Private school for $40,000 per year at Chicago allegedly introduced critical race theory into their physics classes back in 2016 and tracked student attitudes towards courses to see if they were successful.
Emails from Chicago Latin School received Federalista conservative news outlet reported that former principal Elizabeth Denevy introduced a new ninth grade curriculum called “Social Justice in Physics” six years ago.
According to one email to parents, the course was meant to “address the dynamics of power, systematic racism, white privilege, and the lack of people of color and women in science, especially physics.”
The Chicago Latin School, a $40,000-a-year private institution, allegedly added critical race theory to its physics classes in 2016.
Elizabeth Denevy, (left) former principal of the Latin School and co-founder of Teaching While White, allegedly presented a program designed by Moses Rifkin, a Seattle physics teacher. Both are involved in working with white educators on how to behave anti-racist in the classroom.
In an email received by The Federalist, a conservative news outlet, Denevie introduced a new curriculum called “Social Justice in Physics” to ninth graders in 2016.
The email explains that the course was developed by Moses Rifkin, a physics teacher at University Training in Seattle who claims to work with white teachers to help them understand “their privileges and the role they can and should play in the struggle for social Justice”. to his biography in Learning for Justice, an affiliate of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The course began with a discussion of the “significant underrepresentation of black American physicists” and students were asked to complete a survey on a range of statements relating to race and racism.
The email also stated that the effectiveness of the course would be monitored through a survey as they hoped students would “think deeply” on their lessons.
It is not known if the course is still ongoing at the school, and The Latin School did not immediately respond to ‘s request for comment.
The lessons and theory taught are markedly similar to the types of “fair” teaching that have roiled US school boards over the past year, with critics condemning the teachings as divisive and simplistic.
A separate email from a parent at the school, also obtained by The Federalist, revealed that the parent was concerned about the course and the survey questions.
The course was aimed at combating racism and bias in physics and students were asked to complete a questionnaire so that the school could track the effectiveness of the course.
An email from concerned parents showed students being asked if they believed various racist claims.
Denevy works as a white teacher with her husband, Randolph Carter (above), a member of the Black Panther Party and a graduate of the Harvard School of Leadership program.
According to the email, the students were asked to rate the claims on how much they believed them.
Some of the statements read: “American society fits my definition of racism, talking about race makes me uncomfortable, and asking about another race is an example of racism.”
One statement said, “White Americans must recognize that justice for blacks cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society.”
A few months after the course was implemented, Denevy co-founded Teaching While White and an education group working to help white educators become “anti-racists in the classroom.”
She is an assistant professor at Lewis and Clark College in the Graduate School of Education and Counseling.
Denevy works at Teaching While White with her husband, Randolph Carter, a member of the Black Panther Party and a graduate of the Harvard School of Leadership program.
Carter is the founder and Associate Director of the Eastern Educational Resource Collaborative, which works to promote equity and diversity in education.
Denevi and Teaching While White did not immediately respond to ‘s request for comment.
This year, the San Francisco School District recalled three board members due to their obsessions about keeping schools closed much longer than other U.S. cities because of “safety.”
The same council infuriated the city’s parents by eliminating merit-based admissions to the city’s top public high school, Lowell, in favor of a lottery system to increase “fairness” by increasing the enrollment of blacks and Hispanics.
Depriving students of in-person education, the San Francisco School District has been stuck renaming local schools whose current names were considered “problematic,” including one named after Abraham Lincoln.
The board also sought to destroy a nearly 100-year-old mural by a well-known Depression-era artist due to its depiction of Native Americans.
Similar incidents have occurred this year in the US, and boards in Virginia have also been agitated by their obsession with issues of justice and race.