Carolyn Sharette - Executive Director
We work hard to ensure that each and every student at our school, regardless of any personal distinguishing characteristic, is treated with dignity and respect and has full access to all opportunities the school provides. We believe it is clear: our commitment to these ideals is evident in our school programs, culture, and school outcomes.
From my study of CRT, I can confidently state that the theory is not new and has been discussed in academic environments for many decades. It is an interesting theory that is worth reading and understanding. As a classical school with the broad goal of enhancing human flourishing, we support learning about many different views of the world and the impacts of those views on the development of governments and nations and especially their impact on individuals.
As a K-12 school, our goal and our stewardship are education. The recent prevalence of CRT in our state’s training for teachers has revealed that CRT, with particular regard to its involvement at the K-12 education level, is not educative but instead is indoctrinational. Last spring, Utah schools received a training PowerPoint on CRT, which was highly political instead of instructive. It is clear to us at APA that this crosses a line concerning the politicization of K-12 schools, which is inappropriate (at the least) and potentially illegal.
From a historical perspective, it has been the case in our nation’s K-12 schools that personal political positions and personal religious positions are not appropriate topics for teachers and staff to be teaching to students in school. Professionalism has always demanded that teachers in American schools refrain from indoctrination, especially related to politics and religion.
APA supports deep and broad teaching of history, using primary sources and discussing (as age-appropriate) the challenging topics of our nation’s past, including our aspirational founding documents and our imperfect history as we have endeavored to meet those aspirations. As a classical school, we teach the facts surrounding events, study the people involved (preferably using primary sources - the words from the people themselves), and engage in robust discussion about important topics and the impacts of events on our American Ideals and their evolution throughout time. This is done through the lens of human flourishing as a goal for all mankind.
APA rejects the indoctrination of students with theories such as CRT that are primarily political in nature, do not reflect our nation’s ideals, and can easily lead to violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
APA supports the “colorblind” theory of Martin Luther King, Jr. that each individual must be judged on the content of their character and not the color of their skin or any other characteristics outside those encompassed in character.
One of APA’s primary goals is student empowerment - we assist students in becoming as smart, capable, and as good-hearted as possible so they will be able to flourish in their lives and be prepared to support our nation’s democratic republic and change the world for the better. Beyond a mention in high school courses where a basic understanding of the theory may be relevant, teaching or studying CRT is not a fruitful or age-appropriate curriculum for K-12 students, and our staff and our students will not spend time studying or discussing it in our classrooms. Our time will be spent studying our American ideals and founding documents to ensure our students have a firm grasp of the great tenets that have resulted in liberty and prosperity for so many individuals and which bring hope to the world.
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