Is The TN Department Of Education Approving CRT Curriculum?

Photo: BLM Protest in Seattle, WA

Photo Credit: Public Domain

Published July 23, 2021

By Kendra Ohalloran [contributor to the Tennessee Conservative] –

While all eyes are on Williamson County and Wit and Wisdom, critical race theory is infecting one of the most conservative counties in Tennessee, just under another name.

EL Education was developed by Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1995 and then commissioned by New York State in 2012, noting El Education is among “the highest-quality Common Core-aligned curriculum materials currently available.”

In 2019, it was approved by the Tennessee Department of Education, and adopted as an ELA curriculum in Wilson County. Aside from the fact that the state of Tennessee has banned common core publications via House Bill 782/Senate Bill 769 in April of 2021, does this curriculum represent the values of the constituents in Wilson County, or the state of Tennessee?

Logging onto the website in which the curriculum can be electronically downloaded, you can begin with the “About” section. There you will find a listing of 8 bullet points noting what sets this curriculum apart.

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The first bullet notes “Equity and Inclusion,” while the second bullet point is “Embedded Social and Emotional Learning” where they note they encourage students and provide opportunities for them to become active citizens working for social justice, environmental stewardship, and healthy, equitable communities.

For those of us who have been following along with the hijacking of our language as a people, equality, and equity or not interchangeable. Equality ensures everyone is provided opportunity to rise and succeed whereas equity denotes that all should arrive at the same outcome regardless of opportunities seized or effort put forward. EL Education even defines what equity means regarding the curriculum noting “recognizes that we are born into unequal and unjust circumstances—and these factors should not predict our ability to fail or succeed.” This theme runs throughout.

Also on the company’s website, they have an entire section noted “Equity and Racism”.

Within this section, they continue noting the education system is broken as it provided promises and many possibilities to the assumed “privileged” while perpetuating deep inequities to others.

Further down, the “Vision” or “Mission Statement” to achieve this educational equity, is through “explicit anti-racist discussions, practice and action.” They note that they subscribe to Ibram X (formerly Roger) Kendi’s definition of anti-racism “One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an antiracist. There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist’”.

They also commit to the following as an organization:

• Examining how racism lives in each of us as individuals, and in the fabric of our organization and its policies, culture, and traditions
• Holding ourselves accountable to equitable and excellent outcomes in the schools and districts with which we work
• Holding ourselves accountable by providing consistent, transparent, and candid reviews to our staff, Board, and partners on our DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) strategies and commitments
• Educating ourselves and taking action over time to grow as an anti-racist organization

Anti-racism is the main pillar of critical race theory. To fight racism with more racism and view others first by the color of their skin, and secondly by their character. A curriculum obsessed with marginalizing people based on skin color with a constant theme that every institution in the United States is systemically racist and irredeemable, should be eradicated. 

EL Education also presents a reopening guide for school districts in the wake of COVID-19 as they implore this is truly the time to transform education and government funded education.

For starters, their reopening guidance is titled “Working Toward More Equitable Schools.” Again, we see the theme of “equity” and the championing of social and emotional learning to ensure more “equitable” outcomes for students. Not to champion high performers and encourage them to continue thriving, but by setting the bar low so that all can achieve the same outcome. 

The Reopening plan continues noting leadership should empower all faculty and staff within the school system to “Explicitly call out that conscious and unconscious bias have for too long created barriers for all students” so that these systemic inequities can not continue to flourish.

For a government run, publicly funded education institution to tell children that they are inherently racist and biased from birth, is to teach them to hate. The repetitive nature of teaching emotional perspectives versus fact-based truths, is rooted in the goal of indoctrination of what to think not how to think. 

This is a full-scale TAXPAYER funded invasion of our state, and our nation with the goal of creating as many anti-American revolutionaries as possible unbeknownst to the public and parents alike. The curriculum may have another name, but the same tenants of critical race theory and Marxism remain.

As Herbert Marcuse, the founder of Critical Theory of which the racial, gender and other critical theory-based movements have hatched, says “Tolerance is an end in itself.” It is time we stop allowing the Marxist ideologues who weaponizing our tolerance to overthrow our American culture, traditions, and the indoctrination of our children.   

This is the curriculum approved the Penny Schwinn and the Department of Education.

Similar curriculum that has been approved by 33 counties in the state of Tennessee, with the goal of creating the new generation of social revolutionaries who are being taught that America is irredeemable, and therefore must be torn down to start anew.

When does the fiduciary duty of our school boards, Superintendents of schools and the Tennessee Department of Education prove squandered? It is no longer acceptable to take the dance of “blissful ignorance” as to what is being pushed in our government funded education systems, and to take a stand against this. 

This comes as no surprise as the largest teacher’s union in the county, the National Education Association during their annual convention held over the Fourth of July Weekend (that will tell you what they represent) have approved to support their members in recruiting teachers to hold political demonstrations about structural racism and oppression, oppose capitalism and any opposition to critical race theory. 

About the Author:

Kendra Ohalloran, along with her husband and French Bulldog are recent political refugees from the state of Massachusetts seeking refuge in the great state of Tennessee.

Two weeks into our their tenure in the state, Ohalloran was horrified as to what was happening to our state and felt she could no longer could run, but rather had to become active to help preserve the United States she had the luxury of growing up in.

Ohalloran is a member of various conservative groups in Wilson County and in Nashville, and enjoys exploring the state parks in the local area, trying a new restaurant every week and enjoying all this beautiful state has to offer!