Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Adam
Adam "Ask Me About Joe Lancaster" Laats
@AdamLaats
US Historian at Binghamton U. Columbo fan. Books about schools, religion, conservatism. Now writing about the roots of US public schools, c. 1790-1860.
Oct 12, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
The bad news: Americans don’t know much about our real history.

The worse news: Millions of children use textbooks teaching them a whitewashed version.

The worst news: SCOTUS is making it worse.

I laid out the history of bad history @madebyhistory
time.com/6316978/conser… Remember Jason Aldean?

His “Try That in a Small Town” wasn’t just ignorant.

It repeated the lessons Aldean would have read in his school textbooks.
Books millions of other schoolchildren have also used.
time.com/6316978/conser…
Jul 28, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
OK, so some worse and worser and worsest news about the Jason Aldean lynching anthem:

1.) He’s not just ignorant—he learned his bad history in school.

2.) Millions of other kids in the US learn the same stuff.

3.) SCOTUS just approved spending YOUR tax dollars for it.
🧵 Image Aldean went to a school that used A Beka textbooks.

A Beka comes from Pensacola Christian College, which started because they thought the segregation and fundamentalism of Bob Jones University was too liberal.
(Yes, unit 2 is titled "Birth of a Nation.) Image
Jul 6, 2023 • 8 tweets • 5 min read
It’s time to play….Who Said It?

Were the lines in this thread said by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s or Moms 4 Liberty in 2023?

It’s not just Hitler—these Moms have a hankering for American hate, too!

Both of them made public schools the cornerstone of their campaigns.

Quote 1: WHO SAID IT?
“We should build the minds of our children along the line of patriotism and the highest of ideals and when we are old they will be able to take care of themselves.”

Jan 22, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Whoopsie.

DeSantis just jumped the oldest shark in the school-culture-war book.
By banning an AP class as “woke indoctrination,” he goofed.

Here’s the history: 1/
nytimes.com/2023/01/21/us/… Since the 1920s, conservatives have scored big wins by making some things seem dangerous in schools:
Evolution.
Communism.
Sex. 2/
Mar 19, 2022 • 13 tweets • 9 min read
The Big Lie—School Edition

We’re hearing tons about the school culture wars “raging.” Fraudsters like @RonDeSantisFL and @4TiffanyJustice promise they can win em.

But here’s the thing: They can’t. Those wars ended a long time ago.

The MAGA side lost. I swear I can prove it. It’s no secret. The school culture wars ended a long time ago.

Historians know it.

I’ve got proof from @kevinmkruse @davidwblight1 @Randall_Stps @KevinLevin @DrPrestonGreen and @SchlFinance101

(Don't blame them for this thread tho)
Oct 29, 2021 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
So I've been thinking about @KevinLevin's post all morning. I think we can see the answer in Mike Pence's speech yesterday.

Just count the # of times Shoo-Fly Mike says "Our" schools.

It's not about their "parental rights," but...something else.
nbcnews.com/politics/elect… Conservatives have always fought for public schools as "OUR" schools.

Making America Great Again always meant making public schools "Ours"...again.
Here's one from 2002:
Oct 27, 2021 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Today’s conservative attempts to ban books are the same ol same ol.
Ah, the fragility of right-wing youth!
(This lil guy is from a 1970 pamphlet...)

A lil history thread: Among Christian conservatives, fragility has been a cash crop.
E.g. 1934, Bob Jones Sr. preached about a girl who had read a book in college...so she killed herself.
adamlaats.net/2018/05/09/fun…
Oct 27, 2021 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Conservative insults about “snowflakes” have always been more strategy than sincerity.
We've got a full century of right-wing complaints about youth traumatized by books.
A lil history thread: Among Christian conservatives, fragility has been a cash crop.
E.g. 1934, Bob Jones Sr. preached about a girl who had read a book in college...so she killed herself.
adamlaats.net/2018/05/09/fun…
Oct 26, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Why haven't conservatives ever won with their "parents rights" line?

b/c they'd need to prove that teachers were out to "get" their kids.

Warp minds, etc.

That's not what teachers do.

Here's an effort from 1949: Image They've tried, but conservatives have never been able to convince America that teachers were sneaky subversives. Image
Sep 13, 2021 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
Thanks again to @NPRCodeSwitch and @geedee215 for including @1GillianFrank1 and me on their CRT podcast.

Here’s a #HotTubTimeMachine thread on what the anti-CRT movement looked like 100 years ago.

Wasn’t pretty back then either.
npr.org/2021/08/20/102… In the 1920s Klan goons insisted that public schools must remain “theirs.” They disrupted school-board meetings and pushed flags and bibles on local schools.
adamlaats.net/2018/05/09/the…
Jul 1, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
It’s history, not science.
It’s racism, not religion.
But kudos to @juliacarriew for highlighting the biggest precedent of all for this anti-CRT freakout.
theguardian.com/us-news/2021/j… The creationism fight has eerie parallels to today's CRT BS.
Exhibit A: KY’s 1922 anti-evol bill.
It was SO broad and confusing.
It would have banned any book from any public library that might "weaken" religion, even "indirectly."
@hemantmehta
adamlaats.net/2018/05/09/why…
May 4, 2021 • 8 tweets • 5 min read
Thanks to @laurameckler @hannah_natanson for their coverage of the CRT frenzy.
It might seem like it came out of nowhere.
Here’s a thread on the history.
washingtonpost.com/education/2021… It’s more than talk. 8 states have debated bills to fight the phantom CRT menace.
The bills would ban stuff like this:
edweek.org/policy-politic…
May 4, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
"Easily"? no...it wasn't easy. But kudos to @michelleinbklyn for this piece on the fake-CRT frenzy. @HartmanAndrew @nataliapetrzela @ScribnerUMCP Jon Zimmerman (and I) have explored the history...
nytimes.com/2021/05/03/opi… Why don't more people know the long history of the Ed Right? As @MicNick11 noted, it's partly because the activists involved were often women.
press.princeton.edu/books/paperbac…
Mar 15, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
The news by @ElizRedden is sad but not surprising.
LGBTQ students don’t feel at home at anti-LGBTQ Christian colleges.
Why don’t colleges do more?
It’s not so simple. (THREAD warning)
insidehighered.com/news/2021/03/1… I said it in my book, Fundamentalist U: There’s lots of pressure from the Right edge.
Tuition dollars are tight.
Why would anti-LGBTQ parents shell out $$$ for a pro-LGBTQ college?
adamlaats.net/2018/05/09/fun…
Mar 14, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Anyone ready for some depressingly predictable history?
Turns out the Noble confession from Chicago is only the latest in a long tradition of cruel extra punishment in schools for Black kids. (Thread warning.)
wbez.org/stories/top-ch… The first urban school reform in the USA was all about controlling poor kids. White reformers assumed Black kids needed extra control.
iloveyoubutyouregoingtohell.org/2019/06/10/fro…
Mar 24, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Now it looks like @libertyU vs everybody.

How does this flip the historical script? A lil thread:

newsadvance.com/news/local/tho… Back in the 1940s, even hard-core Fundamentalist U sometimes put ideology in the back seat.
Exhibit A: in 1946, Bob Jones College grabbed as much army-surplus as it could, in spite of BJC’s generally leery attitude about the feds.