Recently, I’ve started to see opinion writers on the far right beating the drum that the United States is under communist attack. According to these pundits, we are on a slippery slide toward a government takeover of everything that will surely lead toward the end of American democracy. And the threat is not coming from places like China, North Korea, or Russia. According to the ultra-conservatives, it’s being nurtured in the classrooms of our public schools. Apparently, there are dog-eared copies of Das Capital laying around in every teacher’s lounge in the country. And today’s teachers are supposedly creating an atmosphere where students are indoctrinated to hate this country. It’s hard to know where this idea originated, and if it weren’t such a real and dangerous affront to such an important institution as public education most certainly is, it would be laughable.
After spending about thirty years as a public-school teacher, it’s a shock to me that people will automatically question the patriotism of today’s educators when the curriculum that is being taught doesn’t always match up with how some people want it to be. Most of the criticism centers on the teaching of American history. History, however, is still history whatever way you slice it. It’s based on facts. If the reality of what happened is painful, so be it. Examining past events, especially reviewed in context, doesn’t automatically lead to students hating this country. In fact, it can actually bring an awareness that we’ve come a long way positively from much darker times.
A lot of teachers, like me, are military veterans. All of us who served took an oath to defend our nation’s institutions against all enemies. Why would we be pushing the country toward communism? It is a philosophy that we signed up to oppose. It’s really an insult to claim that teachers want to install a Soviet-style government in America. Those that make this accusation reveal themselves to be ignorant of the difference between the system of Stalin’s Russia and what is generally practiced in most European nations today – democratic socialism.
Most teachers are liberals. That should be stated from the outset. And I don’t think it is a point to be ashamed of. People generally go into teaching because they are idealists. Believe me, they don’t do it for the money!! They want to help people and they have a positive belief in human nature, almost to the point of naiveite. If a system can be changed for the better, teachers want to do it. Perhaps the strongest guiding principle for teachers is fairness. To see something that appears to be unjust or unfair, is unacceptable. This admittedly may lead to a situation where everyone receives a trophy, but there it is. For most teachers, change means progressive modification leading to at least some degree of fairness. It’s why schools have anti-bullying programs and offer reduced-cost lunches for kids who can’t afford it.
How is a belief in economic or racial justice somehow a slide toward the hammer and sickle? Why is the idea that all people should have the right to a quality education, or affordable health care, a nod toward Lenin? If the private sector can’t, or won’t, improve the lives of Americans, why shouldn’t government do it? There is no implicit demand for the confiscation of someone’s property. It’s not an endorsement of a dictatorship. We still can have a democratic system even when citizens ask that the society in which they are a part be more responsive to their needs.
6/8/21
