lPJ] The debate about curriculum based on critical theories is getting a lot of hype for how it impacts the teaching of history and civics. Critical theories can absolutely infect those two subjects, but this ideology is far more pernicious than that. There are curricula for math, science, and English that use the underlying thesis of critical theories that are every bit as damaging as teaching a warped version of history that claims America is built on the original sin of slavery.
Critical theories divide society into groups based on their immutable characteristics. Then, it assigns personality characteristics, motives, and societal roles to children based simply on how they were born. This strategy divides children by race, sex, immigration status, disability, and other characteristics they have no control over. It then assigns roles, such as oppressed and oppressor, based on those characteristics. Marxists learned long ago that dividing people by class was challenging. A content middle class was always a barrier to their progress. Dividing people based on immutable characteristics was more straightforward, and creating a coalition of the oppressed groups became the means to gain power, beginning in earnest in the 1980s.
Critical theories are pernicious because they remove agency and free will from one segregated group and blame the other for any disparity in outcomes between groups. It encourages blame and victimhood based on how children were born. The philosophy calls for outright discrimination against groups seen to be "privileged" historically. Generally, these children are white, male, and sometimes Asian. It follows in lockstep with the philosophy articulated by one of the high priests of critical theories, Ibram X. Kendi. "The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination." 
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