Teachers in more than 20 cities gathered to let G.O.P. lawmakers know that they ainโt down with attempts to dictate whatย they can and canโt teach in class.
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According to The Washington Post, Saturday was the National Day of Action. The event aimed to raise awareness of Republican legislation that would restrict teachers from discussing certain topics in regards to racism, sexism and oppression with students. Republican lawmakers in states like Florida and Iowa have worked tirelessly to enact laws that would prevent public schools from adopting lesson plans on critical race theory and other frameworks that openly and honestly examine how racism is systemically embedded in U.S. History.
The Post said that several thousand teachers who participated in the National Day of Action have signed this pledge:
โWe, the undersigned educators, refuse to lie to young people about U.S. history and current events โ regardless of the law.โ
Republicans have been going all in about critical race theory recently, and they donโt seem to be ready to stop anytime soon. As The Root has written about before, the main, simplified conceit behind CRT that itโs a way to use race as a โlens through which one can critical examine social structures.โ
But if you listen solely to the Right, itโs โfalse history,โ or itโs โleft-wing nonsense,โ or itโs โMarxist,โ which I take as a sign that some of yโall donโt actually know what that means, but like to say it because it sounds bad to you.
As the Post reported, teachers have said that itโs impossible to talk about American history honestly without discussing race. Even if teachers arenโt necessarily discussing critical race theory itself, they still find it important to address โsystemic barriers that have harmed students of color.โ
Racism wasnโt just something that recently was made up to make white people feel bad. It remains woven within the fabric of our society to this day, and it wonโt stop just because you donโt want to talk about it. Thatโs not how it works!
In response to some of the restrictive legislature that has been introduced and passed recently, National Teachers Association President Becky Pringle told USA Today that the union is weighing legal action against these laws, and will defend teachers who are charged with violating them.
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