NYC Teacher: Yes, 'Critical Race Theory' 'Training' Is Harmful 'Indoctrination' of Our Kids

Ever feel like we’ve reached the point where daily life consists primarily of playing a never-ending game of “liberal insanity whack-a-mole”? We smack one here insane narrative here, another one immediately pops up, there, then another one, here? Me too.

From border-swarms of illegal alien-wannabes dressed in Biden campaign T-shirts demanding the aforementioned honor his campaign promises and “Let us in!”, to “racial justice” and “abolish the police” riots — er “peaceful protests — to defiant teachers unions who continue refuse to send to their members back to their classrooms, and on and on. The never-ending story of the grip the left has on America is a sobering reality.

On that bright note, as reported by the New York Post, a private school teacher in New York City is risking his career by warning we’re doing a disservice to America’s school kids who are subject to the indoctrination of controversial “Critical Race Theory.”

‘I can’t stay silent’: NYC math teacher rips school’s ‘critical race theory’ indoctrination https://t.co/EenSwyUhWM pic.twitter.com/9fwzKlh5eA

— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) April 14, 2021

Paul Rossi, a math teacher at Grace Church School in Manhattan — which costs a pricey $57,000 a year to attend — slammed his school in an open letter titled, “I Refuse to Stand By While My Students Are Indoctrinated,” published Tuesday by former New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss, from which the Post article was excerpted.

NYC teacher: We’re damaging kids with ‘Critical Race Theory’ https://t.co/BNzlyk11NC via @nypost

— DENNIS R BROOKS (@DENNISRBROOKS1) April 14, 2021

Earlier this year, the school, which “prides itself on being at the forefront of implementing woke ideology into classrooms,” made headlines for issuing an “inclusive language” guide that warned staff, students, and parents against assuming someone’s gender and using unwelcoming terms such as “mom and dad” and “Merry Christmas.”

On her Substack page, @bariweiss published this piece by a teacher at an elite private school in NYC: https://t.co/BcWz5nsDtk describing how life is like in that institution that has adopted the policy that all students should be indoctrinated in Critical Race Theory

— Kingmaker – Big IF! (True) (@KingMakerFT) April 13, 2021

In the open letter, Rossi torched Grace’s embrace of “antiracist” doctrine, which he called “deeply harmful” and completely antithetical to “the virtues of curiosity, empathy, and understanding.”

“‘Antiracist’ training sounds righteous,” he wrote, “but it is the opposite of truth in advertising. It requires teachers like myself to treat students differently on the basis of race.”

Rossi explained the indoctrination process:

“My school, like so many others, induces students via shame and sophistry to identify primarily with their race before their individual identities are fully formed.

“Students are pressured to conform their opinions to those broadly associated with their race and gender and to minimize or dismiss individual experiences that don’t match those assumptions.

“The morally compromised status of ‘oppressor’ is assigned to one group of students based on their immutable characteristics. In the meantime, dependency, resentment and moral superiority are cultivated in students considered “oppressed.”

“All of this is done in the name of “equity,” but it is the opposite of fair. In reality, all of this reinforces the worst impulses we have as human beings: our tendency toward tribalism and sectarianism that a truly liberal education is meant to transcend.”

Rossi wrote that he became a teacher after changing careers ten years ago, upon discovering how rewarding it felt to help young people explore “the truth and beauty of mathematics.” He continues to love his work and also continues to believe that his first obligation is to his students.

“But now,” Rossi wrote, “my school is asking me to embrace “antiracism” training and pedagogy that I believe is deeply harmful to them and to any person who seeks to nurture the virtues of curiosity, empathy, and understanding.”

Because he feels a duty to his students, Rossi has spoken out and questioned the indoctrination. “I wanted to be a voice for the many students of different backgrounds who have approached me over the course of the past several years to express their frustration with indoctrination at our school, but are afraid to speak up,” he wrote.

“They report that, in their classes and other discussions, they must never challenge any of the premises of our ‘antiracist’ teachings, which are deeply informed by Critical Race Theory.

“These concerns are confirmed for me when I attend grade-level and all-school meetings about race or gender issues. There, I witness student after student sticking to a narrow script of acceptable responses.

“Teachers praise insights when they articulate the existing framework or expand it to apply to novel domains. Meantime, it is common for teachers to exhort students who remain silent that ‘we really need to hear from you.’”

Here’s where it gets downright chilling:

“Furthermore, in order to maintain a united front for our students, teachers at Grace are directed to confine our doubts about this pedagogical framework to conversations with an in-house “Office of Community Engagement” for whom every significant objection leads to a foregone conclusion.

“Any doubting students are likewise “challenged” to reframe their views to conform to this orthodoxy.

“A recent faculty email chain received enthusiastic support for recommending that we ‘officially’ flag students’ who appear ‘resistant’ to the ‘culture we are trying to establish.’

“When I questioned what form this resistance takes, examples presented by a colleague included ‘persisting with a colorblind ideology,’ ‘suggesting that we treat everyone with respect,’ ‘a belief in meritocracy,’ and ‘just silence.”

I don’t want to bust out the Hitlerjugend analogy, but this is insane and it is wrong. And it is happening.

“I know that by attaching my name to this I’m risking not only my current job but my career as an educator, since most schools, both public and private, are now captive to this backward ideology,” Rossi wrote.