The United States education system was already not in a great place in 2015 when the odious Donald Trump slid down that infamous escalator with his family by his side. With the help all the old racist confederates who have made this country deeply unequal and hostile to people of color, Trump upended the political landscape- for the worse in every way, including the education for millions of children.
For progressives, for human rights workers, for anyone fighting to humanize our horrible prison system, for anyone who wanted to make our education system do a better job of teaching the right stuff to our kids- all these fights have come to a grinding halt as we have been dragged into the struggles for survival with the fascist right.
The Trump cult has clearly shown in ALL CAPS: our education system is broken. How else do we understand the cult of Trump: almost half of the population who is willing, even eager, to believe the wackiest stuff as long as it is stated in all caps by the dear leader. Something we hear pretty much every day: how can they believe that nonsense? When I am out canvassing for Kamala Harris, this question: how can they believe his nonsense, is on the lips of pretty much everyone who is not in the cult. Whether it is the stupidity of boycotting any product that has offended their tender sensibilities by featuring a sweet, airbrushed gay couple with their adorable kid, or a beautiful trans woman running, just too much melanin, or any of the other cult-offending sins, the Trumpers seem to have no ability to question. The fact that Haitians are not stealing house pets and eating them has not at all slowed down the hateful rhetoric attacking Haitians, who already have challenging lives.
Education has taken a real hit in all the states where Trumpists dominate. They are not content with teaching the already centrist, pro-capitalist curriculum that was accepted in most schools, as some children actually learned real history and had questions about their great grandparents bringing the family and the picnic to watch Black men being tortured and lynched. Maybe the kids even came home with some questions about why we killed off almost all the native population on this continent. They also might have become friends with the girl who has two moms. Well, thank the good lord, those righteous Trumpers will never have to worry about their little snowflake children learning any real history again – in the fantasy world of Florida’s Ron DeSantis, slaves learned useful skills to apply to their lives – like maybe how to live with the pain and scars of whipping, how to survive having their children stolen? Those Trumper children living in Florida will never have to know that Johnnie has two dads, because Ron DeSantis has decided that kids aren’t even allowed to acknowledge their parents’ identities in the classroom. The far right is so into Holocaust denial now, that the “Diary of Anne Frank” has been banned in Texas, Florida, Virginia, and at least some districts in Michigan – not sure where else. The Trumpers are very concerned that their children are going to develop any empathy, I guess. Empathy is a tool of the left – it might actually create young adults who care about the world around them instead of just the cult and themselves.
In many states now, thanks to a terrible decision by the fascist Supreme Court, the states are forced to pay for religious education for any family who chooses to send their children to a segregation academy, as so many of these so-called religious schools are truly. So tax dollars can go to pay for a child to attend a school where there are no services for special ed kids, where the student population can potentially be all white Christians, and where the curriculum is a mix of evangelical religious teachings and fantasy history and science invented by the creeps in places like Hillsdale College and PraegerU. Some examples of this garbage are a PragerU video, being shown to actual children in Florida and other places, taking Frederick Douglass’s words horribly out of context, to tell to kids that Douglass actually agreed with the constitution’s refusal to abolish slavery, and one that shows young people wincing, moaning, and groaning as they are informed that taxes will be taken out of their wages, as well as a number of videos denying climate change.
In another development, Oklahoma has declared that they were concerned that their kindergarteners were lusting after their neighbor’s wives, or coveting their neighbor’s houses. Therefore, they need the Ten Commandments and biblical education in every classroom in the state.
Meanwhile, we live in a country with a 40-50 percent rate of obesity, a tremendous amount of type-2 diabetes, and many other health conditions caused by life styles. In yet an amazingly stupid move, most districts have abolished home economics, which is now called Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS.) So many Americans grow up without the skills to feed themselves while cooking real food, as opposed to the ultra processed food that you slip into the microwave or buy in the drive-up line. Many parents are too busy or didn’t learn cooking skills themselves. At this time, we have so many families struggling with health issues, financial problems and other stuff about which our schools offer no guidance: breaking the cycle and learning to shop and eat healthy food, how to run a household, how to do the basics of childcare, and so many other vital skills would be an amazing asset.
The far right also hates “social emotional learning,” SEL. A ridiculous example thanks to good ol’ Ron DeSantis, was pulling an elementary math book out of the state. Why? In the face of the math anxiety that many children experience, research has shown that a softer approach – some humor, some kindness about mistakes, and a generally less cut and dried approach to teaching those kids actually works. A book that DeSantis refused to accept has a kid commenting “to have a growth mindset, try a new way when you are stuck,” an aside about a famous African American woman math whiz who computed for NASA, and a small aside about “self-awareness.” This stuff is too offensive for the Trumpers – it might actually help children who have self esteem issues, and who might actually experience some success.
This country is in big trouble. The next generation will be certainly be facing a climate catastrophe, an extinction disaster, and the huge micro-plastics spread. We also will be facing a continued epidemic of cancers and neurological diseases caused by the poisons the United States refuses to outlaw, poisons that are used on our non-organic crops, in our homes and in our workplaces. We need all the brain power we can get to begin to reverse some of these huge problems, and teaching children lies, creating a generation of children in “red” states who have no idea of reality is going to be truly a disaster – both for those who will be clueless about what is happening in their world, and for the rest of us who will be struggling to save what we can of our country and our planet.
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Publish date : 2024-09-23 06:43:00
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