A letter from Beverly Monahan, (“Is it wise to teach CRT and raise ‘unwarranted feelings’ in children?” Aug. 18), seemed to me to be a “theory” of its own, too. But I was also wondering how much real wisdom was in that letter.
There was not a single sentence in Monahan’s letter that said what critical race theory was really about, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. For everyone’s benefit, let me say: 1.) the explanation, in the first two paragraphs at Wikipedia, said CRT has been around since the 1970s, and 2.) what I found there about CRT, in just the first paragraph, was wildly different from what was implied in Monahan’s letter. And before anyone opens their mouth on this topic, they really ought to read about that and do some serious thinking. CRT is also a much more complicated philosophy than implied by Monahan.
Most of the rest of Monahan’s letter is her view, which I find to be biased, on how kids get their knowledge from adults and whether those adults are parents or teachers. In particular, she says, “Never must American education be erroneously taught on only an idea or plan that has not been based on complete verification.”
I have to laugh. Our history books are full of lies, and many more books work to expose those lies. See, for example, the 1995 book “Lies My Teacher Told Me” by James W. Loewen, which I read cover to cover and is very well-documented. Then, we always have the Republican Party, which exposes and corrects the lies of the Democrats. And then, we always have the Democrats, who expose and correct the lies of the Republicans. And you, dear reader, dig as far into these issues as you see fit and pick and choose what you are most comfortable with anyway. What is wrong with that wisdom? The kids will grow up and do the same thing. Not to worry.
But how about remembering that Jesus taught “love thy neighbor as thyself”?
Arthur E. Sowers
Harbeson
