Teacher ‘indoctrinated’; students explore & grow

Tracey Nance, Georgia’s Teacher of the Year for 2020 (and 2021), writes in the “Voices for Honest Ed Team” newsletter on Medium.com that she has indeed been “indoctrinated,” but not by the groups or ideas that certain political ideologists might want to believe.

“The truth is the only indoctrination I have experienced is the lived result of being with 400+ wonderfully talented, curious, and different little humans in the classroom over the last 12 years,” she wrote.

And what she means by that is that when the first reference to Black history in her state’s fourth-grade social studies standards was a reference to the three-fifths compromise, her students wondered and asked, “What happened before this that led to African Americans being viewed as less than a full person?”

So she not only answered honestly but brought in other materials about African history to open up the minds of her naturally curious children. That’s just one example; for more, please read her essay.

But the point for all teachers, not just those dealing with elementary social studies standards that have managed, throughout years of white adults developing them, to focus them on European—and specifically, “white” European—history. Such a tendency dishonors kids’ natural curiosity, and forcing teachers to tell lies disgraces the teaching profession.

And if no one in our school—teachers and students—is honored or even treated with common courtesy, what’s left?