The “Divisive Concept” Wars Have Begun
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21 responses to “The “Divisive Concept” Wars Have Begun”
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basically if a parent disputes what is history, even if true, they have the right to prevent the teaching of it to their kids… right?
sounds about right…
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Nothing more American than a crowd with a bunch of protest signs. Be it BLM, NAACP back in the 60s, hippies protesting Vietnam, the photo will irritate somebody. Right wing snowflakes exist, too, poor dears.
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Signs? Torches and nooses too. Although, tar and feathers are right up there, “Were it not for the honor…”
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well, a somewhat quaint term in the age of culture wars but the phrase “revisionist history” used to get a workout not that long ago.
But disagreements about historical facts versus supposed or believed “facts” was the prelims to the culture war where we now also disagree about what history SHOULD be told – or not.
Outside of public schools – it was different camps curating their preferred history but in the public schools , it’s become a challenge to see what ‘history” will survive to be taught.
public schools are the crucible of these differing beliefs and perspectives.
We even now have differing versions of science!
I’m not optimistic that we find common ground.
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Sounds like parents are engaged with schools and school boards regarding issues affecting their children and their children’s education.
Doesn’t sound so bad to me.
On the two items in question … I don’t care about the cover of the history book. I personally think that the Black Lives Matter “movement” will quickly fade from memory and relevance. How much have your seen, read or heard about “Occupy Wall Street” lately?
The Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is a different matter. Transmogrifying teachers from pedagogues to therapists seems like a very bad idea. First, there is only so much time in the school day and our kids aren’t achieving adequate results in the subjects that are supposed to be taught in school – like reading, writing and arithmetic. Second, while teachers must (to some extent) be therapists, that is not their primary skillset. Finally, any effort at SEL requires teaching a level of value judgement that is best left to parents.
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I tend to agree with you on the subject of SEL. However, it need not be a formal sort of therapy. One parent related how few friends at school her daughter seemed to have. She talked to the teacher, who, after all, observes her child’s interactions with other kids more than the mother does. After the discussion, the teacher took the initiative of asking the girl to join a group of other girls working on a project or something. The woman reported that her daughter has been much happier since.
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That’s just good teaching though, it doesn’t need a label and training/regulation.
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A teacher I know related a kid in her second grade class that other kids would not interact with. After trying to track down what was going on, she found out this kid was taking other kids lunch money.
AND the parents didn’t think it was that big a deal that the teacher and school “over-reacted”.
So the learning in this class was being disrupted by a social behavior and this is just one example of a number of social behaviors that can and do affect the ability of kids to learn in class.
JAB makes a point over and over about “discipline” that takes away other kids opportunity to learn.
It can and does start in first grade.
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I think the point is that just a couple of people out of many can have their way.
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re: ” I personally think that the Black Lives Matter “movement” will quickly fade from memory and relevance.”
So you think they’re gonna put the Confederate statues back up?
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re; ” The Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is a different matter.”
If you think about it, public school is the first time most kids get to interact and socialize with many other kinds of kids beyond their own families.
Ask a teacher. Some kids don’t know that taking things from others is stealing or you can’t just hit another kid, or talk over the teacher or others, have to get in line, wait their turn, etc.
This is what many elementary teachers run into when trying to “teach”.
teaching kid what “stealing” is or not is indeed a value judgement but what does a teacher do when a kid does not seem to have learned that already?
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I agree with the actions of the School Board. Putting a photo of a BLM protest on a textbook about American government does not represent an endorsement of BLM, it simply illustrates a major protest movement that has consumed American society. Putting a BLM photo on the textbook cover does not constitute a “divisive concept.” Kids need to learn about the controversies roiling society — from race to abortion — and they need to learn how to draw reasoned conclusions. Youngkin’s point (as I understand it) about “no divisive concepts” is directed at the indoctrination of teachers, staff and students with leftist social-justice theories that cannot be disputed or argued with in any way.
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I disagree. BLM is inherently that way, given also the financial issues, that’s an even worse thing to have. Are they going to talk about that? American govt is a lot more than protests.
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That may or may not be what Youngkin intended. However, based on this one example, it is being interpreted by at least some citizens to apply to anything that a few people don’t like. After all, if people disagree on something, that something has become “divisive”.
By the way, why do you always assume that “leftist social-justice theories” would be the divisive concepts? Wouldn’t a conservative viewpoint that there is no systemic racism in society be considered a divisive concept?
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Concept or facts people don’t want to hear?
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I know many of the AP teachers I worked with never even used the textbook. AP teachers used their own materials and collaborated with each other. Will parents and school boards review those materials? Are they inherently divisive? Only Woodsie the Owl might know. I always used the textbook. Anything to make students read.
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I hope you are not being purposely misleading, but just simply shoddy in your post regarding “divisive concepts.” The guidance regarding the standard to be used is “inherently divisive concepts.” I’ll elucidate so you understand: “Inherent” is akin to innate, meaning from its very inception.
For example, apartheid is inherently divisive concept because it uses theories of race superiority to limit the rights of those that are deemed inferior. This is on its face reprehensible. A key concept of CRT is that whites are postnatally prejudicial and blacks are inherently incapable of competing with whites and Asian students, which of course, is divisive. As distasteful as it is to have an image representing BLM on the cover of a text book, it is only an image not a concept.
However, if BLM concepts such as destruction of the nuclear family, white and Asian business, and free enterprise were included as legitimate, that is, again, inherently divisive.
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You are correct that the Governor initially targeted “inherently” divisive concepts. But, that is not what filtered down to the public. The folks at the school board meeting, even the board chairman, opposed the textbook because they thought it pushed “divisive” ideas or would cause “division” in the community. Even the report by the Dept. of Education on its purge of these kinds of ideas slips from referring to “inherently divisive concepts” to referring to “divisive concepts.” https://www.doe.virginia.gov/statistics_reports/interim-30-day-report-on-inherently-divisive-concepts.pdf
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Sex, religion, race, nationality. Inherently. All else is derivatively?
Everything — everything– is divisive since anything can be used to partition the population. “Watch your brown eyes.”
Youngkin used the word inherently to provide a disingenuous exit. There are no legally defined divisive concepts.
Accidentally inclusive is inherently divisive.
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As Dick has responded. It’s not Dick that needs to be “elucidated” on what “inherently” means but rather all the many parents and Conservatives that seem to be woefully ignorant of the concept and consider the simple recognition of historical truth and current realities to be “inherently divisive” and makes kids “feel bad” to actually learn of our history of racism and white supremacy that continues to this day in the minds of some in society.
For more than 100 years, we have had de-facto policies that have caused and contributed to one parent families and now we blame the one-parent families “culture”.
White Supremacy and overt individual racism is still a plague on our society.
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“A key concept of CRT is that whites are postnatally prejudicial and blacks are inherently incapable of competing with whites and Asian students, which of course, is divisive.”
I think the key concept is that due to our history, our current society is inherently prejudicial. Racial biases are baked in to nearly every part of our culture and have been so ingrained that even people who are not blatantly racist (or claim to be “color-blind” as is so popular in some circles these days) are in actuality and unintentionally practicing racism. The only way to overcome these built in biases is to recognize that they exist and be actively anti-racist. If the playing field can be leveled in such a way, people of color are perfectly capable of competing and succeeding just like European whites.
Recognizing that this is (even potentially) true is not divisive for those who want our society to change for the better and for those who wish for all human beings to succeed to their full potential which I assume includes all of us.
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