I recently watched the playback of a local school board meeting in my city. It was cringy, to say the least, and to also use kid vernacular… cringe…cringy. Parent after parent got up to the mic to criticize the curriculum. They didn’t want their 16 year old babies to be subjected to a certain book in their honors English class. These particular parents, the loud minority, continued their rants against teachers, against their children’s school district. Not realizing that as they spoke vehmently against a story based in poverty, overcoming obstacles, abuse, and in the end, integrity, their own child was at home using their fake SnapChat account the parent didn’t realize they had. Yes, your child too. They were using fake apps and work arounds on their phones to hide pictures, bully, or look at something inappropriate that didn’t have any thematic, redeeming idea wrapped around it. Instead of having hard conversations with their kids, they were out there bullying the school district. These parents didn’t want any book, or lesson, or heaven forbid, another person who believed differently than them to influence their children and their conservative Christian ideals. There is a new bill on the docket in Oklahoma threatening teachers. Families can sue teachers personally if their Christian values are diminished in any way. Vague and problematic. Sounds like these parents need to homeschool their kids or shell out the dough to send their children to private Christian schools because I was under the assumption that these were public schools. And public schools take all the children. We take our Muslim kids, our Afghan refugees; we accept our Buddhist, atheist, and gay students. Public school welcomes our black, brown, indigenous people of color. We provide a safe space in which to discuss hard life issues. This is messy, human work. Look around your own group. Do you only socialize with people who identify as you? Do you go to church with only people who look like you, believe like you, or behave like you? Who are you regularly around that pushes your thinking, who challenges your privilege? You will never grow otherwise, and if you pin your kid into that same box, they won’t either. Walk a mile in another’s shoes through community, through literature, through life, and maybe you and your kids will have a little more empathy to the plight of others.
As our kids grow, life is more edgy. Why not allow them to submerse themselves in books that teach a moral lesson. Let’s reflect:
Anne Frank was a staple for me growing up, and it is still taught today. Anne never realized her words would be published as she shared her most intimate thoughts with her diary during the Holocaust. She kisses a boy for the first time, gets her period, talks about her boobs, and goes on a puberty journey all girls and boys go through.
In a bigger worldview, we must teach hard history. The Holocaust was a horrific, gut wrenching true event that needs to continue to be analyzed. “How does a democratic country murder 6 million Jewish people, and how can we make sure that never happens again?”
I love teaching about Maya Angelou and Jackie Robinson. If kids do any research at all, they will be led to what happened to Maya when she was seven, and why she stopped speaking for five whole years. Does that mean this amazing, and influential woman of character and strength should be taken out of our curriculum? No way!
The Outsiders has smoking, murder, gang fights… should that be taken out?
Walter Dean Myers’ Monster has a glaringly accurate portrayal of what it is like to be charged as an adult and thrown into prison. Should we take that out?
And those are just a few examples of what is being taught every day in America as it should be.
So to the screaming parents at all the board meetings, maybe you should be introspective. The school system, the teachers, the administrators are not your enemy. Books are not your enemy. And to the Governor, senators, congressmen and women who want to pass legislation bullying teachers, our most noble profession, what are you going to do when there is no one left to bully, no one left to teach…what then?
Katie
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Katie Kinder 