The Montessori Analogy

Weasels and Bricks.

The Eanes School-Board members have repeatedly said that Critical Race Theory is not being taught in Eanes.

This is not true.  

To be charitable, I don’t think all of them are lying.  It’s possible that some are just woefully uneducated about the implications of what they’re doing.  But I’m not sure that’s better than lying.  They’re members of the school board of one of the most influential districts in the state—and they don’t know the implications of their actions? Inexcusable.

It’s also inexcusable how some members of this cohort are definitely lying.  They know the implications of the policies and hiring decisions they’re implementing.  Yet they waive away parent concerns as if members of the Eanes community are just stupid.  It’s so incredibly insulting.

“Oh, no,” they say with such earnestness, “we’re not teaching Critical Race Theory.  No, we just want the District to be more inclusive.”

We’ll talk about the specifics Critical Race Theory (CRT) in later posts.  But before we go into the CRT weeds, let’s look at the big picture.  When Dr. Gooden (the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant) and the School Board waive away parent concerns, they’re playing language games.  Instead of being forthright with you, they’re hiding the truth.

The Montessori Analogy

Let’s say you walk into a primary classroom and you asked the teacher, “Do you teach Montessori?”

If the teacher responds, “Nope, Montessori methodology is not classroom training, and it’s not classroom work.  Montessori methodology is a pedagogical approach to teaching, typically used by educators to structure a classroom.  This is not a slight of Montessori.  This is not some charge to say that it’s bad, but that’s just simply not what we’re doing.  I’ve had parents ask are we teaching kindergarteners Montessori methods.  We’re not. We’re not doing that.”

You would look at the teacher and know that she was playing weaselly games.  Or she’s a brick.  “Did you seriously think I was asking if you were teaching the pedagogy of Montessori education to kindergarteners?  Did you seriously think I was asking if you literally teach philosophy of education to small children???”

“Yup.”

Big deep breath.  At least now you know that the teacher is going to be ridiculously literal in every answer she gives you.  Either she doesn’t know what she’s talking about and thus doesn’t have the breadth of knowledge to understand and answer the real question.  Or she does know, and she’s playing weasel games.

You try again, “Of course I know you’re not teaching pedagogy to children.  I’m trying to find out if you apply Montessori methodology as you structure activities and learning opportunities in your classroom.  Do you?”

There’s a pause.  You and she look around the classroom.  You can both see that the classroom is multi-age and filled with hands-on, imaginative-play materials.  The children are making self-directed choices about what materials they want to play with.  The room is filled with education opportunity that the students choose independently.

Clearly, the teacher uses Montessori methodology.

If she says no at this point, either she doesn’t know what she’s talking about or she’s lying.  Of course, she’s not teaching Montessori theory as theory to children.  But she’s most certainly applying the theory in her classroom.  And you and she both know that’s what you were trying to find out.

We can use this analogy with any subject that has both a theory and an application. Any subject that has both philosophy and practice.  For example, when you ask the school counselor what schools of psychology she embraces, you’re not asking if she teaches those theories to the students.  She doesn’t teach psychology theory to students; she applies psychology theory with students.

So let’s take this back to School Board.

Parents ask, “Are you teaching Critical Race Theory to our children?”

Their answer: “Nope.” 

In fact, here is Dr. G’s verbatim answer:  “CRT is not DEI training and it’s not DEI work.  It’s a theoretical approach, typically used by scholars to interpret happenings in society through scholarly engagement. . . . This is not a slight of Critical Race Theory.  This is not some charge to say that it’s bad, but that’s just simply not what we’re doing.  I’ve had people ask are we teaching high schoolers Critical Race Theory.  We’re not.  We’re not doing that . . . .”

With the superintendent and all the School Board members nodding their heads in agreement, that’s precisely what Dr. G said at the 11 May 2021 School Board meeting.

See how it matches the teacher’s disingenuous answer above?  That’s how you know that they’re playing weasel games.  Or they’re bricks.

A concerned parent might ask: “Did you seriously think I’m asking if you’re teaching Critical Race Theory as it’s commonly taught in ‘the Academy’?  Did you seriously think that I’m asking if you’re teaching the history of Critical Race Theory and its development by the Frankfurt School as a retooling of failed Marxist philosophy in the first half of the twentieth century and how the writings of Horkheimer, Adorno, Gramsci, Marcuse, Lukács mush together with postmodernism and then get synthesized by Delgado, Stefancic, Bell, Crenshaw and spewed out as Critical Pedagogy by Freire and Giroux and pushed through some transmogrifying popular-culture machine by Kendi and DiAngelo?  Did you think I was asking if you were literally teaching Critical Race Theory as theory???”

“Yup.”

Big deep breath.  At least now you know that the School Board is going to be ridiculously literal in every answer they give you.  Either they don’t know what they’re talking about and thus don’t have the breadth of knowledge to understand and answer the real question.  Or they do know, and they’re playing games.  Weaselly political games.

You try again, “Of course I know you’re not teaching Critical Race Theory as theory.  I’m trying to find out if the District is applying Critical Race Theory.   Are you allowing and endorsing applied Critical Race Theory in our District?”

To answer this question, all you need to do is spend five minutes

• reading the District’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion webpage,
• listening to the School-Board meetings, or
• looking at Dr. Gooden’s “work.”

That’s all you need in order to know that the answer is yes:  the leadership of the District is most definitely allowing and endorsing applied Critical Race Theory. When they give you any other answer than yes, you know you’re dealing with weasels and bricks.