ICYMI: Applefest Edition (10/7)
Every year on the first weekend in October, my small down turns into a huge fair or festival or whatever you want to call it. Our hook is that Johny Appleseed lived in these parts briefly very early in his career. But for three days we pull out all the stops, people come from far and wide, including people coming back because at this point it's the unofficial Homecoming for the town. There's a 5K race and a car show and bands play and crafts are sold and food is eaten, and because the Institute is located in town, we do it all on foot (which is great because parking is a challenge). We cloze the schools on Friday and we close the main streets on Saturday and Sunday. It is a small-town-a-palooza. Always the first weekend in October; you can start making your plans to come on over next year.
In the meantime, I have some reading for you from the past week. Remember, sharing is caring.
People Power Vs. the Far Right Education Movement
At the Progressive, Glenn Daigon interviews Skye Perryman about how to fight back against the folks who would undermine public education.
What's behind the national surge in book bans? A low-tech website tied to Moms for Liberty
A team at USA Today looks at the website that is a major resource for many of the book banning folks out there.
A fight over religion and politics is roiling a Texas school board election. And 'it's gotten ugly.'
How ugly can the christianist right wing movement to "take back" schools get? Texas ugly. Scary ugly.
ESA Parent Advisory Board member calls for more accountability
Breaking does some of the ESA voucher spending in Arizona. Including a breakdown of which schools and programs are getting some taxpayer money.
Walters told Congress TPS had ‘active connection’ with China. His staff was told the opposite.
Shocking, I know, but it turns out that Ryan Walters kind of fibbed when he was raising the alarm about Chinese commie infiltration of Tulsa schools.
Remember how Tennessee Governor Lee was going to get the state 50 Hillsdale charters, and then then he backed off (because Hillsdale president Larry Arrn said some dumb things). Well, he's pretty much back on track. Andy Spears has the story.
This Guy Used to be my Congressman. Now He Wants to be my Senator.
Nancy Flanagan looks at Michigan politician Mike Rogers, yet another example of how some GOP moderates suddenly get infected with MAGA virus.
There's still an attempted power grab going on in Ohio. Still. Jan Resseger can bring you up to speed.
Rural Schools are the Epicenters of Rural Life
Jess Piper wants to remind us that defunding rural schools hurts more than education.
Moms for Liberty attempt to remove books from Charlotte high school fails
Juston Parmenter reports a success story from North Carolina.
FWIW Florida has not banned “To Kill A Mockingbird”
Sue Kingery Woltanski has some good news--not every book on the Most Banned list is actually banned in Florida. The bad news is the partial list of books that actually have been banned.
Peter, how would you explain the discrepancy between the list of books that are “most banned” around the rest of the country and the fact that many of those books (the majority in fact) are actually given explicit sanction in the Florida ELA standards?
It seems like whatever movement there is to “ban” books in Florida (tbh, i kinda hate the use of that word in this context -- what word do we use now if there is actually a true restriction on the ability of individuals to read/purchase books? “Super-banning”?) it’s a completely different movement than what is going on in the rest of the country. What is the relationship between the two movements? Is one an outgrowth of the other? A reaction against the other?
My theory is that the books under protest that are referenced in the post you shared are mainly held to be objectionable because they promote ideas that some find objectionable. There’s a real desire to restrict those books and students’ access to the ideas they communicate. The new push for restricting books in school libraries is about undermining public education as an institution; the intended and hoped-for result of many of the objectors is that the school/district retains the book in their collection so that the objectors can wave it around and read excerpts in board meetings and publicize how public schools are “grooming” kids by exposing them to this material.
What do you think?