Education Briefs
In late June The Civics Alliance, a coalition of organizations, individuals, and policymakers dedicated to improving civics education for American students, released new model social studies standards. The standards resulted from the coalition's new project called American Birthright: The Civics Alliance's Model K-12 Social Studies Standards.
The Alliance released the model standards a week prior to the July 4th holiday to honor the nation's annual Independence Day celebration. Civics Alliance Executive Director David Randall stated in a press release: "Every American student should be educated to be another Harry Truman—a high-school graduate who, without ever graduating from college, has a solid grasp of history and is capable of serving as an officer, a judge, a senator, and president." The press release denounced the efforts of some state education departments for being "set on imposing state social studies standards that combine misguided pedagogical theory, low academic standards, and anti-American animus. Too many Americans emerge from our schools ignorant of America's history, indifferent to liberty, and estranged from their country." The coalition's goal is to provide standards that "teach America's foundational history of liberty" by providing "the comprehensive content knowledge in history, geography, civics, and economics that should be taught in each grade from pre-K through high school." American Birthright also teaches "about the expansion of American liberty to include all Americans; the contributions that Americans from every walk of life have made to our shared history of liberty, and America's championship of liberty throughout the world." A distinguished panel of expert consultants crafted the new standards using material adapted from sources that "did a particularly good job of providing structure and content for social studies instruction."
Never one to avoid controversy, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis joined the chorus of voices opposing COVID vaccines for very young children.
Royal Patriot.com reported in June that Florida was the only state in the country that did not preorder the vaccines for children under five years of age. DeSantis responded to the inevitable criticism by explaining that "state officials believe the risks of vaccinating young children outweigh the benefits." He added that while Florida won't be promoting the vaccines for kids under five, neither will they be banned, and that parents are free to have their children vaccinated if they so choose. The governor pointed out the low risk of COVID for the very young, and blamed "media hysteria" for frightening parents into believing their children are in danger. "They're scared," DeSantis said, "because of a lot of misinformation." The state does recommend COVID vaccines for children five and older.
Tony Kinnett, a science coach in the largest school district in Indiana, explained on his Twitter feed that "here's what we mean when we tell you that we aren't teaching Critical Race Theory." Kinnett uploaded a video he recorded in which he stated: "When we tell you we're not teaching Critical Race Theory, that it's not in our standards, that's misdirection. We don't have the quotes and theories as state standards per se;
we do have Critical Race Theory in how we teach. We tell our teachers to treat students differently based on color. We tell our students that every problem is a result of 'white men,' and that everything Western Civilization built is racist; capitalism is a tool of white supremacy." He asserted that such points come verbatim from Kimberlé Crenshaw's book, Critical Race Theory, The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, and that these themes are included in all classes; math, history, science, English, and the arts. He added: "All teaching is political, with reality and facts taking a back seat," from Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, "who outlined how she saw Critical Race Theory being fleshed out in public schools in 1995." Kinnett said that "when schools tell you they're not teaching Critical Race Theory it can mean only one thing: 'Go away and look into our affairs no further.' It isn't about transparency, it isn't about cultural relevance, it's race essentialism, painted to look like the district cares about students of color. We call it 'anti-racism,' so you'll feel bad if you disagree with our segregationist pedagogy.... Parents, when we tell you we aren't teaching Critical Race Theory, we're lying." Kinnett also posted a few visuals to show the veracity of his statements. As may be expected, his video was attacked, but some Twitter users were in agreement and thanked him for his post.
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