Good insight here...admittedly, I was about to make a point of protest until you addressed the discrepancy between those who fear CRT education in public schools vs. those parents of children actually attending public schools. I'm one such parent and also a spouse of a public school educator, and I will say that stoking paranoia about CRT in the classroom can win you a seat on the local schoolboard (3 such instances locally just in the last year!), but the fears don't often match the actual instruction in the classroom. Maybe they do in some locations, and I'll admit that my area of NE Ohio is a small sample selection. But I think the fear of CRT in classrooms can produce just as strong a backlash as the actual instruction.
Back in my early adulthood, "outcome-based education" was the educational boogeyman - often spoken out against, cited in sensational anecdotes of schools run amok, yet seemingly rare (non-existent?) in the schools I was familiar with. Could the fear of CRT be similar?
As another example, I've seen (thus far less successful) attempts by political entrepreneurs to make "social emotional learning" the next backlash target. But as a parent who has sent a kid to both private and public schools using aspects of SEL, I have found the use of the material completely non-sinister and quite helpful for my own child's development. It bears only the slightest resemblance to the boogeyman version I see on cable news.
James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose’s book Cynical Theories (which focuses on CRT) also came out in August 2020 and quickly became popular, so that likely contributed to the rise in searches. It seems to me that criticism of school curriculum very much started organically, but Rufo/Lindsay/Pluckrose/etc. just gave it a name.
Also, asking parents whether they’re satisfied with schools is a very broad question. There are other polls that ask parents of K-12 students specifically about how political issues are taught in schools and the majority of the respondents (including majorities of Black, Hispanic and Asian parents) disapprove.
Good insight here...admittedly, I was about to make a point of protest until you addressed the discrepancy between those who fear CRT education in public schools vs. those parents of children actually attending public schools. I'm one such parent and also a spouse of a public school educator, and I will say that stoking paranoia about CRT in the classroom can win you a seat on the local schoolboard (3 such instances locally just in the last year!), but the fears don't often match the actual instruction in the classroom. Maybe they do in some locations, and I'll admit that my area of NE Ohio is a small sample selection. But I think the fear of CRT in classrooms can produce just as strong a backlash as the actual instruction.
Back in my early adulthood, "outcome-based education" was the educational boogeyman - often spoken out against, cited in sensational anecdotes of schools run amok, yet seemingly rare (non-existent?) in the schools I was familiar with. Could the fear of CRT be similar?
As another example, I've seen (thus far less successful) attempts by political entrepreneurs to make "social emotional learning" the next backlash target. But as a parent who has sent a kid to both private and public schools using aspects of SEL, I have found the use of the material completely non-sinister and quite helpful for my own child's development. It bears only the slightest resemblance to the boogeyman version I see on cable news.
James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose’s book Cynical Theories (which focuses on CRT) also came out in August 2020 and quickly became popular, so that likely contributed to the rise in searches. It seems to me that criticism of school curriculum very much started organically, but Rufo/Lindsay/Pluckrose/etc. just gave it a name.
Also, asking parents whether they’re satisfied with schools is a very broad question. There are other polls that ask parents of K-12 students specifically about how political issues are taught in schools and the majority of the respondents (including majorities of Black, Hispanic and Asian parents) disapprove.