Traditionally, history has been taught like a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle, with half the pieces missing. This incomplete puzzle leaves huge holes in our understanding of ourselves, our country and each other. Most of us fill these holes with myths, assumptions, rumors, prejudices, half-truths and lies. Not only do we live these falsehoods, we pass them on to our children.

Critical Race Theory returns the missing pieces to our historical puzzle. If given the choice, children will attach themselves to the future – not slavery, not injustice and certainly not genocides in the past. Failing to teach children history is to chain them to a past they would never choose for themselves. In 10th grade, reading the Narrative of Frederick Douglas is how I came to discover that I would rather die than return to the past. The same man, and the same book also showed me that the promise of a truly great country was in our future - not our past.

Schools that fail to teach history, in all its glory and brutality, deny children the right to make that choice for themselves. In my mind, that’s akin to denying children their constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The time has come, to set our children free.