David Newman: Is Texas discouraging critical thinking in classrooms?

(David Newman teaches English at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi and lives in Odessa.) It may seem that the furor over teaching controversial material has died down but, as the Dallas Morning News reported, Gov. Greg Abbott discussed the issue in forceful terms just at the end of November: “Our schools are for education, not indoctrination. We will put a stop to this nonsense in the upcoming legislative session. Schools must get back to fundamentals and stop pushing ‘woke’ agendas.” Abbott was directly referring to class discussions of gender identity, but I know that public school teachers are still acutely aware that they are at risk in their classrooms if they broach any controversy having to do with an America that does not always realize its ideals. One of the ideals we insist teachers and students practice is the inculcation of critical thinking. But does the state really want any such thought? Critical thinking involves asking hard questions: How and why do things happen, how and why do people say the things they say, and how and why should people speak in order to change the things that need changing?

Those who do not ask such questions before participating in civic discourse, before offering a lesson in a public school or before writing new laws about education, are blind to the larger contexts that shape history, that shape opinions; moreover, they want to pass such blindness on to the next generation, and the next, and so on. All people concerned about what is taught in public schools should think carefully about how new ideas should be presented to students. But do we really want to require teachers to eschew thoughtfulness in order to capitulate to vague, imperious rules? In rhetoric classes, we read and discuss issues that cause the greatest furor in the moment, that have a local connection, and that have sides clearly in opposition; in other words, we discuss issues like whether critical race theory should be banned in Texas. Since those opposed to critical race theory argue that it indoctrinates students, it is then necessary to study some of the best arguments about confronting controversial speech. We read John Milton, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison on the subject. But shall I also teach “Undemocratic Democracy” by Jamelle Bouie — a provocative essay that challenges the idea that all people living in the U.S. have always been equally protected by foundational ideals regulating, among other things, who has been allowed to speak freely and who has not?