Faced with Authoritarianism, Texas Teachers Have a Simple Choice to Make
It isn't easy, but it's also not complicated
A new state law in Texas that mandates teachers who “discuss current events or…controversial issues of public policy” must attempt do so “without giving deference to any one perspective” and must offer up “contending perspectives” to any discussion of so-called controversial topics has apparently caused some consternation among good teachers. So, a school district administrator in Southlake, Texas recently attempted to reassure teachers that they could indeed still teach whatever texts they thought best…sort of.
It did not go well. Someone made an audio recording of the meeting and the administrator’s guidelines only seemed to cause more concerned outrage among teachers.
Teachers can still teach the books they want to, however they will need to also teach and presumably present as equally legitimate on its face books that take a different perspective than the one they originally chose, if the subject matter is “controversial.” Teaching about the Nazi Holocaust of millions of Jewish people and other victims and about how it was bad, for example is still allowed, but only if teachers also have students read books that provide a contrary perspective to the view…that the Holocaust happened and was bad, according to what we can make of the administrator’s guidelines.
“Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Gina Peddy, the Carroll School District Executive Director instructed assembled teachers.
“Make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”
Teachers in the room can be heard gasping at that point and expressing disbelief at the idea that they seemingly be expected to teach both unfavorable and favorable views of the Holocaust, for example.
This isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem, though it is every bit as gross. For years (indeed, for centuries) now, the types of reactionaries who pushed through the Texas law have unabashedly and explicitly made arguments that American chattel slavery of Black people wasn’t actually quite as bad as everyone seems to say. These arguments have included the ludicrous myths that enslaved Black people had more family cohesion than Black Americans currently do, that not all enslavers were physically violent, and at least enslaved people had houses provided them, and all sorts of other dehumanizing distortions that miss the point that there is no acceptable form of slavery, especially the uniquely racialized version that the U.S. perpetrated on Africans and descendants of Africans.
If, in order to teach about systemic, government-approved and facilitated atrocities like American chattel slavery and the Nazi Holocaust Texas teachers have to now present “both sides” of the subjects they cannot properly do their jobs. If a teacher in Texas wants to teach students that Nazism was bad, state law would seem to tell them that they also have to teach texts that present Nazism as valid.
If a Texas teacher wants to teach students to oppose fascism, the law now requires them to also put forth perspectives to students that argue fascism is valid as opposed to odious. Teachers are rightfully taken aback by this.
In at least the Carroll school district of Texas, teachers are being encouraged to go along with this mandated abdication of their responsibilities as educators. The solution for schoolteachers here isn’t easy, but it is simple.
Texas schoolteachers need to violate the law. This new Texas state law is immoral and antithetical to an education that values human dignity, life, and critical thinking. So, teachers must violate it in order to fulfill their mission as teachers.
Teachers are not babysitters. They are not just there to make sure kids don’t kill one another while their parents are at work.
Teachers need to encourage children to think critically, to learn, to challenge orthodoxies in order to make society better, to become the active participants in our society that democratic experiments require to succeed.
If teachers in Texas abide by this propagandistic law, they will fail their students in the most fundamental ways possible. Teachers show devotion to mission and courage a hundred different ways every day.
They need to continue that life of service by refusing authoritarian intrusions into their classrooms, by refusing to propagandize their students by whitewashing histories or ignoring difficult subject matters. If teachers are to continue to serve their essential function in this country they need to refuse to uncritically present “both sides” to every argument as equally valid and when the state attempts to prevent them from doing their jobs as Texas is attempting to, they need to ignore the state and do what they’re morally and ethically obligated to do.
Every authoritarian regime in history had educators who went along with the government and corporations, did as they were told, “followed orders” and complied. Every authoritarian regime has also seen educators refuse to betray their mission and the trust of their students and who then opposed anti-intellectual and oppressive measures.
Texas teachers need to decide which they will be, now. Those who go along with the program will cease to be real educators, though they will keep their salaries, benefits, and peace.
Those teachers who disobey the law, who live out the lessons they claim to want to teach their students, will face professional and personal consequences but will get to still call themselves educators. It won’t be easy, but it’s not a complicated choice.
Laws like this can’t be overturned in the courts unless someone with standing, like a teacher fired for refusing to comply, sues. States like Texas cannot function without their teachers, so teachers joining together in solidarity would bring the entire dystopian enterprise to a halt.
The school district is already backing away rhetorically from their executive director’s remarks after outrage erupted.
Tyranny of the many by the few only works if we let it. Authoritarian regimes need people to carry out their despotic orders survive.
If people refuse to carry out those orders, even on penalty of ruin or worse, then the despots have no power. Teachers are in this position, now.
It won’t be easy, but it is simple.