Schools across the United States are suffering a massive teacher shortage. USA Today reports that as of March 2024, over 55,000 teaching positions are open in schools across the country, and that number only grows as educators leave the field in droves.
While concerning, this trend in education isn’t at all surprising. From accusations of grooming and indoctrination to legislation limiting the books that can be read and the topics that can be discussed, it’s clear that teachers in America are under attack.
Book banning has made waves across the country in recent years, with texts including everything from LGBTQ+ representation to sexual or political content targeted.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis seemed to spearhead this war against books, signing a bill in March 2022 that any book allowed in Florida public schools must first be reviewed and approved by a state-appointed committee. Teachers and librarians failing to comply by providing students with non-approved material were threatened with criminal prosecution.
You may think that fiction books were the primary targets of these bans, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. Ron DeSantis went as far to have every math textbook in Florida reviewed, and proceeded to ban 40% of them, citing the presence of “woke ideology” in some of the problems.
What woke content is in these math textbooks, you may ask? Problems referenced controversial topics such as racial profiling in policing, which DeSantis derogatorily referred to as “Critical Race Theory.” These textbooks included real world applications to real world issues, which according to Florida’s department of education, have no place in a math class.
Unfortunately, the battle against books didn’t end in Florida. Our very own school board in Central Bucks was one of the many across the country to attempt a restriction on learning, creating a national stir in Spring of 2022 when they voted 6-3 to remove any books from school libraries that they deemed inappropriate. The vagueness of the policy allowed for members of the community to challenge books during the meeting. The list of books that were proposed to be banned disproportionately included topics like racism, queer relationships, among other social and political issues.
Teachers not only in Central Bucks, but a number of other districts across the country, lived in fear of scrutiny or punishment for teaching any sensitive topics, resulting in many abandoning the profession altogether rather than taking the risk of being fired.
Politicians will claim the restriction of these books has everything to do with shielding the children from content they aren’t mentally equipped to see, but have no issue placing an iPad with full access to the internet in their children’s hands. They will claim that parents have the sole responsibility of discussing controversial topics with their children, and that any teacher introducing these topics to their children is predatory and trying to push an agenda.
But do these politicians truly care about protecting the children? The very same people spewing this rhetoric are the ones refusing to enact gun control policies that would prevent school shootings. These policies have one goal, and one goal only: undermine public education.
It should be an educator’s responsibility not to teach children what to think, but how to think. Discussion of the taboo in school promotes the critical thinking that drives a democracy. The practice of banning books and discouraging political dialogue creates a generation of adults who don’t read, examine differing viewpoints, or engage in meaningful discussion, and that is exactly what these book bans aim to achieve.
Legislators fighting against education want an apathetic and uninformed population that doesn’t question what they say, and they’ll fight tooth and nail to bar teachers from bringing up the trailblazers that will challenge their authority.
As good teachers continue to leave the field, the quality of American education will decrease, and the public opinion of American education will become less and less favorable. We cannot allow this to happen. We must put our full support behind American teachers and actively protest the suppression of education our politicians are trying to achieve. The future of our nation depends on it.
