VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — When Conor Collins teaches his Advanced Placement U.S. History class, he asks students to think about some of the challenges Black people could have faced during Reconstruction after American enslavement was abolished.
He talks about when Black people could participate in the American political sphere for the first time. But he also talks about the backlash in the Southern states through the formation of the Klu Klux Klan and exploitative legislation such as the Black Codes.
Could that be considered a divisive concept, and thus something that could run afoul of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order that seeks to prevent it? Collins said he doesn’t know.
The Newport News high school teacher said he didn’t find any answers when he reviewed the Jan. 15 order — only open-ended criteria that led to more questions.
The dilemma stems from recent debates to ban contentious topics from being taught in schools — a debate that some school administrators maintain has placed more burdens on teachers.
Youngkin promised parents he would eliminate critical race theory in schools, and although it’s not taught in K-12 schools, it’s become a catchall term referring to what and how children are taught about racial issues. Without specific definitions, critics of Youngkin’s order say it’s an attempt to roll back progressive efforts to provide students with an equitable, inclusive education.
Collins said it’s his responsibility to open his students’ minds to different perspectives and teach them about often overlooked historical events.
According to Atif Qarni, Virginia’s former secretary of education, those are the types of lessons some parents and elected officials aim to bar from classrooms. The debate around whether CRT, as it’s often referred to, is taught in schools misses the point.
“We have to call it for what it is … this is an attack on intelligent thinking, about really grappling with our complex society and trying to understand deep-rooted systemic barriers and racism,” he said.
Auditing Virginia’s curricula
School officials repeatedly have pointed out that critical race theory isn’t taught in K-12 schools, nor are any similar instructional practices.
Over the past four years, Virginia took steps to improve the state’s Standard of Learning and provide an equitable education for students. Qarni said he received emails from parents and elected officials saying they didn’t want students learning about some of the topics that would be incorporated in the curricula, which was first reported by the Richmond-Times Dispatch.
Youngkin told state legislators last month his order intends to dissolve concerns about the state’s curricula.
“Virginia parents want our history — all of our history, the good and the bad — to be taught. And they want their children to be told how to think, not what to think,” the governor said. “That’s why we should not use inherently divisive concepts like Critical Race Theory in Virginia. And why we should not be teaching our children to see everything through the lens of race.”
Supporters of Youngkin’s order have argued that the path the state is following is itself racist. A Christian legal group sued the Albemarle County school division late last year, saying the current curriculum “classifies all individuals into a racial group and identifies them as either perpetually privileged oppressors or perpetually victimized.”
The Virginia Beach-based Students First Va, a political action committee co-founded by School Board member Vicky Manning that supports an attempt to recall several other board members, is among those backing Youngkin’s effort. Co-founder and President Tim Mack said public schools are “teaching political heresy, not facts” and treating children differently based on race.
“These destructive concepts are cancerous to students and education and need to be surgically removed before they metastasize. They certainly do not help develop healthy, happy, strong, independent, well-educated citizens that our community and country need,” Mack wrote in an email.
The state’s Secretary of Education, Aimee Guidera, echoed Youngkin during a Jan. 17 House Education Committee meeting. She said many parents don’t know what their children are learning in schools and want more transparency to ensure “divisiveness” and “political agendas” aren’t imposed on students. She said the audit Youngkin ordered will remove anything from the past four years that Guidera and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow think is controversial — but also that any changes made will not prevent an honest account of U.S. history.
Guidera’s office did not respond to a request for comment. On Feb. 15, Youngkin told The Associated Press the executive order will “get divisive concepts out of our schools” while also ensuring “that we should teach all of our history, the good and the bad.
“And I think those two concepts absolutely fit together very well.”
But without any real definition, educators say anything could be seen as controversial depending on whom you ask.
In 2020, a state commission made edits to Virginia’s social studies standards to improve how Black history is taught in K-12. The African American History Education Commission also recommended professional development opportunities for teachers to become more “culturally responsive” because roughly half of public school students are people of color, while a large majority of teachers are white.
Some of those changes could take effect in the 2022-23 academic year, Qarni said.
Multiple bills proposed during the 2022 legislative session sought to codify Youngkin’s order.
A Senate committee struck down a bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Jen Kiggans, whose district covers parts of Norfolk and Virginia Beach, that deems teaching anything divisive as “an unlawful and discriminatory practice.” The policy, like the order, said a divisive concept is anything that goes against two sections of Civil Right Act of 1964 that prohibits educational institutions from discriminating against students because of race and other factors.
The GOP-controlled House passed a similar bill Feb. 15 that would ban controversial topics after at least 10 amendments to safeguard teaching about landmark events and policies such as the Jim Crow era and the Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that gay marriage was constitutional.
Youngkin’s order also targets other plans, including Virginia Mathematics Pathways Initiatives, which received criticism last year under the assumption that students wouldn’t be able to take advanced courses before 11th grade for equitable learning outcomes. Virginia’s Board of Education has yet to review any changes to the state’s math standard — routine revisions happen every seven years — until 2023.
Qarni said the criticism of the Pathways Initiative comes from the mistaken belief that helping people who may be at a disadvantage will take away from others.
“We’re adding more resources, creating more seats,” he said. ”We’re a really well-resourced country. … We have a lot of bandwidth to meet the needs of everyone.”
Making matters worse
Educators have expressed growing concerns that the ripple effect of COVID-19′s impact on schools coupled with recent backlash from parents and elected officials will drive teachers and administrators out of the profession and cause communities to mistrust the public education system.
Retired elementary school principal Krista Arnold and superintendent Ben Kiser said Youngkin’s recent actions could exacerbate the problem. It could also cause those in leadership roles, such as principals and superintendents, to follow suit because of the social and political climate.
“They are really struggling to keep their staff and community and students together moving forward in a healthy learning environment,” said Arnold, who is the executive director for Virginia Association of Elementary School Principals. “Principals are being challenged with just crisis after crisis this year.”
Kiser, executive director of Virginia Association of School Superintendents, and Arnold agreed that Youngkin’s order and tip line to report divisive teachings are “counterproductive.” Although both hope to work with his administration, Kiser said the order was emotionally driven.
Kiser, who served as superintendent in Gloucester County until 2014, stressed the importance of encouraging students to think critically and draw their own conclusions based on the facts. He said he’s confident the state curriculum doesn’t enforce or include contentious lessons.
“Our schools are microcosms of what we see in our society as a whole,” he said. “We should be setting the example to help our children understand how to become independent, critical thinkers and productive within our society. And you can’t restrict that opportunity for them to learn in that modality while they’re in classrooms.”
Collins said he won’t let the fear of professional repercussions keep him from teaching true and honest lessons to his students, he said. He described it as, what the late Civil Rights activist and U.S. Rep. John Lewis would call, “good trouble.”
Giving kids the tools to “look deeper into things in the current world” drives his lessons, Collins said. ”You should read into any type of law … to make sure that it’s actually being done equitably for all people in our society.”
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