have introduced similar bills since January 2021.<\/span><\/p>\nOn March 9, the Durham School Board passed a resolution that opposed H.B. 187. It said: \u201cA sound education, including accurate facts about all aspects of U.S. American History, including systemic racism and discrimination, is guaranteed for every North Carolina student in our state\u2019s Constitution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m not gonna be changing how I teach,\u201d said Swaim, who has taught at Riverside High School since 2015. \u201cI feel grateful to work in a district like Durham where the whole school board is very much supportive of teaching <\/span>real <\/span><\/i>things, including looking at racism, sexism, and homophobia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n***<\/b><\/p>\n
Swaim teaches about a variety of topics, but she says that in order to understand history, students must recognize how race and power operate. This has become even more important at a moment when racism is a hot-button issue in America, she said.<\/span> \n<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s really important for students to understand how we got to this moment, and those are hard conversations,\u201d Swaim said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSeveral of her students were taken aback by the legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt was surprising to see people advocate for literal direct censorship of what I consider to be important conversations about race,\u201d Niko Bradley-Bull, an 11th grader and one of Swaim\u2019s students, said in a questionnaire\/survey about the bill.<\/span><\/p>\nBradley-Bull said that since teachers are human, they carry natural biases. However, students can think for themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAnother student, 10th grader Rowan Gibney, said that legislators \u201care trying to control and re-write history to teach our youth a different story.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nMichelle Burton, the librarian at Spring Valley Elementary School in Durham, taught her second and third graders about Helen Keller at the beginning of March\u2013Women\u2019s History Month. One of her students, though, asked if they could instead learn about Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist who helped slaves escape via what was known as the Underground Railroad. Other students chirped in to agree.<\/span><\/p>\nBurton wonders if H.B. 187 would permit her to talk about Tubman, whose story involves violence inflicted by white people. She noted that students from various racial backgrounds want to learn about the truths of Black history. \u201cThe reason is because it\u2019s about how a group of people have overcome, and resiliency, which inspires hope,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s inspirational.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIf the bill passes, Burton is almost sure she will continue to teach as she does now.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAs a librarian, we focus on intellectual freedom,\u201d Burton said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOpponents of the bill also allude to H.B. 69, a measure that the legislature passed in 2021 that mandates Holocaust education.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThey had no reservations, thinking that the Holocaust bill would hurt the feelings of students of German descent,\u201d said Minister Paul Scott, a Durham activist who promotes Black history education and has spoken at several school board meetings on H.B. 187.<\/span><\/p>\nAt the March 14 hearing, Rep. Marcia Morey (D) said that although it is \u201cuncomfortable\u201d to learn about the atrocities committed throughout the Holocaust, a \u201crobust\u201d education requires that discomfort.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cMuch of our history is race related, and teaching and learning about lynching and slavery and the effects of Jim Crow laws will make students uncomfortable,\u201d Morey said. \u201cBut a sound basic education is a full discussion of facts of racism in American history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nTorbett responded to Moray by repeating that the bill will not change history education standards. The 9th Street Journal emailed Torbett\u2019s office three times and his legislative assistant twice for an explanation about what he meant and what would change under the bill. We received no response.<\/span><\/p>\n***<\/b><\/p>\n
One of the bill\u2019s provisions draws particular concern from educators.<\/span><\/p>\nEducators who plan to teach materials related to the list of restricted concepts must notify the Department of Public Instruction and upload the content onto their school\u2019s website 30 days prior to the lesson. The same rule applies when schools hire teachers or consultants who plan to discuss those concepts or have advocated for related ideas in books, published materials, or on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cMy concern is that they\u2019re trying to create a level of fear in teachers who may consider doing this,\u201d Ashley Smith, a Spanish teacher at Northern High School, said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSmith intertwines different cultural histories into her Spanish classes, including Afro-Latina culture. She would not change how she teaches if the bill were to pass, but she worries about its ripple effect. The 30-day rule could cause teachers to fear retribution for their class material, she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe rule could also interfere with educators\u2019 teaching methods, Swaim said, adding that it would make her job \u201cimpossible.\u201d Even though she always plans general content, students regularly produce questions and feedback that alter her lessons.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t have a blueprint that\u2019s fixed and set in stone,\u201d Swaim said. \u201cThat\u2019s just not how I teach.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s more, teachers say they already vet their materials before sharing them. The school board has to vote on textbook adoptions, and teachers work in teams to develop lesson plans and compile materials. Burton says that legislators need to \u201ctrust\u201d teachers instead of \u201cpolice\u201d them.<\/span><\/p>\nAt the hearing on March 14, Rep. David Willis (R) denounced concerns over the 30-day rule as \u201cbaffling.\u201d He said that most teachers already provide lesson plans in advance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s important, he said, is accountability. Parts of this nation\u2019s history are, indeed, \u201cugly.\u201d However, teachers do not \u201chave the right to insert their own personal beliefs over facts and history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWe want all politics, all of this nonsense, out of the classroom, and the biggest need our children are going to have to be successful in life going forward is the ability to think for themselves,\u201d Willis said.<\/span><\/p>\nHe added that anybody who \u201cdoesn\u2019t understand that shouldn\u2019t be in a classroom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n***<\/b><\/p>\n
Burton, who is also the president of the Durham Association of Educators and has worked in education for 28 years, accuses the North Carolina legislature of supporting the privatization of public schools. Many DPS educators, in fact, view H.B. 187 as part of a broader strategy to dismantle the public education system.<\/span><\/p>\nProponents uphold their own framing of the bill: adults must protect children from a worldview that weaponizes identity to divide and indoctrinate.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWho knows what group will rise to a prominent position to try and indoctrinate our children?\u201d Rep. Torbett said on March 14. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen it in history hundreds of times! This bill protects whatever group this is from soiling the minds of our kids with thoughts that don\u2019t collectively bring us together as a group of individuals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nAs Torbett notes, history repeats itself. That\u2019s what Swaim\u2019s students learned as they drew connections between H.B. 187 and the United Daughters of the Confederacy.<\/span><\/p>\nIf H.B. 187 passes, teachers will have to reconcile how to contextualize a world burdened by social issues, which students recognize and seek to unpack with honesty.<\/span><\/p>\nSmith, the Spanish teacher, puts it this way: \u201cNot telling the full story of something is also a way to hide the truth.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the afternoon of March 20, Allison Swaim\u2013a high school history teacher in Durham\u2013projected a Vox video onto the screen for her students about a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[126,127,376,364],"class_list":["post-10114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-schools","tag-durham-school-board","tag-durham-schools","tag-north-carolina-legislature","tag-north-carolina-politics","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n
N.C. bill on race and identity ignites teachers' ire - 9th Street Journal<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n