Chronicle columnist Michael Wagar quoted me in his very well written and, I thought, mostly even-handed thoughts about critical race theory in his op-ed from July 10.
I appreciate the statement he quotes from the Chehalis School Board about equity. It seems they tried, too, to be even-handed. However, I have some questions for Mr. Wagar.
If this is in fact a "Right Wing Red Herring," why are school boards making these statements at all?
If there is no push for critical race theory to be taught in our schools, who suggested the board needed any such public signal to be made?
My rural education 30 years ago didn't neglect to teach any of the examples given by proponents of this supposedly "comprehensive history" but "not critical race theory" curriculum.
Do you have any examples of these events actually being neglected in history teaching before now? I haven't found any.
I have never met a person who doesn't know of these things. From slavery to segregation, from Japanese internment to Jim Crow, every small town rube and redneck I've spent my 37 years around has somehow already learned about all of these things people say they are just trying to teach in the public schools.
If, then, this is something that has been taught all along, why the need to bring out the big guns of media and press to talk about something that was already just normally happening?
I think that you and others advocating for these curricula doth protest too much.
Proponents like Elle Reeve of CNN, who are trying to bring more of these curricula to our schools, say it's not being taught in schools, then say it's a good thing it is. See her interview with Keziah Ridgeway who was also featured in Education Week advocating for what she calls abolitionist teaching (eliminating the "white-supremacist" point of view from teaching of race based issues).
It sounds good, but it indicates that the history we were already taught — that white people held slaves, that white people were segregationist, that white people fought the Native Americans — were somehow taught to make white people look good. I have to add, it was white men running the government who made all those things codified, so why should we be trusting men like Chris Reykdal now?
It further makes all teaching of history about race. So whose social construct are we talking about here?
I beg your readers to look into these things themselves and question deeply why they need to be discussed at all, and what the most well known and vocal proponents are saying about it.
Last, I want to thank you for esteeming me enough to pit my little opinion against the highest elected education official in our state. I'm no politician and have no public relations experience or particular expertise. I'm just a small town mom researching on my own.
Josie Johnston
Chehalis
