["My students aren’t the snowflakes Gov. DeSantis assumes they
are... and neither am I." ]
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FLORIDA HAS AN OUTRAGEOUS NEW LAW TARGETING TEACHERS. HERE’S WHY
I’LL BE BREAKING IT.  
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Beth L. Matterson
August 14, 2022
HuffPost
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_ "My students aren’t the snowflakes Gov. DeSantis assumes they
are... and neither am I." _

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Turning Point USA Student
Action Summit held at the Tampa Convention Center on July 22 in Tampa,
Florida., JOE RAEDLE VIA GETTY IMAGES

 

In a couple of weeks, I’ll walk back into my college classroom and
continue my second decade of teaching at one of Florida’s
universities. Despite the recently passed HB 7 Amendment (Stop WOKE
Act [[link removed]]), I won’t be
adjusting my syllabi to remove readings or discussions that make
students “uncomfortable,” and I won’t pretend that systemic
racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia and other forms of oppression
do not exist. I will not “whitewash” our country’s history or
minimize the challenges and oppression that so many still experience,
especially those who are women and/or members of the BIPOC and
LGBTQIA+ communities.

Instead, I will do what I have always done. I will select the creative
work of writers who belong to all sorts of communities, and I will
require students to read their stories and discuss the work and their
themes. Some of those themes are difficult and may make many of us
uncomfortable, no matter how we identify or what community we’re in.

But my students aren’t the snowflakes Gov. DeSantis assumes they
are... and neither am I. We can take a little discomfort in our
efforts to become a more educated ― and empathetic — group of
people. The author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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us that, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with
stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.
They make the one story become the only story.” Those of us who are
able to come to college do so, in part, I hope, to expand our
worldview. And my students come to learn how to tell their own
stories, and one of the ways we teach that is to study what others
have done.

I purposefully select work by members of marginalized communities,
because many of my students have not yet heard these voices... and
many of my students belong to these communities. Recently, among other
work, my students read, “Heavy: An American Memoir_″_ by Kiese
Laymon and poems by Danez Smith. Both of these authors address race,
class, whiteness, sexuality, politics, family and body image.
Smith’s work also addresses homophobia and police brutality, and
other topics that are “uncomfortable.”

HB 7 (with its clever Stop WOKE nickname) is obviously created to
protect the white, straight student who is theoretically being made to
feel “guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress,”
as the bill lists in one of its “specified concepts” that seeks to
refute that anyone is privileged or oppressed. But my white, straight
students do not respond in the way DeSantis or his constituents fear
they will.

In a discussion post about “Heavy,” one student wrote, “I feel
like this was such a good insight into a world I know nothing
about.” Another commented, “Hearing stories through own-voices
memoirs is a great way to open the eyes of so many people who don’t
understand what it’s like to be Black in America (or a woman, or
part of the LGBTQ+ community, etc.), and allows them to experience a
first-hand account of what they have to go through on a daily basis,
and how we should use our voices to demand a safer environment for all
who live here, regardless of race, gender or sexuality.” They have
not been “indoctrinated” by me. They have become enlightened by
someone else’s story.

In truth, I worry more about my students in marginalized communities
feeling “psychological distress” with my reading lists and our
class discussions. As one of my students said when discussing
“Heavy,” “I’ve lived this book, and I’ve heard other stories
from my mother. Instead of informing me, it just reminded me of the
pain of the real world.” Too often, people in marginalized
communities sit silently in class when white people express shock at
their experiences. And, yes, it’s uncomfortable, but it’s also
necessary.

If we have any chance in uniting our country and finding a way to
reasonably discuss controversial topics — while actively working
toward change — educators must model how to do so. Politicians —
and the corporations, lobbyists, media groups, etc. who feed them (and
are fed by them) ― are the only ones who benefit from our discord.
It stands to reason, then, that instead of promoting an educational
system that seeks to include the experiences of all, DeSantis’s
recent legislation seeks to silence experiences that do not fit an
image of America that never actually existed. It’s just another
strategic move in a culture war that no one wins — except perhaps
those looking at a presidential bid
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I don’t want to make these accusations. In fact, I don’t want to
write this essay... and I especially don’t want to use a pseudonym.
I’ve never even considered doing so in the past, and I’ve
published many things that have required courage. I believe in
authenticity and transparency. But I’m worried about our
governor’s willingness to punish those who even consider opposing
him... regardless of who else might be negatively impacted
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I can live with the professional and personal backlash. I can accept
that these words might be grounds for my termination. Opposing — and
actively resisting — this law is worth getting fired over.

But I’m worried about the scrutiny it will bring my colleagues and
about budget cuts to my university or to the humanities in general.
DeSantis has already proven he doesn’t care if students suffer
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casualties in political warfare. And students will suffer from budget
cuts.

Still, I can’t be silent. I can’t be objective about how the
history of the United States is inextricably linked with genocide,
slavery, white supremacy and sexism, to name a few of our country’s
ills. And I cannot be “objective” of claims that say that history
does not still haunt us now and that groups of people are not
privileged or oppressed based on systems that were set up centuries
before.

This is patently false, and Gov. DeSantis knows it. He majored in
history at Yale University. He is not acting out of ignorance. He is
acting for political gain. He is willfully disregarding marginalized
communities and attempting to sentence them to a future as fraught as
the past. He is only governing a percentage of the citizens in this
state where he took an oath to serve us all.

He is also underestimating Florida’s young people. Even if educators
agreed to be silenced — if we stopped assigning and discussing
material that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates or
compels” students to recognize privilege and if, out of fear, we
claim to be “objective” about racism and other forms of oppression
and their sources — our students are already aware of the problems
so many face here. They live, work, study and learn beside each other
in some of the most diverse campuses in the United States. More than a
few of our universities have undergraduate populations where nearly
half belong to an ethnic minority group.

And when those students enter my classroom? For those who might not be
aware of the America that exists for so many, they’ll learn about
it... and I won’t pretend to be “objective” about oppression and
privilege. I would never tell a student they are “responsible” for
actions “committed in the past by other members of the same race,”
or tell them they’re guilty of actions that occurred before they
were even born. Of course, they’re not. But we _are_ responsible
for recognizing how we contribute to this system and understanding who
benefits from it. We have to face it — and ourselves — before we
can all commit to working for change.

And for the student who has trusted us with her story? I won’t tell
her that her experiences aren’t valid or attempt to sell her on an
image of America that has never existed. Even if I wanted to tell her
that oppression is just a “theory,” she wouldn’t believe it,
anyway. She lives it.

This is not indoctrination. It’s education.

As long as I’m allowed in a classroom, I’ll do my job.

I wish Gov. DeSantis would do the same.

_Beth L. Matterson is a pseudonym for a college instructor and writer
in Florida. Matterson writes poetry, memoir and occasionally fiction.
She would much prefer hanging out with her dog than writing an essay
like this, but she notes, “I lose sleep when I consider an America
where so many are silenced, and we become more concerned with one’s
comfort than one’s learning.”_

* Florida
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* schools
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* censorship
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* #TeachResistance
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