Teach The Teacher.
Early last summer I wrote a letter headlined, "School Daze." The letter covered the implementation of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the "1619 Project" into K-12 classrooms.
President Biden's Education Department is now providing grants under American History and Civics Education programs to teach diversity and the effects of "systemic" inequality.
The program's explanation is full of contradictions that are so blatant they look almost comical. The Education blog URL's length is as long as the article itself, so in the interest of brevity, some selective parsing is necessary.
The program invited, "…applicants to explore innovative and creative ways to support educators and the teaching of American history and civics to students." and further stresses, "… [It] does not dictate or recommend specific curriculum, as these decisions are – and will continue to be – made at the local level." Let's see, this all boils down to teach the teacher to teach the students; hence, not necessarily formulate a new curriculum – you won't find any syllabi titled "CRT (101)" or "1619 History (101)" – their approach will be much more subtle.
As a matter of supposed fairness it goes on, "... [it invites] applicants to design projects that incorporate racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse perspectives into teaching and learning." – Labeled as "invitational priorities," but state they'll give no competitive advantage for their inclusion in an application. Well, it turns out the 2021 grantees all SURPRISINGLY stressed those priorities in their applications.
As a closing statement they emphasize, "In planning for the ... programs this year, [we] emphasized two points. First, as every parent knows, when students can make personal connections to their learning experiences, there are greater opportunities for them to stay engaged in their education ... second, we respect and trust the Nation’s educators and know that the work they’re doing to promote important conversations can benefit all students." This can be simply boastful rhetoric on their part, but phrases like "make personal connections" and "promote important conversations" leaves room open for interpretation.
Besides this drive from the national level, it's already present in some classrooms. Locally, who knows?
Enough said.
Anthony C. Powers