The Toxic Goal Behind GOP Laws Restricting Teaching about Racism
SOURCE: Washington Post
1/24/2022
The Toxic Goal Behind GOP Laws Restricting Teaching about Racism
Glenn Youngkins victory in the Virginia gubernatorial election persuaded Republicans that theres political gold in attacking teachers for supposedly indoctrinating the nations children about race. So in GOP-controlled state legislatures, efforts to place new restrictions on teachers are accelerating.
But
behind these efforts lie specific trends that could prove particularly toxic. The risk: They may make teachers believe they are on such thin ice that they end up whitewashing the U.S. past rather than dare to communicate hard truths about it.
Thats the key takeaway from a new report from PEN America on the latest batch of restrictions moving forward in GOP legislatures. The report shows that these efforts are expanding and getting more pedagogically pernicious in their goals.
The reports top-line finding: Dozens of proposals have already been introduced this month to limit how our nations racial past and present are taught. Thats striking enough, but whats underneath these efforts also matters.
....
Some of these laws ban the concept that the United States is irredeemably racist or sexist, and some ban the idea that slavery and racism represent anything more than full-scale betrayals of our authentic founding. Proponents sometimes cite Martin Luther King Jr.s belief in the ultimate promise of Americas founding in justifying this.
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https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/182280