Keeping Up and Checking In
The Threat to Critical Thinking: How One Executive Order is Undermining Education
The White House recently released an executive order titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” effectively forcing a one-sided ideology into education. As parents, we have a duty to ensure our children are getting an education that teaches them to evaluate contrasting viewpoints and think critically about a variety of content. This executive order is in direct opposition to this mission.
The Danger of Labels: Why a National Book Rating System Could Harm Readers, Writers, and Libraries
Would implementing a national book rating system be an effective tool to assist libraries, parents, and students in selecting appropriate reading material? The same people that are calling for school library censorship, coincidentally have a rating system that they would like to see adopted by states and even nationally - and they have the ear of some state legislatures. If they succeed, one potential outcome could be the establishment of a national rating system that categorizes books based on content, including themes such as sexual orientation, race, gender, social justice, coming of age, and other topics deemed “inappropriate” for minors. This article examines the potential risks and implications of such a system for literature and students.
We Can't Accept an Obnoxious Negative Peace
In a 1956 sermon, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “peace is not merely the absence of tension, but the presence of justice.” He expanded on this idea in his 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” describing an “obnoxious negative peace” as a state where people passively accept injustice. He argued that true peace involves the active pursuit of justice, where all people respect each other’s dignity.
King explained that nonviolent direct action doesn’t create tension but exposes it, revealing the hidden social fractures that need addressing. The real creators of tension, he argued, are those who enforce unjust laws and systems, yet they wrongly blame those who resist as disturbers of peace. He also noted that many who call him an extremist for his activism fail to recognize the radical love and justice of figures like Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson.