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INAT but a dude in my regular TTRPG group is a teacher for the local school district and if you get a few shots in him he will go off at length about how our very "blue" state's official curriculum is absolute shit. He says that it seems to actively discourage the development literacy and language skills, to the point that his ESL students end up out-performing in-state transfers on a semi-regular basis because they at least understand the concept of a root word and the Indian/Mexican/Other Foreign-born moms tend to be a lot less concerned about their kids feelings then they are about whether homework is getting done. According to him the only way any kids in this state learn to read is through a combination of involved parents, and individual teachers/schools-districts having the balls to say "fuck the curriculum" and do their own thing.
Your example of the teacher covering up the word, and the "soft bigotry" as he puts it of giving kids a pass despite not learning the material, are exactly the sort of thing he will typically cite.
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