Isn’t CRT Banned in Oklahoma?

Guest Post By Dayna Mooney – Chapter Chair, Moms For Liberty (Canadian County, OK)

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Like many Parents, we have discovered things being taught to our children with which we disagree.

Some members have even taken it further and begun researching the curricula being used, looking into Teachers that are in our schools, books in our School Library or even considered running for a School Board seat themselves.

For me, it was the COVID lockdowns that lead me to see what my children were being taught and what they weren’t being taught, a discovery that eventually lead me to start a Chapter in Canadian County for Moms for Liberty. Moms for Liberty works to empower Parents to advocate for their children and take back their Parental Rights.

During each of our Chapter meetings, we review School Board Agendas for School Districts that are represented within our Chapter.

During the October 27th Chapter meeting of last year (2022) we discussed Out of State Approvals for Yukon Public Schools, in particular an approval for the District Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator to attend the National Council for Social Studies Conference in Philadelphia, PA, December 1-4, 2022. Curious, we researched further.

It turns out, this conference is one of the largest gathering of K-12 social studies classroom teachers in the US. While we have no idea which of the 500+ sessions this teacher chose to attend, these were the 6 Sub Themes covered in this Conference:

1. Connecting Educators as Learners
2. Teaching Civil Discourse
3. Embracing Hard History
4. Building Critical Media Literacy
5. Fostering Global Citizens
6. Navigating the Political Landscape in Teaching Social Studies

These were some of the Workshops/Sessions available at this Conference:

• Teaching History for Justice
• Critical Race Theory and Social Studies Futures
• Be(com)ing Stranger: Towards a Posthuman Social Studies
• Proceeding with Caution and Care: Examining Classroom Simulations Through the Lens of Educational Equity
  • Participants will investigate classroom simulations, focusing on the challenges and dangers that surround their use. Presenters will provide administrators and supervisors strategies for identifying harmful simulations and how to coach teachers away from using them and move toward more culturally responsive, culturally sensitive, and more equitable and inclusive classroom activities
• Embracing Student Activism
  • How a Pride Flag led to lobbying in Congress: learn how a school district located on indigenous territory embraced student activism and the opportunities it created
• Mind the Gap: Tackling Conspiracy Theories in the Classroom
  • Combatting the prevalence of misinformation available to students is a challenge in classrooms today. Discover strategies for debunking common 9/11 conspiracy theories that translate across a variety of content and subjects.
• Exploring Primary Sources in Ethnic Studies: Using the Library of Congress to Create School District Professional Development
  • Learn how Houston ISD leveraged their Teaching with Primary Sources grant award to expand teacher access to ethnic studies knowledge, teaching resources, and curriculum
• Teaching Critical Race Theory with Primary Source Documents
  • Learn how two educators used primary sources to support the curriculum of a dedicated Critical Race Theory class at the college level. Connections to the K-12 classroom will be shared
• How to Teach the Truth and Not End Up in the Principal’s Office
  • The Library of Congress and the TPS Teachers Network have resources and professional support to aid educators in their quest to teach accurate history in an era of divisive topics laws.
• Diversity and Inclusion Pedagogy for Teaching Global Learning and Leadership
  • Explore project-based instructional techniques and best practices that empower and immerse students more deeply in the Global Citizenship learning experience by utilizing diverse and inclusive student-led engagement activities
• The 1619 Project, Critical Race Theory, Divisive Concepts Legislation: Empowering Teachers and Communities to Confront the Politicization of Social Studies
  • Unravel the politicization of the 1619 Project, Critical Race Theory, and divisive concepts legislation with other educators who seek to confront racialized rhetoric with truth
• Fostering Community, Understanding, and Growth Through Civil Dialogue
  • Explore meaningful methods for creating, building, and fostering civil dialogue techniques with your students to increase content understanding, promote social-emotional learning, and maintain community among your students.
• The Color of Law: Exploring Systemic Racism in Housing Policy Using PBL
  • Using the project-based learning model, U.S. History/Government teachers can position students to raise awareness of systemic racism in housing policy using Richard Rothstein’s 2017 book The Color of Law.
• Truth and Reconciliation: Sexual Slavery During World War II
  • Inquiry about sexual slavery during World War II with embedded best Social Emotional Learning practices by examining transgressions of the past and truth and reconciliation
• Don’t End up on the News! A Trauma-Informed Approach to Teaching Hard History
  • Don’t let the headlines scare you! New teachers, let’s talk about ways to approach hard history using trauma-informed best practices
• Teaching Untold Stories to Inspire Children as Changemakers
  • Challenge the dominant discourse of the civil rights movement in elementary social studies and, instead, embrace teaching unsung heroes in an effort to create social justice advocates in our students
• Combating Misinformation with Culturally Responsive Teaching
  • Explore innovative approaches for designing and implementing culturally responsive instruction. With a firm understanding of these techniques and principles, attendees will reap the benefits of these lessons
• Reimagining Civic Action: Human Rights Close to Home
  • Hear youth scholars and educators share how Human Rights Education can serve as a blueprint for experiential learning that promotes student civic engagement and activism

As you can see, there was a theme to what was being discussed at this Conference. Any teachers in attendance will then bring what they’ve learned back to the District and share it with their fellow teachers, maybe even during a Professional Development, or other training day.

As you can see with the picture below Critical Race Theory, Cultural Relevant Pedagogy, Multicultural Education and Civil Rights Movement are all one in the same. Many use buzz words to get around Critical Race Theory laws within the State in order to continue teaching it in our Schools.

Another commonly known buzz word that we hear now is Social Emotional Learning or SEL, MANY Schools, if not all are using some type of SEL Program within our Schools. All of these are vehicles for Critical Race Theory, no matter what you call them and are designed to infringe on a Parent’s Right to educate their children in the worldview of their family. These programs promote feelings and behaviors that are not usually reflective of our teachings as the parent.

In December of 2020, CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning) updated their definition for SEL to showcase the value of SEL as a weapon for social justice. These SEL programs gather non-cognitive data using attributes, feelings, grit, mindsets and more that’s been gathered through various programs and different terminology. None of which can be fairly assessed with a computer.

Do you remember Common Core that’s also against the law to teach in Oklahoma? SEL, CRT are just the newest versions of Common Core, just a different name, pretty bow on the surface that ultimately pushes the same message that focuses less on academics and more on mindsets, feelings and behaviors. SEL claims to improve test scores, but as we are seeing by the latest release, it’s done the opposite. Just one of many claims, that have all proven to do the opposite.

All of these programs, no matter what you call them, get in the way of good, efficient teaching. Teachers are being asked to take on the role therapists, which they aren’t trained for, nor do they want to be therapists in most cases. Running off good teachers, to make way for the activist teachers to be the student’s parent, tell them how to think and how to hate their Country!

As Parents, we have to stand up against this agenda and do our part to get our Education System back on track! Even if your children are grown, you have a place in this fight as well! The more the merrier!

These are some results of SEL Teachings. You may already be seeing them in your School;

• Larger Class Sizes
• More about Diversity
• Changes to what was once a Zero Tolerance Policy
• Grading Policy Changes on some or all Levels
• School(s) are becoming overpopulated

Follow the link below to see a graphic to connect CRT to SEL and more

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19j0O_0aAdQPjbazAA842ncsGfTAGxvz2/view?usp=sharing

For more information on Moms for Liberty feel free to visit www.momsforliberty.org or email me, Dayna Mooney at moms4liberty_canadiancounty@protonmail.com.

For more information on SEL, see Six Reasons Why The Oklahoma State Legislature Should Ban The Use of SEL – Social Emotional Learning Through SB1442

Senator Jett has filed SB1027 (2023) to stop the teaching of SEL.