So, as you guys have noticed, I've been taking passes at the woke community lately for various reasons, including literally trying to brainwash children much like the religious right wants to do. That said, as someone who dislikes woke politics, but has some academic respect for woke theory, I figured it might be good to explain how I feel like critical theory should be taught in schools.
For the most part, I don't think woke politics should be taught until high school. I kind of consider the teenage years to be the age of reason to some extent, while anything before that is just regurgitating what is being taught. Most people develop their political views between the ages of 14-24, and what they learn during this time period is crucial. However, many people don't go to college, and those who do might not be taught these kinds of theories. Moreover, I will agree with the left that the education we give people on the subject of critical theory at the K-12 level is lacking at best. A huge reason conservatives still exist, is because of a failure to teach certain kinds of high level thinking at younger classroom levels. The right doesn't understand sociology and treats social sciences like fake disciplines, and that's why these politics are so poorly misunderstood.
At the same time, what woke people seem to wanna do is brainwashing to me. While woke politics should be included younger, I support doing so within a comparative politics type environment. Teach multiple perspectives. Teach the white perspective of our history, as it IS our culture, but also include a lot of sections talking about how the stuff we did wasn't all good and how we kind of exploited and killed many many people over the years. We shouldn't shy away from our crimes in history. I just don't think we should go crazy about imposing woke stuff on people. The difference is like this. In Attack on Titan, the Marleyans forced the Eldians living within their walls to learn about the crimes of the Eldian people. Basically, Eldia bad, and Eldians needed to constantly feel sorry and apologize and own up to their ancestors' sins. They literally brainwashed people and taught one sided dogmas, about how bad they were constantly, making them internalize this, and making the "good eldians" try to serve the nation of Marley in a way that makes up for their past sins. This is abusive and exploitative. We should not teach history like this. Rather, we should teach the crimes of the Eldians, but at the same time, not try to impose an insane racist ideology onto them. In the real world, we should teach history, for what it is. If we did bad, show how we did bad, and teach it, and move on. But don't really try to brainwash kids or impose an ideology on them, make sense? Be objective, teach both sides.
As for critical theory itself, it should be taught in a high school social studies class. We should go over all three schools of sociology here: conflict theory, functionalist theory, and symbolic interactionism. And when we teach conflict theory, we include a section on critical theory, and maybe had some assignments or exercises about it. You know, teach kids about this stuff. It's valid theory. It should be taught. That's called educating people. But there's a difference between education, and indoctrination. Woke people seem more interested in imposing dogmas on people, than they are in creating well rounded minds given the facts encouraged to make their own decisions.
And that's my opinion on this. We should teach people the truth, and give people the tools to come to conclusions on their own. Education is about informing people. Not about indoctrinating them into an ideology. Again, what the woke people do reminds me of what fundamentalist Christians try to do: impose their version of culture and what society is supposed to be onto people at the exclusion of other views in order to push people to think a certain way. While critical theory should be taught, it should be done in a way that intends to educate, not indoctrinate.
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