AFT’s Weingarten: Using Education for Politics Is ‘Terrible for All Kids’

EXCERPT:

WEINGARTEN: "You know, the political changes that have happened in several of these states will be terrible for kids — not just for kids of the indigenous nations, not just for kids who are black and brown. It will be terrible for all kids because we need to understand our history, the good and the bad. And frankly, when we understand the bad, it makes the good so much more, it makes — you know, when the arc of the universe does actually bend toward justice, as it did, you know, in terms of what has happened in the last century, in the 60s, in making America a multiracial democracy, that was a pretty impressive moment. But when there’s this pullback -- and I say this as an AP gov teacher — when there’s this pretending that slavery was good in some way, form or a manner — a noxious concept from the get-go — when there’s an attempt to not talk about labor rights, union rights, when there’s an attempt to ban books like Amanda Gorman's  book, it is terrible in terms of how we see ourselves and see each other. And so, I know it's being done for political reasons. This is always what happens when the sanitize history. But it really, long-term, is terrible for all kids."