Despite bans on Critical Race Theory (CRT) in many states, it’s still finding its way into American classrooms, cloaked in a new, less conspicuous term—“media literacy.” While the concept of media literacy seems innocent, encouraging students to analyze information critically, in practice, it often serves a more insidious purpose. Platforms like Newsela, CRT, and other divisive ideologies are being smuggled back into schools, shaping young minds without parental awareness.
For decades, CRT has been subtly injected into educational curricula under various labels—"Diversity Training," "Black Studies," or "Reconstructing Curriculum." Today, it appears in school lessons wrapped in the language of media literacy. This shift has allowed schools to bypass state-level bans and continue promoting CRT-related ideas. Parents are often unaware that these lessons are influencing their children’s worldview, largely because they don’t follow school materials closely enough.
Newsela is a key player in this agenda. The platform is used in over 90% of U.S. schools and curates content from "trusted sources" like The New York Times and The Washington Post, ignoring more balanced or conservative-leaning outlets like Fox News or The Wall Street Journal. By aligning itself with organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the 1619 Project, Newsela provides selective narratives while excluding dissenting views.
The problem lies in how media literacy is framed. It’s not about teaching students to evaluate information critically but about instructing them on which sources to trust, often based on ideological bias. Instead of fostering independent thought, media literacy programs like those offered by Newsela guide students toward pre-approved conclusions, many of which are rooted in CRT.
Organizations like Newsela focus on shaping young minds to trust establishment-approved media sources while painting other outlets as illegitimate. The same figures who championed CRT’s introduction into schools are now framing it as the lens through which students should view the media, often without parents or legislators realizing it.
This isn’t an issue of merely teaching children how to analyze the news. It’s about subtly indoctrinating them with a singular worldview that paints America in a negative light. The irony is that the gatekeepers of "truth" are the very institutions responsible for pushing divisive ideologies into the classroom in the first place.
As parents and citizens, we need to recognize that CRT is still very much alive in schools, even when it's disguised as something as seemingly benign as media literacy. It’s time for parents to take a closer look at what their children are being taught, lest we allow divisive ideologies to shape the next generation without our knowledge.
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