I recently posted a commentary by John Thompson, a retired teacher in Oklahoma who speculated about whether the state would permit high school teachers to teach Ken Burns’ series on the U.S. and the Holocaust. Oklahoma has a law—HB 1775–which might intimidate teachers.
In response, a teacher in Utah said that he or she felt sure that the Burns’ series would not be allowed because it’s controversial.
Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post was taken aback by this intimidation. She asked me to invite teachers to send her an email and comment on whether they felt they would be in jeopardy if they taught the Ken Burns’ series, which acknowledges the unwillingness of the U.S. government to accept European Jews trying to flee from Hitler.
Please write her at Valerie.Strauss@WashPost.com.
She will protect your anonymity.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope that everyone who reads this blog would reach out to as many people as they possibly can about this. You never know who’s related to a teacher somewhere who would like to contribute. Ask them to pass it on. And so on. My hope is that Valerie will be kept quite busy. Starting my outreach now.
Beginning my messages with, “If you are concerned about issue like this, please pass this to any teachers you might know. Please pass along to others to ask if they know any teachers.”
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issues…sheesh
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If I were a principal or superintendent, I would mandate it.
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With a public notice opt-out provision due to the graphic violence in some places.
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Yeah, but you don’t teach anymore (no offense, Bob, you’re great!), and you have no idea the draconian requirements that have been laid out by many states in the last 18 months. And the horrendous names teachers are called by these right-wing, Fox News-indoctrinated parents.
In Utah, there is a member of the state school board who has called out multiple teachers BY NAME on her social media as “indoctrinating” children or “being abusive” and all kinds of things, all on the word of one student or parent who has usually twisted whatever it is the teacher actually said or did. So even the state school board, never mind the local school boards and district administrators, don’t support teachers.
Teaching social studies has become a minefield in the last 2 years. This is my 22nd year teaching and I have never been this concerned about saying the “wrong” thing, or having something I have said twisted, than in the last two years. I don’t dare teach much of anything now.
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an important distinction: “In the last two years, I don’t dare.”
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TOW, please write Valerie Strauss.
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Threatened, you are right. If I were teaching now, doing the same curriculum that I did, I would probably be fired because of the current climate. I didn’t pull any punches, in my American lit classes, on the subjects of genocide, slavery, and systemic racism. Nor did I about colonialism in my Brit lit classes.
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Thanks for your testimonial, Threatened. That’s just sickening.
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Yep. The attacks on teachers have really ramped up in the last two years. We were “heroes” for about three months at the beginning of Covid-19. Now we’re villains and “indoctrinating” the children to “become gay,” or “hate America,” or whatever.
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Diane, already done.
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Thank you.
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I tell everyone I know to stay away from Utah.
Last month , I convinced one of my nephew’s friends who was looking at U of Utah not to go. He’s a skier and I told him that despite the great skiing in Utah, he would be much better off going to school in Colorado.
Convincing people to avoid Utah (even for vacations) is one of my hobbies.
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Any woman would have to be insane to move to Utah.
Not only does it now have an almost complete ban on abortion, but the reported incidence of rape in Utah is actually 1.3X the national average and it is estimated that only about 12% of rapes are reported in Utah (because women know that the legal deck is stacked against them so the vast majority don’t even report)
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Sadly, Utah has s far from the worst when it comes to these policies. I would have to be trying to teach in Arizona or Florida
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Good grief, autocorrect! Let’s try that again. Sadly, Utah is far from the worst when it comes to these policies. I would hate to teach in Arizona or Florida or Texas.
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Perhaps, but Utah also has some of the most insane politicians controlling things by a longshot.
Marianne Lisonbee, for example whose response to the overturn of Roe was that women can control when and if men ejaculate and even control the intake of semen during sex.
And she is hardly alone in her insanity.
The state is run by fruit loops and has been for a very long time.
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When I was there , (just before I left), it was Enid Greene and her heroin addicted check kiting hubby.
But of course, all these folks are very “religious” and “moral”
Politics in Utah is like an eternal — and very bad — soap opera.
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“As the Stomach Turns”
“All my (15) Children”
“The Daze of our Lives”
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Love your soap opera names, SomeDAM. Hilarious and sad at the same time.
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It is always OK to show something controversial as long as the controversy is taught along with it
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You CANNOT “teach the controversy” with the Holocaust. There IS no controversy. That’s the infuriating part of this whole situation.
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I’m not sure what controversy you are referring to. The holocaust happened and anti-Semitism was wide-spread, not just a “German” problem. My elementary school district had a wonderful program on the Holocaust in the eighth grade developed under the leadership of some teachers who had experienced the loss of family in the camps.
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What’s the controversy if the subject is the Holocaust?
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Truth is truth. America didn’t want to become involved. Truth being, antisemitism racism was prevalent then and continues. Back when I was a kid, I was taught the only good Indian is a dead Indian. That was until I started thinking.
If education is to learn, then teach history as it was, not just the view point of the victors.
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