Too many people think that they know best how to educate their children. They don’t!
“Parental rights” is the new code word[i]
for the few extremists who want to ban books from school classrooms and
libraries, who want to change the country’s story. Some do it in the name of
democracy, and some do it in the name of religious teachings. Some do it because
they have lost faith in America’s institutions.
Public schools especially are in near chaos in parts of the country. School administrators scramble to meet the demands of national organizations bent on changing what kids learn. The strategy seems to be, to this observer, to ban any book dealing with sex in any way. The focus on sex reduces the focus on banning books that deal with slavery, white supremacy, or non-Christian religion.
In the U.S., schools are run by the states and local school districts. It is a long tradition that started back in the early days of the country. We all know about the one-room schoolhouse. When towns were smaller, small really, their teachers and school officers bought the textbooks that best suited their local area.
Small towns grew into bigger towns, bigger towns into cities which grew into large cities with suburbs and exurbs. At each stage, education got further away from the parents. Schools are the new football being tossed around by governors and mad mothers with no goalposts in sight. Schools that teach some semblance of accurate history are labeled “woke,” which few can define.
My stab at it - woke is anything with which one doesn’t agree, or something about our past that might not be uplifting, no matter the truth. Those jumping into the woke fire grew up when history courses in schools were dumbed down – Washington chopped down a cherry tree and admitted it: nothing but legend. Most grade school and high school students did not learn that the “father of our country” owned nearly five hundred slaves who worked his plantation. After he died, they were sold to his widow’s brother. Schoolchildren did not learn that twelve of our early presidents owned slaves. John Adams and John Quincy Adams were the exceptions. In Florida, the governor wants schools to teach the good as well as the bad about slavery. There is nothing good about slavery! That is woke!
A recent Gallup poll,[ii] which they have conducted for over twenty years, shows that only 36% of adults are satisfied with the country’s schools. Yet, when parents of K-12 students were asked about the quality of their oldest child’s K-12 education, 76% said they were satisfied. Axios reported that parents talk to teachers and vote for school board members and are closer to the schools than the general public.
Much of the disparity between the general public and the parents lies at the foot of agenda-driven media. If one listens only to one “news” source, one gets only one view of the world. In 2019, Republicans and Democrats essentially agreed about their satisfaction with public schools. This year, only 25% of Republicans are satisfied with public schools. The “awfulness of the schools” has been a fairly constant refrain on right-wing television in recent years.
Moms for Liberty identifies itself as “an organization dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating, and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.”[iii] To say that they are growing nationwide is an understatement. They have chapters in almost every state. The local chapters are supported by the national organization which supplies training and materials.
What could possibly be wrong with trying to save parental rights to save our country? Nothing, unless most of their activities are just the opposite of what the country stands for. They put great effort into banning books in schools and harassing school boards, all in the name of democracy.
Book banning is about as un-American as you can get, all by itself. Moms for Liberty, however, aim their efforts at banning books that deal with racism, white supremacy, any LGBTQ+ issues, sex in general, novels that might make white kids feel uncomfortable, or that do not promote the history of our country as they learned it. What they do is the opposite of democracy.
Much of the literature that they try to ban has been in the canon for years: books like To Kill a Mockingbird, Push, Sold, and The Beloved. The authors are Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award recipients, and Nobel Laureates.
Some state laws, such as in Florida, hold school administrators and teachers personally liable if they allow “wrong” books in their libraries and classrooms. As a consequence, educators are culling out any book that might involve sex or racism subjects, no matter how minor for fear of arrest. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a favorite target.
The world has seen, but perhaps forgotten, the results of past efforts to ensure that the “right” books are in libraries, public or private. Nazi Germany is a good example of what happens when extremists decide to be the arbiters of decency and judges of good literature. Some say we should just teach the kids to read; but how? The science of teaching reading is settled. Students learn by reading. The more they read the better they read. The more topics they consider the better they can read other topics. The better they can read the better they can function as responsible citizens. Book banners should be required to read any book they want to ban and tell us what is objectionable about it.
This is how it should work. Citizens go to the polls and
elect school boards. School boards hire professional educators who teach and administer.
Unhappy voters can vote for different people in the next election. Full stop.
