About age 4-5-6 is the age kids start to understand society’s slicing of gender and sex, or so we are told in ponderous tones by those educating us.
I suppose this Harvey Milk lesson is timed for that. ? This is why we have Drag Queens* leading story times in public libraries reaching that 4-6 aged audience
* Drag Queens are neither gender identified as opposite sex in real life or necessarily gender fluid. Confused yet? You and me both. I am now convinced that Drag Queen story hour fad is all about the appearance of being WOKE by the library organizers who seldom have opportunity to be edgy in their (perceived) role of staid librarians in a culturally dull, middle class institution.
I think that with so many people depending on the culture combat industry for a paycheck, it was only a matter of time until they came after a share of the education budget.
Personally, I would like to see more effort going into producing a more literate and numerate product from the schools than whatever it is the CRT people think they can accomplish.
Like most of the insanity we have to deal with it starts on the right. Attempts to ban teaching "critical race theory" even if undefined and it's probably especially dangerous if undefined, are changes to the law, and therefore of some import. So the average liberal is left of course reacting to right wing attempts to shift the narrative, and all "huh, where did that come from, and out of nowhere, oh hmm now I have to know what critical race theory is". They may not know of course, there may be much group-think, but the thing is they didn't start the fire! If laws are being passed they feel they have to react somehow. So it is in fact a right wing and Republican attempt to change the narrative and it seems pass laws that do little more than broad intimidation of teachers.
Trees don't grow on money
Around 15 years ago my SIL, her husband and 2 kids came to visit and stay with us for a few days. SO's nephews were about 7 and 9 at the time. As we gave them a tour of our then new home we got to the master bedroom and spent a few minutes there chatting about the shelves SO had installed in the closet or whatever. 7yo nephew turns to me and says "Uncle JP, if this is Uncle JB's bed, where is yours?" I said "I sleep here too." His face clouded over and I could practically see the gears grinding in his brain as he pondered this. Then suddenly the proverbial lightbulb went on over his head and he said "Oh! Ok." And a minute later turned to his mom and said "you said we were going to dinner soon. I'm hungry."
Kindergarten may be a bit young for a discussion of Harvey Milk, but if done age appropriately I don't see a particularly big problem. Especially since there's a non-zero likelihood that there is a kid in the room who has same sex parents. And friends of that kid who are aware that the kid's parents are same sex. The first sex ed class I went to, all those years ago, was in fourth grade. For better or for worse I suspect that kids today are exposed to ideas about sex earlier than they were 40-whatever years ago when I was a kid, so we probably need to be addressing issues around this earlier.
An added confusion to this concept is that Critically Responsive Teaching, also known as CRT, is a thing in K-12 education.
So if you’re reading about CRT in the world of education, make sure you know which acronym they’re throwing at you.
My objection to the teaching about Harvey Milk had nothing to do with "gender" issues--my granddaughter is comfortable with same-sex couples and has been in class with children with same-sex parents. It had everything to do with teaching 5 and 6 year old children about violent murder. Sorry I did not make that clear; weird to me that people assume this is about the fact that Harvey Milk was gay.
The Moscone/Milk assassination was way too complicated a story for primary school students to absorb.
As I understand it, CRT as such is just another mode of analysis that focuses on race the way Marxist analysis focuses on class or Deconstructionism focuses on language. The real idiocy we’re seeing recently would be what I think of as CRT adjacent, where people make their own half-baked interpretations or misuse specialized jargon. Sort of like the people who use psychological tools and terms to analyze politicians they never met but don’t like.
Like that LGTBQ group in Seattle who announced they would charge a “reparation fee” to white participants at one of their events. Or that recent WaPo op-ed that attacked the “Hamilton” guy as a white hegemon who invisibilized afrodescendant Latinxs for not using enough dark-skinned performers. Or the NYC mayoral candidate who accused Yang and Garcia of “Jim Crow” tactics for opposing him.
I’m not that worried about the threat of the most recent educational fad. I sincerely doubt most Americans of any pedigree over the age of six will defer to the moral authority of public school teachers to the extent that it will have any lasting impact. Eventually it will collapse under the weight of its own silliness. If it causes harm, it will be more as empty intellectual calories than political indoctrination.
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