Jay McTighe: Receiving Questions about CRT? Consider the Source
This post from August at School Leadership 2.0 is still useful. Jay McTighe divides CRT opponents into three groups. The first two have varying degrees of anger and confrontation, but their questions and concerns are sincere. Then he moves on to a third group.
However, not all questions about CRT are benign. They may be posed by a third group, representing a politically orchestrated movement that has chosen Critical Race Theory as the point of the spear (or should I say, smear) to sow cultural division, fuel racial animosity, and stoke resentment in the service of broader political aims. Although they may present the face of genuinely concerned parents of school-aged kids, their “behind-the-scenes” organizers are politically driven, highly organized and funded, and politically shrewd. In many cases, they will not live within your district boundaries or have children in the schools they are attacking. They see schools and school boards as easy targets as they manufacture controversy to advance their political cause.
We have seen this “movie” before. In the 1990’s, a strikingly similar movement was launched in opposition to Outcomes-based Education—the conspiratorial pretext of the times—used by ideologues to advance their objective of taking over school boards, city/county councils and legislative seats. While the issues are different, the various tactics that were employed in the 1990’s are being repurposed today around the topic of Critical Race Theory. Let us take a closer look at ten tactics that this group may use. By anticipating their tactics, educators and Board members can better prepare to buffer the attacks and minimize disruptions to the educational process.
Attacktics of Group Three
My made-up word is appropriate to characterize the tactics used by members of this politically driven movement to fabricate threats of CRT for the purpose of alarming parents and sowing distrust. Should the anti-CRT caravan show up in your community, be on the lookout for the following:
McTighe then lays out ten disruptive tactics favored by this group, and goes on to list some effective methods of dealing with them.