Marilynne Robinson speaks out about being used to criticize University of Iowa

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When a researcher and writer for the conservative National Association of Scholars this month urged Iowa lawmakers to find policy solutions for a “civic literacy crisis,” he highlighted as guideposts a handful of iconic Iowans who “embody the civics education and civic literacy of times past.”



“We offer these suggestions to the judgment of Iowa citizens and elected officials who will know best what policy solutions the state of Iowa should provide for the civic literacy crisis, what policies will make it possible for Iowa schools, colleges, and universities to educate a new generation of John Waynes and Herbert Hoovers, of Donna Reed, Grant Woods, and Marilynne Robinsons,” NAS research director David Randall told the House higher education committee Feb. 5.


“We are confident that Iowans can meet this challenge and remake their educational institutions so that they are school houses upon a hill — models for admiration and imitation throughout.”




But the only one of those named examples still alive has said she doesn’t appreciate being used in an attack on the University of Iowa, where she’s a professor emerita.


“I read with surprise and dismay an article that mentions my name in an attack on the University of Iowa,” Robinson told The Gazette, referencing a section in Randall’s presentation to lawmakers where he asserts, “Iowa's universities do not care if they never educate another Marilynne Robinson.”


“Intending a compliment, it says that the university is not preparing anyone to follow in my footsteps,” she said. “I have taught my courses and written my books, all but two of them while teaching at the university, and I am very much indebted to the institution for the resources I found there, and the readiness to let me follow my interests, which have centered on earlier English and American history, and on the Bible.


“The latitude I enjoyed was enormously valuable to me,” she said, adding, “If David Randall has himself read and understood my work, he must know that I have great admiration for the American public university, an admiration I learned at Iowa.”

‘I am proud of my Pulitzer Prize’​

Robinson, 81, has written five novels, seven non-fiction books, and many other essays and works — capturing an impressive trove of honors and acknowledgments — including a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005. In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded her the national humanities medal — listing Robinson’s “Gilead” among the texts that “influenced Obama's world view and his quest for understanding the human condition.”


She taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop for a quarter century — from 1991 to 2016.


“I am proud of my Pulitzer Prize, and I am proud of my association with the university, whose teachers and graduates have, over time, received forty-one Pulitzer Prizes and many more high national honors,” Robinson told The Gazette in an email.


Randall — who himself earned a master of fine arts in fiction writing from Columbia University, along with a doctorate in history from Rutgers University — has been with NAS for a decade and serves as executive director of Civics Alliance, a four-year-old coalition convened by the National Association of Scholars.


The alliance’s stated mission is to unite education reformers, policymakers, and citizens who want to “preserve civics education that teaches students to take pride in what they share as Americans — an exceptional heritage of freedom, a republic that has succeeded in making liberty a fundamental principle of our government, and the joyful accomplishments of their common national culture.”


It has produced model legislation and research that apparently informed the swell of study bills this session in Iowa aiming to reform higher education, according to the alliance.


“We are, as we say, honored that Iowa state legislators have judged that our model bills can inform them as they pursue the goals of higher education reform that we share,” according to a Jan. 29 public comment from the alliance, which has on its website a “bill tracker” tool with updates on civics legislation under consideration across the country.

Pulitzer winner Marilynne Robinson speaks out about being used to criticize University of Iowa

Pulitzer Prize-winning Iowa author Marilynne Robinson reacted to the use of her name last week by a researcher and writer for the conservative National Association of Scholars, who urged Iowa lawmakers to solve a “civic literacy crisis,” and pointed to Robinson as an Iowan who embodies “the...

www.thegazette.com

 

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That map, however, mislabels the state of Iowa as “Ohio” and doesn’t offer any updates for the Hawkeye state.

labels Iowa as Ohio and lists Ohio legislation.
In its January public comment, however, the alliance highlights House Study Bill 56 among the proposed Iowa legislation informed by its models. It was HSB 56 — requiring students complete an American history and civil government course to graduate — to which Randall spoke earlier this month in his presentation to Iowa lawmakers.


“The University of Iowa does not have a general education requirement for American history and government, but it does have a general education requirement for what it calls diversity and inclusion,” he said. “Diversity and inclusion is a euphemism for courses largely dedicated to inculcating the same discriminatory concepts that the Iowa Legislature already has sought to remove from the administrative structure of the state's public universities.”

‘He will not again use it’​

In making his point, Randall first highlighted actress Donna Reed — who was born and raised in Denison and was well known for her portrayal of Mary Hatch Bailey in the 1946 holiday classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.”


“The civic-minded character she brought to life in that movie owes a great deal to the republican virtues she absorbed in her 12 years of education in Iowa public schools,” Randall said.


Later in her life, Reed became an anti-war activist — opposing the Vietnam War — and supported Democratic Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota for his anti-war views.

Artist Grant Wood poses in his studio at 5 Turner Alley in Cedar Rapids in 1932, with “Daughters of Revolution” on the easel at left. It was the only satirical painting the famed Iowa artist did — mainly because he was miffed at the local Daughters of the American Revolution because it didn't like that he'd gone to Germany to complete the stained glass window at the Veterans Memorial Building in Cedar Rapids. It refused to hold a dedication for the massive stained glass window. And the artist had his revenge. (Gazette archives)
“The other person I'll mention was not an actor or a politician, but the artist Grant Wood,” Randall said. “Grant Wood created a body of work that helped America see itself as a place to be proud of. It is hard to imagine his creative work could have come to be without an excellent grounding in civics.”


Wood was born and raised in Anamosa, lived much of his life in Cedar Rapids, and spent seven years on the UI faculty — a tenure juxtaposed by artistic productivity and turmoil, including knowledge among his colleagues that he was gay.


In speaking of Wood earlier this month, Randall focused on the image of Wood as an icon of Midwestern Regionalism.


“So when I speak of civics education in what follows, what I have in mind is the preparation for life in our republic that imbues the careers of people like Donna Reed and Grant Wood.”


His introduction of Robinson into the presentation came by asserting, “Iowa does not educate its students to understand or to follow in the footsteps of Marilynne Robinson.”


Citing “Gilead,” Randall said, “Her novel tells readers of America’s history, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights era, of the intertwining of Christian faith with America’s political struggles and ideals and how Iowans have struggled to put their political and religious ideals into practice in their daily lives.”


And Randall urged Iowa’s civic education “to make it possible for students to know all the history of faith and political commitment that you need to know to understand ‘Giliad’ and to understand Iowa and America.”


“Iowa civic education ought to make it possible for students to become new Robinsons, who can write eloquently and knowledgeably of their country and their state,” he said. “And if you look at the general education requirement of the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa, you will see that Iowa's public universities are derelict in their duty.”


But Robinson took issue with Randall’s attack on the campuses and his use of her work to make it.


“America used to be admired for its civil polity, the importance of relatively autonomous institutions — churches, the press, foundations, colleges — which, in their diversity, were thought to make us safe from autocratic movements,” she said. “Now these institutions are overrun by supposed ‘reformers’ in a state of self-induced panic, eager to disrupt and threaten and accuse on the grounds that the values they claim for themselves may not be reflected in the work that is done there.”


Questioning the form of civics education he supports, Robinson said, “If Mr. Randall understands and respects my work, he will not again use it to leverage attacks on the institution that supported and encouraged it for decades.”