10 Scientific American, February 2022
SCIENCE AGENDA
OPINION AND ANALYSIS FROM
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN’S BOARD OF EDITORS
Illustration by Martin GeeElected officials who campaigned against critical race theory
(CRT), the study of how social structures perpetuate racial inequal-
ity and injustice, are being sworn into office all over the U.S. These
candidates captured voters’ attention by vilifying CRT, which has
become a catch-all to describe any teaching about racial injustice.
Lessons about the genocide of Native Americans, slavery, segrega-
tion and systemic racism would harm children, these candidates
argued. Calling its inclusion divisive, some states have enacted
legislation banning CRT from school curricula altogether.
This regressive agenda threatens children’s education by prop-
agating a falsified view of reality in which American history and
culture are outcomes of white virtue. It is part of a larger program
of avoiding any truths that make some people uncomfortable,
which sometimes allows in active disinformation, such as cre-
ationism. Children are especially susceptible to misinformation,
as Melinda Wenner Moyer writes in “Schooled in Lies,” on page 34.
It is crucial for young people to learn about equity and social
justice so they can thrive in our increasingly global, multilingual
and multicultural society. When students become aware of the
structural origins of inequality, they better understand the foun-
dations of American society. They are also better equipped to com-
prehend, interpret and integrate into their worldviews the science
they learn in their classrooms and experience in their lives.
Pondering racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities helps
students understand, for example, why COVID death rates among
Black, Latino and Native American people were much higher than
those of white people as the pandemic began. They can better com-
prehend why people of color are far more likely to be subjected to
the ravages of pollution and climate change or how a legacy of U.S.
science that experimented on Black and Indigenous Americans
may have led to distrust of doctors and health care.
Removing conversations around race and society removes
truth and reality from education. This political interference is
nothing new—political and cultural ideologues have fought for
years to remove subjects such as evolution, Earth history and sex
education from classrooms and textbooks, despite the evidence
that sex ed helps to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually
transmitted diseases, that evolution explains all life on Earth and
that the world is older than a few thousand years.
Many of the school districts that brought in anti-CRT board
members are the same ones that refuse to mandate masks, despite
the evidence that masks can prevent the spread of COVID. These
school officials also rail against vaccine mandates as a violation
of personal choice. It is the same prioritization of individuals over
community and a discomfort with hard truths that characterize
the movement against the teaching of true history.
Fortunately, efforts to limit children’s education face stark oppo-
sition. The American Civil Liberties Union describes initiatives to
quash discussions of racism in classrooms as “anathema to free
speech.” And the U.S. Department of Education is debating a series
of American History and Civics standards that include introduc-
ing “racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse per-
spectives into teaching and learning.” Caught in the middle are
teachers who are trying to educate children during a pandemic.
While many parents of school-aged children supported anti-
CRT campaigns, voters with no connection to the classroom
helped significantly to tip these elections. Parents and educators
must bring the conversation back to teaching children about real-
ity. EdAllies, a Minnesota-based educational-support nonprofit, is
encouraging teachers to reach out to parents and administrators
to explain the necessity of antiracist content in their lessons, as a
way to build community support.
All over the U.S., school board meetings are being taken over
by fear of the inclusion bogeyman. And after our recent elections,
more board members have the power to act against lessons they
dislike. Today, tomorrow and for as long as these elected officials
are in office, it is the children and the teachers who will pay the
price for an incomplete education. We must work toward a school
experience that includes narratives of discrimination, social jus-
tice and inequality as truths we can learn from so that history
might not repeat itself.JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE
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Should Teach
Reality
Lessons about racism are essential
to a fact-based education
By the Editors