Teachers are not the enemy. We can’t give in to the attacks from the lunatic fringe

All the teachers I know are asking themselves: At what point, and using what means, should teachers speak up against the increasing harassment, micromanagement and hostility of the political right?

None have a good answer.

The bills being rammed through state legislatures trying to ban so-called “critical race theory” — a previously obscure legal concept that some now falsely claim has infected every corner of the K-12 curriculum — are so transparently disingenuous, racially myopic and dangerously restrictive that most teachers can’t believe they even have to address them. What’s worse, most teachers find themselves in the unbelievable position of having to justify basic and fundamental pedagogical goals to administrators and parents who are clearly operating out of the basest forms of fear and cynicism.

Teachers are used to occupational contradictions. It has long been the case that we are praised in public but lambasted in private. It’s part of the job. As one of the last truly public institutions left, we understand that we are the emotional punching bag of all the hopes and dreams of a fractured society.

But this is old news. Most teachers have learned to adapt.

Now, however, after two years of COVID-19, of masks, of being online, then offline, then online again, we are fed up. We are fed up with being assaulted by out of control legislatures and helpless administrators who are more interested in appealing to their fringe supporters or higher-ups than they are with the actual educational quality of schools.

Society cannot have it both ways. You cannot expect teachers to be there for your kids, to show up every day and console, educate and push their developing minds while at the same time attacking and undermining the very nature of those same teachers’ work.

Teachers cannot stand up against this onslaught themselves. It’s too big. Parents, administrators and legislatures need to have courage and moral conviction and speak up. We are not the enemy. Tribalism, avarice, and political expediency are the enemy. Putting “bounties” on teachers is the enemy.

If we as a society and a culture cannot recognize and call out with moral clarity the authoritarian rot at the core of the current mania about teaching the truth about our history, we will lose much more than teachers — we will lose our souls.