For Teacher Training, Drop Critical Theory and Add Character

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | November 18, 2020 | Matthew Post

[karpov]

With the pandemic, more parents are discovering what their children are being taught in public schools—from explicit how-tos in sex-ed class to narratives of power that divide everyone into oppressors and oppressed.

Yearning for a richer emphasis on cultural literacy, character, and civil discourse, parents are turning to alternative curricula, such as Core Knowledge and classical education, as well as learning environments such as homeschooling, pods, micro-schools, and public charters.

The opportunity for reform is there, but we must first understand how much needs to change. The content in many schools is a problem, but a deeper one remains: Too few teachers and leaders focus on the importance of character formation.

Jay Schalin has reported extensively on the prevalence of a specific form of critical theory in schools of education across the country. This theory rejects both tradition and universal truth in favor of subjective narratives, undercutting the value of cultural literacy and character. Cultural literacy becomes a “dead” tradition. Questions of character, such as what it means to treat another person justly, lose meaning when there is only “your” justice and “my” justice, but no universal principles of justice that we can discuss to frame and negotiate conflicts.

For example, Gary Houchens, a former member of the Kentucky Board of Education, has revealed how state-sponsored teacher resources in what should be inquiry-based learning not only insist upon a critical theory foundation but also offer loaded questions whose answers are telegraphed by the lessons and the questions themselves. Max Eden has recently highlighted how Buffalo Public Schools’ Black Lives Matter curriculum asks students to question the nuclear family with the explicit purpose of “disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.”

[silent majority rising]

Our problem in education is not that the teachers and professors are NOT teaching their students how to think, but they are teaching students to think LIKE THEM.

[PeterPrinciple]

I dream of a date with we will be judged by the content of character, not the color of skin..................

[ConservativeInPA]

Nice idea ... add character training. But the root problem needs to be solved. The elephant in the room is the 99% of teachers that give the 1% of teachers a bad name. The only reform is to do away with the 99% of teachers. They will never have character and as long as people allow their children to be taught by them the problem will exist, whether there is or is not character training.

[cranked]

For starters, make all K12 teachers retake the Praxis or equivalent tests again to maintain certification(s)......

[cranked]

Yeah, that’s called i n d o c t r i n a t i o n.

[Sans-Culotte]

These articles are useless at this point. With the ‘rats about to seize total control, they’ll just double down on the insanity.