Education Week - March 22, 2017 - 25

nent claims of conspiracy. Abolitionists and politicians proclaimed the existence of a sinister
"Slave Power" cabal intent on expanding slavery and dominating the federal government.
Abraham Lincoln famously referenced this
conspiracy and "proved" it by inference in his
"House Divided" speech of 1858. Describing
slavery's spread westward and the pro-slave result of the Dred Scott U.S. Supreme Court case,
Lincoln asserted: "We cannot absolutely know
that all these exact adaptations are the result
of preconcert." Comparing the major conspirators of the slave power to "workmen" building
a house; referring to Sen. Stephen A. Douglas,
President Franklin Pierce, Chief Justice Roger
B. Taney, and President James Buchanan; and
depicting the systematic expansion of slavery,
Lincoln concluded that "we find it impossible
not to believe that Stephen, Franklin, Roger,
and James all understood one another from the
beginning, and all worked upon a common plan
or draft before the first lick was struck." Historians have yet to find the smoking gun that
eluded Lincoln in his speech.
This can offer students another instructive
example of why context matters in political
rhetoric. At the time of Lincoln's speech in 1858,
for instance, Southern slaveholders imagined
themselves an embattled minority in national
politics-not an implacable power.
In a famous essay from 1964, the historian Richard Hofstadter described a "Paranoid Style in American Politics." His analysis
ranged from 19th-century beliefs in Masonic

and Catholic plots to usurp traditional values,
to Sen. Joseph McCarthy's 1951 smear of the
eminent soldier and secretary of state George
Marshall. What distinguished modern political paranoia, Hofstadter said, "may be traced
to the effects of the mass media." It enabled a
"literature of the paranoid style ... richer and
more circumstantial" and provided "a vast
theater" for the paranoid imagination. Paranoid rants, which Hofstadter identified with
those on the extreme right and their fears of
being "dispossessed," had become even more
grandiose and pervasive in modern times. So
it looked more than a half-century ago.
In a history classroom, students should look
not just at the substance of this paranoia,
but, for example, at how McCarthy's message
formed part of the fabric of the Cold War.
In its method and subject matter, history is
uniquely suited to explaining our recurring
fascination for fake news. Sure, Twitter and
the internet are recent platforms for deceit,
news cycles today run faster than ever, and
some teachers lack the training or ability to
lead students to critical perspectives. But, getting to the bottom of why we continuously fall
for fake news requires a deep understanding
of our past. n
CHRIS DOYLE is the director of Global Studies and a
member of the history faculty at Watkinson School, an
independent day school in Hartford, Conn. He also works
as an adjunct professor of history at Central Connecticut
State University.

Good teachers
dissect political
rhetoric: Does it
appeal to hope
or fear? Does it
indict by
inference or
fact?"

LETTERS to
the EDITOR

We Are Not Just 'Blips on a Screen'
To the Editor:
I am commenting on the Politics K-12 blog post "Betsy
DeVos to State Chiefs: Full Speed Ahead on the Every
Student Succeeds Act" (www.edweek.org, Feb. 10, 2017).
As educators, we all know about differentiated instruction,
different learning styles, etc. It strikes me as a step
backwards into ignorance if we can't apply the same
research-based principles to reviewing ESSA plans that
we've already found to be beneficial elsewhere. There
is diversity among the human race. Not every school or
writer should need to follow a uniform plan.
We are supposed to be professionals who deal with
real people and real ideas, creativity, and convergent and
divergent thinking. If we can read an ESSA plan and
understand it-even if every school has a unique way of
presenting it to reviewers-we should applaud that we
are not all just blips on a screen. We are thinking and
breathing human beings. Many modern corporations
realize this, and have moved away from tedious
constrictive forms.
Is the goal of the ESSA plans to check a lot of boxes for
a federal computer database so we can feel happy that
we are working hard, even if we haven't accomplished
anything of substance? Or is the goal to engage each other
as a multifaceted community that wants the best for its
children and that relies on mutual understanding in order
to better its diverse and creative population?
Glenn Shrom
Shartlesville, Pa.

DeVos Ignores Teachers' Needs

finally, I am calling on all educators to
contact their elected officials to make
Race to Inner Space funding a national
priority. n
NANCY GRASMICK is the Presidential Scholar at
Towson University in Baltimore and a member of the
faculty and board of the Kennedy Krieger Institute.
She was the Maryland state superintendent of
schools from 1991 to 2011.

Betty R. Kazmin
Medford, Ore.

COMMENTARY POLICY
Getty

programs for teachers and staff at all
grade levels and return to work in a
school system once the fellowship is
completed.
Norwood Elementary School, a public
school in Baltimore County, Md., offers
an instructive model in providing social-emotional learning activities in its
classrooms. Norwood (where I serve as
an Education Advisory Team member)
has implemented a restorative-justice
program, which encourages students
to participate in communication circles
where they collectively talk about emotions, discuss inappropriate behavior,
empathize with one another, and determine appropriate interventions. The
program has been so successful that
teachers in the feeder-system middle
school will be trained to continue this
program.
The Cecil County public schools in
Maryland have partnered with the
Children's Guild, a nonprofit that
serves students affected by trauma, to
install three-dimensional, interactive
hallway art that simulates the anatomy and neural pathways of the brain
in several of its schools. These "brain
paths" serve as an innovative teaching
tool for students, educators, and families.
I urge all educators to join me and
my fellow Kennedy Forum participants
in championing brain health, beginning in early childhood and continuing
throughout a student's educational experience. I am calling on all educators
to contact their local institutions of
higher education to begin a conversation about training teacher-candidates
in the neuroscience of the brain. And

To the Editor:
This retired teacher is indeed anxious ("DeVos Takes
Reins at Ed. Department, While Anxieties Persist," Feb.
15, 2017).
In the article, you quote the comments of the new
U.S. secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, given at the
Education Department headquarters: "All too often, adult
issues can complicate and get in the way of a focus upon
those we serve." A Wall Street Journal opinion piece
published Feb. 8, referring to DeVos, states that "she
knows education should be about learning for children
and not jobs for adults."
These references to "jobs for adults" and "adult issues"
getting in the way of education are demeaning and
disheartening. Is this how the new education secretary
views the dedicated teachers who strive daily to educate
our children?
I was privileged to teach during the 1990s in Los
Angeles' first public magnet school. Students in 7th to
12th grade applied, were admitted by lottery, and bused
from across the vast Los Angeles school district. When the
students entered at age 12, they came from widely diverse
ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. They arrived with
distinctive skills, talents, and attitudes. Some struggled in
remedial classes; others excelled in honors-level classes.
Many made their best effort in regular pre-algebra and
algebra classes.
I was a teacher who made the same effort with every
student. I wish my students had been equally successful.
My colleagues and I sought to facilitate student learning.
Demeaning these professionals, as Secretary DeVos
is doing, is counterproductive. It deters bright young
people from choosing teaching careers, discourages those
already teaching, and harms the children we serve.

Education Week takes no editorial positions, but publishes
opinion essays and letters from outside contributors in its
Commentary section. For information about submitting an
essay or letter for review, visit
www.edweek.org/go/guidelines.

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Education Week - March 22, 2017

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