Speed Gibson: North by Northwest – The Sound and the Fury

North by Northwest – The Sound and the Fury

It’s 5:02 PM on Monday, April 17th, 2023. Eleven speakers were allowed to speak over the next 33 minutes, per Agenda Item #4. You can watch the video via the link on my previous post. There you will see a sea of orange "Proud Educator" shirts in the audience, six of whom spoke here. There were two main themes.

One, that those opposing or even questioning the recent sexually-related curriculum changes are spreading "misinformation" and can only have political motives. But two speakers claiming this themselves presented "misinformation", several claims without any supporting evidence. And throughout, there was no consideration that any of those "misinforming" parents might truly be acting in the best interests of their children. The District’s views on the proper sex education of children, particularly in the Elementary grades cannot possibly be misguided or ineffective, let alone harmful.

Two, several speakers went beyond or around discussing policy and curriculum to engage in ad hominem rhetoric instead. No need to listen to others because we know (!?) their real motives. Any good debate coach will tell you that when you resort to this, you concede the argument.

But again, my purpose here is not to debate these issues per se, but in how this debate is being heard and managed. And while the ISD 482 Board, Superintendent, staff, and no doubt a large percentage of the parents might believe they won this evening, I submit it was still a bad look for the District.

Imagine people thinking of moving to Little Falls, or maybe have young children about to enter Kindergarten. Imagine what they might take away from this, seeing a District refusing to even hear fellow parents, on issues the District and staff don’t seem to want to even discuss. They might ask, what if we disagree in the future on this or some other issue? Maybe we should consider private or home schooling instead.

Little Falls is but one District dealing with this and other issues like physical safety – as in bullets. (Sheila Qualls). There are many others. And it even extends to the Legislature, where the Little Falls State House Representative is reporting "in your face" lobbying by Education Minnesota (Alpha News). The stakes are obviously high, as we saw in the state of Virginia, which might help explain what we’re seeing here.

Next: The Verdict

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