{"id":518464,"date":"2021-05-17T15:51:12","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T19:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=518464"},"modified":"2021-05-17T15:51:14","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T19:51:14","slug":"as-tennessee-bans-critical-race-theory-educators-alternate-between-pledging-to-break-law-and-denying-crt-was-ever-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/as-tennessee-bans-critical-race-theory-educators-alternate-between-pledging-to-break-law-and-denying-crt-was-ever-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"As Tennessee Bans Critical Race Theory, Educators Alternate Between Pledging To Break Law And Denying CRT Was Ever In Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">40<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fas-tennessee-bans-critical-race-theory-educators-alternate-between-pledging-to-break-law-and-denying-crt-was-ever-in-schools%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=518464&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/og-default.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p><span>After lawmakers in Tennessee\u2019s State House voted to ban schools from teaching divisive racial concepts this month, educators can\u2019t decide whether to angrily pledge to defy the law or claim it was unnecessary because they were never doing such a thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As the uproar over attempts to indoctrinate children has reached a fever pitch in numerous states, the education establishment has adopted the same approaches everywhere: Some trot out cagey denials based on semantics about \u201ccritical race theory.\u201d Others double down, lamenting that banning divisive racial concepts would significantly change their jobs and deeming efforts to depoliticize schools as the latest example of oppression.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The headline of a May 12 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennessean.com\/story\/news\/education\/2021\/05\/12\/tennessee-schools-critical-race-theory-ban-what-is-taught-about-race\/5023972001\/\"><span>Nashville Tennessean<\/span><\/a><span> news article seemed to paint parents and state lawmakers as conspiracy theorists. Education writer Meghan Mangrum relied on a spokesperson for the Tennessee State Board of Education as the foundation for the unqualified headline: \u201cCritical race theory isn\u2019t taught in Tennessee schools. Here\u2019s what is being taught about race.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cCurrently, Tennessee\u2019s academic standards for social studies do not contain any mention of \u2018critical race theory,\u2019 \u2018systemic racism,\u2019 or \u2018institutional racism,\u2019\u201d spokesperson Elizabeth Tullos told the Tennessean.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This entirely misses the point. As Mangrum acknowledges deeper into the story, CRT is a <\/span><i><span>theory<\/span><\/i><span> that holds that America is inherently oppressive, parses virtually every interaction through the lens of a racial power struggle, and calls for \u201cdismantling\u201d \u201csystems.\u201d Of course, curriculum designers do not insert the words \u201ccritical race theory\u201d in children\u2019s curriculum \u2014 they put it into practice by generating lessons that introduce racial grievances and calls for advocacy in virtually every subject.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Critical race theory and its various outputs have numerous aliases in schools, most commonly \u201cequity.\u201d In Tennessee, it\u2019s often branded as \u201cculturally relevant teaching\u201d \u2014 the idea that people of different races need to be taught different content or in different ways.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>According to Tennessee\u2019s \u201cLeaders for Equity\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tn.gov\/content\/dam\/tn\/education\/reports\/Tennessee-Leaders-for-Equity-Playbook.pdf\"><span>handbook<\/span><\/a><span>, the state is integrating \u201cculturally relevant instruction\u201d into the curriculum and will promote \u201cculturally responsive learning.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cCulturally relevant\u201d pedagogy was made popular by Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, a preeminent critical race theorist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI have defined culturally relevant teaching as a pedagogy of opposition not unlike critical pedagogy but specifically committed to collective, not merely individual, empowerment\u2026 Students must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order,\u201d Ladson-Billings wrote in 1995.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cStudents must develop a broader sociopolitical consciousness that allows them to critique the cultural norms, values, mores, and institutions that produce and maintain social inequities,\u201d she wrote, adding that it is similar to the work of Paolo Freire, a Brazilian socialist who wrote \u201cThe Pedagogy of the Oppressed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In other words, if a school promotes \u201cculturally responsive\u201d learning, it is practicing critical race theory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And Tennessee teachers know it, or else they would be reacting to a new law with a shrug rather than with anger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">On May 5, the Tennessee State House passed a bill <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/bill-passes-tennessee-state-house-prohibiting-critical-race-theory-in-public-schools\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/prohibiting&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1621365722985000&#038;usg=AFQjCNHbKZGYwPtJIvweix3jS3bT-lhU_A\">banning<\/a> K-12 institutions from \u201cascribing character traits, values, moral codes, privileges or beliefs to a race or sex\u201d or teaching that \u201cthe United States is fundamentally racist or sexist,\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Despite public schools that violate the ban \u2014 which must first be passed by the Senate and signed into law by the governor \u2014 being at risk of losing state funding, some teachers have admitted that they plan to flout the law.<\/p>\n<p><span>Liz Jarvis, an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at Cornerstone Prep in Memphis, told <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/tn.chalkbeat.org\/2021\/5\/10\/22429654\/teaching-the-truth-tennessee-educators-respond-to-proposed-limits-on-teaching-about-racism\"><span>Chalkbeat<\/span><\/a><span> that the law \u201cfavors\u201d white children and she will not abide by it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cTo be frank, the bill will not make it harder for my personal classroom because I plan to ignore it,\u201d Jarvis said. \u201cWho\u2019s going to enforce it? This is a bill that viciously favors white children and ignores the needs of children of color. All the reported reasons I read that were given by the lawmakers were to protect the feelings of white children, with no thought or concern to what is best for society as a whole or for children of color.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>By now, media should know better than to take education officials at their word without skepticism. Not only do some educators react with defiance or deceptive wordsmithing, they\u2019ve also deployed something that traditionally rankles journalists: secrecy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In August, a parent with a second-grader in Nashville\u2019s schools said that her first English lesson of the year taught that white people are \u201cbad, mean, and racist against African-Americans and Mexicans.\u201d In literature read to seven-year-olds, white kids told a Mexican girl to \u201cGo back to the Mexican school!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"14.634146341463\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My daughter just started second grade <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MetroSchools?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MetroSchools<\/a>. I will be pulling her out immediately. <\/p>\n<p>Her first \u201cEnglish\u201d lesson of the year is teaching her that white people are bad, mean &#038; racist against African-Americans &#038; Mexicans. <\/p>\n<p>My daughter, 7, is not a racist nor is her family.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 T. Grant Benson (@GrantB911) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GrantB911\/status\/1294397764110082048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 14, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>If it weren\u2019t for coronavirus-inspired online school, the parent might never have known what occurred.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The same month, Tennessee\u2019s Rutherford County Schools asked parents to sign a form agreeing not to watch virtual classes, according to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/tennesseestar.com\/2020\/08\/15\/rutherford-county-schools-tell-parents-not-to-monitor-their-childs-virtual-classrooms\/\"><span>Tennessee Star<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cViolation of this agreement may result in RCS removing my child from the virtual meeting,\u201d it said. The school district later backtracked.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i><span>member<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After lawmakers in Tennessee\u2019s State House voted to ban schools from teaching divisive racial concepts this month, educators can\u2019t decide whether to angrily pledge to defy the law or claim &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2278346,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/og-default.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"As Tennessee Bans Critical Race Theory, Educators Alternate Between Pledging To Break Law And Denying CRT Was Ever In Schools","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-518464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/og-default.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"As Tennessee Bans Critical Race Theory, Educators Alternate Between Pledging To Break Law And Denying CRT Was Ever In Schools","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}