Education Briefs
Fox News reported on January 12 that the National Education Associate (NEA) wrote a letter to social media companies urging them to "stifle propaganda" about CRT being stoked by "violent, radicalized parents."
The NEA missive followed closely on the heels last fall of the infamous National Association of School Boards' (NSBA) letter to President Biden asking the White House to intervene against parents who complain at school board meetings. In the wake of revelations that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona solicited the NSBA letter, critics say the NEA's letter "represents yet more coordination between government and interest groups to silence parents." Fox News interviewed Ian Prior, a parent and executive director of the group Fight for Schools. Prior observed: "This looks like a concerted effort between the federal government and outside groups like the NEA and NSBA to interfere with the First Amendment rights of parents. It doesn't stretch the imagination to believe that the federal government was also involved in the NEA letter." On January 14, the Fox News program, The Five, discussed the letter, quoting it in part as citing "the alarming growth of a small but violent group of radicalized adults who falsely believe that graduate-level courses about racism are being taught in K-12 public schools because of information spread on social media." Fox News Anchor Jesse Watters noted: "Parents will not be silenced. This is a rambunctious country; we have free speech." Fox Analyst Dagen McDowell reminded viewers that the Justice Department is forming a new domestic terrorism unit. "Who do you think they're going after?" she asked rhetorically, answering her own question with "mama and papa." Fox News.com, 1-12-22; The Five, 1-14-22
Universities and colleges have been waging a war on words for years, and the University of California-Irvine's (UCI) Inclusive Language Guide is the latest effort to come under fire.
UCI issued the guide last year "to help its Office of Information Technology staff remain committed to 'equity, diversity, and inclusion.'" UCI's guide rejects the old maxim that "it's better to kill two birds with one stone," despite the fact that this innocuous phrase has been used for generations without posing a hazard to birds. Nonetheless, UCI now considers it an example of "violent language," and recommends using "feed two birds with one scone" instead. Other no-nos include the terms "demilitarized zone," which the guide says should be replaced with "perimeter network," "hang," which should be replaced with "stop responding," "kill" (as in kill a process), which should be replaced with "halt" or "stop," and "nuke," which should be replaced with "delete." Of course, inclusivity must be front and center, and accordingly, the guide favors gender-neutral terms such as "folks," "team," and the use of "ya'll" instead of guys or girls. Any terms containing the word "man" are out and preferred pronouns are in. Along racial lines, "whitelist" and "blacklist" are out, and "safelist" and "denylist" are acceptable. "First class citizen" must be replaced with "core concept" or "top-level." Last month, the Wall Street Journal criticized the guide, scolding UCI for its "banalities." The university was reportedly influenced by the "inclusivity guides" of Microsoft, Google, and Apple. The College Fix, 1-10-22
A North Carolina bill to remove critical race theory (CRT) from public schools is considered the model for legislative proposals that ban CRT while avoiding censorship. According to a December report
released by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), state lawmakers "have either sought to ban compulsion, inclusion, or promotion [of CRT]." AEI says the latter — promotion — was preferred by the North Carolina State Legislature, and "is the best model for legislatures to follow." While the lawmakers' bid to ban CRT was vetoed by North Carolina's Democrat Governor Roy Cooper, AEI's research finds that banning the promotion of CRT prohibits school districts from incorporating the theory in teacher training and from contracting speakers or consultants who integrate it into their presentations. "This approach encompasses the prohibition against compulsion," AEI wrote. "But most importantly, it threads the needle of preventing the politicization of the classroom without presenting any barrier to honest and accurate classroom instruction." The report affirms the need for state bans on CRT, as school districts continue to deny the theory is being taught even while teaching it. Washington Examiner, 12-13-21
As CRT is rooted out of public schools in some states and continues to be under fire nationally, will the void it leaves further fuel the push for classical education?
Many parents and conservative education experts hope the answer is yes. Classical education has been making a comeback in recent years, and Education Reporter has covered its progress. Recently, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts spoke with the Washington Examiner about this topic. "The reason I believe classical education should replace CRT is because it puts the focus where it needs to be, which is on the formation of the student," Roberts said. He charged that conservatives "kind of allowed" CRT and other progressive curricula to take hold in public schools, "because of our emphasis on how a student was being prepared for work." Mary Rice Hasson, senior fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and co-author of the 2018 book Get Out Now: Why You Should Pull Your Child from Public School Before It's Too Late, agrees. She observed that a Republican from the 1980s would say that the purpose of education is to equip people with skills to "be successful in a global economy." But, "as a conservative and Catholic," she added, "education should be designed to form the person with our end in mind." Roberts believes "what you can't teach is what you must form, and that is the understanding of character that comes from reading the great books and the essays, and deep thinking in classrooms, and you get that with the classical approach. That's why [classical education] has to replace CRT, and for that matter, most American curriculum."
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