RGF offers comments on PED’s critical race theory laden social studies standards

Please see the following comments regarding the Public Education Department’s proposed social studies curriculum. (Here is a PDF of our comments). See the actual comments below the discussion of HOW to submit your own!

PED is NOW accepting public comments and will do so until November 12, 2021 at 5 p.m. (MDT). There will be a public hearing  Friday, November 12 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (MDT) at Mabry Hall in Santa Fe.

All written rule feedback should be submitted to:

  • Emailrule.feedback@state.nm.us
  • Fax505-827-6520
  • Mail: Policy Division, Public Education Department, 300 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87501

After a careful examination of New Mexico’s proposed social studies curriculum there are numerous components of that curriculum which disturbingly reflect Critical Race Theory (CRT). Large numbers of Americans of all political leanings oppose CRT and its divisive approach to history. Therefore this proposed curriculum needs to be significantly revised or completely abandoned.

CRT is not America’s actual history. Rather, it is a worldview, unsupportable by the evidence, in which all of America’s key institutions are inextricably rooted in white supremacy. It is an activist agenda demanding the destruction of those institutions.

CRT holds that racism is embedded deeply in American life, unconsciously into white American psyches, and that it is impossible for white Americans to understand their own racism or that of the system, let alone to remove it. The only solution: tearing away the only systems that have ever provided widespread liberty and prosperity. As CRT founder Derrick Bell wrote, “The whole liberal worldview of private rights and public sovereignty mediated by the rule of law needed to be exploded.”

  1. In Ethics, Cultural and Identity Studies there is a requirement that students assess how social policies and economic forces “offer privilege or systemic inequity in accessing social, political, and economic opportunity.” This is classic CRT theology. 6.29.11.23(A)(1)(d)
  2. Throughout the entire social studies curriculum for K-8 grades, there is a continue focus on the differences, rather than the similarities, among various groups of people.  This, too, is classic CRT as the purpose is to divide people among various minority groups, which can quickly lead to victimhood.
  3. There are also numerous examples where a teacher can impose the notion of “justice and fairness,” unequal power relations, “past and current injustices”, although those terms are open to many interpretations. These phrases are also classic CRT as it perpetrates the sense of inequity in our society along racial lines. 6.29.11.11(E)(2) and 6.29.11.15(E)(7) and 6.29.11.15(E)(12)
  4. Within High School U.S. History, a requirement that students “evaluate what an efficient, equitable, and just economic system would look like in the U.S.”  This is again classic CRT as it imposes the belief on students that our current capitalistic system must be eliminated to eliminate racism. 6.29.11.21(A)(1)(i)
  5. Within High School U.S. History, students are required to create an action plan for a more just and equitable America for diverse groups of people including Native Americans and African Americans.  This is another CRT theology component in that America is automatically unjust and inequitable to various minority groups.  6.29.11.21(A)(3)(kk)
  6. Within High School U.S. History, students are required to examine the past, present, and future of gun violence in the U.S. Of course, there are no standards provided to discuss the constitutional rights of gun owners, or that individuals, not an inanimate object, are responsible for gun violence in America or how gangs, drug cartels, etc. have resulted in greater gun violence in our society. No positives regarding gun usage by women or minority groups are put forth. 6.29.11.21(A)(1)(gg)
  7. In the 5th Grade, students are required to describe how inequity in the U.S. laid the foundation for conflict that continues today. Another classic example of CRT as it stresses racial disparity in terms of inequality. 6.29.11.13(A)(3)(b)
  8. Within High school U.S. History, students must examine the short-and long-term effects of CIA involvement in Latin America. How about pairing this with a discussion of Communism and the negative impact it has had in Cuba and other Latin American nations. 6.29.11.21(A)(1)(x)
  9. In the 7thGrade, students must compare the patterns of exploration, destruction and occupation of the Americas by the Spaniards. 6.29.11.15(D)(3)(g)
  10. Within High School U.S. History, students must explore the movement against police brutality.  6.29.11.21(A)(3)(mm)

The novelist William Faulkner wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” It is true that any social studies curriculum will have its flaws and oversights. History and social studies are inherently controversial subjects. But, selectively “studying” our collective history and requiring it to be taught in a highly politicized and divisive way is wrong and it has no place in our public schools.

All I ask is that New Mexico’s schools do their best to objectively teach America’s real history. Slavery and conquest are certainly part of that, but so is America as a beacon of freedom for people from around the world. The flaws of our Founding Fathers are worth discussing, but so are the miracles of the Constitution, Declaration, and the eventual fulfillment of the “promissory note” for ALL Americans inherent in those documents.

Millions of people around the world have and would still like to come to America because it is a unique nation founded on the idea of liberty, not slavery as the CRT theorists would insist. New Mexico’s social studies curriculum should at least allocate as much time and study to those things that make America a beacon of hope and freedom as those warts which hold us back from building a more perfect union.

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

8 Replies to “RGF offers comments on PED’s critical race theory laden social studies standards”

  1. What is Significant in it Omission in CRT curriculum is the US Civil War that ended Slavery with thousands of White Soldiers deaths, the Civil Rights Movement that couldn’t have succeeded without a majority of White American’s support, the Seating of a Black Supreme Court Justice, Two Black Secretaries of State, Black US Senators and US Congressmen and a Black US President who couldn’t have been seated without majority White Voters support.
    CRT is about the bad parts of history without mention of America’s accomplishements in race relations

    1. CRT was not developed to give us an opportunity to congratulate ourselves on how much “progress” we have made in race relations. We have libraries full of books that already do that for us.
      CRT attempts to lay a stark and unadorned foundation for understanding how historic institutionalized racism continues to tear at our society to the detriment of us all. Further, it makes the case that those forces must be identified and expunged before they can be put behind us.
      Many disparagers have chosen to frame CRT as a “weapon of white destruction” and seek to censor the exploration and discussion of ideas that they understandably find uncomfortable. Hence, we see the hodgepodge countrywide attempts to characterize our school board members as villains.
      That said … I cannot help but see the CRT … “crisis” as this years new tribal rallying point. Respectfully FCH

  2. Don’t re-write actual historical events to fit any agendas. If so bad here why does everyone want to come here?

  3. I am a little confused here. CRT has already been in circulation since 1975. It was created as a scientific tool to examine disparigies among different races all over the world. While it my not have specifically called CRT in school, it is how we learned about slavery, the underground railroad, the hate mongering of the Fascists and Communists, the attempted genocide of the Native American people, and how many countries all over the world have been mistreating people since the beginning of recorded history. CRT, in itself, is nothing new. What is new is the attempt to blame one race for everybody’s problems. There is no race, culture, religion, country, or political ideology that is guilt free of commiting attrocities over the last 10,000 years. Modern CRT aims at only pointing fingers at one race and absolving all other races from guilt. It no longer studies humanity as a whole. It is biased, which goes against the scientific code of ethics.

  4. Let’s see. President Lincoln had to make a deal with Democrats to get the 13th Amendment passed. It was introduced by Republicans. 100% of Republicans voted for it while out of the 66 Democrats in Congress, only 16 voted in favor to get it passed. The 14th and 15th Amendments (introduced by Republicans) had 100% and 97% respectively of Republicans voting in favor while ZERO Democrats voted in favor. This means that Democrats favor discrimination and tyranny. The proposed changes to social studies demonstrates they want to teach our kids to hate America and proposed NOTHING to love America.

  5. Critical race theory (CRT) is a descendant of critical theory (CT), a school of philosophy that is patterned after the Marx–Engels Institute in Moscow.
    Critical theory was an attack on Western institutions and norms in order to tear them down. It built on the work of philosophers Nietzsche, Hegel and Marx.
    Critical race theory began in the late 1970s. Rather than use the oppressor capitalist vs the working class it added race to divide Americans against each other based on race with whites being the oppressors and non-whites as victims.
    With this logic, CRT is destructive and rejects the fundamental ideas on which our constitutional republic is based. Applying the philosophy would violate many of American civil rights laws by treating people differently according to race.
    Critical race theory curriculum, is devious and not well intended. If we pit people against each other in various groups and have this identity politics being born in schools, it does not serve America well.
    How can we achieve racial harmony by pitting races against each other as CRT does. Those thought to be oppressors will be shunned and those thought to be victims will always be needy victims unable to be self-sufficient.
    Better we acknowledge the differences in our people and acknowledge the contributions of persons of various backgrounds and learn how we can work together to achieve a better nation.
    True equality can be achieved by maximizing the ability of Americans to become self-sufficient, not by dividing Americans on the basis of race.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.