Gov. Kevin Stitt cracks down on critical race theory: 'Not going to teach...one race is superior to another'
Republican governors advocated for the role of parents in their children's education at this weekend's National Governors Association meeting, saying that most of them "don't want" critical race theory taught in schools. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, the first governor in the nation to ban critical race theory from state classrooms, said outlawing the controversial curriculum was a no-brainer. "It’s a page and a half," Stitt said of his order. "I don’t know how you could argue with it. It simply says that we’re not going to teach in Oklahoma that one sex or one race is superior to another race. And we’re not going to teach a first-grader in Oklahoma that they’re somehow responsible for something that happened 100 years ago. It’s really a commonsense approach to us. But it does say in the bill that we will teach Oklahoma academic standards, we will teach history. We’re just not going to get into the race baiting stuff."
The far-left's attempts to destroy our nation's history and indoctrinate our children must be stopped.
I recently posted a short video praising Oklahoma, where I teach U.S. history and serve as Secretary of Education, for being one of the first in the nation to ban Critical Race Theory when Governor Kevin Stitt signed HB 1775 last year. The video sparked criticism because I recognized the United States as the greatest nation in the history of the world.
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Empty Classroom In Elementary School. (Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
I was accused of promoting the "white faces of our founding fathers."
One high school history teacher, who also writes a blog to promote "radical social justice," admitted he never taught, nor would he ever, that America is the greatest country in the history of the world because it’s "not a true statement."
This isn’t just wrong. It’s absurd.
American history is defined by our forging ahead through strife and struggle "to form a more perfect Union" as described in the Preamble to our United States Constitution.
Promoting America is not promoting "white faces" because our nation’s heroes come in every color and background possible. What starts with George Washington and Ben Franklin continues with Frederick Douglas and Sojourner Truth. Our history is a long struggle to free ourselves from tyranny, to freeing all men and women from the bondage of slavery. A more perfect union is forged one day at a time, and we should celebrate those who have forged it and often given their lives for it.
The radical left has embraced a radically different view of America. They believe the mistakes of our past define our character and our future. If we accept this pessimistic notion that our past mistakes define us, progress would never be possible.
But now the left has gone one step further and are actively working to indoctrinate young, impressionable minds in our schools with the false notion that they are defined by the color of their skin and they should be ashamed to be American.
America is not terrible, and we are not doomed because of our imperfect history. And we should not be labeling children in kindergarten as inherently racist because of the color of their skin.
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This blame game does a tremendous disservice to our kids. Instead of being inspired by our Founding Fathers and freedom fighters, the left wants students to only view the country through the lens of racism. Our students must know our history, including the times we fell short of our principles and a full study of history shows those moments are the exception, not the rule when it comes to our core values as Americans.
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Oklahoma schools won’t go woke. We will not apologize for America. We will equip our students to learn both from our mistakes and our excellence. We have an exceptional country that continues to evolve, learn, and grow, but we will always be grounded in those founding principles of individual rights and liberties. For these reasons, I will continue to teach my students the United States is the greatest nation in the world.