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Steve Cartwright is vice chair of the St.George selectboard. His parents were both schoolteachers. His views are his own.
‘’It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge,” said Albert Einstein, who believed curiosity and imagination are far more important than simply accumulating knowledge.
As the grandparent of a student at the St. George School, I am happily certain that teachers and staff are living up to Einstein’s dictum. I see boundless excitement, creativity and curiosity among the students. They are passionate learners, interested in their town and the world beyond.
One day, I noticed students had chalked words along Main Street in Tenants Harbor. My favorite was “I (heart) our school.” I know students in other places who hated school, or were simply bored by it. Not here. It’s one of the most impressive public schools I’ve known, and clearly the teachers (heart) their students!
Now comes a small but zealous group of parents who want to restrict what students are taught and what they read, along with eliminating student’s legal rights to play sports based on their gender identity. These concerns deserve respect and thoughtful consideration. But I think we should beware of all attempts at censorship, at banning books or banning discussion of so-called “sensitive” topics in school.
As for gender identity, it appears to me the children are way ahead of adults on this. The students don’t have an issue with it, they aren’t uncomfortable or afraid, based on their own testimony at school board meetings..
The school board, following pressure at a recent meeting, is apparently considering posting lesson plans so parents can “opt out,” removing their child from certain learning experiences. This policy will put a burden on already hard-working teachers. I believe it will lower morale at the school, and could have a chilling effect on students’ education as a whole. It’s not necessary. It’s a censorship, and a free and honest education isn’t about only allowing certain subjects or material to be taught.
As a local parent pointed out at a school board meeting, if you disagree with the educational program at the St. George School, you can home school your child, or send them to a private school.
One board member is quoted as saying we need to regain the trust of parents in the community. I don’t think we ever lost it. What this is really about, I believe, is an attempt to micro-manage and limit what students are exposed to, so that their education conforms to conservative political values.
Students should be free to learn about those values, and free to learn about all sorts of things. I hope we can agree that we want students to learn to think for themselves, make their own, informed decisions about the world they will inherit. We don’t need to impose a right-wing agenda on them, or a left-wing agenda. Let students learn about our nation’s greatness, and its flaws.
The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, these are inspiring documents, as relevant today as ever. Yet we as a nation have consistently fallen short of living up to them. We have a president who is attacking people of color, continuing the racism grounded in the enslavement of African-Americans in this country from 1619 to 1865, when a Republican president finally freed them. But then southern states went to war to protect slavery, and 600,000 people died. President Donald Trump has called people of color ” garbage,” and threatens to deport legal immigrants, despite having immigrant roots himself, as most of us do.
Maine’s indigenous community, the Wabanaki or People of the Dawn, fought and died for our country because it is their country. The Wabanaki were shoved onto small reservations, their lands stolen from them, and they did not receive the full right to vote in national elections until 1948, and in state elections not until 1967.
Now we have a law that Wabanaki studies be taught in every Maine school. These truths are important. The bottom line is that we need to teach our students to look for truth, to critically evaluate what they are taught, and finally, to blossom into healthy adults with an understanding of where we come from and what we can do for the common good of all.
There are different points of view on these issues, and I’m in favor of students hearing all of them, but I’m not in favor of selectively presenting them with a sanitized version of our society or its history.
I believe the St. George School would win a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence award, but it can’t because the Trump administration abolished the program, and Trump wants to eliminate the Department of Education.
Let’s not tear down education, let’s support it. And let’s support our teachers and their good judgment, without interference.
