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Opinion: Is teaching that America is imperfect a 'divisive concept?' Who gets to say?

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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Jane Yoder-Short
Press-Citizen opinion writer


Iowa schools are to avoid having students feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of that individual’s race or sex.”
House File 802 became law in June. It bans K-12 schools and public colleges from teaching “divisive concepts.” It bans teaching that the United States and Iowa are “fundamentally or systematically racist.”
The law raises questions. What is a divisive concept? What is racism? Is discomfort always incompatible with education?
Is it divisive to own up to the fact that this nation had slaves? Is it too uncomfortable to teach about the atrocities of the Holocaust? Is it too guilt-triggering to teach that this land was not empty when Christopher Columbus arrived?
What happens when we claim that Iowa and the United States are not racist? Is this true? Is this helpful?
Ibram Kendi says: “Denial is the heartbeat of racism.”
He goes on to say the problem with being “not racist” is that it claims neutrality. “I am not racist, but neither am I aggressively against racism … The opposite of 'racist' isn’t 'not racist … It is anti-racist.”

Kendi can make us feel uncomfortable. Can uncomfortable feelings lead to insight and become part of education?
When the bill passed, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said, “I am proud to have worked with the Legislature to promote learning, not discriminatory indoctrination.”
How can we tell when learning is being promoted and not discriminatory indoctrination? What I see as discriminatory indoctrination someone else may see as learning America’s great history.

Who gets to decide what is distress?

When is distress a healthy part of education?

Is indoctrinating students to believe we live in a sinless nation helpful?

Our society is entangled with structural racism whether we admit it or not. Look at the health, education and wealth gap. Look at the school-to-prison pipeline.

Last year, 75% of Iowa City school suspensions were of Black students, which make up only 21.6% of enrollment. Why?

More:Iowa City takes aim at racial disparities in school discipline

Let’s find ways to support our teachers who say “no” to fun facts and enable students to learn even when it is difficult. Let’s support all our students, not just the privileged ones who can easily believe we live in a perfect nation.



Sometimes we skip over informative details in the name of not stressing our children.
Hasan Kwame Jeffries, associate professor of history at Ohio State, talks about his 8-year-old daughter’s homework that included “fun facts.” He found ways to add to the facts that made them more educational. When the assignment talked about George Washington’s love of rabbits, Jeffries told his daughter, “He loved rabbits and owned rabbits. He owned people, too.”
The assignment told that Washington lost his teeth and had to have dentures. Jeffries added, “Yes, he had teeth made from slaves.”
Were his additions discriminatory indoctrination?
It can seem we selectively care about student distress. Author and Pueblo (Tewa) woman Sarah Augustine writes about her third-grade son’s classroom. His teacher started reading a book that was, according to the preface, “intended to expose a new generation to American exceptionalism, a concept rooted in Manifest Destiny, the belief in a God-given right to conquer the continent.”
This could sound like discriminatory indoctrination. Since the book portrayed Natives as savages and Pilgrims as brave heroes, Augustine and her husband shared their concern with the school. Despite their objections, the book was read aloud.
Augustine, her husband, and two other Native mothers took turns joining the classroom for an hour a day for six weeks. They wanted to provide support for their children as they heard themselves portrayed as savages.

 
Holy strawman, Batman. Who the hell is saying we shouldn't learn about America not being perfect?

Ever since I was an elementary student I was taught about the horrors of slavery, workers rights, women's rights, the Civil Right Movement, Jim Crow, Chinese Exclusion, Plessy v. Ferguson, Dred Scott, Japanese internment and all of the other imperfections about America, without anyone ever complaining about it. Who's complaining about these things being taught now?
 
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