Dallas Koehn: HB 1134 & Mandatory Nationalism
Indiana’s version of the popular teacher gag law making the rounds includes some requirements for teaching proper patriotism to students. Blogger Dallas Koehn takes a look. State law also has a list of “good citizenship” requirements.
HB 1134 adds a few more:
(14) The ideals and values expressed or enumerated in the Constitution of the United States and the economic and political institutions of the United States are better suited to contribute toward human advancement, prosperity, scientific inquiry, and well-being compared to forms of government that conflict with and are incompatible with the principles of western political thought upon which the United States was founded.
That’s the bit quoted above. It’s a serious mouthful of patriotism, don’t you think? Let’s see if we can unpack this one a little…
Ideals & Values?
At first glance, it seems to merely be pushing the message that the ideals and values of the U.S. Constitution are nifty. Schools are government entities and it makes sense we’d be expected to do a little cheerleading for our founding documents from time to time.
Honestly, I can live with that.
But that’s not what it says. I’m not sure if the phrasing is intentionally deceptive or simply result from the general ignorance of the authors, but this language in some ways troubles me more than the “stop making rich white kids feel bad” parts.
Let’s assume the bill means the Constitution and all current amendments, and that the ideals and values of the Declaration of Independence go without saying. Should teachers promote these as better than everyone else’s values and ideals? In short, are we OK with a little American Exceptionalism in this area?
For argument’s sake, I’m going to go with “yes.” (One of my main arguments with the modern Republican Party is how far they’ve strayed from these founding values.) But that’s NOT WHAT THIS CLAUSE SAYS:
The ideals and values expressed or enumerated in the Constitution of the United States and the economic and political institutions of the United States are better suited to contribute toward human advancement, prosperity, scientific inquiry, and well-being compared to forms of government that conflict with and are incompatible with the principles of western political thought upon which the United States was founded.
That’s a big “AND” in there. “AND the economic and political institutions of the United States”? The ones which have developed over the past 200+ years but have no foundation in the Constitution or any of its amendments? The ones many of our Founders openly fought against in designing our nation? The ones which have come, gone, and evolved over the years depending on circumstances, sometimes growing and sometimes being restrained? THOSE economic and political institutions?