What if I came up with a theory that said pigs could fly? Ok, someone else has already come up with that one, but work with me here. Imagine that I was the first person who came up with this theory and then imagine that somehow, this theory propagated into nearly every K-12 school in America. All teachers were then forced to teach students that pigs could fly and many students themselves began believing the theory was true.
From the outset, my theory that this theory could take root in every school and flourish sounds absurd. But, isn’t this was has happened or is burgeoning to happen with CRT and the public school system? The thing we miss when talking about the spread of CRT in our schools and society-at-large is the T part of CRT. CRT is just that, a Theory. Theories aren’t necessarily true. That’s why they are theories. Theories must be tested tried and true, proven over time before they should gain widespread acceptance. History itself has proven that CRT, laced with Marxism and racism, has not brought about worldwide good. Many wars have been fought and many lives have been lost due to ideas inherent in CRT.
CRT can be found in a philosophy of education called reconstructionism. Reconstructionism contains tinges of other educational philosophies such as progressivism and constructivism. These latter two philosophies pave the way for reconstructionism to take root in our postmodern times. Social utilitarianism becomes a dominant theme within this philosophy. Within postmodernism, constructs lose their meaning. Language itself is deconstructed and old words take on new meanings.
Postmodernism actually leads us to a destination where meaning has no value at all. Taking my theory to its logical postmodern conclusion, we could say the students that believe my theory end up believing they themselves are pigs and they themselves can fly. The results of believing in and living by such a theory would be disastrous, both for the students and for our society. Thousands upon thousands of students would venture to climb tall buildings and leap off, thinking they were Superman, only to plummet to their death.
Theories have consequences. CRT is dividing students and adults alike on racial lines and the consequences of believing such a theory could be just as disastrous as the consequences produced by my proposed theory that all pigs can fly. America doesn’t need another war fought upon racial lines. Our nation’s history has produced enough bloodshed.
Modernism, with its reliance on science, took man’s need away for a meta-narrator (God). Postmodernism, with its reliance on the subjective, took man’s need away for a metanarrative. However, the results from both periods have not been good. We live in what academics call between the 2nd and 3rd world cultures. In the 2nd world culture, sacred and social order is valued, whereas in the 3rd world culture, sacred and social order is abandoned. The 3rd world culture is a culture of “deathworks” and is the reason we see socio-political historical norms and precedents being pushed to the side.
We need our schools to be places once again where teachers can teach facts and not feelings. We need to get back to valuing both form and meaning. Context matters! So does history. So does grammar. So does the 3 R’s. I could go on, but I’ll stop there. I’ve seen enough pigs jump to their death.