The Flight From Knowledge

 

There is never a moment in my post-teaching life when I have regretted retiring. The paperwork was bad enough, but in the latter part of my career, the politics were becoming very difficult for someone like me to tolerate. The careerists were always looking over their shoulders, ever fearful of obstacles on the horizon that might impede their constant upward trajectory. Even phone calls from dissatisfied parents affrighted them.

The real victims in all of this were basic educational principles and, most sadly, the students.

The following letters to the editor exemplify this fact:

York school board insults children’s intelligence in its censorship

Ontario schools cancel the Crown. How?, Sept. 17

The York Region District School Board issued guidance to teachers that discussion of the Queen’s death is “not encouraged” because it might be “triggering,” as “monarchies are steeped in problematic histories of colonialism,” and so on. Children are curious and resilient. With the help of adults, they may deal with events that are distressing: the divorce of their parents, the death of their grandparents.

Educators now have the opportunity to explain why millions mourn this woman, while others think of her as the symbol of historical colonialism and imperialism.

And yet the York board wants to silence educators on the subject.

The problem is not that the York board has a low opinion of the Queen.

It is that they have a low opinion of children.

David Mayerovitch, Ottawa

Last year, in the high school that I teach in, a teacher was temporarily removed from class for reading part of “To Kill a Mockingbird” aloud. The teacher had, of course, very carefully laid the groundwork for the book and prepared the students for its disturbing content. They had were well into reading the book. But that day, a student in the class had their phone on, recording, waiting, and after the passage was read, they asked to go to the washroom. Instead, they went right to the office.

There was a flurry of activity after the complaint, and, to make a long story short, the book has been pulled from the whole board, along with several others that the administration (or the board) deemed to be potentially sensitive.

So one student complained, and, instead of working it through, the books were taken from the hands of the rest of the students in the class, who never got to finish the story or the discussions of the issues inside it.

I wonder what exactly they learned from that experience.

Your article says “Basic civics — teaching students about the complications and contradictions in our constitutional system — can’t be taught if educators are told to duck controversy because of potential sensitivity.”

This is exactly what is happening in libraries and English classes all over the country.

We need to be able to talk about racism, and every other damaging “ism,” without the fear of being accused of being racist.

But the fear is real in the teaching profession, and I imagine everywhere else.

No one wants to be escorted out of the building and have their reputation tarnished or ruined.

These discussions are being silenced, and this is a great loss to our education system.

Kim Fraser, Holland Landing, Ont.