Critical Race Theory “summer reading” for New Mexico teachers from PED

The following letter and books were received by a teacher at Albuquerque Public Schools for their “summer reading.” The books, sent to social studies teachers from NM PED, are of course meant to filter into the classroom in indoctrinating New Mexico students into PED’s new “CRT-laden” social studies standards.

Ibram X. Kendi is a well-known and controversial exponent of CRT. The other book is a history of Native Americans with a nod to the title of Howard Zinn’s “People’s History of the United States,” a radically-negative/leftist take on much of American history. Are these books worth reading? Perhaps. But, our biggest problem with New Mexico’s new CRT-laden social studies standards is not that they teach about America’s warts (slavery/race relations and destruction of Native Americans), but that they emphasize those to the exclusion of other history.

The new standards (and these books) ONLY focus on these things to the exclusion of numerous, more positive aspects of American history of which there are many. May we recommend Larry Schweikart’s “A Patriot’s History of the United States.”