Pangyrus presents a first essay in our new column, Voices in the Classroom: Students Navigating the Politics of Education by columnist Marium Zahra. Marium’s essays will highlight the perils of classroom politics. Whether the issue is local or national, she’ll cover it as someone who is seeing it and experiencing it firsthand — as a high school student.
_______________________
The Texas Revolution, an 1835 rebellion by Anglo-American settlers against the Mexican government, is a point of pride among Texans. As students stand for the Texas Pledge of Allegiance at the start of every school day, we listen to the loudspeaker that makes us recite those same words every morning, “One state under God, one and indivisible.”
Through this promise, we may be honoring those who fought for the revolution and Texan freedom, but our state hardly feels “indivisible.” The term freedom is enveloped by hypocrisy in my mind. It feels like, historically, Texas is indivisible and represents freedom for only those whose skin is the same color as its star. White.
“A major cause of the secession was the desire of Anglo-Texans to maintain the institution of chattel slavery in Texas,” says Wikipedia’s simple article about the Texas Revolution. Texas has a history characterized by persistent tensions around racial and economic disparities. But any discussion of any of these issues in the state’s public schools could land a teacher in an administrative hearing or even result in a loss of their livelihood.
That leaves students like me at risk of remaining in the dark. And that seems to have been the exact intention of the passing of Anti-Critical Race Theory laws across my state in 2021 that ban the teaching of “divisive subjects” like race and gender.
Critical Race Theory in itself is a curriculum that positions racism as a social construct that is embedded into American policy and encourages students to recognize systemic injustices to correct their effects today. The actual course remains a college-level class that isn’t taught to elementary schoolers, but with so much incorrect speculation surrounding it over the past few years, it has been a catalyst for a myriad of vague legislation that simply limits speech.
In May 2021, Oklahoma, Texas, and Tennessee became the first states across the U.S. to pass such legislation, dubbed Anti-Critical Race Theory laws, that forbids social studies teachers from acknowledging racial inequities when teaching historical events.
While Anti-CRT bills have manifested in different ways across more than half of the U.S. states, they all have one main objective: to limit students and teachers from having honest conversations about race and oppression.
In spite of the risk to themselves, some teachers are finding creative ways to educate their students despite these harmful laws.
“I think I must be giving diverse opinions room to speak. Especially teaching those at such a vulnerable age, I’m always showing them how their identity is mirrored in what we’re learning,” said middle school social studies teacher Jafari Wells from Houston, Texas.
Wells isn’t the only educator continuing to make space for students of all backgrounds after the passing of Anti-CRT laws.
“It is important for teenagers, such as myself, to have an understanding of African American history. It is vital in explaining various aspects of the modern world,” said Hana Dawood, a student at Coronado High School in El Paso, Texas.
According to conservative lawmakers like Florida’s Governor DeSantis, historical events like slavery have the potential to make white students feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish and other forms of psychological distress” and in turn, they should be watered down.
“I have noticed more hesitation with my teacher in my comparative politics course. There are moments where he may say ‘I’m not supposed to tell y’all this but…’ at various times throughout certain lectures,” said high schooler Ovet Martinez from Dallas, Texas.
As a student attending a high school in El Paso, Texas, I have seen firsthand the damage that comes with teaching half-truths about the world. It creates students who only have one perspective of the world, one that often prioritizes the white lens, perpetuates harmful views about people from the Global South, and increases discrimination in school environments.
Social studies classrooms are now characterized by tip-toeing around marginalized communities and the historical nuance that created their struggles. Since 2021, Anti-CRT laws have remained a scare tactic for the government to use against teachers who want to correctly and honestly teach about African American history and other histories of marginalized people. However, at the same time, classrooms across the country, including my own, have taken this setback as an opportunity to show resilience. Students and teachers are stepping up to the challenge.
Resilience in classrooms
“Andrew Jackson expanded the executive’s power,” started my US history teacher recently in class. Before she was even able to expand on Jackson’s policies, a fellow student had already raised their hand to chime into the discussion.
“Was the Trail of Tears also because of Jackson?” she asked as students perked their ears waiting for a response and anticipating the conversation we knew was going to follow.
One question and, for the next fifteen minutes, our class would delve into an illuminating talk and lesson about the Native American people and how the United States was the root of their struggle today. We talked about everything from which US president was the most complicit, to parallels in other colonial struggles. In the span of one class period, almost every student left more knowledgeable about the world and the most exhilarating feeling was that we, as students, had started and led the discussion.
Rebecca Prado, my U.S. history teacher at the Young Women’s STEAM Academy, expanded on how she tries to create an environment that fosters discourse like the one above. “Every teacher has a bias, and so I know that that colors the way that you discuss things, but I think what I try to do is always present the facts. Maybe I don’t like Andrew Jackson, but I’ll say these are the things that he thought and why he was doing these things, which is a more nuanced way of talking about him,” she explained.
Students in other parts of the U.S. tell me that their teachers have navigated Anti-CRT laws through different kinds of media. It feels safer to let the graphics do the talking.
“Yesterday my teacher showed us the SPLC Hate map in class. I appreciated this graphic because I could tell it aided my peers in a deeper understanding of systemic racism,” said Miyelani Mathebula, a student at Homewood High School in Alabama.
Mathebula also talked about her experience speaking up as a Black student attending school in the suburbs. “Many of my classmates have no prior experience with understanding why race relations are the way that they are today. I have really taken advantage of studying with my friends to discuss topics that may be uncomfortable to bring up in random discussions.”
Other educators say that centering their courses around students’ identities makes them more engaged and allows them to speak up in class about issues like race.
“Right now we’re talking about the Texas Revolution. I try to open that up to not just talking about Texas, but talking about the revolution and colonization of various Spanish-speaking countries, whether it be Honduras, where a lot of my students come from [as well as] Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela. So I’m just trying to make parallels and real-world connections,” said Wells.
He also explained how what seemed like an insignificant trivia game asking about where most of the world’s cocoa comes from created room for students to research colonialism on their own.
“I talked about how Africa is the most minerally rich continent in the world. A student, in his colloquialism, asked ‘If they have all of that chocolate, why are they so broke?’ This is the type of question I love to see. I mentioned to them Cecil Rhodes of South Africa and King Leopold of Belgium. They started looking it up, they just couldn’t believe it, they were like, can we learn about this again?” he told me.
Students also agree that teachers who spark curiosity have been a huge reason they have still been able to learn. “They introduce topics with an open mind and encourage students to share their genuine opinions. Instead of telling students ‘This is how things were’ they say ‘What if things were done differently,'” said Martinez. “My peers feel restricted in their ability to speak on topics they see as controversial. To change that, I demonstrate a genuine interest in their thoughts and how these things actually relate to our own lives.”
While students like me shouldn’t be forced to have these roles in classrooms, it’s so important that we have decided to take charge. Instead of allowing classes with no nuance, we have made space for real discussions and it’s all because of the guidance our teachers have given us. Despite three years of Anti-CRT legislation and being attacked in their classrooms, educators have still found ways to discuss complex issues like colonialism and revolution and make students of all backgrounds feel comfortable and safe. It is because of their hard work that I continue to have hope in our educational institutions and understand that it is us, the next generation, who need to make the reform we want to see.
Texas is a state with a cruel and racist history, but in not teaching it we give up hope of improvement. I hope that we can continue to rebuild the narrative as students and correctly talk about racial and systematic issues. I hope that because of the work of educators and students today, future generations can feel pride in the Texas Pledge so that when they recite the word “indivisible,” they know it doesn’t represent just one group and one history — it represents us all.
- Silenced but Resilient: How Anti-CRT Laws Shape Classrooms - December 19, 2024