There’s much to dislike on both sides of the increasingly shrill debate over so-called critical race theory, and we’re saddened to see Kentucky become a battleground of a national culture war flamed by opportunistic politicians in search of votes from a polarized electorate.

We take state Education Commissioner Jason Glass at his word when he told a legislative committee that the “Kentucky Department of Education is not aware of any districts or teachers specifically teaching critical race theory, and neither CRT nor terms associated with it appear in our state standards.”

His comments were in response to a pre-filed bill for the General Assembly’s 2022 session that would ban the teaching and promoting of CRT in Kentucky’s public schools. The legislation, similar to bills being adopted in many other states, might have merit if there were any evidence of classroom indoctrination of students. We’ve seen none.

A public school has one job: to impart knowledge. And on the subject of America’s complex history of racial discrimination, the lessons should be thorough and unvarnished. No parent should fear a teacher’s honest account of history, even the most unpleasant chapters.

Nor should those who believe that America has yet to fully reconcile its history of slavery with lingering vestiges of discrimination expect classroom teachers to tell students how they ought to think or feel as a result of their knowledge of history. That’s indoctrination, not education.

Freedom of thought is every bit as precious as freedom of speech or religion. Group-think, no matter how honorable the intentions of its practitioners, undermines freedom, the bedrock of American greatness, to which we still subscribe without apology, even in an era when it’s becoming unfashionable.

Stephen Covey, the self-help author, wisely said that every human “has four endowments – self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom … the power to choose, to respond, to change.”

America has an impressive, if imperfect and ongoing, track record of correcting its mistakes. Public schools should teach that history authentically, without interference from lawmakers, then entrust their students – tomorrow’s citizenry – to carry this grand experiment in freedom and democracy forward.