Forsyth County Georgia Board of Education - Jere Krischel - 6/21/2022

Last month, we heard a tragic story of bullying, concern that progressive policies were being rejected by the public, demands that teachers be given unconditional respect, and an argument that sexually explicit books were required, to teach critical thinking to students. Today, let's talk about critical thinking, about critical thinking.

For some people, critical thinking is simply, "let me criticize the things I disagree with." If I don't like religion, I'll criticize religion. If I don't like white people, I'll criticize white people. If I don't like individual freedom, I'll criticize individual freedom.

Some teachers may think they're teaching critical thinking, when all they're doing is pushing one dogmatic view. Insisting that boys, can be hormonally and surgically transformed into girls, and because of these mentally ill children, all of our children, must be exposed to sexually explicit materials on the topic, isn't teaching critical thinking at all, it's pushing ideology.

Critical thinking requires challenging your own dearly held assumptions. It's the christian who tries to understand the atheist. It's the feminist who tries to understand the struggles of men. It's the diversity, inclusion, and equity staffer who tries to understand, the colorblind philosophy of MLK. It's the country music fan who tries to understand gangsta rap.

Of course, power enters into the equation too - critical thinking can be most important when exercised against ingrained and powerful cultural forces. But we cannot fool ourselves into believing that we are the underdogs, in order to justify our bias.

Today, the woke leftists have control over incredibly powerful institutions, in media, education, government, and private enterprise. They have strict, if contradictory, articles of faith, that are not allowed to be questioned. We're not allowed to talk about non-affirming treatments for gender dysphoria. Or anti-white racism. Or the four slave states that fought for the Union, and didn't free their slaves until well after the Civil War was over. Or the dangerous side effects from experimental pharmaceuticals, or how Fauci funded gain of function research in Wuhan. Or anti-male sexism in schools, family courts, and corporations. Or about protecting women's sports from mentally ill men.

We are admonished to #BelieveAllWomen, but we can't define what a woman is.

You can have a book, filled with inappropriate sexual content, that explores the specific truth, of anti-gay discrimination. You can also have a book, without inappropriate sexual content, that explores the universal truth that nobody should be discriminated against. A good teacher should be able to pass on critical thinking skills, and universal truths, without sexually explicit material.

One of my daughter's teachers, spent several weeks in English class covering Will Smith slapping Chris Rock over a joke. This could have been an excellent opportunity to teach critical thinking, but sadly, not only was it clear what point of view the teacher had herself, she promoted her point of view as the correct one. The entire experience would have been so much more compelling and useful to the students, if they couldn't tell what her perspective was - or, even if they could tell, if she had argued strongly against her own biases.

I'd like to ask the Board to support teaching critical thinking in our classrooms, by instructing our teachers how to effectively argue *against* their own biases. If they are pro-abortion, have them steel-man the pro-life position. If they believe in BLM, have them argue that all lives matter. At the end of the day, if our children can tell what their opinions are, they're doing it wrong.

Thank you very much for your time, and again, I'd love to have lunch with anyone who disagrees with me.