Gender Justice, Health and Education
Protect Truth in Education in South Carolina
by Ashley Crary Lidow, MPH on Jan 31, 2022
WREN is joining our partners at the ACLU to protect truth in education. WREN supports educators’ and students’ rights to talk about race, sex, and gender in schools. All students deserve educational materials and information that accurately describes our history, including the history of underrepresented and marginalized people.
South Carolinian legislators have filed several bills that could prohibit the teaching and training on concepts related to race, religion, politics, and gender and sexual orientation. Truthful and inclusive discussions about United States and South Carolina history, like Jim Crow, the Trail of Tears, or the Holocaust are essential to accurate and quality academic instruction. No student or educator should have their history and humanity erased from the classroom. These proposed bills may also unreasonably restrict important discussion of current events in K-12 and higher education classrooms, as well as within businesses and non-profit organizations in our state.
The bills prohibit certain teachings about slavery and the Civil Rights Movement, require lessons on the Native American experience from a pilgrim’s perspective, and censor speech that falls under their invented definition of ‘Critical Race Theory.’ The definition of Critical Race Theory presented in these bills is inaccurate and is written in a way that seeks to prohibit teaching about our country’s darker moments. In reality, Critical Race Theory seeks to understand what allowed those dark moments in American history to occur and what allows inequality to persist today. We are advocating for the legislature to trust that the excellent teachers and professors in our state know how to teach the challenging aspects of our history without government interference.
Our students need your support. Students need an honest and truthful teaching of American history so that they can fully understand the world they stand to inherit and lead. Your trust and support will help students and educators achieve that. Please click to let your legislators know that you oppose efforts to censor the classroom and stand in support of truthful education in South Carolina.
To learn more about the campaign, see bill factsheets, and get testimony templates click here: https://www.naacpldf.org/sc-protruth/
Take Action Today: https://p2a.co/jeKXlYk