North Cook News

Former Illinois social studies teacher Chris Talgo thinks too many school lessons are now focused on all the wrong teachings.

All across the country, the issue of Critical Race Theory (CRT) has sparked a national debate about the role of race and racism in school districts. Often compared by critics to actual racism, CRT is a school of thought that generally focuses on how power structures and institutions affect racial minorities.

“Like the outrage and protests taking place against critical race theory, parents, watchdogs, concerned teachers and others must address the war against capitalism and the embrace of communism within our nation’s schools and universities,” Talgo warned in a guest column for The College Fix.

"During my time as a teacher, I was absolutely shocked at the way socialism and communism was taught to today’s students by so many of my peers, as well as in textbooks."

Illinois State University history professor Andrew Hartman recently likened the situation to “typical culture wars where the issue itself is not always driving the controversy.”

Hartman told NPR, “I’m not really sure that the conservatives right now know what it is or know their history.”

The author of 'A War for the Soul of America: A History of Culture Wars,' went on to argue, "Conservatives, since the 1960s, have increasingly defined American society as a colorblind society, in the sense that maybe there were some problems in the past but American society corrected itself and now we have these laws and institutions that are meritocratic and anybody, regardless of race, can achieve the American dream."

Almost wherever you look, emotions are running high on the issue, with radio host and black father Ty Smith recently charging at a school board meeting that the instruction is all wrong for District 87 students.

“How to dislike each other, that’s pretty much all it's going to come down to,” Smith said in video that went viral on YouTube. “You’re going to deliberately teach kids this white kid got it better than you because he’s white? You’re going to purposely tell a white kid all the black people are down and oppressed? How do I have two medical degrees if I’m sitting here oppressed? ... No mom, no dad in the house, I worked my way through college.”

In the end, Smith said he is hoping everyone comes to realize one thing he sees as being most important.

“It all comes down to the ones that are going to be hurt from this being the kids,” he said. “This is something to talk about right now."