By Journalist Amaya Brooks (OBU).
Senator Humphrey from the Oral Roberts University delegation has brought a plethora of hot topic discussion to the Senate this Thursday morning of session. His bill would require that “every high school in the State of Oklahoma shall include in its curriculum a unit of instruction on critical theory.” Humphrey defines critical theory in his bill as, “a philosophical approach, stemming from the tradition of literary criticism, the purpose of which is to examine and critique social structures and to propose solutions to social problems, based on the principle that social structures fundamentally cause social problems, for the advancement and liberation of human civilization.”
During time for questions, the Senate body was aroar with caucusing. “On Privilege” was called no less than 5 or 6 times. Senator Saunders (OBU) is a one star this session, serving as the President’s clerk. According to him, “When you put the word ‘critical’ and ‘theory’ together it forms a trigger that a lot of people in Oklahoma are against. I support teaching people about critical theory, but I can see that it is a very contentious subject for many Oklahomans.”
This bill failed, with 5 votes in the affirmative, 9 votes in the negative, and 6 abstentions. According to Senator Koehn (NWOSU), “I had an issue with the fact that in order to provide an additional philosophy class, we would have to either get rid of or shorten another class that is obviously important.” Oklahoma is 42nd in education and there was concern among the Senate body that this bill would spread thin the resources that we have.
The author, Senator Humphrey, is a zero star from Oral Roberts University. His desire was to, “I wanted to bring something that would bring a lot of discussion. I wanted to be asked argumentative questions and I succeeded to a degree.” This young Senator seems to not be too disappointed with the failure of his bill, but excited for what the rest of his time in OIL brings.
Uncut Interviews:
Senator Humphrey
Senator Koehn
Senator Saunders