The Game Show: Politics of the GOP
It’s not happening in every state. But sadly, the states that it is happening in are run by Republicans. Many of their leaders have college and advanced degrees. Some of them are actually lawyers. But that doesn’t matter. We are now living in the era of “Do what you can to dumb things down.” And when people in power attempt to do that, freedom goes away. Ideas and words become targeted. Theories are challenged. Basically, THE THINGS YOU WERE TAUGHT in high school, are now, in some states, forbidden.
THE GAME IS REAL NOW
Remember when Game Shows were popular and people won money for having the right answer? Big time Money. Now, at every turn, the game is to s crew up the logic we used to have. It’s going on every day–people huddling at desks or in board rooms, trying to screw the general public into believing lies. There was a time when this was accepted as politics, you know, kinda innocent, kind of accepted because, wink wink, we knew the game and how to play it.
No longer. It’s much scarier now. The outright telling of lies. The bold staring into a camera and lying to the American people–that’s what happened in Germany before World War Two. It’s actually called authoritarianism. It gives only a few the power to lead the rest of us. So in this post, I’m looking at you, Florida. This from the latest news:
In what at times appeared more like a tent revival than an agency rule hearing, state health officials on Friday received public input on a proposal that would deny Medicaid coverage for treatments such as puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy for transgender people.
Anthony Verdugo, founder and executive director of the Christian Family Coalition, called gender-affirming treatments “crimes against humanity.” “Groomers are using their authority as adults to pressure children and ruining their lives,” he said. “Let kids be kids.” But critics of the proposal warned that it could have deadly effects on transgender Floridians, and it is based on politics rather than policy.
A Florida Department of Education review of 132 math books has led to the banning of more than 40% of them due to what the state calls “prohibited topics” including critical race theory and social-emotional learning.
WHAT’S ACTUALLY HAPPENING?
AND WOW, what scary stuff are these crazies finding in math books? Last month, Florida’s Education Department accused publishers of trying to “indoctrinate” the state’s students through proposed math textbooks, alleging that they were sneaking in material, forbidden by the state, about social-emotional learning, Common Core standards or “critical race theory.”
The book banning in Florida is happening. Laws passed this year by the state legislature aimed at banning reading material in schools in a blanket attempt to whitewash American history, marginalize LGBTQ students. They know the best way to do that is to deprive students of books that focus on the realities of the life they are living. Prohibiting knowledge of our differences, that we no longer have right to our own choices, is now part of Florida’s curriculum. As a former teacher who enjoyed it when a student shared freely of his “different” take on life–now students are forbidden to do that. Their lives are literally white-washed.
The Florida Department of Education has banned books that former English teachers like me might assign. They are banned because the majority of these books touch on race: How to Be an Antiracist by Ibrahim Kendi; The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison; they are about sexuality: Forever by Judy Blume; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley); oh and let us not even mention sexual orientation or gender identity: Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan, Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe.
Whether you taught decades ago or are teaching now, the entire point of high school English classes, is YES, help the student write a decent five paragraph essay, take them to the library so they know how to do research and yes, write a research paper. But more importantly: help them THINK. Awaken students to the world, to story, to joy and suffering, the challenges of life.
Teaching high school English–ASK ME– should not be a white bread class that avoids topics like race, prejudice, history, disease, even suffering and death; it’s the beauty and reality of words, all used to inspire empathy, understanding, & how to live. States like Florida (and there will be more) are stomping on all of that as you read this.
