In Texas, Panic Over Critical Race Theory Extends to Bookshelves

A curriculum official even went so far as to suggest teachers seek “opposing” perspectives when students read a book about the Holocaust, a record acquired by NBC News said. The caretaker apologized. “We acknowledge,” he said, “the Holocaust has no two sides.”

Sheri Mills, a school administrator in Southlake, heard herself denounced as a Marxist and verbally abused her teenage daughter’s sporting events.

“Many of our teachers are petrified,” said Ms. Mills. “The really good teachers, when they’re about to retire, they’re going.”

In Alief, a diverse neighborhood on the western outskirts of Houston, three English teachers from Kerr High School sat together and talked about this uncertain world.

Safraz Ali, who spent his early childhood in Guyana and taught for 17 years, said he had grown tired of insecurity. He called the state ministry of education and asked officials to define the critical theory of race. There was no answer.

“It’s like walking into a dark room,” he said.

In particular, teachers pointed out the clause that says that a teacher must not instill the idea that students should feel “responsibility, guilt or guilt” because of their race or gender. Mr Krause, the state representative, had gone a step further and said that a teacher could simply exceed it by assigning a book that bothers a student.

These teachers almost hit their foreheads in frustration. Teaching Shakespeare and Toni Morrison to read Gabriel García Márquez or Frederick Douglass is to evoke emotions, they said, which can lead to introspection and self-knowledge, sadness and joy. The challenge is no different for a social studies teacher who talks about Cherokee dying on the Trail of Tears or white gangs lynching blacks and Mexicans.