“How common do you think these incidents actually are?” I asked.
“That's unusual,” said the school of education professor. “Any problems that arise should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, but these are outliers. They should not be treated as anything more than that.”
The parent activist looked incredulous. “They're not rare. They happen all the time.”
The professor looked skeptical.
“We keep getting complaints from parents,” she says. “In most places, parents don't have a good way to share this. Once they have someone who will listen, they'll reach out. Once they have a way to let you know, you'll realize how many It's surprising how many there are.”
The professor was unimpressed. “If you pick any country, you can find examples,” he says. “But there are 100,000 public schools. You'll find 50 examples, and that's less than one-tenth of his one percent of those schools.”
“With that in mind,” I asked him, “in what percentage of your classrooms do you think these incidents occurred in a given year?”
“All over the country?” he asked. “I mean, it’s a very small portion.”
“Are we talking about 1% of the classroom?” I wondered.
“There's nothing even close to that,” he said. “That's well below 1 percent.”
Now it was the defender's turn to roll his eyes.
“What do you think?” I asked her.
“Over a year? That should be over half way,” she said.
“What about the classroom?” the professor asked incredulously.
“Of course,” she said.
They looked at each other. None of us had any way of knowing who they really were, but two were clearly convinced they were right – and the other was in La La Land.
And that's the crux of the matter. Most people are ambivalent about this.The majority of parents and voters want schools to promote tolerance and understanding but There is no ideological agenda or political posturing. So they want schools to be honest about slavery and Jim Crow, without resorting to “privilege” training that shames some students based on their race or ethnicity. They want schools to make all students feel safe, but they don't want to encourage first-grade teachers to lead class discussions about gender unicorns. This tension requires a gut check and a balancing act.
For example, over 90 percent of Republicans and Democrats say students should be taught about slavery in schools, but more than 85% of both parties also believe classrooms should be places of learning, not political battlegrounds. An EdChoice survey found that by an 84-10 margin, parents do not want their child's teachers to share their personal policies. In theory, there is no tension here. You can easily teach about Jim Crow without promoting an ideological agenda. However, many advocates, curriculum developers, and teacher trainers believe that teaching “honestly” about slavery entails teaching politicized doctrines about “systemic racism” or intersectionality. It is made clear that