Anyone can choose to be well read. Any of us can seek information by reading newspaper articles and opinion pieces that widen our base of knowledge, and although reading books and magazines entertain us, they also help us to be informed in a very complicated world.
Unfortunately, there are many among us who could care less about being informed. They seek only to have their long-established personal views reinforced. They may watch a little TV news, but mostly they follow social media. They confine their exposure – primarily memes and other brief posts on Twitter – to those opinions that support their own.
We currently live in an environment where there is an aggressive war against reading and learning. It used to be true that being well read was valued and education was paramount. Book banning was a Nazi or a Communist thing, not something found in a democracy. No one would have supported the concept of the government interfering in what teachers are allowed to teach in their classrooms. Not in America.
We also assumed it was the task of educational specialists to develop the curriculum for advanced placement classes. Unfortunately, the governor of Florida is now making it his business.
The idea of Ron DeSantis making decisions about the content of an AP class is appalling. He is a politician, not an educator. He has no business rejecting an African American Studies course supported by a college board that approves advanced placement classes for high schools across the country. He has no business defunding diversity programs in Florida’s universities, either.
DeSantis’ motives have nothing to do with education; he is all about firing up his base. He loves stirring up controversy, especially on anything related to culture wars. Last April he signed the “Stop the Woke Act” meant to deny the rights of gay and transgender children (similar to what the Republican legislature is trying to do in Iowa). DeSantis’ interest is not really in educating school children; his interest is in getting nominated for president.
Professors who specialize in Black history are insulted by DeSantis’ veto, warning, “These Florida politicians are doing their best to shut down discussions about race, slavery and our concern that racism is still common in American life today.”
Attacks on our educational systems are spreading across the country. Sadly, these activities devalue public schools and actually encourage Americans to get more of their information on social media. The result is an uneducated population that threatens the strength and security of the nation.
We need more classes like the one DeSantis rejected. It was an optional, elective course designed for a high level of academic challenge for bright students. His action denies them the right to learn history. It prevents teachers from giving students all aspects of historical events and institutions.
Along with banning AP classes, there is also this compulsion in the country to ban books – and it’s on the rise. According to PEN America, a nonprofit-free speech organization, during the past school year there were 128 school districts, affecting 4 million students in 32 states, that banned books. They report 2,500 books have been banned.
Books about people of color and LGBTQ characters are disproportionally challenged and disproportionally banned. The groups pushing to ban books often do not represent actual concerned citizens. More than 70% of these groups have been formed since 2021, suggesting book banning is a political movement, rather than educational.
Along with book banning is the huge effort to get far-right extremists elected to school boards. These candidates are pushing policies that adhere to their own beliefs, and, of course, they’re all into book banning. They want control over curriculum, and authority over teachers’ discussions and subject matter taught in their classrooms.
With his new re-election campaign underway, former President Trump jumped on the culture-wars bandwagon. He’s calling for “certification of patriotic teachers,” and for “radicals, zealots, Marxists and ‘pink-haired’ communists to be fired.” He wants “school principals to be directly elected by school parents,” and he is demanding that “funds be cut for any school that teaches Critical Race Theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content.”
Schools are now supposed to adhere to whatever racial, sexual or political content Donald Trump deems appropriate? That’s a horrifying concept.