Last week there was a lot of ink spilled, and a lot of tape made, after that encounter at the Lincoln Memorial between the Indian activist and that group of Catholic high school boys. A lot of ink and tape were spilled too early, it turns out. Because things weren't what they first seemed. The rest of us might get four or five lessons out of the whole controversy.
Speaking of lessons, some enterprising reporter in Worthington, Ohio, localized that national story for her readers. And your statewide paper published the report Monday. A big thank you to our wire editors--again--who seem to prove they're the best in the nation on a weekly basis.
This story out of Ohio focused on Thomas Worthington High School and its course on U.S. Political Thought and Radicalism, or what the kids there call "poli-rad."
Holy cow. High schools and even colleges are skipping American history courses and civics--sometimes leaving them out of the required curriculum even for history majors--but somehow Thomas Worthington High can offer U.S. Political Thought and Radicalism? Where do we sign up? And can we get a course description to hand out at school board meetings in these latitudes?
According to the story by Julie Carr Smyth, statehouse correspondent for the AP in Ohio, social studies teacher Judy Galasso has taught that class at Worthington High for three decades now. The point seems to be to study the fringes of political thought in this country, invite speakers into the classrooms, have kids look them in the eyes, then have a conversation about the crazies. Without calling them crazies, of course.
"If someone's yelling things at you," Mrs. Galasso said, "if you're presented with groups that you disagree with, my hope is that we train our kids well enough that they're not going to react."
Maybe she meant over-react. Let's hope.
Teachers at the school invite members of the most extreme groups to talk to the classes, including the National Socialists, the Weather Underground and, of course, the communists. Extremism, as you can see, isn't a right or left issue. According to the report, over the decades the course has sparked excitement, protests and controversy. As if education required real thought, not rote memorization.
"In 2019, no school board in America would approve a class like this," Mrs. Galasso said. "But in Worthington, there's no way you could get rid of it."
From the story:
Poli-rad students study each speaker ahead of time, gathering background and preparing questions. Afterward, teachers help them think critically about how factors such as deceptive language or personal charisma were used.
The teachers attribute the course's success to a few key ground rules: Presenters must come from across the political spectrum, they can't be censored, students must remain respectful and instructors can't share their personal political beliefs.
Another key takeaway: Don't rush to judgment.
Imagine that. Yes, the teacher was right, such a class might not get front office approval in 2019. Too bad for most students in 2019.
It sounds as though the Worthington school district knows the meaning of a real education, and is providing it. So naturally we have some unsolicited advice:
Word around the campfire is that Klansmen are no longer invited, what with their robes and hoods. It turns out last time they were there, it caused some in the community more than a little tension. To which we'd say, let 'em be tense. This is education we're talking about!
It does a community, any community, good to give the loathsome types time to air their soi-disant grievances. Just to remind the rest of us that they're out there. Forewarned is forearmed and all that. It's like giving the Nazis and the Kluxers equal access to a newspaper's letters page. Light is a great disinfectant.
You don't want these types festering in the dark. Then metastasizing. That can be a fatal way to handle the crazies.
Oh, yes, the Klan is still around, and needs to be heard from. And not just down here in Bristlin' Dixie. There's got to be a couple of kluxers in Ohio, too, and a klansman rarely has anything educational to say, which might prove an education to the younger crowd. Sure, about the only good news a klansman could give is to announce the outfit was disbanding. (Now that would be something to cheer, maybe even inspire a Rebel Yell.) But it's doubtful one of them would ever call it quits. Which might prove another education for those taking this class.
The Klan didn't go out with flappers and the Wilson administration. Neither did hatred, racial or otherwise. The kids will be all right knowing that, and looking at that kind of hate close-up. And posing their own questions to it. These experiences might on occasion be painful. But education can be that way.
The school district in Worthington, Ohio, has found a great way to teach something that students will take with them for the rest of their lives. Unlike imaginary numbers or Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Better poli-rad than something flat and stale, especially in civics. In these such environs, we can learn something.
Especially about our past, and ourselves.
Editorial on 01/30/2019