Teach-Secondary-Issue-14.5

John Lawson shares his thoughts on the anti-teacher political moves unfolding stateside, and what we can do to prevent the same from happening here... US Vice President JDVance recently added another profession to his ‘enemies of the state’ list – teachers. During a recent speech, he made reference to a “ Very wise man, Richard Nixon, who said, ‘Professors are the enemy’. ” Vance then needlessly paused for applause. There can be few bona fide intellectuals nowadays who would trust either the veracity or sagacity of Nixonisms. For more evidence of the current US administration’s enmity towards teachers, we might also consider President Trump’s determination to terminate the federal Department of Education. So what’s happening? I suspect that this hostility may be down to how the world’s finest educators will insist upon intellectual rigour and dedicate themselves to the pursuit of objective truth – thus putting themfirmly at odds with the ‘post-truth’ narratives many politicians are now increasingly keen to promote. Magical people, exceptional country Without acceptance of shared realities and objective truths, however – and in the absence of honesty from politicians, academics, the media and the public – societies simply can’t function. That’s not woolly liberalism talking, just plain, old-fashioned pragmatism! As the British-Nigerian historian Professor David Olusoga has observed, “ History cannot just be a conveyor belt, merely delivering victories and heroes. If you only want to be told that you are part of a magical people from an exceptional country, and history’s only job is to make you feel proud, then I’mnot sure you are engaged in history. ” Olusoga captures perfectly how some politicians prefer to viewUS history. They will urge American citizens to regard themselves as a ‘magical people’ from an ‘exceptional country’, who should only concern themselves with America’s magnanimity. For my part, I’ve spent 25 years in the USA, and became a proud citizen in 2013. Some of the kindest and warmest people I’ve ever met hail from the Midwest and Florida. There’s much to love and admire about the ‘can-do’ spirit of Americans – but I also quickly learned to avoid mentioning the many innocent people in Korea, Vietnam and elsewhere crushed over decades by the juggernaut of American foreign policy. ABOUT THE AUTHOR John Lawson is a former secondary teacher, now serving as a foundation governor while running a tutoring service, and author of the book The Successful (Less Stressful) Student (Outskirts Press, £11.95); find out more at prep4successnow.wordpress.com or follow @johninpompano Just the facts THE LAST WORD Going further back, I can still remember being soundly slapped in primary school for once questioning why everything British was unquestionably ‘the world’s finest’. Howwas my Dad’s clapped-out Ford Anglia better than a Cadillac? The British and the Americans have traditionally been quite partial to hearing heroic stories about themselves. So it follows that teachers in England and America can teach the ‘truth’ – but if it’s the ‘ whole truth and nothing but the truth ’, youmight need a little help from the divine. The common good I recently managed to ruffle some feathers on X by posting the following inconvenient truth regarding the value of democracy: “ I have a definitive answer to the dictatorship nonsense emerging predominantly from far-right podcasters. Democracy already allows for an elective dictatorship – we vote for great leaders and parties for as long as they deliver on their manifestos – but dictatorships don’t allow for democratic choices. Nobody needs despots who are contemptuous of the common good. ” Witness how Professor NoamChomsky’s views on privatisation have, for many years, displeased Republicans and Thatcherites alike. He once described the ‘standard technique of privatisation’ thusly: “ Defund, make sure things don’t work; people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.” That sounds familiar. I still love and respect both Britain and America, but teachers should never be reduced to right-, or indeed left-wing propagandists. Many teachers will often find themselves attracted to the intellectual independence that comes with holding centrist positions. That might make us enemies of political parties, leaders or ideologies, but not of society. Professors will do their best to challenge anyone obliterating the lines between empirical truths and ‘alternative facts’, for the simple reason that we must despise lies. Every day should see us teaching our students (explicitly or implicitly) to always value objective facts, locate truths and act with integrity, humility, compassion and respect for others. Above all, we should be teaching them how to be independent and logical, critical thinkers who can exalt the noble ideals of free speech, equality, love, liberty and justice for all. 82 teachwire.net/secondary