Critical Marxist educator Michael Apple is one of the most significant critical (Marxist) educational leaders in transforming education in America to being thoroughly Marxist from K-12 and all college levels. In the following extensive quote, he lays out his plan, which I think summarizes the Critical Marxist approach to transform education so that all practices and curricula that do not promote changing America from a free capitalist Republic/Democracy to communism are discarded.
He says, [1] “Speaking broadly, critical education seeks to expose how relations of power and inequality (social, cultural, economic) in their myriad of form, contributions, and complexities, are manifest and are challenged in the formal and informal education of children and adults.[2] In its most robust form, it involves a thorough-going reconstruction of what education is for, how it should be carried out, what we should teach, and who should be empowered to engage in it. This more robust understanding involves fundamental transformations of the underlying epistemological and ideological assumptions that are made about what counts as ‘official’ or legitimate knowledge, and who holds it.[3] It also involves a commitment toward social transformation and a break with the comforting illusions that the ways in which our societies and their educational apparatuses are organized currently can lead to social justice.
A more robust understanding of critical education is also based increasingly in a realization of the importance of multiple dynamics underpinning the relations of exploitation and domination in our societies. Hence, issues surrounding the politics of redistribution (exploitative economic processes and dynamics) and the politics of recognition (cultural struggles against domination and struggles over identity) need to be jointly considered. At the very root of these concerns are two simple principles. First, we must think relationally. That is, all of our institutions and sets of social relations—and even our very identities—need to be seen as intimately connected to the inequalities that structure our society and to the movements that seek to interrupt such inequalities.
Second, in order to understand and act on education in its complicated connections to the larger society, we must engage in the process of repositioning. It will be hard, but we should constantly try to see the world through the eyes of the dispossessed and act against the ideological and institutional processes and forms that reproduce oppressive conditions. This repositioning concerns both political and cultural practices that embody the principles of critical education; but it also has generated a large body of critical scholarship and theory that has led to a fundamental restructuring of what the roles of research and of the researcher are“[4] (emphasis added).
Apple’s plan is to transform public education into a Marxist education that prepares students, teachers, and, as a result, all citizens to recognize what Marxists perceive as inherent oppression in capitalist America. Then, with true consciousness of this reality and each person’s place in that reality, they must stand in solidarity to destroy America and replace it with a Marxian-socialist state. The only way to better America is to abolish what exists and replace it with communism.
The agenda is clear, and they are dedicated to bringing it to pass. The question is, will we wake up in time and be bold enough to stand and speak up for our freedoms before we lose them? It is beyond time for teachers and parents to fight back as diligently as Marxists are fighting to turn our children into people who hate America, Christianity, and capitalism.
In his formidable book, The Critical Turn in Education: From Marxist Critiques to Poststructuralist Feminism to Critical Theories of Race, Isaac Gottesman wrote, “The turn to critical Marxist thought is a defining moment in the past 40 years of educational scholarship, especially for educational scholars who identify as a part of the political left. It introduced the ideas and vocabulary that continue to frame most conversations in the field about social justice, such as hegemony, ideology, consciousness, praxis, and most importantly, ‘critical’ itself, which has become ubiquitous as a descriptor for left educational scholarship.”[5] These are all Marxist terms. He wrote the book in 2016, so the 40 years reach back to 1976, yet many teachers and parents are still unaware of the shift in public education toward Marxism. Resultantly, they are unwittingly used by critical educators to train children to reject America and fight for it to be replaced with communism. Incorporating critical race theory (CRT) into curricula, along with many teachers and administrators who believe in CRT, plays a significant role in disguising the ongoing shift to Marxist education to teachers who are unaware of the inextricable link between Marxism and CRT.
I offer these clarifying comments regarding Apple’s statements:
- Critical education exposes and challenges “relations of power and inequality” and “the relations of exploitation and domination in our societies.” These relations exist because of America (capitalism, free speech, private property, etc.). The education system must be transformed so that students are taught to see and change these structural oppressive inequalities.
- The process of teaching students is to present America as irredeemably flawed and oppressive, (like being systemically racist), with the only viable solution being to destroy America and replace her with Marxian-socialism.
- This transformation requires a “thorough-going reconstruction of what education is for.” This includes changing what is taught, how it is taught, and who is qualified to teach, which only includes critical educators—woke. Notice that Marxist education emphasizes teaching children to be social justice warriors, not to learn the subject matter of math, history, English, etc., to become productive citizens in America.
- They teach students “the politics of redistribution (exploitative economic processes and dynamics) and the politics of recognition (cultural struggles against domination).” That is to say, they teach students to stand for the redistribution of power and wealth that they are taught has been unjustly distributed by capitalism. This redistribution requires abolishing America and replacing it with Marxian-socialism. The redistribution of wealth and power is forced upon Americans.
- The scope and source of these injustices can only be understood when students, through education, come to realize that in America, “all of our institutions and sets of social relations—and even our very identities—need to be seen as intimately connected to the inequalities that structure our society.” This is the idea that America is systemically unjust, and we who think we are free and happy in America are deluded; therefore, we need to be awakened to our enslavement by capitalism through critical education. In Marxian language, it is to move from a false consciousness to true consciousness; in CRT, it is to become WOKE to the injustices of America.
- We should not view living in America as something we should be thankful for, but “we should constantly try to see the world through the eyes of the dispossessed and act against the ideological and institutional processes and forms that reproduce oppressive conditions. The “dispossessed” includes everyone who does not have what everyone else has, regardless of why they do not have it or whether it is available to them if they work for it. The presumption is the “dispossessed” should always blame others for their lack.
- Seeing America through the lens of the “dispossessed” (those who do not have everything others have—oppressor/oppressed lenses) involves “both political and cultural practices that embody the principles of critical education;” Specifically, this means Marxists (critical educators) are seeking to change America through education and politics, even politicizing education—think the NEA, infiltrating academia and public education at every level, voting in Marxists politicians and agendas, eliminating local and parental control of education.
- Seeing everything through the “dispossessed. . . has generated a large body of critical scholarship and theory that has led to a fundamental restructuring of what the roles of research and of the researcher are.” The research used to better educate students in necessary disciplines such as math, English, history, and other subjects needed to thrive in America. Now, the research focuses on content and methods needed to train students to see America as unjust and evil and Marxian-socialism as good. Research no longer has the goal of using the best research, regardless of the race of the researcher, but, instead, to use research that practices and teaches diversity and inclusion through the lens of being oppressed. Resultantly, less accurate and robust research done by a person of a minority (minorities are almost always considered oppressed) may be used instead of more accurate research done by a person who is of the majority, just for the sake of diversity.
- Educators are called to commit to social transformation and break with the illusion that our current society (American capitalism, free speech, objective law, etc.) and educational system can lead to social justice.
- They emphasize socialism over capitalism, the falsehood of Christianity, forced redistribution of wealth, and that private property is and causes evil.
- All disparities (differences in educational and work success) are due to injustices.
- Lack of success is always due to society’s injustices instead of such things as a lack of personal responsibility, family values and makeup, willingness to work hard, geography, inherited assumptions, and desire; these are generally not even considered, and to bring them up indicates you are an oppressor–racist.
As you can see, the anticipated outcome of critical education does not prioritize learning skills, thinking analytically, seeking truth, self-reliance, meritocracy, relating well with others, freedom of religion, or becoming a contributing member of American society.
We can all help defeat Marxism by being informed, courageous, involved, and speaking up.
[1] Critical Marxist Isaac Gottesman says of Apple’s influence in education and Marxism in education, “Few in the field would argue with the claim that Apple’s Ideology of Curriculum . . . published in 1979, helped initiate a broad turn in the field of education in the United States to critical Marxist thought as a lens through which to analyze the relationship between school and society . . . numerous scholars have turned to Apple’s work for guidance formulating increasingly complex and nuanced ways of thinking about the relationship between school and society. Ideology has made a significant impact in the field.” Isaac Gottesman, The Critical Turn in Education: From Marxist Critique to Poststructuralist Feminism to Critical Theories of Race (New York: Routledge, 2016), 52.
[2] Power, inequalities, exploitation, redistribution, dispossessed, and such terms are the oppressed, and America is the oppressor. This reflects Marxist conflict theory, which positions everyone as an oppressor or the oppressed.
[3] Epistemology is the study of knowledge, what we can know, and how we know. Marxism challenges and seeks to undermine our sense of knowing reality, right and wrong, and objectivity. Marxists often categorize this as a hegemonic common sense by which the Bourgeois dominate the rest of the population.
[4] This quote is from Michael Apple, in the Series Editor’s Introduction toIsaac Gottesman, The Critical Turn in Education: From Marxist Critique to Poststructuralist Feminism to Critical Theories of Race (New York: Routledge, 2016), xii. See also The Routledge Handbook of Critical Education, 3.
[5] Isaac Gottesman, The Critical Turn in Education: From Marxist Critique to Poststructuralist Feminism to Critical Theories of Race (New York: Routledge, 2016), 1.
