Even those who aren’t surprised by the simple fact of Donald Trump’s assault on America’s universities must be shocked by the full frontal magnitude of it all, belated attempts to walk back parts of it, notwithstanding. (Harvard is putting up a courageous, clever, and effective defense.)
It was the inciting incident for the “moral majority.” The integration of schools really triggered the reactionaries.
Of course, having to teach science instead of their myth really upsets them too.
Also, showing kids different perspectives on history other than the manifest destiny of white men really offends them.
Oh, and treating every student with dignity really lights them up.
Turns out there’s a lot of reasons why reactionaries hate education, and they mostly reduce down to the fact that education makes one far less likely to be a backwards antisocial goon.
In my experience, it was in addition to. My high school biology teacher was a creationist who “taught the controversy”.
I wish we had a country where that resulted in your ass getting fired for cause. Teachers have a right to their personal belief systems, but that needs to stay out of the classroom.
In middle school our new science textbooks were recalled the first week of school. The textbooks discussed (horrors!) the big bang theory without also talking about the theistic theory. The books were returned with those pages rubber cemented together. The teachers were upset (upset enough that middle-school me noticed), but it was by order of the superintendent.
My parents got me a copy of A Brief History of Time in response. Also, rubber cement is fairly easy to pry apart.
What part of the country was this in?
I grew up in a part of Pennsylvania that was heavily red and an extremely underfunded school system. However, as far as I knew, evolution was not “controversial” in our schools? We had a few dedicated (and criminally underpaid, I’m sure) teachers that covered it well, and none of them injected any of their personal bullshit into the classroom.
Fast forward a few years, and then Dover hits the national stage as some test case for the creationists/“Intelligent Design” assholes trying to start up with their “teach the controversy” bullshit…
Western Kentucky in the 90s. . There was a ton of weird stuff at that public school. I went far away for college and am glad for it.
Edit: Better link/source
I’m wondering if “complaints from parents” was organic and just a few loud Karens making trouble, or a bunch of Karens pointed at the school by some wingnut activist group, like a local church?
In any case: JFC, some people are so very fucking stupid. Imagine, being offended by science.
My impression at the time was the superintendent acted on his own. Not even the board of education was involved, and they weren’t happy to be blindsided.
My guess is the
LOL, “superintendent was his own Karen”.
I love that phrasing. :)
A very rare breed indeed
Depending on the state, getting teaching credentials is not challenging at all.