ELKHART, Ind. — In an email to parents, Concord Schools claims not to be teaching Critical Race Theory. The only issue; REAL News Michiana uncovered CRT being taught through the company the school uses for its Social Emotional Learning curriculum.
Concord families,
Concord recognizes and embraces the diversity within our community and we believe this diversity is core to our strength as a community and school district. Recently, we have received questions as we return to school this year regarding whether or not we teach Critical Race Theory (CRT). The answer is a simple, “no.” We do not teach Critical Race Theory at Concord. Concord’s policy on this topic is exactly what our State Superintendent, Dr. Katie Jenner says in this letter sent to superintendents and principals. Our curriculum is derived from the Indiana standards and CRT is not found in any of the standards.
In addition, none of our additional programming for students contains CRT. We have, and will continue to be, transparent with parents and guardians about our curriculum. To this end, we have adopted a new Learning Management System called Canvas which, when fully implemented, will allow parents to see the majority of our instructional material that is used in classrooms K-12 each day. This transparency will allow greater collaboration between the school and home and allow us to continue to partner with you in the education of your student.
Additionally, this Parent Resources page on our website contains links to important information about our curriculum and programming. If you have any questions regarding the curriculum your child is receiving as a part of their education here at Concord, I encourage you to reach out to your child’s principal or to me directly. I can be reached via email at michaelwagner@concord.k12.in.us.I sincerely hope your child has a wonderful school year, engages with you each evening regarding the content s/he is learning here at school, and makes many meaningful and lasting friendships as a part of their time with us. We appreciate your partnership and support!
Warm regards,
Mickey WagnerChief Academic OfficerConcord Community Schools
Concord Schools has recently adopted the CharacterStrong curriculum that does in fact promote forms of CRT in the guise of Anti-Racism. You can see it for yourself here.
A Counselor for Concord High School refused to release the actual lesson plans, slide shows and complete curriculum to multiple parents who were requesting the information. You can read about that here.
All of this is part of the Critical Race Theory push happening in school districts across the country. The theory essentially starts with the conclusion that all white people are inherently racist and oppressors. People of color are victims and the oppressed. The theory attempts to fight racism with racism. It is essentially a racial take on communist “critical theory,” attempting to indoctrinate communist ideals into our children by calling them racist if they disagree with the teachings.
REAL News Michiana submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the school to obtain all of the documents.
I scanned through the antiracist youtube video and some of the content is very good (helpful and not inflammatory), but the overall message is all white students and teachers have pre-conceived expectations of black students, and that all white people proactively avoid black people in stores, restaurants, etc., and store associates don’t want to assist black people. That is just so disingenuous. That doesn’t happen anymore from my observations. There may be a few people who are racist in that manner, but most people don’t think about it. Rather, my perception is people of all races tend to avoid people who make them feel uncomfortable, regardless of race or gender – panhandlers, drug addicts, aggressive people on the street, people who smell bad, people who are rude or threatening, etc. It’s just wrong to make white kids who are not racist feel bad, and to make black kids distrustful of all white people. Thanks for all the work you do!
Totally agree with Nan!