If all politics is local, the same must be said of education, where power belongs to the community. Decisions about curriculum, public health, and the rules of order for meetings belong to the community. The procedures for making those decisions are under attack across the country, often threatened by the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and militant Christian churches.
School Boards are specifically under attack in California, where speakers at school board meetings threaten violent action, because their demands about curriculum and mask mandates are not being met (https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article255292696.html). The rights of school boards to democratically arrive at decisions that govern their schools are being challenged by the angry testimony and violent threats of members of the Proud Boys and other groups dissatisfied with the policies they disagree with.
In Missouri parents have been recruited by the attorney general to report school mask mandates, so the school boards can be prosecuted under the law against mask mandates. This proposed vigilante action turns citizens against citizens in communities, where the rulings of school boards are supposed to govern the schools. Other states plan to propose similar vigilante-style laws.
If the content of the curriculum for American history concerns the parent stake-holders of the local community, they should be most concerned with the lessons of their community in action. The divisions among the adults are being settled by threats of violence and vigilante law enforcement. School board members are being intimidated and forced to resign. The democratic process and respect for dissenting opinions have been subverted by the loudest voices.
The participation of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers in local school board deliberation does not bode well for this democratic institution. They are not known for calm deliberation and respect for democratically arrived decisions. They come with a might-makes-right agenda and take no prisoners. Last week a group affiliated with the Proud Boys caused a conflict at Vancouver Public Schools over a student who had requested exemption from the mask mandate.
Some of the Patriot Prayer protesters at Skyview attempted to escort a student who was seeking a medical exemption for wearing a mask into a building, which prompted intervention from the school’s security guards. According to OPB [Oregon Public Broadcasting], the protestors falsely claimed that the student had been threatened with arrest if they entered the school without a mask.
School Board members in Florida have had their lives or well-being threatened by anonymous callers/ texters, because they have tried to enforce mask mandates. Florida is also another case of state authority attempting to subvert local autonomy. School boards have been forced to choose between state aid and following the rule of their democratically elected representatives.
What lesson does this kind of citizen participation in local government teach the students of their community? Whereas the local ordinances and the Constitution appear to protect the rights of the majority, the behavior of citizens, of governors and of attorneys general denies those rights. Adults behaving badly apparently overrule the local rules of decorum and public health.
While there could be constructive discussions about the content of the American history curriculums, the louder message comes from the practice of democracy in the present. Students in many American communities are learning that might makes right, rather than that citizens are being protected by the rule of law. This is the counter-curriculum that won’t go away soon.