March 2023

Welcome back, listeners!

There was so much I took in during my hiatus, that it was hard to choose ONE thing to come back with. But decide I did: CRT. The last time I did an episode I could still count how many laws banning “CRT” there were on my hands and toes. That is no longer the case.

While 28 states have no restriction, almost half the states either have restrictions in place OR have laws in progress of being banned.

The fact is, K12 teachers are not teaching CRT. It is not now, nor has it ever been history, conversations around race and identity or criticizing racial injustices. Those are all conversations protected by the first amendment and common in countries calling themselves democracies.

Not only are these laws vague and terrifying for teachers trying to do what they have been educated to do, they support indoctrination. The fact is, that there are some ugly truths in our history. Enslavement, genocide, child rape, physical and sexual abuse of men, women and children are not things we want to think about. They are also not things we talk about in any graphic detail in schools. However, those events are a part of our history. And if we are to show our children true patriotism, we are to teach them to love our country with all her flaws. That means we too need to accept the truths of who we are, the good, the bad, the very bad.

We cannot not erase the history of some to paint a rose colored picture of others, and we have to fight against those who believe this is in our collective best interest. This country is better than that, or at least, we should be. My only ask this week is that you pay attention to your local elections. The children need your voice. The teachers need your voice. Our country needs your voice.

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When educators are asked in my workshops, what the main goal of a media concern is, they generally answer “to inform”. For those of us who think in terms of author’s purpose, what other answer could there be, right? Usually, after a little prompting, someone comes up with “to make money”. We all want to pay our bills, so this is not an indictment. But it does mean that the stories that sell are the stories that get pushed. Bad news sells. Now, that is an indictment–for humanity. We buy bad news so we get more bad news. And if your bad news is biased (which it almost always is), that’s bad news for people on your campus who may be consuming their bad news from other outlets.

Helping Students to Navigate Difficult World Happenings

How can we help our students to navigate difficult topics if we are against some of them? How can they all be our students if we are against some of them? How can we work and play well with others if the morning news cycle has us mad at “others” as we pull into the parking lot?

Mental health PSA: Consume less news, it’s healthy and it’s an easy way to feel less stressed. Next, as you consume less media, be aware that you are getting a balanced diet and not consuming whatever the algorithm and your clickbait friends feed you. Here’s AllSides Media, a site that can help with that. And if you’d like a course on how you can use this resource with your staff and students,