EDUCATION

Education is a key factor to ensuring future success in adulthood. School districts should endeavor to provide the best possible background for students, so they can successfully enter college, technical school, or the workforce.  Distractions caused by prioritizing fringe issues ultimately detract from the quality of schooling students receive. Teachers find themselves struggling to manage the demands placed upon them by politicians and parroted by misinformed individuals. Instead, the goal should be to to provide support and encouragement for teachers to deliver the highest quality education to their students.

A recent example is Critical Race Theory, or CRT, a newly manufactured concern that has caused teachers and administrators to redistribute their time to combat outrageous accusations. In reality, Critical Race Theory is a philosophical analysis of society as a whole to determine the underlying factors that contribute to individuals not achieving their full potential. This graduate-level analytical approach evaluates how the legal system interplays with ethnicity to impact the lives of minorities. The background required to understand basic Critical Race Theory requires at a minimum some college education, and is in no way taught in a K-12 curriculum. Yet this has become a focal point of conversations surrounding what limitations to place upon educators, and results in a reduction of focus on how to best serve students.

A recent example is Critical Race Theory, or CRT, a newly manufactured concern that has caused teachers and administrators to redistribute their time to combat outrageous accusations. In reality, Critical Race Theory is a philosophical analysis of society as a whole to determine the underlying factors that contribute to individuals not achieving their full potential. This graduate-level analytical approach evaluates how the legal system interplays with ethnicity to impact the lives of minorities. The background required to understand basic Critical Race Theory requires at a minimum some college education, and is in no way taught in a K-12 curriculum. Yet this has become a focal point of conversations surrounding what limitations to place upon educators, and results in a reduction of focus on how to best serve students.

Politically motivated attacks on literature is another issue limiting educators in the classroom as well as overburdening administrators. Demands to remove literature unilaterally target books with content that is inclusive of marginalized communities. In the fall of 2021, SBISD was subjected with six requests for book removals. All of these were written by award winning authors, three contained LGBTQ+ characters, two addressed racism, and one was a Holocaust memoir. Committees were put together by the district, demanding time from librarians and teachers to evaluate these claims, and all save one remain in SBISD libraries. Complaints lodged were often by parents whose children did not attempt to access the literature in question, but based instead on lists politicians circulated to create faux outrage. 

Teachers and administrators have had their careers threatened, both implicitly and very explicitly, by community members who demand compliance with limiting educational content to align with these manufactured political fringe issues. Teachers who continue to be inclusive and consider the experiences of every child suffer targeted attacks demanding their termination. Some of these claims go so far as to allege that SBISD professionals are “unfit” to be around children. Educators are being forced to evaluate their curricula in light of political demands instead of prioritizing the students and their education.

Each of these issues binds educators to impossible standards, and turns the focus away from providing the strongest base for our students’ success.  Teachers who have spent years in training and educating themselves on how to best encourage, engage, and elevate children are now instead taking time to worry about how to appease those who would lash out over a manufactured political issue. Incredible teachers are leaving the profession due to these threats, or leaving this district for a district less steeped in this toxic rhetoric.  Ultimately, it is the student that suffers, be it due to limited supplies in the classroom, limitations placed upon producing educational conversations, or a loss of teachers best equipped to help every child.

Teachers and administrators have had their careers threatened, both implicitly and very explicitly, by community members who demand compliance with limiting educational content to align with these manufactured political fringe issues. Teachers who continue to be inclusive and consider the experiences of every child suffer targeted attacks demanding their termination. Some of these claims go so far as to allege that SBISD professionals are “unfit” to be around children. Educators are being forced to evaluate their curricula in light of political demands instead of prioritizing the students and their education.

Each of these issues binds educators to impossible standards, and turns the focus away from providing the strongest base for our students’ success.  Teachers who have spent years in training and educating themselves on how to best encourage, engage, and elevate children are now instead taking time to worry about how to appease those who would lash out over a manufactured political issue. Incredible teachers are leaving the profession due to these threats, or leaving this district for a district less steeped in this toxic rhetoric.  Ultimately, it is the student that suffers, be it due to limited supplies in the classroom, limitations placed upon producing educational conversations, or a loss of teachers best equipped to help every child.