Justin Carlson | opinion editor
Wabaunsee will soon be implementing a controversial CTR unit in all of its freshman English classes.
“I know that there has been a ton of backlash recently for any attempts to teach CTR in schools,” English teacher Brendan Praeger said, “but I think it’s important for kids to understand history.”
CTR is the acronym for Crash Team Racing, a popular racing video game series set in the Crash Bandicoot universe. Initially released in 1999 for the Playstation, CTR was incredibly popular and had a sequel, Crash Nitro Kart, released in 2003. Most recently, a remaster of CTR titled Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled was released in 2019.
“Mario Kart history is taught well in our schools, but I feel like a CTR curriculum could bring the history of marginalized kart racing series to light. The contributions of CTR, Sonic Team Racing, Jak X Combat Racing and Diddy Kong Racing shouldn’t be forgotten just because most of our community plays Mario Kart,” Praeger said.
Praeger intends to teach several lessons from the 1999 Project, an influential text on the historical contributions of Crash Bandicoot.
“We’ll look at the history of other cultures — instead of collecting coins, some societies emphasize the collection of Wampa Fruit. A tribal mask can defend players, not just a star as taught in the Mario-Kart-centric curriculum. It’s not appropriate to refer to blue sparks as the right time to get a powerslide turbo boost when so many people around the world use black smoke as a symbol,” Praeger said.
The new curriculum isn’t without controversy. Senior Jacob Daley is adamantly against the teaching of a CTR curriculum . “My mom said that she saw an article on Facebook about CTR, and how these “woke” teachers are trying to make us feel guilty about loving Mario Kart. I won’t stand for it in my school,” Daley said.
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