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.

 

 

 

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity—W. B. Yeats

When my younger son, Jamie was in fourth grade, his class studied Texas history. Jamie was enthralled, particularly by the idea of doing rubbings of cemetery stones. He dragged me to the historic cemeteries in Fort Worth and regaled me with the history of the city and stories of its heroes, while he rubbed furiously. To this day, Jamie has a good grounding in Texas history.

But our state history is controversial. The legislature has mandated guidelines for the way it is to be taught, with their focus on forbidding the teaching of CRT in public schools. You’d think a body of citizens charged with governing our state would be open-minded enough to study CRT and learn that it is not now, has not ever been, and will not be taught at any level below graduate school—and then mostly in law schools. But no! The legislature also wants the martyrs of the Alamo depicted as heroes and does not allow teachers to suggest there is more than one way to view that episode in our history. Read Forget the Alamo, a book which so incensed lite gov. Dan Patrick that he cancelled a program at the Bullock Museum at the last minute. Racism and slavery? Not to be discussed with young minds, lest they feel guilty about being white, a theory that does not consider black and brown children.

Volunteer groups of teachers have been working for at least two years to rewrite the social studies curriculum and had created guidelines that integrated various cultures into the curriculum, including immigrants and LGBTQ citizens. The fourth- and seventh-grade focus on history was replaced with a more chronological teaching. This week, the State Board of Education voted to delay implementation of the new curriculum for two years for “more study.” They objected to the possibility of “woke indoctrination,” which is both as difficult to define as CRT and is the worst grammar I’ve ever heard.

The Texas Freedom Caucus is rejoicing. One conservative said, “The purpose of government is to secure our God-given rights” and stressed that children must be taught American exceptionalism—the idea that we are better than the entire rest of the world and destined to be the leader (apparently ignoring how far we fell in international esteem under trump). Another said, “We need to teach them to love freedom and to love limited government …. to replace those things with things that are going on in our world now with globalism, foreign relations, LGBTQ agenda, Marxism and other foreign ideas ... to swap those would be against the will of Texans and would be terrible.” I’d guess this guy is not a futurist.

I am at a loss for words. The majority, even in Texas, is letting a vocal minority determine our educational system, our personal lives, everything about our culture. I am so weary of people who rant about CRT in the schools and “woke indoctrination”—that use of woke grates every time I hear it. I cannot fathom that education is not valued, that critical thinking is not a way of life, that blind fear of what they don’t understand is a driving force behind these overbearing, loud-mouthed people.

It's one thing to urge people to vote blue—and I am not minimalizing that at all. But I think we all also have to educate ourselves so that we have cogent arguments to meet conservative prejudices. Of course, I know some won’t listen, many will deny, but we can’t just sit back and accept the rantings of those who would take us back beyond the 1950s, to Jim Crow laws and women without a voice and educational discrimination. It simply can’t happen! A good starting place: fight for our schools.

I read a lengthy post on Facebook today that suggested some of these parents—and maybe some of us whose kids have aged out of schools—ought to volunteer instead of criticizing and demanding book bans and refusing posters from other cultures (Yes, hello, Southlake!). We should see what’s really going on—read to the kids, eat lunch with them, listen to them and their questions, learn with them without lecturing at them. It’s a big challenge. But more and more I think it’s the schools where Biden’s battle for the soul of our nation will be fought.

A rainy day of celebration

A wet, cold day with rain that came and went, a day when anyone who could withdrew into their cozy space, maybe with a book and a hot cup of tea. I was in my cozy space, all right, but in my small corner of the literary world, it was a day of celebration. Irene in Danger, the second Irene in Chicago Culinary Mystery, is now available in print and ebook edition, on Amazon. No shameface for me as I post a link:  Irene in Danger: An Irene in Chicago Culinary Mystery - Kindle edition by Alter, Judy. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.  This is a link to the ebook edition. For some reason, Amazon did not link the two, and I’m not sure how to correct it, but the print link is right next to this one. Not hard to find. I’ve already gotten some nice buzz about the book—like “I’ll order it right now”—so I’m feeling good about that.

And I continue to be excited about the forthcoming—though still a long way off—third book, Irene Keeps a Secret. Tonight, my homework dilemma is whether I want to focus on cheese/spinach souffle or tuna casserole for a sensory food memory. Knowing the current attitude toward tuna casserole—to say it’s out of fashion is a huge understatement—I think I might just choose it. After all, Henny focuses on retro dishes on her TV show.

The other bright spot in the day was a cordial email from Buck Wharton, one of the last two co-owners of the Waggoner ranch. He wrote, with profuse apologies for not sending a handwritten note, for the copy I sent him of The Most Land, the Best Cattle: The Waggoners of Texas. He had just gotten it, said he and his family look forward to reading it, and he’ll be in touch after they have had a chance to do so. I will await that with some trepidation, but it was kind of him to write and the tone was friendly.

So today was a busy day answering emails, posting social media notices about Irene in Danger, and generally tending to this loose end and that. The kind of day I like because it reassures me I am still part off the working world, still part of the literary scene, no matter how small my corner of it.

Tonight, I went to dinner with friends Carol and Lon. We chose a small Italian restaurant, feeling sure it would be fairly empty on this cold night. Couldn’t have been more wrong--the place was crowded! Lots of others must have had our thought. Good dinner, better company. We caught up on all sorts of things.

The rain seems to have quit for now, though I hear it will be back during the night. Sophie is stationed at the back door of the house, looking in wistfully, ignoring the fact that she could come out here to a warm and cozy cottage. Our new tree looks grand and is enjoying this slow, gentle rain, I’m sure. Christian tells me we will have to treat it like a baby for the first year, including formula.

Like many across the country I am disappointed by the election results from Virginia. My own view is that much of the defeat lies on the shoulders of Joe Manchin and whats-her-name (it should be Karen) Sinema for obstructing their own party’s policies and making President Biden look ineffective. I am particularly concerned that Youngkin, who has looked way too smug in every picture all day, apparently won on a platform of encouraging parental participation in the school’s curriculum. Read that as censorship and banning CRT, which none of its opponents understand. I saw a wonderful interview with a Virginia voter who, when asked what he didn’t like about CRT, said, “Well, I don’t want to get into specifics.” Then he admitted he didn’t know much about it, but he knew it was something he didn’t like. Ignorance is what we are up against.

Even that doesn’t dampen my thoughts tonight—yes that’s a play on the damp weather. Stay cozy and warm everyone.

Some thoughts about schools--and parents

 

When I was in eighth grade, I had a math teacher who for whatever reason did not like me. Admittedly, math has never been one of my best subjects, but I was not disruptive or a troublemaker. I talked to my mom, and she agreed that for some reason Miss Evans did not like me. I can still see her in my mind’s eye—an “ample,” older spinster lady with “styled” white hair and sensible black shoes that laced. My mom supported me, and my dad tried harder to help me with math, which was painful for both of us. What they did not do was rush up to the school and demand that Miss Evans be fired, or that I be assigned another math teacher—there wasn’t another one anyway. They taught me, instead, that life wasn’t always going to go my way, and I would survive.

I am really weary of a handful of today’s crop of parents, who think they can dictate school policy and curriculum. The furor in Carrollton/Southlake over teaching “alternative” theories of the Holocaust is but one example. That school district now has an open seat on its board and will have a non-partisan election—only it’s gotten quite partisan. When I hear a candidate say that we must protect children from radical ideas, my hackles go way up.

Parents have always been charged with protecting their children, but the nature of the perceived enemy has changed. Anything that makes children uncomfortable is now deemed unsuitable, so students are being taught a white-washed version of American history, from witch hunts to slavery to LGBTQ issues. The Critical Race Theory threat looms large and is purely a problem created by Republicans (thank you, Governor Abbott) to distract from their other problems. Those of us who pay attention know that CRT is a complicated discipline that is taught at the graduate level, primarily in law schools, and never in elementary or high schools. I have read articles about it, including some about the former Harvard faculty member generally credited with its origin, and frankly, it’s tough stuff. I can’t quite wrap my brain around it, and I am fairly well educated. I love the anonymous grade school teacher who said if she can teach her kids to read, write, and do elementary math, she’s happy. CRT is the farthest thing from her mind.

This attitude that parents can dictate to schools is not new when it comes to books, but it seems to have escalated—or maybe we have new issues. Race has always been contentious (banning To Kill a Mockingbird is insane), but I don’t remember LGBTQ issues being a topic when my kids were in school—today’s openness is a positive improvement, except for small-minded bigots. Unknowingly, these folks have given a great sales boost to Jerry Craft’s New Kid. It reminds me of the spurt in sales of Forget the Alamo! after Dan Patrick banned the book from the Bullock Museum. I read recently of a parent who objected to several books which were summarily removed from a teacher’s classroom, which led the teacher to complain that one woman had taken those books from all 142 of her students.

The mask controversy is the worst. In Fort Worth, four parents objected to masking and so far, their order carries the day. Masking is not mandated in Fort Worth schools. (Don’t pay attention to the governor’s anti-mandate mandate—more schools are ignoring it than complying and he can’t enforce it; in Florida DeSantis’ efforts at enforcement have simply weakened school programs by costing schools money). The worst about the anti-masking idiots, other than that they get their science from Facebook, is that they threaten violence. While most incidents have involved yelling, “We know where you live” and other threats, there have been a few violent outbursts.

At the risk of being accused of elitism I would suggest that these parents who fear so much for their children have one thing in common: a lack of education or intellectual curiosity (okay, make that two things). And now they are passing that on not only to their children but to all of ours because they are dictating policy and curriculum.

Think of it: one mother removes books from 142 children; four parents put an end to masking in an entire big-city school district; a governor says teach the Alamo but not the story of Greenwood, OK. It is similar to what’s happening in our county—the minority has grabbed the reins of power and are dictating, against the wishes of the general public.