I am a firm believer that education is one of the most valuable resource that we can give to our children…..and in the past several decades there has been an assault on the system to reinforce stereo-types, hatred, biases and fear and it has only gotten worse in the past couple of years.
This assault is lead by, surprise, surprise, the GOP….
Over the past two and a half years, Republicans across the United States have introduced nearly 380 bills aimed at establishing a climate of fear among educators, librarians, and other school officials, according to a report released Wednesday by the free expression group PEN America.
Distinct from the outright censorship measures that GOP lawmakers have unveiled in a number of U.S. states in recent years, “educational intimidation” bills “pressure educators to be more timid in the content they teach, pressure librarians to be more restrictive in the books they make available to students, and pressure students to limit their self-expression, without imposing direct prohibitions,” the new report notes.
“Put simply, these ‘educational intimidation’ provisions, as we dub them, empower the use of intimidation tactics to cast a broad chilling effect over K-12 classrooms by mandating new and intrusive forms of inspection or monitoring of schools, as well as new ways for members of the public—including, in some cases, citizens with no direct connection to the schools—to object to whatever they see that they do not like,” the report adds.
Often introduced under the guise of protecting “parental rights,” such bills require students to receive approval from their parents before taking part in any instruction related to gender identity, give parents and other state residents more power to review and protest instructional materials, prohibit school libraries from offering any material not deemed “age-appropriate,” and more.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/republican-education-bills
Then there is the under-taught subject of civics…every good citizen needs a working knowledge of how our government works….today they do not have the faintest idea what the government does….
While the idiots on the Right are worried about bathrooms, sports and ‘porn’ in the libraries….the students are functionally illiterate on the government and its duties.
The teaching of civics should be mandatory in every democracy, especially in universities. In that regard, I agree wholeheartedly with Richard Hass’s point of view. Democracy has become increasingly fragile in recent years, and only through a reemphasis on the education of citizens can this slide be reversed. No country is stronger than its people, who believe they all have an obligation to serve others, the community, the nation, and the world itself. As Kennedy famously said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. It is a message we still need to hear today.
To sun up….our educational system is dying, our students are ignorant and the GOP is the culprit destroying what is left of our so-called democracy.
Education should be the priority no matter which sleazy party you are a member of at the time.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
