Thread by @AmericanStudier

So as my fellow #twitterstorians have documented quite potently, the #1776Commission report is propagandistic white supremacist nonsense. But I might be most offended by its depiction of education & educators, at this moment in our history no less. A quick thread:

For nearly a year now, educators—especially at the secondary & primary levels, but we higher ed folks as well—have been doing everything possible to take care of our young people amidst these horrific times & help them respond to all that's in our society & world.

That means fundamental emphases of care & community amidst a deepening global health crisis. But it also means responding to both the year’s protests & activisms & to white supremacist sedition & insurrection, to the worst & best of our history & society.

Every day, educators at all levels have navigated those challenges w/an inclusive & anti-racist pedagogy that is also responsive to student needs, draws out their voices & critical thinking, models community & our true national ideals.

They’ve done it while underpaid, threatened by further cuts & austerity, risking their & their families’ health & lives. Our most precarious colleagues, in contingent roles & in public education in "right to work" states & more, have done it most impressively of all.

& now here comes this commission, full of partisan pundits & politicians & extremists, attacking educators as “anti-American,” accusing them of libel, calling their work “an ideology intended to manipulate opinions more than educate minds.”

Like the administration which convened it, this commission will soon, blessedly be gone. But these narratives & images of educators will sadly remain. All of us who value the vital work being done every day throughout the country must speak up.

This isn’t just a debate over the founding, over history, over American identity & ideals. It’s about whether & how we finally start to adequately recognize & fully support the work of our educators, this year & every year.

The @BidenInaugural historian videos have been great. But this needs more than individual voices & stories. It needs a true, lasting commitment to educational support & funding at the same level as the vaccine rollout & plan.

Let’s make this the moment we challenge these anti-education narratives & reverse the longstanding & deepening trends of austerity, de-funding, attacks on public ed & educators. This vital community & their profoundly American work deserve nothing less.

PS. There are so many voices & works that can help us rise to the moment, incl @TheTattooedProf & his book Radical Hope, @saragoldrickrab, @GeekyPedagogy, @joshua_r_eyler, @Jessifer, @nhannahjones & the #1619Project, @ZinnEdProject, @facinghistory, & many many more.