On May 16, a sea of red-clad teachers descended upon our legislative building to give voice to the frustration many across the state share about the drastic cuts to public education since the Republican super-majority all but hijacked democracy. These cuts are so deep and at times punitive that they seem part of an ideological assault on the very idea of public education rather than some sort of economic prudence claimed by GOP leadership. In the person of Betsy DeVos we see this ideology nakedly espoused on the national stage. Gutting public schools in favor of for-profit charters, Christian private schools, and homeschooling has been her life's work, aided and abetted by her family's billions. She and the NCGA GOP are following a playbook much in the manner of how the Koch brothers systematically attack attempts to address climate change.
Meanwhile, the Cambridge Analytica scandal has revealed how compromised our personal data is, and to what lengths political operatives will go to sway our votes. The country has rarely been more polarized, the pundits remind us daily. We stay in our silos, and fake news, mostly on the right, but yes, on the left, too, chips away at the foundation of credulity our media, and therefore our public discourse, rests. Fake news pumped out by everyone from Alex Jones to the Russians makes the average citizen dismiss the very notion of an objective set of facts upon which we can all agree. The "paper of record" is routinely referred to by the leader of the free world as "the failing New York Times."
Yes, Facebook is evil, and even though you might be reading this on that very platform, you know it, too. And chances are, you count yourself among the few who are able to think critically about the sources from which you consume media and political information. But make no mistake: the dumbing down of public education has had the direct result of making us generally more susceptible to dubious conspiracy theories and hostile to elites who control the flow of information. Millions of people accept what scrolls by on their hyper-partisan news feed without much thought. They have not been equipped with the tools to screen out nonsense. They know so little history that they believe almost anything. And they--we--have a lack of even the basic workings of the Constitution, let alone state and local government.
This weekend in the New York Times, Frank Bruni wrote a piece decrying the loss of traditional humanities majors such as political science and English literature in colleges across the country in favor of predictably "modern" disciplines such as computer science. And while technical training is absolutely necessary to a vibrant and dynamic economy, Bruni argues that, for example, philosophy has stood the test of time, and studying how the ancient Greeks tackled thorny problems of ethics ultimately is as useful as the finer points of electrical engineering. Here in North Carolina, the push to vocationalize education is felt in cuts to arts, P.E., and the virtual elimination of literature in favor of non-fictional texts from our curriculum.
We may end up training excellent technicians, but what kind of citizens are we rearing? The basic workings of government, the pitfalls of logical argument and counterargument, the beauty of a well-wrought sonnet or haiku: these and many more "useless" subjects are the cornerstones of great civilizations. Studying these timeless subjects and updating them for the current era enters students into the great conversation that has been going on since humans first gathered around campfires. Who are we? Where did we come from? What is beauty? What is truth? Honing one's intellect at the feet of the masters teaches skills and qualities--habits of mind--that can serve an individual for a lifetime, including at work, but also in love, friendship, and in the duties, privileges, and responsibilities of citizenship, from voting to jury duty to active engagement with elected officials.
Remember that teacher protests are about much more than salaries. Yes, we need and deserve more money, but what we really need are more supplies, better classrooms, and more funding for rich programs that incorporate arts, movement, media literacy, and above all, critical thinking skills. Today's under-educated youth is tomorrow's ignorant voter. Let's invest in democracy by investing in the intellectual health of our children.
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