Penna Dexter

The U.S. Department of Education recently proposed a regulation that would direct funding for K-12 civics education toward “culturally responsive teaching and learning.” Sounds like your typical diversity push. But it isn’t. In his primer on culturally responsive education, New York University Professor David Kirkland declares that “the dominant systems and ideologies which centered around Anglo-European-Judeo-cis-hetero-male whiteness” are no longer the reference point. Anything that elevates “narratives of white supremacy” is to be avoided. The aim of this proposed rule is not a colorblind classroom, but an “anti-racist” one. Rather than discourage racial discrimination, this agenda promotes it. The proposal encourages the use of curricula based upon the “1619 Project,” which was launched in 2019 in a 100-page spread in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. It portrays America as a fundamentally racist nation and makes slavery the central story of American history. The curriculum crosses out 1776 as America’s founding date and substitutes 1619, the year African slaves were first brought to the colonies. Its factual errors are breathtaking. It has been repudiated by noted historians. And yet here it is in the administration’s rule. The public comment for the rule will close May 19. There’s a companion bill before Congress, the Civics Secures Democracy Act, which would appropriate $1 billion per year for six years. This is just enough time to get the youngest students saturated in Critical Race Theory, which redefines American history as a struggle between the oppressor — white people — and the oppressed (basically everyone else). It demands the overthrow of capitalism, equality under the law, and many of our founding principles. Racism is not our founding principle and to say so has become a tool of the Left to gain political power and really, to overthrow our system. We should not be quiet about this rule that will steep the nation’s students in Critical Race Theory. We don’t need their revolution.