According to Wikipedia, “Gaslighting is a colloquialism, loosely defined as making someone question their own reality. The term may also be used to describe a person who presents a false narrative to another group or person which leads them to doubt their perceptions and become misled, disoriented or distressed.”
When we evaluate the success or failure of man-made systems, we look at purpose, structure, and function. What is the purpose of the system? What structures were created to achieve that purpose, and how do those structures actually function?
If there is a disconnect between the purpose and the function, we would say that there is misalignment. If we’re committed to our purpose we’d modify structures so the functions, the outcomes are aligned.
This is why most organizations, both in the private and public sectors, have visions, missions and strategic plans. Humans like to see if we’ve achieved our goals, and if not, change things in order to do better. This type of critical analysis is how we’ll need to think in order to achieve our stated purpose of “liberty and justice for all.”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that everyone in New Hampshire is working toward this purpose, especially our Commissioner of Education and others who want us to turn a blind eye to uncomfortable statistics.
A perfect example of this is the DOE’s insistence on using 1776 Unites curriculum to gaslight public school students into believing that the outcomes for people of color are equal to that of their white counterparts. Rather than confront uncomfortable truths, 1776 Unites highlights a statistical few as a representation of the statistical whole. It’s not honest storytelling, but a strategic form of gaslighting.
It’s such a clever strategy, too. Public educators working toward justice want all students reflected in the curriculum. In order to believe they have a place in the world, kids need to see themselves in that world.
Part of the 1776 Unites curriculum does that. It gives examples of Black Americans who found success. Yet it fails to highlight that these successes are statistical breakthroughs and that overall, our structures don’t function justly for many in our BIPOC community. Instead, they function to create unnecessary and inhumane barriers.
We need to pay attention to what the 1776 Unites curriculum developers refuse to do, talk about how the structures of our American system function today. It does not share the disproportionate statistics of incarceration in the United States. It does not highlight that Black, Indigenous and Alaskan Native women are two or three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.
It does not explain the pay gap Black women face today. By only highlighting a very few who found success against the odds and ignoring these statistics, 1776 Unites and the NH DOE are lying by omission. Perhaps that’s their purpose.
If we are going to do better, we need to be honest. Yes, we should celebrate successful individuals and the trials folks go through to find success, and we also must acknowledge that currently our systems’ man-made structures are creating many of those trials.
Our country’s stated purpose, “liberty and justice for all” is not achieved by the structures currently in place which is evident in our outcomes. That’s the education we need right now.
(Carisa Corrow of Penacook is co-author “126 Falsehoods We Believe About Education” and founder Educating for Good,)