Loud Angry Voices

 

Some of those people who want to remove books from your school library want to dictate school curriculum, too. (I’m guessing that there’s some overlap with the loud angry voices for in-person schooling during the last school year.) There seems to be a growing ‘loud angry voices’ parent movement and Howard County is not immune:

Or, if you just can’t stand what’s on offer from the local public school system, there’s a new homeschooling group forming with a specialized curriculum.

This group is aimed at parents who are worried about vaccines, angry about masks, fearful that schools are brainwashing kids and, most of all, want their children to be taught love of country and America’s Christian heritage.

What is freedom in this context? Freedom to disregard public health? Freedom to remove things from American history that you don’t like? Freedom to remove other religions you don’t like?

At the moment I’m more concerned by the group that wants to control what’s happening in the public schools, but, I’m deeply saddened by the prospect of homeschooled children in Howard County growing up in such a narrowed environment with no opportunity to gain perspective on the community/world around them.

If you’ve read Erica Green’s outstanding piece in the New York Times about how the ‘loud angry voices’ parents came after Andrea Kane, the Superintendent of Schools in Queen Anne’s County, you are already aware of one of the panelists for the “We the People 2” event: Gordana Schifanelli.  Ms. Schifanelli organized a so-called “Patriots” group on Facebook that agitated for the Superintendent’s removal because she dared to tell the truth about issues of race. This alone makes me want to do more research on the other presenters.

Public schools are meant to teach everyone, and they should tell the truth about everyone. I find this growing movement to “take back our schools” extremely dangerous. The hallmarks of this movement are to exclude or distort teaching about anyone deemed different: Black and Brown people, non-Christians, LGBTQ+ people. This is an attempt to foist one narrow ideology onto the lives of many. 

It’s not good for the well-being of our children. It’s shockingly bad educational practice. It’s unhealthy for our community. And, frankly, it’s a crisis for the future of democracy.

Taking away choices and suppressing voices does not make you a patriot. It’s blatantly authoritarian.

I am by nature not a shouty type but it looks like it’s past time for people who believe in an educational system that values all people and is committed to intellectual freedom to raise their voices. Our voices. I’m going to start by writing a letter to the superintendent and the Board of Education in support of the choices our media specialists make to include LGBTQ+ - positive materials in their collections.

Where will you start?