Critical Race Theory and "Action Civics" are making their way into Texas classrooms. Here's the plan.

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The Homestead: Keeping Texas Texan

The American Founding rests upon the premise that “all men are created equal,” and our whole system of governance and society proceeds from the proposition.

Those wishing to remake or overthrow that governance, and that society, have therefore always found themselves attacking that core idea of human equality. In the first century of our republic, the theories of John C. Calhoun — denying the words of the Declaration in his “Disquisition on Government” — came to the fore, asserting that men are created unequal, and participate in political society as members of discrete groups bearing distinctive rights and roles. This thesis, originally developed for the defense of slavery, found new life in modern progressivism as the idea of group rights and group identities became newly useful for those working against the American idea.

Critical race theory (CRT) emerged around forty years ago as the latest — and arguably most successful — manifestation of this effort. Incubated in academia (which is to say insulated from accountability to the citizenry at large, even as it educated their children), CRT argued that the group distinctions of the Calhounian and progressive inheritances carried with them two qualities above all others:

First, they were primarily racial distinctions, not class distinctions.

Second, the relations between the groups were characterized by power, not reason.

CRT therefore appropriated the old Leninist slogan “кто кого?” — literally “Who? Whom?” signifying that the only question of politics is who does what to whom — and applied it to a vision of society dominated by inescapable racial caste.

For the first two decades of its existence, the theory flourished mostly in academia: burrowing in deep, first and foremost, in schools of law, education, and journalism. Having educated a generation of lawyers, teachers, and writers of the public narrative, CRT finally emerged into the mainstream public discourse in the past decade. It now dominates conversations in media and culture: a quiet and decisive overthrow of the American ideal of equality in the narrative-setting institutions.

It's time to fight back and our Next Generation Texas team is on the front lines.

NGT's latest research examines the origins, nature, and educational effects of a movement in civic education that goes by a number of names—“Action Civics,” “New Civics,” “Civic Engagement,” and “Project-Based Civics.”

If we're to Keep Texas Texan, we must employ a founding-documents-based curriculum to focus on our polity’s core principles of human equality and individual liberty.

To Keep Texas Texan, we must not only bring this fight to the pink dome, but also partner with educators who influence the lives of young Texans each and every day.

So, what are we doing about it? Hosting our third annual Summer Civics Institute where qualified teachers from across our great nation participate in a week-long session that hopes to enhance understanding of the fundamental political, intellectual, and moral principles that informed the construction of the American founding.

If you know of a teacher that should join us this summer, please consider inviting them: texaspolicy.com/summer-institute

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For Texas,

Joshua Treviño

Texas Public Policy Foundation, 901 Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas 78701, United States, 5124722700

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