Everybody’s an expert these days

 

Friend Sandi Kennedy is an expert at picking lilies. 
She brought this to me when the blooms were tight buds, 
so that I could watch them open.
Isn't the plant spectacular?

You hear a lot about “leveling the playing field” which essentially means giving everybody an equal chance—levelling the playing field in politics, in education, in business opportunities. But it seems to me there’s one way that we’ve leveled the playing field with dismal consequences. No experts stand out today—everybody’s an expert or feels as empowered as the experts. I may not be saying what I mean clearly, but let me give you some examples.

A judge in Texas has just ruled against mifepristone, the most extensively used abortion pill in America. It has been approved by the FDA for twenty-three years and used without apparent bad effects. Yet this judge, with no medical background, ruled it out, talking about such vagaries as emotional damage to women. Never mind that his arguments were specious, the point is that he didn’t listen to the experts.

In states across the nation, politicians are assuming the role that until recently doctors filled—they have become experts on health concerns. They ignore doctors’ findings about abortion as health care in many cases and pass Draconian measures which force women into possibly fatal situations. Why can they cancel out medical training and research for the sake of votes? They will tell you it’s moral concerns, which are none of their business anyway, but I think it’s to win votes (which is not happening)

In Texas, Governor Abbott has promised to pardon a convicted murderer, judged guilty by a unanimous vote of twelve of his peers. That’s how the system is supposed to work. The convicted criminal is entitled to appeal the verdict, a process that might take years. But according to our laws, he is not entitled to an almost instant pardon from the governor. Abbott is tossing aside the jury’s verdict for his own benefit. As a lawyer and former prosecutor, he knows better. He knows he should respect the law, but he has put himself above it (not the first time).

And then there are school boards and the thorny question of book banning. Again, this levelling of the playing field is something we are seeing in many states. Parents object to a book or a lesson plan, and school boards ignore the training and expertise of teachers, school librarians, and administrators. The result is one person can complain, and lists of books—over 800 in Texas—are banned, many of them classics. If a person doesn’t want their child to read a specific book, they should quietly make arrangements with the teacher or librarian. But more and more today we see books banned from an entire school district because one person complained. No one seems to recognize that trained educators and librarians have shaped each school’s acquisitions list.

The same is true of curriculum. Over-sensitive parents are whining about the teaching of CRT in elementary schools—which is so totally false that it is almost laughable. And they accuse teachers of “grooming” young children. The line about corrupting young children that makes me want to holler “Yes!” is that teachers in the first three or so grades are grateful if they can produce students who can read on grade level, write their names in cursive, and do some basic math. They have no time for CRT or grooming. And yet parents are shaping curricula with their complaints and fears.

In eighth grade, I had a math teacher that did not like me She was one of those maiden lady schoolteachers with a big chest and a prominent derriere (shaped rather like a pigeon) who wore flowered dresses and “sensible” shoes. I have no idea what I did to offend her, but it was so clear that even my mom recognized it and talked to me about it. But she would never have gone to the teacher or to the PTA or to the school board. She reasoned it was a good lesson for me to learn to deal with that pretentious woman.

In Texas, there is now a bill being proposed to the legislature called the “Parent Empowerment Act.” The very words give me the shakes. What we need is parents empowered with enough common sense to listen to teachers and other trained personnel.

Even in medicine, some patients are inclined to disagree with the doctors and dictate their care. Cheers for the physicians who holds fast to his expertise and does not let himself be bullied.

I have an advanced degree in English with a special interest in literature of the American West. That does not mean that I can tell teachers how and what to teach every teen in my local grandson’s class. Nor does it mean I can do more than suggest books to him. I would never decree that he should not read a book he shows interest in. I am much more likely to suggest something that I think he might like to read (I was devastated when one grand several years ago read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school and said she found it boring!)

I  guess what I’m trying to say is the country would be better off if people would stay in their own lane and not try to “own” the experts. We educate doctors and lawyers and teachers so they can fill in the gaps of what we don’t know. We don’t need empowerment—we need cooperation.