From slavery to socialism, new legislation restricts what teachers can discuss

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/03/1077878538/legislation-restricts-what-teachers-can-discuss

by b0sk • 4 years ago

17 15 4 years ago

dymk2• 4 years ago

for instance, prohibits teachers from discussing any topic that creates "discomfort, guilt or anguish" on the basis of political belief.

I mean, sounds reasonable to me.

Teach the facts of history. Tens of millions of Jews, Queer people, and POC were slaughtered by nazi fascists. America's economy was founded on the enslavement of Black people and racist behavior is encoded in some of our systems of government and behavior to this very day. That's not teaching something on the basis of a political belief, that's just a fact that happened.

You don't need to sit a K-12 student down and bash them over the head about how they should feel bad for a belief. First, that's not going to change their views. Secondly, we have enough teachers imposing their own political biases onto students.

gremlinsinc• 4 years ago

Teach the facts of history. Tens of millions of Jews, Queer people, and POC were slaughtered by nazi fascists. America's economy was founded on the enslavement of Black people and racist behavior is encoded in some of our systems of government and behavior to this very day. That's not teaching something on the basis of a political belief, that's just a fact that happened.

For many people they applaud the actions of the people who committed these atrocities. Many pine to redo the civil war or try reimagining it as if the South actually won...

These topics definitely can create discomfort. You can't teach the Holocaust without discomfort...but I posit some discomfort is healthy, it encourages us to be compassionate and do better.

The only people who'd feel guilt or anguish are the ones who's parents are Neo-nazi's I'd imagine, but that's a large amount of kids in America -sadly.

I miss the days when we could just teach facts unabashed discomfort or no, just the facts and show what really happened .. I mean in 8th grade we watched a Documentary (1994) that showed items made of Human skin for the Nazi regime, and horrendous images of concentration camps. Definitely makes me not want to take lightly the idea of persecuting people and risk redoing something that heinous.

If we forget or gloss over the hard stuff, we risk losing our discomfort and disgust, and in the process we grow closer to recreating the behaviors that led up to that.

krapp2• 4 years ago

America's economy was founded on the enslavement of Black people and racist behavior is encoded in some of our systems of government and behavior to this very day.

Oops. You just described the foundation of critical race theory, any mention of which is explicitly forbidden in the bills being discussed. So you can teach the history of America's founding, but you just can't teach that slavery was in any way racist, and you definitely can't teach that "racist behavior is encoded in some of our systems of government and behavior to this very day." Because that would make white people, and in particular modern day white supremacists, feel uncomfortable.

The article mentions numerous ways in which these bills are crafted explicitly to prohibit the teaching of certain uncomfortable truths, while expressly requiring teachers to apply political biases defined by the state (such as the Indiana bill forbidding the teaching of "anti-American ideologies.") Their purpose is not to allow the teaching of fact, but to enshrine into law the teaching of right-wing Christian conservative orthodoxy as fact.

dymk2• 4 years ago

These are things I was taught in highschool before CRT was ever on anyone's radar. What new does CRT bring to the table that previous teaching material did not?

gtsop• 4 years ago

The layers of irony in this self-contradicting educational system that preaches against it's own doings... This is just too much for my human brain to deal with. Maybe that's the point?

glonq• 4 years ago

Wow "freedom" sure comes with a lot of restrictions.

meristohm2• 4 years ago

Yeah. I grew up in the USA, and I realize now that our freedom/liberty rah-rah is something we like to hear ourselves say and an excuse to bully or coerce others.

We still have government-sanctioned slavery, per the 13th amendment to the constitution banning slavery except during imprisonment (lookup “UNICOR”, one of the ways manyof our corporations make extra profit).

ashwagary• 4 years ago

I wonder, can America survive if its uncensored history is exposed?

meristohm2• 4 years ago

I like to think we can, if we decouple our self-worth from what we do, internalize “I am better than no one and no one is better than me”, and recover from all the variations on trauma going back generations to the Puritans and beyond, and what we did and do to those who were here in North America already.

Among other things.

polotics• 4 years ago

As a teenager I would have pleaded discomfort for being taught any history, and claimed exemption from any exam related to the subject because of said discomfort. Academic history books are so very different from history textbooks as fed to children... I invite any affected reader and their parents to go ahead with this, flying-spaghetti-monster style.

long_time_gone2• 4 years ago

Are these considered regulations or do those only count when they impact businesses?

josephcsible• 4 years ago

Should a teacher be allowed to present Alex Jones' beliefs to children as if they were facts? If not, then don't act like you believe teachers should be allowed to teach whatever they want with no restrictions.

From slavery to socialism, new legislation restricts what teachers can discuss

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