There’s nothing more disturbing than when people, particularly politicians, gas-light us and project in their efforts to demonize and attack their opponents. Does that sound like anyone we know from the national stage the last 8 years or so? I wonder where this current class of culture warriors got it from, the projecting? Hmmm. In this case, they are projecting by claiming that kids are being indoctrinated in schools if they are presented with any nuanced curriculum that questions the status quo and the dominant paradigm in America. Yes, we are the greatest country in the world for a whole host of reasons, and those examples, stories, and accomplishments from our nation’s past are on full display and trumpeted throughout our educational system. There is no shortage of patriotic American triumphalism in our schools. However, the history of our country hasn’t all been roses. We owe it to our kids to teach them the whole history.
Politicians who are trying to drive the Culture War train right through the front door of our public schools are afraid that students can’t handle information demonstrating that there is an ongoing detrimental legacy resulting from slavery and the Jim Crow era. CRT is their boogeyman. For some reason, they take the highlighting of the shortcomings and bad deeds of our collective ancestry personally. It upsets them so they want to delete access to this extensive body of work for black, brown, and white students alike. They are afraid that it will breed anti-American idealogy and would like it just to disappear. They are projecting. They are the ones doing the indoctrinating of a particular idealogy, an idealogy that strives to erase the account of brutalities and injustices inflicted on blacks for hundreds of years.
This idealogy seeks to indoctrinate young Americans into believing that there is nothing to the notion of the large-scale generational losses of wealth perpetrated on black families from property theft and destruction throughout the era of segregation. Nothing to see here, move along. They don’t want kids to hear about this part of history. This is a denial of history, of the countless stories of individual suffering and violation of human dignity, and is an effort to paint a perfect picture that all was well and hunky dory in the story of the rise of the United States of America. This is in fact the indoctrination that is occurring.
As a country, as parents, and as teachers, we can tell both stories at once. We can tell the classic American stories of triumph & victory, discovery & innovation, and freedom & hope right alongside the hard truths from the past and realities of the present. If we don’t we are doing the young people in our public schools a grave disservice.
Indoctrination is when opportunistic, divisive politicians censor intellectual discussions, educational materials, and points of view they don’t like and are afraid of. The indoctrination of intolerance and marginalization of gay and transgender students is dangerous and can have life-threatening consequences.
Indoctrination occurs when the government starts banning books and telling parents that their children will only have access now to information that supports a narrow, right-wing, and whitewashed version of American history. The Governor of Florida and his rubber-stamping legislature, who together comprise “the government” in this situation, think they know what your kids should be reading and should not be reading. We’ve seen this story countless times in the past and censoring books has never been a winning strategy in the long run.
There is no place for the destructive and rhetorically lazy culture war against “wokism” in our schools. The use of the word “woke” is just a cheap marketing gimmick. It’s just a strategy for lazy and divisive politicians to demonize people and put a little bow on a whole big basket of things they are against.
Unsurprisingly, this basket of supposedly dangerous wokisms includes a wide range of powerful and transformative movements from the last 50 – 75 years and are widely supported by the American people: diversity and civil rights, environmental protection & climate initiatives, common-sense gun restrictions, LGBTQ rights, women’s reproductive rights, and defending our democracy from creeping authoritarianism. If all of these things are “woke”, call it whatever you like, but Governor Ron D. and those fighting it are on the wrong side of history.
So let’s stop attacking public education. Let teachers and librarians continue to do the important job of providing our kids with a first-class, well-rounded education that offers different perspectives. Together, let’s prepare them to be responsible and aware citizens of our great country.