As a young teacher searching for a job in education in the 1960s, I applied to be a substitute in Boston. I was asked to sign a loyalty oath, an oath to be “loyal” to the United States, and I wasn’t sure I should do it. (I did sign.) Now in NH, the loyalty oath is back in a different form. HB 1255 prohibits that any teacher advocate for “communism, socialism, or Marxism” among other provisions. I taught high school for 12 years in Boston and Brockton, Mass. While I taught many subjects (history, English, and reading) I always thought I would be teaching some version of critical thinking. As a teacher of critical thinking, I did not advocate for any particular theory hoping that my students would learn to think for themselves. I thought it was important for my students to know about these theories, however, in order to make sense of the crazy world that we all are part of.
That included studying the events that gave rise to racism as well. To my surprise, the textbooks had only a paragraph or so about slavery. As a former public school teacher and then as a curriculum coordinator in New Hampshire, I never thought my students had been adequately informed. I believe it is unethical (to borrow a phrase from the bill) to keep our students uninformed about these very important issues. To members of the New Hampshire legislature, please vote against this bill.
Judy Ullman
Portsmouth