Author of anti-CRT bill tells teacher he should stay "impartial" on Nazism
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In Indiana, State Senator Scott Baldwin (R) has introduced sweeping legislation that Baldwin says is designed to ban Critical Race Theory (CRT) and related concepts in K-12 education. During a committee hearing on the bill earlier this month, Baldwin told a high school English teacher that he should be "
This is the next battle front for MAGA 2.0. They are going to try to change what we learn and how we learn, and yet they accuse others of "indoctrinating children"???
Oh, and as someone whose entire family was pretty much wiped out by the Nazis, would tell Mr. Baldwin that he can go f-ck himself (apologies for the harsh language, but stories like this one absolutely infuriate me).
This is full on fascism. Authoritarian, nationalistic, dictatorial powers. The same anti-vaxx nuts want to approve school curriculums? They are zeros in educational backgrounds. The GQP must be removed and started over under a different name. Or they should be called the US Fascist Party. It is important to fight this with every fiber of our being and never ever avert our eyes from high level crimes again. We provided a practice run for the deadly coup attempt.
It is especially ironic that this debate has focused (most recently) on Naziism, because the logical effect of this legislation would be the type of society that the Nazis relied on to perpetuate their oppression: children informing on their teachers and parents (because how else would the law be enforced, if students don’t go home and tell their parents what they learned in school?) I am trying to imagine how “posting materials” would work in a civics class, when part of the curriculum should be reading and discussion of key Supreme Court decisions. Are THOSE opinions also banned? Of course, no one teaches civics anymore, so this problem will only get worse as we raise another ignorant generation.
Conservatives criticize political correctness as a hinderance to free speech while banning the legitimate condemnation of historical inequality, oppression, torture, murder and enslavement. Tell me which is worse? Asking people to chose their words carefully so as not to offend or completely ignoring America’s enslavement of an entire race of people to the point of writing it out of our history education? The latter is what *should be* causing parents to flood school board meetings. Rewriting & ignoring history, even if it’s uncomfortable, is a (or should be) a moral crime.
As a retired public school teacher, I have always believed that the best education happens with a teacher-student-parent partnership/triad. But this book banning and parents directing curriculum is outrageous. The constant stream of negative media stories about public education over the years has served to diminish trust. If we can’t agree that nazism is bad, where are we? If we can’t face our past embrace of slavery and Jim Crow openly, what is to become of our country? Thank you for shining a light on this.
Thank you for another well-researched and informative letter. No surprise republicans/right wingers are attacking teachers now; they always pick on groups of people who are working hard to do the right thing but are also low paid and therefore less able to legally defend themselves.
Reading this piece made me want to tear my hair out. Grouping -isms together and being impartial on them? How about cannibalism? Is Baldwin impartial on that one? Teachers already carry so much on their shoulders without having to post lesson plans for parental comment. This is insane.
As we all know, the bills are completely untenable. Facts don't exist without interpretation. It works the opposite in practice. You have a view point and you look for facts as evidence of the viability of your viewpoint. This is what education is. It teaches you to think critically.
I also think teachers could easily teach Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky and other thinkers critical of our ravaging of the human and natural world, as counter point to the prevailing view, simply as an alternative. It is easy to validate their views with evidence, and not violate the law. For God's sake, read an Indigenous History of the United States. It's loaded with facts!
The law is written by conservative manipulators who have their finger on the pulse of fear. It will not stand.
Thanks for shining a light on this, it’s getting scary out there with the right wing thought police. The Iowa Senate President opened this year’s session, ostensibly about tax cuts and unemployment reform, with a screed against how education and media are trying so o mainstream pedophilia and incest to children. The unhinged Steve King types are now at the front of the line and it’s gone past worrying.
Schools subsidized by the Federal Gov’t, by tax dollars, cannot be neutral about Nazism. People can send their kids to private schools if they want a specialized, slanted approach. K-6 public schools generally begin the day with the Pledge Of Allegiance. If they teach what this means (assuming they do anymore) how then do they justify being mute when the run up to WWII comes up? Why was it fought at all if Nazism is left on even ground with democracy? How does the idea of communism fit in with an Allied World War? Even calling what they teach in K-12 CRT is ludicrous. It’s HISTORY. Something this ‘anti-CRT’ crowd would love to erase for their own benefit.
Teachers are quitting mid year. Between Covid and nutcases like Baldwin and crazed parents the pay Isn't high enough to put up with maybe catching Covid and health effects and the Bull crap of the far right AND PARENTS are the worst. Teacher shortage grows and public ed is underfire just like Democracy.
Going to a school board meeting here and seeing parents who barely got out of high school demand to call the shots on what is taught. In the technology age, they demand the 3 R's only. Then the Christian Right and who home schooled and one is adjunct faculty at Liberty U demand with borderline hate speech towards LGBQT students and the school division, that nothing should be off the table to keep LGBQT out of schools. I have been watching this unfold locally as per these examples for over a year and a half. My school board is under constant fire from anti CRT and CRT isn't even taught in VA in K-12. But don't confuse these people with truth and facts. They follow the Fox, OAN, Newsmax news. Ha.
I don't sugar coat what I write. I have been threatened, had someone in a truck come up my driveway at 3:42 am after a school board meeting report and had a stare down with armed and armored militia at a public event in Sept. That is a reason I often don't support word choice like riot verses insurrection. I have met many of these people up close and personal and they believe the crap they are fed like Baldwin here. Except. Many of
them attended the insurrection. I was told by a bragger they numbered 94. I have every reason to believe her. They believe the media needs to be hung. Even locally. And it boils down to the plan to defeat Democracy by greater minds than these followers.
Public Ed must be defended. The right to teach the truth must be preserved.
A true and present danger is there will not be qualified teachers to teach. And the far right will find puppets to replace them by cutting public school funding, charter and giving public funds to private ed.
Fascists are against the truth. Theocrats are against the truth. Authoritarians are against the truth. These people are against the truth because the truth exposes them for what they are, racists, delusional evangelicals, fascists, and generally ignorant people. The truth is their enemy, just like Hitler said; (no quote here because I can't stomach Hitler and his cronies "teachings") and I paraphrase; 'tell the lie and tell it repeatedly until it becomes accepted as true'. This is what we are up against with these manipulators and cult enthusiasts.
These fascists don't want the [accurately] educated because education and mind control is a part of their agenda to lessen resistance as they are [later] taking away their civil rights. Hint: private citizens in Russia aren't allowed to own firearms and I can imagine that it's ever stricter in North Korea and China.
Education is [a part of] free speech and to regulate information is censorship.
All these anti-accurate information fools will scream murder and whine about their liberty until they see others getting it, then they scream persecution.
The double-standard is obvious to [hopefully] most of us that only desire and seek the truth.
This is the next battle front for MAGA 2.0. They are going to try to change what we learn and how we learn, and yet they accuse others of "indoctrinating children"???
Oh, and as someone whose entire family was pretty much wiped out by the Nazis, would tell Mr. Baldwin that he can go f-ck himself (apologies for the harsh language, but stories like this one absolutely infuriate me).
This is full on fascism. Authoritarian, nationalistic, dictatorial powers. The same anti-vaxx nuts want to approve school curriculums? They are zeros in educational backgrounds. The GQP must be removed and started over under a different name. Or they should be called the US Fascist Party. It is important to fight this with every fiber of our being and never ever avert our eyes from high level crimes again. We provided a practice run for the deadly coup attempt.
Teachers won’t comply and should not.
It is especially ironic that this debate has focused (most recently) on Naziism, because the logical effect of this legislation would be the type of society that the Nazis relied on to perpetuate their oppression: children informing on their teachers and parents (because how else would the law be enforced, if students don’t go home and tell their parents what they learned in school?) I am trying to imagine how “posting materials” would work in a civics class, when part of the curriculum should be reading and discussion of key Supreme Court decisions. Are THOSE opinions also banned? Of course, no one teaches civics anymore, so this problem will only get worse as we raise another ignorant generation.
Conservatives criticize political correctness as a hinderance to free speech while banning the legitimate condemnation of historical inequality, oppression, torture, murder and enslavement. Tell me which is worse? Asking people to chose their words carefully so as not to offend or completely ignoring America’s enslavement of an entire race of people to the point of writing it out of our history education? The latter is what *should be* causing parents to flood school board meetings. Rewriting & ignoring history, even if it’s uncomfortable, is a (or should be) a moral crime.
As a retired public school teacher, I have always believed that the best education happens with a teacher-student-parent partnership/triad. But this book banning and parents directing curriculum is outrageous. The constant stream of negative media stories about public education over the years has served to diminish trust. If we can’t agree that nazism is bad, where are we? If we can’t face our past embrace of slavery and Jim Crow openly, what is to become of our country? Thank you for shining a light on this.
Thank you for another well-researched and informative letter. No surprise republicans/right wingers are attacking teachers now; they always pick on groups of people who are working hard to do the right thing but are also low paid and therefore less able to legally defend themselves.
Reading this piece made me want to tear my hair out. Grouping -isms together and being impartial on them? How about cannibalism? Is Baldwin impartial on that one? Teachers already carry so much on their shoulders without having to post lesson plans for parental comment. This is insane.
As we all know, the bills are completely untenable. Facts don't exist without interpretation. It works the opposite in practice. You have a view point and you look for facts as evidence of the viability of your viewpoint. This is what education is. It teaches you to think critically.
I also think teachers could easily teach Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky and other thinkers critical of our ravaging of the human and natural world, as counter point to the prevailing view, simply as an alternative. It is easy to validate their views with evidence, and not violate the law. For God's sake, read an Indigenous History of the United States. It's loaded with facts!
The law is written by conservative manipulators who have their finger on the pulse of fear. It will not stand.
Thanks for shining a light on this, it’s getting scary out there with the right wing thought police. The Iowa Senate President opened this year’s session, ostensibly about tax cuts and unemployment reform, with a screed against how education and media are trying so o mainstream pedophilia and incest to children. The unhinged Steve King types are now at the front of the line and it’s gone past worrying.
Schools subsidized by the Federal Gov’t, by tax dollars, cannot be neutral about Nazism. People can send their kids to private schools if they want a specialized, slanted approach. K-6 public schools generally begin the day with the Pledge Of Allegiance. If they teach what this means (assuming they do anymore) how then do they justify being mute when the run up to WWII comes up? Why was it fought at all if Nazism is left on even ground with democracy? How does the idea of communism fit in with an Allied World War? Even calling what they teach in K-12 CRT is ludicrous. It’s HISTORY. Something this ‘anti-CRT’ crowd would love to erase for their own benefit.
Some very eloquent responses here. I just say send the POS to a concentration camp for a few months and then let's see how neutral he wants to be.
Teachers are quitting mid year. Between Covid and nutcases like Baldwin and crazed parents the pay Isn't high enough to put up with maybe catching Covid and health effects and the Bull crap of the far right AND PARENTS are the worst. Teacher shortage grows and public ed is underfire just like Democracy.
Going to a school board meeting here and seeing parents who barely got out of high school demand to call the shots on what is taught. In the technology age, they demand the 3 R's only. Then the Christian Right and who home schooled and one is adjunct faculty at Liberty U demand with borderline hate speech towards LGBQT students and the school division, that nothing should be off the table to keep LGBQT out of schools. I have been watching this unfold locally as per these examples for over a year and a half. My school board is under constant fire from anti CRT and CRT isn't even taught in VA in K-12. But don't confuse these people with truth and facts. They follow the Fox, OAN, Newsmax news. Ha.
I don't sugar coat what I write. I have been threatened, had someone in a truck come up my driveway at 3:42 am after a school board meeting report and had a stare down with armed and armored militia at a public event in Sept. That is a reason I often don't support word choice like riot verses insurrection. I have met many of these people up close and personal and they believe the crap they are fed like Baldwin here. Except. Many of
them attended the insurrection. I was told by a bragger they numbered 94. I have every reason to believe her. They believe the media needs to be hung. Even locally. And it boils down to the plan to defeat Democracy by greater minds than these followers.
Public Ed must be defended. The right to teach the truth must be preserved.
A true and present danger is there will not be qualified teachers to teach. And the far right will find puppets to replace them by cutting public school funding, charter and giving public funds to private ed.
Betsey DeVoss was a trailblazer.
Fascists are against the truth. Theocrats are against the truth. Authoritarians are against the truth. These people are against the truth because the truth exposes them for what they are, racists, delusional evangelicals, fascists, and generally ignorant people. The truth is their enemy, just like Hitler said; (no quote here because I can't stomach Hitler and his cronies "teachings") and I paraphrase; 'tell the lie and tell it repeatedly until it becomes accepted as true'. This is what we are up against with these manipulators and cult enthusiasts.
These fascists don't want the [accurately] educated because education and mind control is a part of their agenda to lessen resistance as they are [later] taking away their civil rights. Hint: private citizens in Russia aren't allowed to own firearms and I can imagine that it's ever stricter in North Korea and China.
Education is [a part of] free speech and to regulate information is censorship.
All these anti-accurate information fools will scream murder and whine about their liberty until they see others getting it, then they scream persecution.
The double-standard is obvious to [hopefully] most of us that only desire and seek the truth.
Really, teachers have enough to do. Publishing daily curriculums would be over the top. Children are basically good and fair.... just ask them!
Really, teachers have enough to do. Publishing daily curriculums would be over the top. Children are basically good and fair.... just ask them!
Good grief. The end of education in America? I hope not…