Teachers Could Face Penalties For Lessons On Race, Gender, Politics

Fresh Air

NPR

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4.3 • 36.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

Across the U.S., educators are being censored for broaching controversial topics. Since January 2021, researcher Jeffrey Sachs says that 35 different states have introduced 137 bills limiting what schools can teach with regard to race, American history, politics, sexual orientation and gender identity. One proposed law in South Carolina, for instance, prohibits teachers from discussing any topic that creates "discomfort, guilt or anguish" on the basis of political belief. We talk about these bills and laws and their implications.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast comes from the New Bower Family Foundation, supporting
0:04.7	WHY Wise Fresh Air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful conversation.
0:11.5	This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross.
0:13.9	In states across the country, laws have been passed or introduced, restricting what
0:18.9	teachers can discuss in the classroom and what subjects and ideas should be banned from
0:23.8	curricula.
0:24.8	These restrictions mostly apply to subject matter pertaining to race, sexual orientation,
0:29.9	gender identity, and political ideologies and philosophies.
0:33.9	Many of these restrictions cover K to 12 schools as well as colleges and universities.
0:39.3	Since January 2021, 137 bills restricting what can be taught have been introduced or prefiled
0:47.1	in 35 different states.
0:49.0	Over 87 of those bills are from this year.
0:52.4	Restrictive laws have been passed in 10 states.
0:55.8	My guest Jeffrey Sachs has been tracking these new laws and bills for Penn America, a
1:01.6	writers organization dedicated to free speech.
1:05.0	He teaches political science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.
1:09.4	His areas of specialization include free speech issues and authoritarianism.
1:15.0	Jeffrey Sachs, welcome to Fresh Air.
1:17.6	Let's start with some of the ideas and concepts that are being banned from the classroom in
1:22.0	some states or that proposed bills would ban.
1:25.6	I think the main one is probably what many Republicans describe as critical race theory.
1:31.7	So how is that defined in some of these bills?
	...

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