Teacher says that ironically, teachers will end up teaching about race.. Because kids want to learn

[tulipsandroses]

A lot of this noise has nothing to do with education. Just another scrary thing to keep the brainwashed scared. Just like build the wall, trans folks using bathrooms, now its trans folks in sports since the bathroom thing never took off.
But interestingly this teacher, said that students are curious and teachers will ultimately end up having to talk about it. What do you do when the kids start asking questions? Are you going to silence the kids too ? Kick the kids out that dare to ask questions?

These conversations take place often in my class. Young people want to understand the world around them, and it’s my job to do my absolute best to help them make sense of things, even if it’s just by providing them with knowledge of past events that created the inequalities they witness on a regular basis. Whether it’s police killing unarmed Black people, anti-Asian violence during the Covid-19 pandemic, or viral videos of people making racist 911 calls, students want to know. I pride myself on helping kids to make connections between these kinds of events and our nation’s history.

This is one reason why I get so frustrated at all the bad takes circulating among politicians, social media, and the news related to critical race theory and the teaching of America’s racial history in K-12 classrooms. The reality is that kids are talking about race, systems of oppression, and our country’s ugly past anyway — from media coverage to last summer’s protests to even this very controversy itself, my students are absorbing these conversations and want to know more. I’m just one teacher, and there’s no way to generalize what’s happening everywhere. But I believe that my students are smart and mature enough to handle the truth.

SNIP

Ironically, while few K-12 teachers could define critical race theory before 2021, many will probably teach about it next school year. For me, that will likely look like me planning a class discussion of the controversy during my introductory unit for US history, and deeper analysis in my racial issues and African American history classes. As a teacher, it’s such a gift when news headlines make it so much easier to make history relevant for my 11th graders.

[link:https://www.vox.com/first-person/22568672/critical-race-theory-crt-education-racism-teachers|

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[crickets]

2. The law of unintended consequences strikes again, in a good way. K&R

[hedda_foil]

3. Unfortunately, she teaches in Texas. I hope she'll be able to continue to do this great work.