Postcard from a School Board Member
I heard from a school board member in our area
Recent local school board meetings have been stressful for me, even watching them live-streamed. Parents are disruptive and threatening with their eerily similar attacks against mask mandates and Critical Race Theory.
Recently I asked someone on a board of education in our own area what they think about all this. Here is their response:
I’m not speaking for other school board members, since each of our decisions is but one vote in our policy making.
I think we have to examine our entire perspective on how history is taught in our nation. For over 30 years I’ve taught many grades, but fourth grade was an eye-opener for me in North Carolina. Nationally, fourth grader’s curriculum is to learn about their state, and as older texts were replaced, I kept searching for one textbook to tell the truth about our state’s origin.
For example, why is Raleigh our capital? I’ve even heard high school students repeat their fourth grade lessons: Raleigh was the founder of North Carolina.
Sir Walter Raleigh was a British war hero romantically linked to Queen Elizabeth I, who rewarded him with New World land parcels and a patent to claim land for England. Several of his voyages failed, and he never set foot in North Carolina. Later he was executed in the Tower of London.
But he is our North Carolina hero. This is just one part of the birth of White Exceptionalism in our nation.
I believe that our state, along with 26 other states fighting Critical Race Theory (CRT), is waging war on anyone trying to tamp down the white hero worship that has existed since the eastern coast of the New World was settled.
I receive many letters from parents concerned about CRT for its terms like “white supremacy”, “cultural awareness”, “diversity training” and “equity”. My, how we have failed in our schools if parents believe that white supremacy was born of a “theory” bandied about by 1970’s scholars.
Censoring our history to make a certain population feel better about their ancestry, is malpractice in education. In reality our history is messy.
Jefferson was a great thinker and writer, and also had a slave for a mistress. Our forefathers championed democracy for our nation, and also counted blacks as three-fifths of a person in our Constitution. America has been a refuge for immigrants escaping religious oppression, famine and war, and also immigrants were brought here as slaves and for cheap labor.
These contradictory facts are not debatable.
As a life-long educator, I want the truth to be taught. I love my country but I also understand that our history has stains that cannot be bleached out to satisfy a group of parents or legislators.
Many people agree with teaching the truth, but they tend not to be among the vocal minority who attend meetings at the board of education. People are terrified to show up to school board meetings, since they have become the battleground of disrespect, threats, and actual violence.
So, when our NC state and federal legislators say that we must listen to a few protesting parents when deciding our curriculum, I also wonder when we will start teaching 2 + 2 = 3.
School board members are elected officials. Next year it will be up to us to choose candidates who protect the safety of our children, and who support uncensored curriculum. Students can handle the truth.
And we can help protect our school boards. VOTES change lives.
This is heartbreaking. And so dangerous that it is so easy to shut down the truth in this day and age. I think these parents must have so much at stake in hiding the truth about American White Culture that they will do anything, just as the politicians will do anything to keep minorities from voting.
Superb - and sad. I must share this!