Leer en Español
The nation’s two principal teachers’ unions have officially committed themselves and the army of public education instructors under their command to defend the subversive task of indoctrinating neo-Marxist ideology to America’s children.
While the full arsenal of cultural Marxism’s Critical Theory ideological network, such as Gender Ideology, Critical Queer Theory, Critical Post-Colonial Theory, and Critical Feminist Theory will all be safeguarded by the public schooling establishment, it is Critical Race Theory where the bulk of the left’s war on America is concentrating its energy, given the country’s imperfect beginning with the morally contradictory issue of racial slavery and subsequent Jim Crow practices.
Critical pedagogy, another philosophical extension of the Frankfurt School’s Critical Theory cache, was developed by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire in the late 1960s. Structurally, this theory calls for the promotion of Marxism from the educational system with claims that traditional education is “contaminated” by “oppressive” power relations and systems. Freire and a host of other critical pedagogy theorists, like Canadian-American Henry Giroux, are John Dewey on Leninist steroids. Today’s National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have been mechanically and epistemologically formulated with the ideological venom of critical pedagogy. Their defense of CRT is a given.
Over 26 states, as of June 29th, have either approved and/or have pending legislation curbing the teaching of CRT. This has laid a wrench in the mission of indoctrinating schoolchildren in the United States by the enforcers of this objective, the teachers’ unions. The pursuit of promoting neo-Marxist dogma was a project that began in the late 1970s when these American applications of critical theory adaptations took place.
The fall of Soviet communism prompted many Marxist theorists and educators to expand this field. It was, however, the launching of the “1619 Project” and the subsequent Black Lives Matter and Antifa socialist revolt, which gained momentum following George Floyd’s death, that put CRT indoctrination in full throttle mode.
With over 3,000,000 employees, the NEA is America’s biggest union. During their four-day convention, which began on June 30th, they agreed to fight anti-CRT initiatives and favor those teachers they label as “anti-racist”, that will continue to offer in-class challenges to state-approved laws that prohibit this Marxist doctrine from being taught.
The NEA’s Board of Directors seems to want to take a stealth approach to its defense of communist propagandizing, given American society’s uproar over the CRT fallacies and the fraudulent interpretation and “teaching” of American history and facts. This explains why NEA President Becky Pringle has avoided using the term “critical race theory” during recent interviews.
Education Week, a pro teachers union publication claimed that the NEA convention-approved directives will “result in increasing the implementation of culturally responsive education, critical race theory, and ethnic … studies curriculum in pre-K-12 and higher education.”
The AFT, the second-largest teachers’ union in the United States, has followed the same Marxist critical pedagogy undertaking regarding CRT. AFT President Randi Weingarten stated in an interview cited in the union trade journal, “I felt the need to make it crystal clear to teachers … that I honor their professional responsibilities and that their union will have their back.”
When Weingarten says that they will have “their back”, he means that they will use all the necessary resources to defend rouge teachers and legally challenge the sovereign decision of the pertinent state elected authorities in the effort to halt the spread of Marxist falsehoods in our educational institutions.
The battle lines are clearer by the day. Perhaps the silver lining to this Marxist assault on America, is that the long-suspected conspirators are coming out in the open. The teachers’ unions, fundamental enemies of innovative and proven remedies to help economically depressed American kids receive a better public education, such as school choice, have finally unmasked themselves.
Embarrassingly and with great cynicism today they take up the cause of communist propaganda. Lenin, the most effective liberticidal calibrated strategist for socialism, has found disciples in America’s teachers’ unions.
Julio M Shiling, political scientist, writer, director of Patria de Martí and The Cuban American Voice, lecturer and media commentator. A native of Cuba, he currently lives in the United States. Twitter: @JulioMShiling // Julio es politólogo, escritor, director de Patria de Martí y The Cuban American Voice. Conferenciante y comentarista en los medios. Natural de Cuba, vive actualmente en EE UU.