Teach Children Criticality

Welcome. I am an educator, librarian, and organizer. This website was created to give a bit of background knowledge to what critical practices in education may look like in the context of opposition and censoring of criticality in schools, specifically Critical Race Theory (CRT). In the media, CRT is often used as a a term to describe all critical pedagogical practices. Criticality in education is a foundation for an anti-bias, antiracist, liberatory and justice based society. The banning of critical pedagogy in education perpetuates white supremacy through upholding hegemonic norms: meritocracy, color-blindness, nostalgia for a white-washed sanitized past, capitalism, cultural production, binary thinking, etc. If children are not taught to question systems of white supremacy : whose stories are being told, whose are being erased, and whose perspectives are valued or marginalized (and why), the status quo remains and white supremacy culture rules.

A frustration point for me, especially as an educator, is the lack of access to critical educational theory due to paywalls, gatekeeping, time, and jargon. All academic articles on this site can be accessed without a university affiliation. This type of gatekeeping goes beyond literature. So often, especially in education, decision and policy makers have never worked with children, or have a background in education, but because of credentialism and power hoarding, those folks in high level administrative or political office hold power and authority over students and their families. This year especially, I have witnessed educators and families gaslit by school districts claiming to be rooted in justice based, and antiracist practice by: pushing children to take standardized tests, suspending teachers for refusing to partake in damaging practices, centering voices of families that hold social and political capital and particular educational credentials, educators suffering demoralization and moral injury, and complete burnout (and ultimately leaving the profession) by the educators who are truly working toward criticality and questioning systems at large. I believe in disrupting this cycle, calling on educators, families, and students to reclaim this space, as the expertise and experience is their own. This site isn't an answer but a jumping off point for folks who want to learn more about criticality and what that looks like in theory, and action.

Jenny Holzer, 1980