August 25, 2021 –
Last week, I submitted an opinion column to the Ellsworth American, in response to a lengthy front-page story about a parent’s complaint that Critical Race Theory is being taught in Ellsworth public schools.
The op-ed was rejected by managing editor Cyndi Wood. This is how she explained her decision:
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Hi Larry,
I reviewed your piece and the materials you gathered through your FOAA request. We will not be running the op-ed. While we welcome a variety of viewpoints, the premise of your piece does not hold up. You accuse local educators of being liars and propagandists on the basis of a group attending a workshop focused on inclusion and acknowledging that everyone has a different background and viewpoint — hardly scandalous stuff. Presenting that as an insidious attempt to brainwash our youth sounds more like propaganda to me.
Cyndi
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Fair enough. She is the final arbiter of what’s fit to print on the opinion pages.
Here is the op-ed she rejected:
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Ellsworth faculty, staff immersed in race-based identity politics
What a surprise to read the chorus of denials (August 5, 2021) from Ellsworth teachers and administrators in response to a parent’s claim that so-called “Critical Race Theory” (CRT) is being taught in local K-12 classrooms.
Then again, I’m not surprised.
If more parents were aware of the extent to which their children are being indoctrinated in race-based identity politics, the folks who run the public schools would be forced to defend the Leftist propaganda that permeates public education.
For now, their strategy is to define (or re-define) Critical Race Theory so narrowly that they can plausibly deny it’s being taught.
“People attribute things to us that just aren’t what we do,” Superintendent Dan Higgins told the Ellsworth American. “CRT isn’t part of our curriculum, and it isn’t what we do.”
OK.
It’s true that Critical Race Theory — which asserts that America is a systemically racist nation that disadvantages non-whites, and that whites benefit from something called “white privilege” — isn’t explicitly part of the curriculum in the Ellsworth School Department….yet. Rather, CRT has been re-branded as “Cultural Competence,” and instead of incorporating it directly into the curriculum, it’s being introduced via teacher training modules.
A number of Ellsworth teachers, administrators, and school board members have been immersed for the past year in this distinctly Leftist ideology that resembles a dumbed-down, K-12 version of university-level CRT.
I can make that statement with absolute confidence because I requested access to the teacher training material pursuant to the Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) on June 11th. Superintendent Higgins provided me with the requested public records last month.
Click here to view the training material.
Here’s what I discovered.
In a series of monthly 90-minute Zoom meetings beginning last September and concluding in May of this year, several Ellsworth teachers and the district’s curriculum coordinator joined K-12 public-school teachers from across the state for training sessions conducted by the Cultural Competence Institute, a creation of the Augusta-based lobbying group, the Maine School Management Association.
The very first exercise in the monthly training for teachers was called “The Identity Wheel.”
The inner circle of the Identity Wheel consists of six social identities: age, physical disabilities/qualities, ethnicity, gender, race, and sexual orientation.
The exercise then dives deep into the question: “What is intersectionality?”
Here’s the answer: “Intersectionality is the overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination.”
From there, teachers have to search their souls to determine their own “intersectional identity.”
Apparently, Superintendent Higgins didn’t recognize that discussion of “intersectionality” for what it is: a word salad of navel-gazing, academic gobbledygook straight from the Critical Race Theory playbook. In any case, intersectionality and “its related systems of oppression” certainly fit the broad definition of CRT the Ellsworth American attributed to UCLA law professor Kimberle Williams Crenshaw.
Ellsworth teachers — including the high-school social studies and English teachers — who participated in the CCI training were assigned to read, “I’m Still Here: Black Identity in a World Made for Whiteness” by Austin Brown. The first sentence declares: “White people can be exhausting.”
Try to imagine what the reaction would be if someone voiced such a negative stereotype about any other racial group. Yikes!
There’s more.
One of the stated goals of the CCI training is to encourage recruiting and hiring faculty of color. This sort of anti-white racism — “affirmative action” is the feel-good euphemism — is already in place in Portland schools, and now it appears the Ellsworth School Department is poised to follow the same path.
The FOAA documents provided by Superintendent Higgins also reveal that school department staff are reading one of the sacred texts of CRT, White Fragility, by woke author Robin DiAngelo. Her simple-minded, largely debunked trashing of “whiteness” is one of the secular Bibles of the high priests of race-based identity politics.
Notably absent from the suggested readings is a single reference to any of the numerous conservative authors who reject the Left’s narrative of America as a systemically racist country. Black author Shelby Steele’s White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era would make a fine addition to the reading list, but it’s nowhere to be found.
So, what happens if you don’t agree with CCI’s Leftist agenda being taught to your kids and grandkids? You will learn from the training discussions that school officials dismiss dissenting parents as “privileged” and “deniers.”
When parents in Ellsworth complained about Black Lives Matter posters on classroom doors, the training material described that controversy this way: “Teachers are ready, parents are not.”
In summary: contrary to the chorus of denials by Ellsworth school officials, parents have good reason to be alarmed about the rampant racial stereotyping and racial scapegoating masquerading as “diversity education” in K-12 classrooms.
Ultimately, the local school board is responsible for this scandal. Individual members of the board should be held accountable.
Lawrence Lockman of Bradley served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives, from 2012 to 2020. He is co-founder and President of the conservative non-profit Maine First Project. He may be reached at (207) 460-6518.
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You be the judge.
Again, Cyndi has absolute discretion with regard to what appears on the opinion pages of the newspaper she manages on behalf of Reade Brower.
But I can’t imagine James Russell Wiggins (the late editor and publisher) or Alan Baker (the retired publisher) rejecting a dissenting viewpoint on such flimsy grounds.
Neither Wiggins nor Baker were conservatives, but they were journalists.
I’m still searching for where in the column I accuse local educators of being “liars.”
Whatever.
You can reach Cyndi at 207-610-5754 or cwood@ellsworthamerican.com to ask her to elaborate on her reasoning.
And don’t forget: we have three Activist Training seminars coming up to teach you the best strategies and tactics to be an effective warrior against the Leftist totalitarians who dominate state government and the K-12 indoctrination swamp.
- September 18th in Auburn
- October 2nd in Wells
- October 16th in Bath
These classes are by invitation only, so shoot me an email at larrylockman22@gmail.com if you’re interested in learning more.
As always, thank you for your persistence, and your commitment to making Maine great again!
Best Regards,
Hon. Lawrence Lockman, R-Bradley
Maine House of Representatives, 2012-2020
Co-founder & President
Maine First Project
PS
Can you believe how far we’ve sunk?
Teaching our kids and grandkids to hate themselves and their country?
Soldier on, my friend!