TN bill that allows students to report professors who teach 'divisive concepts' passes House and Sen

[Jilly_in_VA]

A bill that made its way through the Tennessee legislature aims to strengthen rules passed last year that can change how schools approach teaching many kinds of lessons in social justice, racial inequity, political science, social work, psychology and many other fields.

The bill passed the House of Representatives on April 13, after passing Senate on April 5.

In 2022, lawmakers passed rules that allow state leaders to withhold funding for schools that teach about social, cultural and legal issues related to race and racism. Most of those concepts focus on how the impact of racism affects people today.

The law also specified that schools can teach about ethnic groups' histories as described in textbooks and instructional materials. Educators can also only teach about controversial aspects of history, such as racial oppression or slavery, as long those discussions are impartial.

The bill, HB 1376, was introduced by Representative John Ragan (R - Oak Ridge). He previously said that the new bill was meant to strengthen the law passed in 2022 by "promoting freedom of expression," and keep "colleges about advancing knowledge, not about advancing political or social agendas."

https://www.wbir.com/article/news/education/new-bill-would-strengthen-rules-over-what-can-be-taught-in-classrooms/51-ddd267e4-3d98-4de0-bb2e-3284740b4cb7

Ladies and gentlemen, here come the thought police!

[ret5hd]

2. "Slavery Good? Bad? Who Knows? 101"

Future class title

[Jerry2144]

3. How do you teach about slavery in an impartial manner?

There is no impartial way to cover that

[Hugh_Lebowski]

6. 'Impartial' in their eyes means like ... Song of the South

With cheerful negroes singing zip-a-dee-do-da all the live long day on the plantation.

[Irish_Dem]

8. Exactly. Slavery is America's original sin.

Evil to the core.

How do you make that neutral?

[eppur_se_muova]

4. I'd submit a proposal to start a new course: "Divisive Concepts 101"

in which all divisive concepts were fodder for class discussion. In any discussion with RWNJ's I'd challenge any claim that a given topic was NON-divisive, and loudly proclaim my disagreement with the claim, thus proving it to be divisive.

You think the sky is blue ? PROVE IT!

[Tetrachloride]

5. I wonder how they feel about syllables, mitosis, negative exponents,

3 stage rockets, divorce court and the guillotine.

[Irish_Dem]

7. So professors doing their jobs will be accused of breaking the law by MAGA students.

[Tanuki]

9. Sponsor John Ragan is a MAGAt scumbag.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ragan

..."As a member of the Tennessee General Assembly, Ragan has sponsored bills to bar the issuance of Tennessee marriage licenses to same-sex couples[13] and has advocated for impoverished parents to be referred to the Tennessee Department of Children for a child abuse investigation if their child accumulates school lunch debt.[14]"....(more)

[lindysalsagal]

10. If they're smart, every town should bombard the office that handles the complaints with

daily reports so that the whole thing gets clogged up in perpetuity. Just drown them. There's not a school principal anywhere who wants this crap in their school.

[DBoon]

11. So they can teach about racism as long as it starts with "Once upon a time"...

and ends with "And they all lived happily ever after"

In short, fairy tales are allowed.

[RegulatedCapitalistD]

12. And WHO gets to decide what that is??