Putting some national context on local fervor

 I had already posted to this piece by NBC News about the wave of national emotion over claims around critical race theory in schools; I now want to point you towards this Time cover story around what effectively is more of a debate over how we teach history--though not solely history--in schools. 

What happened in Loudon County, VA earlier this week is not a thing that is isolated. This protest (I guess it's a protest?) that took place in Medway this weekend is similarly motivated; I assume that the questions being raised in Dudley-Charlton may be as well. This was also on the floor of Congress this week, when Secretary Cardoza spoke. 

As we talk about this, I want to emphasize this from the Time piece: 

It’s a debate between people who think children shouldn’t be burdened with the past, and those who want kids to learn how the legacy of that past shapes American society today. Is our national history merely a tool to inspire patriotism, or is it, as historians argue, a valuable lesson in the good, the bad and the ugly? As this new front in the culture wars shows, our understanding of the past is a key factor in how we envision our future. This is a story about the story—and the myths—America tells about itself.

If you never talk about what really came before, and if we are not honest about what is broken, we cannot do better. To not tell the truth to our students is to disempower them as the next generation that will run our democracy. It is, in short, to not do our job as public educators, which is to equip children to grow up to participate in democratic governance. 

And I also want to say that we cannot and should not run from this as policy makers. We have a responsibility to continue to assert calmly that we teach to state standards in history, that we uphold equity in our work, and that we continue to work to ensure children are able to take up the work of making a more--yes, emphasis mine--perfect union.