Since this is my blog, permit me a point of personal privilege. As some of you may know, before and during going to law school I was a public high school teacher. I taught what I’m sure some of my students thought were the boring subjects – American History, Street Law, two Economics courses, a Government/Political Science class, and something called World Cultures. Of course, perhaps it was me that was boring!
Like most if not all of my colleagues, we worked hard to achieve a simple singular goal: to prepare our students for their place in the world, whether it be college, a technical/vocational program, the armed forces, or a job. As in some public service announcements, “The more you know…” we tried to provide them tools to succeed in whatever course they pursued.
As teachers, our job was to expose students to a vast array of information across a universe of subjects and topics contained within. Hopefully, students will not just learn disparate abstract sets of facts and information, but will also learn to apply this newly acquired knowledge to situations and challenges in their lives.
In short, if we did our job, kids learned to “think.”
Think of it as teacher as coach. Like any decent coach, we attempted to place our students in a position to succeed in class and hopefully in life. But to be clear, all success that they had in class or have in life, was due to their efforts and talents. The teachers gave them the tools and, hopefully, support. The rest was up to them.
Public education is a public “good.” It is a service that benefits the whole community. A comprehensive public education is the secret sauce that vitalizes our economy, stabilizes our communities, and provides citizens with the wherewithal to make rational decisions in our democratic processes.
Irrespective of whether we have five kids or no kids in our public schools, what they do effects us all. It is the responsibility and in the self interest of our communities to see that public schools are well resourced in order to provide a comprehensive educational opportunity for our increasingly pluralistic students.
However, schools have become ground zero in a culture war that is ravaging our country. Perhaps schools have always been ground zero to some extent. We’ve had heated disputes regarding confirmed affirmation of pledging allegiance and school prayer. Maybe more than occasionally disputes have broken out over books that eventually get banned from school libraries. Think of works by Mark Twain (use of racial words) for example, or Charlotte’s Web (religious (?) grounds), or Catcher In The Rye (maybe should’ve been rated R-17).
Even Captain Underpants and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have been banned at one point or another for … reasons.
But for the most part, these were isolated disputes, organic in nature. Occasionally nudged or supported by outside interest groups, these were largely grassroots efforts. However today these “parent” efforts are more organized, more subsidized, and more politicized than ever before.
The target is not just what schools can teach but worse, what information kids can be exposed to as they complete their journey through the public schools.
It is an all out assault on students’ ability to engage in critical thinking. And once the ability to critically think has been hobbled it’s not a stretch to limit just exactly what kids can think.
If these efforts prove successful, Stepford Children are just a mere generation away.
For decades public schools have seen costs outstrip their resources. Meanwhile schools have been tasked with taking on a variety of costly programs to meet the legal mandates of a “free and appropriate public education” reasonably designed to meet the student’s needs.
Schools have become more racially and ethnically diverse. When I was training to teach I had the opportunity to speak with a principal of a public high school located in one of my state’s cities. We were talking about the challenges his school had when he told me that kids from 46 separate countries were enrolled in his school, most of whom were not-proficient English speakers.
Additionally, some kids come from what many of us might consider horrible circumstances. Kids come from impoverished households, witness violence in those households or in their communities. Too often kids go to school hungry without the means to buy a lunch. And if the school provides lunch, it runs a tab for the kid which must be paid by the end of the year before grades get posted.
And, dare I say it, there’s way too much parental apathy toward education. More than they care to admit, parents view schools as a taxpayer paid babysitting/child care services, with an educational outcome of secondary importance. More often than we’d like to think, many kids never see a book in their homes.
These are some of the normal conditions confronting schools on a daily basis. Public schools seem always at the center of funding debates. Often parents raise concerns about what’s being taught and what isn’t. But most of these issues are resolved because they are raised in concert within normal preexisting parameters.
What’s happening today ain’t normal. Rather it’s a concerted effort by national groups to enter communities to reshape public school in their white nationalist and narrow “Christian” images.
Example:
1. Florida, which determines on a statewide basis what text books can be used in its public schools. In 2022, the state rejected 40% of math books submitted by publishers for review and purchase. The reason for rejection? “Woke Ideology” whatever that is.
2. Again in Florida, the state’s Board of Education banned discussions focused on sexuality in grades k-12. Reasons are obvious, discriminatory and dehumanizing but obvious.
3. Once more, Florida, the gift that keeps on giving, banned an AP African studies course and encouraged all school superintendents to review all core courses and remove content containing “liberal ideology.” Would the scientific study of evolution be banned? How about climate change? Or in my area, “all men were created equal?”
4. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is banned in 16 states. CRT is NOT taught per se in public schools. It is a theory generally taught in graduate and law schools, not public high schools But the sponsors of these bans know this, that’s why it’s rarely mentioned in the legislation. Instead, lessons that make students feel "shame," "guilt" based on race or discuss "oppression" and "intersectionality” make students feel "shame," "guilt" based on race or discuss "oppression" and "intersectionality." There goes 400 years of American history out the window.
5. Not picking on Florida, other states banning nonexistent CRT courses include Virginia, Utah, Iowa, and New Hampshire. Other states that, as of April 2023, actively considering legislation or have administratively banned CRT include Connecticut, Oregon and New Jersey. Most states have had anti-CRT legislation filed but many had let it die a quiet if not dignified legislative death. My state, whether due to lethargy or uncommonly good sense is one that never let it get out of the gate.
6. Banned Books – in the school year 2022-2023, 1474 books were banned in public schools. In keeping with policies indicated above, most of the books concerned race and LGBTQ+. J.D Salinger, we turn our lonely eyes to you.
And then there is the piece de resistance (chef’s kiss **), Moms For Bigotry, I mean “Liberty.” A non-profit 501(c)(4) less than three years old, it’s connected to Republican (re MAGA) groups and is financially flush. We don’t know who its funders are because as a non-profit, ostensibly non-partisan organization they don’t have to disclose this information.
One of the founders of MFL is married to the Chair of the Florida Republican Party. Make of that what you will.
From their web site: “Moms for Liberty is dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.” And where else to begin this fight than in America’s classrooms.
MFL’s Vision is Americans empowered and thriving in a culture of Liberty. On it’s web site, the first “value” these “joyful warriors” promote is “We Stand for Truth.”
“Rights,” “Liberty,” “Truth.” What. A. Crock. There’s lots to unpack with this grievance organization but that would take hours. This predatory group only cares for exclusive rights, liberty and truth and if others don’t agree then they become targets. See the recent report from Vice: https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy3gnq/what-is-moms-for-liberty.
Reports claim that MFL members are leading the charge on book-banning campaigns across the country and the group says it has helped install 275 of its favored candidates on school boards in 2022 alone, dozens of whom don’t have any children attending public schools in their districts.
In my state, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, in 2023 there were seven hate groups present in Rhode Island. Mom’s For Liberty is one of them.
The “Rights” they care for are the limited rights they endorse. The “Liberty” interest they endorse is a liberty that is exclusive of those who do not value inclusion and diversity. The “Truth” they advocate is their subjective truth. Moms For Liberty
Each of these items is worthy of its own in-depth exploration and analysis. But it’s summer and I’m not going to do it. I leave it to you to follow your own interests.
Whether you do or not, I hope you appreciate the gravity of the threats confronting public education, already under siege from a variety of quarters. This is not education based on free and open inquiry with open minds. This is not education that fosters critical thinking. This is not an exploration of facts, some of which might disturb. The books they would ban tells the tale: https://go.boarddocs.com/fl/ircs/Board.nsf/files/CBYND65F46F6/%24file/Challenged%20Book%20List%20Recommendations.pdf.
When they speak of “Rights” they mean their right to impose any restrictions the please on what kids can learn. When they talk of “Liberty” they mean a limited liberty for kids to see the world as they are told rather than as it is. And when they speak of “Truth” they mean the denial of who kids and families are.
This not an inclusive education leading to an accepting America, embracing those who live different lives, coming to us from distant lands, permitted to live lives on their terms, bringing a diversity and vibrancy to our democracy.
Nope, this is fascism. One definition of fascism is “a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”
An Indiana chapter of Moms For Liberty in a recent newsletter wrote “He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future…” The author of that quote was Adolf Hitler. And what better place to begin owning the youth than in their schools?
Any questions?
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