Save Our Schools
We will not be able to build a more inclusive future unless we take responsibility for our past.
In many red and purple states, schools are now controlled by individuals whose goals aren’t educating students but indoctrinating them. Their tactics are so extreme that they invite comparison to the Soviet Union. Think I’m being hyperbolic? Consider the following:
🔴Over the past three years, legislators in 28 states have passed at least 71 bills controlling what teachers and students can say and do at school.
🟣In Wisconsin award-winning first grade teacher Melissa Tempel was fired for speaking out against her school’s decision to cut the Miley Cyrus-Dolly Parton song “Rainbowland” from the spring concert. The song’s message is about kindness, inclusion, and belonging. Join me in supporting this amazing educator by donating to her gofundme to help with her legal fees!
🔵In Florida, middle school students are now being taught that enslaved people “benefited” from slavery because they learned specialized trades like blacksmithing and shoemaking. After being criticized for this new version of “Black history,” Florida Dept. of Education officials said that their curriculum celebrated the “courage, strength, and resiliency” of enslaved people. I truly cannot imagine a more despicable form of racist whitewashing.
🟢In Colorado, Woodland Park adopted the American Birthright social studies standard, which emphasizes patriotism, discourages student civic engagement, and promotes biased accounts of US history. For example, Clinton’s impeachment is included in the curriculum but Trump’s impeachment is not. Teachers who objected to this and other policy changes were forced out of their jobs or fired. Those who remain are banned from speaking to the media without the superintendent’s approval.
🔥If you care about equity and inclusion, pay attention to what’s happening in the schools in your community. Don’t let extremists push histories of oppression, dissent, and truth into the shadows. As the song says, it’s time to make wrong things right!
#SaveOurSchools #education #teachers #students #EdPolicy #inclusion #history #bias
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[Image description: Lyrics from the song Rainbowland by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton depicting a rainbow anchored by two clouds with smiley faces and the following lyrics: "Living in a Rainbowland / The skies are blue and things are grand / Wouldn't it be nice to live in paradise / Where we're free to be exactly who we are / Let's all dig down deep inside / Brush the judgment and fear aside / Make wrong things right (all things right) / And end the fight."
