James Madison is the Father of our Constitution, and the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at Madison’s Montpelier provides educational development for educators, law enforcement officers, and others.
That seems suitable. After all, no merely did Madison—our country’s third leader —help review the Constitution, but he also served as a vital member at the Constitutional Convention, authored the Bill of Rights, and urged ratification of the Constitution through his practical and philosophical arguments in The Federalist Papers.
But these achievement are, at best, downplayed at his ancient house. Madison and his efforts are not the subject of any expresses in Montpelier.
Worse however, Montpelier is equipping teachers to teach Communist- based ideas to primary, middle, and high school students. And the applications doing this are, in piece, funded by the state of Virginia.
For lectures at Montpelier, topics relating to policing and trial might be fair game. The Fourth Amendment protects against “unreasonable searches and seizures” ( p. 4). The Fifth Amendment, among other privileges, promises that no man shall “be deprived of existence, liberty, or home without due process of law”. The Sixth Amendment grants the “right to an immediate and open demo” of the testators against you by an “impartial judge.” And the Eighth Amendment protects against extreme loan, increased charges, and cruel and unusual consequences.
Madison drafted all of those.
But next year’s “Educator Seminar: Police and Public Safety” will instead rely on the “history of policing, legal rights, and Constitutional change in African American contexts for the purpose of providing educators with essential strategies and traditional tools to tell topics in black history about law enforcement, social justice, and the Constitution”.
It will “help teachers be more inspired to teach hard histories that make students think about equitable opportunities for promoting public safety for all” ( p. 21 ). And it will examine “why community approaches to public safety emerged in the criminal justice system in the wake of today’s age of mass incarceration” to counteract police violence and discrimination.
These statements have a lot to explain, but the idea that our criminal justice system is systemically racist and that, as a result, we lock up too many people, especially young black men, is at the heart of them all.
But that’s not true. Mass incarceration is a myth because our criminal justice system is not systemically racist.
If someone commits the crime, they should do the time. And it’s sad that a large number of young black men commit violent crimes in the United States, often causing harm to other young black men in the process.  ,  ,  ,
But these are n’t the only terms that stand out. Of particular note in the description are the phrases “equitable” and “hard history”. Equity is about equality of outcomes, not opportunity. The radical Southern Poverty Law Center frequently refers to those it disagrees with as “hate groups,” and their motto is “teaching hard history.”
In fact, the SPLC’s “teaching hard history” curriculum and initiatives are not simply about discussing slavery’s role in American history. Like” The 1619 Project” and other critical race theory programs, they place slavery as the central animating force in America’s Founding. Slavery is the original sin of our country, but it is much more than that, according to the curriculum’s preface. Slavery is our country’s origin”.
The goal of this course is also to develop students into activists. For example, it notes that those in K- 2 should “examine how power is gained” and be able to” contrast equity and equality, identifying current problems where there is a need to fight for equity”.
This overlap is no coincidence. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, the host of the SPLC’s” Teaching Hard History” podcast as well as an author of the curriculum standards quoted above, also serves as the chairman of the board at Montpelier, which is the historic home’s governing body. ( Currently, no Madison scholars are on the board. )
Jeffries—the brother of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D- N. Y. —helped develop and appears in a video in Montpelier’s basement featuring encounters with police officers and protesters carrying signs that read” Stop police brutality”,” I ca n’t breathe”, and” Black Lives Matter”.
Per the Montpelier website,” ]f ] rom mass incarceration, to the achievement gap, to housing discrimination, and the vicious cycle of poverty, violence, and lack of opportunity throughout America’s inner cities, the legacies of 200 years of African American bondage are still with us”.
It saddens Montpelier to have chosen to concentrate on a Marxist-driven movement fueled by critical race theory rather than on James Madison, the home’s numerous remarkable accomplishments.
It’s a disservice to the public, teachers, and students.
