By Nancy Thorner -
The Teachers Unions Go Woke, appearing in the Wall Street Journal by the Editorial Board on July 7, 2021 may be one of the most frightening articles about public education and national teachers’ unions ever published.
It is the most radical set of measures ever adopted by any organization, especially one that holds over 3,000,000 members that are teaching our children. Now they are focusing on indoctrination of wild concepts that totally undermine the ideals and foundational principles of the country. This isn’t just radical; it is treasonous and dangerous. The leadership of the National Education Association is leading America's public education system into a cauldron of unimaginable destruction.
Parents are alarmed, as they should be, and many will either overthrow school boards that comply or find alternative forms of education. Sadly, most private schools are adapting much of this idiocy as well.
What is happening to our country when organizations such as the NEA and American Federation of Teachers spew such nonsense through progressive political indoctrination and when there is little push back from our institutions? It is a looming catastrophe.
Highlights from the WSJ article: The Teachers Unions Go Woke
“Critical theory is a neo-Marxist ideology that is pervasive in higher education and teaches that a person is defined above all else by race, gender and sexual orientation, and that American institutions are designed to ensure white supremacy and the patriarchy."
“The delegates also directed the NEA to lobby for “professional development around cultural responsiveness, implicit bias, anti-racism, trauma-informed practices, restorative justice practices and other racial justice trainings” for “all school employees.” The delegates called for similar training for students. Just what second-graders need: instruction on how to distrust kids with different skin colors.”
“Another delegate-approved measure calls for the union to issue a study criticizing “empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, (A system of power based on the supremacy & dominance of cisheterosexual men through the exploitation & oppression of women …) capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, (regarding humankind as the central or most important element of existence, especially as opposed to God or animals) and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society.” ( This stuff is absolutely insane)
“Another approved statement asks the union to “join with Black Lives Matter at School and the Zinn Education Project” to hold a rally on George Floyd’s birthday, honor other victims of police violence, and promote “a national day of action to teach lessons about structural racism and oppression.” That’s Zinn as in Howard Zinn, the late radical whose history of the United States boils down to one long tale of the people versus the oppressors in power.”
“And don’t forget the call for the union to share resources for 'decolonizing the curriculum' with educators to use in the classroom. The list goes on.”
“The delegates will return to their school districts as administrators, principals and teachers to spread this message of American oppression and 'anti-Indigeneity.' Union dues will promote these causes.
“Believe it or not, union leaders claim that parents who oppose any of this are motivated by hate and are assaulting free speech. In a speech American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten claimed that “culture warriors are labeling any discussion of race, racism or discrimination as CRT to try to make it toxic” and “bullying teachers and trying to stop us from teaching students accurate history. She likened the backlash to historical revisionism in the Soviet Union and other repressive regimes.”
“But no one is opposed to teaching about America’s difficult racial history, including the evils of slavery and Jim Crow. What parents are awakening to is that their children are being told the lie that America has made little or no racial progress and therefore its legal, economic and political systems must be turned upside down."
“Ms. Weingarten must have in the mind those Soviets in Loudoun County, Va., where five families sued last month over school district policies and practices that are rooted in critical race theory. The families claim that administrators chilled speech and discriminated against non-minority students. Watch for similar suits elsewhere. The unions are upset because such parental pushback threatens their control over instruction in schools."
Expounding on the Zinn Education Project
The Zinn Education Project, a Marxist organization inspired by left-wing historical interpreter Howard Zinn, has collected more than 5,000 signatures from public school teachers, principals and staff who pledged to violate state laws and keep indoctrinating students with Critical Race Theory.
“We, the undersigned educators, refuse to lie to young people about U.S. history and current events—regardless of the law,” the pledge states."
"The Zinn Education Project has catalogued the names, cities, states and testimonies of the public school teachers who have signed the pledge."
"The pledge, which was posted on June 21, said that legislators in 26 states have introduced bills to force “teachers to lie to students about the role of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and oppression throughout U.S. history.”
The teachers, instead, will continue to push anti-white critical race theory, anti-male feminism, and LGBT ideology. Their political ideology rests on the Marxist assumption that all humans exist as oppressors or as the oppressed.
On its website, the group asserted that America “was founded on dispossession of Native Americans, slavery, structural racism and oppression; and structural racism is a defining characteristic of our society today.”
They also listed examples of “racial inequality” that echo Democratic Party talking points: “Everything from police violence, to the prison system, to the wealth gap, to maternal mortality rates, to housing, to education” reflects “anti-Blackness,” the organization claimed.
Gaslighting from American Federation of Teachers’ President Randi Weingarten
On Wednesday, July 7, 2021: American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten appeared on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” and blasted those who criticize CRT. She claims that teachers have an obligation to teach correct history and that Republicans are just trying to “find something else to create chaos and fear with.”
“Critical Race Theory is not taught in elementary schools or middle schools or high schools.”
“Culture warriors” are “bullying teachers and trying to stop us from teaching accurate history.”
Wokeness at U.S. military institutions?
An Air Force Academy professor has written an op-ed in The Washington Post in which she says the highly controversial critical race theory should be taught in all U.S. military institutions of higher learning.
Lynne Chandler Garcia, an associate professor of political science at the academy, published her op-ed on Tuesday, July 7, 2021 titled, “Why U.S. military academies should teach critical race theory.”
Garcia essentially echoed earlier sentiments from U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in claiming that the Marxism-themed CRT “is not unpatriotic” and that it doesn’t “promote division among our military members.”
“As a professor of political science at the U.S. Air Force Academy, I teach critical race theories to our nation’s future military leaders because it is vital that cadets understand the history of the racism that has shaped both foreign and domestic policy,” García wrote.
Conclusion
All this goes to show how far the U.S. government has strayed from its obligation and the teachers unions from their original mission of fighting for better pay and pensions.
The NEA and AFT have become the ideological and institutional vanguard of progressive politics. They are a powerful wing of the Democratic Party, and in President Biden and his wife Jill they have the most powerful allies.
Voters need to understand the ideological motivations at work in these unions and how that will affect what their children and grandchildren are taught. Parents have every right, even a duty, to fight back against this invasion of progressive politics in their schools.
Wake up America!
