The first tough question she faces—how to teach about the historical fact of slavery, if you’re not allowed to focus on race—dumbfounds her.
“I’m a parent, not an educator.”
It’s literally the first question you’d have to ask if she actually got her way, and she has NOTHING.
It’s actually also the last tough question she faces.
Then, a total softball. And yet, another swing & miss! Asked why education has become such a flashpoint in politics, her answer is, “Don’t mess with our kids!”
Important question. And her answer was a bumper sticker.
I can’t imagine, from this conversation, thinking that this was someone I should talk to about education in this county. Much less this country.
Originally tweeted by David Waldman-1, of Yorktown LLC™ (@KagroX) on October 31, 2021.
When I was in the 8th grade, many moons ago, we spent the whole year in history class on the civil war. We learned a lot about battles and technology and geography. I wrote my big paper on the Lincoln-Douglas debates which are an interesting look at the political arguments around states rights (which my teacher insisted was the “real issue” in the war.) Someone did Fredrick Douglass which I recall being a bit more insightful (how could it not be) but it focused a lot on how Douglass was unique. (Remember, this was the 8th grade.) To the extent they talked about slavery at all, it was presented as an economic story. And Reconstruction was taught as a tale of con-men and grifters (carpetbaggers and scalawags) who descended upon the South to take advantage of the people for their own purposes. In other words, I was pretty much taught the Lost Cause myth.
This was not in Mississippi. It was in the Bay Area in California. I think a great many people were taught this “history” even up until recently and they believe as so many people do that if it was good enough for them it’s good enough for their kids. And that’s just sad. Their kids can handle the truth. They will learn valuable lessons about who we were and what we became, the good, the bad and the ugly which will give them a much richer and valuable understanding of who we are as country today. And maybe they will be able to move beyond this intractable racial divide.
But I suppose that’s the last thing they want. After all, this has all worked out very well for them.