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Haylee Yasgar, 4th grader, speaking truth to power

Let us, gentle readers, consider the concept of local control of education.  Among its premises is those closest to every issue are best suited to deal with those issues.  Parents know their children and their individual needs best, therefore they are best qualified to ensure those needs are met.  Communities differ in their expectations and needs, so the people making up those communities are best qualified to meet those expectations and needs.

But because democracy—one man, one vote—can only work in small societies, we have a representative republic, which is very different than a democracy.  Many don’t want us to know the difference.  We elect people to represent the will, the traditions, the intentions and values of our communities, and through our communication with them, and our periodic votes, we hold them to their promises.

Obviously, such a system absolutely rejects national, one-size-fits-all, mandates.  The realities of a town of 30,000 in Wyoming or South Dakota differ greatly from a city of millions in a coastal state.

So we elect local school boards, who presumably hire administrators that are not only willing, but honor bound to uphold the expectations of their communities.  And they in turn hire teachers who will likewise feel honor bound to do the same. If they are dishonorable, we have the power to remove them and find honorable people to occupy their jobs, the jobs we give them.

In essence, we educate our children that they may become functional, productive members of our republican system, which fully embraces the Constitution, not only in letter, but spirit, for it is that document that reflects our belief in the boundless worth of the individual.  It’s a belief founded in the Judeo-Christian tradition, thus do we recognize the free exercise of religion—an unalienable right–in the First Amendment.  To protect individual liberties, the absolute necessity of restraining the worst angels of our nature as enacted by an unaccountable, distant and uncaring centralized government is our common, American faith.

We also seek to instill in kids outmoded values such as honor, individual responsibility, reliability, punctuality, a work ethic, truth telling, kindness, and the value of merit.

It is this—and more–contemporary advocates of Critical Race Theory, in all its guises and deceptions, hate with a deranged passion.  Let’s visit Alpha News Minnesota.com for an example of that kind of deception and hatred:

Bipartisan grassroots campaigns pushing back against critical race theory (CRT) have occurred around America in 2021, from wealthy liberal enclaves to small Minnesota towns.

At a school board meeting this week held in Sartell, just north of Saint Cloud, the dialogue surrounding CRT-influenced curricula continued.

Community members again discussed Equity Alliance Minnesota (EAM), a left-wing group hired earlier this year for an $80,000 audit on ‘racial inequities’ within the Sartell-St. Stephen School District.

Students were required to complete a survey for the audit but weren’t allowed to discuss its contents with their parents [emphasis mine], according to student Haylee Yasgar.

‘My teacher said that I could not skip any questions even when I didn’t understand them. One question asked us what gender we identify with. I was very confused along with a lot of other classmates,’ Yasgar said during Monday night’s meeting.

She said students were told they could not ‘repeat any of the questions to our parents.’

‘Being asked to hide this from my mom made me very uncomfortable, like I was doing something wrong,’ she told the school board.

Take the link, gentle readers, where you’ll discover the school board forced parents into a tiny, non-air-conditioned gym.  You’ll find all the hallmarks of deception and hatred, including a school district that refuses to give parents the documents about the curriculum and operations they own.  Brietbart.com provides information about the “audit”:

David Switzer, an economics professor at St. Cloud State University, analyzed the equity audit conducted by EAM, observing ‘deficiencies in the data, methodology, and reporting,’ including details of ‘all the omissions and errors.’

Switzer wrote in his report:

‘In virtually every case, the omission/error makes it impossible to understand what was found, aggregates information so that it cannot be used for school-level improvements, or misrepresents the data to imply that there is a racial or gender disparity in the data that statistical analysis of the data shows does not actually exist. In short, the graphs are flawed and the results are frequently misinterpreted to imply problems that the data do not prove exist.

I would also note that little if any evaluation of Community responses is contained in this audit evaluation, as there is no way of verifying whether those who answered the survey are actually in the district and not someone outside the district or even possibly someone from EA-MN.’

Which we would expect if those administering the “audit” cared nothing for the expectations of the community or the value of the individual.  We would also expect this if the “educators” involved were paying for just this kind of “data.”  Let’s also visit Politico, for a related view:

Elina Kaplan is the kind of suburban mom who made Joe Biden president.

An immigrant who came to the United States from the Soviet Union, she is a registered Democrat from San Mateo County, Calif. And she’s alarmed over her state’s new model ethnic studies curriculum, which cites critical race theory as a ‘key theoretical framework and pedagogy.’

‘I firmly believe that if the vast majority of Californians and Americans knew about this, and about the content of this type of curriculum, this would not be happening. We would not be having this conversation,’ Kaplan said.

The kind of “thinking” behind CRT, which is certainly not being taught in Minnesota, no…

D/S/Cs, stinging from the growing anti-CRT backlash, are now pretending there is no such thing as CRT, and even if it did exist, they are absolutely not teaching it in public schools:

‘That’s another right-wing conspiracy. This is totally made up by Donald Trump and [Republican candidate for governor] Glenn Youngkin,’ Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe said in June.

‘I don’t think we would think that educating the youth and next and future leaders of the country on systemic racism is indoctrination,’ said White House press secretary Jen Psaki in May.

Let’s review: Haylee Yasgar, a 4th grade girl, was forced to answer “survey” questions she did not understand.  Considering the topics of the survey, it’s hardly surprising 4th grade children would have little idea how to answer questions. The results of any such age-inappropriate “audit” would be, by their very nature, invalid. The kids were told they weren’t allowed to discuss the survey—“audit”–with their parents.  An economics professor found the “audit” less than credible.

Initially, CRT was the most important virtue in the world, and now that it has been exposed as Marxist racism, D/S/Cs are trying to keep indoctrinating kids by pretending it doesn’t exist, and if it does, no one is teaching it, and what they’re not teaching isn’t CRT.  Oh, and how I could have used $80,000 for books during my teaching days!

The people in control of local school districts are local voters, parents and non-parents, not administrators, not teachers.  They’re the bosses.  The employers of school personnel own all curriculum materials, and everything taught, by every teacher, in every classroom.  That information may not be ethically, even legally, denied them. That kind of arrogant cowardice should enrage every American.

When I was in the Air Force, fighting the Cold War back in the 1400s, a wise old Sgt.–he was probably in his late 30s– told me no police officer should do anything they’d be ashamed to tell their mother.  That’s good advice for just about any profession, and as a teacher, I lived it.  I constantly invited parents to visit my classroom at their convenience–virtually none did–and did the same for my principals.  I always immediately answered any question parents had about curriculum—there were very few—and immediately provided examples of any literature or assignments they requested.  There were even fewer of those kinds of requests.  I’d like to think that was so because those parents, based on what their kids told them, and their assignments, trusted me.

I remembered what that Sgt. taught me.  I was also dedicated to not wasting a moment of class time, so I gave the kids the best literature I could find, and we talked about, and most importantly, wrote about it and the issues it raised.  There was never indoctrination of any kind, but a great deal of emphasis on human nature–understanding that is essential to living well–and what makes good art good.  As long as it was school appropriate, I didn’t care what the kids wrote; I cared about how well they wrote it.  I didn’t do or say anything I wouldn’t want broadcast to the world.  I was sufficiently naive to think at least some of what I was teaching might be useful were it broadcast.

Americans can be certain of some things.  If school officials are conducting “surveys” or “audits” and don’t want parents to be aware of them, or of their contents, they’re doing something very wrong, and their attempts at concealment are prima facie evidence they know it.  If school officials are telling kids what to think and say, rather than how to think and speak and write, they’re doing something very wrong, and their attempts at concealment are prima facie evidence they know it. If school officials will not answer the questions of their employers—the public—they’re doing something very wrong, and their attempts at concealment are prima facie evidence they know it. If they’re doing any of that, they, and the school boards that allow them to get away with it, need to be exposed as the petty tyrants and child abusers they are, and promptly shown the electoral door.  No one should care if it whacks them on the butt on the way out.