A family member of mine worked in school administration in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There were always organized efforts to bring complaints about curriculum to local school boards. The "public review process" nationwide is overwhelming controlled by far-right figures, the majority of whom absolutely believe anti-racism curriculum is divisive.
I don't think that much positive can come from the public review process of school boards nationwide. It (a review process) might work in Minneapolis or San Francisco if you are hoping for a progressive outcome. The outcome in Texas or Idaho would like be purposefully divisive.
Attacking curriculum has been used for decades. Pat Buchanan mocked the "bead wears at the Department of Education teaching masturbation."
Yeah, I mean, like I said, I'm skeptical that "Moms for Liberty" is acting in good faith or that these parents would want their kids' stories used to elect far-right politicians. But I think the underlying complaint has to be reckoned with - are we as teachers doing what we can to make these types of lessons and units acceptable to students and parents? I think most parents will cut us a lot of slack if we listen to their concerns and can address them. At least that's been my experience with non-politically-charged materials. But I've had nothing but good feedback from parents when I do my more progressive units.
I agree with your "model the behavior you want" conclusion. But while you certainly don't minimize the complexity of delivering anti-racist education, I think that your optimism obfuscates it somewhat. You write that "sometimes educators do a poor job". Yes, sometimes educators do a poor job teaching basic math, or critical reading skills. However, when it comes to delivering a CRT-cognizant anti-racist curriculum with sufficient complexity and nuance, I think the more appropriate assessment would be: "it's exceedingly rare to find a teacher, let alone an adult, who has the capacity to deliver said curriculum". Personally, I haven't met anyone up to the task. So I'm with you in spirit, but I struggle to foresee it in our reality.
"I think that your optimism obfuscates it somewhat."
That's a fair point and actually I had lingering concerns that the post might come off as too rosy in general. It's a hard line to walk between acknowledging the often terrible reality and pointing people towards improvements.
"it's exceedingly rare to find a teacher, let alone an adult, who has the capacity to deliver said curriculum"
My ideal would be that the curriculum would be at least somewhat foolproof such that an average teacher could deliver it without scarring children.
I'd also like teachers to engage in an open and active reflection process after each unit where they identify what went well and what went wrong and make notes for how to improve next time. It sounds like the reason this case went to court was that the teacher/school wasn't responsive to feedback, and I think that's wrong - but also teachers/schools need ample time to reflect, and teacher workload is a huge and underappreciated problem. I wouldn't be surprised if these complaints fell through the cracks because everyone was busy and burned out from dealing with covid.
Not sure if believe an of the organized anti-CRT stuff. I think there's a massive effort to push it as an issue, and it worked well in Virginia:.
Here's an example of anti-CRT groups being organized earlier this year: https://link.medium.com/U0rw0ZAuDlb
A family member of mine worked in school administration in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There were always organized efforts to bring complaints about curriculum to local school boards. The "public review process" nationwide is overwhelming controlled by far-right figures, the majority of whom absolutely believe anti-racism curriculum is divisive.
I don't think that much positive can come from the public review process of school boards nationwide. It (a review process) might work in Minneapolis or San Francisco if you are hoping for a progressive outcome. The outcome in Texas or Idaho would like be purposefully divisive.
Attacking curriculum has been used for decades. Pat Buchanan mocked the "bead wears at the Department of Education teaching masturbation."
Yeah, I mean, like I said, I'm skeptical that "Moms for Liberty" is acting in good faith or that these parents would want their kids' stories used to elect far-right politicians. But I think the underlying complaint has to be reckoned with - are we as teachers doing what we can to make these types of lessons and units acceptable to students and parents? I think most parents will cut us a lot of slack if we listen to their concerns and can address them. At least that's been my experience with non-politically-charged materials. But I've had nothing but good feedback from parents when I do my more progressive units.
I agree with your "model the behavior you want" conclusion. But while you certainly don't minimize the complexity of delivering anti-racist education, I think that your optimism obfuscates it somewhat. You write that "sometimes educators do a poor job". Yes, sometimes educators do a poor job teaching basic math, or critical reading skills. However, when it comes to delivering a CRT-cognizant anti-racist curriculum with sufficient complexity and nuance, I think the more appropriate assessment would be: "it's exceedingly rare to find a teacher, let alone an adult, who has the capacity to deliver said curriculum". Personally, I haven't met anyone up to the task. So I'm with you in spirit, but I struggle to foresee it in our reality.
"I think that your optimism obfuscates it somewhat."
That's a fair point and actually I had lingering concerns that the post might come off as too rosy in general. It's a hard line to walk between acknowledging the often terrible reality and pointing people towards improvements.
"it's exceedingly rare to find a teacher, let alone an adult, who has the capacity to deliver said curriculum"
My ideal would be that the curriculum would be at least somewhat foolproof such that an average teacher could deliver it without scarring children.
I'd also like teachers to engage in an open and active reflection process after each unit where they identify what went well and what went wrong and make notes for how to improve next time. It sounds like the reason this case went to court was that the teacher/school wasn't responsive to feedback, and I think that's wrong - but also teachers/schools need ample time to reflect, and teacher workload is a huge and underappreciated problem. I wouldn't be surprised if these complaints fell through the cracks because everyone was busy and burned out from dealing with covid.