Great Minds Wit & Wisdom continues to be a desired curriculum despite the controversy surrounding its teaching content.
The Tennessee Comptroller Office of Research and Education Accountability released its report Tuesday on school district textbook usage, and textbooks from the Great Minds Wit & Wisdom curriculum topped the list for requests from outside the state approved book list for English language arts.
The state received waiver requests from 36 school districts for Wit and Wisdom textbooks, 31% of the total requests received according to the Comptroller report. The waiver for Wit and Wisdom is required for younger grades because the curriculum doesn’t included a required phonics component.
The adoption and waiver process consists of four main steps: a review conducted by subject-area specialists, recommendations by the Tennessee Textbook Commission, approval by the State Board of Education, and then the local school district reviewal and adoption.
Criticism in Tennessee
Wit & Wisdom is a K-8 English language arts curriculum crafted to help students become successful readers, exceptional writers, and effective communicators, according to a description on the curriculum website.
“With every lesson founded on exceptional texts, all learners are empowered to tackle the rigor of grade-level content with confidence and joy. Core texts are wide-ranging, varied, and provide a careful balance of literary, informational, and fine arts texts,” wrote Great Minds.
The curriculum received highly publicized pushback from some parents, including the conservative Moms for Liberty group, when Williamson County Schools selected it for K-5 students in 2020.
The group called for the removal of 31 books, including those about Ruby Bridges and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., arguing the texts were too “dark” and “disturbing” for some young readers according to a report by The 74.
The district created a committee to evaluate the curriculum and it ended up recommending removing just one book last year, Walk Two Moons, and offered praise for others receiving criticism, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and the March on Washington.
“The committee does find that there is one photograph in the book that some may take issue with. The photograph is of firefighters shooting a water hose at the backs of individuals sitting on the ground. This is an accurate representation of the events occurring at the time. The committee notes the educational value of using both primary and secondary sources to enhance student learning and this text offers both,” wrote the committee in recommending keeping the book on the late Civil Rights leader.
A month later during the district’s board of education meeting, dozens of supporters and opponents packed the room to speak on the curriculum.
“I’m not interested in my kids never learning these topics, I’m interested in my kids learning these topics at an age-appropriate time in their life which this curriculum does not fulfill that at all,” said one Wit and Wisdom opponent at the February meeting. “This curriculum has not been appropriately vetted before it was adopted.”
“It is hard to understand how some members of our community can accept a black child being told by a principal that she has to accept racism as normal, get thicker skin, or just ignore people then turn around and want to pass state laws to protect white children from feeling uncomfortable when being taught about the Civil Rights Movement. Our history is uncomfortable. Not talking about it and not learning about it does not change it,” said another speaker at the meeting.
The board voted to keep Wit and Wisdom.
The curriculum was additionally a key focus for some supporters of the failed application to establish the Founders Classical Academy of Brentwood public charter school last year. Multiple supporters of the proposed school listed concerns about Wit and Wisdom as a central reason why they wanted another public-school option.
“Wit and wisdom focuses more on political literacy and history lessons and does not incorporate any classical literature,” said school supporter Trisha Lucente. “This year in first grade, the lessons cover suicide, giving up on life, misery, starvation, and abuse of Native Americans and gender fluidity.”
Both the Williamson County Board of Education and the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission rejected the application for Founders Classical Academy of Brentwood.
Criticism of Wit & Wisdom hasn’t just been in Tennessee either.
School districts in other states, including as Ohio County Schools, have expressed concern and Kentucky has banned the curriculum altogether.
There’s even been criticism from more liberal circles, including complaints that Wit & Wisdom isn’t diverse enough and doesn’t focus enough on the nitty-gritty of the complex topics themselves.
