York Times and perpetuated by the Pulitzer Center. The 1619 Project was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and subsequently shared to 4,500 schools across the country by the Pulitzer Center. This included South Florida’s schools. Let me be clear...
- Critical Race Theory via the 1619 Project is in each of South Florida’s School Districts. Does that mean it’s being taught? No, at least not as part of the curriculum. The Florida Department of Education sets the curriculum, and it doesn’t include CRT. Now, is it possible for a teacher here and there, or perhaps even a school to go rouge? Yes, especially with the books being made available in the libraries at our schools. Furthermore, as I exposedthis summer, dozens of teachers from across the state signed a pledge to teach Critical Race Theory in schools after the Florida Board of Education banned it. That includes teachers in all South Florida school districts. So, here’s the question...Is Burke lying or is he clueless? To recap... Critical Race Theory is a work, not a “manufactured term”. It’s in the libraries of our public schools via the 1619 Project. Numerous educators in his school district and others signed a pledge stating they’d teach it. If he’s lying, he should be fired. If he’s this clueless, he likewise has no business leading a school district. But this is bigger than Burke. That just happened to be who Roth questioned. How can any superintendent in any of Florida’s school districts who’ve already broken the law by usurping parent’s rights over their own children’s wellbeing and education be trusted? What’s the other hand doing? And it’s not just about CRT. It’s potentially anything that’s being taught. Remember 78% of public-school teachers are members of a union whose parent is the American Federation of Teachers. Randi Weingarten’s outfit. That doesn’t mean 78% are necessarily part of the problem, but at least that many literally chose to contribute to it. That’s why it’s critical that you know what’s happening in the classroom.