Voice of the people: Teach history as it actually happened
Teach history as it actually happened
A group in Polk County has tried to remove certain books from the schools. Critical Race Theory has been used as a reason to try to remove some books. CRT is a scholarly theory examining the intersection of race, society and law in the U.S.
CRT has never been a part of the curriculum in Polk County public schools. CRT has been misconstrued as anything that teaches about social and racial justice. All parents should want their children to learn history as it actually happened. This would include learning about the history of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and Civil Rights activism.
I am a 78-year-old white woman. In the late 1960s I learned what I had not learned before: the influence of racist ideology on our institutions and on my own thinking. Did this learning lower my self-esteem? No. Did this learning cause me to feel guilt? No. What it did was make me more sensitive to the social/racial situation in our country, and to the need to examine my own behavior and thoughts. I have continued learning about systemic racism; I am glad to be open to these learnings, and thus help resolve these issues.
Dorothy Schwartz, Poinciana
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This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Voice of the people: Teach history as it actually happened
