POINT OF ORDER: America Is Letting Dummies Dumb Us Down by C. Ellen Connally

In the 1990s I decided to go back to college to take a few classes because they were topics I was interested in. The first class I took was an African-American literature class at Cuyahoga County Community College. The class was relatively small and there were several students, both Black and white, who enrolled to comply with the graduation requirement that mandated a class that met the diversity requirement. Several of the students were not happy to be there.

The professor, who held a Ph.D. in literature, was very cordial, having faced these kinds of students before. She gave out the syllabus and we all started to read and discuss the books and plays. As an adult having already graduated from undergraduate and law school, I figured the class would be a snap. It turned out that it wasn’t that easy. I found myself in the library reading about the authors and other literary critiques of the works. I discovered that there was a layer of understanding that I had missed just being a superficial reader.

At first, the reluctant students did not engage in much conversation about what we were reading. But as the semester progressed, they began to talk. We had lots of frank and honest discussions about the characters and the plots, and after we all became familiar with each other, there was a bit of teasing back and forth about people’s feelings about race.

At the end of the semester, one white student raised his hand and made an announcement. He admitted that he had been forced to take the class. He admitted that the first few classes were torture. But his final assessment was that the class was one of the best of his college experience. He admitted that he would have never read Richard Wright or James Baldwin. He would have never read or seen a production of A Raisin in the Sun or Fences. But he also admitted that he learned a great deal. While those originally recalcitrant students may never read another piece of African-American literature, they came away with an understanding of the African-American experience that I’m sure remains with them today, even if only in their subconscious. I had a similar experience with students in a class on African-American history.

In the same vein, Oprah Winfrey and her book club have made a great contribution to our nation’s cultural literacy. People who would never read books with multicultural themes read them because of Oprah’s recommendation. Oprah’s books have not been limited to the African-American experience. She has recommended books about Asians, Latinos, Jews and other immigrant groups, encouraging readers to look outside their own culture and broaden their horizons. Her books have dealt with difficult subjects like incest, rape and divorce, things that exist but are not often talked about. These books caused people to think.

Which brings me to the subject of the Francis Howell School Board, located in O’Fallon, Missouri. This past week the school board voted 5-2 to drop elective courses on Black history and literature. The operative word in the decision to drop the program is that the classes were elective. No student was forced to take them. Of the over 16,500 students in the district, a little over 100 students had elected to take the classes.

In response to the decision of the school board, one Black parent commented “You’ve certainly taught me to not underestimate how low you will go to show your disdain toward the Black and brown communities’ experience and existence.”

Recently, the State Library of Louisiana let its membership in the American Library Association lapse. The American Library Association is the premier professional organization for librarians, akin to the bar association for attorneys and the American Medical Association for doctors. Louisiana joins Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Montana and Texas who all recently voted to discontinue their relationship with the ALA, objecting to the association’s choices of reading materials and training which they claim tend to sexualize children and that the association has Marxist leanings.

The sad part is that Francis Howell School Board and the decisions by the libraries to dissociate with a national body is not an anomaly. These kinds of provincial and decidedly rightwing conservative decisions are being made by legislative bodies across the nation. Books are taken off library shelves and classes are canceled for fear that students may learn about someone else’s culture. Pretty soon you can go past your local library and see a large pile of books going up in flames.

As I reported last year in a review of Cleveland Playhouse production of To Kill A Mockingbird, I overheard a 40-ish white woman going into the theater bragging that she had never read the book and had no idea of what the play was about. To Kill A Mockingbird is an iconic part of cultural literacy that should be known to every adult citizen — just like The Diary of Anne Frank. If she had not read the book, she surely would have seen the Academy Award-nominated movie. She is probably a relative of the middle-aged woman who asked me when I was serving as a docent at the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument which side Ohio was on in the Civil War. What planet do these people live on?

This week I watched a webinar presented by the United States Capital Historical Society. Former Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell is the executive director. The lecture was presented by a university professor who explained the importance of the 15^th Amendment to the Constitution, which mandates universal suffrage. She gave a 45 second test on voting, which I assumed that I would have no problem with. I failed to get one answer correct. The test was an actual test administered by Mississippi voter registrars to Blacks who attempted to register to vote well into the 1960s. At the end of the presentation, the professor pointed out that had she given the same lecture in the State of Florida, she would be fired from any state funded educational facility for violating the state’s policy on the teaching of history.

Ignorance and stupidity are taking over our society. Neanderthals are controlling our school boards and legislatures under the umbrella of what they call conservative values. I would be willing to bet that most school board members who vote to ban a particular book have never read the book.

Knowledge is power. And we are taking that power away from our students. When students go to college, they are more than likely to study some aspect of African-American literature or history and intermix with students or faculty with varying background. Those students who have been exposed to these topics in high school have a leg up. It is important for the well-rounded student to understand the history of slavery in our nation and how it has shaped the Black experience, as well as the history of antisemitism and anti-immigrant sentiment in our country.

I remember learning about the Dark Ages and how it was a period when learning was stymied.  We are entering a new Dark Age. In a world where computers and information technology have put the world of knowledge at our fingertips, segments of our society are hell bent on keeping knowledge out of the minds of students and preventing them from broadening their horizons. We are creating generations of people that don’t have a clue about the basics of our multicultural society.

Elections have consequences. When you elect someone to a school board or a state legislature, these are the people who will be determining what your children will learn. If you are satisfied with a generation of culturally illiterate people, then you are satisfied with the people you elected. If you are not, you have a couple of choices — move or unelect those elected officials at the next election. But most importantly you need to look at candidates before you cast your vote. Determine their stands on the issues.

Do you want your child to be the person that brags that they have never read To Kill a Mockingbird or The Diary of Anne Frank?

C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she is a former member of the Board of the Ohio History Connection, and past president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table, and is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission.  She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.

 

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