Headline: A 'controversial group' wants to enter public schools.

I know they mean the Satanic Temple....but they SHOULD mean the Baptists, the Presbyterians, and the Methodists.

Keep churches and schools strong...and separate.
news.yahoo.com/controversial-…

Ronny D claimed his chaplain law was what the Founding Fathers wanted.

It wasn't.

My take:
'DeSantis and other MAGA politicians are wrapping their anti-American policies in the mantle of a fraudulent and self-serving Americanism.

DeSantis said his school-chaplain bill was just what the Founding Fathers wanted.

The history says different.

'DeSantis is doing his best to bring the Founders’ nightmares to life.'

Wow: the echoes are spooky. When Alice Moore found that her KKK-backed book protest was unpopular in 1975, she shifted to a fight for higher academy quality, a 'Back to Basics' approach.

Moms 4 Liberty generously allowing someone to be gay, as long as they don't tell anyone about it.

“Again, it’s not discriminating against his lifestyle, that’s his choice, but it’s him speaking about it,” [Mom For Liberty Kelly] Potteiger said.
nytimes.com/2024/04/17/us/…

More proof: standardized testing is not the way.

We have a cover!

Pre-orders are available. Check out the book one reviewer called “an astonishingly original and compelling interpretation of the origin of modern, urban public-school systems in the United States.”
press.jhu.edu/books/title/53…

Here's the higher-ed conversation we really need:

ALL universities need 'Gilligan Institutes.'

Professors need training in how to make *anything* out of coconuts.

Great article from Sarah Mervosh today.

Raises the question: 200 years ago, it was an attendance crisis that forced the creation of modern US public school systems. Will today's crisis have similarly revolutionary results?

[Free link:]
nytimes.com/interactive/20…

THANK YOU to Mark Boonshoft for blurbing my Lancaster book!
Pre-orders now available:
press.jhu.edu/books/title/53…

Like Ida Bae Wells today, in 1940 Harold Rugg was personally attacked as the face of modern education.
His popular textbooks told America’s children that all was not well.

And he paid the price.

Chuck Dorn and I shared the history with NPR’s Throughline:
npr.org/2024/03/21/119…

I’m such a fan of this new book by Elesha Coffman. I’m even considering designing a course around it, it’s that good. And such a rarity in that it’s super smart methodologically and also a great read for lay readers. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The history is clear on this one: When teachers water down ideas, students suffer most.

We've seen the same numbers about science ed: Large majorities of high-school bio teachers tell students a mish-mash of religion-friendly versions of real evolutionary science.

Teachers have long been the target of Red Scare & McCarthyism -- since controlling what & how young people learn is key to controlling whether or not they can make informed decisions, think critically, & challenge status quo.

See ⬇️by Adam "Ask Me About Joe Lancaster" Laats in Slate
slate.com/human-interest…

Who could have predicted the Moms' collapse?

Anybody.

As I wrote The Washington Post.com in 2022, there's a clear pattern--quick burst of fear-stoked support, then a balloon + pin-style deflation.

wapo.st/3SxAzpU

If The Little Rascals was a reality TV show:

(from Campbell F. Scribner 's amazing new book A Is for Arson cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/978150177… )

BREAKING: NYT announces that a right-wing charlatan has triumphed in culture wars by attacking an elite college.

...oh...wait...that was in 1955: