Much attention has been given to Critical Race Theory (C.R.T.) in schools. However, even those familiar with it often miss that it is part of a far more menacing threat to children’s mental health, namely Critical Pedagogy.
Definition Distraction
Most Americans above a certain age remember the debacle when former President Bill Clinton, under oath before a grand jury, said that he did not have “sexual relations” with Monica Lewinsky and then later repeated this claim in a televised speech to the public. Damning evidence subsequently forced him to defend his statement as depending on the definition of “is.”
Similarly, the educators that advance C.R.T. can tell the American people with a straight face that it is not taught to children in American classrooms. It all depends on the definitions used. They will allude to the idea that C.R.T. is a legal theory taught in law schools, and they would technically be right in the same way that Clinton “did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
The truth is that C.R.T. or some derivative of it is being taught to educators as part of their training, not directly to the students. The teachers are indoctrinated in a particular ideology that informs the way they teach and how they frame the world to the kids.
Critical Pedagogy
If you want to find out if C.R.T. indirectly makes its way into schools, go to Amazon and search for the phrase “critical race theory in education.” If it’s not real, why are there so many books on the topic?
However, C.R.T. is only one small aspect of the Marxist doctrine known as Critical Pedagogy. Pedagogy is just a fancy word for education theory. Repeat the above Amazon search, but now with the phrase “critical pedagogy.” You will see more than 10,000 books on the subject.
The Brazilian intellectual Paulo Freire founded Critical Pedagogy, and his most influential work is the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. According to Google Scholar, it was the third most cited book in the social sciences as of 2016. That gives you an idea of how massive is its influence on education.
Critical Consciousness
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Its goal is emancipation from oppression through an awakening of “critical consciousness,” a term developed by the Frankfurt School, and especially by Herbert Marcuse, the founder of the New Left in America. Marcuse said that people do not embrace communism because capitalism has made them too happy. Therefore, to achieve the glorious communist revolution, one must awaken “critical consciousness” in people.
Dr. James Lindsay is the most vocal expert opponent of Critical Theory in all its forms. He says “critical consciousness” amounts to instilling deep unhappiness, mental illness, and an intense hatred for capitalism, the nuclear family, and all traditional values that make people happy with the existing system. That may sound hyperbolic, but Lindsay provides primary sources of these claims directly from the leading figures who, in their own words, have favorably compared their activism to cancer and AIDS.
The advocates of Critical Pedagogy have realized that it is too late to inculcate these ideas in adults. Therefore, they want to get hold of your children before you do. The younger they are, the better. The best places to do it are in schools and preschools. While you are at work, your child is in the care of people who are likely trained in Critical Pedagogy. Ask yourself if you are comfortable with that.
~ Read more from Caroline Adana.
