The Republican Fascist Wing of the GOP is now going to town about words and ideas they want removed from curriculum nationwide. They are getting their way in Red States like Texas. They fired a beloved principal from Colleyville, Texas for “promoting Critical Race Theory” and mostly for having black skin.
Bur, of course, they are only emboldened by any successes they have in forcing these toxic racist restrictions on school systems. And there is no Critical Race Theory being taught in Texas, but books are being banned and good educators are getting in trouble for things they are not doing, or even worse, getting in trouble for teaching things about history, science, and literature that they SHOULD BE TEACHING, but Greg Abbott (with no Costello to make him humorous) and Ted (the Cowardly Lyin’) Cruz don’t want students to know about.
There are words that can get you fired now as a teacher. These words, used in class to apparently stir up critical thinking… and worse, thinking for themselves, include woke, transformational, civil rights, white privilige, the 1619 project, slavery, and anything written by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
The government is now meddling in how you handle cultural awareness and the teaching of history, especially how slaves were actually treated and what white-guy presidents like Andrew Jackson did to Native Americans.
School is supposed to be a place for students to go and have their days partitioned into strict time schedules enforced by bells, sitting quietly in rows all day, only speaking when spoken to, being submissively obedient to all authority figures, and turning themselves into mindless worker drones to fit into the work-slots in the dungeons of the corporation overlords.
Maybe it’s the way we go about teaching school. The Native Americans would have the mother teach all the farming skills, cooking skills, camp-making skills, and childcare skills to her daughters while the boys were taught to hunt, shoot a bow, ride a horse, track an animal, or be a warrior by their grandfathers. And then the boys would be set to hunt a bear or wolf or eagle feather completely naked in the woods to prove they were ready to lose their boy-name and take on the name they would be called as a man. Now, that was an educational system!
I know, I know… That would never work with Texas white people. Or Iowa white people. Or any people who belong to a naked-is-a-sin religion. Although nakedness was not the point of Native American education.
But how about listening to the experts? Especially experts equipped with research results that are proven to work in many different places? Do you know who Sir Kenneth Robinson is? Or what he has to say about education… backed by up-to-date research? Yeah, neither does Greg Abbott (without the benefit of Costello.) So, why is he the one who gets to decide?
Catch a Falling Star 
Mickey, if we cannot learn from our mistakes, it makes us destined to repeat them. A retired English teacher I know wrote an op-ed for the newspaper the other day with a theme of “literature is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable.” We learn so much through Huck and Scout’s eyes. Keith
I totally agree. I taught The Giver by Lois Lowry to seventh graders. In that book the part about euthanizing the healthy baby for crying too much always left me and a number of girls in tears. I always expected flack from parents about that… or even the things we read about the Holocaust… but never a word. But I did get flack from white parents about teaching Ruby Bridges ‘ book about integration of an Arkansas grade school.
Interesting dichotomy.
It has never been about teachers. It has always been about what school boards and principals have viewed as being in their best interests. Teachers are considered hired hands. Or perhaps assembly line workers.
It has always been in the teacher’s hands to carry out the delivery of curriculum. I have never met a school board member willing to show me what they want by taking over a class for the day and teaching it. They leave it to me to make it happen. Then they punish what they don’t like that I have already done… or more likely, what they only think I taught based on gossip. Principals are usually on my side if they were previously teachers themselves or simply get ignored if they are not actual instructional leaders.
I talk bigger than I am. I am retired now and have no class. But no school board member ever delivered instruction in any school I ever worked for.
You missed out on the big arguments over intelligent design, critical race theory, and other controversial contents that are becoming either mandated or forbidden in some states.
I am not sure whether I missed out or luckily avoided all that. I am from Texas after all. The gorillas run the monkey house here. We adopt every crazy educational fad and controversy that comes along.