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"Education is about the pursuit of truth, not the imposition of ideology or the advancement of a political agenda."

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Ron DeSantis on AP African American Studies

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Ron DeSantis on AP African American Studies

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American conservatives have, in many ways, perfected their rhetoric choices when talking about public education policy in the United States. This is evident in the Ron DeSantis quote to the left. Republicans speak to traditional American ideals of truth and freedom and market public education as preparation for the workforce, certainly a capitalist and highly American way of thinking.

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Democrats often resort to grievance politics, moral accusations that make opponents cling more strongly to their opinions, and academic jargon removed from personal experiences and concerns. Although important conversations are happening within the Ivory Tower on educational policy and initiatives, this information is not being translated into an easily digestible way to voters.

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I don't know the answer to how we begin to remedy this situation, but I was inspired by a campaign that Kimberlé Crenshaw is a part of called #freedomtolearn, largely born out of the restriction that came from the AP African American History course. I noticed this campaign for its simple message and rhetoric that mirrors Conservative efforts (as far as using vocabulary like "freedom" and "truth").

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Below are excerpts that demonstrate the rhetoric and campaigning that, in my opinion, are more conducive to increasing conservative support, or at least starting a productive conversation.

"Defend the truth and to protect the freedom to learn"

"Resist restrictions"

"Strengthen our democracy"

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150 activations from New York City to Washington D.C. and Baltimore, MD, from California to Florida, Texas, and beyond, together we lifted our voices to hold the College Board and its enablers accountable for their blatant censorship of central authors, concepts, and topics from the AP African American Studies course. THE WORK CONTINUES, can you give us FIVE?

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150 activations from New York City to Washington D.C. and Baltimore, MD, from California to Florida, Texas, and beyond, together we lifted our voices to hold the College Board and its enablers accountable for their blatant censorship of central authors, concepts, and topics from the AP African American Studies course.

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It's about that time! Our virtual banned book reading is about to begin! Join us as we stand up with others nationwide to protect the #freedomtolearn and defend #BlackStudies #QueerStudies #WomensStudies and truth in education! ✊

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It's about that time! Our virtual banned book reading is about to begin! Join us as we stand up with others nationwide to protect the #freedomtolearn and defend #BlackStudies #QueerStudies #WomensStudies and truth in education! ✊ https://t.co/ApTssDgFcZ

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It's about that time! Our virtual banned book reading is about to begin! Join us as we stand up with others nationwide to protect the #freedomtolearn and defend #BlackStudies #QueerStudies #WomensStudies and truth in education! ✊ pic.twitter.com/ApTssDgFcZ
— WPU Social Justice Project (@SJP_WPUNJ) May 3, 2023

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It's about that time! Our virtual banned book reading is about to begin! Join us as we stand up with others nationwide to protect the #freedomtolearn and defend #BlackStudies #QueerStudies #WomensStudies and truth in education! ✊ https://t.co/ApTssDgFcZ

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It's about that time! Our virtual banned book reading is about to begin! Join us as we stand up with others nationwide to protect the #freedomtolearn and defend #BlackStudies #QueerStudies #WomensStudies and truth in education! ✊ https://t.co/ApTssDgFcZ

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It's about that time! Our virtual banned book reading is about to begin! Join us as we stand up with others nationwide to protect the #freedomtolearn and defend #BlackStudies #QueerStudies #WomensStudies and truth in education! ✊

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I based this separate Padlet map off of Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory which we explored in class and also off of ideas from Parker Palmer's "The Heart of a Teacher." It is meant to show the many individuals, systems, groups, and communities that interact with a student throughout their education, in this case specifically in their social studies education.

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Medford High School's Center for Citizenship and  Social Responsibility

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Medford High School's Center for Citizenship and  Social Responsibility

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An example of a program that put students personal experiences first in community-based learning.

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TESTIMONIALS

"The CCSR -a program that emphasizes the development of character and which understands character as involving caring for the needs of those who are less fortunate and strengthening the community for all IS A GEM...and something our entire nation needs at this critical moment in our history. As we examine our current leaders, I don't think they suffer from low academic achievement. What is often in short supply is the empathy and caring that would actually make us stronger. You are not only adding value in Medford but you are contributing to a new generation that hopefully will become the leaders we all need.

What is powerful about how the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility operates is that their approach to learning combines lessons in civics, social and emotional learning, and community engagement in a project based framework. Instead of separate initiatives, Rich Trotta and his dedicated teachers have synthesized all the important skills and values, l we want our students to learn in order to be prepared to improve and strengthen the social fabric that is so critical to our collective well-being.

Supporting the efforts of the CCSR is extremely important. Citizenship and Social Responsibility are antidotes to so much of the hate, inequality, and disenfranchisement that plague our nation and our communities. I cannot think of anything that is more essential and critical to the future of our children and our society. "The CCSR is an exemplar of what the future of education should and needs to be...it is about combining skill development with a sense of community. It is about strengthening empathy and caring and connecting those important values to a wider sense of civic responsibility. CCSR provides a context for young men and women to apply the knowledge, skills, and caring to the real world.

Closing comment on the importance of and need for more CCSRs Whether it is climate change or the damage created by inequity, racism, and intolerance, we need from our future graduates not only skilled and thoughtful citizens but ones who care about their local community as well as the global community. The world has gotten a lot smaller in our life time and CCSR provides a pathway to developing the kind of citizens that we all want and need."
Dr. John D'Auria, University of Pennsylvania - GSE Division of Teaching Learning, and Leadership and former president of Teachers21

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Medford CCSR - Incorporating Positive Social and Emotional Learning

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TESTIMONIALS "The CCSR -a program that emphasizes the development of character and which understands character as involving caring for the needs of those who are less fortunate and strengthening the community for all IS A GEM...and something our entire nation needs at this critical moment in our history.

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From their website: "The primary mission of the CCSR is to develop student leaders/social entrepreneurs who will be positive contributors to society and will work to combat critical social issues. We believe that K-12 public school education provides us with the most effective place to have a positive impact and influence on students. Most traditional public school education is focused on content (academics) and very little on social-emotional learning (SEL). In Medford, Massachusetts, we have created an SEL program where K-12 students learn to be responsible global leaders/citizens."

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Although this program is not in-classroom instruction, it takes an approach to civics education that is highly hands-on, personal, and connected to students' communities. Last semester, I interviewed two students in the program who said that it has had a profound impact on their educational trajectory and their intellectual interests. They said that their deep learning was a result of the personal connections they were able to make to their work and how this experience became more formative to them than traditional classroom instruction.

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I found this TedTalk that talks about the argument for presentism. Although I think it is a bit idealized, I wanted to include it to show how other people are thinking and talking about the issue.

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In defence of presentism | Abbie Casson | TEDxTauntonSchool

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In all three rounds of the Fogo study, 'Making Personal/Cultural Connections' was one of the lowest ranked teaching practices. Participants said that these "connections are often strained, can distort history, and encourage presentism" (171). Concerns that it could "distort historical analysis" (179) also came up. Participants suggested a more conservative use of this type of practice only when it seemed explicitly and obviously relevant to the class material.

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Mr. Toy says that personal and cultural connections in the social studies classroom is all about applying historical evidence to modern day events. He says that we have always been looking at historical events through a modern day lens (presentism), so why is it an issue now? Instead of harping on this 'newfound' debate, we should be focusing on how to connect history and the present in relevant and applicable ways that build students' skills in understanding and applying evidence. He says that "history is complicated," so shouldn't we let students evaluate it with all of their complex and nuanced identities?

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*this title uses 'problem' which I think can be switched out since the event does not need to be a problem

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The Iceberg Model is a perfect example of how we can productively tie in social studies as a personal subject.

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*I added my own text on this version, so click for a zoomed in look!

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In this example, I use the Black Lives Matter Movement as the tip of the iceberg, a topic that has extreme personal and cultural relevance to many students. In the Patterns/Trends sections, students will identify current events related to the tip, in this example, I talk about police brutality. However, the Structures section is where history can come into play in the most obvious way. We can examine the history of the policing institution, segregation and redlining, the War on Drugs, and the influence of police in different communities based on demographics. In this way, a lesson like this could be relevant to many different classes and time periods. Rather than using cultural and personal connections to water down history, we can actually use them to paint a more nuanced picture, especially when we are examining structural issues.

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We cannot expect anyone—students or ourselves—to understand problems we are no longer permitted to name or to prepare for a future we cannot imagine. The fight for our ideas, our language, and our history is critical to the fight for our lives. #FreedomtoLearn

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We cannot expect anyone—students or ourselves—to understand problems we are no longer permitted to name or to prepare for a future we cannot imagine. The fight for our ideas, our language, and our history is critical to the fight for our lives. #FreedomtoLearn https://t.co/ppI85MNRzm

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We cannot expect anyone—students or ourselves—to understand problems we are no longer permitted to name or to prepare for a future we cannot imagine. The fight for our ideas, our language, and our history is critical to the fight for our lives. #FreedomtoLearn pic.twitter.com/ppI85MNRzm
— Advancing Justice - AAJC (@AAAJ_AAJC) May 3, 2023

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We cannot expect anyone—students or ourselves—to understand problems we are no longer permitted to name or to prepare for a future we cannot imagine. The fight for our ideas, our language, and our history is critical to the fight for our lives. #FreedomtoLearn https://t.co/ppI85MNRzm

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We cannot expect anyone—students or ourselves—to understand problems we are no longer permitted to name or to prepare for a future we cannot imagine. The fight for our ideas, our language, and our history is critical to the fight for our lives. #FreedomtoLearn https://t.co/ppI85MNRzm

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We cannot expect anyone—students or ourselves—to understand problems we are no longer permitted to name or to prepare for a future we cannot imagine. The fight for our ideas, our language, and our history is critical to the fight for our lives. #FreedomtoLearn

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To prepare children for the future, we need to teach them both the good and the bad of our history so that they better understand the lives, cultures and experiences of different people.
#DemsAct #Avalanche #FreedomToLearn #knowledgeispower

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Life is Better w/a Dog,Resist, ExGOP, Soldier Mom

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To prepare children for the future, we need to teach them both the good and the bad of our history so that they better understand the lives, cultures and experiences of different people.
#DemsAct #Avalanche #FreedomToLearn #knowledgeispower https://t.co/oBwJWeNsj7

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Life is Better w/a Dog,Resist, ExGOP, Soldier Mom

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Life is Better w/a Dog,Resist, ExGOP, Soldier Mom

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To prepare children for the future, we need to teach them both the good and the bad of our history so that they better understand the lives, cultures and experiences of different people.#DemsAct #Avalanche #FreedomToLearn #knowledgeispower pic.twitter.com/oBwJWeNsj7
— Life is Better w/a Dog,Resist, ExGOP, Soldier Mom (@Dotocon) May 3, 2023

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To prepare children for the future, we need to teach them both the good and the bad of our history so that they better understand the lives, cultures and experiences of different people.
#DemsAct #Avalanche #FreedomToLearn #knowledgeispower https://t.co/oBwJWeNsj7

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Life is Better w/a Dog,Resist, ExGOP, Soldier Mom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
To prepare children for the future, we need to teach them both the good and the bad of our history so that they better understand the lives, cultures and experiences of different people.
#DemsAct #Avalanche #FreedomToLearn #knowledgeispower https://t.co/oBwJWeNsj7

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
To prepare children for the future, we need to teach them both the good and the bad of our history so that they better understand the lives, cultures and experiences of different people.
#DemsAct #Avalanche #FreedomToLearn #knowledgeispower

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Life is Better w/a Dog,Resist, ExGOP, Soldier Mom

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Using the pedagogies of Naming, Questioning, and Demystifying found in Parkhouse's paper, we can think about how to reach more people when fighting for critical curriculum in the social studies classroom.

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Mr. Lamb says that he doesn't exactly avoid controversial topics but that in the last few years he has had to be more careful about what he brings into the classroom. He notes that "if you're doing your job right, you shouldn't be preaching your own views." He also believes that if the topic starts to become too controversial then "you got to kind of read the class. And if they start sounding uncomfortable, you got to switch gears, you got to go do something else."

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In some ways, Mr. Lamb begins to contradict himself. He notes that students are "developing their opinions right now and just kind of trying things out" and may not "necessarily believe what they're saying." However, at the same time, he says that he feels uncomfortable bringing up some topics, like gun violence, because "kids kind of know the topics that you really don't discuss, and so they kind of on their own will navigate around them." He believes that on a personal level he is not ready or equipped with the knowledge to have these difficult conversations as well as be responsible for the discussions that follow.

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Finally, Mr. Lamb is cautious about the legal and social repercussions that he could face because of disclosure decisions in the classroom. He says that he is "not going to open himself up to legal actions without the support of the principal, the administration, and the school board." He believes that New Hampshire laws have extremely limited what he can and cannot say in the classroom and that he would rather follow these rules than try to find ways around them.

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A Twenty-first Century Guide to Politics in the Classroom

In a four-year study of classroom political discussions between 2005 and 2009, Diana Hess, dean of University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Education, and Paula McAvoy, assistant professor of Social Studies Education at the North Carolina State University, set out to examine what students learned from classroom political discussions, and whether those experiences influenced their future civic engagement and behavior. In addition, they wanted to study the teachers providing the "high quality" discussions to find out what they were doing right.

In their book about the research, The Political Classroom, Hess and McAvoy argue that schools, in order to fulfill their democratic mission, should be political (though not partisan). Political classrooms "seek to teach young people to see each other as political equals and to inculcate them into the practice of reason-giving and considering how their views and behaviors affect others." In political classrooms, students learn how to discuss topics that have multiple, competing views, and practice listening and questioning.

Creating the kind of political classrooms and democratic education that students need has always been difficult, but is now even more so in our current highly polarized climate. McAvoy and Hess note that often teachers choose to avoid having political discussions in classes that are teaching the lessons of politics (like history, government, and civics) because facilitating talks about controversial topics is full of pedagogical challenges-navigating students' family cultural and religious values, the polarized political climate outside of school, and the fear of parent backlash all make creating a positive environment for political discussions much more difficult.

Teachers are also wary-rightfully-of how their attitudes and personal opinions can influence the developing ideas of impressionable young people, and must also be aware that students have more first amendment rights to free speech than they do as state employees. "Teachers are in a position of authority and can dramatically affect the life prospects of students [who] understandably will self-censor to avoid offending the person who controls their grade," wrote political science professor Joshua Dunn at University of Colorado Colorado Springs in the upcoming essay collection Talking Out of Turn: Teacher Speech for Hire. All around, classroom political discussions can be fraught with minefields.

But that shouldn't discourage teachers from holding political discussions in class. When done well, Hess and McAvoy argue, allowing students to talk to each other about controversial topics has the potential to increase civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions that lead to adult civic engagement. The key to creating a positive environment for discussion, they found, was guidance by a well-prepared and knowledgeable teacher.

Best Practice Educators

To find out what was happening inside classrooms where students learned the most from discussing controversial topics, McAvoy and Hess studied the work of 35 social studies, history, and government educators, some that used curriculum that focused on deliberation of controversial political issues and some that taught lecture style. Then they compared the two types of teachers to see how they engaged students and what students learned.

All of the teachers they studied had quite a bit of teaching experience, and the majority had degrees in history or political science. Out of this group, the researchers found 10 to 12 teachers they labeled "Best Practice teachers," who conducted political discussions where students learned a lot and later showed indications of increased civic knowledge and engagement. These Best Practice educators held discussions of controversial topics at least once a week in class, were all politically aware and engaged themselves, and often shared that knowledge and enthusiasm with their students.

McAvoy said in an interview that Best Practice teachers also had a lot of support and professional development to learn how to conduct classroom political discussions. Teachers sometimes assume, McAvoy said, that classroom discussions don't require much preparation upfront, but the opposite is true. Good discussions have lots of upfront preparation, including the teacher creating discussable questions, students reading something in advance, incorporating discussions into a unit of study, and educators making sure that students are talking to each other, not the teacher.

Surprise discussions sprung on students can go off the rails quickly. "If the Monday morning after the Charlottesville riots a teacher just walks into her classroom and asks the students, 'Well, what did you guys think of that?' That's going to be a disaster," McAvoy said. An open discussion right after a tragic event, with questions like "how do you feel about this situation?" or "do you have questions?" allows students to process-but it's not the time to debate free speech, or what to do about monuments. "If you let kids just shoot from the hip, it will be divisive and will allow students to just state their biases and their prejudices without any guidance," McAvoy notes. Using discussion strategies like role-playing, supporting statements with text and research, and student understanding of knowing how and when they are supposed to participate will make a discussion more productive and effective.

Best Practice teachers also know how to push student thinking, especially if, like many American schools today that are "sorted" into more like-minded groups, the class mostly agrees with one another on certain topics. In their book, McAvoy and Hess describe how social studies teacher Joel Kushner at Academy High School plays "devil's advocate" to his left-leaning students on topics like abortion, trying to nudge them to understand the pro-life point of view and see there are reasonable competing ideas on both sides of the issue. Kushner said,

With abortion, I try to make the arguments as best I can. I divide it up: today is the pro-choice view, today is the pro-life view, and I get the strongest arguments I can. I think Don Marquis has a good secular pro-life argument, and some of my very good students picked up on that. . . . So [some students] in the end were giving a pro-life argument and it was very interesting and got a little heated. So that's what I do: I make the best arguments that I can, and I actually enjoy it. It's a challenge for me.

McAvoy and Hess found that students who participated in well-planned, controversial political discussions benefitted in multiple ways. One big benefit was that discussions allowed students to realize, often for the first time, that their peers disagreed with them, a key part of being a citizen in a democracy. The researchers worry that the twenty-first-century polarized climate creates many more like-minded schools in which teachers and students see the world more or less the same way-a big problem for democracy.

For like-minded schools, encouraging discussions about opposing points of view becomes even more important. Students who practiced discussion also became more interested in politics in a social way, and shared political thoughts with family, friends, and coworkers. And perhaps most importantly, students who participated in Best Practice discussions were more likely to display the kind of interest in political activities-from reading the news to listening to people with different views to being more interested in politics in general-that predict future civic and political engagement.

McAvoy and Hess argue strongly for more classes serving a wider range of students to engage in the kind of deliberations that prepare young people for participating in democracy. "Democratic education requires teachers to create a political classroom in which young people develop the skills, knowledge, and dispositions that allow them to collectively make decisions about how we ought to live together," they wrote.

Debate Team for the Twenty-first Century

In his first years as debate coach, high school English teacher Scott Wunn approached debate team in the same way he did when he coached wrestling: both wrestling and debate were competitions that required intense focus and fierce collective energy in order to win. They appeared to be individual competitions, but couldn't be further from the truth-both fed off the energy and experience of the whole group. Both required resistance training and development of core skills to succeed. And in order to win a debate or a wrestling match, the opponent must not be ignored or circumvented, but overcome.

But in the 10 years he coached debate at a high school in Des Moines, Iowa, Wunn found the more he immersed himself in the team, the more he learned. Unlike wrestling matches, each academic debate was unique and brought new challenges-how to make a point, a counterpoint, how to support an argument-and Wunn found himself a more well-rounded thinker. His teaching practice improved, and so did his research skills.

Helping students prepare to argue both sides of an assigned topic nuanced his worldview, providing Wunn with what he calls "a stronger understanding of the gray area of life." Debate and wrestling weren't as alike as he first thought, and he figured that the skills he was gaining must also be happening with his students. Over the years, a more complex view took shape regarding the skills that debate provided for kids, bigger than simply winning or losing a well-planned argument. Wunn noticed that debaters picked up crucial skills that colleges and businesses alike said they were looking for in young people, like the ability to collaborate with team members and think critically about a topic-often this happened not in the library but on their feet, responding to an opponent during a debate. The twenty-first-century skills making headlines were developed naturally during the process of researching, preparing, and participating in a debate.

In addition, the new millennium brought digital technology to debate topics and gave debaters greater access to information than ever before. Access to the internet made student arguments more nuanced and more complex, the depth of analysis more robust. Information gave students power; debates at the turn of the new century, Wunn said, became much more real, and students found the immediacy of bringing current events scraped off the web into their debates intoxicating.

All of these collective factors put together have ignited a large debate revival, one that's remodeled itself for the new century. Wunn became executive director of the National Speech and Debate Association in 2003, and began working to transform the association, adding 60,000 students nationwide to the association's membership as well as adding a popular new category of debate that focuses on issues surrounding current events.

Under Wunn's direction, an after-school club with a reputation for incubating future Alex P. Keatons-argumentative young men in nubucks and ties, interested in the intricacies of international policy-has opened its once-closed circle to increasing numbers of young women and people of color. The association hosts an annual national tournament with more than 3,000 students participating, and now sponsors a global debate team of 12 high schoolers that travel the world. They've qualified for the World Schools Debating Championship, what Wunn called the "Olympics" of debate.

Though Wunn has been working toward debate domination for more than 15 years, he said the biggest surge of interest has come in the last four or five as polarization has increased and political rhetoric in the public eye has gotten more heated. In debate, Wunn noted, debaters must be prepared to argue both sides of an issue in order to win, which he said gives them a piece currently missing from political conversations they might encounter on social media.

More educators have reached out to the group because they're concerned about civic engagement skills and civil discourse, as well as teaching students the importance of face-to-face communication. It didn't hurt that Parkland activist David Hogg kept referring to himself as a "debate nerd," either. Every middle and high school in Broward County, Florida, where Parkland is located, has a debate program, and debate instruction begins in fourth grade. With a new category called Public Forum, Wunn has worked to make debate more classroom-friendly. Teachers can have two teams of two students debate a current event topic such as immigration or health care for 40 minutes and still have time left over for reflection and discussion.

Some have suggested that debate not be relegated to social studies class or an after-school club, but be integrated into every subject. Economist Robert Litan has argued for a "counterintuitive" solution to nationwide polarization and cable TV shouting matches: "debatify" more subjects, and allow students to treat other subjects-science, literature-with the same rigorous research and argumentation practices given to world politics and policies. Litan argues that debate isn't only fun, but also provides a kind of resilience training for hearing other points of view.

Expanding debate's reach isn't easy, as it still remains largely an activity for whiter, wealthier kids. But recent research has shown the promise of debate in urban minority communities; in one 2011 study of the Chicago Urban Debate League, debaters were more likely "to graduate from high school, performed better on the ACT, and showed greater gains in cumulative GPA relative to similar comparison students," even after researchers controlled for self-selection into the activity.

But Wunn wants to make debate even more inclusive. In Wunn's perfect world, all young people, no matter their background, would be equipped with the skills debate provides-civil discourse and the ability to see and understand key arguments about both sides of pressing issues. Debaters don't flinch when information is thrown at them, he said. They know how to use information, how to substantiate their arguments, how to understand the legitimate positions of all sides. To be citizens of the twenty-first century, to have the focus to overcome opponents, to win. Like the verbal version of wrestling-except with more informed citizens and a more equitable democracy as the prize at the end of a match.
Holly Korbey is an education and parenting journalist and the author of Building Better Citizens. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, and others. She is a regular contributor on education for Edutopia and MindShift. Follow her on Twitter @hkorbey.

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How Classroom Political Discussions - Controversies, Too - Prepare Students for Needed Civic Participation | KQED

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In a four-year study of classroom political discussions between 2005 and 2009, Diana Hess, dean of University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Education, and Paula McAvoy, assistant professor of Social Studies Education at the North Carolina State University, set out to examine what students learned from classroom political discussions, and whether those experiences influenced their future civic engagement and behavior.

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Mrs. Eckert believes that "it's better to promote multiple perspectives than to promote the teaching of morality because I don't know everybody's moral perspectives." Throughout the interview, she struggles with the idea of disclosure. She believes that because morality is so subjective that promoting disclosure, even if it is disclosure on a moral basis, can be dangerous since there are people who genuinely hold racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, etc. moral values.

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In an ideal world, she notes that education would be grounded in anti-racist and anti-sexist work, but she thinks that promoting that in our current climate isn't feasible. Out of all the interviewees, she most often cites just how "complicated" the issue of disclosure is. While she has her own opinions about how she should disclose in her classroom, she thinks more broadly about the situation in all of public education and what message we should be giving to all teachers.

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In response to laws that have been passed in New Hampshire which limit topics that can be talked about in the classroom, Mrs. Eckert says that if a teacher instructs with the inquiry model, then they should not be concerned. She notes that it "sets the base of if you're doing research, you need to be seeking multiple perspectives." She says that if teachers stay true to promoting multiple perspectives, then "no law should ever be a problem."

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When the "other side" is bigotry, it does not belong in the classroom.

Full stop.

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When the "other side" is bigotry, it does not belong in the classroom.

Full stop.

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When the "other side" is bigotry, it does not belong in the classroom.

Full stop.
— Christie (@ChristieNold) October 15, 2021

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When the "other side" is bigotry, it does not belong in the classroom.

Full stop.

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When the "other side" is bigotry, it does not belong in the classroom.

Full stop.

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When the "other side" is bigotry, it does not belong in the classroom.

Full stop.

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Mr. Toy differentiates between misinformation/disinformation and political stances, saying that "as a teacher of fact" it's okay to "call out myths and disinformation, even though that may be interpreted by some as a political stance." He qualifies this by saying that the social studies "culture wars" have been born out of this disinformation sphere, which has driven the contentious debates over public education. However, he also believes that the classroom should not be a place where teachers completely disclose their political beliefs because this "poisons the trusting and open atmosphere that you want to harbor in a social studies classroom."

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First, we need to name the lessons that need to be included in the history curriculum. Things like 'queer studies' and 'Black history' have become buzzwords that immediately turn people away from conversations. If we can name specific topics, people, and events that these histories consist of, they suddenly become a lot less 'scary.' Similarly, Critical Race Theory has somehow become a catch-all for everything and anything that deviates from traditional, patriotic history. We need to name CRT as an advanced theoretical and legal framework that is not actually implemented in K12 classrooms. This leads back to the first point in which we name what sorts of topics we are actually talking about when wanting to expand the way American curriculum teaches race and racism.

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When talking about historical events that used to be much more political, Mr. Toy says that "some topics are historical facts, and you have to take a biased stance" when presenting them. The example he gives for this is teaching about the Holocaust and how a teacher must begin the lesson with the baseline that the Holocaust was an atrocious event. He also notes that there are ways to present lessons as either debatable or not debatable, and that teachers should never present these 'closed topics' as the former.

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For all of the talk about wanting to limit various topics in the classroom, many have a hard time defending why they support the restrictions. In this way, questioning should be used as a way to produce conversation and understanding between both sides of the spectrum. Debates over education have become incredibly fueled and passionate, and people have become increasingly staunch in their opinions and practices. To make progress, Democrats and the Left need to be asking the Right what worries them the most about progressive education implementation. This should be without accusation and simply as a way to fully understand the core arguments from Conservatives and develop empathy. Without having a deep understanding of where the Right is coming from, legislation and curriculum will never pass.

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Finally, although he does worry if administration will have his back if any community members complain about his teaching of controversial topics, Mr. Toy says that he will continue pushing forward and teaching his classes the same way because, ultimately, his lesson plans are backed by evidence and present all sides of opinions, which allows students to come to their own conclusions without interference of Mr. Toy's political beliefs.

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Lastly, we need to demystify what is actually happening in the classroom. People like Christopher Rufo have done an astounding job at creating fear surrounding indoctrination and the idea that teachers are forcing students to adhere to a certain ideology. Mass panic has developed from this idea, so we need to think about how to show what is truly happening in the classroom when students learn about things like Black history or queer studies. If we can demonstrate the use of classroom practices like the inquiry model as medium for lessons like these, there can be a greater understanding of how teachers truly instruct controversial topics in the classroom. There has been such a great chasm between public discourse and the realities of the classroom, and demystification can help lessen this divide.

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Before this class, I still would have said that social studies education should be intimately tied to students' lived experiences, but, after this semester, I agree with that even more strongly than before. However, I actually think that I have even more questions than answers now -  1) How can we do this by honoring various knowledge systems? 2) What changes need to be made within teacher education programs to make this a stronger part of the culture of social studies education in the United States? 3) Where do we start when thinking about how to shift teacher demographics away from an overwhelmingly white identity?

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History is complex, so it doesn't make sense for it to be taught in a way that doesn't honor that. This doesn't mean that history and social studies education should be made complicated in a way where students lose interest and become frustrated by the material, but it should be presented in a way that is as nuanced as all the students' identities. This allows for heightened engagement in the material, the development of a love for learning, and a desire to pursue community engagement.

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It is possible, perhaps vital, to be highly critical of the institution of schooling as we know it and to remain committed to the broader project of learning in public space.

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It is possible, perhaps vital, to be highly critical of the institution of schooling as we know it and to remain committed to the broader project of learning in public space.

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It is possible, perhaps vital, to be highly critical of the institution of schooling as we know it and to remain committed to the broader project of learning in public space.
— Harper B. Keenan (@HarperKeenan) February 3, 2022

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It is possible, perhaps vital, to be highly critical of the institution of schooling as we know it and to remain committed to the broader project of learning in public space.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
It is possible, perhaps vital, to be highly critical of the institution of schooling as we know it and to remain committed to the broader project of learning in public space.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
It is possible, perhaps vital, to be highly critical of the institution of schooling as we know it and to remain committed to the broader project of learning in public space.