Bringing terror to education

 

Yesterday online I saw a news photo of a sheriff, standing in front of a jail, announcing new, hardcore school discipline policies in his Floriday district. He was big, burly, overweight, and standing as though braced for a fight. Behind him, standing in what look like parade rest stances, were a uniformed officer, the school board chair (a man, naturally) and an elderly woman whose role I couldn’t figure out. But they were all scowling. Take a minute and let this register: A sheriff, in front of a jail, was announcing school policy. Why not the school board chair announcing it in a school setting? Talk about intimidation much?

My mind went immediately to a quote I’d seen online earlier that day: “Christianity should sound like, ‘I am deeply committed to deepening my love for others and seeking their best,’ not ‘I am obsessed with how others are not conforming to my personal beliefs, and I must make them do so by any means necessary.”—Rev. Benjamin Cremer. Reverend Cremer is a pastor at a Nazarene church in Colorado.

While Governor DeSantis didn’t actually craft these new disciplinary guidelines, he was certainly behind them. He openly supported the alt-right candidates who have now taken over school boards in many Florida districts. And we all know he supports bullying techniques. The sheriff was not specific about the disciplinary measures, although he promised students it would be their worst nightmare. Good one, buddy--how to encourage learning. Ss to be expected much revolved around bathroom issues and who uses what bathroom. I’m suddenly envisioning scores of kids with urinary tract infections and gastrointestinal problems because they were afraid to go to the bathroom when they needed to. Or even kids who, forced to wait, have classroom accidents. Can you imagine the humiliation?

Several years ago I worked on a writing project about a school for troubled children—it had once been a storied orphanage but had evolved over the years. I was in the superintendent’s office one day when he looked out the window at a group of kids, turned to me and said, “You know what’s wrong with these kids? Nobody every told them they’re okay.” I’ve thought about that a lot—we all need to be told from time to time that we’re okay. And we need to hear it as a message delivered with love.

What schoolkids in Florida are hearing is a message that they are not okay; they are deviant, unworthy, and the message is being delivered with anger and hate. For too many kids, school is going to become a place of terror. There will be dropouts and failures and probably psychological problems. With the current pace of “discipline” and book banning and teacher censorship, Florida will raise at least one generation of undereducated children, many of whom will fail at life.

I did hear today that a judge came down hard on Florida’s attempt to pass the Stop Woke Act forbidding college faculty from teaching about institutionalized racism or any history that might make students feel guilt or anguish over racial matters. The act was tied to faculty review for tenure, which made it clearly a threat. Calling the act dystopian and referring to George Orwell, the judge said that it gave faculty academic freedom only if they expressed the views of the state and did not allow for a robust exchange of views and ideas.

Cheers for that judge, but I fear as long as DeSantis is in power, the judge is a lone voice crying in the wilderness of Florida. Living in Texas, I can’t say much, for I see the same hardline alt-right policies destroying much that I love about the state where I’ve lived for over fifty-five years.

It comes down to who is in charge of education—parents or teachers? I come down hard on the side of trained professionals who understand the long-range effects of education. It’s not about this book or that—it’s about learning to make your own decisions, to read and study wisely and decide what makes sense to you and what doesn’t—and not blindly accepting what someone tells you. And, yes, young minds are malleable and fragile, and we need to encourage them, not stifle with fear. In Florida, however, those ultra-conservative school boards are firing “noncomplicit” teachers and superintendents.

Most days I feel pretty optimistic about our world and our country, but there are days when I despair that common sense will win. The Florida sheriff gives me the willies. Thank what he does to kids!