Originally Posted by
Walter Sobchak
Banning discussion of some theories in school to narrow the range of thought is very American.
This is no different than the SJW speech codes and woke censorship you complain about. It's just that you happen to agree with this one.
This isn't "banning the discussion" of a topic. It's banning the teaching of propaganda. If you look at the Critical Race Theory lessons which have been taught in US schools, there is no room allowed for open debate, discussion, or dissent.
The LESSON is that the US is systemically racist, specficially designed to oppress minorities, and that any lesser outcomes currently experienced by miniroty groups is attributable only to the system itself. The kids are not allowed to speak out against this, or to write essays challenging it. They are to parrot back this propaganda, or they fail the unit.
Controversial opinion shouldn't be taught in schools for exactly this reason. If the teacher is on one side, he/she will force their opinion upon all of the students, with consequence being a failed grade if the students don't walk the line. I'm fine with Benjamin being taught that there was once slavery in the US, that there were laws restricting black people from engaging in certain activities all the way through the 1960s, and that it has now been universally recognized that this was wrong and unjust. These views are accepted by almost everyone in society, so they're not controversial.
Once you get into political propaganda being taught, which is NOT universally accepted as fact, then you're venturing into indoctrination territory, and this has no place in our schools. Similarly, I would be upset if controversial right wing propaganda was taught as "fact", even if I agreed with it. This simply should not be the role of schools.
I also don't understand people's complaints about the "whitewashed version of history" taught in our generation. I remember being taught about slavery and the civil rights movement, and as well as the eventual voting rights for black people and women. All of this was framed as progress. When I was in high school, we were only a little more than 20 years removed from the civil rights movement of the '60s.
It's a myth that we were taught "white people were always the good guys" back when we were in school. Maybe this was true 70 years ago, but it definitely wasn't true in the '80s when I was in high school.