Tag: Banned! Series

A series of op-eds and personal reflections from those being impacted by recent U.S. legislation attacking public education, higher education, gender, race and sexuality studies, activism and social justice in education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Posts included in this series may also consider the impact of other endemic issues affecting education, including but not limited to: gun violence, LGBTQ+ rights, economic precarity, censorship, and mental health.

Submit pitches and/or completed draft op-eds and reflections (between 500-800 words) to Aviva Dove-Viebahn and Karon Jolna at adove-viebahn@msmagazine.com. Inclusion of photos or other images welcome; please include photographer credit, if applicable.

New Hampshire Law Banning ‘Divisive Concepts’ in the Classroom Leaves Teachers Vulnerable and Students Unprepared

The new school year brings a fresh onslaught of conservative attacks on public education. As I prepare the syllabus for my “Teaching English for Middle and High School Teachers” course at the University of New Hampshire, a new court challenge to the HB 544 “Divisive Concepts” bill is underway. Passed in 2021, HB 544 prohibits the teaching of racism, sexism and any materials that claim “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”

Intentionally vague rhetoric like “divisive concepts” masks the bill’s white supremacist logic. Students recognize how the bill co-opts language commonly used in calls for social justice to argue against diversity. It is the legislators that pass and the administrators that enforce these abhorrent bills that are most to blame.

‘Banned! Voices From the Classroom’: Reflections From a Small Liberal Arts College in New York

For those of us in so-called liberal states, what happens in our backyards is connected to the nationwide suppression of teaching about people of color, queer and trans folks, and women.

(To be featured in our “Banned! Voices From the Classroom” series, submit pitches and/or completed draft op-eds and reflections to Aviva Dove-Viebahn at adove-viebahn@msmagazine.com. Posts will be accepted on a rolling basis.)

Key Gender Studies Staff Resign from New College of Florida, ‘The State Where Learning Goes to Die’

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Nicholas L. Clarkson, former assistant professor of gender studies at New College of Florida, has announced his resignation from the school, which used to be known as the most progressive public college in the state. Clarkson was the only full-time gender studies professor at New College.

“I have loved teaching at New College,” Clarkson wrote in a letter addressed to interim president and former Republican House speaker Robert Corcoran. “But now Florida is the state where learning goes to die.”

Over 40 professors have already resigned from New College in light of these attacks, according to Clarkson, who calls the mass exodus “an indictment of [Richard Corcoran] and the trustees’ actions, as well as the state’s regressive politics.”

‘Banned! Voices from the Classroom’: Call for Submissions

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Ms. Classroom wants to hear from educators and students being impacted by legislation attacking public education, higher education, gender and sexuality studies, activism and social justice in education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Submit pitches and/or completed draft op-eds and reflections (between 500-800 words) to Aviva Dove-Viebahn at adove-viebahn@msmagazine.com. Posts will be accepted on a rolling basis, with posting beginning in August 2023.

BANNED: Gender, Race and Sexuality Studies

A new Florida law severely restricts gender, race and sexuality studies at state-funded colleges—and eliminates diversity programs altogether. Far from just a “Florida problem,” this is one piece of an alarming right-wing strategy spreading nationwide. Gender studies advocates warn, “Thiis is about to be the entire country’s problem. Every Republican-dominated state legislature is watching closely what is happening in Florida.”

Far-right conservatives fear that younger generations will be taught to think critically about the rampant misrepresentation and sanitization of American history and the continued discrimination against women, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.