Jess Piper lives in rural Missouri. She and her husband are farmers with five children. She taught American literature in the local public school. She describes herself as a “woke” progressive. When she added the history of slavery and African American literature to her classes, she said, none of her students (all white) felt embarrassed or uncomfortable. They identified with the abolitionists, not the slaveholders.
She ran for office when she realized that there were no Democrats, and she lost. But she wasn’t discouraged.
I am not a podcast person but I listened to Jess with close attention. On Twitter, she is @piper4Missouri.
You will enjoy listening to her podcast. She has a great voice and a great message.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have seen Jess’ posts on twitter and I follow her for more. She is a strong advocate for solid public schools.
She is awesome. She addresses REAL issues, not women’s dress code in the MO House!
Missouri is on a failing Republican trajectory!
https://heartlandernews.com/2021/11/16/pro-crt-teacher-and-democrat-jess-piper-is-running-for-state-representative/
Is a link to The Hartlander, a newspaper which presents Piper from a decidedly conservative viewpoint, even though it is written as a straight news story. This story illustrates why rural America is lockstep with the march to the right. When editorial comments masquerade as straight news, the public is fooled.
Oh brother. Propaganda parading as news. Imagine that. And it will be picked up by someone as “serious news.” Others will even claim they read diverse media sources, as though that’s some sort of repository of all knowledge. Read, bark, rinse, repeat.
“However, even after defending the use of the project in classrooms and happily teaching it herself, she contends that Critical Race Theory isn’t being taught in schools.”
“Similar to far left political pundits like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush, Piper spends significant time on Twitter lecturing about liberal policies and denouncing GOP measures like the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which was heavily favored by Missouri voters.”
“. . . which was heavily favored by Missouri voters.”
Horse manure! Flat out lie! The voters never got a chance to vote on SAPA. The rethuglican legislature and governor implemented that law.
Just like they voted, when the sh!thead Greitens was briefly governor, for “right to work” legislation immediately after the voters voted it down by a 2-1 margin, which was the third time at least that MO voters had rejected, by the same margin, that crap.
Just quoting the crap for emphasis!
The editor of the Hartlander grew up in Sikeston, according to his bio. Sure didn’t have the same experience as my friend, Van, who retired from the boot heel with a decided bias toward liberalism
Throwed rolls! (never been there)
Mr. Rehder is the son of Sen Rehder.
That article in the Heartlander reads as if it had been written by the campaign of her opponent.
The Place Where Three Wars Meet
One of the interesting things about the curse of our nation’s interesting times is the chance we have to observe how that triple threat — the War on Democracy, the War on Education, and the War on Science — work hand in hand in hand to wreak havoc on every core value of American society our parents and teachers impressed on us in what now seems like ancient days.
The inseparable bond between democratic government and public education is no doubt obvious to anyone whose mind and character have been nurtured by the lessons of progressive education — perhaps too obvious to understand how anyone could fail to see how each will die without the other.
At any rate, most of us can probably see how the war on democracy and the war on education are just two fronts in a larger campaign to nullify the core values our Founders labored to give birth on this Continent.
But the war on science? Or inquiry, knowledge, research, truth — however you want to put it? What is that about? Where does that come into the fray?
For one thing, think of the armory of double-think-tanks that constantly bombard the public with barrage on barrage of agenda-driven reports, the host of which tanks operate in exact opposition to the way genuine researchers are trained to conduct historical and scientific research.
For another thing, the public is now so inundated by the rain of abuse on our university-educated teachers that — unlike every other civilized country in the world — they forget the role that academic freedom plays in conveying the truth about realities not-to-be-denied to the generations that will have to face those realities squarely and without the escape of wishful illusion.
So you can’t have a really good war on democratic education without a multi-pronged assault on academic freedom, communication, information, inquiry, journalism, knowledge, research, science, and truth. Now can you?
Jon,
You are right about the war on Democracy, Education, and Science. This needs to be shouted…over and over again.
👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
“But the war on science? Or inquiry, knowledge, research, truth — however you want to put it? What is that about? Where does that come into the fray?”
That “war” (a misnomer if I’ve ever seen one) starts in the cradle and up through about 85% (the percent of religious faith believers in this country) of the population through the thorough and overbearing religious faith belief indoctrination that the individual undergoes throughout life.
To question, to point out the absurdities and insanities of religious faith beliefs is to invite scorn, rejection, even, historically speaking, death on those who reject that nonsense.
There is no doubt in my mind that religious faith beliefs are THE fundamental problem in America today wherein so many have so many/much arational, ridiculous thoughts and beliefs and follow scam artists (the churches, preachers, etc. . . ). . . and also think that those beliefs should be afforded “respect.”
“War” is an understatement.
They don’t only want to declare war, they want to…
take prisoners,
brainwash citizens,
scapegoat,
remove dissenters to their position from public positions and positions of authority (or intellect), and
fear monger.
(Sounds like another period in our history)
The “article” linked in the blog is a perfect example.
Without citation the author states the teacher shortage is due to vaccine mandates, labels the vaccine mandates as “Biden administrations” (not even Missouri’s for which the former AG sued school districts). He describes the teacher “happily” using the 1619 project – – and the best one is describing her “similar to” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush.
The article is right out of the GOP playbook: Aligning hot button issues and fear mongering values with a local classroom teacher to get into small town local news… and free “regressive republicans” campaign distribution.
I wish the anti-vaxxers would remember that the Trump administration paid for “Operation Warp Speed,” which led to the rapid production of vaccines. The COVID 19 vaccines should be called THE TRUMP VACCINES.
“This is what they envision, right?
“They envision less.
“They envision less education, less for our children.
“And the saddest part is there are a lot of people willing to take less.
“And, if fact, and I found this out by knocking on doors.
“There are people that request less.”
And this is where tears of sorrow and anguish came close to flowing.
Is it pronounced Missouri or Misery? (It’s a joke whatever they call you folks from that state these days, lighten up. Relax, I live in Ohio. By the way, recent enhanced recording show that the Wizard of Oz monkeys were not singing Oh-wee-oh-Oh-Oh, but O-hi-O-Oh-No.)
It’s Missourah if you live in the boonies where I reside. It’s Missouri if one wants to appear edumacated. And yes, the politicians, both Dims and Rethugs can make living here misery.
Fortunately, there are enough spring fed, crystal clear rivers to head to to get away from that misery. (for all you out of staters, head to the northern half of the state, above I-70 to try to find them 😉 )
Many years ago I got a caught in an obvious speed trap somewhere between Louisiana, Missouri and Mexico, Missouri (and I wasn’t in Texas!). You can keep that part of the state! 😂
Why do you think I’m sending the out-of-staters up there?
By the way, small town (including those in the metro areas) speed traps are ubiquitous here in the Show Me State. . . as in “Show me your papers, please. . . I see you’re not from around here. . . .” And if you’re a POC you can almost guarantee a couple of more officers will show up and “inspect” your car and manage to “find” something illegal.
Wow!!! thanks for sharing her, Diane! She’s awesome.
Bob, yes!
Her explanation of segregation academies being funded by tax avoiding billionaires was nuanced and insightful. Her understanding of the benefits of traditional education as opposed to “reimagined” education was relatable.
Agreed!