MORT'S MUSINGS

June 28, 2021 Liv Finne; WPC Education Director Additional Comments on June 23rd Posting As a follow up to yesterday’s comment, today I’d like to focus upon upon my experiences with a district and its policies on controversial material. You cited the authority in RCW 28A.150.230 (2) (g) as giving districts the local authority to reject teaching Critical Race Theory. How might this authority be exercised? In my experience, districts have followed state guideline and essential learnings and have used those as a foundation to develop their own, local, priorities. They also play a great part in textbook adoptions and purchase of support materials. Teachers are often empowered to create supporting materials from sources they have researched. I did so with Dr. Will Durant’s book, “Lessons of History”, which I used to provide higher level thinking and analytical skills in my “High Cap Freshman Social Studies classes” I wrote the unit and lesson plans and ran them by my immediate supervis

Commentary of Washington Policy Center's Education Blog posting of June 23, 2021, about Critical Race Theory. There are too many aspects of this issue to include them all here. Today, I will focus on what’s been done in the past, as it might relate to “Critical Race Theory”. 1] When I taught my WA State History class a unit on Japanese American Internment, was I teaching an event in history, or was I teaching Critical Race Theory? 2] When I taught my Comparative Cultures Class on Russian & the Soviet Union about the pograms, was I teaching a series of events in Imperial Russian History, or was I teaching Critical Race Theory? 3] When I taught my Comparative Cultures Class on the Middle East about the Holocaust, was I teaching about an example of events commonly directed at Jewish communities, or was I teaching Critical Race Theory? These may seem like rhetorical questions, but I do not intend them to be. Since WPC seems unalterably opposed to teaching Critical Race Theory,