In a time of troubling divisions among us throughout the country, one of the most pervasive is the culture war.
Governors and education secretaries across the nation have been working to spread this division far and wide. New Hampshire Education Secretary Frank Edelblut is no different than his Republican counterparts.
Edelblut had worked tirelessly to bugger up the N.H. education system and in the process, intimidate school librarians about the books they have in their libraries.
Intimidating librarians with the threat of legal action is incredibly disturbing. According to New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR), Edelblut held a meeting with school librarians regarding book policy, one of whom was Stephanie Charlefour, librarian at the Westmoreland school. Charlefour stated she felt attacked by the tenor of the meeting as Edelblut gave out packets of paper with excerpts from banned books and listed N.H. obscenity laws, says NHPR. He then proceeded to read out loud to the group from the packet.
The gall of Edelblut is unparalleled. He, as an authority figure, convenes a group of educators and intimidates them like he is some sort of mafioso and quietly siphons public funding out of public schools.
The culture war that is facing us has to find some sort of off-ramp. We as a people can not continue to be at each other’s throats over something that in the grand scheme of things truly does not matter. If conservatives truly believe in parental authority over children and the values they learn then they should parent their children, teach them their values. If your kid goes to school and meets people with other beliefs or value sets then reconcile that with your kids and talk through it with them, then you and your child will be better off for it and maybe you both will learn something.
If you do not like what your child is reading at school, maybe you should talk to them and understand what about the book piques their interest. You as a parent may learn something about your child, you could even read an excerpt and discover the book is not so bad. If the book is that bad then tell them not to read it; that is the beauty of being a parent, you have that ability to filter the information your child gets.
The broader point is conservatives cannot have it both ways. They cannot cry about the “intolerance” of liberals and push intolerant and oppressive policies.
If you conservatives do not like a book your kid is reading, tell them to put it down. If you conservatives want to teach them a specific values system, do it on your own time. If you conservatives want to send your kid to an alternate school, whether it be private or charter, do it on your own dime.
Do not take taxpayer time and money from public institutions because conservatives are up in their feels about an issue, and if this is the only way to get the reforms you want then you need to re-evaluate your approach.
Timothy Fitzpatrick can be contacted at
tfitzpatrick@kscequinox.com
