In the News

“We want to make sure that all students feel safe and welcome and their humanity is affirmed in the classroom, no matter their gender [or] immigration status,” said Heather Hanson, a European history teacher at Laguna Beach High. “The Teach Truth event is about raising awareness about legislation that has been introduced federally, most currently the executive actions which would seek to ban teaching the truth about the role of racism, sexism [and] heterosexism oppression throughout history, and various book bans throughout the country.” From the LA Times. Read the full article here.

[T]housands of educators, students, and families to [took] part in the Teach Truth Day of Action on June 7. Across all 50 states, from Alaska to Puerto Rico — and even as far as Barcelona, Spain — more than 200 events were held to demand the right to teach and learn honest, inclusive history. Led by the Zinn Education Project in partnership with NEA and co-sponsored by more than 80 civil rights and advocacy organizations, the Day of Action comes amid an escalating campaign of censorship.  From NEA Today. Read the full article here.

“We last year focused a lot on banned books because obviously those were a lot of the things that were happening in the public square,” said Nakeesha J. Ceran, deputy director for Teaching for Change, an advocacy group. “What feels different in this moment is really the deep concerted effort to undermine all spaces and sites of public education, inclusive of public schools, museums, libraries.” From USA Today. Read the full article here.

“The event comes as lawmakers in at least 47 states — including Kansas and Missouri — push bills that would require teachers to lie about the role of oppression in U.S. history,” explains Michael Rebne, Kansas City physics teacher and SURJ co-organizer. “Not acknowledging the country’s actual history, including racism and other oppression, is deception, not education.” From The Kansas City Defender. Read the full article here.

“When organizations like Facing History & Ourselves are silent on the devastation in Gaza, it leaves teachers more vulnerable to attack when they try to teach honestly about the region,” said Deborah Menkart, co-director of the Zinn Education Project. From Jewish Currents. Read the full article here.

The difficult truth is no one is coming to save us from the banning of history and this slide into fascism — including the Democratic Party. But once we understand this, our task becomes clear. We must build robust, independent, social movements and fight to teach the truth — because no executive order, no political intimidation, and no forced ignorance can erase history, so long as we refuse to stop teaching it. From Truthout. Read the full article here.

As the Trump administration sets its sights on cutting the Department of Education, longtime educator Jesse Hagopian spoke to Democracy Now about what he calls an “extremist, authoritarian power grab to dismantle public education and enforce ideological conformity.” Hagopian, whose new book, Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education, traces the history of racist educational censorship, added, “This isn’t about protecting children. We know that dismantling the Department of Education is really about imposing . . . the violence of organized forgetting.” From Democracy Now!. Read the full article here.

At stake is not merely the lens through which we view our past, but the moral and intellectual foundation of the society we aspire to create. Post-truth schooling, fueled by uncritical race theory, aims to dull the capacity of young people to think critically and challenge systemic inequality. Fortunately, resistance to this dystopian vision is springing up already. From Truthout. Read the full article here.