When reading the daily news today, it’s difficult to figure out what is to be taken seriously and what may be a dystopian fantasy or sarcasm or conspiracy theory or a deliberate lie.
The cumulation of one day’s articles is bizarre: Trump suggests invoking the Insurrection Act of 1874 in Minneapolis; Rep. Kristin Noble favors “politically segregated schools,” some for Democrats and some for Republicans; search of Washington Post journalist’s home done at the request of Defense Department; “over a hundred children kill in Gaza since ceasefire” according to UNICEF; NBC News reports DHS says it “enforces federal immigration law without fear, favor, or prejudice”; President Trump accuses Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander and four others of “seditious behavior, punishable by death,” referring to their video urging military people to refuse illegal orders; and many more.
Some of these stories seem so far fetched that it feels like they are only a diversion — no response needed. They lack the credibility of important issues. The article in the Monitor about New Hampshire Rep. Noble talking about creating public schools as exclusive Democrat schools and Republican schools, is one of those issues in question. She may be speaking tongue-in-cheek, using sarcasm, floating a test idea, or proposing a serious possibility. Because of the possibly wide-ranging political and societal effects of her proposal, it may be necessary to give Noble the benefit of a doubt.
Noble seems to want to create a school system that imitates the political divide of the country: conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats. In doing so, she yields to the troubling condition of a democracy with two camps of people, competing with one another for political, social, religious and cultural dominance.
This idea brings me back to my junior high school days. Our school was neither exclusively populated by Democrats nor Republicans. However, there was a policy that allowed students to be released from classes on the last half of a school day once a week to attend religious education at their church. Those of us left behind, remained in class to the end of the school day. I remember the empty desks and the busy work we were given, so that those who were absent would not miss any important learning. I remember the uncomfortable sense of a divide between us.
There was also mystery and a curiosity. Once in a great while, someone would ask what was happening during the time at their church. The answers would be vague – “just church stuff!” Over time, the gap between the two groups widened. Each group began to perceive that the other was inhospitable. Each group had accumulated its own experiences, its own rules, and its misunderstanding of the other. There was no room left for anyone from the other group.
This memory of my early school days demonstrates the flaw in Noble’s vision of individual Republican and Democrat schools with their own curriculum, culture and beliefs — neither the twine shall meet! These schools would graduate students comfortable with their experiences of a homogenous environment of thought and practice. Their learning would prepare them to perpetuate the stark political and social divisions in the already wounded country.
I suggest that this truncated model for education could be considered indoctrination. Whereas, exposure to a diversity of people, beliefs and ideas is a mark of effective education. That means creating ways to expose students to the differences among us, both political and also social, religious and cultural. We need education that will give graduates the skills to bring people together with all their different opinions. Good democratic government involves making decisions guided by the many differences among citizens and a respect for their origins, beliefs and commitments. We need less alienation and more cooperation.
The choice to consider and debate Noble’s idea is essential because it demonstrates a microcosm of a weakness in the government and society. She has touched upon a major fault-line: left against right, right against left, Republicans and Democrats locked in win/lose commitments.
Perhaps, just perhaps, Noble’s untenable model for educating our children will challenge citizens and academia alike, to design an educational structure and program that will prepare students to advocate for a government and a society that truly functions to affirm all citizens, no matter who they are, where they are from and what values they hold dear. If that happens, thank you Kristin Noble for your untenable idea that will motivate us to seek new models of effective government, good citizenship and an open society.
John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.