"I always loved school. I was one of those people who played school with my siblings." Dana Stangel-Plowe, now Chief Program Officer at the North American Values Institute (NAVI), went from lawyer to beloved high school English teacher at her kids' private school in suburban New Jersey—until she watched "an anti-intellectual, anti-liberal ideology" infiltrate the curriculum, one that focused on identity and power and fundamentally "changed the way my students interacted with each other, interacted with our books." When her concerns fell on deaf ears, Dana resigned publicly in 2021 during the height of CRT debates, arguing that while critical race theory wasn't being explicitly taught, its framework was "embedded in the curriculum, embedded in programming, embedded in the way that the school wanted the students and the teachers to relate to one another."

Dana warns that "one of the scariest things of the current moment is that young people believe that words are violence"—the opposite of what a liberal society needs, where "words need to be met with more words." . Her research shows students "can't name the three branches of government" as "national literacy rates have declined," revealing how this ideological approach is failing our students. But Dana also offers hope: "Courage is contagious. I have seen with my students that where one person starts whispering, other people start whispering and soon the whispers get louder." Her advice for students living in fear? "Ask questions. When you ask a question, you're opening up other pathways to thinking. You're not necessarily expressing certainty that somebody is wrong and that you're right. You're just asking questions."

Dana's work at NAVI now focuses on exposing extremist curriculum, achieving transparency so parents can see what's happening in schools, and restoring the culture of open inquiry where "free speech is a value, where people aren't afraid." Learn more about NAVI’s initiatives at: https://navivalues.org/