CRT in schools: it may hurt, but it’s a good hurt
My mother told me about a news segment she watched this morning on CRT. Someone defended it against accusations that it was making kids feel bad, saying that you need to feel hurt sometimes in order to learn. First of all, if that’s their answer, that’s pretty damning. They can’t even pretend to say “no, we’re not teaching anything that hurts kids!” – they jump straight to saying “it’s okay because kids need to be hurt sometimes.” And second, while ADULTS can certainly learn from being hurt and sometimes need to feel a sense of shame in order to have insight into their actions and improve their behavior, that method of teaching is not appropriate for elementary-school-aged children.
Of course you don’t need to feel hurt in order to learn. We learn plenty of things without being hurt at all. However, in the course of learning, sometimes children do feel hurt. You might call it a sort of collateral damage.
One small example is grades. If a child gets poor grades, that child often might feel hurt. That hurt can take one or more of several forms: embarrasment, guilt, feelings of failure, or fear of parental anger, for example. But the inflicting of hurt is not the intention of grading systems, which are there to measure students’ learning and performance, and also to let the student and parents know whether the student is absorbing and understanding the material. After all, the point of school is to learn, and grades supposedly measure the extent of learning, although they are an imperfect instrument. No overt shaming goes along with the process; in other words, teachers don’t say, “If you get poor grades you are a bad person.” At least, they’re not told or taught to say that – not anymore, anyway.
Some students don’t feel hurt when they get bad grades because they don’t care what grades they get, and their parents sometimes don’t care either. In fact, poor grades can be something to brag about. When I was growing up, I actually felt some hurt as a result of good grades – for example, I was sometimes teased or even shunned by some kids because of them. But that certainly wasn’t the intent of giving good grades.
The hurt many students getting bad grades feel can act on them in different ways depending on the student. For some it’s a goad to do better. For others the pain makes them give up and just feel bad about themselves. But the infliction of pain is always a side issue nowadays, and not an overt part of the lesson (although in the past it sometimes included a public tongue-lashing).
Another thing that modern parents are told to do is to avoid shaming a child for what or who that child is. In other words:
Only the behavior is treated as unacceptable, never the child…
Limit criticism to a specific event—don’t say “never”, “always”, as in: “You never listen,” “You always manage to spill things”, etc.
In other words, don’t say to a misbehaving child: “You’re a bad girl” or “You’re a bad boy.” Say “What you did there was bad.” It may seem like a little thing, but it’s actually very helpful because children are very aware of labels and they will often decide that, if their essence is to be bad, then there’s no hope of change so why bother? Some children may even come to embrace it: “If I’m bad, I’m going to be the baddest m-f-er I can be. That’ll show you all for hurting me.”
So to purposely make a child feel bad in that very basic way – about who or what that child may be – is, among other things, often counter-productive. And to do it intentionally hasn’t been taught to teachers for over fifty years.
Till now, that is. Now it’s okay and even desirable to tell white children that their essence is bad. In addition, children are being told that race is the most essential part of them, rather than what they do.
That just may be the most pernicious thing about CRT for children.
It’s also ironic that such a pedagogical device, when used in CRT, is being defended by educators who otherwise have tried to protect children very thoroughly not only from those who would purposely make them feel bad but also from any collateral bad feelings that might come as a natural consequence from other teaching practices such as grades. That protection has been so extreme that many children are crippled by it and have no tolerance for anything other than praise in school, no matter what they do wrong.
However, with CRT, the rules are reversed – for white children, who are purposely made to feel bad about who they are and who their parents are, through no fault or action of their own.
“It’s also ironic that such a pedagogical device, when used in CRT, is being defended by educators who otherwise have tried to protect children very thoroughly not only from those who would purposely make them feel bad but also from any collateral bad feelings that might come as a natural consequence from other teaching practices such as grades.”
What a good point. It’s not like the left cares about their own hypocrisy, but it would be useful to point out to people on the fence/people who don’t understand how CRT is really being used.
Bullying kids is simply terrible.
(But it’s just fine when we do it because we KNOW the right kids to bully and we know that in the end we’re doing it to help them. Them and society. It’s called “being altruistic”. They really need our help and we’ll be there for them, you can count on it. In the end, they’ll thank us…. )
…Will they have any choice?…
The targeting of white kids is designed to intentionally and permanently wound them psychologically.
It’s not an unintended side effect. It’s the goal.
As adults, they won’t be able to resist because they’ll have been inculcated with the belief that they deserve nothing less than psychological enslavement.
While we’re on the subject of CRT…
https://www.city-journal.org/exposing-the-washington-post-on-critical-race-theory
The WashingtonCompost had to make stuff up to discredit Christopher Rufo, who reports heavily on CRT in schools.
Silly us, we’ve been assured that Christopher Rufo is a “Gatekeeper,” not actually fighting CRT.
As adults, they won’t be able to resist because they’ll have been inculcated with the belief that they deserve nothing less than psychological enslavement.
People aren’t playdough. See, for example, D.A.R.E. programs.
om:
I happen to think that Rufo has done enough work against CRT – and done it early enough – that his bona fides in the fight against CRT are obvious. Calling Rufo a “gatekeeper” is, in my opinion, a way of asserting one’s superior cynicism and pointing out that others are insufficiently cynical.
The people behind CRT (and BLM) have done what no other group of hateful bigots has – they claim to have a reason for their hateful bigotry. It’s such a novel concept, it’s no wonder they’re the bigots they’ve been waiting for.
“People aren’t playdough. See, for example, D.A.R.E. programs.” Art+Deco
See Hitler Youth. See the Soviet Union’s Youth under Stalin. See China’s Red Guards. See Cuba…
A minority of people are not playdough. Unfortunately, the majority of people are not willing to buck an unjust system, especially when the penalty for doing so is certain and final.
See Hitler Youth. See the Soviet Union’s Youth under Stalin. See China’s Red Guards. See Cuba…
What am I seeing of Cuba? It’s a generator of refugees. The Red Guards came and went over a period of about three years. Everyone under Stalin was subject to extreme levels of coercive violence. As for Hitler’s Germany, it was the issue of serial failures by Germany’s establishment which left the country in an impoverished and humiliated state. Hitler could mobilize the country on a program of throwing off the humiliation. Which isn’t the woke-tard program.
– they claim to have a reason for their hateful bigotry.
I have a suspicion Sens. Vardaman and Bilbo stated reasons.
neo:
You are correct. I’ll send “fan mail from some flounders.” But actually it’s getting to be donation time. 🙂
https://youtu.be/u2c9-LDP0t0
https://gab.com/TheZBlog/posts/106466537290549604
“This whole Rufo thing is interesting. He’s doing the classic conservative move where he starts by opposing something on the Left. This is something the far-right has been warning about for a while. Then once he gets attention, he quickly pivots to attack the far right.
It is hard to tell if it is working this time. His partners in this caper are morons who make him look ridiculous by association. The one guy in the mainstream that anyone on the Right bothers with has not fallen for the “don’t call CRT antiwhite” scam. That’s Tucker who sees the damage the term is causing the bad guys.”
Art + Deco,
Where is Russia, China, Germany and Cuba today regarding those government’s response to political opposition? Speak out forcefully in 3 of the 4 and you’ll be disappeared. In Germany, Merkel will simply muzzle you by restricting the public’s access to your voice.
That you offer it as rebuttal indicates willful blindness on this issue.
All that the unPlanned children need to know is that they should not exercise liberal license to indulge diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment). While color bias is intrinsic, prejudice is progressive. #HateLovesAbortion
Critical Racists’ Theory (CRT) that presumes diversity [dogma], certainly. But, Baby Lives Matter (BLM), really? That’s so sadomasochistic, a selfie-phobia. Wicked, even.
nn:
Correct. Planned Parenthood must be on a list somewhere for priority one-way helicopter rides. I support giving everyone a chance to live to the age of majority — Blacks included. After that, open season on malefactors.
}}} who are purposely made to feel bad about who they are and who their parents are
Nope. It’s for something that may, or may not, have been done by their great-grandparents. :-/
For a 5yo, whose mother had them at 20, thus the mother was born in 2020-5-20=1995 to the grandmother, whose mother had HER at 20 — 2020-5-20-20=1975… if the grandmother was BORN in 1975, she had nothing to do with southern racism, and certainly nothing to do with slavery. She grew up in an era where she was strongly taught to respect and appreciate black people as full and complete equals. So the “sins” of the racist past fall onto the GGPs.
Mind you, this ignores all aspects of immigration. MY GPs came here from freaking Italy, and lived in NYC. They DAMNED sure had nothing to do with Southern Racism. The other half came from IOWA, and only moved down here in the 50s, as southern racism began ending.
Now, I dunno about you, but if someone comes to a child and tells them they are responsible for the sins of their GGPs…. that person better be freaking Jesus…
Jus’ Sayin’…
>:-/
It’s probably obvious, but CRT is racism straight up. It violates the constitution, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. In the latter case at least, you can go to jail for implementing it, and should.