It seems like folks are concerned about social studies again and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Normally we are only in the spotlight every four years when someone needs the Electoral College explained and the rest of the time we are like those cologne hawkers at the mall. “Would you like to try Eau de Separation of Powers? It smells like democracy.” I can’t count the number of times someone at a dinner party hasn’t asked me about popular sovereignty; about teaching certainly but never about the standards. That is why I have looked on with a bemused smile as politicians take to cable news to ramp up attacks on Critical Race Theory and social media filled with condemnations.  And the Old North State seems to be ground zero for a perfect storm. 

The state revises and updates all curriculum standards on a regular basis to ensure their effectiveness and new social studies standards were set to be implemented in the Fall of 2020. The standards were complete by Spring 2020 and although Covid slowed down disseminating the teacher training information the real roadblock came with the murder of George Floyd. With coronavirus casting a shadow over the upcoming school year and social justice protests boiling over into the streets, DPI and the state school board decided, wisely in my opinion, to delay implementation for one year.  The fact that this review occurred during a global pandemic, roiling protest against police brutality and systemic racism, and the backdrop of the ugliest election cycle since 1860 all but guaranteed conflict in North Carolina. Post-election our state government remained divided and our new Republican lieutenant governor, who has an advisory role in education matters, began to take issue with the new standards. He and the other GOP members’ talking points seemed to mirror the dire warnings issued by Fox News and other conservative media outlets about Critical Race Theory.  Through gubernatorial appointments, however, the Democrats controlled the revision committee and the standards have officially been approved although with continued complaints.

So I won’t pretend to be an expert on the new social studies standards but I’m willing to bet that I’ve looked at them more than 99.9% of North Carolinians and I can all but guarantee more than anyone else on your Facebook feed. More importantly, I was looking at the preliminary standards last year practically before anyone else and before our Lt. Governor had even won the nomination, much less election, for his position and I can tell you that the changes are hardly noticeable. So why is everyone all of the sudden worked up about it? Because that is what elected officials and hardline media pundits (on both ends of the political spectrum) benefit from; drama and disunity. That is why Fox News has mentioned “critical race theory” over 900 times in June alone and N.C. Senate Majority leader railed against it in a press conference while announcing legislation that doesn’t mention CRT at all. What Majority Leader Berger’s proposed bill does mention is that all races should be treated equally and none should be singled out as being responsible for wrongs of the past nor should any race be made to feel guilty about past injustices.

So let’s unpack some of this starting with the very definition of the bogeyman himself, Critical Race Theory.  According to the history department at UNC, Critical Race Theory is a “scholarly framework that describes how race, class, gender, and sexuality organize American life.”  It’s been around since the 1970s and like most social theories created on college campuses its adherents have a wide range of views some of which are actually quite radical.  But is that what you find in NC’s new social studies standards? Not exactly.  The very first American history standard asks students to look into American exceptionalism which should be right in the wheelhouse of conservative media.  Now for full disclosure there are standards that explore the experience of women, minorities, and native populations but we were already doing that with the old standards so not really much to get upset about.  What has upset some conservatives about our standards isn’t just the content but how they are presented.  Each standard begins with a verb such as “critique”, “compare”, “differentiate”, or “explain”.  “Too nebulous”, says conservative commentator John Hood quoting a report from the Fordham Institute; while Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt insists there should be a list of the content that will be taught.  Gotcha.

Those things show up in the ancillary information that we refer to as unpacking documents or crossover materials and they are incredibly helpful to teachers.  The only problem is that you can’t put them together until the standards are approved, which Lt. Governor Robinson and Superintendent Truitt have fought to delay and when they finally had a chance to vote on a final version instead lamented once again about the already approved standards.  Now GOP legislators are seeking to introduce legislation to push back implementation once again ostensibly to spare teachers from the mess that they have encouraged (if not created) but I have some great news for them.  We teachers have already started organizing the timing of lessons and listing the content that we will cover starting this Fall and once the state sends out the extra material we will use that to enhance what we’ve already done.  Booya! Professionals acting professionally.

And while I would never be so ignorant as to assume that no teacher, social studies or otherwise, would teach in such a way to make a student feel guilty I do think you should be cautious when pushing for color blind standards. If we don’t consider race at all then we can’t look into why the net worth of a typical white family is ten times more than a black family. We can’t ask why a pregnant black woman is three times more likely to die in childbirth than a white woman.  We would probably be able to look into a church bombing in Birmingham that killed four little black girls but we couldn’t look into why 500 black babies in the same city died that same year from a lack of proper food, shelter and medical facilities.  Should that make you feel guilty?  I can’t answer that but if I can’t ask the question then my students might not feel anything and I just can’t live with that.