Texas HB 3979 blocks Critical Race Theory in public schools. It's hard to imagine any prosecutions resulting. But it makes teachers vulnerable to parents' complaints—especially of the hot-take variety. And it could have unintended consequences. Let's take a look, shall we? 1/10
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HB 3979 bans teaching "slavery and racism are anything other than...betrayals of...the authentic founding principles." This forces teachers to say the Constitution's framers betrayed our founding principles. They have to call the slaveholding Texas Republic anti-American. 5/10pic.twitter.com/AUTcBC9oow
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I don't think HB 3979 is meant to call our founders betrayers. But it's not a fine point. From the 3/5ths clause to free states that barred free Black people, from Washington hunting escapees to Texas's ban on anyone freeing enslaved people, slavery & racism was everywhere. 6/10
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Note that I am not attacking the framers or the founding of the United States. To have any real understanding of history, you have to see contradictions. People commit evil with one hand & do good with the other. Some made a better world possible—yet we see the evil. 7/10
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And then there's this: HB 3979's authors are very concerned that teachers should feel free to avoid any controversy. If they do, they must teach all sides "without giving deference to any one perspective." Equal time for mass murderers of Sand Creek? Or the Holocaust? Nuts. 8/10pic.twitter.com/jKO0f4t8L5
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Reversing HB 3979 would require a very brave teacher to treat it literally. Teach that all the Founders, Abraham Lincoln, etc., deviated from & betrayed our founding principles. Discuss the Weather Underground or Al Qaeda with an all-sides-deserve-fairness approach. Crazy. 9/10
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My point: Censoring teachers, especially for political reasons, sets a bad tone & has vile unintended consequences. If I've made a mistake in the foregoing discussion of Texas HB 3979, I regret the errors. I looked at the legislature's website here. 10/10 https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=87R&Bill=HB3979 …
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Of course!
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Demand NO funding for education for Texans.
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An American Völkisch movement.
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Mandating Ignorance seems to be Texas' new motto.
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I drew this piece for my friend's class project years ago and it holds true
pic.twitter.com/l56iRK7kPs
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