Center Grove schools will not be teaching critical race theory in its schools, nor will it delve into transformative social emotional learning, both topics that concerned some parents across Johnson County.
Superintendent Rich Arkanoff made the pledge to avoid critical race theory in classroom curricula during Center Grove’s school board meeting Tuesday. The theory originated in legal scholarship and spread to other fields of study. It discusses the role race and institutionalized racism play in putting minority group members at a disadvantage in society, according to the American Bar Association.
Transformative social emotional learning includes components of equity and social justice, according to CASEL, the organization that promotes it.
Social emotional learning at Center Grove schools, however, centers on emotional regulation to cope with anxiety, depression, ADHD and other conditions that often affect children and teenagers, and does not include racial themes.
During a board meeting at Clark-Pleasant schools last week, the topic of critical race theory came up, and Superintendent Patrick Spray emphasized the topic is taught primarily in law school and not in grade school.
Across the country, debates about critical race theory have erupted at school board meetings. More than half of U.S. states have either banned critical race theory, petitioned the U.S. Department of Education to do so or restricted teaching certain elements of it, according to Chalkbeat, an education news site.
Locally, parents at school board meetings at Center Grove, Clark-Pleasant and Franklin schools have spoken out against it, though none of the respective school district’s curricula include the theory.
Controversy did arise recently at Pleasant Crossing Elementary School, as parents learned earlier this year a school counselor taught fifth graders about microaggressions, such as saying “all lives matter” to counter the phrase “Black lives matter.”
The counselor also mentioned that saying, “if you didn’t do the crime, police wouldn’t have pulled their guns,” ignores the possibility that someone being charged of a crime might not necessarily be guilty of it, according to Kathy Giuliani, a community member and Center Grove grandparent who spoke at that meeting.
The counselor’s actions went against the guidelines of what should be taught in the classroom, board member Joe Hubbard said.
“We were upset about it, and we lost trust with the community,” Hubbard said. “We’re trying to create some guardrails to prevent those things from happening again and to hold people accountable.”
Classroom lessons will be posted on Center Grove’s website so parents can review them, according to a presentation at the school board meeting.
Parents should be able to view videos of their children’s classes, said Rep. John Jacob, R-Indianapolis, a local state representative.
“I do believe (social emotional learning) and critical race theory as it presently stands being taught across the nation has Marxist ideology and undermines the fabric of our nation,” Jacob said during the school board meeting. “The issue of video in the classroom is an incredibly important issue. I think teachers need to be accountable.”
Students could be off camera during classroom videos, Jacob said. But school board members said any classroom videos would violate student privacy.
Similar discussions took place at last week’s Franklin school board meeting, with parents speaking up against critical race theory even though it was not on the board’s agenda. The outrage, however, is the result of buzz words and misinformation, said Chaz Hill, a social studies teacher at Franklin Community High School.
“U.S. history is a rose with beautiful petals and painful thorns. Blatant discrimination against minority groups throughout history is an unavoidable thorn,” Hill said.
“Critical race theory seeks to understand where in U.S. law race has played a significant role, but it does not play a role is U.S. history classes. Critical race theory was chosen because it sounds divisive. It performed well in focus groups and its mentions have grown exponentially since March. It’s just like the satanic panic of the 1990s and the War on Christmas more recently.”
Center Grove schools will hold a community forum Wednesday at the district’s innovation center to discuss the topic further, Arkanoff said.
