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CRT Controversy Comes to WV

The West Virginia House of Delegates is advancing HB 4011, the Anti-Stereotyping Act.”  The legislation, which has passed the House Education Committee and will be taken up next by the Judiciary Committee, appears innocuous enough at first blush.

(Read more here from Brad McElhinny.)

The bill requires public schools to disclose on their website or a publicly accessible location all training material for teachers and instructional materials for students that pertain to matters of “nondiscrimination, diversity, equity, inclusion, race, ethnicity, sex or bias.”

Proponents say this is simply transparency, a guarantee that parents can know more about any anti-bias training or instruction.

Additionally, the bill states that schools may not teach that a particular race, sex, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or inferior to another, nor can any of those groups “be blamed for actions committed in the past.”

So, what is this all about?

The roots of this are in the contentious debate in this country over Critical Race Theory, the catch-all academic concept for the proposition of institutional racism.  CRT has prompted protests, largely by white parents, who contend their children are being “taught” that racism permeates all aspects of society and thus disadvantages people of color.

The pushback against CRT now comes in the form of “curriculum transparency,” a policy advocated by conservative activist Christopher Rufo.

“The Left will expect that, after passing so-called ‘CRT bans’ last year, we will overplay our hand,” Rufo tweeted earlier this year.  “By moving to curriculum transparency, we will deflate the argument and bait the Left into opposing ‘transparency,’ which will raise the question: what are they trying to hide?”

He’s right that, at the surface at least, who can legitimately argue against transparency, but what is the actual effect of the legislation?

First, federal law already requires schools to make available to the public instruction materials teachers are using.  How much more must teacher’s supply?  Will teachers be required to post all source material?   How much time and effort will that take?

Second, and more importantly, will putting into law specific prohibitions on instruction in matters related to race, sex, ethnicity, religion or national origin have a chilling effect?  How will a history teacher discuss the causes and effects of the Civil War, the Jim Crow era, the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, the Civil Rights movement and dozens of other topics without fear of running afoul of the law?

What happens when a healthy discussion by inquisitive 11th graders delves into territory not previously posted on the school’s website?   Would a teacher be in violation of the law if they taught a lesson on Fredrick Douglass’s famous July 5, 1852 speech where he asked, “What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?”

Maybe none of these examples would violate the law, but who knows?  If this bill becomes law, it will require extraordinary bravery on the part of our teachers to venture into controversial issues that are necessary to advance critical thinking by students, knowing they might be breaking the law.

 

 

 

 





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