Letters: Educators’ focus should be on the truth; ‘What are they thinking?’
Educators’ focus should be on the truth
What in the world is all this discussion about teaching the correct history of the United States and avoiding indoctrination? Put very simply, all we have to do is tell the truth.
A quick overview of what politicians have done to establish “proper” curricula in various states is obvious. It only takes a cursory look at those states that have adopted a statewide curriculum to see that all school districts in the state are required to use identical textbooks. This is what indoctrination looks like. It has existed since shortly after the War Between the States, the popular euphemism for the Civil War, in many places.
This kind of textbook requisite is tantamount to indoctrination because any outside opinions are restricted unless there is a (pardon the expression) courageous teacher who inserts or permits differences of opinion from the mandated text.
As a person trained as a social studies teacher I am greatly disturbed by past and present attempts to force a single line of reasoning about the American experience. Our white Anglo-Saxon ancestors were certain that Native Americans were not their equals, nor were Blacks, Irishmen (admittedly included in the Anglo-Saxon category), Italians, Chinese, Jews, Moslems, Poles, Greeks, and on, ad nauseam.
Let us stop dividing and begin inclusion as a major thrust of any future curriculum adoptions and make telling the truth the primary driver of our educational systems.
‘What are they thinking?’
The bishops are now backing off from targeting America’s most visible practicing Catholic, or any specific politician.
They may have heard my big sister — a great-grandmother, 95 and counting down in Florida — when she saw the news that American Catholic bishops had voted overwhelmingly to draft guidance for denying holy communion to President Biden when he goes to mass, because he supports women’s right to abortion. She said to herself: “What are they thinking? ... How stupid!”
Our mother was one of 14 babies born to a German farm family near Appleton, Wisconsin. Our father was Catholic, so my sister, big brother and I were raised as Catholics. We still keep an eye on organized religions.
News of the bishops’ planning for Biden’s holy communion triggered an e-mail exchange between my sister and me on family subjects I had never heard her talk about before, such as the things a teenage girl in the 1930s and ‘40s could find in a mother’s dresser drawer. And this:
“Another story ... which I didn’t want to tell you but ... one of Mom’s older sisters ... after she had six children tried to abort another pregnancy ... and got blood poisoning and died ...”
The bishops have allies. The moral counselors of the Republican Party, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, have packed the Supreme Court with justices chosen precisely because they can be expected to help make a devout wish of the bishops come true: Stop abortions. The legal ones.
Municipal radar bill has major flaws
SB 419, which would allow municipal police to use radar and LIDAR, is not what it seems. The bill permits underposted speed limits and tickets barely above them. The state is supposed to be posting speed limits at the 85th percentile speed of roads, but that seldom happens. Federal and state laws say to post the speed limits at the 85th percentile, so why is that not being done in PA? This bill would criminalize safe drivers, who are going to work and doing essential activities. It would also encourage traffic diversion to smaller roads without speedtraps.
Federal studies have shown that speed limits have little to do with how fast people drive, most speed limits are underposted by 8 to 16 mph, and low speed limits can lead to more crashes. So much for safety! This is being done for revenue. PennDOT also has said for years that Pennsylvania roads are the safest in history. All that without having radar!
Officials point to the state police as an example, but you may want to pull up Radargate Revisited first to see how the state police handled having radar. Now, many want to give radar and LIDAR to municipal police? Many things can go wrong there.
Why do police routinely exceed speed limits? Do as I say, not as I do?
Allowing radar without correcting the underposted speed limits is a nonstarter. Contact your state representative and Governor Wolf and say to vote NO on SB 419, municipal radar.