This inspiring book, published by the Pacific Research Institute and penned by Lance Izumi and co-authors Wenyuan Wu and McKenzie Richards, not only describes what’s wrong with public education in the pandemic era, but demonstrates how ordinary, real-life heroes are fighting to take it back. The authors set out to showcase the grassroots efforts of concerned parents and citizen activists, and to inspire others to join their struggle.

As the subtitle suggests, The Great Parent Revolt focuses primarily on critical race theory (CRT) and “race-based instruction” in the schools, and tells the stories of those working to remove it.

As most readers will recognize, CRT is cloaked in deceptive terms, such as “social justice, equity, diversity training, anti-racism, culturally responsive pedagogy, anti-bias, inclusion, and more.” It purports to promote “justice” and “inclusion” but as the authors show, “students of all ages are being taught racism” under the guise of these lofty-sounding ideals.

This book describes thirteen different examples of bold citizen interference in the plans of the Marxist proponents of Critical Theory in general and CRT in particular. Izumi explains: “Other books on this topic have analyzed relevant scholarly aspects, with their authors rightfully warning the readers about the inherent contradictions of the theory’s Hegelian logic, Marxist underpinnings, and illiberal impulses. Our work departs from the intellectual debates and seeks to document a grassroots movement in the United States that started in late 2020 to challenge the cultural dominance of race-based thinking and public policy making.”

In Chapter 1, the authors present “a scholarship review” of the history of CRT, including the “moralistic assault” on the Founding Fathers and the “American political traditions of constitutional neutrality, rationalism, and equality under the laws,” which began decades ago and has only grown stronger. The authors cite as examples the 1619 Project, “which rationalizes that American history is a story of Black struggle against white supremacy and that America’s founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when they were written.” They also point to Ibram X. Kendi’s teachings that “the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”

Chapter 2 describes “CRT’s many shifting practices from DEI reforms (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) to the critical ethnic studies movement and social emotional learning.” While readers may be familiar with some of this information, it provides a helpful review and sets the stage for the real-life stories that follow. As the authors note: “DEI is intricately connected with CRT ... [it] is part of a growing sociopolitical movement that is introducing contentious transformative changes based on fringe social theory to our institutions and throughout our culture, and enacting policies with almost no resistance or checks.”

Following this dismal observation, the authors tell the true stories of those seeking to derail critical theory in its various forms. Many of these individuals will be familiar to readers of Education Reporter, others will not, and the anecdotal details of their backgrounds and personal struggles make for both fresh and encouraging reading. These are people who have taken bold action, some individually and some partnering with others in founding effective pro-parent organizations.

The authors introduce Gabs Clark as their first profile, an African-American mother who had suddenly found herself widowed, disabled, and poor shortly after her eldest son was born. Originally from Houston, Clark was living in Las Vegas, Nevada when the charter school in which she had taken great pains to enroll her son and daughter was “taken over by the Democracy Prep charter school network, which operates in various states across the country.”

It wasn’t long before she and other parents began noticing changes in the curriculum, particularly civics, which underwent “a radical transformation across the school, especially in high school, from social studies to a highly controversial new approach with deeply divisive programming around race, religion, and sexuality.”

Soon, Clark became aware of other CRT-related issues. Her husband, who was white, had died when her son William was very young, and the child was light skinned and blue-eyed. One of William’s lessons “categorized certain racial and religious identities as inherently ‘oppressive,’ singling out these identities in bold text, and instructed pupils including William, who fell into these categories, to accept the label ‘oppressor’ regardless of whether they disagreed with the pejorative characterization of their heritage, convictions, and identities.”

Despite William’s mixed-race background and low-income status, Clark said her child “was viewed as ‘a dirty, filthy oppressor’ since ‘he’s a straight white male, [with] Judeo-Christian values, [and] all that stuff.’” In contrast, she said her daughter, whose father is Black, and who is part of the same family unit as her half-brother, is viewed as “oppressed.” These labels enraged Clark, who said her daughter “is more accomplished than all of my sons and myself ... My daughter got a $100,000 scholarship to the ballet academy at eight years old ... She’s won science fairs ... She’s a genius ... But she’s in the suppressed submissive category....”

In 2021 Clark filed a federal lawsuit “to strike down school-imposed CRT requirements.” In April 2022, the school backtracked and agreed to address her main issue, which was that her son William was denied his graduation diploma for refusing “to proclaim in class and in assignments his race, color, sex, gender, and religious identities for which he in turn would receive official, derogatory labels.” The school’s about-face, however, did not stop Clark from pursuing the lawsuit, which she and her legal team have amended from the original complaint to acknowledge the school’s capitulation and to include the demand for a jury trial.

Izumi writes: “The federal judge’s preliminary view of the case is of immense importance. If the Clarks’ lawsuit were to be successful on the constitutional grounds cited by the judge, then the entire bottom would drop out from under the CRT/intersectionality classroom indoctrination movement. Instead of haphazard and often ineffective state bans on CRT, such indoctrinating instruction and curriculum would become, in most cases, constitutionally impermissible.”

It’s interesting to this reviewer that so many of the stories in this book highlight the activism of immigrant parents and other minorities who fight valiantly against the tenets of CRT. These parents seek the preservation of America as it was founded and recognize that this country remains the best hope for freedom and opportunity.

Such is the profile of Jewish-American immigrant Elana Fishbein, the founder of the pro-parent organization No Left Turn in Education. Mentioned in the October 2021 issue of Education Reporter, Fishbein was born to a Jewish family in an Arab country. She learned all about discrimination when her family was forced by the hostile political climate to flee to Israel. As Sephardic Jews, meaning those who speak the language of their native country rather than Yiddish, they were considered second-class citizens. “I grew up in extreme poverty,” she recalls, “and during a time of discrimination between European ‘Ashkenazi’ Jews and Sephardic Jews. It’s very different in Israel today, but that’s how I grew up.”

Fishbein was educated in the U.S. and returned at age 49, married, and started a family. When her oldest son entered first grade, she began to notice the politicization in his school. Later, her younger son came home “talking about transgenderism,” as the curriculum became more intensely political. “Just before school ended that year, [after] George Floyd died and national protests erupted,” she said, “the school determined to capitalize on the incident to implement a radical CRT curriculum.” Racially charged books followed, including Not My Idea: A book About Whiteness, which contained “radical teachings” that would cause division in classrooms and families.

Fishbein realized that “such skewed teaching about race and U.S. history could extend to skewed teaching about Israeli history as well,” note the authors, with the result an overall poisoning of our culture. She wrote a letter to the district superintendent outlining her concerns, and when she received no response, she posted the letter to the school’s parent Facebook group. She was attacked by some parents, but many others reached out privately in support.

Ultimately, after being ignored by the school district, she “felt compelled to launch a movement of her own, and No Left Turn in Education” was born. The authors write that, to Fishbein, “it was obvious she needed to ‘impact those centers of power.’” They add that her group “was the first to organize parents to speak out at their local school board meetings against the radical curriculum changes — whether that be critical race theory, the 1619 Project, gender ideology, or changing STEM standards....” Their work centers on what they call the four “E’s — Education, Empowering, Engaging, and Eradicating.”

Fishbein’s organization has taken off, with media appearances and local groups becoming active across the country. No Left Turn was the first to provide “model legislation on its website” to ban CRT in schools. Volunteers take the model legislation with them when they meet with state legislators. Her leadership has resulted in significant pushback against CRT, radical gender indoctrination, and pornographic and racist books in school libraries. She recognizes that “this is not an overnight thing, but there are a lot of committed people around the country who want to work together to protect kids from harmful teachings.”

Indeed, there are, and The Great Parent Revolt covers them nicely, from the leadership of Asra Nomani, a Muslim immigrant from India “who has become one of the country’s key parent leaders fighting race ideology in schools,” to Elina Kaplan, Lia Rensin, and their Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies (ACES), which are among the most active opponents of CRT and Liberated/Critical Ethnic Studies in California. Then there is Tiffany Justice, the mom and former school board member who became a grassroots organizer. Justice co-founded the highly successful and nationally recognized Moms for Liberty, which boasts of active chapters in most states throughout the U.S.

The Great Parent Revolt is a worthwhile read. Izumi and his co-authors do a masterful job telling the stories of the successful, influential activists they profile. They hope many more parents and concerned citizens will be inspired by reading these stories, and follow in their footsteps by opposing the Marxist, Maoist revolutionaries who are destroying education and tearing our country apart.

To read the entire book, go to BarnesandNoble.com to order!

The Education Reporter Book Review is a project of America’s Future, Inc. To find out more about America’s Future, visit AmericasFuture.net.

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