Southlake school leader tells teachers to balance Holocaust books with 'opposing' views

John_Brown · May 11, 2022

Aryeh Jay said:
Heck, when I went to school, we never got to WWII.

To be fair we usually did not either, we repeated the Civil War 3 times, but only briefly covered WWII once.

Aryeh Jay · May 11, 2022

John_Brown said:
To be fair we usually did not either, we repeated the Civil War 3 times, but only briefly covered WWII once.

We usually made it to the 1929 crash and the beginning of the depression but never passed 1933.

RestoreTheJoy · May 11, 2022

essentialsaltes said:
If Garcetti did not overturn Pickering, what did it do?

C'mon, you've quoted it at least twice.

Pickering was ______ by Garcetti.

Qualified Garcetti. Come on. Asked and answered.

essentialsaltes · May 10, 2024

essentialsaltes said:
Seven months after teachers at the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake went public with their concerns about an administrator’s advice to balance books on the Holocaust with titles that show “opposing” perspectives, district employees this week discovered that a new clause had been added to their annual employment contracts: “You agree to not disparage, criticize, or defame the District, and its employees or officials, to the media,” it read.

Helpful tip for the clueless: This is what government censorship of free speech looks like.

A teacher spoke out against offering 'opposing' views on the Holocaust. It derailed her career.

An excerpt from “They Came for the Schools” reveals what happened after a teacher blew the whistle on new classroom library restrictions in Southlake, Texas.

Christina McGuirk felt as if she might throw up as she pulled up to a Dallas-area hotel in October 2021. That might have been nerves, or because the fourth grade teacher was newly pregnant; she could not say which.

McGuirk had gone back and forth all week on whether she wanted to tell her story on national television.

Only a few days earlier a senior Carroll administrator had advised McGuirk and her colleagues to balance any classroom books depicting the horrors of the Holocaust by also providing titles written from an “opposing” perspective.

The administrator’s instruction — which had been secretly recordedand provided to NBC News — was meant to help teachers complywith a new Texas law that required schools to present both sides of any “currently controversial” subject.

[The school board voted that winter to prohibit employees from secretly recording district business. ]

A recent nationwide survey of teachers revealed the toll exacted by three years of partisan attacks on public education. Two-thirds of U.S. teachers told the Rand Corp. that they had limited discussions of political and social issues — including racism and LGBTQ topics — in their classrooms. Many said they self-censored because they feared losing their teaching licenses, or because they did not trust that administrators would defend them from parent complaints.

--

Before the board voted on whether to bring McGuirk back for the following school year, there was one question that needed to be answered, Ledbetter said. Then he set his phone on the table and hit play on the same audio file that the parent activist had emailed [in which someone had digitally undone the distortion added to her voice for the NBC interview] . McGuirk’s lawyer had advised her not to show emotion during the meeting, but as she sat across from her superintendent and listened to the recording of herself criticizing his administration on national television, she began to cry.

After the audio file finished playing, McGuirk says Ledbetter asked, “Are you telling me this isn’t your voice?” Before she could answer, the union lawyer interjected.

“I have advised her not to answer that question.”

...

The majority in town no longer wanted people like her teaching their children, she told herself, polluting their minds with what she considered irrefutable truths. Yes, racism exists. No, there is nothing to debate about the horrors of the Holocaust. Yes, some kids have two dads. It’s OK to be different. She still believed every child deserved to learn those lessons. But with her own baby on the way, she was too tired to keep fighting.

[She resigned.]

MartyF · May 11, 2024

essentialsaltes said:
Only a few days earlier a senior Carroll administrator had advised McGuirk and her colleagues to balance any classroom books depicting the horrors of the Holocaust by also providing titles written from an “opposing” perspective.

I would suggest The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering by Norman G. Finkelstein as an alternative viewpoint.

Teachers in Texas are minor politicians - they are appointed by an elected school board - usually on a yearly basis. Politics is local.

A probationary teacher can have their contract non-renewed for any reason and the reason does not need to be given.

A term contract teacher needs to be fired for cause and the teacher has to be given an opportunity to speak in his/her own defense before the school board. Politics is the primary way to win. Teachers can win through courts, eventually, but their contract still be terminated in the meantime. In addition, the teacher will likely be blacklisted by every administrator in the state of Texas.

This teacher handled things poorly.

Presbyterian Continuist · May 11, 2024

MartyF said:
I would suggest The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering by Norman G. Finkelstein as an alternative viewpoint.

Teachers in Texas are minor politicians - they are appointed by an elected school board - usually on a yearly basis. Politics is local.

A probationary teacher can have their contract non-renewed for any reason and the reason does not need to be given.

A term contract teacher needs to be fired for cause and the teacher has to be given an opportunity to speak in his/her own defense before the school board. Politics is the primary way to win. Teachers can win through courts, eventually, but their contract still be terminated in the meantime. In addition, the teacher will likely be blacklisted by every administrator in the state of Texas.

This teacher handled things poorly.

I am inclined to agree. A good thesis on any subject involves different view points on a subject. It is similar to a debate, but in writing. One has to discuss both sides of an argument, consider the evidence for both and then come to a conclusion. Therefore, good teaching on a subject like the Holocaust requires looking at both sides of the debate, considering evidence for both. In our professional studies sections during teacher training we were instructed to "deobjectivise our ideals". In other words, we are to refrain from forcing our personal ideals on our students, and show them all the different perspectives, along with the associated evidence, and allow students come to their own conclusions. The classroom is not a soap box for our personal views. This is where the teacher made the mistake and showed incompetence in teaching the subject by refusing to accept the balance between the "for" and "against" for the Holocaust, in the belief that even just considering the alternative view is anti-Semitism, when in fact it is teaching the students to think for themselves. Of course, if the school administrators is bringing in opposing views from an anti-Jewish perspective, they are making the same mistake in attempting to teach students that the Holocaust didn't actually happen. Of course one has to suspect that the school, in bringing in the "balance" is to go along with the rising pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, politics, therefore the teacher's case should go to court and allow unbiased judgment made concerning the school's intentions.

Hazelelponi · May 11, 2024

Desk trauma said:
SOUTHLAKE, Texas — A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

...

“Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said in the recording, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” Peddy continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”

“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said in response.

I don't think the Holocaust is any kind of hotly debated topic... The Neo-Nazis are the only actual Holocaust deniers I know of and no one in America ever paid them any mind.

MartyF · May 11, 2024

Desk trauma said:
SOUTHLAKE, Texas — A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

...

“Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said in the recording, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” Peddy continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”

“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said in response.

This is the longer version of the audio.

Listen: Southlake teachers shocked by advice to balance Holocaust books with ‘opposing’ views

Gina Peddy, a top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, advised teachers that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording...

www.nbcnews.com

Gina Peddy - Director of curriculum - Southlake ISD

"We are in the middle of a political mess and you are in the middle of a political mess. And so, we just have to do the best we can. And so we're gonna go and we're gonna do, you're gonna do what you do best. And that's to teach kids."

(Obviously, not a prepared response. Administration trying to empathize with the teachers.)

Teacher: "I think we're all just really terrified."

Gina Peddy: "I think you are terrified. And I wish I could take that away. I do. I can't. I can't do that. You are professionals. We hired you as professionals. We trust you with our children. So, if you think the book is ok, then go with it. And whatever happens, we will fight it together. We will. there are a lot of districts in the same spot we're in. And no one knows how to navigate these waters - I mean no one."

At this point Gina ad libs the holocaust example.

Clearly Gina is not the best public speaker. That being said, recording her and posting what she said was not an appropriate thing to do - Gina was clearly not prepared and already stated she really didn't know what to do. She gave a rather bad and wrong example of the Holocaust when everyone knew the House bill 3979 had nothing to do with that.

This recording was released to score political points. Teachers then stupidly and anonymously did an interview with NBC in the hopes of furthering a political agenda.

essentialsaltes · May 11, 2024

MartyF said:
That being said, recording her and posting what she said was not an appropriate thing to do - Gina was clearly not prepared and already stated she really didn't know what to do. She gave a rather bad and wrong example of the Holocaust

So are you retracting your suggestion that an 'alternative' view of the Holocaust should be provided to students?

keith99 · May 11, 2024

Does this count as an alternative view?

MS St. Louis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

At the least it shows we were not welcoming to Jews and at least one German (the captain of the ship) was.

Pommer · May 12, 2024

essentialsaltes said:
So are you retracting your suggestion that an 'alternative' view of the Holocaust should be provided to students?

The law would seem to require it unless the subject of the Holocaust is without “controversy”?

Pommer · May 12, 2024

keith99 said:
Does this count as an alternative view?

MS St. Louis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

At the least it shows we were not welcoming to Jews and at least one German (the captain of the ship) was.

If the USA were the Country it thinks it is, Utah would probably make a fine settlement for a whole bunch* of Gazan refugees.
We wouldn’t need Israel to be an Ally anymore since this would be seen by the Arab world as a Very Good Thing and would rather be our pal than always fighting us.
The rest of the world would be so greatful that they might even keep up with their “foreign aid” to the Gazans even though they were here?
The USA takes the lead, the rest of the world follows and we get some peace for a change?
(heck, we might even make a Buck out of the deal!?)

But we don’t have the “correct“ Statesmanship just now.

*most

ThatRobGuy · May 12, 2024

Clay Robison, a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, a union representing educators, said there’s nothing in the new Texas law explicitly dealing with classroom libraries. Robison said the book guidelines at Carroll, a suburban school district near Fort Worth, are an “overreaction” and a “misinterpretation” of the law. Three other Texas education policy experts agreed.

“We find it reprehensible for an educator to require a Holocaust denier to get equal treatment with the facts of history,” Robison said. “That’s absurd. It’s worse than absurd. And this law does not require it.”

...per the article.

Sounds like there's one of two things happening here (or maybe a combination of both)
1) Poor/inconsistent communication from the administrators to the educators
2) Teachers (who, let's be honest, lean to one side) disingenuously being deliberately obtuse and engaging in reductio ad absurdum in efforts to "prove a point" about some other content restrictions they don't like.
(much like a "snarky" teenager may refuse to answer the teacher when called upon, and then when reprimanded, claims "what? you said I wasn't allowed to talk in class 5 minutes ago, so I didn't talk, I thought I was following your instructions")

essentialsaltes · May 12, 2024

Pommer said:
The law would seem to require it unless the subject of the Holocaust is without “controversy”?

There are scholarly debates about everything, but at the level of K-12 education, there is no controversy over the facts and history of the Holocaust.

keith99 · May 12, 2024

ThatRobGuy said:
Clay Robison, a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, a union representing educators, said there’s nothing in the new Texas law explicitly dealing with classroom libraries. Robison said the book guidelines at Carroll, a suburban school district near Fort Worth, are an “overreaction” and a “misinterpretation” of the law. Three other Texas education policy experts agreed.

“We find it reprehensible for an educator to require a Holocaust denier to get equal treatment with the facts of history,” Robison said. “That’s absurd. It’s worse than absurd. And this law does not require it.”

...per the article.
View attachment 347712

Sounds like there's one of two things happening here (or maybe a combination of both)
1) Poor/inconsistent communication from the administrators to the educators
2) Teachers (who, let's be honest, lean to one side) disingenuously being deliberately obtuse and engaging in reductio ad absurdum in efforts to "prove a point" about some other content restrictions they don't like.
(much like a "snarky" teenager may refuse to answer the teacher when called upon, and then when reprimanded, claims "what? you said I wasn't allowed to talk in class 5 minutes ago, so I didn't talk, I thought I was following your instructions")

That is probably a good set of criteria for a text book. It is rather poor for a library. The first criteria only makes sense in terms of a history text. And the last is offensive when applies to a library as it excludes works that will allow better students to be challenged and ones that those students that are behind might benefit from that are 'too easy'.

The Bible is surely excluded.

I would also fail any American History text book that I am aware of as the perspective of a British loyalist is notably absent.

RocksInMyHead · May 12, 2024

keith99 said:
That is probably a good set of criteria for a text book. It is rather poor for a library. The first criteria only makes sense in terms of a history text. And the last is offensive when applies to a library as it excludes works that will allow better students to be challenged and ones that those students that are behind might benefit from that are 'too easy'.

The Bible is surely excluded.

I would also fail any American History text book that I am aware of as the perspective of a British loyalist is notably absent.

Yeah, that reads like a grading rubric for a high school research paper. Looks like one too.

MartyF · May 12, 2024

essentialsaltes said:
So are you retracting your suggestion that an 'alternative' view of the Holocaust should be provided to students?

Read carefully. I never said that.

MartyF · May 12, 2024

Pommer said:
The law would seem to require it unless the subject of the Holocaust is without “controversy”?

The actual law requires that only one viewpoint be presented.

Sec. 29.9072. HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE WEEK. (a) In this section, "Holocaust" has the meaning assigned by Section 449.001, Government Code.
(b) To educate students about the Holocaust and inspire in students a sense of responsibility to recognize and uphold human value and to prevent future atrocities, the governor shall designate a week to be known as Holocaust Remembrance Week in public schools.
(c) Holocaust Remembrance Week shall include age-appropriate instruction, as determined by each school district. Instruction shall include:
(1) information about the history of and lessons learned from the Holocaust;
(2) participation, in person or using technology, in learning projects about the Holocaust; and
(3) the use of materials developed or approved by the Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission.

Added by Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 654 (S.B. 1828), Sec. 1, eff. June 10, 2019.
Amended by:
Acts 2021, 87th Leg., R.S., Ch. 897 (H.B. 3257), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2021.

MartyF · May 12, 2024

ThatRobGuy said:
Sounds like there's one of two things happening here (or maybe a combination of both)
1) Poor/inconsistent communication from the administrators to the educators
2) Teachers (who, let's be honest, lean to one side) disingenuously being deliberately obtuse and engaging in reductio ad absurdum in efforts to "prove a point" about some other content restrictions they don't like.
(much like a "snarky" teenager may refuse to answer the teacher when called upon, and then when reprimanded, claims "what? you said I wasn't allowed to talk in class 5 minutes ago, so I didn't talk, I thought I was following your instructions")

I agree with this.

MartyF · May 12, 2024

essentialsaltes said:
There are scholarly debates about everything, but at the level of K-12 education, there is no controversy over the facts and history of the Holocaust.

There is a ton of controversy - so much controversy Israel is paying big money in an attempt the repeal the 1st and stop any discussion over the matter - requiring religious study of the holocaust in U.S. schools.

Once a week for twelve years, students in Texas have to be blasted by the government about what to think about the Holocaust.

Yet, no yearly discussion of slavery? Jim Crow laws? Japanese internment? Hits to close to home?

How about other events like Holodomor? The Killing Fields? The Cultural Revolution? Belgian Congo?

Southlake school leader tells teachers to balance Holocaust books with 'opposing' views

Active Member

Gone and hopefully forgotten.

Well-Known Member

Stranger in a Strange Land

A teacher spoke out against offering 'opposing' views on the Holocaust. It derailed her career.​

Active Member

Senior Veteran

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Stranger in a Strange Land

sola dosis facit venenum

CoPacEtiC SkEpTic

CoPacEtiC SkEpTic

Part of the IT crowd

Stranger in a Strange Land

sola dosis facit venenum

God is innocent; Noah built on a floodplain!

Active Member

Active Member

Active Member

Active Member

Similar threads

A teacher spoke out against offering 'opposing' views on the Holocaust. It derailed her career.