Creeping CRT?

CCSD2 Board of Trustees discuss curriculum and critical race theory

“It’s going to creep in in ways we don’t know.”

At the May 17 meeting of the Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Board of Trustees, Joe Gaspari proposed Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a potential subject for a future board work session. Five months later, on September 20, a 45 minute discussion over CRT took place in the cafeteria of Saratoga Elementary School.

CRT, similar to vaccines and masks, has been a proverbial lightning rod in the ongoing culture wars both in and out of schools. According to an August 2021 article from the Brookings Institute, CRT was mentioned 1,300 times by conservative news outlet Fox News in a four month period. In the past year, State Superintendent Jillian Ballow has made multiple statements regarding CRT and Wyoming education.

On September 10, Ballow, along with senators Ogden Driskill (R - Devil’s Tower) and Dan Dockstader (R - Afton), presented draft legislation to “fight back against CRT in Wyoming”. The legislation, called the Civics Transparency Act, would require school districts throughout Wyoming to publish materials and activities being used for student instruction. 

In a press release, Driskill said his bill gives “parents the tools to know what is being taught in their children’s classrooms and prevents the indoctrination found in the critical race theory curriculum that has been pushed by the far-left and has found its way into some classrooms.” According to Noel Manning, director of curriculum for CCSD2, CRT is not in any curriculum currently accepted by the district nor is it present in the State of Wyoming’s educational standards.

In an article from WyoFile, Ballow cited notes obtained from the parents of a Wyoming student as her reasoning for backing Driskill’s proposed legislation.

“My definition of Critical Race Theory and the definition that I’m presenting to the board and that I’m talking to various teachers (and) administrative staff (about) is really, Critical Race Theory is a historical lense,” said Manning in an interview with the Saratoga Sun on September 16. “It’s a way to look at history using a different perspective, basically. In this particular case, very controversial, throughout the study of history … we’ve always been using historical lenses to try to look at situations.”

In a May 18, 2021 article from Education Weekly (“What is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack?”) author Stephen Sawchuk wrote “Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems.”

Manning, who presented his findings to the CCSD2 Board of Trustees on September 20, told the Sun he believed CRT to be a very advanced framework. He added it is tied in with the concept of Critical Theory, a collection of philosophical beliefs which delve into why society works the way it does.

“That’s like throwing darts at a wall and seeing what sticks. You can never tell. Everyone’s different and everyone contributes, in a small way, to the society that they live in and that’s all based on our life experiences,” Manning said. “In this particular case, Critical Race Theory really focuses on the idea that racism has existed, basically, throughout American History.”

According to Manning, when he says CRT is not present in the district’s curriculum, it means there aren’t any programs which are focused on the particular historical lens which CRT focuses on. He added, however, both district curriculum and state standards do require looking at controversial moments in history.

“We do have to look at different groups of people, we have to look at conflicts and when you look at things like different groups of people and conflicts in the United States, I think anyone with a basic understanding of our history (knows) we’ve got a lot of that because we’re a melting pot country,” said Manning. “That doesn’t necessarily mean and that does not mean that that is a conversation that goes hand-in-hand with Critical Race Theory. It’s just trying to help students understand the history of our country, the facts that we have out there, where we come from and hopefully what we’re doing to move the process forward to avoid conflicts like that moving forward.” 

Another reason why CRT will not likely appear in district curriculum is the nature of the history books used throughout CCSD2, according to Manning. The director of curriculum told both the Sun on September 16 and the Board of Trustees on September 20 the district uses what are known as survey history textbooks.

“Which is, basically, what most textbook companies latch onto because they understand we don’t have enough time to teach all of human history and they give us a broad overview of the critical moments in history for a particular area or a particular event or a particular country,” Manning said. “How that history looks, from the top down, we’re talking about a relatively quick jumping through critical moments of U.S. History to give students a broad understanding of what the country’s gone through since the colonists first showed up—and maybe a little bit before that, talk about the native inhabitants that lived here before the United States of America actually started—and it goes through progression of time to focus on those major events until modern times.”

The Board of Trustees, however, still appeared concerned about the prospect of CRT “creeping” its way into schools within the district. According to one board member, Kaycee Alameda, the concept of Critical Race Theory was presented in a classroom with both her son and the son of fellow board member Karen Condict.

“So, it’s here and we dealt with it,” said Alameda. “The principal dealt with the situation and it ended, I guess satisfactorily in the end.”

The discussion on Monday afternoon appeared to center less on what exactly critical race theory was and more on the semantics of a potential board resolution. Some additional input was provided by Gaspari, however, as he cited “Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender and Identity and Why This Harms Everybody” by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay. The semantics of the resolution appeared to center on whether the district should “ban” critical race theory or whether it should say it doesn’t promote critical race theory.

“It’s a lot easier to say what you think’s appropriate than to list everything that’s not allowed,” said CCSD2 Superintendent Jim Copeland.

While no formal motion was made during the work session, it is likely a draft resolution will appear during the October meeting of the Board of Trustees.

“I think something, too, as administration over teachers we kind of have to be cognisant of; they should be teaching facts,” said Georgia Miller, CCSD2 Board of Trustees member. “What history was, whatever subject it might be, it’s factual. We’re teaching them, we’re not trying to push political views or anything on kids.”

Gaspari cautioned, “The teacher can steer the curriculum anyway they desire and we just need to be aware of that.”

 

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