Culture Wars Go to School

At this Sunday's Humanist Forum, we will consider three videos about the pressure being brought on public schools, which have become the battleground for the “culture wars.”

The first video is Social Justice Belongs In Our Schools. In this TED talk, educator Sydney Chaffee argues that teaching social issues is part of the obligation to educate.
As the 2017 National Teacher of the Year, Sydney Chaffee traveled the world to advocate for education as a transformative tool to help young people create more just societies. Chaffee teaches ninth grade Humanities at Codman Academy Charter Public School in Boston, MA and is a National Board Certified Teacher.

You can watch this 17-minute video at https://ed.ted.com/lessons/3QeDY9Qn

The second video is 'Institutional neutrality' increases at universities amid political pressure. This is a news item by Lauren Taylor of Straight Arrow News that shows the pressure on colleges and how they are reacting to that pressure.

Lauren Taylor is an English broadcast journalist, currently working for BBC News. Straight Arrow News (also known as Straight Arrow or SAN) is an American media company and news website founded in 2021 by billionaire and businessman John Ricketts. The company is based in Nebraska and claims to produce "unbiased news, without agenda".

You can watch this 2-minute video at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-critics-are-alarmed-about-the-influence-of-pragerus-educational-videos

The third video is Why critics are alarmed about the influence of PragerU’s educational videos, from PBS News. The rise of edutainment, the integration of entertainment with educational content, has become a billion-dollar industry. The conservative PragerU has positioned itself as a major player in this space by producing videos on a range of topics that are now showing up in more classrooms.

You can watch this 9-minute video at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-critics-are-alarmed-about-the-influence-of-pragerus-educational-videos

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