Critical in theory

You’d think we have enough to fear from COVID-19, but critical race theory appears to have become the real boogeyman of 2021.

At the heart of the dispute is a fundamental misunderstanding of how education works. Education is not indoctrination. Students aren’t taught what to think. They are exposed to different ways in which others think, in part so they can understand and work with others and in part so they can develop their own sense of what’s the best way to view things.

That’s why schools teach what critical race theory is about, just as they teach the conflicting governmental theories of despotism, liberalism, and conservatism; the socioeconomic theories of Marxism and social Darwinism; and even the theories — and dangers — of populism.

To insist that government de-fund schools if they expose students to the realities of different ways in which people think is as absurd as the notion of de-funding police. The concept that taxpayers deserve refunds if they pull their kids out of public schools logically means those of us without children in public schools shouldn’t have to pay school taxes.

In the end, all the clamoring about critical race theory — which, like all theories, offers some insights and some misdirection — makes one wonder just what people are afraid of. An idea?

Look at the history of the world. Closing our minds to ideas is precisely how patriotism ends up costing us liberty.

— ERIC MEYER